Climate Action Now!

 Evie & Liv with their signs

We attended the national day of climate action rally in Melbourne's Treasury Gardens today, and as you can see, it was a beautiful day.  We got to hear some great speakers, and be energised in a crowd of people wanting the same thing- action on climate change.  It's good to go to these events and see how many people care about our future on this planet, when it sometimes feels like no-one cares.  It's always heartening to see elderly people showing their support, and there were many of them there.  Looks like there were about 25,000 people there, HUGE!

National Day of Climate Action

Will you be at a national day of climate action event this Sunday?  We'll be at the Melbourne event at Treasury Gardens at 11am.  To find an event close to you, you can go here.

New chook gate

My dad made up this gate for us out of offcuts from his work, that were destined for the skip bin.  It pains him to see good useful things thrown away, and rightly so.  The 2 cypress posts were also being thrown out.  Andrew spent a good part of the weekend getting it all in place, and now we have much easier access to the chook run.  It's a bit wet from the rain we've had, and we should oil it pretty soon.  Jonty approves, it's a new thing to climb on.  Thanks Dad!

If you agree that we should keep climate change denial on the editing room floor (of newspapers), and have a minute to sign a petition to the major Victorian newspapers, please go here.

March against Monsanto

I'll be marching against Monsanto on Saturday (Melbourne, 2-4pm, outside the State Library), and this is why

Will you be marching?

Let your opinion be heard

Just a couple of petition-y things if you'd like to put your name to them:

The people's RET review (renewable energy target)

From the website:

Big power companies and lobby groups who want to slow the development of renewables in Australia are using the RET review process to try and reduce the renewable energy target.
Without the same money and lobbying power as these industry groups it can be very hard for ordinary citizens to have our voices heard.
The People’s RET review will make sure that Australians have a chance to tell our decision makers what kind of energy future we want. Vote Now!

Change.org has a petition to sign if you're fed up with the major supermarkets selling cheap milk, which has prompted 45 dairies in QLD alone to shut down.   We buy Jonesy's milk from our local green grocer, to support independent dairies.

Coles - Up the price of generic brand milk to a sustainable rate of return for all. 

 

Food swap

The girls and I attended our first food swap today, at Manifold Heights Primary School.  I took a big bag of lemons, and 2 dozen eggs.  I came away with a big piece of pizza, some chillies, a lemon/lime cross, a jar of jam, and some Jerusalem artichokes.  I'll plant the artichokes so we can grow some more.  I wasn't sure what to expect in the middle of winter, but I think we did allright, and got to meet some lovely like minded people.

Andrew's Green Star award

Andrew was presented with a Green Star Award at work this week, after submitting a report of what we do at our house and in our lives to live more sustainably.  He was a joint winner with 2 others from USA, with many runners up from around the world.  We're pretty proud of this achievement (and I consider myself a joint winner of this award!), it's great to be recognised for doing what we do.  The prize was a solar powered backpack that you can charge your laptop, mobile phone etc on, while you go for a walk in the sun.  The plaque is made from recycled green glass, and is very pretty (my favourite colour).  Here is the report that he submitted:

This is the story of my family and our green existence.  There are four of us 
in the family: my wife, my two young daughters and myself.  We live on a fairly 
typical surburban block in the state of Victoria, Australia.  The block is 680 
square metres in size, with a 3 bedroom 1950s single storey double brick house.  
We've been in the house now for almost 4 years and have made a number of changes 
to the house to make it more environmentally friendly, as well as changed our 
lifestyle to match.

Power
=====

Power is supplied by a grid-connected 2kW system, connected 18 months ago.  In 
that time, we've generated over 3MWh of solar energy, feeding more than two 
thirds of that back into the grid.  As almost all of Victoria's power is 
generated by brown coal power stations, pulling power from the grid is not 
something we want to do if we want to be environmentally aware.  By feeding our 
excess generated capacity back into the grid, we are in some ways helping our 
neighbours use renewable power.

