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Bodies on the line - A BARE EARTH PROJECT

At the last Perth Green Drinks I met an interesting lady, who told me about her partner, an artist, who had set up a website with his artwork with a strong hint to the environment. He wants people to download postcards from his website with his artwork and a related sustainable message. I was suprised to find one with a link to the Green Drinks!

"What really matters in a relationship is not the house, not the car, not the clothes, but who you are, without any trimmings. The nude symbolises what we are without all the trappings of the consumer world".

Tourists threaten World Heritage site

Due to an increasing population and increasing wealth there are more tourists traveling the world and of course everybody wants to see the same things which results in mobs of people trampling through the most beautiful sites which are now comparable to Disney World... it doesn't appeal to me anymore...

An influx of tourists to Peru’s famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu may prompt UNESCO to add the jungle-shrouded ruins to its list of endangered World Heritage sites.

Yearly visits to Machu Picchu, Peru’s top tourist destination, have more than doubled since 1998 to 800,000 people, and conservationists advising UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee warn that landslides, fires and creeping development threaten the site.
Read the article

Scoodi competition

It's easy. Every time you list something on Scoodi between 7 May and 15 July, you'll receive one entry into the competition. We'll announce the winner in July.

Take the Scoodi "Sustainable Living Challenge" and you could live carbon neutral for a year. Scoodi will offset 12T of carbon for one lucky Scoodi user. Your carbon offset is guaranteed and you will receive a proof of ownership certificate for you to proudly display.
See details here

Reduce the energy you use, the resources you consume, the new stuff you buy and the waste you produce. Reuse the stuff you no longer need, by listing it all on Scoodi or finding an alternative use for it. Recycle only the household waste that can't be reused. Act-local by shopping locally, buying local produce, reusing locally. Offset only the waste that you can't do something about yourself. One measure of the waste we produce is equivalent tones of CO2 (carbon dioxide). The average Australian produces 12T of CO2 emissions each year including cars, flights and all household emissions. In fact, Australia is one of the highest carbon emitters per capita. Even when you try hard to reduce your carbon footprint, there are probably still going to be unavoidable carbon emissions. That's where carbon offsets come in. Carbon offsets work by removing the equivalent amount of carbon (that you produce) from the air.

Yesterday at the Perth Green Drinks I gave a short presentation about Scoodi, a project originated in Brisbane by a couple of nice guys. What is Scoodi? Scoodi is a free online community where you can register the stuff you don't need anymore and normally would dump at verge collection day. It's presented cleanly and clearly which makes it easy to find stuff with tagging and keyword searching. Remember "One man's rubbish is another man's treasure!"

SomerVille Sunday and Land Tour

The first Sunday of each month is a community day for the Somerville Ecovillage. Community members gather to hear the latest updates regarding the project, engage in community consultation and share a great lunch together at Rob’s Kitchen.

The next SomerVille Sunday is scheduled for 6 July 2008. This upcoming SomerVille Sunday will include discussion and consultation regarding the SomerVille Village Centre design. We will also have scrapbooking activities for the children.

If you have not already attended a Land Tour, you can undertake the land tour then join us for lunch and be involved in the community events following this.

We welcome you to join us. To register for the Land Tour or obtain further details please contact the Greenedge office on 9572 3672.

And I like to thank Alex, and of course also Fuchsia, for the talk yesterday evening at the Perth Green Drinks!

Again.. bottled water

WANT to hear a joke? What's Evian spelt backwards? Naive. Once the joke was on companies trying to package and sell a product freely available from the tap. Twenty years on, company profits are overflowing and the joke's on Australians and their unquenchable thirst for bottled water.

Read this interesting article!

Designs for Sustainability

Wonder membrane soaks up pollution

RESEARCHERS in the US say they have created a paper-like membrane made of nano-scale materials that can clean up oil pollution and other chemical spills.

The substance can absorb up to 20 times its own weight in oil and be recycled again and again for future use, while the oil itself can also be recovered and used, they reported in the specialist journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Read article

Green School Difference, Bali

A video about Green School in Bali, Indonesia. The rigorous curriculum within an entrepreneurial context using sustainable practices offers a new concept in education. The school opens in September 2008 and will offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma.

www.greenschool.org

ORANGE launches dance powered charger

London. 24 June 2008. Orange today announced the launch of a mobile phone charger prototype that is powered by dance energy. The Orange Dance Charge is the result of months of research into alternate, sustainable energy sources to power mobile phones during summer music festivals.

Working with renewable energy specialists, GotWind, who were also responsible for last year’s Orange Wind Charge and this year’s Orange ReCharge Pod, Orange commissioned the research into a kinetic energy portable phone charger that would harness the energy created by festival revellers dancing to their favourite bands to ensure a clean and renewable energy source.

They are going to test this product at the Glastonbury Festival 27-29 June. Read here how it works.

I am a bit sad to read this because I told you in February about my green gadget which was nominated on the Core77 website and since than has got a lot of publication internationally on all kind of trendsetting and eco blogs. I've received emails from magazines and distributers from several countries asking about the product which was only a design on paper, not real yet.
I have been busy trying to get the bracelet working since, made contact with the engineering department of Curtin University in Perth as well as Delft University in The Netherlands. So far nothing happened as it doesn't seem to be that easy to generate enough energy by movement to load a mobile phone battery simply because they require still too much energy so you have to move for a long time before you can call... the other difficulty is how to get the energy you've created with movement into your phone or MP3 player.

So it seems my idea is getting tested by Orange tomorrow...

