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Blog Action Day ‘09: Climate change… not just a trendy topic

Published on October 15, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Today is Blog Action Day – the focus is Climate Change as the Copenhagen summit approaches.

This December the UN and countries from all over the world will sit down to discuss and hopefully finalise the follow up agreement for the post-Kyoto Protocol era.

It feels like everybody is talking about this stuff… so how do we make it a real concern, for which we can take real action, rather than just another abstract news topic?

The time for arguing about whether or not climate-change is a real concern has passed for me, so I will assume it has for you too. What I aim to present to you here is some very practical ways for you to make climate change action your own. Here are a variety of ways with varying levels of commitment that enable you to participate in this change, ways you can make a difference (be it large or small).

  1. GetUp Australia is organising a campaign to affect and influence the decision-makers that are going to Copenhagen.You can donate by clicking here. You could also simply sign up and stay informed.
  2. If you’re still not convinced, have a look at any or all of the resources to help writers (like me) who have signed up for Blog Action Day in composing our blogs. I’ve decided to pass these resources on to you wholesale, they are quality information and very accessible – click here to have a look.
  3. The Plastic Bag Story is a PDF document outlining how plastic bags hurt the world. If you haven’t seen it, let me know and I can send it to you. Most importantly, if you haven’t already done it, getting rid of plastic bags is a simple and important way you can help with climate change. Leave a comment on this blog and request the info or send me an email and I’ll pass it on.
  4. TALK ABOUT IT and keep talking about it, keep these issues in the front of people’s minds and maybe change will happen on a grander scale.

My little way of changing the world this week is to eat less meat and grow more veges.

It all helps, and it really can be that simple.

The science of predictability

Published on September 29, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Science is a massive underlying fact of our world. Scientific methods underlie much of the food that we eat, the materials that we use, the cars that we drive. Like a great big puppetmaster, science is the foundation of everything from plastics to mastics, fizzy drinks to medicine. Without science our world would be unrecognisable.

My gripe with science goes into the foundational thinking that lies beneath these undeniably useful facets of modern life. And to be clear, I love science in many ways. There is science in flower remedies, aromatherapy, permaculture… there is possibly even a science of love-making.

What concerns me, is the way the scientific method works as I understand it.

In nature, although there are rhythms and waves, there is also unpredictability. Nature is full of little accidents. Part of the great ecological mother-machine is devoted to randomness, even relies on it. If a tree falls in the forest, it becomes a feast for small animals, a home for slightly bigger ones, and eventually part of the humus (organic matter, or soil) needed for that forest to itself continue to thrive – whether we hear it or not. The cause of that tree falling would not necessarily be repeatable, nor potentially ever known.

The scientific method however relies on two basic principles.  For something to be scientifically valid it must come from an experiment that complies with certain rules. The two most important rules are that the experiment must be able to be replicated, and that the results are measurable. What this means is that if a process is to be truly scientific it must be able to be repeated to show similar results.

This translates to be a process that often does not allow for the randomness of life.

If results are different in a small percentage of cases, this can be written off. If results are different in a large number of cases then the experiment’s results are inconclusive and the scientific method has worked its magic and pretty much neutered the idea.

So what about the quark? Experiments on the quark, the most basic and universal fabric of everything, have proven that the intention of the experimenter affects its behaviour. If the investigating party expects the quark to zig, it zigs. If they expect it to zag, it zags.

You see, the one great thing that’s largely absent from science and the scientific method is us. Our nature, and our intentions have a fundamental affect on the way the world is.

And thus, we and our nature make our lives extremely unpredictable – thank goodness.

And so it is that any one of us could make a decision to eat 10% less meat, thus reducing the amount of land and resources needed to keep us alive, and leaving some for someone else that needs it more.

Or we could reduce, re-use and recyle.

Or we could grow a plant, and maybe a little food for ourselves.

With these small things, we may just change the world in a surprising way.

Permaculture

Published on September 8, 2009 in Uncategorized and permaculture. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

At the launch of Permaculture Sydney South a few weeks ago I was moved to tears by the gentle yet committed words of Geoff Lawton, an established and renowned permaculture practitioner. It was so heartening to see over 300 people come to the Leichhardt local town hall for the event with their plates of food, healthy attitudes and large helpings of joy and enthusiasm.

