Your guide to sustainable living on the north coastAnother great publication!

Your Sustainable Community

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Your Sustainable Community – March, 20122What’s in it for you

– a look inside…Alice teaches the green way p3Cleaning safely and cheaply

Building a smarter economy p4

Peak load the power villain p5Why electricity prices are spiking

Graeme is helping to build a culture of sustainability p6Good work going on in Byron Council

Rotational chook yards p7Brrrp, bip, berk, bergurk!

Rail is on the right track p8Public transport beyond private cars

Good and bad of the web p9How the internet chews up resources

Going big with solar p10Why not use all that Oz sunlight?

Plastic bags are bad p11For turtles and their environment

Long road to organic farming p12Dave Forrest tells it like it is

Time to act for the sea p13Marine activists need to be inspired

A quick guide to managing the planet wisely p14Can we work it all via the web?

To breed or not to breed? p15Baby capitalism at work

Your Sustainable CommunityAN ECHO SUPPLEMENT

www.echo.net.au

www.echonetdaily.net.auSupplement Editor: Michael McDonald

Advertising Manager: Angela Cornell

Client Liaison: Penny Bagshaw

Design & Production: Ziggi Browning

Front cover: Photo Eve Jeffery (www.treefaeriephotos.com), many thanks to model Anthony Bear Skinner for catching the sunset.

Contributors: Nina Bishop, Victoria Cosford, Mary Gardner, Daniel Harper, Eve Jeffery, Karin Kolbe, Mandy Nolan, Obi McDonald- Saint, Pat Miller and David Hunter Tow.

Photographers: Eve Jeffery, Jeff Dawson, plus images from Stock.XCHNG www.sxc.hu.

© 2012 Echo Publications Pty LtdABN 86 004 000 239 Village Way, Stuart Street, MullumbimbyPhone 02 6684 1777 Fax 02 6684 1719 Byron Bay: 95 Jonson St. Ph 6685 5222Printer: Horton Media Australia LtdReg. by Aust. Post Pub. No. NBF9237.Printed on recycled paper

THE BYRON SHIRE

NETDAILY

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Your guide to sustainable living on the north coast 3Story & photo Eve Jeffery

Did you know that common salt scours, disinfects, deodor-ises and is an antiseptic and that white vinegar is a solvent that bleaches and deodorises as well as killing 82 per cent of mould? Why would you use chemical bleach ever again?

Byron Region Community College tutor Alice Moffett is fast becoming an expert on getting your environment clean without the toxic risk-tak-ing involved in many commer-cial cleaning products and she is bringing her knowledge to a new Green Cleaning course at the college.

Alice says that a trip down a shopping aisle will show you an array of expensive and potentially toxic cleaning prod-ucts lined up on the shelves. In her course students explore what is actually in products and find out how to replace harmful cleaners with a natural, homemade cleaning kit made on the day that is cost effective and actually works.

Alice initially presented the course in Brunswick Heads as part of the council’s Sustain-able Streets program and the response was so positive that she has decided to continue the

course. ‘We had a great turn-out for that event and people loved getting involved and getting their hands on making some home green cleaning products’.

Like many of us Alice has been using the basics of her cleaning kit for a long time. Vin-egar and bi-carb have been her stalwart buddies in the kitchen and the bathroom, but it has really only been in the last year or so that she has been taking her research to a deeper level and finding a whole new source of supplies. ‘Now I am making my own clotheswashing liquid, all-purpose sprays and even natural bleaches and I am so impressed with the results’.

In the modern era is it possible that two things have happened. In this ‘antibacte-rial’ age people are aiming and expecting to have things too clean while at the same time wanting to put less and less elbow grease into the process, relying more on the strength of the product rather than the effort of hard work – hence the products that we are using to achieve the outcome are hav-ing to be stronger and stronger to kill off more of the things we don’t want in our pristine approach to cleanliness.

Alice says that if we look

to the medical industry for answers we will find a surprise. ‘The medical definition of dis-infect is: to kill or remove bac-teria physically or chemically. So if we can remove the habitat of the bacteria by hand in the action of wiping or rubbing, then that removes the bacteria. There were some studies done on a commercial bathroom mould remover which is basically common bleach. The results of the research showed that the product would only clean bacteria effectively if firstly the surface had been pre-cleaned then the product left on the area for at least ten minutes. The reality is most people don’t do that’.

Alice says that the products that can be found in her clean-ing kit, which is made up of common household items, are as effective as anything else at cleaning away bacteria – she says that it might not be as effec-tive in the short time that many toxic products take but the end result is the same.

‘If you think about it, even though it might take a minute or two more to kill bacteria but you can have a clear con-science knowing that you are not contributing to a chemical build up in the waterways’.

Alice’s Green Cleaning bag of tricks can clean anything. She says that the items are all from mineral sources and even though they are more natural, some of those can still be a bit toxic.

‘Things like tea-tree oil for example are less chemically harmful than its commercial counterpart but there is still a low level of toxicity that you need to be aware of’.

To set up the green clean-

ing system is also a lot less expensive than one may think. Alice says that if you were to scrap everything you currently use and start from scratch, you would be looking at around $30 to create an entire rep-ertoire of items to keep your home spick and span. ‘You can also use the old spray bottles from your previous cleaners so there is no need to go out and buy more’.

The course teaches that it doesn’t take much to add a few key products and basic sup-plies to the tea-tree and bi-carb that we have all been using for years and make up a kit that will help you take natural cleaning that one step further.

Alice says her favourite item in the basket is definitely the white vinegar. ‘I always have a mould problem, especially at this time of year. My leather goods, my woollens around the house and in the bathroom. I have made a very simple vin-egar spray that has effectively killed the mould’.

Alice says after a good clean-ing her house does smell like a fish and chip shop for a day. ‘But compared to the smell of mould that I had before the vinegar, I am happy to put up with that’.

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Alice teaches the green way to clean your house safely

It’s a good idea to face your living areas north or close to north if you can. This way you’ll get loads of winter sun and easy shade in summer if you have eaves.

Open plan living is popular and can create a wonderful flow of space. But when living areas are too open, especially if they have mezzanines or high ceilings, they can be difficult (and expensive) to heat and cool. They can also be noisy. Some designs give you the flexibility to open up or divide up the space as you need.

Clever design of space is crucial in a living area. It’s the feeling of spaciousness rather than the amount of space that matters most – and how well

the spaces function. Look for practical, well-designed areas that use space cleverly and don’t waste it – after all, you’re paying for it! You could also talk to your builder about modifi-cations that allow you to use space flexibly, like room dividers or sliding partitions. This way you can also adapt space to suit your family’s changing needs.

To keep living areas cool in summer make sure you have windows or openings on more than one side of the living area. This allows cooling breezes to flow through. High windows or skylights work well to get rid of hot air as it rises. Just make sure they can be closed in winter and the frames have good weather seals.

Your kitchenKitchens are said to be the

heart of the home, where everything happens. It’s often the kitchen and living areas that people fall in love with and that’s important if you’re think-ing about resale value. A well-designed, functional kitchen can

really add value to your home.A good kitchen gives you

room to move but is compact enough to allow easy reach between different activities, like preparing food, cooking and rinsing. It’s a good idea to leave generous bench space between the sink and the cooktop as this tends to be

the most useful space for food preparation.

Locate dishwashers close to sinks to allow easy loading – this also concentrates your plumbing needs in one place and saves money. Multi-bin sorters under kitchen sinks are a great idea – you can separate your rubbish for recycling straight away.

Did you know that the fridge typically uses more energy in a year than any other appliance? It’s responsible for about 13 per cent of the average family’s electricity bill. It pays to buy an efficient and appropriately sized fridge.

Make sure kitchen cabinets allow a decent air gap around the fridge (especially at the

back) as it needs good ventila-tion to work efficiently.

Checklist:Can our living areas be

divided up as needed, for eco-nomical heating and cooling?

