Pledge For More Sustainability

Ahhh! Australia was wonderful... and life changing. It is also surprising when you think about the 1 1/2 weeks that I have been back (still feel the need for more sleep) and what has changed because of my time in Australia.

First, Rescue Dave's comment (from the Manly Environment Centre) about not eating as much fish and if you are going to eat fish, eat low on the food chain, has really stuck with me. His concern is that if everyone on the planet ate fish, the oceans wouldn't have any fish left. His comment about eating low on the food chain has to do with pollutants in our oceans and rivers. Contaminants such as heavy metals intensify up the food chain... a tuna that has eaten cod, that has eaten a herring containing mercury will have a lot more mercury built up in its system than the herring. So it is healthier to eat the herring. Rescue Dave recommended eating sardines (small fish) if you eat a lot of fish... they don't live as long in the mercury poisoned water and don't have as much mercury built up in their systems.

Also, while I was following up on the whole mercury/sardine issue I found information on how bad farmed fish are for the environment. Most fish farms employee practices that degrade the water quality and the farmed fish are a species mutation that can actually destroy a species by mixing with it. Most are fed meal or pellets from ground up fish that have been caught by abusive factory trawlers so you probably kill more wild fish when you eat a farmed fish than when you actually eat a wild one.

Here is the link about this New York Times article: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/mark-kurlansky-on-sustainable-seafood/

My pledge to live more sustainably involves never buying farmed fish again, having reduced my garbage pick-up at the house to once per month, trying harder to always remember my reusable shopping bags, and to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

I have researched local CSAs. Zestful Gardens wants $550 up front at the beginning of the season. That one is not in my budget. Terry's Berrys only requires $150 to start an account and they have two sizes of baskets, a small one for $18 and a large one for $30. Chrissy Cooley also told me that she could get me a 10% discount on a CSA that delivers to PLU.

I do wish that more was being done in America to live more sustainably, but it is kind of comforting and inspiring knowing what is being done in Australia. Janet

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Today we visited the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park. It was amazing to learn that there are over 500 different tribes and the same number of different aboriginal languages. Over 60% of the people who work at Tjapukai are of aboriginal decent. We heard a presentation on the didgeridoo, how they are made, and how a lot of the songs they play imitate the animals and sounds in their environment. The longer the didgeridoo, the deeper the sound. We got to listen to a couple of songs... awesome! There were also talks on the hunting and gathering practices of their ancestors, the different fruits, nuts, leaves, and plants that the women gathered and the weapons used and animals hunted by the men.
In many cultures it seems typical to want to keep people who are different apart, but the aborigines distinguished between the wet people (from the rainforest) and the dry people (from the bush) and marriages were required to be with someone from the opposite group.
Probably the highlight of our visit was being instructed on the art of throwing spears and boomerangs. My first spear throw was pretty good but my second a disappointment. Our fearless leader, Janet Mobus, was the only person to successfully plant her spear in the straw target with a picture of a kangaroo on it. For the boomerang demonstration we went out into a net cage in the middle of a big field, while two at time took lessons. My performance was pretty whimpy, but one of us, I believe Alex, managed to land his boomerang inside the entry to our net cage. No damage done. No one managed to catch their boomerangs as they returned to us, but one of the instructors did manage to catch one of our throws. Very fun. We could have spent more time here, but I do think they sold a lot of boomerangs... so we can practice more.

After the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park, we visited Hartley’s Crocodile Farm. Of course, it was both interesting and disturbing to watch grown men do extremely stupid things with crocodiles who they have restricted their food intake to ensure they will be hungry for the show. Hartley’s is actually a crocodile farm where crocodiles are breed and raised for meat and their hides. They have added other displays to bring in tourists, such as the koalas, snakes, other reptiles, and the large cassowary birds. I found this visit to be very interesting because of the conversations it sparked. Some objected to Hartley’s because of the farming aspect of it, which led to conversations about how this differed from other farmed animals like salmon and even cattle. Others objected to animals being on display like in a zoo enclosure. In recent years, many zoos are doing more research and conservation trying to help animals in the wild and educate the public. Many believe this public education benefits the animals by fostering interest and concern for the animals. The Hartley’s facility did appear more like a tourist show.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Our Great Barrier Reef Day -- Our group had booked a reef tour with Quicksilver and their boat, Sonic, took us to three locations on the outer reef. I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef, but at the same time it is pretty heartbreaking to see so much dead coral. When I asked some of the crew about the coral, I was told it was due to a bad storm they had last year. Now I am left to wonder how widespread the damage is. Did they show us the best part of the reef or are they not taking tourists to the pristine areas to protect it from the damage tourist might inflict? As part of this class I had done some research on the reef prior to leaving the US and learned that they are threatened by agricultural pesticides running off into the oceans and the warming of the oceans due to climate change, which is killing the coral food source.
That said, seeing all of the different colorful fish was fantastic. I brought two disposable cameras but won’t see the results until I get back home. The approximate hour it takes to boat back to shore felt so wonderful on the outside deck with the wind blowing through my hair that I didn’t cover up soon enough and am now sunburned.
After we docked, a biologist employed by Quicksilver gave us a history of the company and their conservation activities. It was very interesting to hear how they actually moved part of the reef in order to construct a pontoon. I was most disturbed when she informed us that the human waste collected in the onboard toilets is just dumped into the ocean, and this is perfectly legal. There is a law to try and change.

