Djerriwarrah Festival - Melton, Victoria

November 7th, lock it in your social calendars.  Our Sustainable Living Group has a stand at the annual DJ festival.  We will be located in the Environmental Hub which I believe will be on the grassed area near the Honey Shack across High Street from the Community Hall.  We will be there from 0900 - 1700. 

The stall will be manned by willing volunteers (members & friends) who are more than willing to share their own sustainable living journeys with anyone who pays us a visit.  We will also be selling some vegetable seedlings with all proceeds going back into the group. 

We will have educational displays and many donated handouts about the following themes;

• Growing your own food
• Water saving (rain water harvesting/grey water use)
• Renewable energy
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
• Urban poultry
• Energy conservation,
• and much more!

Come along, drop by and you will learn to save money and preserve the environment.  You may even want to join our group!  New members are always welcome.

Warm regards,

Gavin

Wanted: A Container Deposit Scheme

I grew up in South Australia, where a bottle deposit scheme has been running very successfully since the 70's.  The Australian Greens have started a campaign for the next COAG meeting, and they intend to deliver my letter to all the Environment Ministers in a bottle!

Here is the letter that I personalised and sent to our Federal Environment Minister;

Dear Minister Garrett,

I support the Greens legislation to introduce a 10c returnable deposit on all disposable drink containers across Australia.  As a concerned citizen, I believe that this type of legislation is essential in helping us clean up our act!

Every year, Australians use and throw about 11 billion drink containers. A 10 cent levy on all recyclable containers will be good for the environment and the economy, with research showing that a national container deposit scheme will:
- Cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly a million tonnes a year, the equivalent to switching 135,000 homes to 100% renewable energy
- Save enough water to supply more than 30,000 Australian homes
- Improve air quality equivalent to taking 56,000 cars off the road
- Significantly reduce litter
- Create 1000 direct jobs in a sustainable industry

I am among the 90% of Australian's who support this scheme and are willing to pay for it.

I live in Melton West, Victoria, however I grew up in South Australia when the state scheme was introduced in the 70's.  Even now, when I go back to visit relatives, it is the cleanest state I have ever seen.  It even kept me in pocket money every weekend as I collected bottles after the local football match and it helped instil a deep sense of caring and respect for all of the natural wonders in our beautiful country.  Now that has to be worth 10 cents per bottle!

I urge you to put the Environment Protection (Beverage Container Deposit and Recovery Scheme) Bill 2009 on the agenda at the Environment Protection and Heritage Council meeting in November and finally take the steps necessary to establish a national container deposit scheme.

Yours Sincerely,

Gavin

cc: A copy of this message has been sent to the Environment Minister in my State.

If you would also like to join in this worthwhile campaign, here is the link to the form mail.

Gav

Feeling Inspired

Over the last few days, I have felt inspired whilst reading a book titled "Suzuki's Green Guide - How to find fresher, tastier, healthier food. Create and Eco-Friendly Home. Make sustainable Transportation Choices. Reduce Consumption and be a Green Citizen" by David Suzuki and David R. Boyd with additional text for Australian edition by Michael Mobbs of www.sustainablehouse.com.au fame.

Reading it on the train each morning and evening travelling to and from work, it has lifted my spirits to a higher level and made me feel like the volunteer environmental work I do all that more worthwhile.  What I liked so much about the book is that it gives you the facts, gives you solutions and then has a real life inspiring story about each topic.  Well worth a read if you can get a copy of it from the local library. 

There is a little story near the back that moved me to tears this afternoon (on the train) and filled me with joy. It is all over the internet, and believe that it is a paraphrase of an essay called The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley (which is quite depressing).  You have probably heard it before, and I read that U.S. President Obama recently used a version during on of his orations.  I prefer this version;

There's a story about an old man who use to love walking near the ocean.  He'd walk along the beach every morning.  One day he saw a person moving like a dancer, bending, then wading into the waves with arms extended.  It pleased him that someone would dance to the beauty of the day and the rhythm of the waves.  As he got closer, he saw that it was a young girl.  The girl was not dancing, but was reaching down to the sand, picking something up, and carrying it carefully out into the ocean.
He called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?"
The little girl replied, "I'm returning starfish to the ocean."
"Why?"
"The sun is up and the tide is going out.  If I don't rescue them, they'll be stranded on the beach and die."
"But there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along the way.  What difference could you possibly make?"
The little girl did not answer right away.  She bent down, picked up another starfish, and gently placed it back into the sea.  She watched a wave lift it high, and then, as it sank into the life-giving water, she turned to the man, smiled, and said, "I made a difference for that one."
The old man nodded and reflected for a moment.  Then he bent down, picked up a starfish, and returned it back to the sea.