Energy saving light bulbs

We don't have many incandescent light bulbs left in our house as we have been changing to energy saving light bulbs for ages. This weekend the last small spiral bulb broke down and I finally had to go out for energy saving ones as I had used up all small spirals from other table lamps to use in my desk light. It's very hard to find a small spiral energy saving bulb in Perth. Our local supermarket has one, but they are huge, so I went hunting in the city, from the big chains to the smaller but none has what I was looking for and I was stunned to see that for instance Target and Dick Smith hardly had any energy saving bulbs in their shops in the city! We ended up at Ikea as people told us they had them. Only one kind also... I was a bit disappointed but bought them anyway as the ugly 'worm' was covered by a glass cover. But still far to big, the bulb is sticking half way out of the desk light so I am looking into the light which is not very nice to work in....

Does someone know where I can find energy saving bulbs for desk lights with a small spiral which are not huge and still give enough light to work in?

Reveries

Yesterday, while walking around Lake Claremont, it struck me again that I haven't seen the long-neck turtles at all this year.
What happened to them? There used to be so many... all of them coming to the little wooden structure at the edge when people gathered there in the hope to get some food? I've never given any as I know that's not healthy, and I really hope they are not coming because nobody gave them food so they are still around somewhere in the water... But actually I am afraid these little ancient creatures are not that abundant anymore...

The same for the ringnecks, or 28Th's, who used to come to our pond in the front yard bathing and having fun in the water. I haven't seen them for years but there are heaps of rainbow lorikeets screeching and having a bath. They even win it from the much bigger ravens who are desperate in summer to get a bit of water as well...

What about the frogs we used to have in the garden, I miss the sound at night, especially at certain times of the year when they are mating. Since last week I've got some little froglets from a friend in the garden, the area is protected by mesh to keep them in and predators out, I hope they survive!

While running up the sand dune to Swanbourne Beach I used to see bobtails but I haven't seen any for a long time....

What's happening to the wildlife around us?

And I am only living here for four years....

Grim seachange for Cottesloe

Cottesloe’s beachfront and many of its multi-million-dollar homes will be destroyed by rising sea levels by 2070, a new report on the effects of climate change predicts.

Detailed maps, not yet available to the public, show the loss of Marine Parade as well as homes north of Grant Street and south of Pearce Street, where land is typically valued at an astonishing $13,000 sqm.

The study, funded by the Federal Government, also warns that violent storms and a projected 48cm sea level rise mean infrastructure could be destroyed and homes likely to be left without vital services such as gas, water and sewerage if the State Government fails to assess Marine Parade pipelines.

The extraordinary findings, to be presented to Cottesloe council for the first time on Monday, are based on the latest information from the United Nations and NASA on how the area will look in 2030 and 2070.
Read the article.

Shortage of water predicted for South West WA

Climate change and growing demand for water will lead to supply shortages in the South-West by 2030 unless households and businesses cut their water use by 20 per cent, the Department of Water has warned.
Read the article

Sony unveils green flat-panel TV

Sony's new flat-panel TV consumes less energy than comparable regular models without compromising image quality - the latest in Japanese manufacturers' efforts to woo buyers with green products.

The new 32-inch Bravia consumed 82 watts of energy comparable a regular model that required 125 watts of energy for the same image. Compared to an old-style TV with a cathode-ray tube monitor, the new TV consumes about 70 per cent less energy a year.

Garnaut draft report public forum invitation 7 July‏

The Garnaut Climate Change Review has been commissioned by Australia's Commonwealth, state and territory governments to examine the impacts, challenges and opportunities of climate change for Australia.

The meeting in Perth is Monday 7 July, 10.00-11.30am at Perth Town Hall

Professor Ross Garnaut will host the forums, providing a half hour presentation, followed by question time. These forums will provide an opportunity for individuals and organisations to discuss the Draft Report, which will be delivered to the Australian governments by 30 June, with Professor Garnaut ahead of the completion of the Final Report by 30 September 2008.

Attendance is free of charge but registration is required.
To register, for the forum visit the website.

How green is your TV viewing?

Televisions use a lot of energy in making us fat, stupid and depressed. They come fourth, behind water heating, refrigeration and lighting, in terms of energy use in the home, says the Department of the Environment. The number of televisions per household, the average screen size and the hours people spend watching television are all rising.

... one in four households buying a new television each year, and Australia having the world's highest per capita sales of LCD and plasma televisions ...
Read the whole article

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Each year a distinguished jury will award a single $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity's most pressing problems in the shortest possible time while enhancing the Earth's ecological integrity.
For more info check the Buckminster Fuller Challenge website.

Commuters don't care for sharing cars

I've just come across this article from last week and it's just what I was thinking a few weeks back. As I always have to wait for a long time at the traffic lights to cross Stirling Hwy in Claremont I watch the drivers. Most of the cars are occupied by one person and I was wondering why everyone has such a big car while being alone in it most of the time... The costs are rising and the traffic is getting busier by the day so why not share a ride with collegues or neighbours going the same way?
The advantage of carpooling besides saving a lot of money on petrol and parking fees? Working only the hours you need to work as it is a good excuse to refuse overtime and you might gain some new friendships along the way as well.
But where do you find a carpool mate? The government has a website with information with links where to find carpoolers like Share my Car.

Men consume more energy than women

Men’s total energy consumption is 20 percent higher than women’s. They also consume a substantially greater proportion of this energy on transport. This is shown in a new FOI (Swedish Defence Research Agency) report by Annika Carlsson-Kanyama and Riitta Räty.

The full report (in Swedish with summary in English) can be downloaded here.