Our daily usage is approximately 6kWh, about a third of the average home in the 
state (16-18kWh).  We use LED lighting on all our high-usage lights, and 
compact flourescents on the remainder.  Our broken TV was recently replaced by 
a LCD LED TV that uses very little power despite my children's obsession with 
daytime children's TV.  We use laptops as PCs; this substantially cut our power 
bill when we switched over to these.  Both PC and TV outlets are fitted with 
standby power switches that switch the devices off physically when not in use.  
This has also reduced our night time power bill considerably.  

The remaining offender is our refridgerator, inherited from my wife's 
grandparents.  It contributes about third of the power usage in the house.  
It is unlikely to be replaced before necessary as there are currently few 
models more efficient than this model that are available at present, and none 
at a reasonable price.

Heating and Cooling
===================

Victoria is a temperate climate, with winter nights dropping to around 5 
degrees celsius at night and rarely colder than 10 degrees C in the day.  
Summer usually has about 3 days above 40 degrees Celsius, with temperatures 

averaging around 30 degrees for most of January and February.  As such, a 
'normal' brick veneer house typical to the area does not require a massive 
amount of heating over winter, but would get quite hot over summer and more 
than likely have air conditioning.

As our house is double brick, it has excellent insulating properties, and the 
internal rendered walls provide large amounts of thermal mass to the house.  
There is also in roof insulation to prevent heat loss and add thermal mass.  
This means that temperature variations in the house are minimised, and the 
house remains warm in winter and cool in summer.  It is fitted with a space 
heater, but no airconditioning.  As is typical for houses in Victoria, the 
primary heating source is natural gas.  The single heater is used only during 
the winter months (late April - September).

In the four years we've been at this house, the house has only once been 
intolerably hot, a period of 3 consecutive days above 45 degrees in 2009 that 
followed quickly after a period of 3 consecutive days above 43 degrees.  In 
this case, the house's thermal mass stood no chance and took some time to cool 
down again.  

Water
=====

Water security is a big issue in Australia.  Rainfall is not consistent across 
the continent, and Victoria can be quite a dry state despite its location.  As 
recently as 2 years ago, the city I live in was under Stage 4 water 
restrictions - essentially allowing you to drink and clean, with no other uses 
allowed, and with a daily usage target per household of 150 litres (40 gallons) 
and water storage levels below 20%.  At the time, we installed a 4500 litre 
water tank, which has been used to keep our garden watered from rainwater off 
our garage.  We just installed another three 2400 litre tanks fed by rainwater 
from the roof of the house, taking the total water storage capacity on site to 
almost 12,000 litres or 3200 gallons.  These will eventually be used for laundry 
and to flush toilets, as well as to maintain our productive gardens.

Our mains water supply is heated by a solar hot water system consisting of two 
evacuated tube panels connected to a gas-boost instant hot water system.  This 
replaced a regular gas-fired hot water heater, and resulted in a two-thirds 
reduction in our gas bill.  The gas boost system is rarely used, and the system 
retains sufficient heat overnight to keep my morning shower running on solar-heated water.

Garden
======

When we purchased the house, the garden was typical of the houses built by 
European migrants to the area in the 1950s.  There was a large expanse of lawn 
space, some fruit trees and a small vegetable patch.  The front of the house 
was lawn and flower beds.  We straight away planted out the vegetable patch and 
combined with the water restrictions and drought killing most of the lawn in 
the back yard, we elected to turn part of the area into a screened native plant 
garden. This provides a shady play area for the children. We also decided to 
build out some more garden beds for productive growing space.  We installed 
citrus and fruit trees (oranges, mandarin, avocado, cherry, stonefruits, pears 
and apples) as well as a row of olive trees to screen the shed off and provide 
fruit.

We have recently decided to convert the front garden into productive space and 
have installed approximately 15 square metres of productive garden beds.  Our 
winter crops of garlic, carrots and brassicas are all growing well and will be 
ready for harvest later in the year.  These will be used by us to meet our own 
needs and to trade with friends for other produce we are not growing.  We are 
also experimenting with growing grain crops like wheat and later in the year, 
soy.  These are primarily used to condition the soil, but hopefully will also 
provide a harvest that can be used in our breadmaking.

