Environmentality- 20th February 2013

Hello Environmentality Listeners,

Today Jodie wasn’t feeling well so was unable to come in for our regular gardening segment; we hope that she’s feeling better now. But Jaime, Smokey and Admed did speak to Robyn Deed from The Alternative Technology Association about the latest issue of ReNew magazine.  

Courtesy of the ATA

The current issue of ReNew focuses on reuse of materials. Robyn highlights that building materials make up 40% of landfill, hence by reusing materials not only are we diverting materials from landfill but also reducing up to 90% of the embodied energy in houses. Using shipping containers to build a temporary shopping mall in New Zealand, a studio in the backyard or a home demonstrates some of the ingenuous designs from using recycled materials.      

Towards guilt free cooling by Allen Pears guides us through the practicalities of heating and cooling.  Allen goes into different types of cooling such as insulation, windows, roof and walls, and active energy consuming cooling. Allen suggest that simple test we can all do if we are unsure whether a window is causing overheating is to place the shinny side of the cooking foil on the inside of the window to see if it makes any difference to temperature or energy cost.  

Martin Freney discusses earthship homes and its radical design using recycled car tyres filled with dirt, dirt walls and a greenhouse. Martin’s research has shown that earthships homes in New Mexico are able to maintain stable temperatures without the need for heating and cooling.  Furthermore, comparing the earthship homes to other types of construction materials, earthship comes out on top when built with a greenhouse. Without a greenhouse, earthship’s energy efficient has been shown to very similar to insulated and concrete block.    

Given the vast options of solar panels available, Stephan Ingrouille’s article helps us to work out which is best with a 15 point check list. Some of the things to ask are panel efficiency, price, manufacture’s product and performance warranty, insulation warranty and features.    

For more information about ReNew or access to the forums, you can access the website here

We look forward to talking with Robyn again about the next issue of ReNew.

Tracked played today:

Saltwater band- Wapango

The Sundays- Skin and Bones

The Sea Urchins- Pristine Christine

Joy Division- She’s Lost Control Again

Environmentality- 13th February 2013

Hello Environmentality Listeners,

Today Jaime chatted with Robert Bender from the Friends of the Organ Pipes National Park (FOOPS), Smokey dropped by a little later towards the end of the show. Robert has been a member of FOOPs since 1983.

Located off the Calder Hwy in Sydenham, The Organ Pipes National Park is the smallest national park in Victoria. The significance of the park is the basalt columns or organ pipes, a volcanic formation that formed when volcanoes erupted 1 to 2 million years ago to fill in the old river valleys. The area was initially used as a ground to teach geology students about volcanism. 

Courtesy of FOOPS

FOOPS was established in 1972 when the group volunteered to restore the park from pastoral land filled with weeds, pest and rubbish to its natural state. In 1973 FOOPS propagated seeds in the park, and after 15 years the trees were inhabited by animals. An animal study conducted by the Arthur Riley Institute discovery of 7 species of bats lead to the installation of 10 bat boxes in 1992. 27 additional boxes have since been installed totaling 37 bat boxes with a count of 470 bats. Sugar gliders were released into the park in 1989. The sugar gliders eat the black wattle sugar turned into gum in the winter. Unfortunately as the black wattles were all planted during the same period they also all died in the same year, so all of a sudden there were no trees and the sugar glider population was greatly impacted. However it is great news to hear that new trees were planted which are now coming into maturity and the sugar gilder population is growing. Weeding continues to be an ongoing project due to pest such as the Artichoke Thistle, African Boxthorn and the Prickly Pear.

Courtesy of foter.com

The park is extraordinarily active with monthly working bees and bat, frog, sugar glider and water studies. Robert stresses the significance of volunteers to the restorative success of the park, however with decreases in volunteers numbers, more volunteers are needed to help continue the fantastic work done so far. Given that it will take about 500 years to restore the ecosystem, and out of the 300 species needed to restore the park to its natural state only 50 species has been reestablished, Robert reminds us all that ongoing commitment along with a much better funding and support system is needed to ensure that the incredible work by FOOPS continues into the future.   

Anyone can join the group and any of the projects. To join you can contact Parks Victoria on 13 1963. You can also email Robert at redneb.trebor@gmail.com or Terry Lane at terry2653@hotmail.com.

We would like to thank Robert for coming on to the show and showing us what can happen when a group of volunteers get together to work on a common goal!

For more information about FOOPS you can access the link to their website here

Tracks played:

Archie Roach- Song to Sing

Oh Mercy- Confessions

Mia dyson- tell me

Linda Ronstadt- Blue Bayou

Linda Ronstadt- Winter light

Shane Howard- Solid Rock

Environmentality- 30th January 2013

Hello Environmentality Listeners,

Jaime and Smokey were treated with a visit from Dr. Imad Khan. Dr. Khan is an energy expert with extensive consulting experience in many fields such as electricity modeling and financial risk management.

Today we chatted about the National electricity market and were surprised to discover that electricity prices are set every 5 minutes! The national market can be divided into 2 markets, the east and the west. The Eastern Seaboard market consists of 5 states: QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS and SA. The market is based on demand and supply principals, The Australian Energy Market Operator issues the demand; demand is then matched a day ahead by generators.  The great news is that renewable energy will always be dispatched into the grid.    

