Thursday, February 26, 2015

Environmentality 25 February 2015, Paul Gale-Baker, Permaculture


The Permaculture Flower (shows the holistic approach of permaculture)
This might just be me but permaculture makes sense, a lot of sense. Although the word permaculture is new to me (I didn’t even know what it meant 6 months ago), the concept of it and the principles are not new. The principles of permaculture form a very holistic approach that can be applied to almost anything that involves humans and the way we live on this planet. Essentially, if everyone followed the permaculture design principles, we would live in an abundant, community focussed, biodiverse and environmentally sustainable world! How’s that for a definition?!

Our guest this week, Paul Gale-Baker is a permaculture designer at Urban Shepherd who has had his head into the concept of permaculture for 40 or so years. So to get the nitty gritty details (and correct definitions) of permaculture, you are best to listen to the podcast here.
If you’re looking to get more information on the topic, a good starting point would be David Holmgren’s Permaculture – Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability. By all means, have a look around to see what else you can find and leave a comment if you know of or find anything else that would be helpful to those looking to find out more.

To finish the show this week, we quickly went through the ways to get involved in permaculture which I think is worth mentioning here:
-Look up a local permablitz you can attend
-Join a local sustainability group (Banyule, Darebin, Fawkner)
-Read books and search online


Permablitz in action
 
Next week on the show we are chatting to some students from Operation Newstart about their recent trip to the You Yangs and some of their new found knowledge on the impacts of the invasive weed boneseed.
 
Music from this week (thanks for the selections Paul)

Fast Train by Solomon Burke
Into The Mystic by Van Morrison
Stand By Me by John Lennon
Layla (acoustic) by Eric Clapton 

Friday, February 20, 2015

Environmentality 18 February 2015, Gas Prices in Australia and the Psychology of Ignoring Climate Change

Here’s a little myth-buster session just for you blog readers and please feel very free to share with friends and family, you may just save them money!

Gas Vs Electric

Myth #1 – Natural gas is a clean energy alternative to coal generated electricity.

Don’t be fooled by the natural  in natural gas, technically it is natural (like all fossil fuels) as it is formed from organic plant and animal matter that has been subject to heat and pressure over thousands of years, however it is not renewable, the drilling, extraction and pipelining often leads to release of methane (a serious GHG) and it’s combustion leads to carbon emissions. One report says 8% of all gas (methane) is being lost to the atmosphere during transfer from the gas fields to our homes and this unburnt gas can be 100 times more damaging to the climate than carbon generated from its combustion.

Myth #2 – Natural gas is cheap (compared to electricity).
Once upon a time this was true but it has now moved in the fiction category. Natural gas has been sold to homeowners as a clean, efficient and cheap alternative to electricity especially when used for household water heating and cooking requirements which may have been true a number of years age (except for the ‘clean’ bit, see myth #1). Recent advances in modern appliances such electric heat pumps for space heating, electric hot water heat pumps and induction cooktops have completely blown natural gas out of the water in terms of efficiency, running costs and emissions!...even when using conservative figures AND not including any fugitive emissions associated with extraction and pipelining the gas to the user (A past guest of ours Matthew Wright has published his research on this exact topic).

So Natural Gas is neither environmentally cleaner NOR cheaper to use anymore AND as we heard on this week’s show, the price is almost certain to rise by 200-300% in the near future once the gas export terminals are completed off the Queensland coast (right on the World Heritage Listed Great Barrier Reef mind you).

To really nail this one on the head in terms of what energy source to use, electricity or gas? Using electricity from the grid, generated from the burning of coal is more environmentally friendly in terms of emissions and it is also better on your hip pocket. This feels like a kind of half win where we have chosen the lesser of two carbon emitting evils, however we can make this a WIN WIN by using a renewable power source like Solar PV to power our electric appliances and voilà, no emissions, no operating costs, just an upfront investment with incredibly fast payback.

Not quite what we mean by solar powered cooking but hey, this could work!
Listen to the show to hear more about why gas prices will rise and also hear from an expert psychologist on why humans are wired to ignoring the impacts of climate change.
Here are the links to the ABC Radio National interviews we played on our show:
Gas Prices – ABC Radio National, Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue speaking to Giles Parkinson, originally broadcast on 12 July 2014 and then repeated on 3 January 2015.
Ignoring Climate Change – ABC Radio National, Late Night Live presented by Phillip Adams speaking with George Marshall, broadcast 4 February 2015.

