Thousands rally in Perth for carbon tax

An estimated 3000 people have rallied in Perth as part of a national climate-change campaign urging the federal government to set a carbon price.

Young families were among those who rallied during a long weekend in the state to show their support for climate action.

Signs and placards that read 'Yes to a price on carbon', 'Our planet is worth it' and 'Pay now for our kids' future' were waved around in the crowd.

Speakers included Conservation Council of WA director Piers Verstegen, World Vision representative Jarrod McKenna and Unions WA secretary Simone McGurk.

Politicians also showed their support for the campaign including Greens senator for WA Scott Ludlam and Greens WA Legislative Council member Lyn McLaren.
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I was there, you too?

UPDATE: RTR FM 92.1 Understorey program features a couple of the speakers...tune in at 11.30 am 15 June 2011 to catch it (or you can stream it/podcast it).

Fracking fight looms in WA

A CONTROVERSIAL technology that fractures the earth to extract gas is emerging as the next environmental flashpoint in the South-West.
While the process is banned in France and parts of the US, Canada and South Africa, "fracking" - where sand, chemicals and millions of litres of water are blasted underground to rupture rock and release trapped gas - is happening in WA.

The technique, which is used to explore and extract "unconventional gas" or methane deposits in coal seam, shale rock and tight sand formations, has had disastrous consequences in Queensland and the US.

There, it has been blamed for depleting and contaminating groundwater and causing methane to leak up through farmland.

In WA, fracking is already occurring in the Kimberley and the Mid-West near Dongara, and there are eight active coal seam gas exploration permits, including two held by Westralian Oil and Gas Ltd near Margaret River and Busselton.
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Bamboo tricycle a contender for Aussie best design

IS this the future of green transport?

It may be small, but Monash industrial designer Alexander Vittouris believes this miniature prototype for a bamboo tricycle can revolutionise renewable manufacturing.

The design involves manipulating bamboo as it grows to form the shape of a recumbent tricycle frame.

The manufacturing idea has made Mr Vittouris a finalist for the James Dyson Award, part of the Australian Design Awards.

He said the bamboo frame would be fitted with other eco-friendly parts to make a functioning vehicle.

"It is a total rethink of how the manufacturing process works," Mr Vittouris, who designed the tricycle as part of a masters project, said.
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Wish one of my students came in the news like this ;)

What Are Your Trees Worth?

Almost everyone knows that trees and other living plants are valuable. They beautify our surroundings, purify our air, act as sound barriers, manufacture precious oxygen, and help us save energy through their cooling shade in summer and their wind reduction in winter. And above all they provide a home and food for a lot of animals like birds and insects.

How can people in the suburbs of Perth be still so stupid to cut all those beautiful old trees down for stupid reasons like falling leaves...??? They seem to prefer concrete bunkers with a few tiny sprigs of green or worse, a plastic lawn, and high energy bills for the airco which is blowing all day long in summer and winter.

Our new neighbour cut at least 7 grown trees, most of them gums, a peppermint, a paperbark and a palm, at the front, side and back of his house. All Monday I heard the screaming noise of trees being cut and mulched up next door which gave me a stomach ache. And why? He owns about 3 cars, a boat and a trailer which he needs to park...

I'd foreseen this happening and asked the council about it, but they were annoyed with my question; everyone can do what they want on their property. There is no such law that you need a permit to cut trees of a certain diameter like in other countries. I am very dissapointed and in the past few months have seen several properties losing beautiful old trees which is part of our view and the reason we bought a house in the old part of Perth; the western suburbs. Not sure if they keep up the green as it starts to look like all those new bare patches of colorbond roofed McMansions in the outer suburbs...

I am ready to move to the country!

Update 7 June: Couple cop record $112K tree clearing fine

The Biggest Bike-Share in the World: Hangzhou China

Anyone who claims that bike-sharing is a European-style transportation innovation has clearly never set foot in Hangzhou, China. The 50,000-bike system in this southern China city of almost 7 million people (about 1.5 million people fewer than New York City) blows all other bike-shares off the map. As Bradley Schroeder of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy said, "I don't think there is anywhere you can stand in Hangzhou for more than a minute or two where you wouldn't have a Hangzhou Public Bike go past you."
Hangzhou's 2,050 bike-share stations are spaced less than a thousand feet from each other in the city center, and on an average day riders make 240,000 trips using the system. Its popularity and success have set a new standard for bike-sharing in Asia. And the city is far from finished. The Hangzhou Bicycle Company plans to expand the bike-share system to 175,000 bikes by 2020!