At the rear of the garden, housed in their own large run are our three Isa 
Brown and 3 Aracauna chickens.  These chickens may soon be augmented by another 
two Plymouth Rock chickens.  Isa Brown chickens are bred to lay eggs, and we 
receive almost 20 eggs from the 3 chickens over the course of a week.  These 
are used by us where possible and traded or gifted when our fridge is fully 
stocked.  The additional chickens will provide a more suitably sized flock as 
well as teaching our children about where their favourite foods come from.  

Our local council zoning allows us to keep up to 12 chickens, but restricts or 
forbids other animals such as sheep or pigs.  Both animals are highly desired 
by my children for their 'farm' and were we allowed to, I daresay pester power 
would mean our backyard would include a sty and a sheep run.  We are currently 
investigating the effort required to maintain a bee hive, which is permitted 

 under local zoning, and will help with pollination of the garden and be a 
steady supply of honey.

Lifestyle
=========

My wife has take the lead in showing us how a sustainable lifestyle can be led.  
She handmakes children's clothing which is sold online around the world.  Her 
test pieces clothe our children, and reduce the amount of low-grade consumer 
clothing we purchase.  She makes her own bread, baking 2 loaves at a time which 
feed the family over several days.  She makes her own soap, simultaneously 
keeping us clean, reducing our consumption and providing soapy gifts for other 
family members.

We are a single car family and use the car primarily on weekends.  My wife 
does not have a driving license, so walks everywhere with children in tow, and 
the car is only used by me to visit the farflung places around our city on 
weekends.  I ride my bike to our local train station and catch public transport 
to the Red Hat office.  At our current rate, we fill the car with petrol about 
every 2-3 weeks.  Once the children no longer need child restraints, we will 
downsize the vehicle to a more economical and efficient vehicle.

What we have been able to do is to show our friends and neighbours that it is 
possible to live a low-impact, sustainable, green life without having a huge 
impact on our enjoyment and the quality of our life.  A little bit of effort 
and education can make a huge difference to the cost of running your home, as 
well as reducing your impact on the environment.  There is a real sense of 
achievement to prepare your breakfast using bread that is fresh baked and eggs 
that were inside the chicken not twenty minutes prior.

New tanks

Andrew and my dad have installed 3 new tanks in our front yard, so we can water our new edible front garden and driveway.  The tank in the second photo has an identical one behind it, and they are connected, so they will have equal amounts of water in them.  We've gone from one big tank with 4,500L capacity, to 4 tanks with a total of 11,700L capacity.  After all the rain we had over the last 2 weeks, including nearly one month's worth on Friday, the tank on it's own is full, and the other 2 are well on the way to being full.  Water security...check.

I Can Change Your Mind About..Climate

This is the name of a TV show that will be aired next Thursday night (26th April), at 8:30pm, on ABC1. There will be a live Q & A after the show. If you are alarmed about climate change, you can fill in this survey, as the results so far show, that the majority are sceptical/don't care. For more information about the show, look here.

How would you spend 100 Billion dollars?

This is how much could be raised from the mining boom over then next 10 years if the original (not watered down) mining tax were to go ahead. You can vote here for what you would spend it on, after watching the short video. I went with the large scale solar power investment.

Ethical paper pledge

So Reflex Paper was stripped of its FSC (forest stewardship council) certification, because they are using trees from Victorian old growth forests rather than plantations and recycled paper. This is also a major threat to endangered species. There's a pledge you can make, to stop buying Reflex paper and stop shopping at Officeworks until they stop stocking reflex paper. Have a look here for more information. I'm all signed up of course :)

No Harvey No!

This ad has been blocked from airing on TV, so you'll just have to go here to watch it:

http://noharveyno.net/

I don't shop there anyway, but definitely won't be now!

The next (pro) carbon tax rally...

Will be held on Sunday the 5th of June at the State Library (Melbourne) at 11am. The battle is not yet won, I plan to be there to show my support.

