http://www.safeclimate.org.au/climaterally

I couldn't help noticing the absence of 'the mainstream' (whoever they are) at today's rally. The 2000-odd people in forrest place, perth were the usual crowd of enviro kids, ferals, socialists, aging hippies etc that u'd expect at such an event. The placards and chants were mind-numbingly unoriginal... "what do you want? 100% renewables, when do you want it? now!". Even the same old foe in government was once castagated as inadequate/incompetent/ideologically bankrupt/evil...

perhaps it was a case of us collectively wanting to remain under our collective safety blanket of virtuosity by obsfucating total responsibility for Australia's poor climate targets to government. But this is a democracy not a dictatorship. We're partly to blame for the governement's inaction by not popularising our worldview - politicians are merely puppets that pander to public opinion. Perhaps we need to consider why we have such little influence over our mainstream bros and sistas. How do we create a people's movement that so radically shakes the dominant consumerist/capistist paradigm to favour simple living???

How to we empower people to follow us without being coercive or critical of their dream/worldview/ imperfection??

Upcoming events

SOS – Students of Sustainability Conference

Melbourne from the 6th -10th July

If anyone is interested in coming to the conference in July, please try and come to the meetings so we can organise some fundraising. If you can’t make the meetings please let me know. Any ideas for fundraising please let me know. For more information check out this website: http://www.studentsofsustainability.org/ or send me an email.

Power Shift Conference

11-13 July 2009, Sydney Australia

The conference will bring together 3,000 young people from all over Australia for three days of decisive action on climate change. It will be a massive display of our commitment to finding stronger climate solutions, with participants hearing from some of the leading figures of the climate movement in Australia and internationally about how we can work together to implement clear and ambitious plans of action. http://www.aycc.org.au/?page_id=388

Vegan Food

There is now vegan food, from Oneworld Restaurant, being served at Walters Cafe. It is being trialled on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Please head down and show your support to ensure that the trial is successful. Over the study break there will not be Oneworld cuisine served, also Walters closes over the break so maybe that’s a fantastic opportunity to check out the Oneworld Restaurant for yourselves? ;)

Bob Brown Lecture

Dear Attendees (and those unfortunately unable to attend due to venue constraints).

Please find below a link to a filmed recording of Senator Brown's Curtin Public Lecture on May 6:
http://jcipp.curtin.edu.au/pa/archive_09.cfm (click on video recording against May 6 listing).

Your continuing support of our events is appreciated.
Refer to: http://jcipp.curtin.edu.au/pa/upcoming_events.cfm

Kind regards

The John Curtin Institute of Public Policy

Events

• Community Garden Network

Growing Communities WA and the Community Garden Network are pleased to be hosting The WA Community Garden Forum this September. Please make note of the following dates as it is sure to be a great event;

Friday 18^th September -Sundowner and Opening

Saturday 19^th September -Full day program of speakers and workshops

Sunday 20^th September -Bus Tour of Community Gardens

If you are interested in contributing to the development of the Forum Program in anyway such as facilitating a workshop, catering, nominating or being a speaker, promotion etc. please contact us.