You see, I believe it works like this, and I am speaking from three years of experience.  Your personal environmental actions may seen like drops in the ocean, but everything you do has a ripple effect that magnifies you impact.  When people see and hear you speak with passion about making a difference, it makes a little difference to their own thoughts and behaviours.  Lead by example and be a green citizen and others will follow!

Remember these wise words;

Vision without Action is merely a dream, and
Action without Vision just passes the time, however,
Vision with Action can change the world!

Reflect upon those words, and you can make a difference today.

Establishing the Pecking Order

As promised late last night, I have made a movie about introducing new chickens into an existing flock.  It is quite entertaining.  Grab the organic popcorn and get stuck in.

Now it was shortly after the making of this movie that the three larger birds decided it was time to stretch their wings and test the boundaries of their chicken run.  So, Kim and I had to clip their wings.  It is a quite harmless procedure, whereby you grip the chicken firmly and gently spread one wing at a time and cut off about 2.5 cm of the wing tips.  It simply changes the shape of their wing and stops them from taking flight.  As they moult next winter, we will have to perform this task again. 

Just make sure you use a very sharp pair of scissors so not to hack at the feathers, as they are still connected to a live bird!

And to finish off, here is a proud Eco Boy keeping an eye on the chooks after I packed them into their boxes in the boot of our car.

Oh, and one of the Pekin are laying.  They have such cute little eggs.  Just the right size for Ben.

The New Flock

Sunday was fun in so many ways.  We were expected at the chicken breeders place at 10am, so Kim, Pam, Ben and I left at about 0920.  Just as we left it started to rain all the way to New Gisborne, which was a welcome sight. 

We arrived on time and met Sue, who bred the hens.  We picked out 3 ISA Brown hens that were just past point of lay, however two were not brown, but white with black flecks.  Unusual, but nice and the other was marked just like our existing 3 girls, but a bit of a darker brown colour. 

Just as we boxed up the three hens and put them in the boot of the car, Kim saw some Pekin Bantams and fell in love with them!  We asked how much they were, expecting some exorbitant price, however Sue said that her eldest lad bred them as pocket money and that they were only $20 each.  This was a bargain, as I had heard that these cute little chicken go for as much as $60-70 at auction.  Here some pictures of Pippa and Poppy.  They have fluffy little pantaloons!  So, $100 later and 2 hen more than we bargained for, we left for home.  It was still raining.



Pippa is the grey and Poppy is the brown Pekin Bantam.






Cute little girls aren’t they.  We think that Pippa laid an egg today which was so tiny, and  Poppy is about 3 weeks away from point of lay because of the size of her comb.

The 3 larger birds were very flighty, and all escaped, and nearly left the property.  Kim and I had to clip their wings so they couldn’t get airborne.  Now that was a fun job I tell you.

We made sure that Pippa had a claw trim and that the two bantams had Vaseline applied for scaly mites on their feet, which is not uncommon with their breed.  Kim held the birds and I clipped Pippa’s claws, then we swapped and Kim put on the vas on their feet.  Animal husbandry at its best.

The two white ISA’s are called Gracie and Esther, and the brown ISA brown is called Babs.  Not too many photos just yet, but suffice to say Pam took quite a few photos and we filmed a 10 minute movie that I will post to YouTube tomorrow. 

Gracie

So now we have Bunty (the boss), Ginger, Edwina, Pippa, Polly, Gracie, Esther and Babs.  From 3 chooks a few days ago to 8 right now! 

Standby for a movie, which I hope to have finished tomorrow, and I will also write about the gardening I managed to achieve over the weekend as well.

See you tomorrow.

Water Security

This is a scary picture.  When I first moved to Melton in August 2000, our local reservoir was full to the brim and water was spilling over the slipway.  Today, this is what it looks like;

 
It was only a few years ago when in about the 10th year of the Victorian drought, the State government and water companies decided that it was probably best if Melton was connected to Metropolitan Melbourne's water network.  It took a full year to lay a pipeline from Sydenham to Melton township, and the associated pumping stations to connect the two systems.  We are now in our 13th year of below average rainfall in our district with no end to the drought in sight, but at least we have a water supply that is a little more secure.

