As we have entered Plastic Free July, our guests in The Sustainable Hour on 5 July 2017 are Mark Colley from Golden Plains Honey and Heidi Taylor from Tangaroa Blue Foundation, joined by Jack Nyhof, our sustainable youth reporter, and Rusty who explains about a newly launched Urban Food Trail initiative in Geelong.
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Content of this hour
Links, excerpts and more information about what we talked about in this Sustainable Hour
‘A little bit of litter’
Raising awareness about the impacts of litter on our planet: MOOP Patrol and Nicole Joy take on MC Guttermouth to clean up his act.
Published on youtube.com on May 14, 2017
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» Read more on www.mooppatrol.com/littermatters and www.ecocentre.com
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Plastic Free July
Plastic Free July is a simple idea developed in 2011. It aims to raise awareness of the amount of plastic in our lives by encouraging people to eliminate the use of single-use plastic during July each year.
Plastic Free July is an initiative of the Western Metropolitan Regional Council (WMRC) in Perth, Western Australia. It was developed by clever Earth Carers staff.
‘Baykeepers’ – free to watch for everyone for this year’s Plastic Free July movement.
» The Guardian – 7 July 2017:
Plastic free July: cutting down single use plastics is easier than it seems
“Plastic seems inescapable but there are easy ways like quitting junk food, carrying your own cutlery and using up leftovers that will make a difference”
» Bayside News – 5 July 2017:
Plastic ban plan is ‘in the bag’
“The Greens are lobbying the state government to bring Victoria into line with other states such as South Australia and the Northern Territory in “banning” plastic bags at shops.”
» The Guardian – 4 July 2017:
I pick up plastic waste to save it from landfill. It’s lonely but worth it
“In my single-handed fight I have collected 180,000 items – 50 pieces of litter a day for 10 years. If only the world didn’t find this weird.” By Andrew Mayers
» Pip Magazine – 28 June 2017:
Plastic Free July ideas advent calendar
Heidi Taylor
Mapoon Clean-up Volunteers – Photographer: Enya Hermsen
Tangaroa Blue: Fighting marine debris
10,601 plastic bottles removed from Mapoon Beach
From Monday 10 July until Friday 14 July, a small army of Tangaroa Blue volunteers ran an impressive clean-up mission set against the stunning backdrop of Back Beach, Mapoon in Cape York.
The team comprised 14 volunteers including some local regulars, others who travelled interstate from as far as Christmas Island and a team from the Clean4Shore program and Macmasters Beach Surf Club in central NSW.
Tangaroa Blue worked in conjunction with the Traditional Owners of the land and were lent a great deal of help by the Mapoon Land & Sea Rangers. Working side by side the Indigenous Rangers was a particularly rewarding aspect of the operation for many of the volunteers.
In five warm and windy days, the joint effort clocked 6.7 kilometres of beach, amassing a staggering 2.2 tonnes of debris. The big-ticket item was quite clearly plastic drink bottles. The 10,601 bottles retrieved accounted for nearly a quarter of the total items collected; the main culprit being the Indonesian water brand Aqua, which totalled 3,875 bottles alone. Many of the volunteers have vowed never to purchase plastic drink bottles again.
Other notable statistics include the collection of 5,607 pieces of polystyrene foam, 2,823 thongs and 1,436 cigarette lighters.
Tangaroa Blue would like to thank the Traditional Owners as well as the community of Mapoon for allowing them to continue their clean-up and data collection efforts in Cape York. Thanks also goes to the Australian Government’s Improving Your Local Parks and Environment Grant, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and the Australian Border Force for their ongoing support.
Facts and numbers
• 18,000 pieces of plastic are estimated to float in every square kilometre of ocean.
• 633 species worldwide including 77 Australian species are impacted by marine debris.
• Over 75% of what is removed from our beaches is made of plastic.
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Adopt a bee hive
By adopting a beehive you are providing a home for one to ten broods of bees per location, dependant on acreage and availability of water year round, for a share of the honey yield. We offer advice on pesticide use, bee friendly planting to adopters and provide the year round management service. We are also happy to train future bee keepers. Broods are selected for calm temperament, as is the species of bee for your location. By adopting a hive you are helping to save the species and pollinate plants.