Kind Regards,

Ailsa Grieve

Project Support Officer

Growing Communities WA

A project supporting community gardens

ph. 1300 501 357

info@wacgn.asn.au

PO Box 8252 PERTH BUSINESS CENTRE WA 6849

www.wacgn.asn.au

• The Community Climate Change Dialogue

The Community Climate Change Dialogue will be the first major community debate on climate change in WA. This FREE* event is your chance to have your say on climate change and is not to be missed. When: Sunday 28 June, 8.30am – 4.30pmWhere: Murdoch University Cost: * There is no charge for participation although a late registration fee may apply after 12 June. Lunch will only be available if preordered and prepaid ($15), as indicated on your registration form, otherwise bring your own lunch and refreshments. Click here to register Speakers include: Dr Bryson Bates, Theme Leader ,CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship & Chief Research Scientist Div. Marine & Atmospheric Research Dr Linda Chambers, Senior Scientist, Centre for Australian Weather & Climate Research (Bureau of Meteorology) Climate Change Group Dr Paul Wilkes, Vice President, Sustainable Energy Now Mr Peter Robertson, State Coordinator, The Wilderness Society Mr Piers Verstegen, Director, Conservation Council of WA Dr Nic Dunlop, Citizen Science Program Coordinator, Conservation Council of WA Dr Brad Pettitt, Dean, Institute of Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP) Murdoch University Ms Nicole Hodgson, Lecturer Sustainable Development, ISTP Murdoch University CLICK HERE TO REGISTER Further information: Conference Convenor: Carolyn Hofmeester Registrations: Ariane Cances Phone: (08) 9420 7266 Email: conswa@conservationwa.asn.au This dialogue's emissions are being offset by Carbon Neutral.

· Anawa – Anti Nuclear

Coming Events www.anawa.org.au/event

Thursday 28^th May, 6pm:

Peaceful Presence at Frasers - Kings Park (visit website)

Friday 5^th June, 6-8pm:

BUMP Campaign Launch, The Palms, Rokeby Road - Subiaco (visit website)

Saturday 13^th June, 12.30pm:

Climate Emergency Rally, Coalition for a Safe Climate (visit www.safeclimate.org.au)

Wednesday 17^th June, 6.30pm:

FANGraiser - Sushi, Wine and Film Night at FTI, Fremantle. Screening “Uranium – is it a country?” (53min). Produced in 2008 by the German initiative Nuking the Climate, this documentary takes a look at the footprints of nuclear energy from mining uranium at Roxby Downs in Australia to the other side of the world in France & Germany (entry by donation)

• Climate Camp

Is a camp to empower people to take action on climate change, proposed for the end of the year. The camp will have a focus on dirty coal industry. We need heaps of people take on roles to make this happen. The next meeting is on Thursday the 21^st of May, at 6pm, at Charlies, 458 Charles St, North Perth. If you would you would like to get involved or more information please contact Dom at Dominique.lieb@gmail.com

· WASEN Mad Skills in May

Mad skills are essential to all activists.. From being able to facilitate your way out of a tight corner to fixing your bike with only cable ties to the perfect strategy for saving the planet.

This May the West Australian Student Environment Network (WASEN) will take you on a journey of radical popular education. Check it out! Learn something new! Share your mad skills! If you would like to run a workshop or for more information contact WestASEN@gmail.com
or call Dom -0415 258 301

Attending any of the workshops is FREE, but donations are welcome! Lunch will be provided (but feel free to bring something to share)

Saturday May 30
Location: UWA or Murdoch or Charlies Gally TBA
Workshops and times:
10-12: Personal Change and Sustainable Activism

1-3: Scamming the System that scams you!

Around the traps

Climate Camp

Is a camp to empower people to take action on climate change, proposed for the end of the year. The camp will have a focus on dirty coal industry. We need heaps of people take on roles to make this happen. The next meeting is on Thursday the 21^st of May, at 6pm, at Charlies, 458 Charles St, North Perth. If you would you would like to get involved or more information please contact Dom at Dominique.lieb [at] gmail.com

WASEN Mad Skills in May

Mad skills are essential to all activists.. From being able to facilitate your way out of a tight corner to fixing your bike with only cable ties to the perfect strategy for saving the planet.

This May the West Australian Student Environment Network (WASEN) will take you on a journey of radical popular education. Check it out! Learn something new! Share your mad skills! If you would like to run a workshop or for more information contact WestASEN [at] gmail.com
or call Dom -0415 258 301

Attending any of the workshops is FREE, but donations are welcome! Lunch will be provided (but feel free to bring something to share)

Sunday May 17
Location: Earth Wise Subiaco 315-317 Baggot Road
Workshops and times:
10-12: Theories of Change
2-5: Animal Rights and Feminism Presented by ARA (Animal Rights Australia)

Sunday May 24
Location: Notre Dame Prindiville Hall Mouat St Fremantle
Workshops and times:
10-12: Climate Change Crash Course
1-3: Direct Action

Saturday May 30
Location:UWA or Murdoch or Charlies Gally TBA
Workshops and times:
10-12: Personal Change and Sustainable Activism
1-3: Scamming the System that scams you!