I dread to think that if this vital piece of infrastructure was not put in place, the entire town would either be drinking muddy water, or would have started to become a ghost town due to water shortages.  Food for thought, and probably a very good time to think of your own water security if you are in a similar situation. 

 

 

We do get rainfall here, and certainly enough to fill up my small 2300 litre tank, and if I had the money I would put a gutter on the carport and get a 10,000 litre tank with the option of connecting it to the house hold supply.  A small solar powered pump, a UV sanitizer and filter would be all that would be required to be independent from mains water.  Something to plan for in the very near future!

 

 

I suppose all that water in the swimming pool could be desalinated with a simple solar still, so we are probably no as bad off as I first thought.  We have been putting the runoff from the tank into the pool so it is also full to the brim.  I think it holds 50,000 litres, so certainly enough and if necessary easy to convert into a proper water storage facility.  It only needs a big lid to stop evaporation. 

 

When we get that desperate that I have to start desalinating pool water, I think that water security will only one of a long list of issues that we would be up against!  I shouldn’t complain one little bit, because I know that many millions of people have to travel up to 10km per day just to carry back daily water supply of 20 litres the 10km on the return trip to their homes.  We don’t have it bad at all.  I think about this often and I feel selfish having all that water when others have none or little to keep them alive.  It make you realise just how good we have it here in Australia, and that we shouldn’t waste a single drop.

Climate Change Scenarios at the Co-op

It is my turn to write over at the Simple Green Frugal Co-op.  With the looming UN Climate Change negotiations at Copenhagen only 44 days away, I thought I would try and reach as many people as possible, even though I might be bending the rules of the co-op.  This is not the time for sticking to the rules as far as I am concerned.

So if you are interested, pop over to the Co-op and read my post titled "Anyone For a Habitable Planet?"

I believe you will enjoy reading about my risk based approach to the biggest issue that is facing the human race and all of the planets inhabitants.

So much done, So little time

I am so tired, but satisfied with my efforts!

The last few weeks have been very hectic.  With having Dad and his partner Norma down from Qld who left this morning, and Kim's mum Pam visiting (Pam is still here, but I like having her around), Ben's 10th birthday and Megan turned 18 on Saturday.  It has been a full house and lots happening and birthday parties everywhere!

As you saw in "Chicken House Extension", Dad helped me add another roosting box to the chicken house in prep for the 3 new ISA Brown chickens that I pick up on Sunday.  I am looking forward to see what happens when the new girls meet the old girls, and shall be videoing the event for all to see.

We have been eating more cheese than I have been making, and last night cracked open a 5 month old Wensleydale.  It was magnificent, and praised by all as the best cheese tasted so far.  We also served a little of the Emmantal that I still have left and some home made pickled onions from last seasons harvest.  The pickled onions have really taken on the chilli flavour of the dried birds eye chillie that I put in each jar.  Very wicked. 

This was all after I made another wheel of Caerphilly last night, just so I could show Dad the process of home cheese making.  I believe that he was quite impressed, as was Pam.  Here is the Caerphilly out of the press and drying before I put it into the cheese cave.

Today, I cleaned off a Stilton that I made about 3 months ago, and it tasted fantastic.  It weighs about 1kg, so I don't know what to do with it all.  I can only eat so much blue vein cheese, but it is so creamy and tasty.

Next time I am going to halve the recipe, because I will probably have to give half of it away so that it doesn't go off.

Over the weekend, I picked my beetroot crop.  Here is the final product.  This is the product of two well cared for rows of beetroot that I have been growing over winter.  I am also going to plant a summer crop of Chioggia beetroot to see what happens.

Most of the beets I cooked whole, peeled in rubber gloves, with only a few that I had to cut in half.  They will be a great hit at summer BBQ's.

I made a great vegetable curry about two weeks ago and just made it up as I went along.  Everyone wolfed it down.  This is the harvest that I added to it.

We enjoyed the curry so much that I forgot to take a picture of it!  I even added some fresh beetroot to it, but it turned curry pink, so I had to add some more turmeric to get it back to an orange/yellow colour.  Always learning by mistakes!  The cabbage was so sweet as was the full flavour of the carrots and parsnips.  I have never tasted anything quite like it.  It certainly beats the store bought crap hands down.