Next week, we are chatting to Paul Gale-Baker about all things Permaculture. Not sure what that is? Well tune in to find out!
Music from this week:
Through The Roof by Hermitude
Paper Heart’s by Em George
Listen Up by Dark Fair

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Environmentality 11 February 2015, Robyn Deed, Editor of Renew Magazine

We cannot continue to live on this planet like we have another one to go to. Living a more sustainable existence is a must if we as a species are going to continue to flourish. This week's show was all about living more sustainably in the modern world through providing real life examples and all the latest technology and innovations to help us live the dream of sustainability! Listen to the show here.

Issue 130
Our guest today was Robyn Deed, editor of Renew Magazine published by the Alternative Technology Association (ATA). ATA is a non-profit organisation that exists to enable, represent and inspire people to live sustainably in their homes and communities. We spoke to Robyn regarding some of the articles in the Magazine and sustainability in general.  Robyn talked us through the article “Greeny flat experiment”  featured in the renew magazine where the author Andy Lemann shares how his first attempt to build an energy efficient full scale living house on a limited budget was a success. This piece highlighted some important factors that must be considered in house design/ retrofit in order to be sustainable including the layout of the house, the insulation, window positions, double gazing, low flow plumbing fixtures and many more. For more details, this is a direct link to the online version of the article.


Another article that was highlighted during the show was the “Energy Efficient Cooking” by Alan Pears.  There were some basic tips we could do to save the usage of energy in our kitchens. One interesting one was the fact that just putting the lid on while cooking can dramatically reduce energy losses while cooking.
Gazpacho soup
While on the topic of saving energy with cooking, Jamie mentioned the popular Spanish soup, Gazpacho, which is served cold! While it saves energy wasted in cooking, it also is a delight to your taste buds and is refreshing in this hot climate like ours. Maybe you can try your own “Gazpacho Soup” watching listening to this week’s show?! http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/gazpacho

The Timor-Leste Project by Dave Carlos was another topic we talked about on the show where he has written about solar-powered lights being provided to a remote villages in Timor-Leste and how it has changed the lives of many people living there as well as the volunteers travelling there to help install.
Installing solar panels for lighting in remote Timor-Leste villages
There are heaps more articles in the magazine that we were not able to cover (as usual!) so head to the Renew website to read all the latest.

Next week we have our resident gardening expert, Jodi Jackson so don’t miss it!

Environmentality wants to thank Smriti Panday for her contributions to this week's blog.
 
This week's music tracks
Steal the Light by The Cat Empire
Silent Night by Gurrumul and Delta Goodrem
Fear Of Failure by The Basics
Hills of Brisbane by James Blundell

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Environmentality 4 February 2015, Panel discussion with Jaime, John, Chris & Ahmed on environmental issue in the recent news

Firstly, don't forget to fill in our survey and you'll be in the draw for 2 movie tickets, it's the last week we are running it! Here is the link, GOOD LUCK!

This week we had a good old fashioned panel discussion with Jaime, John, Chris & Ahmed about environmental issues in the recent news. We realised that there is way too much to cover in one show but we tried our best to canvas a few trending topics. The items we discussed were mainly based on recent news articles which are listed below. As you would expect, the conversation occasionally drifts on tangents so make sure you listen to the show to hear all the wisdom of Jaime and all the random facts, figures and info that John manages to retain in his brain.

If you are keen on keeping up with the latest environmental news, there is a great FREE service offered by Making Environmental News whereby a daily email is sent to your inbox containing the links to any and all environmental news collated from all the major non-subscription electronic news media. It is the quickest and easiest way to stay on top the latest environmental news.

theconversation.com

smh.com.au





Traveller.com
We didn’t really get into politics but given a few more minutes we would have covered the most talked about political item this week which is off course, the Coalition leadership uncertainty…here is the article we had lined up to talk about: Is this the last hurrah for the Far Right in Australia – RenewEconomy
Tesla Model S

And for all those rev heads we even covered a supercar! The fully electric Tesla Model S that is faster (in terms of acceleration) than almost every other petrol powered supercar! Don’t believe it… read this 5 super cars slower than the Tesla S P85D – Gas2.

Please leave a comment or links to any other articles you think are worth a read.
Next week on the show we are chatting to Robyn Deed, editor of Renew magazine about Issue 130. Head to the Renew Magazine website to get a heads up on some of the magazine content that we will be covering.

Music tracks this week:

Hello, You Beautiful Thing by Jason Mraz

Tombs by Hiatus

Live It Up (feat. PEZ) by 360

Q.U.E.E.N. by Janelle Monae Feat. Erykah Badu
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