Environmentality 18 December 2013 - Christmas Feasts

 

Well Environmentalitists that dreaded day is nearly upon us!  Ho, Ho, Ho I can hear you all roaring.

I feel I must confess, I am one of those people that has a house that looks like a spaceship and prepares weeks before for the feast of a lifetime.  Not very environmental or sustainable but the kids love it (big and small) and there are not too many days in the year where you get to sit and eat and sit and eat some more!

We had the lovely Jodi Jackson in the studio today.  As always the conversation was easy with a few tips from Jodi on how to keep red spider mites out of the garden and how to stop your passionfruit producing all green leaves and no fruit.

We heard about some mouthwatering spanish delights from Jaime's homeland and how the Christmas celebration in Espana never ends.  Make sure you listen to the show to get Jodi's berry vanilla panna cotta recipe

Wherever you are and whatever you eat over the festive season be it dining on dry salted cod, coloured rice, pickled veg and herring, lamb biryani, roast pork and veg or boiled potatoes and sake we at the team of Environmentality wish you all a safe Christmas and New Year.

A big thank you to all our guests who have given their time so generously over the year.  To our loyal listeners we look forward to you tuning in again on 8 January 2014.

It was a Brazilian music fiesta today with music from Caetano Veloso, Roger Carlos and Pedro Guerra and we finished the show with a song from Sydney band Alpha Mama, If Ya Goni Lie

Environmentality 11 December 2013, Amy Middleton, Australian Geographic

Ever wanted to know what the top ten most dangerous animals in Australia are? What about most dangerous snakes and spiders?  And let's not forget about the legendary Drop Bear.  It seems that this is what most visitors from overseas are obsessed with and quite a few of us that live here too!

Amy Middleton, Online Editor from Australian Geographic was kind enough to join us on Environmentality where we also discovered that Jaime is not too keen on spiders and gets a bit sweaty thinking about sharks! Well he is not the only one.

Check out the Australian Geographic website for the most dangerous top 10 in all sorts of categories.

Aurora Borealis (northern lights)

Aurora Australis

The show was not all about being scared and looking out for wild and creepy creatures. There was much discussion about campsites, photographers, the northern and southern lights also known as the aurora borealis and aurora australis.


Now is the time to be out and about enjoying the sunshine, grab your tent, and head off, there are so many great places to explore and lots of them are free http://www.australiancampsites.com.au/.    

If you fancy yourself as a photographer take some snaps and send them into the Australian Geographic competition, mind you after looking at some of the entries, the competition is fierce.

It wasn't a great week for one part of our beautiful country.  The Ranger Uranium mine had a toxic spill from it's leach tank of 1,400 cubic metres of uranium oxide slurry and acid.  It is not great news for the area as the Ranger mine sits within the boundaries of the world heritage area of Kakadu.  Kakadu has a tough enough battle dealing with cane toads, cattle, buffalo and tourism let alone environmental disasters like this. 

We debuted music from our very own Rachel Wood, with a couple of her own compositions and a beautiful cover of Kylie's Hand on Your Heart, make sure you listen to the show!  Unfortunately you can't buy any of Rachel's music yet, stay tuned for any updates.

Other music played on the show was Only One from the John Butler Band and a song from Sarah McDermott.

Next week is the last show of the year so we will be celebrating with our gardening guru Jodi Jackson.

Environmentality 3 December 2013, Paul Shelton, A Year of Treading Lightly

mobile phones, toothpaste, plastic food containers, paint, dvds, lip gloss, UV block out blinds, almost all products in a $2 shop, solar panels,  cleaning products, high chairs, flat screen tvs, upvc windows, bean bag fillings, lounge suites, microwaves,  bread bag ties, bread bags, most of your clothes if you shop like me, vegetable punnets, the list is almost endless - what am I talking about? All these things are made with bi products of petrochemicals!

Today's guest was Paul Shelton, check out Paul's blog. Thanks Paul for joining us, it was great to talk to you.  Paul has done a stirling job of trying not to buy or use anything that is derived from petrochemicals.

And guess what?  He, his wife and two children have done it!  And no they don't live in some idyllic country town with no food miles, farmers and greenies on every corner. They live in suburban Melbourne.  To hear their story and see how they taken living sustainably to another level Listen to the Show.

Why is it that in the here and now we are all excited to talk to people like Paul, no disrespect Paul!  We are amazed at his and his family's ability to get on and get back to basics.  Is it because we have essentially become so insular, so reliant on the big 24 hr one stop shop, is it because we are lazy these days?  It wasn't that long ago, 25 years maybe that my grandparents were self sufficient in a food sense.  They grew all their vegetables, had a small orchard and had lots of chickens and ducks, which they didn't name, but farmed and ate.

I guess I am preaching to the converted as whoever reads this blog and listens to the show is probably interested in sustainability in some form.  What Paul and his family have achieved is fantastic, but it is not something that everyone is going to want to achieve.  Maybe we could all start with something small.  Something like buying Australian, read the labels, where is your food coming from?

So what am I going to do?, because lets face it, I am one who could do a little more.  As my chickens have gone broody and the last of my broad beans eaten, I don't have anything apart from a few herbs to swap with neighbours, I am going to make a concerted effort not to use cling wrap.  That for me is a huge ask.  It means I will need to find all the lids to all those containers in the bottom draw!  

Now that is enough to make me cry!