About 4 weeks ago, I made some home made Branston Pickles.  Kim has been yearning for me to give this a go, because it is the ideal accompement with cheese, and is typically served with a Ploughman's lunch in the UK.  Well, Kim reckons that she will keep me around now just because I can make Branston to near perfection!  Another shot of the finished product.  It was a hit with Kim, Pam and myself and we even had Emmental and Branston Pickle toasted sandwiches to celebrate! Noice.

As you can see, it is not quite the right colour because I couldn't find the kitchen bouquet browning sauce ingredient in the recipe which you can find here at Recipezaar.  Next time I will use some Parisian browning essence, which is used here in Australia to brown gravy and soups.  It should work out perfectly next time. 

At the same time as I made the Branston Pickles, I made some Pyrenees with Green Peppercorns, because the first effort was just so nice.  Here it after 4 months of ripening and the new wheel I made.  It tasted so fabulous, like a vintage cheese with a subtle pepper flavour all the way through.  I think the cracking occured because the cheese cave was not at a constant humidity, which I have rectificed with a bigger bowl of water in the bottom of the cave.

4 month old, and ready to eat.



Pyrenees with Green peppercorns straight out of the press.

Last week and most of this week, I have been hitting the phones, calling all of the major environmental groups in Victoria, like Environment Victoria, Sustainability Victoria, Australian Conservation Foundation and the Alternate Technology Association.  I have been after donations of educational material for our sustainable living group's stand at the local Djerrawarrah Festival that is being held in Melton on the 7th of November.  So far so good, with lots of material turning up in the mail, and many thanks to those groups. 

I have also been chasing liability insurance and a marquee for the event as well.  Never a dull moment around here.  I even have a meeting with the ACF Green home team on Thursday to see if we can form an Alliance between our groups, and do a much bigger education campaign based on their Green Home project within our shire.  There may even be a few spots on the Climate Champion training course for some of the members!  I will get to meet Al Gore one day soon I reckon.  I can feel it in my water!

Other than that, just planting as many seeds as I can and my runner beans and pumpkins have finally germinated.  A few have been nibbled, but a bit of Multicrop snail bait fixed that up (the iron chilate type).  I will be harvesting the last of the cabbages this weekend and will attempt to make some Sauerkraut out of them.  Never tried it, but have heard it is well worth making, and goes great with roast pork.

All the new fruit trees have leaves and the cherry tree even flowered.  The old plum tree must have had so much heat stress last year that only about 5 blossoms showed then fell off.  No plums this year, but the tree has a full canopy of leaves and looks very healthy, so probably a bumper crop next year.  I just netted an ANZAC Peach tree that I planted 3 years ago because I think that small birds have been eating the skin of the green fruit.  Either that or snails have been aquiring a taste for green peaches!

Well that is about a months worth of updates in one post and a busy one at that, but stay tuned, because there are many more posts to come. 

Gav

My 350.org Action

You may have heard of this campaign.  Check the video out first and I will then describe our group action.

Our Sustainable Living Group will have a group photo standing in my veggie patch, with the Solar PV panels in the background holding a big 350 sign that we will send to 350.org.  Should be pretty cool, because everyone in the group try to lower their carbon footprint all the time, so we are kind of preaching to the converted so to speak.  I better get my act together and make that sign out of recycled cardboard!

Every little action helps get the message across to the delegates that are about to attend the climate change talks at Copenhagen.  Sign up at 350.org to do your little bit for the campaign.  Check out what Daharja is doing over at Cluttercut for her 350.org action.  There are many like us.  Lets get the message out there that we want serious action on averting climate change and not the half arsed attempts we have seen by global governments so far.

Gav

Power Thoughts

Long time between posts, however still have a good time with visiting relatives.  Anyway, I had a bit of a suprise in the post this week.

During the winter quarter, my electricity usage was zero!  Partly because Mr Power metre reading man couldn't be buggered reading my metre the quarter before, therefore a massive estimate was calculated by my power company, however, we did make quite a bit of our own electricity via our Solar PV system.

Here is an edited copy of the bill details.

But here is the rub.  Even though I used no electricity, I was still charged for 25% Green power (which somehow miraculously appeared after an absence of two bills).  Also, as you can see I was charged for the normal Service to Property charge of 56c per day and therefore will always have to pay something even if I use no electricity.  So, I rang my energy retailer to seek an explanation.