People ask me what permaculture is quite often and it’s a tricky one to answer considering it’s such a simple idea.  Permaculture is both a way of life and a way of designing. It approaches any interwoven system (like businesses, ecosystems, or gardens for example), generates little to zero waste products, and  incorporates or integrates any diverse existing elements.

Permaculture is inclusive and has wide-reaching potential.

The old saying goes that any problem not just HAS a solution, but IS a solution in permaculture.

That is, say if you had too many snails it means you don’t have enough ducks. The key to preventing the situation of the ducks becoming another problem is good consideration, planning and design.

Permaculture is about setting up a simple system to allow nature to come in with all its complexities and work its magic.

When Geoff Lawton spoke at the launch of Permaculture Sydney South (which merges Permaculture East, Inner West and South together into one large umbrella group) he inspired me deeply.

Geoff spoke of diversity and integration, of experiencing “time quality” instead of being “time poor” – and how much do you hear the words “I just don’t have enough time” these days?

Permaculture in essence encourages community, sustainability and learning.

Geoff Lawton is contracted to design the landscape of a new city in Abu Dhabi that will be completely sustainable. It’s called Masdar City and will have no fossil fuelled cars for its population of 40,000 but instead will provide public use of 18,000 solar powered and magnetic cars. Watch the video, it will astound you – see below – and click here for an article about the Sydney-based designers. Construction has already begun with stringent and thorough energy audits to continue throughout the project. The first thing constructed was the power plant to maximise energy efficiency during construction using mainly solar and wind power.

There’s many ways to find out more about permaculture.

Tafe runs a once-weekly course based on its principles at Maroubra Bay Public School, contact me to find out more (or just leave a comment here).

Permaculture design courses are run all over Australia and the world, you could use Google to find one closest to you. And Permaculture East are a fantastic group for the eastern area of Sydney, you can find out more by contacting me. Just leave me a comment (I see them all) and I’ll contact you back.

Green means / pictures

Published on September 4, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Parachute of broken things

Published on August 25, 2009 in Uncategorized and alena. 5 Comments Tags: , , .

Having long subscribed to the idea that life experience is crucial to creativity, and that sometimes I’ve needed to fall apart in order to put myself back together in another way, this quote here unsurprisingly really floats my boat.

“I have woven a parachute out of everything broken” William Stafford

And this is how poetry can reach inside of us and pull something out in a different way.

Much of the time I have thought about my past as somewhat shameful and derisive. And surely, to some, it has been that way.

Amidst the shame and guilt around things I could have done better, there is also an awareness of my own responsibility for the way things have been. My history, though at times shady, has given me a unique and shiny attitude to how things are now.

I vividly recall making a deal with the devil and inviting difficult and dark experiences into my life with full awareness of the risk  because (somewhat naively) I was ambitious, wanted to be an artist or a writer, and felt that my middle class upbringing was not interesting enough to fuel this ambition.

Growing up I read biographies and followed life stories. Those of the people I really admired universally involved some kind of deep and soulful suffering or tragedy: think Virginia Woolf (depressed and suicidal), Nelson Mandela (imprisoned for most of his life), William Burroughs (shot his own wife, addicted), River Phoenix (addicted, died on the street outside the Viper Room).

Ok so River was just gorgeous actually, but you get my point.

From this haphazard research I concluded that unless you can make yourself a ‘parachute out of everything broken’ as William Stafford so eloquently suggested, you will surely fall to your death with or without leaving something inspirational and beautiful behind you.

So I’m weaving my little heart out – I’m threading my bad behaviour to my guilt, and I’m sewing a patch of selfishness onto my scrap of fear. It’s really coming along nicely.

And it’s going to be one hell of a parachute.

Bittersweet choices

Published on August 10, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

It’s a world of opposites. The bitter and the sweet, the dark and the light, the green and the red.

I’ve been reading a book called “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor E Frankl. It was originally published in German in 1946.  When it was first translated to English it was called “From Death Camp to Existentialism”.

