personal political

rat (or rats)

I have two worm farms - one at the front of the house and one at the back. About three years ago, I went to put some scraps in the one at the front and uncovered a rat sitting in it - the rat jumped out and ran off very quickly. Ever since, I have tapped on the cover before I lift it up, hoping that any visiting rat will leave before I have to set eyes on it. Rats give me the creeps.

clouds, winter sunset today

garbage

A few weeks ago our council (belatedly, compared to many others) introduced wheelie bins for garbage collection, at the same time as they cut the garbage collections from two to one a week, in an effort to cut down on energy expenditure. A few months before that, however, they'd sent round a questionnaire about garbage, which I filled in, and we were given the choice of keeping our old 'small' garbage bins or opting for wheelie bins. Even though these are a miniature wheelie bin compared to some, I opted to keep our old garbage bin: firstly because it's perfectly okay, so why throw it away; secondly because it's shorter than the wheelie bins and living in a terrace house with a small front porch, space is at a premium and has important aesthetic consequences, so the smaller/shorter the better, the less obtrusive. Thirdly, and most importantly in my eyes, the smaller old-fashioned garbage bin is perfectly adequate for the amount of garbage our household produces.

save the whales

A pal of mine has made some whale t-shirts for women and kids.

bagless

Here's a little ray of hope (on the large scale - I guess it's a bad moment for the people who work there) - China's main plastic bag manufacturing factory has closed down.

anz and gunns

Last week the Wilderness Society targeted the ANZ in protest against their involvement with the Gunns Pulp Mill. At the behest of GetUp, I wrote to ANZ telling them I intended to withdraw as a customer if they went ahead and funded the mill. Today I received a reply, saying the ANZ have “not made a decision on whether to finance the project” and have committed to “applying the Equator Principles to our decision … We have engaged an independent environmental expert to assist us with this process”.

bali summit

Sign the global emergency petition to put pressure on the US, Japan and Canada to stop blocking progress at the climate summit.

walk against warming

Next Sunday November 11 is the second Walk Against Warming, deliberately planned for two weeks before the election. There will be at least 50 walks across Australia. Sydney’s Walk Against Warming will kick off in The Domain at 1pm, with speakers Cate Faehrmann (executive director of the Nature Conservation Council), Bob Brown and Peter Garrett.

malcolm's environment

Australia will have an election on November 24. I'm posting about this on LP and will reprint some of those posts here.

It’s a surprise-a-day campaign here in Wentworth. As everyone knows, this marginal seat is held by Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who was elected just three years ago. This hasn’t stopped him from warning us against the “dangerous inexperience” of the “union dominated Labor Party”. That was in the first letter I received from him the other day - the same day I received one from Kevin and George (Newhouse, the local ALP candidate) offering “a better deal for families and seniors”. The ALP letter did offer policies, whereas Malcolm’s offered many underlined sentences, culminating in “Don’t experiment with your vote“.

bottle brush

The bottle brushes are out in Sydney. Until a year or two ago, I don't recall noticing their communal spring bloom, though I've always liked the individual trees. But these days, I have reason to regularly travel on Southern Cross Drive and the entire route is now lined with bottle brush and grevillea trees. To pass a dazzling kilometre-long row of red trees is exhilerating. I'm glad council gardeners are choosing native trees for these important public routes.