Sharks and big corporations

But you are selling to farmers, is what he said. Farmers are the cornerstone of our food system, we need to protect them!
Not big corporations who create fake food and add a lot of dollar 'value' to a product to fill their pockets!
Well done Johnny!

Our Australian bush...

27 January 2015. Australians are destroying our backyard by dumping masses of illegal waste in our precious environment. Share this video please, to spread the word to our whole country. This is disgraceful. Steve Shotton

The Trans-Pacific Partnership - what's at stake?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: the dirtiest trade deal, you've never heard of.
The NOT so free 'free tradement agreement'

It's a deal, so shrouded in secrecy, even our own Parliament doesn't know the details. Watch the video below to find out why Prime Minister Abbott and Trade Minister Robb are so eager to keep this one under wraps.


For years, there's been talk of creating a new free trade deal that would span countries bordering the Asia-Pacific, including the US, Canada, New Zealand, as well as several countries in Latin America and Asia. The deal is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement – or "TPP" for short. 

The TPP agenda is being driven by big business, big pharmaceuticals and big tobacco – but the impacts will affect all Australians.
Between foreign corporations suing our governments over public health measures and environmental protection laws, higher pharmaceutical prices, and surveillance of Australians' internet usage, there's a lot for citizens to be concerned about – which is why Prime Minister Abbott and Trade Minister Robb are keeping it quiet. 

What we do know from leaked parts of the agreement is terrifying. But most Australians haven't even heard about the TPP. That's why we need to sound the alarm now, and sound it loudly. 

Sign the petition calling on our politicians not to sign our rights away here

And read more about it on Choice Australia

Yellow / White pages wasteful dump

Even though I've opted out to receive those big books years ago I still get them delivered every year. I haven't used them since the internet has a search engine and I guess most of the people who are computer savvy are with me.

But today I got angry again, someone had propped up a yellow pages book in my letterbox. Why??? Who is dumping this wasteful product in everyones home? Haven't they got the list that I have opted out years ago? And again last year?
Apperently not.

Where can I go to complain? Can I sue them for dumping valuable resources on my property, unasked for?
And who is still advertising in this kind of media??? Aimed at a dying breed. It is probably totally covered by the injury lawyers advertisement on the back, let's use them to sue the ones responsible for this littering.

Guess who that is? The Australian Government!
Claiming on page 2 that they are committed to minimising the environmental impact of their products...

Want to try to opt out, sign up here, wish you good luck.

Dr Jennifer Lavers (young Australian of the Year and marine biologist) at Plastic-Free Summer Festival, Fremantle Town Hall.

Having spent a lot of time in 40 remote islands studying animals, Dr Lavers reviews the health of these animals acts as an indicator of the health of our oceans and environment.

In this presentation, we have a brief history of the creation of plastic in a laboratory around 150 years ago. This has now become a global problem affecting seabird and marine species in all corners of the world. This is happening at an alarming rate more serious than sea level rising and global warming.

The plastics manufactured 50-70 years ago is still around sitting in landfill or drifting in the ocean. They have not disappeared but broken down into micro plastics attracting pollutants and heavy metals, then ingested by the smallest marine species entering the food web.

We have a throw away society. Single use plastic items are produced to suit our convenient lifestyle. These figures highlighting the extent of the pollution. 2.4 millions pieces of plastic enter the ocean every hour. 50,000 plastic bags in every square miles of the world's ocean. 1 million plastic cups used in US airline flights every 6 hours! 

http://jenniferlavers.org/

Food Rules for Healthy People and Planet

 In 2008, we grew enough food for 11 billion people. But half of that food went to feeding animals (so we could eat them). And a great deal also went to fueling cars.

Australia’s rising solar power ‘revolution’

Australian researchers broke the world's solar power efficiency record last month with their design of a novel commercial energy system, raising hopes the fossil-fuel dominated country may someday switch off its reliance on coal.

A team at the University of New South Wales led by professor Martin Green worked with a local company to create a highly efficient solar energy system that uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a central solar panel to generate electricity.

This kind of innovation has become the hallmark of the solar energy industry, and it is only going to grow, according to Green.

"What's happening now is that photovoltaics has improved so much recently that it is better at producing electricity than using hot steam," he said. "Solar will become the cheapest way to generate electricity at any scale. The transition is going to occur where it becomes cheaper to use solar than coal."
Read article

Symphony of the soil

Symphony of the Soil is a 104-minute documentary feature film that explores the complexity and mystery of soil. Filmed on four continents and sharing the voices of some of the world's most esteemed soil scientists, farmers and activists, the film portrays soil as a protagonist of our planetary story. Using a captivating mix of art and science, the film shows that soil is a complex living organism, the foundation of life on earth. Yet most people are soil-blind and "treat soil like dirt." Through the knowledge and wisdom revealed in this film, we can come to respect, even revere, this miraculous substance, and appreciate that treating the soil right can help solve some of our most pressing environmental problems.
Read more

Sand wars

To most of us, sand is simply the stuff that we find on the beach when we go on holiday. We take its presence for granted, but are we right to do so? Denis Delestrac's film suggests otherwise.

Sand is one of the most consumed natural resources on the planet. As a raw material, it is of huge importance to the building and construction industry -- indeed, houses, skyscrapers, bridges, airports, and pavements are all partially composed of sand.

Melted and transformed into glass, it features in every window. It is also the source of silicon dioxide, a mineral found in our wines, cleaning products, cosmetics and an astounding variety of other products that we use on a daily basis.

As demand rises in an increasingly industrialised world, however, the planet's reserves of sand are coming under threat. It is estimated that three quarters of the world's beaches are in decline and likely to disappear. Such is the demand for the material that sand has even attracted the attention of the criminal fraternity, who have taken to plundering beaches and rivers for what is becoming a prized commodity. So what does the future hold as we continue to extract huge quantities of a natural resource that we seem to consider inexhaustible, and what will be the consequences for the environment?

This film asks some troubling questions and we may not like the answers.
More info here

Denis Delestrac made his debut in non-fiction filmmaking in 2001 and signed a number of hits including IMAX blockbuster "Mystery of the Nile" and "Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space", his first feature documentary. His latest feature documentary, "Sand Wars" is an epic eco-thriller that takes the audience around the globe to unveil a new gold rush and a disturbing fact: we are running out of sand!

In his talk he explains us where sand comes from and where it ends up. Our perception is that the resource sand will always be available for us but thanks to his investigations we realize that this is not true and that sooner or later we will be running out of sand - and consequently won´t have beaches anymore.