My favourite shoes...

My newest pair of Etiko sneakers In my ongoing quest to find ethical, environmentally-responsible clothes, I’ve become a huge fan of Etiko sneakers. Over the last few years, I’ve bought 3 pairs and have been really happy with not just the quality of the shoes but the friendly service too. They sell sneakers (similar to a Converse style), alpargatas (outdoor slippers), t-shirts, men’s business shirts...

Fresh green links...

I’ve got a lot of links today! Useful tips Digital downloads are greener than CDs - according to a new lifecycle study (they looked into other options too, if downloading isn’t your thing). How to respond to lightbulb excuses - responses to all the usual reasons people give for not changing to the much more efficient and eco-friendly CFL bulbs Sustainable living tips for renters - I was planning on writing...

Should you dump your Sigg bottle?...

I’ve just read over at Treehugger.com about Sigg bottles having BPA in their old bottle liners, something they’ve been cagey about for a while. I’ve never been one to worry too much about chemicals in my food and food containers, but bisphenol-A is not nice and I can’t say that I’m keen on it. Sigg has admitted that their bottle linings contain BPA, but the level is below 2 parts per billion,...

Vegie patch update...

We got started on our vegie patch a bit late this winter, because it just wouldn’t cool down or start raining. But we’re starting to see some action now. We’ve also started a potato cage, but it’s not very photogenic at the moment. We did well with potatoes in the ground last year, and are hoping to get lots this year too. Broccoli, just getting started Chillies, still hanging on through the rain Lettuce,...

Fresh green links...

Renewable energy target passed - yay! It’s set at 20% by 2020. Unfortunately, it also includes windfall profits for polluters, and the world’s strangest definition of ‘renewable’ (it includes gas as a by-product from coal mines - wtf?). Still, now that it’s in place, hopefully we can make it better over time. 250 methane plumes of gas are rising from the Arctic - which is not good news. Methane...

Maybe we need a new law...

You might have heard about the Australian Conservation Foundation asking the ACCC to investigate the claims by corporations that an emissions trading scheme would cost so much they’d be forced to go out of business, or give up thousands of jobs. The corporations were telling politicians and the media that it’d devastate their profits, but were telling shareholders that in fact, they’d be just fine and...

Going paperless: progress report...

You might have heard that Greenpeace has successfully made Kimberly-Clark (the Kleenex company) get their supply chain switched to sustainable forest sources. You can read Greenpeace’s info on the end of the Kleercut campaign at their site. I think this is great, but it’s not going to stop me from trying to reduce the amount of paper I use. It takes a lot of time, energy and water to make paper, even if the...

How the Clean Air Act convinced me to support Rudd...

I just read a great article at Grist.org by David Roberts, about the old Clean Air Act in the USA. It governs air pollution and has had a significant impact on acid rain and the ozone layer - and it took years to get right. Part One describes how the bill got passed and strengthened, Part Two discusses the lessons we could learn from it in our fight against climate change. Henry Waxman, the Representative who is currently...

Fresh green links...

Sorry for the silence this week! I had a lot of work to do, but I’ll be as chatty as usual next week. Dingo, dingo - Clare at Ockham’s Razor posted a huge amount of information about one of Australia’s “near-native” and protected animals this week. I didn’t know there were two types, and that if you’ve got the right family situation you can adopt them! Carmageddon Averted - New...