Images from Saturday's rally

Evie's first rally

Clever placards

Me

What a buzz to be one of 7,000 odd people coming together to show support for a price on carbon. This was a counter rally to an anti-carbon tax protest held outside our prime minister's office in her electorate. They only drew a crowd of 400. We caught the train to Melbourne with my mum & dad and our girls, caught a tram to Treasury Gardens where the rally was held, then ate our packed lunch of homemade bread in the gardens afterward. Pretty low carbon I think :)

A time for climate action

We'll be heading to Melbourne on Saturday for a peaceful gathering, to show our country that we support a carbon tax to help combat climate change. There's a lot of scare mongering going on, focusing on how much everything is going to cost with a carbon tax, yet if people change their ways, they may actually save some money, whilst polluting less = the main aim of a carbon tax.

This is from GetUp!, the organisers of the event:

The fear campaign against a price on pollution has become so absurd that talkback radio hosts are claiming that a price on pollution means the end of our economy and life as we know it. Independent MPs are even receiving death threats.

Now, these same radio hosts have joined with climate deniers and far-right politicians to organise anti-climate action rallies as part of Tony Abbott's so called "people's revolt". They start on Saturday outside Julia Gillard's electorate office in Melbourne. We must make sure that on the other side of town, our movement comes together to present the positive, mainstream views that hard-line 'shock jocks' prefer to ignore.

If we're successful, the media won't be able report on the anti-carbon price rallies without also reporting that more people turned out to express support for a price on pollution.

Can you join us?

Where: Treasury Place, Melbourne.
When: This Saturday (March 12) at 11am
RSVP: https://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClickHereToRSVP

Right wing shock jock Chris Smith said last week on MTR radio: "I'll do my best on a daily basis to spread the word". We don't have a radio network to promote our rally, but GetUp members have proved before that, when it counts, we're willing to publicly show how much we care about clean energy & climate action.

Click here to RSVP

I was in Canberra last week and almost every politician and journalist I met with talked to me about the anti-climate action rallies. They're spooked. I assured them that the campaign for climate action was just as strong -- and now, we need to demonstrate this.

That's why it's so important we join together for a few hours this Saturday March 12 -- not to have a louder, angrier rally, but to show the difference in both size and tone. While they're shouting their angry slogans and misinformation, on the other side of Melbourne we'll hold a positive, family-friendly gathering to stand up for our vision for clean energy and preserving a safe climate for our kids.

With your help, we'll prove there are more of us than there are of them and in doing so we'll make a powerful statement.

See you this Saturday.

Simon Sheikh
National Director
for the GetUp team

P.S. We're counting on more then just your presence. We counting on your creativity (as you make a clever homemade banner if you can) and your persuasiveness (as you charm your friends into joining you). RSVP here

End of day one

The 10 panels are up, and they'll be back in the morning to install the inverter, and put the cables through the roof.

It's solar day

This is what's happening at our place today! 10 solar panels, 2 kW up on our roof. I hope you can't see any tradie's crack ;)

Casuarina Farm

We had our first fruit and vegetable box delivered today from Casuarina Farm, we found out about them at Ecofest. I've wanted to do this for a while, and I hadn't heard of these guys before. So far, so good, our garden will provide us with the rest- lettuce, cauliflower, leeks, silverbeet, spring onions, and soon, snow peas. I like to buy organic where possible, and this makes it that little bit easier.

Awesome Ecofest!

Just a quick post to say that Ecofest was a resounding success, with attendance far exceeding our expectations! Everything ran very smoothly, with a great buzz, everyone was asking when we were doing it again! We all put in a lot of effort, so it's not something we want to do all the time, but we may be able to run the market every 6 months or so. Bec and I did very well with our market stall, looks like we may have the market bug now :) The only down side was that Andrew's digital SLR is missing, presumed stolen, thus we have no photos to share :( We should have some on the blog soon from other cameras around on the day. Not sure of the grand total of $ raised, but we should be able to buy at least one water tank, which was part of the aim of the day. The other aim, to strengthen community ties was certainly achieved. Yay for us, well done and thank-you to everyone involved.

Ecofest

Just a reminder to local green minded folks that Ecofest is on this Saturday 10am-3pm, our whole family will be there, I will be sharing a market stall with Bec.
This pretty little number will be on my stall, it was a pillowcase a few days ago, picked up in an op shop, and it is beautifully soft, as only second hand bedding can be. It's a size 1 by the way. See you there!