The tour will showcase four sustainable homes, all with passive solar design and incorporating a diversity of styles and building materials.

This shire is well-regarded for its leadership, community passion and creativity in the area of sustainability.

For anyone thinking of building or renovating this tour is a must!  On this tour you will have an opportunity to talk to the home owners and designers in this in depth tour of four unique sustainable homes in Castlemaine.

Local designers Lifehouse will also talk about their recent Building Design Association of Victoria award winning ten-star house design.

This event costs $30 for individuals, $20 for low income and MASG members or $50 for couples and  includes the house tours and  written information about the houses.

For information and bookings visit www.masg.org.au/housetours or call MASG on 0448 327 791.

At the last CI staff meeting

It’s CI’s birthday! Two.

How would you live without us? Let us know! Congratulate us.

Conditions of congratulating us:

1. No hate bloggers

2. No nasty comments about those pro or anti the swimming pool

3. No free trips to the Maryborough Highland Society club in Maryborough to play pokies

4. No calling the editor so deluded it is almost funny/a leftist agitator who does a pretty poor impersonation of a journo/asking him just WHO he is and WHAT planet he is from/that he uses weary old tools of the leftist and points the Nazi finger of shame/saying he has a juvenile and sarcastic manner/an idiot

5. No saying the editor’s sophistry is breathtaking. Sophistication – yes, sophistry – no.

6. No saying Far from being independent and un-biased, the author still favours left/green articles and continues to take swipes at Howard, Bush and other captains of capitalism.

7. No saying CI will suit local self-styled artists and pseudo intelligentsia. Some discretion should be used if allowing minors to visit it as offensive language is contained in some articles.

8. No calling CI a litany of self indulgent shite/not only inflamatory but also pathetic/truly awful, biased and disenfranchised piece of garbage/grubby little ploy … nothing short of disgusting

9. NO THREATENING US in capital letters. No threatening us in little letters. Neither law suits nor fish in the letter box.

10. No threats to inter CI staff at the Olde Gaol (at least if you’re planning it, MAKE IT A SURPRISE)

11. Take out a paid ad with us!

12. Contribute!

Immature Death Cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides)

By Alison Pouliot

The start to 2012 was marred by the tragic news of the deaths of two people following consumption of Death Cup mushrooms (Amanita phalloides) during a New Year’s eve dinner party in Canberra.  A further person who also consumed the mushrooms is still in hospital and may require a liver transplant. Death Caps grow in Central Victoria.

The fungi were apparently mistaken for a similar-looking edible species known as the Paddy Straw Mushroom.  The chef who picked and cooked the mushrooms was himself one of the casualties of the deadly fungal toxins.

Authorities have expressed alarm and surprise at the early appearance of the Death Caps which typically occur later in summer or spring, depending on rainfall.  Changes in climate patterns including unseasonal summer rains are believed to have altered fruiting patterns of fungi in several countries and could also account for the earlier fruiting of Death Caps in Australia.

A quick scan online revealed that the news had made it across the world and appeared in newspapers from Dubai to London to Vancouver.  However, dismayingly, some readers’ comments on the stories ranged from cruel bad humour to blatant racism.  But of more concern was the sudden appearance of self-acclaimed experts offering misinformation on fungus identification. Several comments related to folkloric fallacies about how to identify poisonous and edible species.  The publishing of the original story serves as an important message about the need for great care if you are foraging for wild mushrooms, but the subsequent misinformed readers’ comments could result in further incidences of poisonings.

The Death Cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides)

Information on the toxicity and edibility of fungi is rare in Australia in comparison to much of Europe and parts of America, Asia and Africa.  Few Australian fungus field guides indicate fungus edibility or toxicity.  Prior to foraging for wild fungi, it is imperative that foragers have a solid knowledge of how to accurately identify fungi in the field.

For those readers interested to know more about fungi identification, diversity and their importance in natural ecosystems, a series of fungi workshops will be running this autumn across Victoria.  If you want to be sure a Death Cap never lands in your basket you might like to attend a workshop.  For further information visit www.alisonpouliot.com

‘This has been an idea for a while,’ said the Chair, Michael Lewin.

‘Now we’re taking it out to the rest of the community for input and support. We’ve done the initial studies to know that our shire has good wind resources. Now we want to know how to do this project in the best way possible and bring the most benefit to the community.’

The vision for the project is to have a community-owned energy asset that provides Mount Alexander shire with clean electricity, where the money comes back to the community and local people make decisions. The project is likely to have between two and six turbines, depending on community interest and the site, once secured. Six 2MW turbines (like those at Hepburn Wind in Daylesford)  would supply all the electricity needs of all households in the shire.

‘We don’t have a specific site yet,’ Mr Lewin said.

‘We are asking landholders with suitable land to approach us if they are interested in hosting the turbines.’

Mount Alexander Community Wind volunteers have been out and about holding information stalls at shire events over the past month. Early next year, Mount Alexander Community Wind will launch a series of information forums, a community survey and public workshops across the shire.

‘This is an important phase of letting the community know the vision, getting membership and making sure the community can be involved in designing and guiding the project,’ said Project Coordinator, Jarra Hicks.

To show support for the project people can become members of Mount Alexander Community Wind.  Membership is available at stalls, online and at the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group office, 233 Barker St Castlemaine.

‘You’ll be able to find us at the Wesley Hill Market every second week and at other key events in the shire.  Come have a chat, we’re very happy to talk to everyone, and we even like the challenging questions,’ Ms Hicks said.

For more information on the project phone (03) 5470 6978 or go to www.masg.org.au/communitywind.

I can't see anything for fairy dust

By Anonymous

Since when is a meeting in a bar a “modern-day fairytale”? Did Fred and Mary have a drunken shag in the dairy and then he wondered next day, whose number is this I have magically tattooed on my pik?

