A US study has concluded young people today are less concerned about the environment than previous generations. The longitudinal study of college students found only 5 per cent of young US students considered themselves "committed environmentalists" with 90 per cent saying they wouldn't be seriously inconvenienced or pay a cost to protect the environment.
Commentators in this New York Times article blame the decline in environmental concern on the fact that fewer young people today have much physical contact with the "unpaved world", and on fatigue and confusion over climate change created by vocal climate sceptics.
The US climate change organisation 350.org is coordinating another worldwide day of protest and events to call for greater action on climate change. Called Moving Planet, it takes place on 24 September.
You’d think a cotton shirt – a natural fibre – would be better for the environment than a polyester one. After all, polyester is derived from oil, isn’t it.
The more money we spend, the less happy we get.
Or at least, according to a new study, beyond a certain point increased wealth does not make us any happier.
Last week was the 40th anniversary of the Neil Armstrong's first small step on to the Moon. Since then the space program no doubt taught us many valuable things about what lies beyond our world. But the most important discovery has been about our own planet.
Well, don't forget peak oil entirely, but as this New Internationalist article explains, a shortage of fertile topsoil could be more alarming. Agricultural soil loss is outpacing soil formation tenfold. With world population rising fast will we run out of land to feed ourselves?
Badmouthing the sausage sanga may be positively un-Australian, but the humble, belchin' and fartin' five-stomached cow emits more than her fair share of the greenhouse gas methane (scientists are looking at ways to bottle it). Cattle also require huge tracts of rainforest in the Amazon, Queensland and elsewhere to be cleared for their grazing pleasure. A cow consumes about a hundred times more food than it yields as meat, which means meat-eating means humanity needs more land to feed itself. Pork is not quite as bad, but you still have to put a lot more food into a pig than you get out. Meat consumption is soaring among the new Asian middle class in places like China, the world's population is soaring, the amount of cultivatable land is finite... you do the maths. At least we've still got hot chips.
South East fibre Exports - who run a woodchip mill near Eden, New South Wales - have failed to convince major electricity companies that a biofuel plant run by burning wood is worthy of being called accreditable renewable energy.
Starting in mid-2009, the Federal Government will be introducing a $300 million five-year Green Loans program. On offer will be access to low-interest loans of up to $10,000 each to carry out water-saving, renewable energy or energy-efficiency work on your home.
Along with many environmentalists, I'm not a fan of carbon trading. In my view it's unwieldy, too open to rorting and lobbying by industry pressure groups and it's ability to actually reduce emissions remains totally unproven. More likely, it will only serve to make some traders rich with little emissions reductions.
Cutting edge designers are making furniture using more sustainable techniques and materials. That's fantastic, but much eco-friendly furniture is pretty expensive. However, there are still cheap and easy ways to green your furniture - albeit less sexy ones.
Two UK pioneers of the Transition Town concept will be visiting Australia to conduct two two-day workshops in January and February 2009 as part of a "world tour". The two venues are the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands. Full details can be found here.
South Australia has become the first Australian state to ban single-use plastic bags. The legislation will come into force between January and May 2009.
In this article from the UK Guardian website, their environment correspondent John Vidal looks at what the money spent on bailing out the world's banks could have achieved. You know, stopping deforestation, developing renewable energy, feeding the 862 million people in the world who go hungry every day, providing clean water to the 2.5 billion people who lack access to it... little things like that.
Unfortunately, every transport proposal in Sydney now has to prove that it can serve low-density (full of single block detached dwellings) suburban areas that are wedded to cars. But no urban rail system in the world has shown that it can successfully operate in such a context, as highlighted in Jim Steer's recent Sydney Transport Review for the State Government (which the Government subsequently chose to ignore. Only buses get close to where people live and work in low density areas but as long as they continue to share road space with cars they will always be the subservient mode.
Hi, I'm Michael Grosvenor, author of Sustainable Living for Dummies. Over the coming months and years I'll be posting interesting stuff on this blog about sustainable cities, both in Australia and around the world. The majority of the world's population is now urban, and cities consume the majority of the world's resources. The green revolution will be an urban revolution.