Will our living areas get plenty of sunlight in winter?

Will our living areas be shaded in summer?

Can windows be opened on more than one side of living areas to let cooling breezes through?

Is our kitchen set out so there is easy reach between different activities?

Do our kitchen cupboards use low-emission particle board and finishes?– from www.yourhome.gov.au

Make the most of your living space with practical ideas – before it’s built

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Your Sustainable Community – March, 20124

Erwin Jackson, deputy CEO, The Climate Institute www.climateinstitute.org.au

The recent Productivity Com-mission report on pricing carbon pollution confirms much of what we already know – the world is moving to limit pollution and drive clean en-ergy investment, and Australia needs to keep moving too.

However, the report has led some in media, politics and business to jump to the wrong conclusion – that putting a price on pollution, by itself, will be the silver bullet solution in the climate change debate.

There is no question that pric-ing pollution is fundamental to cutting emissions cost effective-ly across the entire economy. But it’s only half the story. We need equal weight on policies that will unlock the opportuni-ty to promote energy efficiency and develop our world-class renewable energy resources.

With our power sector the eighth dirtiest on the planet and barely a toehold in the world’s multi-billion dollar low-pollution economy, Australia needs to be looking at the bigger picture.

Competitor countries in Asia and Europe are combining a triple set of policies: a price on pollution, energy efficiency

measures and renewable-energy targets.

They’re not only reducing pollution, they’re busy building energy efficiency into their economies and measuring car-bon productivity – that is, the amount of pollution per dollar of GDP – in order to find low-carbon opportunities in their industries, goods and services.

They are making use of all three policies to increase domestic energy security and improve living standards by reducing local, regional and global air pollution.

The long viewOur competitors are taking

the long view, realising that investing today in energy effi-ciency and renewable energy, in addition to a carbon price, brings long-term benefits. Pollution can be cut even more quickly and, eventually, more cheaply.

As a direct result, clean en-ergy investments globally now regularly outstrip investment in traditional power generation. In 2008–09, 46 per cent of the world’s total electricity capacity came from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. Globally, it’s estimated the re-newable energy industry now employs up to three million people.

We have some catching up to do. A recent study by global technology giant GE found that energy efficiency growth in the US, Germany and the UK is almost double that of Australia.

Besides reducing pollution, energy efficiency measures conserve and cut energy use and save industry and businesses money – mak-ing them more competitive internationally.

Independent modelling commissioned by The Climate Institute shows effective action on energy efficiency could save

AU$43 billion on the invest-ment required by the electric-ity sector to meet long-term pollution targets. The Renew-able Energy Target (RET) cuts another $5–6 billion off the bill by driving and fast-tracking innovation.

Importantly, energy efficien-cy measures come into their own in helping households manage their energy bills.

Modelling undertaken in 2010 for the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficien-cy showed that households could save between $50 and

$245 a year under a proposed National Energy Savings Initia-tive. More recently, the Victo-rian government found that extending its energy-efficiency schemes would deliver a net benefit of $1.9 billion to $2.6 billion to the state’s economy.

The other leg of the policy trifecta is the Renewable En-ergy Target. Under the RET, introduced in 2009, Austral-ian companies and industries are already adopting cleaner technologies and innovation is underway in our universities and on the factory floor.

For example, Suzlon Energy, one of the world’s largest wind companies, has reduced costs through a number of programs since setting up in Australia.

It now pre-installs cables in wind towers, works with local wind tower manufactur-ers adapting generic designs that suit Australian specifica-tions and is researching ways to incorporate Australian OHS standards, hot-weather operating conditions and local grid requirements into local operations.

On with the jobAmid the scaremongering

and short-sighted politicking, it’s encouraging to see many businesses intelligently getting on with the job.

A carbon price is central to cutting Australia’s pollution, but to reap the full dividend of our efforts now is the time to aim higher and smarter with a bolder policy approach.

With the right tools and imagination – and a little less fear – Australia can become a competitive, clean-energy nation with an energy-efficient culture.

There is much to gain and we should not be afraid to step up and take our place among the best global players.

Locally hand made, hand screen-printed market bags made from recycled fabric. Proceeds will support the NBFM sponsored ‘Local School Food Garden Project’. On sale at the market from 24 Nov. New Brighton Farmers Market, 8am - 11am, rain or shine, New Brighton Oval Tel: 6684 5390.

Fresh at the market $8.

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meats, breads,local cheesesand foods, live chooks and ducks.Call 6684 5390.

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Every Friday 7am to 11 am at the

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Celebrate Christmas and New Year.

Thanks from all of us at the market. And don’t forget to be here on 28 December, come snow or shine over the holidays. New Brighton Farmers Market, 8am - 11am, New Brighton Oval 6684 5390. newbrightonfarmersmarket.org.au

We are participating in The Sydney Morning Herald Crave Sydney International Food Festival. Get creative using market produce and bake a sweet or savoury dish and win some great prizes. Sign up & buy the specified ingredients on Tues Oct 5 and return with your ‘creation’ for judging on Oct 12 by Manfred from ‘Yum Yum Tree’ & Mat from ‘Cino Bambino’. More on 66771956 and the website: newbrightonfarmersmarket.org.au

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Market

Mullumbi

mby Farmers

meats, breads,local cheesesand foods, live chooks and ducks.Call 6684 5390.

Don’t miss Mullum at its most

colourful best.

Every Friday 7am to 11 am at the

ShowgroundsMullum Farmers

Markets brings you locally grown fruit,

vegies, nuts, honey, dairy, pasta, olives, Market

Mullumbi

mby Farmers

Mellow yellow

Market

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Building a cleaner, smarter, renewables economy

Suzlon Energy (www.suzlon.com) is a company adapting to Australian conditions.

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Your guide to sustainable living on the north coast 5

Daniel Harper

During the last few years, electricity prices around the country have risen by over 35 per cent with prices going up 22 per cent in NSW in one year alone. While for some people it means little, for a growing number of families and busi-nesses it is a cost they can ill afford. To make matters worse, it is estimated that prices could double over the next six years.

While it is argued that higher prices can be a positive by reducing demand for electric-ity and encouraging energy efficiency, it is rarely under-stood the real reason prices are increasing.

Different reasons for recent price hikes have been bandied around as political ammo.

CulpritsConservatives have argued

that feed in tariffs, renew-able energy subsidies and the carbon tax have all been the culprits and, as a result, argued that they should be removed or stopped to halt prices going up even more. Far from being a lefty plot, the reality is that none of these reasons has had a substantial effect on the recent price rises.

The real reason, and the reason NSW is locked into 10 per cent annual price rises for the next three years is, in a nut-shell, peak load and the cost of upgrading electricity infrastruc-ture to cope with it.

Peak load is caused when there are huge spikes in electricity consumption, nearly always caused in Australia from the 40-degree days in summer when everyone likes to turn on their air conditioners. Air condi-tioning ownership in Australia has skyrocketed over the last decade, with units becoming much more affordable. For many AC units are not consid-

ered a necessity more so than a luxury. Now more than 70 per cent of Aussie homes have air conditioners with close to two million homes installing them in the last sevn years alone.

So how does peak load and AC use translate to rising electricity prices? Simply, there has to be a huge upgrade of electricity infrastructure needed to cope with increasing peak loads.

Federal energy minister Mar-tin Ferguson has mentioned on numerous occasions this unnerving statistic: Every time someone installs a $1500 air conditioner, it costs $7000 to upgrade the electricity network to make sure that AC unit can run on the hottest days of the year.

All up, it is estimated that up-grading the electricity network over the next few years to deal with peak load in NSW is cost-ing around 15 billion dollars.

How do the electricity companies recoup that cost? By passing that cost on to con-sumers in the form of higher electricity prices.

Consumer cops itWhile domestic breakdown

of electricity costs are hard to come by, it is estimated that 30 per cent – 40 per cent of your bill goes to the cost of getting the electricity to you, in the form of maintenance and the upgrading of electricity networks.