FOPWA - Al Naqba film night 16 May 09

Al Naqba Palestine Film Night

Film and Television Institute, 92 Adelaide Street, Fremantle

Friday, May 15^th, 6:30pm for a 7pm start

Drinks and nibbles provided, $15 full / $10 concession

La Terre Parle Arabe

At the end of the 19th century, Zionism, a minority political movement, appeared on the international stage.

As theorised by its leaders, it entailed the goal of creating a Jewish state somewhere in the world but preferably in Palestine - then populated by Arabs for thousands of years.

This film trains a historian and filmmaker’s eye on the explosive truth, one involving cleansing the land of Palestine of its inhabitants.

(61 min, Documentary, 2007)

Jerusalem: East Side Story

This is Alatar's second film about Palestine; the first 'The Iron Wall' (2006) was highly praised, including by former US President Jimmy Carter who called it "the best description of the [Israeli] barrier, its routing and impact". This film focuses on Israel's illegal annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, the dispossession of Palestinian residents and their daily struggle to survive in the face of the Israeli military machine and house demolitions.

The documentary journey exposes Israel's policies to gain supremacy over the city. It also touches on the future of the city: Jerusalem is the key to peace; without Jerusalem, there is no peace for anyone.

(57 min, Documentary, 2008)

Organised by Friends of Palestine (WA) FriendsOfPalestineWA@gmail.com

“Al Naqba” is “the Catastrophe” of May 16^th, 1948 – the day Palestinians lost their historical homeland in the face of Israeli military aggression

Power Shift Conference

11-13 July 2009, Sydney Australia

The conference will bring together 3,000 young people from all over Australia for three days of decisive action on climate change. It will be a massive display of our commitment to finding stronger climate solutions, with participants hearing from some of the leading figures of the climate movement in Australia and internationally about how we can work together to implement clear and ambitious plans of action. http://www.aycc.org.au/?page_id=388

SOS – Students of Sustainability Conference

Melbourne from the 6th -10th July

If anyone is interested in coming to the conference in July, please try and come to the meetings so we can organise some fundraising. If you can’t make the meetings please let me know. Any ideas for fundraising please let me know. For more information check out this website: http://www.studentsofsustainability.org/ or send me an email.

upcoming events this week

• Public Lecture - "Challenges for Australia in addressing sustainability and climate change"

Senator Bob Brown - Leader of the Australian Greens
Wednesday 6 May 2009
5.45-7.30pm (for 6.00pm start)
Curtin University of Technology, Bentley campus
Kent Street, Bentley
Building 213, Lecture Theatre 101
Enter via main entrance in Kent St and follow the signs to Car Park P3.
FREE EVENT (Public Welcome)

Please RSVP by Friday, 1 May 2009 for catering purposes by email to jcipp@curtin.edu.au jcipp@curtin.edu.au>

http://erisj.org.au/090509_intensive

Resilient Cities: Saving Our Cities from Peak Oil and Climate Change

Start: May 9 2009 - 10:00

Timezone: Australia/Perth

Resilient Cities: Saving Our Cities from Peak Oil and Climate Change

Date: Saturday 9 May 2009, 10:00am - 5:00pm
Presenter: Peter Newman Download Flyer (148.18Kb)

Peter Newman will be taking people through his new book ‘Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change’, which has recently been distributed across the US and Australia. The discussion will focus on how the Crash can be used to create a new green economy and sustainable cities. It will also provide approaches that governments at all levels can adopt to facilitate this transition and also what we as households and businesses can do. There will be chances to workshop the ideas with some other guest speakers. The emphasis of the day will be on the hopeful solutions that can be adopted.