The PM’s sycophantic November fawning over Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, noting that Mary’s meeting with her prince in a bar in Sydney was a “modern-day fairytale”, was nauseating and puerile.

It was bad enough bowing before Liz – the stinking-rich, multi-billionaire parasitic descendant of a bunch of rapacious, backstabbing, weak-chinned, thieving, murdering, raping, genocidal, land-grabbing, nation-destroying, patricidal, fratricidal, infanticidal bullies.

It’s a wonder Ms Gillard doesn’t want to erect a statue to Vlad the Impaler at Kirribilli, reinstate the monarch at Parliament House, and give up her own job entirely.

Come to think of it, Liz might do a better job than our current PM.

Since when does a Labor PM fawn over royalty? What happened to the republic?

But going all knock-kneed before royalty is the least of our PM’s delusions.

Isolating China

Not too many of these me and Baz can't deal with

How about embracing Barry Obama’s plan to encircle and contain China? Didn’t work too well with the Japanese in the 1930s, but if you’ve got a bad idea you might as well try it again.

Barry might be a rock star and say “Aussie Aussie Aussie” and “you are all true blue”, but isolating and encircling China with bases is bad policy, and Ms Gillard is playing into it.

The expansion of US military training in the Northern Territory, “deepening cooperation between the United States and Australia” is dangerous. China is our biggest trading partner, whereas the US is yesterday’s hero, muscle-bound, invading countries at will, increasingly debt-strapped, arrogant and morally bankrupt. Dropping depleted uranium and cluster munitions on nations it chooses to invade because it does not like them. Supporting the proto-fascist land-grabbing state of Israel and its nuclear ambitions because wealthy US Jews support both sides of politics in the US. Israel is, by the way, a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.

While John Howard may have spelled it out, Ms Gillard is tacitly shoehorning Australia into the role of US deputy sheriff in the Pacific. But this time we’re dependent on the bad guys at the OK Corral (China) for everything from Christmas toys and computer chips to nearly every stitch of clothing we wear and markets to make our mining companies richer.

And, the Chinese have enough nuclear weapons to turn Australia into a glowing sinkhole in the South Pacific, let alone a few thousand marines stationed in Darwin. Are Labor and the PM dreaming?

The PM on the carbon tax

Ms Gillard has supported the carbon tax. Now here she does pay attention to principle.

She did oppose the CT until she needed the Greens to form a government after she stabbed Kevin 07 in the back. She’s attended to principle. When the Greens said we better have a CT, she threw out her opposition to the CT and agreed to the CT, like she really believed in the CT all along.

Now there’s attention to principle.

The PM and refugees

Keeping Australia's borders safe: the Labor Lunar Solution

The PM has tapped into a base streak of racism with her botched handling of refugees. She has championed the ‘Offshore to Malaysia’ policy. The ALP Left – if that’s not a contradiction in terms – points to the Party Platform, which insists on onshore processing. Thanks to the Labor Party and Ms Gillard these unfortunate people, who should be protected under the UN Convention on Refugees, to which Australia is a signatory, are again being treated like leprous cattle.

Maybe she’s under the delusion that the punters in the burbs will vote for her if she locks children up or sends them to Malaysia to be horsewhipped, or whatever they do to refugee children there.

Read about Labor’s Lunar Solution.

The PM and cluster munitions

Eh Baz, those kiddies with their legs blown off won't be able to tousle with the pigskin!

The Labor Caucus recently voted not to amend its Cluster Munitions Prohibition Bill to remove two loopholes that go against the spirit and intent of the international Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Under the new cosy arrangements with Barry and the US, it’s likely cluster munitions will be stockpiled in Darwin, as there are plans for the US to base B-52 bombers here, and they’ve been used in the past to deploy cluster bombs.

In its submission to the Senate inquiry on the Bill in March, the International Red Cross warned:

“The ICRC is concerned about the scope of these exceptions and their implications. In our view, allowing the foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on Australian soil, the transit of such weapons through Australian airspace and water, and other acts generally deemed contrary to the Convention would undermine the objectives of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and contribute to the continued use of these weapons.”

International treaty? Not worth the paper it’s written on. But the ALP has a cringeworthy record on cluster munitions, and Julia is but the latest in a line of mealy-mouthed liars to twist and turn on the issue of shredding children with clusterbombs. Maybe when you get into power, the possibility of blowing kiddies up is just, oh, so irresistible?

On Afghanistan

Despite failing public support for the war in Afghanistan, Ms Gillard, the Government (and the Opposition) are standing firm on a 2014 exit date.

Ms Gillard appears on the telly all sombre looking when any troops get killed in Afghanistan, but she hasn’t shed any tears for the Afghan men, women and children we have slaughtered there. Indeed, she has lauded and awarded our soldiers’ efforts.

She said Australia was paying a high price in Oruzgan province with 32 soldiers dead and 214 wounded, but progress was being made and would continue to be made by the 4500 Australians who will serve there next year.

She reminded the nation that the moving images of ceremonies and funerals for the dead were not the whole story.

“Every day we make a difference to Afghan lives,” she said.

She might have added that we make a difference to the death toll as well. Like, increase it.

A girl in isolation for radiation screening looks at her dog through a window in Nihonmatsu, Japan on March 14. (Reuters / Yuriko Nakao)

And uranium

Nine months after Fukushima the PM is planning to expand Australia’s uranium exports to India, a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, which has been at war with its nuclear armed neighbour, Pakistan.

On selling uranium to India, NAJ Taylor* says “…it is a grave error to cite India’s nuclear weapons record – which is sub-optimal, not “exemplary”, as is often recycled – as evidence in support of a policy change that is predominately driven by political, commercial and diplomatic pressures.”

“Selling uranium to India… (will mean) strengthening our strategic partnership with India in this, the Asian century,” Ms Gillard said.

