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

Environmentality, 26 February 2014, Robyn Deed, Editor, ReNew Magazine

We say it every time Robyn is on the show, but how good are the adds in ReNew magazine?!  It is the only magazine where you don't skip over them.

This issue of Renew (Jan - March) is as always full of great articles and information.  The feature articles this quarter are focused on sustainable travel.  Quoting my co presenter John, 'the most sustainable travel is to stay at home' but really when you can pack up the car or bike and tent why would you? Listen to the show to find out how easy it is.

The beauty of a subscription to ReNew or its sister mag Sanctuary is that it's value for money (and not much money) and you can choose to get it in magazine form,or on line. Vavoom, saving the environment in one easy click. Check out their website ReNew.

John and Jaime talked briefly today about the East-West tunnel works and the huge impact it is going to have on our fellow Melbournians' especially those living in suburbs like Clifton Hill, Collingwood, Parkville and Kensington.  The current government seems determined to turn our beautiful city into a carpark with no thought for the health impacts of those living under flyovers and next to exit tunnels and ramps.

All is not lost yet, head out to the Royal Park Festival, March 1, to celebrate all the great things about Royal Park.  If you feel inspired to do more, the Yarra Campaign for Action of Transport is a great site with lots of information on how you can get involved.

Music played today
The Dead Salesmen, No One Fell in Love with Nothing
Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach, Painted by Memory
The Mavis', Puberty Song
Snout, Get in the Car

Next week on the show, Greg Barber MLC will be giving us the lowdown on what's really happening at the Hazlewood power station fire.

Environmentality 19 February 2014, Jodi Jackson, Everyday in the Garden

It was great to have Jodi back in the studio after a long absence.  Summer has almost left us and it is now time to start thinking about what to plant in our autumn gardens.

Jodie was telling us how important it is to keep adding organic matter and compost to your patches, and talked through a great diagram The Soil Food Web which shows the relationships between soil, organic matter, birds and mammals.

It is a great time to sow seeds for brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, rocket, beetroot, carrots, onions to name just a few.  The Shed Online has a good range of information and videos for getting your autumn planting started.  There are plenty of good websites offering simple, practical advice on vegie gardening, maybe have a look at Yummy Gardens too.

Jodi has also been busy helping with all the displaced wildlife from the recent fires in Wallan, Kilmore and surrounds.  Our native animals suffer so badly in these fires, along of course with farmed animals.  The wildlife shelters are calling out for donations of sleeping bags, blankets, surgical dressings and much more. Listen to to the show to hear a more details of exactly what they need.

Environmentality wouldn't quite be the same without John, our fiery environmentalist, who this week bought to our attention Dick Warburton, climate change sceptic, who has been appointed to review Australia's renewables, read the article for yourself http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/australia-chooses-climate-change-denier-to-head-renewables-review-65883.

John mentioned a short film called Midway about the plight of the magnificent Albatross, it is only 3 minutes long but you will definitely need your tissues Midway Island

Find out what else was on John's mind by listening to the show!

Music played today

Santana,Taleo

Alice Cooper, Schools Out

Bernard Fanning, Ground Around You

Hope you can join us again on 26 February, with Robyn Deed from Renew Magazine

Environmentality 12 February 2014, Dr Tim Read, Moreland Greens

Is there a Dr in the house? Yes there was, two in fact.  Lucky us.

On Environmentality this week it was all about politics and to make sure we got the facts right we invited Dr Tim Read, Moreland Greens member, former Greens candidate for Wills who is now running for preselection in the seat of Brunswick!  He is a very busy man, and Tim, we do appreciate you taking the time to cycle out to our studios in Hadfield.

The topics covered today were everything from getting involved in a political party, exercise or lack there of it within our community, manufacturing and the EastWest link just to mention a few.  Make sure you Listen to the Show!

It is endlessly fascinating to me that neither major parties in Australia have embraced the science and technology capabilities we have.  When you chance across stories like the one in Sustainable Business about a carpet manufacturer that is heading towards zero emissions and impact on the environment by 2020, it really makes you wonder when our government is going to get behind and start supporting clean, green alternatives. We don't need to be brain surgeons to guess that the company I am referring to are are European.  Of course they are!  Tony Abbott and the party he leads seem to be steering us down the path of no return with a reliance on big polluters to keep our economy moving.  But I digress to something more palatable.

It is great to see that the Drs' in the house practice what they preach with regards to moving away from a reliance on cars to get around.  Melbourne has quite a good network of bike lanes and paths that connect our city and suburbs.  Have a look at the Bicycle Network website it has lots of great information about organised bike rides and all the bike networks that connect around town.  There is also Map My Ride which has detailed downloadable routes which also detail the terrain and all those hills you may need to have extra fuel for.  You can also add your own rides to this site too.

Music played today was

Weddings Parties Anything, Fathers Day
Josh Pyke, Middle of the Hill
Katy Steele/Paul Kelly, This Mess We're in

Next week on the show we will be talking gardening with Jodi Jackson