* Fair Trade Fiesta @ City Farm

Fair Trade Fiesta - World Fair Trade Day - Big Bang!!
May 9, 10am - 3pm at City Farm, 1 City Farm Place, East Perth

Fair Trade Collective and City Farm are this year collaborating to hold the 4th Annual Fair Trade Fiesta.

Fiesta Program (subject to change):

•City Farm Organic Markets, 8am -12 noon
• Market Stalls, 10am - 2.30pm. Lots of Fair Trade craft tables, local crafters and eco shops, advocacy groups, eco-ambassodors, faeries, clowns & mystery guests - for all the family.
• Fair Trade Chocolate Making
• Fair Trade Chocolate Fondue
• Entertainment
• Make a Drum Workshop for Kids and Adults!
• Big Bang!! - 2.30pm, Bring the drum you have made or your own drum and drum for Fair Trade

Game's up for Big Brothers of banking

Planet Wall Street The AGE, April 2, 2009

The five big US banks are on the brink of a coup, and their partners in crime are many.

THE G20 summit was all over bar the shouting when Angela Merkel put her foot down and, Thatcher-like, announced: "No, there won't be any more money! You have been very naughty boys and that's it!" She actually said: "This crisis did not come about because we issued too little money but because we created economic growth with too much money, and it was not sustainable". The German Chancellor's formal comment to the Financial Times was a blinding flash of truth — the G20 bankers' game was up.

Attention swung back to the rerun of that old favourite Nightmare on Wall Street and the Dow financials were brought to a thunderous halt.

Bank of America, the largest US bank by assets, lost almost 16 per cent and Citigroup fell almost 9 per cent after Timothy "Trillions" Geithner, enabler-in-chief, let ABC News know some banks were going to need "large amounts of assistance". And we all know who they are. The banks too big to fail. What I have dubbed the "Big Brothers" (in the truly Orwellian sense) of banking that, as we shall see, are intent on completing the greatest heist in history. They have half-completed it.

But are these not the very same banks that, with JPMorgan, a few weeks ago were orchestrating a huge financial rebound from their worst annual starts on record, announcing they were profitable in January and February and basking in the final salvation orchestrated by Geithner on the toxic assets front?

Just a flesh wound, JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon told the world, his mood that of a considerate banker at last happy to take us back into his confidence. So to market the herd rushed.

Yesterday, as the flesh wound gushed, Geithner "declined to say" whether the banks, which a few days ago were talking about crawling out of their TARP covers, would ask for more, but he did say that the Treasury was down to its last $US135 billion ($A196 billion) in the financial stability fund, so we know what's next. Oh, and JPMorgan fell some 6 per cent after Dimon coughed up and let CNBC know his company had a "tougher" month in March while Kenneth Lewis let on that Bank of America's trading book "was not as good" as in the first two months of the year.

So much for the rally they had so flagrantly contrived.

Perhaps it's time to get to the heart of the problem. Merkel has.

The heart of the problem is we have been consistently and serially lied to by political and financial leaders who have never been held to account and who never give honest, clear accounting.

The truth is five financial institutions today believe they are larger and more powerful than the US Government and the combined will of the people of the world, and are orchestrating what some call a bankers' coup d'etat.

According to just-released reports obtained by F. William Engdahl — who is about to release his latest book, Power of Money — The Rise and Fall of the American Century, — from the Office of Comptroller of the Currency's Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activity, the Big Brothers of banking hold 96 per cent of all US bank derivatives positions in terms of nominal values, and an eye-popping 81 per cent of the total net credit risk exposure in event of default.

"The five are," Engdahl writes, "in declining order of importance: JPMorgan Chase, which holds a staggering $US88 trillion in derivatives. JPMorgan Chase is followed by Bank of America with $US38 trillion in derivatives, and Citibank with $US32 trillion. Number four in the derivatives sweepstakes is Goldman Sachs with a 'mere' $US30 trillion in derivatives. Number five, the merged Wells Fargo-Wachovia Bank, drops dramatically in size to $US5 trillion."