“It’s good for trade, it’s good for jobs,” – (about 650 jobs) – “it’s good for the nation” (read, a few mining barons.Will it be good for the Aborigines whose land it is mined on?)

Ms Gillard said it was not “rational” for Labor to maintain its ban on selling the nuclear material to India when Australia continues to export uranium to China.

She urged delegates at her party’s national conference to support her plan and stressed that appropriate safeguards would be in place to ensure uranium sent to India was only used for peaceful means.

Let's sell to Pakistan next!

But India is not the responsible nuclear citizen that many would have us believe. It has a long history of broken promises and reckless conduct relating to its nuclear programs. In 1974, for instance, the Nuclear Suppliers Group was set up in response to India’s ”peaceful” nuclear weapons testing at the Pokhran testing range. The enriched plutonium required for this explosion was created using a Canadian ”CIRUS” test reactor and ”heavy water” supplied by the US. These materials were provided on the basis of India’s pledge to use the reactor for peaceful purposes only.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Kevin “Kevin’s clusters” “pants on fire” Rudd said Labor would lead the world in pushing to set up a global treaty banning asbestos use and mining.

Mr Rudd also flagged hosting an asbestos hazard conference in Australia next year.

”If we realise this ambition we will at last have fulfilled the dying dream of (late asbestos diseases campaigner) Bernie Banton,” he said.

”May he rest in peace.”

Not to belittle the awful spectres of asbestosis and mesothelioma, could the banning of mining one mineral be a smokescreen for the opening up of another?

Just a question.

If Ms Gillard were asleep at the wheel some of this would be acceptable. Bowing to Liz, calling Fred and Mary’s trip to the dairy a “fairytale”. That’d be ok.

But apparently she’s not asleep. Here eyes are open. What can it be but recklessness?

Fairy dust?

*NAJ Taylor is currently researching the practice of harm in modern warfare, particularly in Middle East conflicts. He regularly contributes to debates in world news media, including a column for Al Jazeera and This Blog Harms, published by Crikey.

The red zone is run away climate change, what we get  if we can’t keep the global temperature rise below the ‘safe-ish’ two degrees rise. The blue zone shows the result if all countries achieve the necessary mitigation goals.

There is nothing our grandchildren’s generation can do. The future will be set in place by then. This is the critical decade.

Read the full story.

About 130 delegates attended the two-day conference last Monday and Tuesday which showcased community-owned energy projects.

On day two, delegates unanimously supported a motion calling on conference convenors to write to the Victorian Government to express their disappointment with the policy and to ask the government to review its stance on the grounds of encouraging regional development.

The policy, adopted by the Baillieu Government in August last year, bans wind farms within five kilometres of regional growth areas, and within two kilometres of an existing dwelling without written consent from the dwelling owner.

It also bans wind farms from national and state parks, a move which threatens a proposed community-owned wind farm in the Macedon Ranges.

The motion was put by the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities at La Trobe University, John Martin, and seconded by City of Greater Bendigo councillor Keith Reynard.

Prof Martin said delegates agreed the policy threatened regional development.

“We learnt from presenter Allan Jones, MBE, who is overhauling Sydney’s energy supply, that renewable energy generation plants were best located near population centres to maximise efficiency.

“It’s clear there was support for the Victorian Government to change this policy.”

The call for the wind farm policy change is one of four key actions identified in a post-conference communiqué released today.

Convenors will also urge the Federal Government and the Clean Energy Fund to set aside funds specifically for community-owned and localised renewable energy projects on the grounds of encouraging regional development and localising renewable energy generation profits.

Convenors will approach key partners in the Bendigo region to fund a formal submission to the Clean Energy Fund to this effect.

Key messages from the conference were that community renewable energy is about regional development; communities can reap benefits if renewable energy generation is localised; communities, large and small, can switch to localised renewable energy sources; and Australia needs good government policy, at state and federal level, to enable this switch to happen sooner rather than later.

SRA is launching the selection process for the next 100% Renewable Communities partnership and SRA CEO, Leah Sertori, is keen to spread the exciting news.

“We’re seeking a regional community with passionate and committed leaders who are able to engage their broader community to collectively reduce consumption and work towards owning their own medium scale renewable asset,” Ms Sertori said.

To be part of this innovative solution, SRA requires an interested community to demonstrate their commitment to the 100% Renewable Communities program by addressing the selection criteria outlined on the Central Victoria Solar City website.

“Achieving greater energy efficiency and establishing community owned sustainable energy assets is a significant undertaking,” Ms Sertori said.

“However, the partnership will allow the selected community to access SRA’s experience and partnerships in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industry, as well as funding to employ a part time local energy assessor.”

Central Victoria Solar City’s 100% Renewable Communities model has incremental stages to support success. Partnership benefits include support in community engagement, energy efficiency and project management.

This new opportunity for regional communities follows on from Central Victoria Solar City’s successful partnership with the community of Newstead in delivering home energy assessments to over 80% of its population, conducting a feasibility study regarding the creation of a local energy generation asset. The community of Newstead is now working towards community ownership of their own solar park.

“We have designed our services so that we can deliver them as a whole of community approach, allowing individual towns to work together to reduce energy use and raise capital to develop renewable energy infrastructure,” Ms Sertori said.

Central Victoria Solar City, part of the Australian government’s Solar Cities program, seeks to look at how we use energy at home and the impact of changes to energy use behaviour and household infrastructure. The research will be used to help inform future government energy policy. In the coming year the project will begin reporting early results of its research into household energy use.

Central Victoria Solar City Consortium members include Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance (CVGA), Origin, Powercor and Sustainable Regional Australia, the commercial entity set up by CVGA to manage the project. The Victorian Government, through Sustainability Victoria and the Victorian Government Sustainability Fund, is also a major funding contributor.