» Read more on www.goldenplainshoney.com.au
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ADDITIONALLY:
In other news
From our notes of this week: news stories and events we didn’t have time to mention but which we think you should know about
New coastal environment blog
Corangamite Catchment Management Authority has launched a new blog about coastal revegetation projects and water monitoring. Take a look – it’s the perfect way to find out how people in our community are getting involved in looking after our environment.
Amy Leith, Acting Community Engagement & Investment Executive Manager, wrote:
“Today we’re launching the Corangamite CMA Blog and it’s all about sharing our community’s stories, and great photos too. We invite people to sign up to the blog and share one of our stories on their social media, and going in the running for a $50 local nursery voucher. The blog covers our whole region, and we have great local stories focused on the SurfCoast and Geelong.
Our organisation works in partnership with many and varied groups and individuals across a range of areas in all parts of the catchment; from famers involved in Landcare working in partnership with our team on projects protecting river health, to school groups and community members volunteering as part of the EstuaryWatch and Waterwatch programs.
We realise the community is fundamental to achieving great things for the environment so we’re always looking for new and different ways to promote what they do, and let others know what’s going on and maybe they’ll get involved too.
Our team will be adding stories and photographs to the blog weekly showing the broad range of areas we’re working in with our community and our project partners.
And because we’ll be uploading lots of images it’s also the ideal way to show off the beautiful part of the world where we are lucky enough to work and live.
So there’ll be great shots of the coast and the coastal community involved in our coastal revegetation projects and our water monitoring programs.
And images of the Otways and majestic rivers like the Barwon, the Gellibrand and the Aire as they meander through countryside or spill into the sea. And the landholders and volunteers we work in partnership with on waterway and land health projects in great these locations.”
» Take a look: www.ccma.blog
Writing About the Environment, 3 hour workshop
Portarlington Midwinter Words, 22 July 2017
Climate change is the biggest story of the century – and other issues like species extinction, deforestation and the health effects of pollution are among global society’s greatest challenges. But how do you make these complex and sometimes depressing topics engaging to readers, and relevant to their lives?
This three-hour workshop takes you through the craft of writing about environmental issues, including:
· PR wars: understanding the media and misinformation
· Common pitfalls of environmental journalism
· The importance of story, not just data and stats
· Words that work – and the power of metaphors
· Overcoming ‘doom and gloom’ reporting
· Finding the human element
· Psychological research into science communication.
Greg Foyster has published non-fiction about environmental issues in The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Big Issue, ABC, Crikey and Smith Journal. He is an alumni of Centre for Sustainability Leadership and author of the book Changing Gears. Greg currently works as Communications Manager for Environment Victoria.
Course includes take-home sheets and a complimentary copy of ‘Changing Gears’.
Details:
Venue: Portarlington Neighbourhood House, 28 Brown St, Portarlington
Times: Panel discussion: 10am ($10 only)
Workshop: from 1.30pm ($50)
Tickets: From Portarlington Neighbourhood House, Julie Hyslop (5259 2290)
Further inquiries: organisers Pearl Wilson (52591553) or Jenny Macaulay (52591593)
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Podcasts and posts about climate change
Acknowledgement
We at The Sustainable Hour would like to pay our respect to the traditional custodians of the land on which we are broadcasting, the Wathaurong People, and pay our respect to their elders, past, present and future.
The traditional owners lived in harmony with the environment and with the climate for hundreds of generations. It is not clear – yet – that as European settlers we have demonstrated that we can live in harmony for hundreds of generations, but it is clear that we can learn from the indigenous, traditional owners of this land.
When we talk about the future, it means extending our respect to those children not yet born, the generations of the future – remembering the old saying that…
The decisions currently being made around Australia to ignore climate change are being made by those who won’t be around by the time the worst effects hit home. How utterly disgusting, disrespectful and unfair is that?
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Podcast archive
Hours and hours of sustainable podcasts
Listen to all of The Sustainable Hour radio shows in full length and in selected excerpts:
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“Participation – that’s what’s gonna save the human race.”
Pete Seeger, American singer