So that there's no confusion — we wouldn't want that around Bankers' Fools Day — a trillion is $US1,000,000,000,000. Multiply that by a few hundred and we are talking real money at last. It makes the blather about regulation and hedge funds that will drone from the ExCeL Centre in London during the G20 summit rather pale.

The world is being held up, blackmailed, by bankers but only a few of them. They just happen to be the ones in control, the ones that, through Geithner and Larry Summers, were crucial in the orchestration of this coup in the dying days of the Clinton administration when they had him tear up the Depression-era protections such as the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act.

Engdahl writes: "In 2000 the Clinton administration then Treasury secretary was a man named Larry Summers. Summers had just been promoted from No. 2 under Wall Street Goldman Sachs banker Robert Rubin to be No. 1 when Rubin left Washington to take up the post of vice-chairman of Citigroup … Summers convinced President Bill Clinton to sign several Republican bills into law, which opened the floodgates for banks to abuse their powers. The fact that the Wall Street big banks spent some $US5 billion in lobbying for these changes after 1998 was likely not lost on Clinton.

"One significant law was the repeal of the 1933 Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that prohibited mergers of commercial banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch or Goldman Sachs. A second law backed by Treasury secretary Summers in 2000 was an obscure but deadly important Commodity Futures Modernisation Act (CFMA) of 2000. That law prevented the responsible US Government regulatory agency, Commodity Futures Trading Corporation, from having any oversight over the trading of financial derivatives. The new CFMA law stipulated that so-called over-the-counter derivatives like credit default swaps, such as those involved in the AIG insurance disaster (which investor Warren Buffett once called 'weapons of mass financial destruction'), be free from government regulation."

At the time Summers was busy opening the floodgates of financial abuse for the Wall Street Money Trust, his assistant was none other than Geithner, the man who today is US Treasury Secretary. Today Summers is President Obama's chief economic adviser, as head of the White House Economic Council.

To have Geithner and Summers responsible for cleaning up the financial mess is tantamount to putting the proverbial fox in to guard the hen house.

Who did the US Government bail out with $US180 billion, and counting, to pay AIG's credit default swap obligations? A tried and trusted team led by what Engdahl calls "counterparty gamblers" being Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America —the Big Brothers of banking.

The US Government has long had laws in place to deal with insolvent banks. Of course, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation could place the banks into receivership, as it does weekly with lesser banks, and have their assets and liabilities independently audited.

Management could be cleaned up, stockholders take their losses and, eventually, smaller, manageable banks could be sold when they have their health back.

It is happening all over America except to those that manufacture reality.

The Big Brother banks will rely on the collective amnesia of the public and the market, take another round from the public purse, and contrive another rally.

It could all be changed with a stroke of President Obama's pen, returning the real restraints and enforcing the remaining powers of US regulators.

But the Big Brother banks rule unless we, mere mortals, direct them to their dishonourable graves.

David Hirst is a journalist, documentary maker, financial consultant and investor. His column is syndicated by News Bites, a Melbourne-based business news publisher.

waste free living?

Feb 26 03:04pm

The challenge: to live for one week without creating any rubbish
The woman: Alison Turner, 34. WH's chief sub-editor
The abode: Semi-detached terrace in Newtown, Sydney, shared with one housemate, one dog, one worm farm

Day one: Wednesday

Today, my first day of attempting to be rubbish free, WH has a brainstorming day out of the office, at a posh hotel. As I make my way there I realise I forgot to have breakfast and I'm STARVING. Luckily an obliging barista at the hotel lobby café gives me some fruit bread on a plate, sans paper wrapping or napkin, and my skinny flat white in a tall mug - no takeaway cup and no packet sugar, I make him spoon it in out of a jar. So far so good.

By mid-morning, three people have already asked me about what I'm doing about toilet paper and tampons. At home I use recycled Safe loo roll, which I feel is a fair compromise, but as for toilets elsewhere? I'm afraid this just has to be one of my sins against the planet...