Now we all know that it’s not what happens, it’s how you respond and what meaning you give it that matters most.  What sets this book apart is its total authenticity.  Victor Frankl has lived, he is a walking testament to his own theory that purpose and meaning and suffering make a person what they are. In fact, he goes so far as to indicate that they are necessary for a satisfying and happy life. We need both  joy and suffering to have meaning. We need the opposites, just as life is based on a system of positive and negative charges, and the universe on the same.

Ultimately we have a choice how we live – and every day we make a spiritual choice with our beliefs and behaviours that in turn alters our experience of life.

“In attempting this psychological presentation and a psychopathological explanation of the typical characterisation of a [concentration] camp inmate I may give the impression that the human being is completely and unavoidably influenced by his surroundings… But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behaviour and reaction to any given surroundings?

“.. The experience of camp life shows that man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.

“…everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
“…Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of the camp influences alone.
“…It is this spiritual freedom – which cannot be taken away – that makes life meaningful and purposeful.
“..The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross gives him ample opportunity  – even under the most difficult circumstances – to add a deeper meaning to his life”

Applying this to my day to day life, I make authenticity and truth my idols. And I’m not the only one.

There’s a trend towards eco-labelling that is often misleading, which can cause more harm than good to any brand. (To be branded a liar is an undesirable marketing outcome to say the least – it’s potentially irreparable in terms of good will and customer loyalty.)  See here for an online article on false and misleading eco-labelling.

Of course the reality is that most people won’t look beyond the label, and truly who has time to investigate anything these days?

Similarly with carbon-trading, how authentic is this as an idea?

For a light-hearted approach to this topic see ‘What is Cheat Offsetting?’

“What is cheat offsetting?
When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain and jealousy in the atmosphere.
Cheatneutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience.
Can I offset all my cheating?
First you should look at ways of reducing your cheating. Once you’ve done this you can use Cheatneutral to offset the remaining, unavoidable cheating.”

So how to reconcile the beauty of Victor Frankl’s message with the sometimes corrupt world in which we live? How do we live according to spiritual choices in a life that requires us to ‘play the game’ and hopefully win?

We make choices with heart and soul.

We read the labels, the small print, between the lines.

We accept and rejoice and suffer and accept and rejoice and suffer, regardless what life throws at us and how well we can catch.

And we live with the consequences in the sunshine and in the rain, the red and the green, the bitter and the sweet… because we need both to truly and meaningfully live.

One moment at a time

Published on August 3, 2009 in Uncategorized, alena, art, mixed media and paintings. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .
Hoodie Girl #2

Hoodie Girl #2

Here she is, the product of my last few weeks’ brushstrokes – she came out of a friend’s desire for her, cups of coffee with semi-strange men late at night, sleepless midnights and the unstoppable desire to create. She was meant for another, but I love her so much I don’t think I can let her go.

She’s my new Hoodie Girl, and I’m running out of wall…

For now, she’s a stand alone, I’ll not write more until inspired to. For now, she’s just here, looking at the ground, unassumingly existing.

Step 1 – Peace

Published on July 30, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

This one needs no commentary, just watch it – to the end if you can.

It’s well worth it.

Now versus tomorrow

Published on July 20, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

What we need now must not endanger what we need tomorrow. This is the essence of one of the key principles of sustainability.

source: www.csdesign.org/sustainable.html

source: www.csdesign.org/sustainable.html

I’m fresh from reading an excellent blog post on sustainability that does what is says it will and ‘demystifies’ the concept. Well worth a read.

A lady I know and I were recently working on a grant application and she noted that when something is ’sustainable’ it’s not really great. Her opinion, and I imagine the opinion of many, is that if you describe, say, a relationship as ’sustainable’ it doesn’t sound very good. As an aside, I must say that this particular person is quite interested in things looking or sounding ‘nice’, whereas I would say I am more a substance kind of person, less concerned with appearances. And there’s arguments for both sides of that coin. Without surface, there is not depth: some would say the superficial level of something is merely the first thing noticed. And I love things that are aesthetically beautiful, no doubt.

Back to the main point though, is ’sustainable’ enough? Or can we aim higher? Human beings are brilliant and eminently powerful creatures, so one may ask is it good enough to be merely sustainable?