The International Year of Forests may be drawing to a close, but we need to consider every year as a year to fight for our forests. Although there have been some major achievements in forest protection worldwide, threats to forests continue to increase.

Connections between people and forests are essential to reducing these threats.  The images in this online exhibition represent forests worldwide, from the ancient subtropical laurel forests of Madeira; to the giant sequioadendrons of California; to the beech forests of the montane belt of the Swiss Jura; to our own unique and precious box-ironbark forests.

See Alison’s earlier story. But for now, enjoy these images.

“Scientists have warned about climate change for decades – in fact the first article about carbon pollution in ACF’s Habitatmagazine was in 1974 – and now we have a law to make polluters pay,” said Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Don Henry.

“So many Australians have played a part in making this a reality – the scientists who sounded the warnings about atmospheric changes and bleaching of coral reefs, the business leaders who stood with ACF and called for a price on pollution in 2006 and of course the millions of people who wrote, visited MPs, protested and voted for action on climate change.

“This important first step in the process of tackling climate change is a credit to all those who have said ‘yes’ to a clean energy future.

“I would like to commend all the serving politicians – Labor, Green and independent – who have had the courage, foresight and determination to say yes in the parliament, despite the intense pressure they have faced from a well-funded scare campaign against this law by vested interests who don’t want to change.

“Industries that do want to contribute to creating a cleaner and healthier future for our children and grandchildren now have a financial incentive to find new, cleaner ways to do business.

“ACF encourages the government to move quickly to establish in law the important complementary parts of the clean energy package, particularly the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – the body that will help harness Australia’s massive untapped, abundant renewable energy resources.”

Tim silverwood has returned from the Pacific with alarming insights into the havoc our lifestyle is wreaking on the world's oceans

NSW Central Coast environmentalist Tim Silverwood has returned from a research expedition to the North Pacific Gyre – aka Great Pacific Garbage Patch – with alarming insights into the state of the world’s oceans. He spent three weeks sailing over 5000km from Honolulu to Vancouver with scientists, environmentalists, artists and filmmakers as part of the expedition coordinated by Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

A component of Silverwood’s trip was to gather footage and photographs for a documentary project he is working on and to better understand the complexities of the issue to help in the future management of the non-profit organisation of which he is a co-founder, ‘Take 3 – A Clean Beach Initiative’.

“Take 3 asks each visitor to our beaches and waterways to simply take three pieces of rubbish with them when they leave.” Tim said.

“We are developing educational resources and initiatives to raise awareness of plastic pollution in our oceans but we need lots of help. We need funding, volunteers and pro bono help to develop our organisation. We want to make sure that every Australian knows what is happening out there and what they can do to help.”

Take 3 was awarded the Innagural Taronga Zoo Green Grant in March this year.

In the Pacific, he discovered that the description of the Garbage Patch as a ‘floating island’ of trash is far from the truth.

Part of the North Pacific Garbage Patch

“In fact it’s much worse than that,” he said.

“If it were a floating island of trash it would be possible for us to go and clean it up, but unfortunately it is more like a plastic soup. Larger plastic items like bottles, bags, buckets and crates don’t retain their structure for long as the sun’s rays beat down and the waves toss them around. They break apart into billions of plastic fragments that then remain in the ocean. They don’t biodegrade though, that’s the scary part.”

The extent of the problem was emphasised when every trawl sample the team deployed returned with plastic in it including one with a toothbrush, two pen caps, a spray nozzle, a handful of tiny plastic fragments and a toy plastic gorilla.

“There is this notion that when we throw ‘away’ the growing amount of silly single use plastic items we use in our lives that they just go ‘away’,” Silverwood said.

“Unfortunately, ‘away’ isn’t always landfill or a recycling centre, a huge amount of our waste ends up in the environment and a growing amount ends up in the ocean.”

To highlight the harmful effect our litter has on marine life Tim has been recognised by Keep Australia Beautiful as an ambassador for their 2011 campaign, “Dropped on Land…Kills at Sea”.

According to Keep Australia Beautiful National Spokeswoman, Lara Shannon, “Each year, millions of items such as cigarette butts, plastic and glass beverage containers, food packaging and fishing gear make their way into our oceans and rivers through storm water drains, or by being left on beaches and river banks. Marine litter poses a vast and growing threat to the marine and coastal environment with at least 77 species of marine wildlife found in Australian waters being affected.  Sea turtles, seabirds, dolphins and sea lions particularly vulnerable.”

Plastic found in a green sea turtle

Recent incidents close to home reveal the devastating impact plastic ingestion is having on wildlife with a Green Sea Turtle in Ballina discovered to have ingested 317 pieces of plastic and an 80-day-old Flesh-footed Shearwater chick on Lord Howe Island revealed to have 276 pieces of plastic in its stomach, representing a horrific 15% of its body mass.

Ian Hutton OAM, Curator of Lord Howe Island Museum has been studying this species for some time and feels they may be one of the worst affected seabird species in the world from plastic ingestion, “Even on pristine Lord Howe Island, 500 kilometres from the nearest land and with some of the best environmental protection in the world, the seabirds are being impacted by this global problem”, Hutton said.

“Innocent creatures are eating our plastic waste,” Tim said.

“There is no denying that this plastic came from the east coast of Australia. It makes me embarrassed, shameful and downright angry. We have to do something.”

Recent evidence suggests 9% of small fish called mctophyds are consuming plastic particles that they confuse for food. These species represent a base for the food chain meaning toxins in plastic and that attach to plastic are entering the food chain alarming scientists.

As part of Tim’s push to bring awareness to the issue he is travelling to parts of Australia over the coming months to give presentations and screen the amazing film all about plastics titled, ‘Bag It’. Tim is interested to hear from communities interested in helping him organise an event. For full listings of events visit www.timsilverwood.com/events

For further information or to organise an interview with Tim Silverwood please contact him directly on 0420 668 114, email tim_silverwood@hotmail.com or visit www.timsilverwood.com or www.take3.org.au

You can buy bag it, the movie, here.