So, what is the solution? The most readily agreed upon and most effective method would be to simply reduce peak load. Unfortunately it is easier said than done.

Digital time-of-use meters, education and removing barri-ers to generating more power locally will all be part of the solution.

Digital meters allow electric-ity prices to vary based on the

time of day and their associat-ed costs. This means electricity companies could make peak load times more expensive to consumers and help reduce demand.

Unfortunately it also means that electricity companies can make more money by charging people more when demand is high. Digital meters are a good tool but are a double-edged sword; the people most likely to benefit will be actively monitoring the energy use and increasing efficiency with behavioural change.

Education is also critical, connecting the dots between electricity use and electricity bills as well as the ramifications of peak load.

Local productionLocally produced electricity

is another essential way for reducing peak load. Trans-mission loss (transporting electricity from power station to end user) is around 30per cent, meaning only 70per cent of power generated gets to the consumer. Domestic solar panels are a great start but much larger local sources need to be established to help reduce peak load. This would take strong initiative from the federal government to remove current financial barriers and encourage more investment in alternative power sources.

One thing we do know is, like climate change, we can’t stop electricity prices rising but we can affect how severe the damage will be.

n Most of the facts in this arti-cle have been sourced from El-len Fanning’s ‘The Hidden Cost of Infinite Energy’ http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/the-hidden-cost-of-infinite-energy-part-1/19/#. Daniel Harper is the founder of Cool Planet http://www.coolplanet.com.au.

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Your Sustainable Community – March, 20126

Story & photo Eve Jeffery

Graeme Williams has been Byron Shire Council’s sustain-ability officer for almost five years and he feels like a pig in the proverbial. With a degree in enviromental management from Maquarie University, Graeme has navigated his way from the forests of Tasmania and the wilds of Sydney’s Ku-ring-gai Council to what some of his peers may consider the sustainability mecca.

It’s Graeme’s job to try to build a culture of sustainability both within and outside of the council organisation. Graeme has been a visionary for many of the council’s sustainability projects such as sustainable streets, community gardens and the car-pooling project just to name a few.

But is it also in his job de-scription to help council walk the sustainable walk. He works internally on writing policy and overseeing corporate sustain-ability right down to things like making sure councillors use recycled paper in their envelopes and business cards – he is also looks over council’s shoulder ensuring that their carbon emissions and energy use don’t squander the planet’s resources.

Graeme says that when he arrived in the shire there was

a lot of goodwill as far as the concept of sustainability went but without someone with an eye for the workings of the idea, it sometimes fell short of the mark.

‘I have to say that having someone in a designated position of sustainability officer does make a world of differ-ence. You can knit all the ideas together. The Byron Council does have the intention to be sustainable but people have different intepretations of what that word means. The concept of sustanability is increasingly being analysed and pulled apart’.

Meeting our needsGraeme says he does stand

by the classic interpretation of sustainability as the ability to meet our needs today without compromising the needs of future generations but he also has a more personal view of the concept.

‘I think on a pragmatic, grass-roots level for me, the vision is really about building a culture of sustainability. Build-ing opportunities for people to engage and intergrate into the sustainability program – incoporating local skills and local knowledge to get that information out’.

Graeme feels that his work

in the area has been made easier because of the general motivation toward sustainabil-ity which communites outside the area may yet have to warm to. ‘In terms of environmental sustainability within the coun-cil, in my experience I have certainly been able to achieve things here where I know my colleagues in neighbouring councils haven’t even got the tar on the road, so to speak’.

Things that we now take for granted, such as community gardens, are ideas that Graeme says some other councils are

struggling to even contem-plate, whereas he is currently working with the Suffolk Park community and there will soon be a third garden in the shire, a new cousin for the estab-lished Mullumbimby and Shara gardens.

He says it is the small things that make a difference in our shire. ‘We are doing really in-novative things that are simple but for a bureaucracy to be able to do is still unique. In 2010 we were profiled throughout the state for our corporate office recycling program. We

use 100 per cent recycled, non-bleached envelopes, business cards and a range of other items.

‘The “wholemeal’” look is something that a lot of councils don’t like the appearance of, as they don’t think it suits their image, yet the councillors and staff here really embrace that. In some places the brown en-velope is considered too radical and is not even on the agenda.

‘Working in the Byron Shire has given me a huge scope to be creative. Sometimes I won-der where do I go from here?

‘In so many cases when I speak to colleagues in Sydney or Melbourne or further afield, the classic comment I get is “Oh wow Byron Bay”. They have that immediate envy. It’s wonderful. It reminds me of how lucky I am to be here and I am entirely grateful to have such a respon-sive and pro-active community who are always keeping me on my toes. Just yesterday I had the Byron Bay Youth Climate Action group on my doorstep agitating for something – you know it’s fantastic that there is that drive and dynamicism.

Really special‘When I worked in Sydney

people didn’t even know who the mayor was, let alone the councillors or staff members – it sounds funny but it is not a joke. This is actually a really special, unique place in that people do know who they are dealing with and are much closer to the powers that be.

‘That means the microscope is much more focused than it is in other places. The scrutiny is there but the potential for the community to collaborate is unique. I can get a lot of things done here not because we have masses of money to chuck at it but because of the relationships and goodwill in the community. It’s precious’.

Graeme is helping to build a culture of sustainability

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Your guide to sustainable living on the north coast 7

I am not here for short term profit. I want my clients to

have a good experience on one of the biggest journeys they

will undertake in their lives: Buying or selling their home.

I want them to be able to trust what I say is not just “spin”

aimed at securing their money, but wisdom gleaned from

years of experience in the real estate field and compassion

for each individual who chooses to do business with me.

Giving something back to my clients is as important to

me as the many global & local humanitarian projects I

have been involved with over the past three decades.

We need a loud collective SHOUT if we are going to turn

around the present trajectory to self extinction our planet

is on. For many years I have been working independently

to make changes but I realised I needed to join with others

to make my voice heard.

I have now joined the Byron Greens as I believe

it is the only party with policies in place who can affect

real change. I beseech all those who like me have been

sitting in the stands watching, to come down on to the

court, throw your hat into the ring. The fossil fuel industry

has the money but we have the numbers.

For tomorrow support the Byron Greens today

Message from a Green Rose

We give one fifth of our net proceeds to local

and global humanitarian projects

Making a difference doing business differently

Rose Wanchap Principal/

licensee Red Rose Realty

The Greens are the only party formulating policies to meet the coming challenges.It is now more important than ever that all those who support a cleaner healthier Australia stand up and be counted. We are facing great challenges: Global warming, Pollution, Resource depletion, Social breakdown, Food production. At the local government level we are greatly constrained but are an integral part of the growing green movement. Byron Council, although not having a majority of Green councillors, has done much to maintain the integrity of Byron Shire as a sustainable area in the face of constant pressure from vested interests and political pressure.

Our four committed Greens Councillors have been instrumental in: Greatly slowing inappropriate development Fighting a fierce rearguard action against State Government land grabs. Leading the state in a coastal policy which is now being widely adopted around Australia. Driving sustainability policy.

Overseeing major community projects such as: The Sports and Cultural Facility The Community Gardens The Byron Library Farmers Markets Extensive environmentally award-winning Waste Treatment projects.

With your support we will continue to meet the challenges of our Shire with maturity, intelligence & an unwavering commitment to sustainability.

The Greens promote things that make sense. Putting long term vision ahead of short term self interest. A Green economic vision is imperative: The current economic system is unsustainable, it depends on the exploitation of non renewable resources. With the Greens “Clean Energy Future” package 30,000 jobs are being created in regional Australia, driving the transition to a clean economy. The Greens did this. We must act now to secure a safe climate for our future.