Environmentality 27 November 2013, Robert Bender, Biodiversity and our Natural World

It is amazing the information you can find on the world wide web.  Instead of updating this blog I have been listening to the different calls from frogs all around Melbourne - boring some of you say?  No way, have a look at the Healthy Waterways Frog Census it a great site.  

(Spotted Marsh Frog)

Southern Brown Tree Frog

For those of you that live near major waterways like the Merri and Darebin Creek or the Yarra River you will have a great time identifying some of the more familiar calls.

You might wonder where all this talk about frogs has come from.  We had Robert Bender in the studio today.  Robert has a deep passion and incredible knowledge of biodiversity and aptly reminded me that our world is made up of so many important living things and it is vital that we all play a part in making sure they continue to exist.  

Robert has just come back from a scientific field trip with Earthwatch to the wet tropical rainforests of far north Queensland.  The area that Robert and the team from Earthwatch were collecting their information forms part of the great dividing range and is home to 80 species of animals that are only found in this area. 

Listen To The Show and find out what the lead scientist of this expedition, Stephen Williams of James Cook University findings tell us about the effect of climate change on the birds, reptiles and mammals of the wet rainforests of FNQ.

For those of you that are looking for a birthday or Christmas present that is a little different, not too expensive and very beautiful, take a look at Daylesford Nature Diary, Six Seasons in the Foothill Forest, by Tanya Loos Full of great photos and information exploring the 6 seasons around Wombat State Park.  Of course the 6 seasons are not only relevant to Victoria.  The original custodians of our beautiful country hunted, gathered and created a sustainable environment over six seasons of the year for 40,000 years, not four seasons that the Europeans believe exist.

The music played today was a mix of different ages and styles. Robert kicked us off with 

The Bonny Swans by Loreena McKennitt from the The Mask and The Mirror album

Fool by Sarah Blasko and the album Fool

Way out West by the Dingoes from the The Hits of the Seventies

I Can Make you Love Me, by British India, from their I can Make you Love me album

We leave you today with photos of yellow robin chicks as they grow and leave the nest that Robert was keeping an eye for a PHD student.  Make sure you listen to the show, to find out more. It was a great one!

 
 

Environmentality 20 November 2013, Jodie Jackson, My Everyday Garden

Basil, Thyme, Rosemary, Chives, Parsley, Oregano, Sage, Lavender, AloVera, these are just a few of the herbs you can grow in your very own Melbourne garden.

Herbs have been around for centuries and used across the world for all manner of things.  They are medicinal; steep Sage in hot water for sore throats, culinary; stuff your roast chicken with lemon thyme to give it a beautiful flavour and aroma and place bay leaves in your pantry to ward off moths.

Thanks very much Jodie for coming into the studio today. We had a lively discussion about herbs, a few recipes thrown in and what to do with all those snails that are invading the garden.  Jodie suggests collecting them and feeding them to ducks at your local parkland - great idea!  You will have to Listen to the show  to find out more.....

 But if you like your snails why not whip some up with this Tasty Recipe but make sure you know what you are doing, don't just collect and cook them!  Jaime told us today that some snails carry tinea.

The weather has been so seasonally crazy of late that it is hard to imagine that anything that is supposed to be blooming in order for us to make relishes and pickles is going to provide any fruit.  We will have to keep our fingers crossed.

It is not too late to plant tomatoes, zucchini, capsicum, cucumbers, beans, chillies and lots more.  The ABC Gardening website has a great guide on what to plant when and where.

If you live in Melbourne, Brite Industries, a not for profit disability support service are having their annual plant sale on Saturday 23 November, Cnr of Belfast Street and Dallas Drive, Broadmeadows.  They have a huge range of flowers, herbs and vegies all at hugely discounted prices.

Jaime showcased music from Woodlock, a Melbourne band formally from Yarrawonga.  Jaime heard them busking in the the city.  Their album Lemons, sounds pretty good https://www.facebook.com/WoodlockMusic

Have a great week.

Environmentality 13 November 2013, Jason Kimberley, Cool Australia

If the Government's attitude toward the warming of OUR world is getting you down, check out Cool Australia's website http://coolaustralia.org/ for a tonne of inspiration and plenty of good news to put a smile back on your face.
Cool Australia are leading the way with their free interactive online education tools and resources for teachers and students.  Resources and curriculum cover topics such as energy, waste, water, consumption, biodiversity, climate change and sustainability, to name a few.

Thanks to Jason Kimberley, CEO and founder of Cool Australia for joining us on Environmentality today. Jason gave us a snippet of his former life as adventurer, author and photographer and what drove him to start Cool Australia, download the show to hear more.

You don't have to be a teacher or a student to make a change, check out the enviroweek site: http://www.enviroweek.org/ take the challenge and see how easy it is!



Smokey took us back to his formative days with his music selection today,

The Flaming Lips, Race for the Prize, from their album The Soft Bulletin
The Velvet Underground, Sunday Morning, The Velvet Underground & Nico album, and Heroin from the same album

Next week on the show we have the famous Jodie Jackson, garden guru, hopefully she will be updating us on all things green and the great melon challenge.

Environmentality, 6 November 2013

Good afternoon everyone,

Unfortunately due to conflicting calendars and events beyond our control the Environmentality team did not take to the air today.

Please join us next week 13 November when we speak to 

Jason from Cool Australia.