It was a half sensible explanation, whereby even though I pumped as much electricity into the grid as I used, the power I used at night was supplied from the grid and 25% of that was from renewable wind. I understood their logic, and I didn't dispute it.  I have to get my evening electricity from somewhere when the sun sets.

During the same phone conversation, I once again converted back to 100% renewable wind for the power I draw from the grid at night, and paid for carbon offsets for my natural gas usage for the next year.  By doing this the energy retailer increases the kWh tariff rate from our normal 19.74c per kWh to 25.24c per kWh, so that if my electricity usage is zero as it was last bill I will not be charged an extra "green" tariff.

I was then transferred to a Solar Specialist, who was very informative, so I could enquired about the Premium Solar PV feed-in tariff that should start early November.  It has been passed as law and once all set up, I will receive 60c per kWh for each one I feed into the grid.  However, I have to get my PV installer to send an Electrical Work Request to the energy retailer to get a bi-directional meter installed at a cost of $350.  This is something my installer should have arranged back in 2007!

Anyway, sometime this week I will arrange the meter swap over (ensuring to take a final reading myself) and sign the feed-in tariff contract with my energy retailer in readiness for the new tariff to commence.  I have had confirmation that the energy retailer will not remove any accumulated credits at the end of the 12 month period, so that is an added bonus.  The legislation in Victoria does not stipulate that the credit must be carried over, but upon digging a little deeper with during the phone call, the main reason they are not going to remove the credits is because I could actually sue them for doing so! 

So it pays to find out as much info as you can before getting Solar PV grid tied installed, and ensure that your installer does everything they are supposed to do.  As as many questions as you can during the installation, because otherwise you will have to do the hard yards like I have and do all the research and running around yourself.

Even when you have your own power station on your roof, there is no such thing as a free lunch!

Holy Emmantal Batman!

Well, the four months were up on the weekend for ripening of my Emmantal cheese.  Here is a before shot during eye formation, just to refresh your memories.

So on Saturday, we cracked open the wheel and this is what we found.

There was a 3cm split on the top and It was a little infected with Penicillin Roquefort, however the Propioni Shermanii culture did its work.  Well some of the work in most part of the cheese.  I believe that even though I gave the wheel a wash of brine a couple of times a week as per the recipe, after I let the eyes form, the rind is far too thick.  I think that because the cheese was not waxed, as stated in the recipe, it just hardened too much.  I am going to make another wheel on Friday, but this time I will wax it after the three weeks of eye development.  It would make for a more moist cheese and probably avoid the blue vein infection.

Now, how did it taste I hear you ask.  Well, it tasted like a Swiss type cheese like you can buy in the supermarket, however there was an obvious difference due to the Penicillin Roquefort culture.  It was very nice, and both Kim and Pam (Kim's Mum) agreed that it was a very tasty cheese.  The rind had a very strong flavour and as you can see more eyes formed closer to the rind than in the centre.  Here is it sliced on a platter.

The quarter I served up was very holey indeed.  Easy to cut and great flavour with a plain cracker.  I really liked the extra flavour in the blue vein part!

I highly recommend this cheese to anyone thinking of making it, but do think about waxing it after the eye formation.  When made commercially this cheese is made in 60-80 kg wheels, which aids the uniformaty of the eye formation.  Apparently, from what I have read, the bigger the emmental, the larger and more frequent the eyes. 

All in all, not a bad effort for a beginner on this type of cheese, so rock on next Friday!  I am a firm believer of learning by mistakes.  The next one will be even better!

Rebranding Coal

GetUp! Australia are fighting back with this slick rebuttle to the re-branding effort that the coal lobby are attempting in marginal federal and state seats to change the image of coal to that of a clean energy. 

Once again, what a crock.  There is no such thing as Clean Coal.  Not only is it an oxymoron, you only have to touch the stuff to know that this statement is true, and by simply looking at the pollutants spewing out of the coal fired power stations all around our country.  We cannot sequester the emissions in time to prevent catastrophic climate change, so lets focus our efforts on renewable energy which is available right now, instead of pouring billions into a pipe dream to keep an industry alive that will do us more harm than good in the long run.