Let’s take interpersonal relationships as an example. Some people may prefer intense and brilliant interactions, and not be so concerned with the long-term nature of a relationship. To others, there are opposite priorities. My best friend in high school was a gorgeous and gregarious blonde girl who made big first impressions and was extremely popular. I was the one that didn’t get noticed straight away but had deep and loving friendships with fewer people. Years after high school – throughout which I longed to be more like her – I received a letter from her. She admitted that whe had always wanted to be more like me, someone who grew on people as time went by. In the end I believe that both of our qualities are wonderful, and that we learnt how to adapt, and how the other one operated by observing each other. She taught me to ‘turn it on’ so to speak and I taught her a quieter way.

To me, sustainability is about taking less then you give. Although the concept is most commonly used in discussions about the environment at the moment, I would like it to be something we consider in all our affairs. I would hope that I give more to those I care for than I take. That my needs from them today do not proclude them from being my friend tomorrow. I would hope that what I do for people I love today might build both of us up and help us both to continue to grow.

So with this solar eclipse tomorrow, 22 July 2009, I do hope that we gain some deeper understanding of how to live truly and thoroughly sustainably, no matter how infantesimal the understanding is. Not solely with compost and vegetable  growing (not to deny those things are also great), but also with the relationships we hold. Personally, I will endeavour to weigh my own needs just slightly less than the needs of those I care for and give all I can to really be there for them. Happy sun-dance people.

We don’t have to choose

Published on July 14, 2009 in Uncategorized and for the love of it. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Reading a well-written and insightful blog about Buddhism today, I loved the part that discussed how “the special opportunity for liberation that the human realm offers is a vital teaching” along with the mention of “gaps of clarity”. At the moment my life comprises of a series of these gaps, broken up by those things involved with living – eating, sleeping, washing and child-rearing for some examples.

This evening, after the cooking of the meatballs (imagine the child, fingers deep in mince, saying “this is fun Mummy”) and then, thankfully, the eating of the meatballs, and after the highly imperfect spat in the car about, you guessed it, I can’t even remember what now… I had a beautiful realisation. For ages now I have intellectually understood the idea of being a multi-disciplinary artist and yet still, in the dark corners of my thinking, I have felt that I had to choose.

Mind-voice 1: Am I a painter?

Mind-voice 2: Well, I do love to paint.

Mind-voice 1: Or maybe, I’m a writer!

Mind-voice 2: Oooh, writing, yeah, that’s so cool. I’ve always been a bit of a natural at that one.

Mind-voice 3: Chocolate biscuits…

And then suddenly it hit me, like a cold wahu fillet to the cheek, I DON’T HAVE TO CHOOSE!

Brilliant. I may have to choose clothes to wear, hairstyles (when I can be bothered), what to grow in my beautiful garden, which man to go out with (on a good day), but dangnammit, I don’t have to choose any one particular specific form of creativity. They are really and truly all good. They are all reflections of me expressed outwardly. They are all ways to communicate the inside bits to the outside bits and keep the flows happening.

Last night I went t see a very special friend of mine, the incredibly talented Peta Sergeant, in her current theatre show Savage River. (Hurry and go see it at the Stables/Griffin Theatre! Awesome show… and yes – I am biased but fair.) It struck me as I waited for her to emerge after the show that she is one of those brave souls who puts it on the line. She has relentlessly pursued success as an actor and is incredibly deserving of the many roles she gets. She lives her creativity and left her home-town of Brisbane, Australia, as a teenager to attend NIDA, the school renowned for breaking its students to pieces and putting them back together again as amazing actors (think ex-students such as Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman). She is also a singer and songwriter with the Bellows, a great cook, she makes beautiful handmade things (I still love the leather handbag she made me years ago), a filmmaker and a rockin’ wife extraordinaire. And I am only just seeing what a genius she is.

So now, I’m here, all inspired, tap-tap-tapping away on the keys and dreaming up ways to fit a piano into my tiny apartment, and how I’m going to make amazing things this week in any way I choose, in any medium that takes my fancy, just ‘coz.

When people ask me “why are you doing your blog” it is as if they want me to say “oh, to make a little extra from Google Ads” or some half-assed, cockimany reason… but I answer “I’m just doing it”. Surely by now you’ve noticed that those things that come from love + action are the greatest, most successful and most satisfying ventures in life. I bet billionaires rarely make meatballs, ya know?