We need a Coal Seam Gas Moratorium This reckless industry needs to be brought under control before it damages NSW. Greens MP & Spokesperson on Mining Jeremy Buckingham has introduced the “Coal Seam Gas Moratorium Bill”, with full Byron Greens support

For TomorrowSupport the Byron

Greens today

The Byron Greens Ph: (02)6680 9525 baybell44@gmail.com www.byronballinagreens.org

Think what we could do if another million people did likewise!At the last Federal Election more than 1.5 million Australians voted for the Greens

From left to right: Tom Tabart, Jan Barham, Richard Staples, Simon Richardson.

They have collectively 65 years of experience in local Greens politics.

Create a rotational chicken yard – and protect vegiesNina Bishop

I love a good system, in particular where living things support each other by doing what comes naturally to them. Science calls it symbiosis. The permaculture model refers to something similar known as ‘stacking functions’.

So how can we benefit by bringing chooks and veggie crops together? Many growers would wince at the thought. The trick is to rotate them, let them share the same space, but not at the same time. For this we need what is known as Rotational Chicken Yards. The inconvenient or annoying aspects of the combination, once a well managed rotation is in place, become convenient assets.

Chook WomanLast year I met local Chook

Woman, Rita Oort, writer for TROPO (Tweed Richmond Organic Producers’ Organisa-tion). Rita’s family and chooks have enjoyed the benefits of a large productive rotational system for over 30 years. Their efforts not only at a subsist-ence level but also supplying organic vegetables and eggs to the district.

On a recent journey through S-E Asia with village stays and long bus and train trips, my

brain was often on overwhelm from the beauty and charm, the chaos and poverty. Farm animals and their manure everywhere, which was partly responsible for the pollution.

Cambodians know about pov-erty and starvation. Hunger has driven a pattern of eating what is near, including their wildlife, some species almost to the point of extinction. Food

sources such as chickens and their eggs are important and the roosters, however scrawny, are short-lived. The people are doing what they can to exist under difficult circumstances

and following the tragic years of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge Regime.

At a very well organised Cambodian orphanage founded and supported by Australians, managed by locals, permanently free-ranging poultry are doing all the usual annoying things, as well as the risk that the odd aggres-sive rooster might pose to the smaller children. Under these circumstances, I imagined how a system like Rita’s could ben-efit these people; to start, some tin, wood, wire and bamboo.

In poor countries where every resource is valuable, the reasons to take time to build such a system are obvious, given the space and materials available.

Mutual benefitHere, where we are relatively

rich and fat, it’s more likely to appeal if you appreciate the German enterprise attitude called Mittelstand: having an interest in creating good (or-ganic) products with healthy happy workers (in this case chooks, plants and growers) under good conditions for long-term mutual benefit.

There’s a huge range of designs, sizes and criteria to consider before building a system. Above is an example of rotational chicken yards

designed for areas with high rainfall such as Cambodia and northern NSW. It’s important to keep the enterprise dry if you want to avoid pollution (as in nutrient runoff/loss), smelly ammonia or other unwanted gases such as methane.

When it comes to the carbon cycle and soil carbon seques-tration, I think our chooks and earthworms should wear badges stating ’Carbon Cham-pion’. It’s not surprising that all our backyard operations such as worm farms, hot and cold composting, for mulching our soil and plants and litter for our chooks, need bulk carbon (eg dry brown leaves, palm fronds, wood shavings) to keep things sweet.

Other important design considerations are:

An airy, yet predator- and vermin-proof night house with sun access.

Dry areas for dust baths and rainy weeks hangout, dry carbon storage for litter and nesting.

Good wheelbarrow access and nearby composting areas.

Include forage plants such as pigeon pea, purslane, comfrey and clovers in the yards.

n Nina Bishop is a sustainability enthusiast and enjoys the com-pany of her chooks. She drew the picture, too.

WHAT CHOOKS DO:Eat bugs, grubs, grasses, greens and seeds.Scratch and aerate the soil and compost.Lay eggs.Drop manure.

WHAT WE & OUR GARDENS WANT:Managed populations of bugs, shorter grasses.Our soils and compost tilled and aerated.To eat eggs (possibly meat).Fertiliser and compost.

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Your Sustainable Community – March, 20128Rail is on the right track for sustainable transportKarin Kolbe

Transportation is a bit like plumbing: we take it for grant-ed, and only really notice it when something goes wrong. Like when we face congestion, when there’s a road accident, when fuel surcharges on plane tickets increase or when a young person hitchhikes home late at night.

Transportation infrastruc-ture is usually big, expensive, involves several levels of government and is notoriously difficult to really understand the true costs and benefits to society, the environment and the individual. Making transport sustainable is hard, but possible. Around the globe rail is increasingly being seen as part of the answer.

Transport accounts for more than 14 per cent of our green-house gas emissions, largely from road-based transport, and it’s rising every year[1]. Road travel produces more than 40 per cent more carbon pollution than rail travel per passenger kilometre[2], making rail a good choice.

Various electric, hydrogen and hybrid cars, like the Prius, are useful in reducing car-bon emissions. However this technology can’t be imple-mented overnight to the whole country. Further, if coal-fired

electricity is used to power the electric vehicles, then we’ve not changed much.

Our predominantly road-based transport system creates problems beyond simple carbon pollution, so in the interests of true long-term sustainability this is a good moment to pause and consider other options.

Accidents cost us all, but how much? While clearly it’s impossible to put a figure

on the death of a loved one, we can quantify police time, hospital costs, lost earnings etc. Road transport gener-ates almost eight times the amount of accident costs as rail transport does. In NSW road accidents claimed 2,163 lives, caused 124,061 injuries and cost the NSW economy $13.8 billion 2006–10. So clearly shifting even a modest proportion of passenger and freight traffic from road to rail

will save lives and money. We’re all familiar with road

congestion – like driving into Byron Bay, or getting through Sextons Hill and into Brisbane. At first glance it seems obvious that building more or bigger roads will solve the problem. And it does – but only for a while.

Why? Because as soon as people see that there is space on the road, they will jump in their cars, and try to use

the road. Martin Wachs, Uni of California Transportation Centre says, ‘Like Alice at the Mad Hatter’s tea party, highway planners are caught in a vicious cycle. You can never build enough roads to keep up with congestion. Traffic always rises to exceed capacity.’

Enough of the negatives, what are some positives? Justine Hanney, chief execu-tive of Regional Development Australia Victoria outlined how

the reinvigoration of the re-gional rail network from federal and state funding has been beneficial for Victoria regional and rural tourism, industry and educational opportunities[3].

Globally the world is turning to rail. China, Europe, USA. Even Warren Buffet has been invest-ing billions [4]. Melbourne–Sydney is the fourth busiest air route in the world [5].

While most of Australia has too few people to justify high speed rail on economic grounds, the population density from Melbourne to Brisbane is greater than parts of Europe where HSR is being laid now. For moving passen-gers and freight, rail has a lot to offer in terms of truly sustain-able transport

References:[1] Dept of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency www.climatechange.gov.au/[2} The True Value of Rail, Deloitte Access Economics, available www.ara.net.au[3] BayFM interview 27 August 2010[4] Many references like this one: www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/02/working_on_the_railroad.html[5] High Speed Rail Study, Phase 1, July 2011, Prepared for the Dept of Infrastructure and Transport.

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Your guide to sustainable living on the north coast 9

Obi McDonald-Saint

In 1989 the World Wide Web was born. In fewer than 10,000 days, the web transformed nearly every aspect of human life: how we communicate, socialise, shop, learn, play and conduct business. Not since the Renaissance has such an event had such an evolutionary effect on mankind.

We underwent a paradigm shift where we became aware that it is more efficient to send electrons than atoms. Meaning, we realised it’s easier to do our banking online than to drive down to the local branch. The convenience of the web drove its popularity and its use to unprecedented levels. The web became a service as essential to us in our everyday lives as electricity and water. But this demand has come at a price and it’s the environment that has had to foot the bill.