This is the information that GetUp! sent me.  They have already reached their campaign target, so I am simply assisting in getting the message out there.  Nothing peeves me more that the coal lobby and vested industries trying to influence our communities and elected officials with lies.  Let the truth be told.  Thanks GetUp! for bringing it to our attention.

Dear Gavin,

Have you seen what the coal lobby is up to? Right now they're blanketing the airwaves in coal country marginal seats with a new ad campaign, in an attempt to undermine our transition to a clean-energy economy and strong-arm politicians into giving them extra handouts.

We need to expose their ad campaign for what it is: a highly-paid rebranding exercise. The good news is we have just the ad to do it. Once people see it, every time they see the coal lobby's ad they'll think of our parody. That means you could make every marketing dollar the coal lobby spends work against them.

In just weeks the Government will decide how much extra tax-payer assistance the coal industry will get - can you chip in to get this ad on air before Parliament resumes next week?

www.getup.org.au/campaign/SameOldCoal

The coal lobby has brought out the big guns - the same man behind 'Kevin07' is running their campaign. And there's already signs it may be working - with key politicians dancing to the coal lobby's tune. They want to further weaken the Government's woefully inadequate emissions trading scheme with even more exemptions for the coal lobby.

You can show Labor and Liberal leaders alike that there's something more powerful than the polluting lobby: everyday Australians, like yourself, who are fed up with weak action on climate change and are willing to do something about it.

If we can raise $50,000 in the next 48 hours we'll buy ads on TV spots like Meet the Press and Sky News, as well as in the areas that the coal lobby are running their ads, so that Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull can see that Australians are not buying the coal lobby's line:

www.getup.org.au/campaign/SameOldCoal

As part of our ReEnergise Australia campaign, GetUp members have been going door by door, block by block in targeted marginal seats across the country. They've been telling their friends and neighbours about the importance of renewable energy to Australia's environmental and economic future.

Don't let the coal lobby undermine the grassroots efforts of your fellow GetUp members and volunteers with their slick marketing tricks

If you want more details about the campaign that GetUp! are running you can find it at the links above.

Gav

Global Dimming vs Global Warming

I think that we may have overlooked something.  It is a phenomenon called Global Dimming, which is caused by pollution both natural from bushfires and manmade from industrial particulate emissions.  It has been shown that Global dimming provides a dampening effect for Climate Change. 

Now, it is a bit difficult to explain the effect but suffice to say that the pollution particulates block some of the energy of the sun from reaching the ground, therefore less heat.  Apparently during the 3 days after the 9/11 attack when all commercial aircraft were grounded, on scientist discovered that just by removing the pollution from the contrails of the aircraft (which is only one small portion of global pollution on a daily basis), the average temperatures throughout the US rose on average by 1°C for the period.  It doesn't sound like much, but neither does the 0.6°C rise in average global temps we have experienced so far, and that small change is causing the northern ice cap to reduce every year, and melt glaciers all over the world!

So as we reduce particulate pollution, like via catalytic converters on cars, and enforce stronger pollution controls from diesel fuels, we must at the same time reduce the green house gas emissions or we face a rapid escalation in global warming.

I don't think I have articulated it very well, so I found this series of videos on YouTube that make up one documentary made by the BBC titled 'Global Dimming' which explains all the science, how the effect was discovered and what would happen if we tackle one issue without tackling the other at the same time.  I hope you take the time to watch it.  It certainly opened my eyes to another issue that I wasn't aware off and that will effect us all soon enough.

Global Dimming Documentary Part 1/5

bbc Climate change- global dimming part 2

Climate Change --- Global Dimming part 3

Global Dimming Documentary Part 4/5

Global Dimming Documentary Part 5/5

Interesting and alarming at the same time!

Gav

Organic Pest Control at the Co-op

My turn over at the co-op today.  Some simple and easy tips for those unwanted bugs in the garden, without killing the beneficial insects that help control some other pests that organic sprays cannot reach.

Please pop over and check out "Organic Pest and Weed Control".

Gav

350.org - 24th October 2009

As discussed at the last Melton Sustainable Living Group Inc. meeting, here is some more information about campaigns in our local area.  Click on the links for more information.

The Big Picture hosted by BREAZE in Ballarat.

