Sydney's secret undersea scrapheap

Sydney's seafront and harbour is well known for its pristine tidiness, but delve under the water and it is a different picture.


Now divers are attempting to clean up the rubbish that accumulates from the city's waste water.
Watch 4 min. documentary here

And of course Two Hands Project are involved in it too!

NGO's

Wind energy myths debunked

Wind Reality 1: Wind power is cheap and saving Australian consumers money

Wind Reality 2: Free wind for 20-25 years offsets initial capital costs

Wind Reality 3: Wind farms generate electricity 75%-85% of the time

Wind Reality 4: Wind subsidies level a playing field that’s been tilted for decades

Wind Reality 5: Wind power keeps getting more efficient and effective

Wind Reality 6: Wind turbines consume very little electricity from the grid

Wind Reality 7: Wind energy needs about 4% grid backup in penetrations up to 20% of generation, and that can come from hydro or other regions

Wind Reality 8: Wind turbines don’t make people sick

Wind Reality 9: A small subset of people very near to wind turbines find the noise annoying

Wind Reality 10: There are hundreds of research papers showing no health impacts from wind turbines

Wind Reality 11: Governments are studying wind turbine health impacts

Wind Reality 12: Wind farms make property prices go up or have no impact

Wind Reality 13: People who support wind farms have science on their side

Read more

The impacts with Gina in the board of Fairfax media:

On Tuesday Gina Rinehart, the world’s richest woman, is expected to confirm that she has acquired up to 19.9% of Fairfax.

Rinehart is not an investor in Fairfax to earn a return like the rest of the company’s long-suffering institutional investors. She is making her play to change the climate of opinion in Australia.

Back in 2010 she and her fellow mining barons spent $22m to get rid of Kevin Rudd’s proposed mining tax.

And so successful was the campaign that they got rid of Rudd and saved themselves an estimated $20bn in taxes.

Rinehart’s appointment of Australia’s leading climate change sceptic, Ian Plimer, as an advisor to her mining companies is simply a taste of what’s to come. As one senior Fairfax editor remarked, expect this kind of front page once Rinehart gets control. “Exclusive: Climate Change is a Hoax”.

Right now if you live in Hobart, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin or Brisbane you have no choice, just the one paper. In Melbourne and Sydney, there was choice.

Join the debate on The Conversation

AND THANK THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA THAT WE ARE FREE TO FORM OUR OWN OPINION BY SEARCHING INTERNATIONAL NEWS ONLINE FROM RELIABLE SOURCES!

Faster, faster...

Challenge: Balancing population growth and resources

How Can Population Growth and Resources Be Brought Into Balance?

The world’s population reached seven billion in October 2011. The sixth billion was reached in 1999 and it is significant that the seventh billion took the same number of years (12) to add as the sixth. This is relevant because prior to that there had been a progressive shortening of the time taken to add billions to the human population. The first billion was reached in 1804, taking many thousands of years of human evolution to achieve. Thereafter successive billions were added in 123, 32, 15, and 13 years respectively.

Read the article and participate in the discussion

Audit yourself on plastic

Fellow local blogger Olive on Blonde made this picture of how much plastic you are actually wearing... audit yourself!
She wrote for the people who've registered for the Plastic Free July challenge a very good introduction, check it out here and please sign up to join us!

I participated last year with the Earth Carers and can tell you it's a challenge to go to the supermarket! So it's back to basics and it's very interesting to learn how!

Customers misled by 'remanufactured' printer cartridges

OFFICEWORKS and supplier Keytek have apologised to customers who may have been misled by claims that the ''Greentec'' range of inkjet cartridges were recycled from empty originals.

Keytek's Greentec range, sold exclusively through Officeworks stores and introduced last year, are described by in-store marketing as ''made from original recycled cartridges''.

Read more and watch the video here

Sign up for Plastic Free July

Will you accept the challenge to refuse single use disposable plastic?

Sign up for a day, a week or for the whole month of July and learn how to live with less plastic during your journey.

Why?
Australians send 1 million tonnes of plastic to landfill each year. Do your part to make a change.


Benefit from the support of Earth Carers and other community member at events, workshops and online discussion forums and learn new ways to live with less plastic.

How?
Read about it and sign up here

Bag it!

Another chance to see this must see movie for free:

Screening of the award winning documentary Bag It, an investigation into plastics and their effect on our waterways, oceans, and even our bodies. Guest speakers Jess and Nathan will talk about the plastic free year they are currently attempting!

Event hosted by the Presbetyrian Ladies College, Perth.

Date: Thursday 21 June 6.45pm

Venue: PLC auditorium, 14 McNeill St, Peppermint Grove

More info here

And please sign up for your attempt to Plastic Free July more info here and here on Facebook

2012 WA Innovator of the Year Awards

More info here

The lucky country?

Perth Green Drinks 20 June

Sustainability starts at home!