Stored onlineThe web is made up millions

of interconnected computers spread across the world, called servers. All the content of the internet, the words, documents, links, images, movies, and music are all stored on hard drives connected to these servers. This content is viewed by millions of other computers around the world called clients. These are the computers you and I use to access the internet. Then there are a further horde of comput-ers called routers whose job it is to route information between the server and client computers.

Collectively, these comput-ers use a enormous amount of power to run. So much so, it’s estimated the Internet accounts for two per cent of global greenhouse gas emis-sions. Some studies predict the internet will be producing 20 per cent of the world’s green-house gases within a decade as the web becomes more popular and more users in developing countries come online. This is enormous growth that would see the IT industry become a much greater contributor to

greenhouse emissions than the aviation industry.

As this demand grows, so does the need for newer, faster, more energy-efficient comput-ers. So the sourcing of materials, the production of components, the manufacture of computers and the eventual waste created by the fast-growing industry make up the lifecycle of the web, all having an impact on the environment.

So how do we deal with the exponentially expansive, power hungry behemoth we’ve created? How can we use such a valuable service as the web and not rape our planet at the same time? Ultimately, it comes down to changing the way we do things.

Massive buildingsData centres are one of the

web’s biggest contributors to greenhouse emissions. These massive air-conditioned buildings are filled with with thousands of servers, which are used to store the data of indi-viduals and companies all over the world. These are the stor-age hubs for the cloud services offered by Google, Apple and Facebook. These cloud services pool resources and are an ef-ficient way to store the world’s growing data requirements. So, on one hand, data centres are a step in the right direction toward minimising our impact on the environment, but on the other hand, data centres use far too much electricity to be sustainable.

It’s this demand that could actually be a saving grace for the environment. As more and more data is required, the power bill of the data centre grows. In order to lower costs, data centres will be forced to embrace renewable energies

like solar and wind along with traditional power sources like coal and nuclear. If this push is great enough, the renewable energy industry will become a bigger and viable player in the global market. We can add to this push, by taking an interest as a consumer. Ask your cloud provider what their commit-ment is to renewable energies. Demand more of them. At the end of the day, these busi-nesses are businesses, and regardless of their size, they are at the whim of the consumer.

Purchase computers that are built to last rather than ones that are designed to be thrown away in a couple of years when the cheap components inside fail. Computers that are built of quality, recyclable material like aluminium and glass rather than plastics will often outlive cheaper models by many years. Make sure your computer is energy efficient and turn it off when you’re not using it.

E-wasteOnce your computer has

failed, don’t throw it in the trash. E-waste already accounts for a massive proportion of landfill. Find your nearest e-waste service and dispose of your ex-computer thoughtfully. Your computer manufacturer may even have an e-waste pro-gram whereby they will take your computer back without charging you.

Ironically, the web itself may be the biggest contribu-tor to offsetting its impact on the environment. Think of the activities you did before the internet came along: sending letters to friends and family, driving from shop from shop looking for something to buy, even reading a newspaper. All of these activities generate greenhouse gases. The web has made each of these tasks much more efficient, lowering our environmental impact.

n Obi McDonald-Saint is one of the founders of Mullum Mac www.mullummac.com and Byron Host webhosting service.

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Your Sustainable Community – March, 201210Going big with solar is the way forward for Australia Pat Miller

Australia’s energy supply and infrastructure is in crisis. Our ever-increasing demand for electricity is being met by power retailers hamstrung by labyrinthine legislation yet who are making vast profits.

Legislation in all states requires power companies to service demand at all times. This is compounded by their unwillingness to raise tariffs during peak use. Although power companies wallow in greenwash, the reality is they are profit driven. Everyone

needs electricity.The industry is tooled up

to produce the majority of our power from burning petrochemicals, coal and gas. Hence the insidious rise of the coal-seam gas touted wrongly as the solution to pollution. Decentralisation and localisa-tion of power production (and subsequent economies) simply does not fit the profit makers’ agenda.

The long and the short of it is that Australia’s power industry is currently completely unsus-tainable.

Ironically that’s where the

bones of our beach culture might just save the day. Australia has plenty of the stuff needed for generation of electricity on a huge scale. Sun, space and salt.

Big Solar has been a long time coming and has largely flown under the radar because of our love affair with fos-sil fuels and the entrenched cultures around burning them. Spain’s Gemasolar plant was the prototype, effectively demonstrating that big solar can deal with baseload power demand. Spain will produce seven gigawatts of solar power

by June 2013 – more than 12 per cent of the national yield – and has overtaken the United States as the world’s premier solar power generator.

The idea is incredibly simple. You focus mirrors on a pillar of salt that becomes molten; the heat stored in the salt pro-duces steam used to generate electricity.

Australia has the perfect opportunity to at last dem-onstrate we are the clever country. We need to retool our electricity distribution network, plan for big solar and think through ways to move our country towards zero emis-sions, minimal dependence on fossil fuels and work towards completely renewable energy sources.

This is largely dismissed as fantasy by the mining lobby.

Yet people in our neck of the woods are doing it already, installing solar panels and sell-ing what they produce back to the grid. Big Solar is a logical step towards producing clean energy on a large scale. The possibilities are exciting.

100% Renewable, an organ-isation dedicated to campaign-ing for clean energy in Austra-lia, has started fighting to build huge solar plants in strategic places in Australia. In the coming weeks local groups are organising the Big Solar launch across the northern rivers.

Representatives of the Caldera Environment Cen-tre, Tweed Climate Action Network and Greens joined forces with their Lismore and

Mullumbimby counterparts in Port Hacking in early Febru-ary to participate in the Big Solar Bootcamp. A weekend to generate the groundswell for renewable energy and exam-ine the benefits of major solar power generation, the boot-camp marked the mobilisation point for the 100% Renewable campaign.

Australia’s track record in supporting research and de-velopment in clean renewable energy generation is abysmal. Although up to $13 billion was earmarked from the carbon tax

to develop renewables, the po-litical obstacles are thorny and progress is slow. The Gillard government’s Clean Energy Fu-tures document gives a broad outline of how the carbon tax will support renewables.

While the arguments rage about whether the carbon tax is effective and the planning for a clean energy future is adequate, there is a simplistic reality. We can’t just keep dig-ging fuel up and burning it. It’s a moot point whether we will run out of it or if it will kill us first.

It’s a bitter irony that when governments are faced with a financial crisis they move back to the old ways. Spain cut its

government subsidy to big so-lar thermal plants in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.

The establishment of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency is a step in the right direction but 100% Renewable’s Dean Bridgfoot says it’s not happening nearly fast enough.

The 100% Renewable cam-paign has a vision for:

Australia to undertake an urgent transition to 100 per cent renewable energy.

This will be achieved by the phasing out of fossil fuels and replacement by renewable energy technology combined with large-scale energy ef-ficiency for all sectors.

A just transition for affected workers will be accompanied by the creation of thousands of jobs in the new clean-energy sector.

The brilliance of Big Solar generation involves local econ-omies and jobs. The compo-nents are manufactured locally, current infrastructure can be tweaked through the expen-diture already earmarked for the national grid upgrade and there are no environmental impacts. Solar thermal plants don’t explode, sink, spew oil or leak toxic chemicals.

The research says it’s eco-nomically viable. The logic says it’s absolutely necessary.

n Pat Miller is turning a steep block of dirt into a sustainable place for family and friends who like wit and wassail-ing. Read more here: www. patmiller.net.au.

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Your guide to sustainable living on the north coast 11

Story & photo Eve Jeffery

One of the biggest issues sur-rounding sustainability these days is the single-use plastic shopping bag. This is also probably the simplest problem to fix, something anyone can do – even without a degree in environmental science – yet these bags remain one of the most insidious evils and an ecological disaster of terminal proportions. Plastic bags and other plastic products will be the end of humans on the planet. (Some might think that a good thing.)