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

The Harcourt Fruit Growers Association, Growing Abundance and Mount Alexander Shire Council are working together to help protect and improve the fruit industry, backyard growers and the future of our food security. they are holding Pest Management workshops this month.

Mount Alexander Shire has a strong local fruit industry as well as many backyard trees. We enjoy access to fresh and high quality fruit in season. With this enjoyment comes a responsibility to care for the trees that feed us and to learn how to manage pests and disease that carry a significant threat to fruit production..

Female Queensland fruit fly

You will learn about:

• Fruit fly and other common pests like codling moth, pear and cherry slug and aphids
• How to avoid the common fungal diseases like curly leaf and brown rot and discouraging birds

The workshops for anyone fruit growers, harvesters or fruit eaters.

Sunday 13 November from 4-6pm
Harcourt Valley Vineyard
3339 Old Calder Highway, Harcourt
Guest speaker – Kevin Walsh -Well regarded local horticulturist
Wine and cheese provided

Tuesday 15 November 1-3pm
Ray Bradfield Rooms
Victory Park, Castlemaine
Tea, coffee and biscuits provided

Thursday 17 November 10am-12pm
Penny School, 11 Church Street, Maldon
Cofee and Cake provided

For more information contact:
lucy@cch.org.au or 54 724842

Growing Abundance is supported by the Victorian Government, through Sustainability Victoria.
Our partners include: Mount Alexander Sustainability Group, Mount Alexander Volunteer Network and Transition Mount Alexander

I’m not sure who first came up with the idea of occupying Wall Street. I remember the first I heard of it was from the “hacktivist” network Anonymous, whose statement  aimed to inspire 20,000 ‘citizens of the Internet’ to peacefully descend upon the famed symbol of corporatism on September 17 2011, set up kitchens, barricades and tents, and treat each other equitably and fairly, while transforming Wall Street into America’s Tahrir Square.

It was a call for revolution against corporate greed, and the small wealthy minority of people that have used corporatism to infiltrate and manipulate government, media and wider society in the name of endlessly magnifying wealth. The message was echoed by the anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, and spread around the world via the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Anonymous, with its militant slogans, controversial actions and shady origins seemed like an unlikely bedfellow for a peaceful revolution against everything wrong with America. Nevertheless, I watched and was somewhat disappointed when the date came and only 1500 arrived, dwindling to a couple of hundred at night.

At first the media mostly ignored them, but as their occupation dragged on, the talking heads of American televisions, newspapers and radios went into full spin cycle. Occupiers, or ‘the 99%’, were accused of being unwashed hippies, anarchists, socialists and spoiled unintelligent gen-Y hipsters. They were ridiculed for protesting without cause, or having muddled, even conflicting beliefs. They were shamed for the delusion of claiming Wall Street for the 99% while 99% of the population of New York wasn’t at all involved and probably didn’t like them anyway. They were laughed at for wearing their capitalist clothes, and using capitalist video cameras and phones, as if any serious stand against the American system of corporatism would have to take on Amish proportions.

They were admonished for creating a disruption and eyesore. They were questioned unrelentingly for taking such drastic and selfish action in the land of the brave and home of the free, where every citizen can have the opportunity – indeed, the inalienable right to find comfort or rise up and become one of the elite – if only they washed themselves and worked hard. Mostly they were regarded as some sort of momentary expression of anger by the lazy and ill-informed.

Unwavering in their foolish resolve, they stayed. Amid the constant barrage of criticism, they marched through the streets on an almost daily basis. They demanded real democracy, real equality, an end to corporate greed, a mandated preference for people before profit. They claimed solidarity with dissenting brothers and sisters in Egypt, Spain, and other parts of the world. They attempted to engage with the public on every level. Slowly, the movement grew, until October 2 when NYPD guided the majority of marchers onto the traffic lanes of the Brooklyn Bridge, and then proceeded to arrest and charge 700 of the snivelling unwashed for blocking vehicular traffic, which was rather odd as traffic was already blocked by the NYPD.

I suspect they thought such action would be almost unanimously condoned. This is when the movement entered our own public eye. We questioned the police state of America. Many voiced their concerns. Five thousand came to replace the 700, and countless more declared support. Unions and even political parties took sides. The occupation gained legitimacy. An attempt to suppress the movement had backfired. We began to understand the determination and power of their message, even if it was often not well articulated. America became much more aware of it’s most unfair and damaged society. The world watched as Mayor Bloomberg attempted to remove them, and many of us hoped, sometimes secretly, that they would remain.

Occupy everyewhere

When there was a call echoed off the back of this new found fame to ‘occupy everywhere’ on the 15th of October, I decided to help. I was aware that Australia and America were different entities, but I saw a common thread of corporate greed, corporate infiltration and social control between the two nations.

I have long been passionate about the central message of equality and have long felt that we are not truly a democratic society. This engaging and inclusive style of politics was really interesting to me, and felt I could contribute to the dialogue. At the very least I saw it as a learning opportunity; I was curious about the movement. I wanted to see how it would translate to a southern climate. I have never been too scared of breaking into new territory. I came, I marched. I helped set up camp in City Square.

For the majority of our occupation police were very friendly, and were keen to tell us they weren’t interested in treating us unfairly. Many said they supported our message and even that they hoped to see us grow. The City was fairly forgiving of our makeshift structures. We were treated by authority as if we were a somewhat unusual cultural attache. We appointed liaisons to relay group decisions to police and the council, and send requests or concerns back to the group. The system worked very well.