The way we choose to live has an impact on how much land, materials and energy is used in building and construction. With a growing population and ever expanding dwelling sizes, more of all three elements are being consumed at the expense of the environment. And at the expense of our pockets, today it takes two working people salaries and many years of mortgage to pay off the houses we live in.

How can we build and live more sustainably?

To discuss the state of affairs in construction, real estate market and sustainable living, Perth Green Drinks brings you a panel of experts.

When: Wednesday 20 June
Time: 5.45 - 8.00pm
Where: Central Institute of Technology
Address: 30 Aberdeen Street Northbridge

More info here and rsvp here

Fremantle Community Wind Farm Launch Party

Tomorrow, 9 June 1-4pm, launch at the North Fremantle Bowling Club.
More info here

2012 Premier’s Design Awards

Living in Victoria Australia: "We are looking for the best of Victorian design - work that illustrates the latest in design thinking and use, and exemplifies excellence and innovation.


If that sounds like you, consider entering your innovative design project into the 2012 Premier’s Design Awards.

Applications are now open and are free to enter for both designers and users of design to nominate leading design projects.

You still have until Tuesday 3 July to submit your application".
More information here

City of Perth Environment Grants and Sponsorship

To celebrate World Environment Day this year, the City of Perth has opened the application round for the 2012/13 Environment Grants and Sponsorship Program.

The City of Perth is inviting businesses, community groups, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), and other organisations to apply for environment grants or sponsorship up to $10,000 as part of the Environment Grants and Sponsorship Program.

The guidelines and application form is available of the City of Perth website

Update:The City of Perth Environment Grants and Sponsorship Program briefing
session details are below:

Date: Tuesday 26 June 2012
Time : 5-6
Location: Bar 138, enter via the Medina Executive Barrack Plaza.
RSVP: by Friday 22 June 2012 to jessica.turner @ cityofperth.wa.gov.au

Western Australia’s catastrophic forest collapse

Recent, unprecedented, climate-driven forest collapses in Western Australia show us that ecosystem change can be sudden, dramatic and catastrophic. These collapses are a clear signal that we must develop new strategies to mitigate or prevent the future effects of climate change in Australian woodlands and forests. But society’s view of forests is ever-changing: are we willing to understand ecosystems and adapt to changing conditions?
The Conversation

New study queries pesticide safety levels

Pesticides could be damaging river biodiversity at levels that have been traditionally regarded as environmentally safe by authorities, suggests a new study.

Ecotoxciologist Dr Ben Kefford, of University of Technology, Sydney, and colleagues, report their findings online in Environmental Science & Technology.

"Pesticides are having an effect at 10 to 100 times lower concentrations than traditionally thought," says Kefford. He says when authorities try to protect our streams and rivers from pesticides they rely on thresholds, under which it is assumed pesticides have no effect.
Read article

Black bream killed by algae in Swan River
More than 1,000 fish have been found dead in the Swan River, and scientists believe a fish-killing algae is responsible.

A total of 1,400 fish, mostly black bream, were found dead over the weekend between Bassendean and West Swan.
.....
Earlier this year, about 5,000 fish were found dead in the river and scientists were unable to determine what killed them.

TEDx Northbridge : Professor Paul Hardisty

Professor Paul Hardisty is Global Director of EcoNomics(TM) and Sustainability for Worley Parsons.

EcoNomics(TM) is a service which embeds profitable sustainability into all aspects of the project delivery life cycle. He is a visiting Professor in environmental engineering at Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, UK, and an Adjunct Professor

at the University of Western Australia School of Business, where he teaches sustainability and climate change issues to MBA students.

World Environment Day - 5 June

The Harmony House Project

Sustainability Television has a new series online of the Harmony House Project; a house located in Britsh Colombia, Canada.

The Harmony House is a winning entry in the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation EQuilibrium™ Housing Initiative. This net-zero home will produce as much energy as it uses on an annual basis - from renewable sources.

This project incorporates low toxicity interior finishes, materials with recycled content, foam insulations using non ozone depleting expanding agents, water conservation and rain water harvesting. These measures lower environmental impact, conserve resources and create a healthy indoor environment for the occupants.

This is the only Equilibrium home to be constructed on the West Coast and will be the first zero carbon building in British Columbia; meaning it will emit no greenhouse gases from heating, cooling, hot water and the use of electrical appliances.
Watch the 20 part episodic series here

Fremantle Community Wind Farm

The proposed Fremantle Wind Farm project is a community wind farm consisting of 8 modern wind turbines placed around Rous Head Harbour, with a total generation capacity of 6.4 MW (6,400 kW).

The projected annual electricity production will be about 4 times larger than the electricity consumption of Fremantle City Council.

This is a special project, in a special place, at a special time. Get involved in the development of a renewable energy project that will serve as a monument to sustainability in a central metropolitan location, attracting visitors and tourists to the city, and leading Australia in the implementation of utility-scale renewable energy and distributed generation within the built environment.

Launch on June 9 at the North Fremantle Bowling Club.
More info here or on FB