Luckily I don't have my period this week, but for those who are curious, there are eco-friendly options for the modern menstruator. There's the menstrual cup, which is a reusable cup that collects menstrual fluids, and which you take out, empty, wash and reuse as needed. Then there's Rad-Pads, which are basically pads made out of cloth, which you soak, wash and reuse. Hmmm.

Lunch is at the hotel buffet, and I thoughtlessly put two unpipped olives on my plate. In order for them to avoid the rubbish bin, after I eat them I have to suck the pips clean and put them in my pocket to take home and plant in my garden. I leave my unused napkin neatly folded on the table.

Luckily there's no other food scraps, or I would have had to find something to carry then home in so I could put them in the worm farm my housemate and I have set up.

I accumulate my first plastic waste - I finish a course of pills and am left with the empty sheet. I place it on my bedside table. It looks slightly pathetic, sitting there alone, and I feel guilty about already having my first piece of rubbish when it hasn't even been 24 hours.

After a run, my stomach is growling and I realise I haven't made any plans for dinner. I end up eating canned soup (a recyclable can that I wash and put in the recycling) and go to bed feeling slightly unsatisfied.


Day two: Thursday

At the moment I have plastic bag sitting on my desk (which I'm going to try and use all week), that I'm using to collect my worm-farmable and recyclable waste to take home. At the moment it contains two apple cores (one of which I automatically threw into the office bin and had to fish out - it's a classy look), a recyclable soup can (is soup all I'm going to eat all week?) and a squished aluminium drink can.

The barista in the café downstairs makes my coffee in a mug I bring along. Sadly bringing your own mug seems to be very unfashionable, as I get lots of odd looks, and have to explain what I'm doing at great length.

Later on, after using the office toilet and washing my hands, I realise I can't dry them as there are only paper towels and no hand-dryer. I sheepishly wipe my hands on my skirt and hope no-one thinks I'm a weirdo.

I've been doing my shopping with a clever little bag I got from Howard's Storage World. It's big enough to use for groceries, and when you're not using it, it folds up and fits into a little bag of its own, which fits easily in a handbag. But shopping receipts are annoying - I have to make sure I hold on to them so I can put them in the recycling. Do we really need them for every single purchase?

I'm finding myself becoming really aware of everything I use - the printer at work, body wash in the shower - this is really making me think about how I usually breeze through the day: consuming and discarding without a second thought. Someone asked me today if I'd had to blow my nose yet. Luckily no, but the thought hadn't even occurred to me! Note to self: bring a hankie tomorrow.

I'm determined not to have canned soup again for dinner. Luckily my mother calls and invites me over. She even has her own compost bin that I can use for my day's accumulated scraps. Bonus!

My mother solves any potential waste-producing problems at home by taking me out to dinner at a local café (is that cheating?) where I order a chicken breast with vegies that I can eat without leaving anything left over. But then when they bring out my plate, I see with horror that they have garnished it with an enormous spring of parsley. I HATE parsley. Was I really going to have to eat it? Bugger that - I make Mum eat it, even the stalk.

I carefully leave my unused paper napkin aside, but when they clear the table, the waitress grabs the napkin before I can stop her and scrunches it up on top of our dirty plates! We debate the issue, and decide that - since I hadn't used it or disposed of it myself, it didn't count as waste that I had accumulated. Phew.


Day three: Friday

Today I have been looking into the whole consumerism issue, and stumbled across an American group called The Compact which started when a group of mates in San Francisco vowed that they weren't going to buy anything non-essential for a year, in an act of protest against the thoughtless consumerism of the Western World, and the impact this has on the environment. The Compact has since grown into a huge social movement, with people all across the States dressing in op-shop gear, sitting on second-hand furniture and riding broken-down bikes to work.

Then there is the inspiring story of Matthew and Waveney from New Zealand, who took on the rubbish-free challenge for a whole year. Between the two of them they only accumulated two kg of waste, or 1130 kg less than the average Australian couple. Now that's dedication.