We had few rules. Everyone was to be treated equally, we were protesting non violently, we were leaderless and made all group-impacting decisions via consensus, at General Assembly, a true democracy where everyone who wants to have a say on any issue is heard. We did not tolerate drugs and alcohol. The camp was extremely peaceful, even on Friday and Saturday nights. We organised an around the clock information, first aid and security detail. Nobody did anything they didn’t want to. Most people felt unusually empowered and capable. We discovered and reaffirmed that our social principles have been distorted by greed, blame, shame and contempt, and we created a sanctuary from these demands in the middle of a major metropolis.

I found an extremely accepting atmosphere around me, full of diverse, friendly, interesting people and all kinds of self expression. It often felt like a little festival. People organised into working groups, and worked hard towards the common good. I personally worked in media and technology, giving comment to press, and helping to set up infrastructure. We established a fine, clean kitchen, where anyone was fed wholesome and nutritious food. Office workers and local homeless would come eat with us, as would many curious visitors from around the city and around the globe.

New people would take food rather timidly, as if it wasn’t a given right. We all found ourselves constantly greeting new explorers, explaining our presence in the square. Our numbers grew and became even more diverse. Although only a hundred or so would sleep at night, thousands came through during the day, many returning. We included everyone in our community, and treated everyone with respect and equality. Many who found us loved us. Political matters were discussed in a down to earth and sensible way, and many got involved who would not normally talk of such things. As the week drew on, many were confused by the media portrayal of our occupation.

Everyone had a reason for being there, a passion that drove them from the armchair and on to the streets. We had economists that were worried about the prevalence of fractional reserve banking, a system that essentially allows private banks to materialise money into the economy using some kind of money magic.

We had people who had been damaged by interventionist tactics of substandard mental health and family welfare services. We had youth who were homeless and hungry, although each night DOCS would round them up and take them away, only for them to return the next day. We had people who were on welfare and concerned about work for the dole and compulsory income management, a system that seems designed to preference the food supply duopoly and is sweeping the country from it’s origins in the Intervention, another major concern.

There were technologists and media people deeply concerned about mass censorship. There were people who simply wanted to highlight hidden unemployment rates or the de-unionisation of the workforce. There were people who worked too hard for too little money, or had casual jobs that would dramatically change in hours from week to week. Ministers and clergy who were concerned that humanism has been lost to profit. Gay partners that want to marry. Libertarians that want a bill of rights. Many reported sharp increases in their housing costs over the past decade. Many reported losing the debt game, and some dared to suggest that it’s scandalous we have to endure loans for houses, cars, etc that either match or outlast the lifespan of the cheaply produced investments we felt inclined to purchase. There was much sentiment that we don’t have a true democracy, merely a puppetry of the elite, where we elect representatives of business who we really don’t want in power.

We talked about our global problem of forced dependence on oil. Our privatisation of everything. Our family breakdowns through alienating and unnatural living conditions. Our breakdown of community. The degradation of the natural environment for profit. Wars. Lack of affordable transportation for millions. Lack of adequate support for low income families. Inaccessible dental care. Unaccountable people in government and media and way up in glass towers and their decisions that affect us all.

These are things that have all been protested about before, but has anyone really listened?

The boundary between the street and square designated the end of reassuring lie and the beginning of inconvenient truth. A boundary between an unnatural human condition of greed, hate, contempt and apathy; and a seemingly forgotten natural human condition of love, trust, equality and unity.

For our part in this many of us were endlessly criticised by the media, our families, and our friends.

Who would have thought this, on the streets of Melbourne? Images by Christopher Johnson. Used with permission.

We were deemed a threat, but we stood tall. We were woken early in the morning by a council representative on a megaphone to inform us that our little self-indulgent protest was over, in more measured words, of course. Contractors had already started to build a cage around the square. Riot police had moved in by the hundreds, complete with tear gas and tazers. We had a meeting, we decided it wasn’t over. We were demonstrating. We were demonstrating in its most true form. We were in fact beginning to demonstrate a solution. Two hundred occupiers protested our eviction at 9am.

As police moved in, a thousand from the city around us stood in solidarity, and also protested our eviction. The city was in chaos for hours as many grappled with the merciless destruction of the square. At 5, the unions marched in, but all our belongings had already been removed from the cage, and dumped in landfill.

Seeking relief from capsicum spray

We marched by the thousands the next day. We have had our Brooklyn Bridge moment. We will re-occupy on Saturday, this time in Treasury Gardens, as decided by group consensus in General Assembly. We will do it for everyone, even if they don’t know it yet.

As for the businesses around, there are only two, Starbucks, and a conglomerate that owns two bars,  a restaurant and a cafe. The latter said much money was lost during our occupation.

The Tankulator is a new and free interactive online calculator that helps people plan for a rainwater tank or improve the performance of existing tanks.

It calculates how much rainwater can be harvested from a roof anywhere in Australia over one, three or five years based on rainfall figures from the nearest Bureau station, the roof type and size, and flushing and overflow capabilities.

The Tankulator has been developed by the Alternative Technology Association (ATA), a not-for-profit organisation promoting water saving and household renewable energy, with support from the Victorian Government Sustainability Fund, managed by Sustainability Victoria, and the City of Whitehorse.

Ian Porter, the ATA’s chief executive, said the innovative new tool would help people save money on water bills.

“While government rebates and environmental concern has meant a rapid growth in the number of rainwater tanks in recent years, there are still thousands of homes across Australia without them,” Mr Porter said.

“The Tankulator gives people an in-depth understanding of how much water they will harvest and the choices they need to make to get the most out of their tanks.”

Narelle Edgar and Justin Whitehead, of Blackburn, Victoria, are parents of four children who have installed rainwater tanks at their home with a capacity of 15,000 litres.

“Water saving is just so important – we know our climate is changing and the more all of us act in ways to sustain and nurture the environment the better our future on the planet will be. The Tankulator is a great resource because it’s interactive and fun,” Ms Edgar said.

