floating islands to treat storm water runoff

The environmentally responsible child

My son cares for the environment in a number of ways.
The first is by showering once a month at the most, to save on electricity, water and soap.
He also reduces the amount of washing up we have to do, by drinking out of the milk bottle and eating with his fingers.
He chooses to fertilise the garden, instead of flushing his nitrogen rich pee down the loo. When it comes to flushing the toilet, his motto is: "if its yellow its mellow, if its brown, let it sit there and stink!"
He also tends to wear his clothes to bed, saving loads of washing.

See, his mother may find it irritating, but he is just trying to do his bit for the planet.
grrrr

Brisbane Transition Town

On Sunday, I went to Brisbane Transition Hub Induction Workshop.
The workshop was wonderful. The room was full of diverse, enthusiastic and intelligent people, who are working towards making their home town sustainable.

I was overwhelmed by the caring atmosphere and by the flowing exchange of ideas.

There was also a bring a plate lunch, focussing on local food, which was delicious. Breads, curries, fruit, salads, cous cous, and so on.... sigh.

I made some contacts with people in my local area, which felt great. I have been trying without much success, to interest friends and family in the idea of transition towns.
It has been a bit frustrating, to feel like the only person who cares about climate change and energy descent. Most people seem unable to accept that their lifestyle has any impact on the environment, or that they are in a position to change things for the better. Some people even say, although they know that over consuming is affecting the planet, they don't see why they have to stop if their neighbours don't.... a bit of round about logic.....

Anyway, some really constructive, and positive ideas were formed at the workshop.
Hopefully, at a later date, I will be able to post some more about the specific objectives the group decided on and some projects that are in the works.

Brisbane Transition Hub Induction Workshop

I am so excited. It looks like Transition Town Brisbane may be generating enough momentum to get off the ground. There is a workshop happening this sunday to "develop a strategic direction for the network of Transition initiatives[...] and of course be inspired to 'transition' Brisbane."

Have you heard about Transition Towns?
It started in Totnes, England, and has spread throughout the world. Basically, instead of heading for the hills, and burying a cache of weapons and ammo, (not that there is anything wrong with that ;)) a bunch of people looked at the looming peak oil crisis and decided to reduce their personal addiction to dinosaur juice and facilitate a peaceful, economic and social transition to post oil in their community.
This Handbook outlines the process that some communities have followed.

I first encountered the idea of Transition Towns while I was researching Permaculture. This website, was written by the co-founder of permaculture, David Holmgren. It outlines a lot of issues related to peak oil, which Holmgren calls 'Energy descent'. It is a really informative website. Holmgren has also written 'Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability', you can order the book and read free excerpts of it at Holmgren's website.

I have set up a facebook group, 'Towards Transition Lutwyche', to try and promote the idea within my circle of friends and family. I have compiled a lot more helpful links relating to Transition Towns and if you'd like, you can access them from the group's facebook page.

I really hope to be able to go to the workshop on Sunday. I'd love to hear from other 'Transitionites' and bounce ideas around.

Day of Action Encircle Parliament

Tomorrow is the first sitting day of parliament. There will be a protest to let the Australian government know that we want more action on climate change. People from all over Australia wearing red and carrying red banners, as a symbol of the climate emergency, will join hands around parliament house, Canberra.

I will be there in spirit, wearing a red shirt.
I wish everyone the best of luck. I don't expect it will be covered by the mainstream news, but I will be checking out You tube.

Hey, Kevvo, 5%? Not good enough, Mate!

More info here

Another 2009 goal

I have enrolled in The Northey St City farm's Permaculture Design course.
My first day was great. I am always really nervous meeting a group of new people.
I also had these wierd half formed ideas, that maybe everyone would be uber hippy green and they would think that i was terrible for eating cheese, or using soap, or something. He he. After awhile, I felt really comfortable though, with everyone so welcoming. There was a lot of diversity, in age, political leanings, "greenness", etc.

I have learned so much, my head is swimming. It is so refreshing to study something that gels with your worldview. (Unlike so many university arts subjects, which are approached from either a feminazi, socialist viewpoint, or focussed on past world events, and really can't be applied to life.)

Lunch is provided for the students, by the students, on a roster. (And everyone has to pitch in with dishes and cleaning up after, which gives you a chance to chat. Not like uni, at all! Reminded me a bit of school camp lol.) Every week lunch focusses on a different subtropical seasonal ingredient. This weeks ingredient was Bunya Nuts. We had bunya nut stirfry, with rice, and bunya nut patties - think felafel, with lilly-pilly chilli jam. It was so exciting for me to see Bunya nuts 'in the flesh'. I've read about them before, and have always wanted to try them. There was also a presentation about the nuts, you know, habitat, uses etc. We also discussed how the Bunya nut is a special tree to Indigenous people. A lot of the significance of bunya nuts is only allowed to be shared within the Indigenous community, which I respect. For an interesting insight into the Bunya nut festival visit this blog. The festival is invitation only, which i think is great, because it stops it from turning into a tourist attraction.

I also loved that I was eating a meal prepared by other people, yet I could eat everything on offer... It was all vegetarian, yay! No making excuses, or apologising for putting people out. The ratio of carnivores to vegos was about 50/50, so i didn't feel odd.

I am thankful this is something I am able to do, and I hope to put my knowledge to use at home now and on our property, when we get one.

Mary river DAMN

This letter arrived in the post today. Ages ago, I emailed the premier my opinions on the proposed Traveston dam. I am glad that I got a response, but it does nothing to allay my concerns.

Basically, I said in my email, Brisbane residents do not want the devastation of an ecosystem on their consciences every time they have a glass of water. We don't want our endangered species in a zoo, or a "scientific research facility", we want them in our landscape, enriching the planet.

I suggested some simple, constructive ideas in my email, for example, spending the millions of dollars on residential and commercial grey water systems, water tanks and fixing leaks, instead.

Brisbane does not have a rainfall problem, it has a rain harvesting problem!

I look at huge shopping complexes, such as Westfield Chermside and all I see is hundreds of square meters of rooftop catchment being wasted. What about all those toilets and handbasins in commercial buildings? A large waste water treatment system, such as Biolytix, could capture and reuse that water.

It doesn't make sense to me, that the solution for a drought, is relying even more heavily on rainfall. Dams are an inefficient way to harvest and store water. The large surface area means that in our hot, sunny climate the dam will suffer huge losses from evaporation. Also, the runoff that the dam captures, could have manure and fertilisers in it, which means the water will have to undergo a series of expensive treatment processes before it is drinkable. All of that, just to get flushed down some Mcmansion owning @#%$er's toilet.

For more information and actions you can take go to: http://www.savethemaryriver.com/
you could also join this group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-the-Mary-River/9768953481