This all sounds quite reasonable when you consider Freeganism - a movement that is made up of people who don't buy anything at all, and get their food and other essentials from rummaging around in dumpsters.

I avoid the canned soup waiting for me at home by going to a mate's place for dinner. I bring Banrock Station wine - proceeds from all wine sold goes towards conservation projects around the world, including in Australia and New Zealand. I opt for a 2L cask instead of a bottle, as the box is made by recycled cardboard and a cask will last a while, ostensibly...


Day four: Saturday

A cut finger needs a Band-Aid this morning, which means more rubbish, albeit a piddling amount. Still, each item I have to dispose of is increasingly depressing. As well as the Band-Aid packaging, I've had to toss some dried-up old instant coffee (I decide instant wouldn't be safe for our worms, although filtered coffee grounds are fine). I scrape the greying granules into the plastic bag I have decided to collect my rubbish in, but wash the jar so I can reuse it.

Saturday night sees me commit my first major eco-sin. After getting tipsy on Cascade Green at the pub, my housemate and I throw environmental caution to the wind by ordering pizza. Geez it tasted good, but would it leave a bitter taste in my mouth on the morrow? After all, you can't recycle pizza boxes, can you? Could I make the dog eat it? I'm sure he'd be happy to give it a go, but there's a chance it could constitute animal cruelty...


Day five: Sunday

When I wake up, surprisingly without a hangover (thanks, preservative-free beer) I decide that I'm not going to let this pizza box beat me. A quick Google search reveals that most councils allow you to recycle your pizza boxes if you scrape of all the gunky cheese bits off first. But better still, you can tear it up into bits and put it on your compost pile. I vow to start one of these, as I think our worm farm is getting a little overloaded.

Later that day I head to the supermarket. I find myself wandering the aisles, wanting a lot but being really aware of not needing that much. I think twice before the few purchases I do make.

As well as the pile of canned food: canned beans, canned soup, canned tuna (I look like I'm preparing for a nuclear attack) I find a dinner saviour - pasta in a recyclable cardboard box! Hurrah! Along with a glass jar of pasta sauce, which I can wash and reuse or recycle, and some veggies, I can make a satisfying meal!

When I'm waiting in the checkout queue, clutching my grubby collection of green bags, the couple behind me give me a surreptitious look, before discussing their own lack of reusable shopping bags in whispers. The husband is dispatched to grab some. Result - I have inspired someone to forgo plastic shopping bags! Apparently Australians use 3.92 billion plastic bags per year. That is really scary.

When I go to pack my bag for work tomorrow, I just cannot bring myself to reuse the plastic bag I have been using to carry my worm farm scraps - it's just too icky. I take a new one from a bag I have hanging on the back of the kitchen door, which is stuffed with old plastic bags that I use as bin liners. It's running low. Reusing plastic bags is all well and good, although they still ultimately end up as landfill, and in our parks and waterways but what happens when they run out? Will I have to start making my own bin liners, woven from bamboo that I grow in my own yard? Some more Googling ensues, and I find that there are biodegradable bin-liners available.

Day six: Monday

This morning I forget to check the fruit I buy for those little stickers, and I find one on my apple. Another piece of rubbish. My four-year-old nephew got one of these fruit stickers stuck up his nose recently, and had to go to hospital to get it removed.

I also get a bad coffee from the café downstairs, and have to pour it (weeping) down the sink. Lunchtime brings a tuna and salad roll (I buy my bread roll from the supermarket, using my own bag, rather than the plastic ones supplied). I wash the can of tuna to take home and put in the recycling, and gather my vegie scraps in to a new scrap bag. Geez I'm good.

At home I prepare a meal of risotto, which comes in a plastic satchel. Tsk tsk. I wash this and add it to my encouragingly small garbage stockpile. While preparing my dinner I drop some food on the floor. Gasp! Luckily the dog eats it. I always knew dogs were good for you - they're obviously good for waste disposal as well. Unfortunately I can't get him to eat the onion skin from the salad I make. You can't put onion on a worm farm, so into the rubbish bag it goes.