How does the energy market ties into environmental goals? Dr. Khan explains that although the market was never designed to incorporate environmental goals, recent government mechanisms such as the carbon price and the renewable energy target has favored green technologies. Solar panels one such example of how government policies can affect the market. Rebates and feed-in tariffs have now enabled solar to become self sustaining, bringing down the cost to be a competitive and cost effective alternative energy source.   

So can pricing be used as a method to reduce consumption? The short answer is yes, increases in prices have lead to a reduction in demand, and we are now making the effort to switch off the light or turn the off appliances at the power point. Yet Jaime highlights that the majority of costs in the energy bill are fixed, Dr. Khan clarified that the greatest component of energy prices is the distribution charges. So how can we use pricing to encourage people to save? Is greater transparency the key?

Not surprisingly the discussion soon drifted to technology and how it has assisted environmental goals. Dr. Khan explains that smart meters can actually help reduce electricity consumption by distributing the load when appliances are in high demand. This means that electricity use will be more efficient; however Dr. Khan also raises the potential privacy concerns with smart meters.

What about the relationship between climate change and current weather events? Dr. Khan highlights that although the science has evolved to a point where we can accurately predict the weather, more research is needed to hone into current events and climate change. Research conducted by Professor Fred Hilmer was discussed, a link to one of his articles can be found here   

For the link to The great disruption by Paul Gilding as recommended by Smokey, click here

There’s a lot of information here that needs to be digested, it certainly took us a while to get our heads around energy markets. If you can take away one message from today’s show we hope that it is this: the best thing we can do is to switch off, by switching off we are reducing demand and hence potentially driving cost down.

If you have any questions please leave a comment below. We’ll be more than happy to forward any of your questions to Dr. Khan.

Don’t forget to tune in every Wednesday from 12pm to 1pm for the live show and as usual we would love your feedback on the show, blog or guest!

Tracks played today:

The Cure- Friday I’m in Love

The stone roses- the story love song

The Panics- Endless Road

The love braid- Surfing New South Wales

Environmentality- 23rd January 2013

Dear Environmentality Listeners,

We would like to apologies for the delay in the blog, we appreciate your patience and are hoping to get things back on track within the next week or so!

Today we were suppose to have Sean Willmore from The Thin Green Line Foundation, unfortunately due to some administrative error we mixed up the date and were unable to talk to Sean today. However we do look forward to having Sean on the show in the near future!

Instead Smokie, Jaime and Ahmed talked about a range of issues and as usual managed to get side tracked.

The Desalination Plant came up again with recent decision by the Baillieu government to not use the water unless under extreme conditions. Citing Kenneth Davidson, Jaime and Smokey highlight that it would be easy to reconfigure the desalination plant to recycle water. A link to one of Kenneth’s articles can be found here

The misconception of the health impacts of drinking and using recycled water was further discussed as Ahmed inquired as to why we are not using more recycled water when other countries are already doing it! Lifting the water restrictions and Melbourne’s water consumption continues to be a debatable topic as Jaime contentiously suggest that we should have permanent water restrictions, what do you think about Jaime’s suggestion?

It was good to reflect on Barack Obama’s inauguration speech and his commitment to climate change despite the dysfunctional situation in the current US political system. Gun control in the US and America’s love of guns was further discussed as Obama starts his campaign to rein in gun use in light of the series of deaths involving guns.    

We continued to digress by talking about Julia Gillard’s appointment of Indigenous and former-Olympian Nova Peris as the lead candidate in the Labour Party’s Northern Territory Senate seat.    

A link to today's podcast can be found here.

Tracks played today:

Buzzcocks- Whatever Happened To?    

Th’ Faith Healers UK- Sparkling Chimes

The Pixies- Allison

The Pixies- Blown Away

The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra- The System

The Temper Trap- This Isn’t happiness

Environmentality- 16th January 2013

Dear Environmentality listeners,

First of all, we’d like to extend our apologies for some of the technical difficulties experienced at the start of the show but we managed to persevere nonetheless! Also apologies for the late blog, we had some problems uploading the podcast but that’s all fixed now!

Once again we had our wonderful resident gardening expert, Jodi Jackson in to discuss helpful tips for seed saving. According to Jodi, the art of seed saving is a great, cost effective way to grow your own plants. Now it isn’t as hard as it sounds because plants are naturally designed to set seeds and by saving those seeds you’re not only helping your hip pocket but also helping to keep plant diversity alive. 

Harvesting seeds can be tricky but there are many different ways to do it. Take for example, Kale. Part of the cabbage family, Jodi was able to share with us that she harvests its seeds by ripping the leaves off.

Some important things to remember about harvesting seeds are: 

Courtsey of thisoldhouse.com

• This can occur annually, bi-annually, seasonally depending on the plant
•   Don’t try to save everything and to share seeds around with family and friends 
• Finer seeds such as lettuce have a shorter shelf life of about 1 year

Often people wonder which seeds to save and according to Jodi, saving seeds can be subjective and she’s shared the following three handy tips to help you identify which plants are the best.
 
Save seeds from:

•   The healthiest plants
•  Those that bear the biggest fruit
• Those that produce the best colour/shape – brightest colour, shape of leaf, shape of fruit etc