The Tankulator’s interactive page gives a summary of water usage, the amount of days the household tank is empty or overflowing and presents suggestions to the user. There is a tank level graph and another graph displaying available rainwater against selected uses.

The website includes pages on material types, tank positioning, filtering and other information to help people choose and plan for rainwater tanks.

A free online seminar on rainwater harvesting and greywater will be held by the ATA on Tuesday, November 8 at 11am. Click here for more details.

Bridget Soames, sustainability educator from Woodend

Bridgid Soames, a sustainability educator from Woodend, is one of 30 volunteers from around Australia who will be travelling to Canberra next week ahead of the Senate vote on carbon price legislation to talk to Members of Parliament about the importance of putting a price on pollution.

The volunteers aim to meet with 50 to 70 MPs and staff on Monday, 31 October.

The community delegates will urge Senators to pass the clean energy legislation and all MPs to make sure climate change remains high on the Government’s agenda in 2012. They will encourage MPs to urgently legislate the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, an essential measure to drive large-scale investment in renewable energy.

The Senate is expected to vote on the Clean Energy Future bills in early November.

The 30 community delegates go to Parliament House after several months of volunteering in their communities – surveying the opinions of fellow constituents, letterboxing, holding stalls and public events.

“We’ve seen a big scare campaign from the big polluters, claiming the costs of action are too high, but we’re off to Canberra to let our leaders know there is strong support for a price on pollution in our communities and that we want action,” Ms Soames said.

“A price on pollution will help generate more money for renewable energies like wind and solar which is particularly relevant to the Macedon Ranges where there has already been much work invested into establishing a community wind farm to generate enough energy for the region”

Ms Soames is aneducator specialising in Education for Sustainability from Woodend. She is actively involved in the Macedon Ranges Sustainability Group which has supported the Say Yes Campaign in the Macedon Ranges region during the last four months.

“Over many months thousands of volunteers have been working tirelessly in the face of well-funded scare campaigns to improve public understanding of climate change and maintain support for a price on carbon pollution,” said Simon Bradshaw, climate change campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation.

“The bills before the Senate lay the foundation for Australia to finally start doing something about climate change.

“These volunteers – and many thousands more around the country – will be making sure action on climate change remains at the top of the agenda in 2012.”

Professor John Martin, head of the Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities at La Trobe University

Bendigo will host a major national conference in November showcasing how communities are tackling energy price rises.

The Community Power Conference on November 14-15 will hear from some of the nation’s most important community-driven energy reduction and renewable energy projects.

Energy industry leaders and associations, state and local governments and communities themselves are among those expected to attend.

Conference spokesman Professor John Martin, who heads the Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities at La Trobe University, said communities nationwide, from small towns to regional cities, were voting with their feet on the need for change on the energy front.

Prof Martin said many had pushed ahead with energy reduction or renewable energy generation schemes rather than wait for governments and big business to agree on how to adapt energy policies.

“People are getting the picture on the need to reduce energy use and to switch to renewable energy sources,” he said.

“The projects they are developing are involving town halls, footy clubs, local government and more. It’s a real grassroots movement and it’s these projects this conference will showcase. “

The business models communities are using to address their energy needs, how they’re engaging their locals, the technologies they’re adopting and the barriers they’re facing are key themes.

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet is scheduled to address the conference.

It will be held at the Capital Theatre in View St and is being hosted by La Trobe University’s Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities, Central Victoria Solar City and the City of Greater Bendigo.

Bookings are through Conference Manager Pat Ibbotson, phone 5444 7859.

Check conference details, including speakers and program.

William Kininmonth will speak on the science underlying the carbon tax tomorrow (21 October 2011). His talk has been organised by a group called “Local Castlemaine” citizens.

Source watch reveals that Mr Kinimnmonth is a climate sceptic with:
• No peer reviewed work on climate change issues
• His 2004 book, Climate Change, a Natural Hazard, was criticised by other scientists for misrepresenting “some important aspects of the science of climate change that are now pretty well understood” and for contradicting “well accepted work”.
(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=William_Kininmonth)

In addition, the organisation with which he has worked, such as the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and the World Meteorological Organisation, all recognise the existence of man-made climate change.

Rear Admiral David Titley from the US Navy has a similar training and background in meteorology. He also started as a climate sceptic. He has been convinced by the evidence, however, and is now in charge of preparing the US Navy for climate change. He outlines the reason for his acceptance of human induced climate change in a TedX talk.

There is no doubt that the science of climate change still contains many uncertainties. However, the certainty that it is happening and that it is man made is high.

Climate change is scary. I too would like to turn my back on the peer-reviewed science. But if we all take the easy path of denial then we are making the planet a very difficult place for this and the next generations.

Christian Monahan, from The Produce Garden, is writing regularly for CI, and we are delighted to have him on board. We’ll be publishing his work on Wednesdays – not every Wednesday – but he’ll be keeping us on our toes in the garden and in a few more places.

By the very heading alone I hope to capture your interest. How many people are now saying to themselves, “What’s this guy on about?”

When I ask this question I am being serious but also to a degree flippant as it serves as a way to reflect both sides of the see-saw that I see swaying in front of me every day. On the television, in magazines, on the street, everywhere, maybe I see it because to me it has become apparent, like when a friend buys a certain type of car and then suddenly you’re noticing that model car all over the place. Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh because I can’t understand why everyone else doesn’t see it. See what?

Comfortable ignorance is probably the best way to sum it up. Let’s not confuse ignorance with intelligence: some very ignorant people are highly intelligent and vice versa, but at this time in my life I am (in my eyes) trying to see the truth for what it is, the people, the politicians and industry. But I cannot hold a candle bright enough to illuminate my mind to the hope that those who would be in higher places of authority are truly concerned with the state of our earth, and this saddens me.