Can we do something like this here in Perth?

Save rainwater

With winter approaching, now is the time to think about installing a rainwater tank to reduce your home's reliance on Perth's precious scheme water.

WHY RAINWATER?
According to Andrew Waudby, of Waterplex, a rainwater tank is a great one-off investment to make a difference to the environment and reduce your annual household water costs.

"The average rainfall for Perth is approximately 800mm per annum. 1mm of rain on 1sqm of roof gives one litre of stored water, so 1sqm of roof gives 800 litres per year. So a 100sqm roof gives 80,000 litres."

He said Perth homeowners had the ability to make a great difference to the local water supply simply by installing a tank.

A 2500-litre tank would provide sufficient water storage for the average household during winter.

"People think they need a big tank to get them through the summer but that's not the case," Mr Holmes said. "During the winter time, you are catching water from your roof and if it's operating your toilets and laundry with savings of up to 46,000 litres of water a year".
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I was stunned to learn that the average household in Perth uses 734 liters of water per day!

Don't forget to turn of your reticulation, as from 1 June there is a sprinkler ban.

Higher tax call for McMansion dwellers

PEOPLE who want to build energy-guzzling McMansion-style homes should pay more taxes.
And taxes should also be used to make owning multiple plasma TVs prohibitive, says Melbourne University construction expert Dr Robert Crawford.

Rapidly increasing suburban house sizes, more reliance on cars and a rise in demand for consumer goods had wiped out many of the benefits of building energy-efficient homes, he said yesterday.

"The most dominant characteristic of the new houses in these estates is their size ... new residences are well over 200sq m, more than double the average of the 1950s," he said.
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World's carbon emissions hit record rise

Carbon emissions in the earth's atmosphere have reached a record high, according to the International Energy Agency.

Scientists warn that climate change will lead to unprecedented catastrophic consequences, if global leaders do not take decisive action to reduce the harmful emissions soon.
And all they do here in Australia is talking about how Cate Blanchett should or shouldn't be in the picture for this... sad...

What does it take to change a habit?

Life Earth

Smugglers sneaking e-waste out of Australia

Australia has been accused of breaking its international obligations by not doing more to stop electronic waste being smuggled out of the country.

The ABC has learned that four shipments of illegal e-waste - including discarded computers, mobile phones, televisions and other devices which contain deadly chemicals - have been intercepted so far this year.

But details about the seizures are sketchy.

Australia is starting to groan under the weight of a growing mountain of electronic waste. The discarded devices often end up in landfill with all the environmental concerns that generates.

Enforcing legislation
So far calls to several government agencies, including Customs, have failed to answer any detailed questions about the seizures and whether or not anyone was charged for smuggling.

The responsible parliamentary secretary, Don Farrell, has also been unavailable for comment.

Mr Walker says much of the rest ends up in landfill.

"I think the current figure is about 40 million computers have gone into landfill here in Australia alone," he said.

"But around 60 per cent say of the computers that are collected through recycling schemes end up going overseas".
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5 June - National Day of Climate Action

From the GetUp team:

So far, 3,440 people have RSVP'd to family climate rallies across Australia next weekend. But I just finished reading the Australian Climate Commission's new climate science report - and frankly, I'm scared. The risks have never been more clear and the case for action has never been more urgent. Scientists know this, you and I know this, but the rest of Australia still needs to hear it.

The Government and Independents on the committee are under extraordinary pressure to give up on climate action. Climate deniers held a rally against the carbon price last week in the electorate of Independent MP Rob Oakeshott. The Daily Telegraph reported that over 3,000 people attended - even though the official police estimate was under 800. Right now, politicians and the media are gauging support for climate action by which side has the bigger rallies.

Some say putting a price on pollution will send our economy back to the Stone Age. They say they represent the majority of mainstream Australia. We know it's rubbish - but unless we put our faces and voices in front of the TV cameras too, we know exactly what will happen next: an exasperating onslaught of one-sided media coverage against climate action, which will send politicians running scared.

If Australia's climate policy were decided by science and reason, we would have put a price on pollution long ago.

Please join the urgent climate rallies happening across Australia on Sunday week, June 5, and don't forget to bring a friend, or ten!

Where: Perth Cultural Centre (James Street Mall)
When: 11am Sunday June 5
Please RSVP by clicking here.

Gotta Share!

Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence

Against obsolescence from Vitsœ on Vimeo.

Check out the interview with great architect/designer Dieter Rams at Fast Company

Turanor PlanetSolar mega-yacht to visit Australia

When in Brisbane this weekend go have a look at this huge solar panelled ship!

