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Environmental Graffiti

Friday, 16 January 2009

• Kilos lost to date: Still just 1kg - despite all that cake we had at work!
• Volunteering: I signed up for Volunteers of Banyule to train the community in Internet applications - they didn't have anything else going near me atm but it seemed like a good place to start! I also organised more donations for the Bangladesh computer drive.
• Carbon Footprint: I switched my superannuation to socially responsible investments (after trying for years to switch to an industry fund that would allow me to do so) and utilised my buy 1 get 1 free vouchers to purchase Australian native, drought tolerant herbs and vegies for the garden... Plus set up a compost bin... Plus signed up for a plot of land in the middle of the planned runway for Heathrow through Greenpeace so it cannot be built!
• Gorgeously Green: I purchased an Australian made, organic, phosphate free, no soap body wash to ensure compatibility with future greywater systems... its yoghurt, almond and honey based and it makes me feel like I'm swimming in a creamy dessert. Showers are now tasty too!

I feel that there's been much progress within the environmental movement at the moment despite the financial crisis. When banks like HSBC and magazines like the Economist, renowned for burying their heads in the sand release campaigns similar to the one at the left you know something's up! Even entertainment can be successful and still carry an important message - World without Oil. This is the type of direction I would have liked to take Green Card but my skills just aren't up to it! I'm glad to see it happening though. What I think is still missing is the interface between the potential humanitarian crisis and preparing communities for the anticipated changes. In Nepal for example, the glaciers in the Himalayas have been melting so fast that 2000 new lakes have formed... 20 of those are due to burst at any time and this would cause a tsunami like effect wiping out some villages and completely removing the water supply for others. The Nepalese Government - already load shedding (turning off the electricity in Kathmandu - the capital) for 40 hours each week is clearly in no position to do anything about this. Where are the NGOs? The humanitarian aid? I feel compelled to do something... To drop everything, march into the villages and do something. But what? Reinforce the lakes? Relocate the people? What do you do in the face of such a shocking danger? It still surprises me how many people remain in Japan despite the hazard of 3 tectonic plates, land slides, tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, nuclear disasters (yes, they have a nuclear reactor on a fault line?!?!?!) and the list goes on... Surely these issues are more important than falls in youth employment as a result of climate change, so why is nothing being done??

Oh No! Time to go... Green Card has just been hack attacked!!!!

posted by genloz at 9:56 AM