Author Archives
Writer & blogger on environmental & social sustainability issues. It'll take a lot more than ten easy steps to save the planet, so let's start today.
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Canberra – A city where the landscape rules
The original design of Canberra drew heavily on ‘City Beautiful’, ‘Garden City’ and other aspirational town planning movements that placed a high priority on the landscape. But have the ideals and vision of Canberra’s founding and subsequent ‘parents’ and designers resulted in a… Read More ›
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Magic fridges (or How to get what you want 2)
Instead of simply writing down a list of what you want (see my last post), you can increase the likelihood of achieving your goals by putting pictures of what you want in places that you see every day (such as… Read More ›
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How to get what you want
In the words of the great philosopher (singer) Joe Jackson ‘You can’t get what you want ’til you know what you want!’ We are often told to work out what we want and write it down – but how many… Read More ›
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Thank you for dealing with all of our crap – the humble dung beetle [& not so humble cane toad]
![By Gilles San Martin (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://pipmarks.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/512px-scarabaeus_sp_20110414_163326_1987m.jpg?w=105&h=85&crop=1)
Back in August I saw a post with the intriguing title: ‘If you had 5 minutes to talk to a Dung Beetle, what would you say?’. I don’t know what your response would be – but I suggested that anyone living in… Read More ›
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When nature calls: More people in the world have a mobile phone than a toilet
The world celebrates its first UN-sanctioned World Toilet Day on 19 November. The Day aims to raise global awareness of the serious health, privacy and other challenges faced by the 2.5 billion people living without access to clean safe toilets. Check out this animated promo encouraging people… Read More ›
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Plastic bags & bottles – but what about the plastics we can’t see?
It is one thing to talk about plastic bags and water bottles and other things that we can see and can make a conscious decision about (i.e. whether we buy or accept them in the first place and then how… Read More ›
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Once a jolly swagperson – Australia’s national songs and political correctness
On reading a post about political correctness this morning, I felt compelled to share a fabulous PC version of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ – Australia’s national song – performed by Shortis & Simpson. For a more traditional version, I recommend true blue Aussie Slim Dusty’s version… Read More ›
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The social cost of ‘affordable’ clothes
When I heard about the Rana Plaza factory fire in April 2013, I immediately checked the labels on some recent purchases and found, sure enough, ‘Made in Bangladesh’. But what could I do? At the very least, I decided to inform myself… Read More ›
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Words
Is it better to understand or overstand? What is the opposite of benefits? Disbenefits? What would change in the world if more people were gruntled and fewer were disgruntled?
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Canberra – Smack bang in the middle (but just a bit closer to Sydney)
A great song was released in honour of the Centenary of Canberra this year. I recommend watching the music video.* The title of the song (and this post) refers to when Australia was selecting a location for its federal capital city… Read More ›
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If you can believe in bigfoot, then why not drop bears?
There are reports this week that DNA analysis has identified a genetic match between two ‘yeti hair’ samples from the Western Himalayas and Bhutan and the jawbone of an ancient Nordic polar bear.* This follows hot on the heels of discoveries involving… Read More ›
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Why not turn water tanks & reservoirs into landscape features?
A fantastic water conservation project at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne proves that reservoirs and tanks, not just ponds and lakes, can be things of beauty and landscape features in their own right. Over the past few years, ‘Guilfoyle’s… Read More ›
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Why policy makers and communicators need to understand the technology adoption bell curve
A recent article* posted on The Conversation suggested that we should ban the word ‘sustainability’ due to the common practice of using a small number of performance indicators to compare companies or products while ignoring the real issues.** The article also… Read More ›
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Remember when recycled paper was easy to pick?
Recycled paper used to be grey with lots of flecks that would invariably end up in your printer. The one advantage was that you didn’t have to actually write ‘Printed on environmentally friendly paper stock’ on any print outs as… Read More ›
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Will you even notice when I’m gone?
It used to be hard to keep in touch when you travelled. The first time I went overseas by myself, I remember sending a telegram to my parents to say that I had reached my final destination. ARRIVED SAFE STOP… Read More ›
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Google glasses & beer goggles
I was very disappointed when I found out what people meant by ‘Google glasses’. I had imagined it to be a conceptual term that cleverly described the Internet’s impact on the way we see the world. Sort of like ‘beer… Read More ›
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Antiques – the ultimate green products
Buying antiques and pre-loved items from secondhand shops is good for the soul and for the environment – as the greenest products are the ones that are already made. Your purchase avoids these discarded treasures being buried in a landfill,… Read More ›
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Wet dreams
While I really enjoyed watching the four year old in this video cross lots of things off his bucket list (and hope you enjoy it as well), it is very sobering to think that many communities still dream of having… Read More ›
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Do Purple Camels exist?
When I used to talk about supporting a water project in Africa, I always pictured a modest and fairly unremarkable structure (such as the hand-dug and drilled wells built by organisations like Well Wishers and charity: water). Something not very sexy but… Read More ›
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It’s all a matter of perspective
For anyone wondering about the photo in my last post, it is one of a number of sculptures at the new National Arboretum Canberra. The Arboretum is being built on a former pine plantation destroyed by bushfires in 2001 and 2003.*… Read More ›
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Eco-jargon versus common sense
Do you care about the environment? If not, do you at least care about energy prices, food security and natural disasters? Participants at a recent workshop in Australia did not think that climate change and green buildings were important issues… Read More ›
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There’s a war in there
I was really moved by Greg Fallis’ tribute to a political writer called Molly who died from breast cancer. He quotes her brutal description of the treatment in his post: Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they… Read More ›
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When life gives you rubbish…
Check out this video about a music school at a slum in Paraguay. The instruments are made from oil drums, crates, tin cans, plastic pipes and other waste scavenged from the landfill. Before I saw this, I thought rubber tyre swans… Read More ›
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Long term impact of decisions we make (or don’t make) today
Things we do or say today may not appear to make much difference in the short or even medium term but can be critical in determining whether or not we ultimately achieve what we want in the long term. Delaying… Read More ›
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Yep. Nuh. Dunno.
I have no idea if I was the sort of teenager who responded to adults with grunts and one word answers, but maybe. (If so, my mother probably would have called it ‘just a stage’. I mostly remember my father… Read More ›
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Why pay more for ‘green’ products?
Are you willing to pay more for an environmentally friendly wine of equivalent quality? If sustainability means using less water, less power and fewer chemicals, then maybe you should be paying less (not more)? Obviously it is not quite this… Read More ›
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Bless this computer
Earlier this year my family went to Bali. I chose not to go along as Bali had never really appealed to me as a holiday destination. Then I read an article in a travel magazine that helped me to understand… Read More ›
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We’ve come for your kidney!
It is an incredibly generous gesture to literally give someone a part of yourself. I therefore feel honoured to have a friend who not just had the guts to give someone one of his kidneys, but also lobbied the Australian… Read More ›
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Can warm water be bad for you?
I was very concerned (but not that surprised) to read about Legionella bacteria being found in the hot water systems of a number of Queensland hospitals and linked to at least one death last month.* This incident serves as a… Read More ›
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Who can you help?
I’ve always been told ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. More recently I heard someone say ‘It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you’. Now apparently ‘It’s not who knows you, it’s who you can help’…. Read More ›
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Support Wikipedia – Don’t freeload
I’m writing this because, until a few days ago, I had never even thought about donating to Wikipedia – and maybe you are the same. I use Wikipedia all the time. A few days ago I read posts by some… Read More ›
Sustainability soapbox 