THE world's largest solar boat, costing $16.7 million to build, will make a stopover in Australia this weekend.
The Turanor PlanetSolar mega-yacht will dock at the Riverside Centre Pontoon in Brisbane on Sunday as part of its quest to become the first fully solar-powered vessel to circumnavigate around the world.
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WA dams set to dry up by summer's end, expert warns

Perth's drinking water supplies from dams will run out by the end of next summer even with decent rainfall, according to predictions by the Centre for Water Research.

By then, Perth and the South-West would become solely reliant on water supplied from the already stressed Gnangara Mound aquifer and the Kwinana desalination plant, director Jorg Imberger said.

Even using an optimistic calculation that 35 gigalitres (35 billion litres) of rainwater would flow into the city's dams - far greater than the 13 gigalitres last year - the dams would run dry.

"(Even) given recycled water, less water use, pumping the surface aquifer at Gnangara Mound a little bit more and hoping for rain, we'll basically have no water left at the end of summer 2012," Professor Imberger said.
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Update 30 May: No need to be squeamish
There has been predictable squeamishness about the news that the Water Corporation has been asked to fast-track its Groundwater Replenishment Trial, ramping it up far beyond the current rate of 5 million litres treated and injected into the ground each day.

Since it launched last November, the trial has pumped 544.5 million litres of treated water into the Gnangara Mound, which provides 90 per cent of Perth's groundwater, via an injection well at the corporation's Beenyup water treatment site.

Ask a Londoner about water recycling and they'll tell you it's a simple fact of life, even though they will probably complain about the rain in their next breath.

The fact is that Perth and the South West are in trouble, despite the impressive response to the Water Corporation's challenge to Perth households to save 60 litres per day over the past few months.

Currently, Perth dumps 300 million litres of wastewater a day into the Indian Ocean - much of it after extensive treatment. Instead of throwing that water away, groundwater replenishment would see large amounts of that water rescued, treated to a higher standard and then used to preserve our aquifers.

GetUp action for Australia

Fund Solutions Not Pollution

Solidworks Green Design Contest

The Challenge
Imagine that wealthy entrepreneur "Sir Richard Doylson" has decided to launch a new airline powered solely by algae-derived biofuels, called Greenair. Your firm, SWUGN Enterprises, has been charged with designing new “green” airport terminals for Greenair, and (of course), terminals need chairs. It’s up to you to design a chair worthy of the Greenair name, and Sir Richard’s execs will be judging your work.

Good constraints lead to inspired design, and as Earth Day reminds us, our planet provides the ultimate constraints—it can only support so much resource consumption and waste emissions. We invite you to design a new chair that’s both aesthetically appealing and fully functional, while maintaining a small environmental footprint. To do this, you can either download the starter model – a rather plain-looking, industrial affair – and modify it, or design a completely new chair yourself.
More info here

Ride to Work Day - on 12 October

Come join Australia's biggest celebration of commuter riding - Ride to Work Day - on 12 October.

Whether you ride regularly or haven't been in the saddle for a little while, there has never been a better time to get involved. Aside from realising all the benefits riding to work can provide, your registration will help us improve bike facilities for everyone and also enter you in the draw for a range of fantastic prizes.

Register for free now and be a part of something big!

The Ride to Work Program is designed to get people started and keep them riding to work. The Program is run by the Bicycle Network in conjunction with state and territory cycling organisations across Australia.

Design A Chair

Saturday In Design has teamed up with How We Create to offer a fantastic design opportunity.

Join the likes of Gehry, Le Corbusier, Foster and Neutra and turn your chair sketch into a real-life product!

The winning design will be made live using rotational moulding at a special event hosted by How We Create on +Friday, the night of festivities for industry VIPs that precedes Saturday In Design.

Create a concept, sketch it up and submit your design here by 17 June.

Your chair might be taking pride of place in a showroom at next year's Saturday In Design!

Two Hands Project

The Two Hands Project is a new and collaborative approach to cleaning up your world.

Whether to improve the health of our oceans, or to simply clean up unsightly trash in one of your favorite parks, Two Hands is easy…

Two hands takes the spirit of huge national and international cleanup days, bringing it back to the individual, allowing you to care for the place most important to you, anytime you want.

Two Hands talks solutions.. ways to stop the plastic tide. To find out more, view the “How To Participate” page.

Thirty minutes, Two Hands. Clean up your world.
Or join them on Facebook to see what other two hands did.