Environmentality 15 December

On this day we were lucky to speak to Michael Chew, a very interesting man who works for the Moreland Energy Foundation (MEFL), with which our listeners should be familiar already, as we have had them on the show before.

Michael spoke about MEFL and in particular about the fantastic project that he leads, called Zero Carbon Moreland. A bit more info about the project can be found here.

Here are some details of MEFL's drop in sustainability advice service, which Michael talked about as well:

Moreland Energy Foundation,

Level 1, 233 Sydney Rd,Brunswick (open 9am-5pm on weekdays)

We traditionally invite our guests to make a track selection. Since we found it hard to find Michael's selection, we decided to put a link on this article so that you decide on the song out for yourselves. It is called affluenza, and here’s the group which put it together. Michael thought it fitted well with the Christmas consumption time of year.

Michael is a bit of a polymath. Not only does he have three different university degrees, but he also co-founded an NGO called Friends of Kolkata.

So as you can see, another quality guest by courtesy of Environmentality. Why don't you check out the show?

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8th December - Toxic Chemicals

Dear listeners,

While we have been very good about uploading our blog onto cpod, the holidays made us a bit slack when it came to writing the blog articles, but here we are...

On the 8th of December we did not have a guest so we decided to have a chat about the book Jaime was reading at the time, Slow Death By Rubber Duck, and the topic of toxic chemicals in general.

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1st December - Environmentality 'summer show'

G'day Environmentality listeners.

Today was a great show for Environmentality -- one of our most seamless in weeks. We spent the show talking to Greg Hunt, who is the Executive Officer of the South East Climate Change Alliance (SECCA). Greg talked about the role of SECCA working with eight local councils throughout Melbourne's south-east in order to develop a regional response to Climate Change.

Some highlights included Greg's work with dairy producers in Victoria to improve their resource efficiency, reducing energy, water, and landfill waste by 10-15%. Greg also mentioned SECCA's work in urban municipalities, such as the sustainable public lighting program, and a pilot program to drastically increase heating and cooling efficiency--which is a massive energy user in most households.

The topic of climate change deniers (e.g. notorious Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt) was also covered. Greg pointed out that these people are often motivated not by any serious skepticism; but rather a need to defend polluting industries and the status quo in society. Greg argued there will of course be short-term costs involved in transforming to a low-carbon economy, but these are infinitesimal compared to the medium to long-term environmental and economic costs of not addressing climate change.

You can download this weeks show under 'get the podcasts'. We apologise if the past few weeks shows were somewhat dull, and can assure you that we have great guests lined up for the next few weeks thanks to our new production assistant Alicia. See you again next week!

Song played today were:

'How I learned to love the bomb' by the TV Personalities
'Noise of carpet' by Stereolab
'Keith Street' by Melbourne band Oh Mercy
'Cattle and Cane' by the Go Betweens

Check out the work of SECCA here - http://www.seccca.org.au/

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Apologies to listeners

Today we had a number of cancellations so the show didn't happen, sorry about that.

We will be will be back in full force next week, with a special guest lined up and plenty of good environmentality content planned!

Also, we have now uploaded all of the past weeks' programs so be sure to download them

Stay tuned...

Iramoo: eco-living centre in Melbourne's west

Today Environmentality spent the hour with Colin Hocking, research fellow with faculty of Health, Engineering & Science at Victoria University, and convener of the Iramoo Sustainable Community Centre in St Albans. Some highlights of our conversation with Colin was his insights on Melbourne's natural environment, and the challenges in trying to bring back native local vegetation - such as the grasses and wildflowers - to the fragmented patches of land that exist in the area today.

Colin also also talked about his work with engaging with people in the western suburbs who are interested in the environment and living more sustainably. Some elements of Iramoo's work included community gardens, school excursions, re-vegetation sessions, and workshops with Brunswick council. We also talked about some of the native local 'bush foods', that we may be missing out on as tasty additions to out diet.

Colin also brought in 2 songs to play on the show, the first being 'Plains' by George Winston. The second was 'Horsey' by Legless Lizards - a band involved with Iramoo.

Other songs that got a play were:

'Nowhere fast' by The Smiths
'Powderfinger' by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
'All I want' by Sarah Blasko

Find out about Iramoo here www.Iramoo.org/ or phone them on 9919 2815

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October 13th - Greg Thorpe from CERES

This week witnessed the return of Smokey, accompanied by Environmentality stalwart Jaime. During the show they spoke to Greg Thorpe about his work as the volunteers coordinator at CERES environmental park.

After calming Greg's nerves - he was in unfamiliar territory on radio - we found out about the progression of CERES from a reclaimed Brunswick tip to the thriving environmental education centre it is today. Among many other things, Greg mentioned the impressive statistic of around 70,000 visits per year from school students, and how this allowed this CERES program to operate in financial autonomy.

Stay tuned for next week's broadcast.

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6th October - Editor of ReNew magazine

Today Jaime found himself hosting the show by himself; the time had come for him to prove his mettle without the usual guidance of his radio flunkies. Not one to shy away from a challenge, he went straight to work interviewing Jacinta Cleary from Alternative Techonology Association (ATA) and the editor of ReNew Magazine. They spoke, amongst other things, about Jacinta's work with the 'Green Landlords' program, which recognises landlords who have made exceptional efforts to 'green' their rental properties.

The second guest was Charmaine Chew, Community Engagement Coordinator for Victoria Walks. She spoke about the work of Victoria Walks in promoting walking amongst the community, and the incredible benefits this simple activity can have on health and well-being. Charmaine also told us about Victoria Walk's role as an advocate for favourable walking conditions in Victoria, by undertaking actvities such as lobbying local council for traffic speed restrictions, more park benches and generally promoting walking.

Songs played included:

'Don't panic' by Coldplay
'Hold on My heart' by Australian Artist Sarah Blasko

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