Our continuation to mine coal, glug petrol and ignore the benefits of solar, wind and other sustainable energies and technology is baffling.

As a passerby I heard a person comment the other day “Go green, why bother, the government doesn’t care”. So I asked myself the question, why bother going green?

To look at oneself in trial for ecological change can be daunting. At times the small steps we take can seem useless and non contributive to the problem, especially when the media presents us with a daily look at what seems like a lost cause.

But like a single snowflake that is only one small contributor but an integral part of the whole, we are all doing our part to build change.

The recycle bin you use, the kitchen waste you compost, even the small pot of herbs you use at home. All of these small things are like snowflakes that are building towards our hopes of a brighter future, every year, every day. Of course there is an underlying truth in our constant move to our earth’s ecological collapse, (which is) that there are the ways and methods to halt our current downhill progress.

The common combustible engine car for example could be turned over en masse to electric with solar stations replacing our current petrol ones, with government buy back schemes replacing the common fossil fuel guzzler. We have the technology to cease further unnecessary global warming and we have the means to get it going today, but. At what price would and do we place our planet? Would the government instigate this change and at what price in money would it cost? Does it matter considering we’re talking about our home?

Are these thoughts a reality for us as a species or are they merely one of many pipedreams that will continually fail because of the greater wants for money and power? For one, I am sick of seeing and hearing the band-aid solutions that authorities dangle in front of us. They are merely an obvious throw at appeasement to reassure the masses that they really are concerned about the state of our planet and doing something about it. I don’t see change, I see a lot of talking and press conferences with promise after promise, unfulfilled.

The term “revolution” is often bandied about, but is there a place for a green revolution? Many companies and individuals think so and are rallied together by the common cause of healing our planet. Recycling is higher than ever, plastic bags are slowly being phased out and many people who before drove everywhere are now taking public transport or jumping on their bike. Things like this have become the norm so in turn they are accepted. Not many years ago most would have laughed at the idea of a separate rubbish bin for their plastics, glass etc but by it becoming common practice it has in turn just become part of the routine. So is there anything we can do in our own daily routines to help? Of course!

Let’s address these ideas without a concept of monetary cost. If you’re scoffing at that idea then please, just bear with me. Recycling goes without saying, we all have a recycle bin and are all aware of what goes into it. So with one bin comes another, the common rubbish bin. So why don’t we focus on what’s not being recycled and try to reduce those things that do just end up in landfills?

Plastic bottles in a US landfill

Packaging is probably the easiest way to start. Common household items are often so wrapped up in packaging that the mind boggles. Maybe it’s all for advertising the product, maybe it’s just a useless waste of materials that are often thrown into landfill because they aren’t recyclable. So when we’re doing our shopping it’s probably an idea to look at the packaging, what can be recycled and what can’t. With so many items available to us nowadays I’m sure there’s a better and green friendlier substitute.

While we’re in the supermarket lets take a look at transport. How many tonnes of carbon emissions are put into our atmosphere each year due to products being needlessly shipped in from interstate or overseas? Do we really need to eat Chinese apples or Turkish apricots when we grow fine examples on our doorstep? No, is the short answer, but I guess our need for what we want (whether or not it’s in season in our own country) has a part to play in this. Is it so hard to eat seasonally and do we really mind paying that little bit extra to ensure that our produce is Australian grown and not an inferior import?

To take matters one step further, let’s say that the apples we’re going to buy at the supermarket are Australian grown, with minimal if no packaging, taken home in our own bag and that we rode our bicycle to buy them. Maybe that’s three or four steps further but what if after all these steps we took them all away and replaced them with a walk out of your backdoor into the garden and picked the apples from our own organically grown tree.

Would this be the Holy Grail as far as ecological purity goes in attaining fresh produce? By eradicating transport, packaging, the harmful affects of pesticides and possibly (down the track) the potential risks of GM food are we being as “green” as we can be? So if by this short, simple, home grown example I have convinced you that it’s not out of reach to greatly reduce our carbon footprint then why, with all the resources and capital behind them is it so hard for government and lesser councils to instigate change? I am in no way trying to point the finger but I am trying to question the train that is ecological awareness and political activity, continually stopping at station after station of conference, agenda and broken promise.

We can do more, we should be asking for more and we should never let the latent complacency of our day to day lives lose sight of the fact that this earth is all we have and it deserves to be fought for, not only for us but for the generations that follow.

So, “why bother going green”? Because in short, it’s up to us. Global warming and the consequences of it aren’t waiting and neither should we. If the higher authorities whose job it is to inspire and create change are dragging their feet then it’s up to us to start running. Every bit we do contributes to the whole, never have the words “think globally, act locally” rung more true than they have today.

Things are bad, real bad, but I do not believe that it’s too late to turn it around.

Once old routines are broken then the new greener practice becomes habit, just like the recycle bin. Buying locally, smarter shopping, composting, growing your own produce regardless of the space you have to do it in will all help to make this precious planet a better place. Awareness and knowledge are the keys to power that we have at our disposal to make change a reality. Hope remains.

Christian Monahan

Christian Monahan

The Produce Garden

After living three quarters of his life in Melbourne and studying at various places overseas including Japan, Nepal and China, Christian finally left city life behind to pursue his dream of self sufficiency in the rural heartland of Victoria.  Almost eight years later he’s still there, growing, writing, planting and sharing his years of organic, permaculture and horticultural experience with like-minded people. Giving talks and workshops and sharing with others, not only the joys of growing their own vegetables, fruit and produce, but also being aware of how our food is grown and the agricultural practices behind it.

Owner of Produce Garden Farm

Writer, Australia & Overseas

Agriculture, Organic food/growing, Self Sufficiency, Permaculture, Food manufacture,

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(Over 300 videos, over 6900 subscribers)

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Self Sufficiency, Gardening, Permaculture, Agriculture.