What appears to be the major hindrance to the demise of the plastic bag is human stupidity – people just can’t seem to remember to put their reusable bags back in the car once they have been delivered to the kitchen bench.

‘D’oh. I forgot the shopping bags. Give me plastic. Just this once’.

I am guilty of this same response to my own memory lapse. More than once. I sus-pect I am just plain stupid because I personally love the earth’s creatures but I bet my own forgetfulness has been directly responsible for the death of some wildlife. It would be interesting to see how many

turtle deaths could be attrib-uted to a human who said, ‘Just this once’.

So I am going to just say it now and hope it sinks in. Perpetuating the need for single-use plastic bags is an act of environmental terrorism! Because of our forgetfulness, Keith Williams from Austral-ian Seabird Rescue spends his mornings sifting through turtle shit in an effort to save them. He watches for the passing of their lives or the slivers of plastic that can cause them to spend up to three long months baking in the sun on the ocean’s surface as their skin slowly burns and they become infested with parasites while they starve to death.

When did we become turtle killers? When the plastic bag we bought our Weetbix and avocados home in finds its way into the ocean. The chances are that one of them has found a path through our waterways.

Plastic for a variety of reasons ends up inside sea creatures and not necessarily as you may think, as mistaken jelly-fish in the larger species. Even small pieces of degraded plastic still end up on the ocean floor and that is where the turtles feed.

From there it is a quick trip to the digestive tract and not long before the food starts to get backed-up and, as happens in reptiles with no internal heater to melt things down, the food inside starts to rot.

This basically causes a huge fart that can’t get out and the poor creature is doomed by its own gas to float aimlessly on the surface in the hot sun, un-able to dive for protection from the weather or to reach the food that sit sometimes only a few feet away on the bottom. Most perish in an unimagina-bly torturous and drawn-out starvation. The few lucky ones wash up on the beach to be either euthanased or rehabili-tated which is why the sunrise sees Keith fossicking through scats.

If you think this is scare mongering then maybe some facts will sober you. Keith says that it is sheer volume that is the cruncher. It is estimated that Australia alone uses about four billion single-use, dispos-able plastic shopping bags a year.

‘Even if we had the best waste disposal and recycling technologies, we are never going to get anywhere near

99 per cent of those being disposed of properly. Even if we did manage to do that and only one small per cent of those bags got into the waterways, we are still looking at 40,000,000 bags going into the ocean,’ says Keith.

If that doesn’t alarm you then maybe the extinction of the human race might. Just about every sea life form is now showing traces of petrol chemical toxicity (which ends up in us when we eat things as well).

‘We don’t see plastic in our environment as pollution in

the same way as we see other things’, says Keith.

‘We don’t see it as a threat to us as humans. In 50 years’ time we will not be able to eat a fish. And what people don’t realise is that the ocean creates a lot of oxygen.

‘Water covers two thirds of the planet’s surface. Carbon dioxide is taken up by the ocean’s phytoplankton. In the process of photosynthesis, phytoplankton release oxygen into the water’.

At least half of the world’s oxygen is produced via phyto-plankton photosynthesis. Do

the maths. If the ocean dies so do the phytoplankton and we all choke to death. It really is that simple.

The solution? Shop where you are forced to bring your own bag, box or trolley – farm-ers markets are the ideal choice but make an effort to support supermarkets which support resuable bags. Put something in your car or tattoo on your forehead a reminder to deliver back to the car the bags you took inside or, for the totally dim-witted, store the remote for the TV or your iPhone inside the reusables.

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<echowebsection=Your Sustainable Community>

Your Sustainable Community – March, 201212

Victoria Cosford

According to Dave Forrest, a mere half a per cent of fresh fruit sales involve organic produce. While it’s very fashion-ability might suggest other-wise – ‘organics’ the current buzzword; farmers markets proliferating in not only regional but also urban areas – the reality is that its acceptance and hence its consumption continue to be modest.

‘But you’ve got to start where you can!’, Dave tells me in the shade we have gratefully sought during a Mullumbimby Farmers Market morning.

Dave himself started caring about organics at the age of 21, back in the early 70s. He attended agricultural college in the Blue Mountains, majoring in Production Horticulture.

‘I went there’, he says, ‘as an organic grower with an interest in understanding why organic. I was looking to make a difference.’

He tells me that what trig-gered the decision was the job he entered upon leaving school: it was in computer pro-gramming. ‘Three months in a brick and glass tower studying that I decided it wasn’t the right world!’

In order to pay for his educa-tion Dave and his partner Sue started growing organic veg-

etables. ‘It was a make-it, bake-it, grow-it operation’, he says. ‘We’d go to Paddy’s Market in the mornings and sell what we had. We also started a goat farm. Being organic farmers we were definitely an anomaly in those days at Paddy’s.

‘We quickly realised we were selling the wrong product – people wanted cheap crap, people weren’t interested in food! They only wanted nov-elty. We didn’t do terribly well but we were undeterred, and it was enough to survive on.’

Tomatoes, zucchini, egg-plant, capsicum – the latter considered strange back then in their exoticism – were sold.

Then Sue was offered a teaching position up on the far north coast. Together with their herd of dairy goats, a ‘house’ cow and a calf they relocated to a property at Federal. ‘Sue spun the wool and we made cheese and milk’, Dave says.

Hippy-runFrom ‘day one’ they went into

production, supplying goat milk to the hippy-run Fundy’s in Lismore (‘we’d bring it in in glass flagons’, he recalls) and then to Santos. All they could obtain was bridging finance – as far as the banks were concerned they were high risk, an unmarried couple with not

enough acres and no money and Sue the only one with a full-time job. Within seven years, however, they had paid off their property. By this stage Dave had landed casual work at TAFE teaching Production Horticulture to youth-at-risk.

It was now 1980: having found a local with a tractor to cultivate their paddock they were growing what they could, and sending it off to the Sydney wholesale markets. ‘They didn’t know what organic was’, Dave tells me, ‘but if the quality was good you could get $2 for a 10kg box of zucchini!

We’d take them to the railhead at Bangalow and load them on the train to go to Sydney.’

By now Dave was teaching (he was the only teacher of agriculture at Lismore at the time), milking, and grow-ing vegetables. Through the Richmond Valley Reforestation group he planted 10,000 native trees. In 1985 he also planted his first macadamias into the one-hectare area where he had been growing vegetables. That has since expanded to five acres and is still growing. The couple now has about thirty acres of orchard and three farms.

Worthwhile‘It’s doing what you think is

worthwhile, what you should be doing’, Dave tells me when I comment on workloads. ‘It’s not work when it’s worthwhile.’

Here is a man who for 16 years slogged away for as much as 18 hours a day at peak periods. ‘It was full-on all the time – I’d finish night teaching at TAFE, come home and pack fruit, get up early when the pickers arrived in the morn-ing… you sleep with red dots in front of your eyes!’

Goats, macadamias, bush foods like Davidson Plums, the usual array of seasonal vegetables – ‘I was still with

my full-time teaching load’, Dave says (he had been offered fulltime in 1984), ‘so I planted oranges. I used the kitty money to buy a property with coffee trees, and I converted those trees to organics.’

He became founding mem-ber of the Tweed Richmond Organic Producers Organisa-tion, or TROPO, of which he is currently president. It was TROPO which worked towards starting up farmers markets in Byron Bay as early as 1997.

Dave established a group called Soilcare, a Landcare group for biological farmers (those growers interested in utilising organic techniques but who are currently unable to drop the use of unapproved inputs). He has been running TAFE courses and field days for Soilcare for the past ten years.

‘It’s been a really good thing – people making incremen-tal changes and eventually becoming environmentally-conscious farmers.’

