Environmentality 26 March 2014, Daniel Ball, EnviroShop

On Environmentality this week we were very grateful  to have Daniel Ball, Photovoltaic Engineer from EnviroShop on the line.  What Daniel doesn't know about solar isn't worth knowing!  Thanks Daniel for joining us.

Listen to the show and hear what Daniel has to say.

We did of course discuss the uptake of solar by more and more Australians.  

The proportion of Australians with solar panels more than doubled in the past three years, from 7.5 per cent in March 2011 to 16 per cent - more than 3 million people - by the end of 2013.

Apart from the information on the EnviroShop website there are a few other sites that offer good information on the ins and and outs of solar systems and how to be more sustainable at your home and businesses take a look at Clean Energy Council and Your Choice

Co presenter, John called in to talk about heat pumps and how they are also worth investigating.  One of the more common ways to use heat pumps is to heat water. Air-sourced heat pump water heaters absorb heat from the outside air and transfer it to heat a connected tank of water.  They work on the same principle as a refrigerator-but instead of pumping heat out of a refrigerator to keep it cool, they pump heat from the air into water.  The Australian Government Department of Industry site has much more detailed information for those that are interested!

Don't forget to turn off for Earth Hour this Saturday 29 March at 8:30pm.

Music played today was:
Here Comes the Sun, The Beatles
April Sun in Cuba, Dragon
Pure Shores, All Saints
DB Boulevard, Point of View

Don't forget to LISTEN TO THE SHOW and leave us a comment. 

Environmentality 19 March 2014, Jodi Jackson, My Everyday Garden

Worms, Worms, Wonderful Wriggly Worms

We need lovley wriggly worms in order to have healthy, productive gardens.

Thanks to our regular monthly garden gnome, Jodi Jackson for spending some time with us on Wednesday, as usual it was an informative and slightly strange show!  LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Worm farms are a great way to compost your kitchen scraps and their castings are sooooo good for the garden.  It really is pretty easy to set up worm farm, all you need to start is:

A vessel - this could be an old bath, laundry sink, polystyrene box or big plastic tub with a drainage hole cut in it to let out all that lovely worm juice.

Compost or manure to make a bed on the bottom of your vessel

Worms (which hopefully you have been gifted by a friend) or you can buy them from your local nursurey

Pop your worms on top of your bed of compost add a few cups of shredded lettuce or greens to get them started and then cover with a lid or hessian sack to keep out the birds.

Make sure you put a container under the vessel to catch worm juice.

If you are unsure of what to feed your worms, The Green Life Soil Company has a great factsheet

QUESTION OF THE WEEK - WHO CAN TELL ME WHAT COLLOIDAL HUMUS IS?

Also on the show today, Ahmed enlightened us about the antics of a satirical protest group called The Yes Men you can find them on twitter and of course facebook and if you google them you will find lots of their material on You Tube - have fun!

Music played today was

Whitaker, Piano Song (One of Ahmed's favourites)
Matt Corby, Resolution
Herman the Worm
Reggie Watts doing a cover of Van Halen's Panama, which if you listen to this you should watch it as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xetZZLmmEw8 and finally a tribute to the Rolling Stones who have had to cancel their tour, Paint It Black

NEXT WEEK - KEVIN FROM ENVIROSHOP JOINS US TO TALK SOLAR PANELS.
Make sure you have your questions ready!

Environmentality 12 March 2014, Fiona Corke, Macedon Ranges Wildlife Network

Thank you Fiona, for joining us on Environmentality.  It was great to hear about all the hard work being done by the Macedon Ranges Wildlife Network and the very generous carers and shelters in the Macedon area.


The Macedon Ranges Wildlife Network is not government funded, which is the case for many wildlife rescuers, and are completely reliant on fundraising and donations.

There are over 300 registered wildlife shelters in Victoria over 300 registered carers, and do they have their   their work cut out for them. They are busy at the best of times but when we have periods of extreme heat and then severe grass fires they are quickly inundated with calls to help displaced, burnt and injured animals and then they need to find somewhere to house them. Please take a look at the Macedon Ranges website and if you have capacity maybe help them out with a donation.

It is not only extreme weather conditions that impact on our native animals.  As the urban sprawl slowly but surely spreads to our rural areas it brings with it cars and with that comes much more traffic, domestic animals like cats that hunt native birds and small marsupials and dogs that are a menace to koalas and kangaroos.  As more and more farmland is sold off  and turned into smaller acerage blocks that means more fences which are not ideal for kangaroos, especially when there are grass fires.

According to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy more than 1,500 native birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and plants are facing extinction and that is not including the 200 mammals that have already disappeared in the past 200 years!

Australia has some of the most amazing fauna and flora in the world and we can all do our part in protecting it, just by planting native gardens, putting water out for our birds and bees and making sure our pets are not allowed to roam and menace native wildlife.

Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch in the studio I am unable to bring you the podcast of today's show. Hopefully we will be able retrieve it from gremlins in the studio server later this week.

Music played this week was from some artists that played at the Port Fairy Folk Festival

Ben Salter, Treamulous
Breabach, Urlar
Beccy Cole, Sorry I asked and
Whitaker, Wichita - who did not play at the festival!

Environmentality 5 March 2014, Greg Barber MLC

Our fellow community members of Morwell were on our minds today as they head into their 4th week of breathing black smoke that contains all sorts of pollutants.

Greg Barber MLC who is a Greens Senator was kind enough to spare 15 minutes of his time, to take us through the scenario in Morwell.  To hear more of what Greg had to say about the situation in Morwell - Listen to the Show

Coal mine fires such as Morwell are not a common occurence, however they can be quite difficult to extinguish, hence that three and half weeks later the residents of Morwell still being inundated with smoke.    There is an coal mine in Jharia, India that has been burning since 1916!  Take a look at the video National Geographic aired last year, it is fascinating.

From one type of inhalation to another, did you know that one third of the one billion items of litter entering Melbourne’s waterways each year are cigarette butts?  Cigarette butts can can take up to 15 years to break down. 

 

The good news is that an American waste collection company, TerraCycle, have come up with the technology to be able to recycle cigarette butts. Amazing and true.  Australia has become the ninth nation to sign up to with TerraCycle, enabling Australians to send their butts to TerraCycle via Australia Post free! Have a look at the TerraCycle website, it is really great and while you are there download the barcode. 

We ran with an African theme on the show today with music from:

From the Congo; Papa Wemba & Viva La Musica, Kaokokorobo

African/American, Erykah Badu, On and On and The Apple Tree

Somalian; Farxiya Fisk, Dhamac Jaceyl

Next week on the show we have the Macedon Ranges Wildlife Network