Yes, it’s true. You CAN hypnotize chickens. Click here to watch a video of how my children do it! I couldn’t believe it. The boys called me down to the chicken yard and all the chickens were lying on their backs with their feet in the air. Continue reading
Mycelium on decomposing log (photo by Dr. George Knaphus)
Every now and then it is possible to learn something so huge it can almost blow your mind away. Last year it was the severity of global warming. Today, in our permaculture class, it was finding out about Paul Stamets and his theory that mushrooms can help save the world. He describes mycelium as Nature’s Internet in his new book “Mycelium Running” because of the vast communication networks fungi form in forest ecologies. His work is also revolutionary because it potentially offers a future without pesticides, insecticides and a range of other manmade chemicals. Continue reading
We are rapidly running out of time. Every choice we make now has profound consequences and every time I get slack I imagine the voices of the children around me asking, in disbelief, “how can you do that, how can you choose your comfort over our future?” It really is time to stand up and be counted.
In the New York Times this week Al Gore went further than he ever has before and said, “We are now treating the Earth’s atmosphere as an open sewer… I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants.”
One of China’s most renowned artists Ai Weiwei, designer of Beijing’s spectacular “Bird’s nest” Olympic stadium, has also had the courage to stand up and be counted. Click here to watch a powerful interview with him on AlJazeera. Continue reading
Yesterday I wrote about the ban on outdoor advertising in Sao Paulo. Most people are so stunned by this they’re convinced it’s a hoax. The backlash against outdoor advertising that’s happening worldwide is being matched by a backlash from the billboard industry itself. While it’s true that in some cases billboards can be more appealing than the area they may be covering, the reason for banning billboards is obviously much deeper and more complex than the ad above would have you believe. Continue reading
Yesterday I found this old Felix the Cat mug – Felix is wandering behind a little boy with his hands behind his back, his head bent deep in thought, and the little boy is saying, “But Felix, it’s silly t’think ya can get things by wishin’ for em!” The handle of the mug is a question mark. Well, all I can say is, I’m with Felix – I’m thinking and wishing as hard as I can … to find the ways that will help us all act together, and in time to avert some of the worst case scenarios being predicted as a result of global warming and peak oil … Ironically, Felix first went to air in 1928, the year before the Great Depression started … and, with the same sense of foreboding that must have existed before the Depression, I’m aware that we have a lot of work ahead of us if we’re all to change our expectations and our actions.
Today, in The Independent, there was an article about Industry Experts from ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum, Shell and BP now coming out to say that oil and gas may run short by 2015. Continue reading
Reports continue to come in about extreme weather events around the world. At the same time there are also dramatic and creative actions drawing attention to climate change
and our need to act – like this lightshow by Greenpeace onto the coal carrier that grounded on Nobbys Beach in Newcastle during the severe weather that recently hit NSW’s coastline. Continue reading
Yesterday I felt like hitting my head against a brick wall.
Today I was filled with hope as Helen and I squeezed into a packed hall for a Hypothetical called Advance Australia – Where? Dozens of people had to be turned away. The panel addressed Global Issues for Australian Citizens in This Election Year and it was clear that everyone was calling for a vision of citizenship that was more than just mateship. Continue reading
Click HERE to listen to an interview with David Suzuki in Australia last year. Hear him speak and you can no longer think about carbon sequestration for coal in the same way again.
One thing leads to another. Continue reading
Credo
by Helen Caldicott
I believe that women have the fate of the Earth in the palm of their hands. Some 53 per cent of us are women and we really are pretty wimpish. We don’t step up to the plate – and it’s time we took over. I think men have had their turn and we’re in a profound mess.
Another month has rolled by and today we celebrated World Environment Day at our Community Market (a few days early). This Video was screened by the Mothers Climate Action Group at their stall. It’s a video made by Sharnie of the day we all gathered outside our Federal MP’s Office in Springwood (April 30). By the very nature of what we were all doing at the market today we were all being political – taking part in Relocalization. Continue reading