Farmers marketsThen, in 2000, the first farm-

ers market was up and running. ‘Around the markets there’s this opportunity to develop a partnership between the people who grow food and the people who eat food. We had lost this, and we are now seeking to redress it. It was one of the aims of many people who came to the region’, says Dave. ‘We felt in TROPO we had to prepare a blueprint for when our unsustainable soci-ety ends. If we learn how to set up these networks now, when the crunch comes we’ll know what to do.

‘Currently we don’t have food security, although in Australia we’re really lucky with our relatively low population and large areas of farming. But for how much longer? Our security is based on oil and an

unstable climate. We’ve lost skills in the farming community to grow things without chemi-cals. Farmers work long hours for little return so why choose it? We have to make farming profitable again.’

Dave says that the way this is done is by working with the soil, improving it, lessening our need for inputs, so costs are lowered and we have healthier plants and fewer diseases. Strength, he says, comes from the partnership with environment and sound farming systems; partnerships with consumers who want you to look after the environment and who are then prepared to reward you.

Dave admits to being wary of the way ‘organics’ have be-come fashionable, saying that they have been co-opted by the big corporations.

‘I’m wary’, he tells me, ‘of the way society works. Africans can grow organic crops for Sainsbury’s and not feed themselves. Big business is very adaptable and willing to claim a new victim. Consumers have to be aware that it’s still hard to make intelligent decisions.

‘An example is that the local coffee industry is almost nullified by people who import from overseas and set themselves up with a local name. Big business co-opts the real agenda to suit itself, and the local family farmers are the ones that lose out and are over-ridden by those business structures.’

For all that, Dave Forrest professes to be an optimistic person. Over the 32 years he has been teaching at TAFE he has had ‘a few thousand students’ and it gratifies him to see them all using improved farming practices. Here is a man who started where he could – a man who really has made a difference.

n Victoria Cosford is a journal-ist, food writer and author of the memoir Amore and Amoretti – A Tale of Love and Food in Italy. See more at www.lavittoria.com.au.

THE GREEN & CLEAN AWARENESS TEAM INC. welcomes you to help clean, plant and protect our precious natural environment at 9am – 12pm, the 3rd Sunday of every

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Dave Forrest in his lush vegetable garden. Photo Jeff ‘Arty Choke’ Dawson

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Your guide to sustainable living on the north coast 13

Story & photo Mary Gardner

In early March, an alarmed UNESCO visits the Great Barrier Reef to investigate degrada-tion of this World Heritage Site. The whole world watches as the agitated community of Gladstone fundraise to pay scientists who are examining diseased marine wildlife.

The most important hope we have now to lead us to sustainability of the ocean is upset people. In particular, upset young people who are judging the efforts of the older generation and saying they can do better. Here are some tips for them, as well as those still young enough at heart.

Become ‘ocean literate’

Academics in the US and UK find the general public are poorly informed about the oceans. After all the fascinating nature shows, we are left with superficial collections of pretty but disjointed facts.

Marine researchers Fletcher and Potts point out that a truly engaged public is informed by ‘deep learning’. Yes, the full fathom five. So reach into science as well as arts. Train yourself to weave experiences together, whether they be expressed as words, images or numbers. We need every kind of intelligence to understand an alien environment that cov-ers 70 per cent of the surface area of the planet.

Our savvy of the sea is barely a step ahead of our exploita-tion. There are many types of ‘hands-on’ learning. The latest UN report urges a ‘greening’ of maritime enterprises with projects that transform coastal communities. Fletcher and Potts call people to take up ‘ocean citizenship’ and lifestyle changes.

Many researchers are inviting the public to join in ‘citizen science’.

Local programs count sea birds, shellfish and sharks. On the internet, projects involve hundreds of thousands of volunteers. Some help the UK’s National Maritime Museum ex-tract weather data from Royal Navy ship logs dating from the mid 1900s. Others listen for meaning in the recorded songs of orcas at ‘Whale FM’.

More options for you on

the website Dynamic Patterns http://research.dynamicpat-terns.com/opportunities.

Does something else marine catch your interest? Create a program to build that knowl-edge. Start a movement or a new enterprise. If you think ‘someone should…’, be that person.

Think systems not thoughts

The ocean challenges us to think differently. Whirling thoughts overwhelm and confuse. But, with training, we can sense a dynamic system of interwoven actions.

A pioneer in sustainability thinking, Donella Meadows, identified the power of lever-age points. These are action stations in networks that constantly test a system’s resilience, its ability to hold itself together over time. Break-ing resilience pushes a system through a phase change into a completely new state.

Since the 1800s, Chesapeake Bay lost oyster beds and fish while being flooded with nutri-ent run off. The system shifted from a network dominated by fish of many species and sizes to one dominated by jellyfish and microbes. Ditto 399 other locations with similar system changes.

When biologist Jeremy Jackson summarises modern threats to global seas, he lists major system changes. Our ‘shifting baselines’ and ‘fishing down food webs’. The impacts of losing 90 per cent of large predatory fish. Nutrient pol-lution. Misunderstandings leading to decades of fishery mismanagement. Acidification of seawater. Climate changes already underway.

These all work in subtle and sophisticated ways. Popular media can miss the point alto-gether. Train yourself to watch systems. Often, these move on, not back. This realisation drives conservation and precaution-ary principles.

Join in as a reliable team member

Ocean literacy and systems thinking sensitise you to the connections which support you and the power you have as one informed citizen. Once you know everything you do has

impact, you recognise you’re already a team member. From household to region, from humanity to biodiversity, the team is as large as you can care.

Make yourself reliable: listen, consider the uncertain-ties and pick specific things you will do. Then act, from rubbish pick ups, lifestyle changes, enterprise overhauls to political campaigns and protests. Steadily, consistently, peacefully. And enjoy – include musicians.

Upskill everyoneSustainability is for everyone.

Whether you are with the 99 per cent or the one per cent, preschoolers or scholars, share yourself. In Byron Bay, Nate McDonald specialises in law interpretation. He coached local teenager Madi Stewart in reading some complex fishing legislation. This added a new dimension to her shark conservation campaign, which is gaining national attention.

McDonald, who also coaches Sea Shepherd staff, offers these Mustor Mindset basics free to everyone working to protect animals and the environment. (www.mustor.com online soon).

Plan for the long haul

In August 2011, after a failed attempt eight years ago, Dee Tipping rallied Trude Helm and friends one more time to campaign against free plastic bags in Byron Bay. Now, dozens of local businesses, two farmers markets and Byron Council are taking action. Money is raised for Seabird Rescue to rehabili-tate turtles that swallow plastic. Thousands have signed Tim Silverwood’s petition to the NSW government.

Elsewhere, the EU pays fish-ermen to haul in marine plastic. Alka Zadgaonkar, a female Indian chemist, invents an inexpensive process converting any plastic rubbish back to pe-troleum. Will we see this, along with other changes, converge and transform our relationship with the sea?

Sustainability, if we can reach it at all, may take yet another generation. So keep to the course.

n Read more of Mary Gardner’s work at www.tangleoflife.org.

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<echowebsection=Your Sustainable Community>

Your Sustainable Community – March, 201214

David Hunter Tow

There will be an urgent need to harness the full resources and intelligence of the Web to coordinate and manage major programs relating to global warming and survival of the planet – including its life and human civilisation.

The cards are now on the ta-ble – the climate skeptics’ bluff has been called. The latest sci-ence suggests that of the criti-cal indicators of the health of the planet, three have already passed the critical stage and the remainder are perilously close to the abyss.

Those past critical are biodiversity loss, ozone deple-tion, and ocean warming and acidification, with chemical pollution, land and freshwater over-use and nitrogen and phosphorous runoff close behind. Most importantly, at current levels of CO2 accumula-tion, the maximum two-degree Celsius threshold increase will be breached within 20 years.

In addition, over the past 50 years the world’s population has almost doubled to seven billion, global consumption of food and fresh water has more than tripled, fossil fuel use has quadrupled and vertebrates have declined by more than 30 per cent.