Day seven: Tuesday

The day dawns bright and clear and I feel a guilty sense of relief that I've reached the final day. I look with satisfaction at the small bag of rubbish that I have accumulated and hope that it doesn't grow any more over the next 12 hours.

When I get to work and make breakfast I find myself finishing a box of cereal, which means some more plastic rubbish to add to my collection, although I can recycle the cardboard box. Still, couldn't it have lasted one more day? But that ends up being the last rubbish of my experiment. One tiny bag that weighs no more than a few grams - I rock! (The bag doesn't weigh enough to register on my bathroom scales.)

So what have I missed most this past week? Chewing gum and cup-a-soup. And napkins!

But there are also some habits I intend to stick to, namely bringing my own bags every time I go shopping, recycling recyclables and not just chucking them in the bin when I think no-one's looking, being more aware of what I buy at the supermarket, using things more fastidiously (eg, body wash, shampoo, razors, moisturiser, washing detergent) and preparing my food more carefully so that nothing gets wasted (or eaten by the dog).

This past week, a few people have made sneering jokes about me "saving the planet". I was never fooling myself that I was saving the planet in seven days, but what's wrong with making a little extra effort?

This attitude of: "Well, this problem is too big for me to do anything about it, so why bother?" is so frustrating. I've learned it's not about expecting miracles overnight, or living like a monk (or a napkin-deprived WH staffer). It's about making small, realistic changes to your life and your lifestyle. And if your own planet-conscious behaviour inspires even one other person to make a change in his or her own habits, then that is a really good thing.http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/b/womenshealth/3114/waste-watch/

2009 events

Possible events for the year that have been tabulated so far include:
- bushwalking (Bibbulmun track day walk)
- mountain biking
- vegan/vegetarianism information/workshops,
- bike maintenance workshops,
- cycle to uni days follwed by breakfast,
- inspirational speakers/forums,
- inter-university/youth enviro network gatherings (e.g. run by WASEN -west australia student enviro network, ASEN-aust student enviro network, AYCC - aust youth climate coalition etc)
- movies
- networking with Freo council
- finding out more about Freo enviro NGOs:Edmund Rice Social Justice institute - High st, Freo;
Curtin university sustainability policy institute - Parkenham st, Freo http://sustainability.curtin.edu.au/;
Fremantle Environmental Resource Institute http://www.fern.org.au/, Doctors for the Environment http://www.dea.org.au/)
- fundraising for enviro NGOs and/or for enviro infrastructure at uni
- tree planting (e.g. on rottnest island) and bush regeneration (http://www.conservationvolunteers.com.au/)
- eco tourism (e.g. to environment house in Mt lawley, South East Metro waste management depot)

We might decide to plan events around campus to coincide with:
- clean up aust day (march 1),
- earth hour (28th march)
- WA conservation week (28-4march - http://conservationwa.asn.au/content/view/64/202/)
- west coast blues and roots festival (18th of april)
- world enviro day (5th june),

Further down the track two national conferences will be held on the east coast in winter -
'students of stustainability' in melbourne (http://www.studentsofsustainability.org/) and
'powershift' (http://www.aycc.org.au/?page_id=388) in sydney.

Also:
- WASEN is staging a vegetarian picnic and bike-maintenance workshop in Hyde park 1pm on March 1. Flyer can be found above and
- Curtin volunteers has: a volunteering introduction/training day on wednesday 11th of March 12-3pm and
Margaret River Dune Restoration trip 13th - 15th March (contact Matt Kelly: matt85kelly at hotmail dot com)

Greetings!

This Blog is intended to be the communication channel for those part of Notre Dame Freo's 'students for environmental action' collective, otherwise known as 'NDsea'.

Like any grassroots movement, our future depends entirely on your willingness to become involved. So join in today!

Our mission is to raise awareness of the beauty and vulnerability of our earth, and take steps towards ensuring that we leave it in better condition than it was when we arrived.

We want you, your ideas, enthusiam and time in order to make this vision a reality.