I never cease to be amazed by the range of high quality exhibitions, talks and other events on offer in Canberra. Not bad for a big country town (that just happens to also be a national capital). In particular, there are… Read More ›
Environment
Serendipity (Part 2) – What role can serendipity play in enhancing environmental and social sustainability?
Anyone can find a few clues, but not everyone can solve a crime Recognising an opportunity or uncovering a new piece of information is only the first step in the journey. You also need to appreciate its significance and be willing… Read More ›
Celebrate, respect, remember & sing out loud
It’s Australia Day again (or Straya Day as we say in the local dialect), sparking the inevitable debates about whether this is a day of celebration or shame. We’re also being encouraged to participate in familiar discussions about our national anthem, our flag,… Read More ›
How hungry would you have to be?
I’ve been trying my hand at fiction lately and am very excited about winning the YWCA Canberra Frugal Feast Writing Prize. You can read my short story about eating and farming insects at the ACT Writers Centre Blog (here – http://actwritersblog.com/2016/01/11/how-hungry/).* The content… Read More ›
Superficial – Don’t judge these Italian cakes by their looks
The sign in this food store near the Campo De’ Fiori in Rome reads ‘Ugly but good’. I regret not tasting one of these cakes while I was there. It’s great that some suppliers are now taking a similar approach with odd-shaped… Read More ›
Will nature survive long enough to reach its full potential?
I recently visited the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne and was prompted to look beyond the impact of climate change on humans and to consider the plight of nature itself. On the top floor was the Nature/Revelation exhibition that forms part of the… Read More ›
Eco-friendly, but not necessarily budget-friendly, business cards
I just ordered new business cards with my name, twitter ‘handle’ and website address as I often want to give these to people without the rest of my contact details. I chose a company that advertises ‘budget-friendly’ cards – but had to… Read More ›
Wartime austerity – a time when recycling was not optional
I’ve just finished reading about Australia, Singapore and the Malay Peninsula during the Second World War in a novel called ‘To Love a Sunburnt Country’.(1) The story provided a fascinating insight into life at the time and how Australians responded when war… Read More ›
It will take power & passion to save the planet
Yesterday I attended the Krebs Lecture 2015 at the University of Canberra given by Peter Garrett AM on the environment, climate change and ‘five simple steps we can take to save the hand that feeds us – our planet’.* Garrett’s credentials include former… Read More ›
Is IKEA sustainable or evil? No ikea!
The holidays are great for relaxing with the sort of books that you don’t normally read. One of my choices this Christmas was ‘Horrorstör‘ by Grady Hendrix. The novel opens with a stench of zombies (‘the barely living dead’) that are… Read More ›
New Year reflections on time, life & the universe
I’ve just been reading that the chances of the universe (and the planet that we call home) having been formed by a massive number of very specific random events are so slight that even die-hard atheists are questioning their (lack of) belief…. Read More ›
Our planet is not a magic pudding
‘The Magic Pudding’ is a classic Australian children’s book that was written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay – supposedly as an alternative to stories about fairies. It was first published in 1918 and tells the story of the Noble Society of Pudding… Read More ›
How did you find people before phone books & social media?
In Victoria (Australia), you probably would have used a Sands & McDougall Directory to find people in the days before telephone directories & the Internet. These impressive publications were compiled annually between 1857 and 1974 and listed the occupants at every business and residence,… Read More ›
Surveys are for the birds. Hey, look! A sheepdog!
This post starts out with a ‘citizen’ backyard bird survey and ends with me deciding that a kelpie or other sheepdog is the Australian ADHD equivalent to a squirrel. Confused? You should be… but the connection is actually very straightforward…. Read More ›
Using eye contact to help protect endangered species
Eye contact is our strongest form of non-verbal communication and plays a critical role in initiating emotional relationships between people (and other species). Photographers, for example, know that getting subjects to look directly at the lens of the camera is… Read More ›
Pardon the water puns
Today I attended a conference about sustainable energy, water and waste management in Melbourne and couldn’t resist the temptation to publish a few of my favourite quotes. Tap into water data ‘We need to tap into big data to facilitate smarter… Read More ›
Competition for tree hollows in a suburban backyard
In case anyone is unconvinced about how serious the competition is for tree hollows in Australia, I have made a short film about something that really happened in my neighbour’s backyard in Canberra yesterday morning! It also acts as a warning for people thinking… Read More ›
Orchids – Sordid tales of lust, deception & unrequited love
Orchids go to great lengths to attract the insects that are vital to their survival. Like humans, they put on a pretty dress, slap on some lipstick and perfume, flirt and promise sexual favours and gifts (but do not always… Read More ›
A neighbourhood within a neighbourhood – Avian squatters at Eucalypt Hollow
Spring has arrived in Canberra! Gardens and parks are bursting with the glorious colours of wattle, blossom and bulbs – and are every so often topped with a rainbow halo after much-needed seasonal showers. The large eucalypt outside my living room… Read More ›
Post script re ladybirds, dung beetles & cane toads
I am very excited to report that my copies of ‘We go to the gallery’ have just arrived!! Some of you may remember my previous posts about Miriam Elia’s satirical look at contemporary art in the form of a 1960s ‘Ladybird Book’… Read More ›
Do sculptures really need development approvals & building permits? At what cost?