It is clear that managing the

planet’s outcomes to provide life with a future is the para-mount goal that must focus all humanity’s skills, creativity and knowledge, from now into the far future.

Up until comparatively recently, managing resources, infrastructure and catastro-phes has been largely an ad hoc affair run on a country rather than regional or global basis. This is not surprising considering the evolution of our civilisation, which has been based on a largely competitive, winner-take-all model between individuals, organisations, cities and nation-states.

Over the last few decades, however, a realisation has dawned that this is an extreme-ly inefficient and counterpro-ductive approach and totally unsustainable in the modern carbon-induced warming era. This is particularly the case when it comes to managing critical global issues such as climate change, spread of dis-ease, ecosystem protection and major catastrophes – including mega-droughts, oil-spills and earthquakes.

Although still operating in largely fragmented mode, humans are beginning to mo-bilise cooperatively, creating global research consortiums, trade and business alliances and knowledge exchange net-

works. But a lot more is needed to ensure our survival – primar-ily by becoming a lot cleverer in focusing our scientific, tech-nology and social resources.

One of the most significant advances recently announced, is the European FuturicT pro-ject. This ambitious European Commission-funded billion euro enterprise is designed to simulate the knowledge resources of the entire planet – not just physical but social and economic, mobilising partners from most of the top university research centres in Europe.

The ‘Living Earth Simulator’ is a major part of this project to be completed by 2022. It will mine economic, technological, environmental and health data

to create a model of the entire planet’s dynamics in real time; applying it to solve major prob-lems relating to these areas.

There is now a vital need to better understand the global interrelationships enmeshing the society in which we live and the effect that these have on the planet as a whole. We also need to know how to leverage the benefits of global social systems, while at the same time limiting any down-sides they may generate.

Labelled ‘Reality Mining’, the plan is to gather information about every aspect of the living planet, including its life-forms, and use it to simulate the be-haviour and evolution of entire ecosystems and economies,

helping predict and prevent fu-ture potential crises. The Living Earth Simulator is expected to predict for example, potential economic bubbles, impacts of global warming, pandemics and conflicts and how to best mitigate them.

The FuturicT project has the potential to accelerate this process, operating as an essential catalyst and mobiliser for managing our future. But there are many other advanced projects with the potential to complement this grand design and working in parallel to help complete the big picture.

The focus is on preparing for a smarter future for planet Earth – creating solutions for managing more efficiently and reliably the world’s infrastruc-ture, energy, food, water and health. This will be achieved through harnessing the im-mense power of advanced artificial intelligence, math-ematical, computing, commu-nication, control and modelling techniques.

Game-changing projects such as FuturicT are critical, but managing the planet requires much more – in essence coordinating and focusing the entire knowledge base and mind-power of our civilisation.

This should implemented as a worldwide public project, in the same manner as the

internet and web: with each component of the planet’s in-tellectual mosaic – individuals, research groups, corporations and governments, contributing and mining their knowledge resources – each according to their creative capacity and expertise.

Such a global vision is too fundamentally vital and com-plex to be funnelled through individual private organisa-tions, politicians or states. It must instead function as a self-organising supra-national entity – evolving eventually as a largely autonomous system.

Managing the planet there-fore will involve the massive task of coordinating thousands of techniques, technologies, systems and initiatives to gain the maximum leverage within the timescale available.

There is only one practi-cal mechanism to ensure the ultimate success of such a gargantuan endeavour – har-nessing the intelligence of the web itself.

n David Hunter Tow is an Aus-tralian science and technology communicator. Director of the Future Planet Research Centre, he runs a series of blogs, including http://futureplanet-blog.blogspot.com, and the science program website www.theoriesofeverything.com.

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<echowebsection=Your Sustainable Community>

Your guide to sustainable living on the north coast 15

Mandy Nolan

Sustainability is simply not sustainable. It is the ultimate survival of the species riddle. An evolutionary entropic condundrum that goes to the core of our continued exist-ence. Planetary resources are finite, and it has been scientifi-cally established that we need to conserve our use. Back in New Testament times Jesus could turn water into wine, but unless he makes his long-awaited return and transforms sand into oil, or those awful Kardashians into coal, then we’re screwed.

Alternative energies just aren’t being adopted fast enough to make a differ-ence. In fact it’s pretty clear the planet won’t be able to sustain future populations with energy or food without incur-ring a minimum 2cm sea-level rise within the next 50 years. Environmental Armageddon is not only predicted to be on the way, some scientists are specu-lating that with our current unchanging political mindset that catastrophe could await within this century. (On the upside, imagine the party at the ‘End of the World’ Festival – of course it would be in Byron Bay, and the best thing is not only would you not need a DA you wouldn’t have to clean up!)

One certain way to reduce the draw on resources is to reduce the population. It’s maths. Or at least it appears to be. Fewer people equals less land needed for food produc-tion, less energy required etc etc. It’s a pretty straightforward thesis based on the theory that less equals less. But we live in a capitalist economy, where less, unfortunately equals less than less, and then even more less, and then… total less: extinction. It took a capitalist like Dick Smith to point this out to a bunch of politicians who seemed unwilling to enter into any discussion about the framework of how our world works.

Dick was right. Turns out that he really is a Clever Dick. Un-less we change our economic system and the philosophy under which we operate, it doesn’t matter how many solar panels we whack on our roofs, sustainability simply cannot be sustained. Capitalism is built on unsustainability: that is, continual growth. And that growth applies to everything, from production to people.

When I had my last daughter Ivy I noted that a rather unkind letter in The Echo brandish-ing me for my environmental irresponsibility for having four biological children. At face value

this is a simplistic argument. I am clearly an immoral slut. But, maybe I’m also a saint? People who have lots of children are squeezing resources. That’s hard to dispute. However, our eco-nomic system is completely reli-ant on high birth rates. In fact, in our current system, unless you knock out a few kids, then you are doing future generations great harm. And here lies the conundrum. In order to replace ourselves every woman needs to have 2.1–2.2 children. As more and more women decide to exercise their right to choose not to have children, the bulk of the breeding responsibility falls

on sluts like me. We are providing the people

who will not only care for you, but pay the tax to provide the infrastructure necessary to sustain community in the developed world. You see, if you are a baby boomer you need the younger generations to be breeding at an increased rate to provide a workforce of wage earners who pay enough tax to provide the resources you will need for ageing: hospitals, aged care facilities, palliative care, transport, nursing etc etc. It’s already looking pretty grim for a lot of ageing baby boomers as sufficient capital cannot be raised to support their non-tax-paying years. As I am well over the breeding quota I was even considering auctioning off 1.8 of my children’s future earning capacity on eBay to a rich child-less boomer.

Economic analysts and forecasters like Keating saw this impending social doom and embarked on a quest for boomers to forsake reliance on the system and become self-sustaining through super funds. It was a clever idea but hit an obvious glitch when the market crashed recently and many self-funded retirees lost a good part of their booty. It seems a terrible irony that we need more people to pay for the people we already have,

particularly as more and more people will be living longer, with much longer non-wage-earning life than ever before.

It seems preposterous but in places like Japan and South Korea where the birth rates are as low as 0.8 by the end of the century that they will be extinct. That’s right. Those Japa-nese tourists you so often see up at the Gold Coast cuddling our koalas may soon have to be heritage listed themselves. Why, if they don’t get a little more amorous we’ll be visiting the last few surviving Japanese people in nature reserves and getting photographs hugging them. Those two nations could be the next Tasmanian Tigers.

I have been giving the future of the human race great thought, and can’t work out how we are going to sustain life by a) reducing and replacing our resources and b) reducing and replacing ourselves. And so we are faced with the Great Extinction conundrum: to breed or not to breed. I really can’t work it out. The fall of capitalist society looks very different from the one Karl Marx predicted, but it seems that we are heading for total system collapse. Bring on the revolution!

Ah, it was so much easier when we were just amoeba in a Petri dish, rooting and drown-ing in our own shit.

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