ATA's 350 Photo Challenge.  Danni (my neighbour and friend), and I have already submitted photos to this campaign.

and finally, on Friday 23rd October, MGC Pedal Powered Launch Party.  They are powering the event using Future Spark to generate enough electricity into the grid to power the show.  Comedian Rod Quantock will MC the entertainment and perform his show, “Bugger the Polar Bears, this is serious” starting at 7pm.  I wrote about Rod Quantocks show on a post called "Rod Quantock's Guide to Climate Change". 

As for our own campaign, I am all ears, but we will need to act fast!  Post ideas for a local Melton event via comments so that we can organise something quickly, or if we can't organise quickly enough then I can contact the Melbourne Girls College for tickets to the show on Friday, and contact BREAZE regarding attendance at the Big Picture.  Car pooling where we can of course to get to these events if that is what we choose to do.

For an explanation of what all the hullabaloo is all about, click the graph above for a simple explanation of the science of climate change and what the number 350 is all about!

I have dual posted this at both the Melton Sustainable Living Group site and The Greening of Gavin in the hope to capture the hearts and souls of concerned Melton Locals.

Gavin

Chicken House Extension

We have been busy over the weekend, with Dad and I building an extension to the chicken house to accommodate about another 6 hens.  There is a poultry auction in the next town next Saturday so we wanted to make a bit more room in case we decide to purchase a few more hens for TGOG's urban farm.  Have a look at the movie that I took and put together to document the mammoth building effort we completed in just two days.

Just think. It took me 6 months to build the chicken run and house last year, and we build the extension in just two days. Pretty cool stuff, and all thanks to you Dad. Thanks from the bottom of my heart, and the heavy lifting that I wasn't able to do.

Easy on Da Meat

I saw an interesting interview last night on ABC1 7.30 report where by Dr Rajendra Pachauri said that a major commitment was required by world leaders at Copenhagen to avert catastrophic climate change.  If you missed it you can catch it here at ABC iView.

Well it was no news to me, but the piece that caught my attention was his specific reference to meat consumption and that it was contributing greatly to our global emissions.

As more and more people eat bigger quantities of meat, they increase their carbon footprint in many ways from the mass production of livestock.  Here is an extract of the transcript from the interview so that you can understand what I am on about.

Dr Pachauri said the public too has a role to play in reducing emissions and that eating one less meat meal a week was a significant way for humans to reduce their carbon footprint. He said he believed the world is consuming far too much meat and believes an important factor in the climate change debate is diet.

“I’m not asking people to become vegetarians, all I’m saying is that lifestyle changes are going to be extremely important and one place to start would be with diet. I’m telling everybody to reduce consumption of meat, because you would be healthier and so would the planet. It would make an enormous difference and it also makes a very powerful statement that human beings are prepared to change their lifestyles,” said Dr Pachauri.

“Often I’m asked the question where would we get our proteins from...and I tell people that there are two specialists you might consult on deriving proteins from plant material. One of them is called an elephant and the other is called a horse. If they can get enough proteins from plant material, so can human beings,” he said.

“Livestock are one of the biggest contributors to climate change, producing 18% of the world’s total greenhouse gases according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. By having just one meat-free day a week individuals can dramatically reduce their carbon footprint, help to slow global warming and lessen their impact on the natural environment,” he added.

Since Kim, our kids and I started our journey towards a more sustainable lifestyle, we have about 3-4 meat free days a week.  It has been quite a simple transition, mainly because once we found how abundant our garden is, we didn't want to waste any of it.  So it was off to do a little research on delicious dishes to prepare with vegetables and dairy products and eggs.  Yes, we still eat dairy and eggs, and haven't taken the vegan route, as we have chooks and as you have probably guessed by now, I love to make cheese!

We could probably do more, but seeing that Dr Pachauri suggests having just one meet free day a week, I reckon we are doing all right!

So for this week, which just happens to be National Vegetarian Week, I have pledged to try veg (not that I don't already).  If anyone is thinking of giving it a go, which I wholeheartedly support, you could do no worse than trying my wonderful Chickpea and Potato Curry, that has won the hearts of hundreds of meat eaters and top it off with my equally famous Brinjal Pickle.

I urge you to pledge to go veg just for one meal this week.  You may even suprise yourself and your family by making the best and tastiest meal you have had in months.  Eating vegetarian is more interesting than just eating a veggie burger at the golden arches!  You will discover a enormous world of culenary delights that will tantilise your tastebuds.  We did, and we will never look back. 

Fighting the effects of climate change has never been so simple and enjoyable.