A large outdoor sculpture in a small Australian country town has faced more than its fair share of debate over the past two decades. The sculpture, known as ‘Dreamer’s Gate’, provoked a series of complaints from members of the local community and… Read More ›
Using art & social media to raise awareness about deforestation
It was great news that UNESCO unanimously rejected Australia’s bid to delist a large of area of old growth native forest in Tasmania earlier this week (especially as these areas were only awarded World Heritage status last year). However, the… Read More ›
Uno due tre quattro – what’s next? (cinque-generation & 5D printing?)
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all of the information available at your fingertips? Or find yourself totally blown away by what new technologies can do and how they are changing our lives? No sooner do I begin to get my head around… Read More ›
Car faces & body language
Humans have a fascinating tendency to see faces in random things, such as clouds. This phenomenon is called ‘paleidolia’. We do the same with cars – and often ascribe personality traits to these inanimate objects based on their front end features. “Even if people don’t… Read More ›
Let’s do the blog hop!
Thank you to the fabulous (three) mothers at 4mothers1blog for inviting me to participate in a blog hop asking bloggers why they write. Carol, Beth-Anne and Nathalie have already shared the ins and outs of why and how they write (here, here and here)… Read More ›
Dandelions – weed or feed?
I was gardening the other day and pulled out a whole lot of dandelions (Taraxacum officinale), planning to give them to the neighbour’s chooks. Next I was going to re-establish the vege patch and start growing my own spinach and other greens again. Then it occurred… Read More ›
A cruel irony – When comfort food & pets make you feel guilty
If faith is where you turn when there seems to be no place to turn (to paraphrase Zig Ziglar), then comfort food is what you eat at that time. So what happens if you already feel bad and then you feel worse because… Read More ›
Watered down green buildings vs the whole truth
When I visit buildings and developments that claim to be ‘green’, I like to ask the building owners and facility managers about the details. Not details like ‘What type of corner joint did you use here?’ or ‘Did you use recycled PVC… Read More ›
Why not celebrate Easter with green eggs, chocolate bilbies & protein balls?
Once again Australians are being encouraged to buy chocolate bilbies instead of Easter (feral) bunnies. (To learn more about bilbies, an endangered Australian marsupial that looks a bit like a rabbit with a long nose and tail and a pouch, check out this Radio… Read More ›
Edible versus Fit to eat – Are insects the answer to global food security?
For fans of ‘Charlotte’s Web’, imagine if Wilbur (the pig) had instead watched Charlotte (the spider) being taken away to be slaughtered and eaten? Would animal welfare groups such as PETA and the RSPCA have objected and fought for spiders’ rights… Read More ›
Unsung heroes in environmental management
Someone commented recently that property managers are the unsung heroes of many organisations. Most people don’t think about these quiet achievers until something isn’t working or a utility bill hasn’t been paid. In promoting energy and water efficiency, we encourage… Read More ›
Bush tucker 2 – How do you prefer your witchetty grubs & bogong moths?
Moths, grubs, ants and other insects were important sources of energy for indigenous Australians whose traditional bush tucker diet was high in carbohydrates, protein and nutrients, and relatively low in fat and sugars. Witchetty grubs, for example, were a staple… Read More ›
Bush tucker – I say potato, others say yarla
Apart from macadamia nuts, most people (including many Australians) know very little about Aussie bush tucker – despite the fact that we have an amazing variety of edible plants, such as lilly pilly, quandong, wattle seed and lemon myrtle, on… Read More ›
Did you know that some ladybirds are dangerous to humans and might sue you?
I have always loved ladybirds. I grew up repeating a nursery rhyme about them whenever I saw these insects in the garden (but never really understood the line about their house being on fire). Gardeners know that the common spotted… Read More ›
Great walls & fences of Australia 2
Anyone who read my last post about wild dog, dingo, emu and rabbit-proof fences in Australia, will hopefully appreciate the humour in my favourite TV commercial that encourages parents to invest in an Internet connection to help their kids with… Read More ›
Great walls & fences of Australia
The avenue of poplars (mentioned in this post) in the Tuggeranong Town Park follows the line of a heritage-listed dry stone wall that once marked the boundary between two rural properties in Canberra (one of which was featured in another post – here)…. Read More ›
When did you last catch a real (or virtual) sunrise or sunset?
I have always loved Michael Leunig’s cartoon ‘TV Sunrise’ – where a father and son sit inside watching a sunset on their television while a real sunset is clearly visible through the window. Oslo Davis did a more recent cartoon… Read More ›
Eco-sounds
I talked about sound in a recent post and its ability to evoke memories and change how we feel. Even inaudible sounds (i.e. those outside the audible range for humans) may affect us or be felt as vibrations. As we become more aware… Read More ›
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 ›
![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=120&h=120&crop=1)
Thank you for dealing with all of our crap – the humble dung beetle [& not so humble cane toad]
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
Sustainability soapbox 