Monday, January 9 (continued)

Concerning electricity, I noticed at The Women’s College that almost all electrical outlets have an on/off switch directly above the plug-in, but on the same switch plate. This is so handy for cutting the electricity to an outlet, especially for appliances that draw power even when you are not using them.
There is also a marked difference in the number of public restrooms available. Most shopping areas have public restrooms, but restaurants in general do not have restrooms, including Starbucks and McDonalds, no restroom. Again, I imagine even if they provide a restroom for employees that businesses are saving a lot of money by not having public restrooms. They save the expense of building them, paying someone to clean and supply them, the cost of the supplies, and restrooms are probably the most vandalized area in many restaurants, especially fast food.
Driving to Hunter Valley and while staying in Sydney, I don’t think I saw a single pickup or SUV. The cars are all smaller cars and probably a lot more fuel efficient. In addition to smaller cars, Sydney has an excellent bus transportation system that we took full advantage of. We all had our passes and I think we became really proficient at getting around Sydney on the buses. This same pass also worked on the ferries and many of us used our pass to ferry to Manly on our free day Sunday. This same pass also works on their subway/train system, which we did not utilize. When we were in Manly on Friday at The Environment Center, the staff told us that most of them don’t even own a car, only the ones that need a vehicle to haul equipment.
I realize that public transportation is much more realistic in an urban area, but even our urban areas in Washington state need to invest more into public transportation. Janet

Crystal Waters Permaculture Village Explained

The Crystal Waters Permaculture Village was started in southeast Queensland, Australia in 1988 by a group of people who wanted to live in an intentional village, one that followed environmentally sound practices, was socially responsible, and economically viable. The village sits on 640 acres and has approximately 250 residents. In many respects it seems to be the opposite of a typical American subdivision. In America, homeowner’s occupy the bulk of the land in a subdivision and maybe a small plot is left for community ownership, like as a children’s play area, basketball court, or an open area with benches or picnic facilities. At Crystal Waters, the 83 privately owned one-acre plots occupy only 14% of the property. Another 6% of the property is zoned for commercial use and this is where the village centre, Crystal Waters Bakery, a second-hand shop, and visitor accommodations are located. The rest of the acreage, 80% of the total, is owned by the community and used for orchards, gardens, forestry, grazing cattle, recreation, dams for water reserves, and wildlife habitat and corridors.
A lot of planning went into the design of the village. The sale of the 83 private lots paid for the costs of developing the property, including building roads, catchment dams, a bridge over Mary River, and planting trees. Before the 83 plots were positioned on the property, the best agriculture land was reserved for that purpose, the most environmentally significant property was held in common ownership, and the effects of potential flooding was taken into consideration. Of the remaining land, the pieces with good northern exposure, not too steep of an incline, and that could absorb human waste safely were divided into the one acre plots.
Max Lindegger, one of the chief designers, didn’t want a community where residents just come home at the end of the day to sleep. He wanted an economically viable community where residents invest their time and energy, support each other and the community could be self-sustaining. It was determined that a population of about 300 would be ideal for the self-sustaining economy of Crystal Waters. To this end, special zoning was negotiated which allows the residents to run home businesses. Max Lindegger and his wife, Trudy, own Ecological Solutions, a consulting and educational business. The community also has residents that specialize in natural cosmetics, yoga, hair cutting, natural cleaning products, eyesight/vision, permaculture and natural gardening products. Over the years several businesses, such as Rammed Earth Constructions Pty Ltd, became so successful that they moved to nearby cities as their business grew.
In America, we lead very linear lives without really thinking about it or maybe even being aware of it. An example would be going to the grocery store and buying a dozen eggs. You eat the eggs, then the egg shells, carton, and plastic bag it came in go into the garbage and are sent away to a landfill or garbage dump where all previous owners of the plastic bag and the eggs, forget about them... a straight line from purchase to disposal... linear. In a more circular lifestyle, the egg shells would be composted, adding calcium to the soil, the egg carton could be returned to the chicken owner to be used again or being made of paper products, it could be composted at the end of its useful life and if you brought your own reusable grocery bag, there would be no garbage produced. This circular, re-use of resources is a self-sustaining way of life which is incorporated into just about every aspect of life at Crystal Waters.
Permaculture is a self-sustaining, consciously designed system of agriculture that goes beyond organic farming to include production and management inputs derived from biological resources such as insects, nutrient recycling, and energy conservation. The residents of Crystal Waters grow a lot of their own food using the principles of permaculture.
A very important aspect of the community, is its role as a teaching facility to demonstrate their successes and not so successful endeavors. To accommodate this role, a visitor’s camping area was established in part of the commercially zoned property with a bunkhouse, cabin, tent areas, and a building containing laundry, shower, and toilet facilities. There is also a commercial kitchen/cafe and the EcoCentre, which is an ecological conference center, education facility and library. Crystal Waters offers classes on sustainable living and natural systems and students from all over the world come to learn from the permaculture village. Janet Hunter

Monday, January 9

This morning we left Sydney and headed north to Hunter Valley, into wine country. We are now settled into the Hunter Valley Youth Hostel and have already made a run to the local grocery store to cover meals for the next couple of days. Reflecting on conservation differences between Sydney and what I was use to at home concern water and electrical use and automobiles. I had actually been asked to confirm that water in the toilet bowl really does swirl the opposite direction down under from the northern hemisphere, but so far I have not been able to do that because they don’t use enough water to allow it to swirl at all. Most toilets down here have two flush buttons, one for low flow if you are flushing mainly liquids and another slightly higher flow if you are flushing more. They also do not use toilet seat covers/liners. I imagine they are saving a lot of trees, water, and manufacturing costs in addition to eliminating that business expense. On a side note, I have been informed by our Sustainability Coordinator, Chrissy Cooley that toilet seat liners are not regulated, which means there is not a sanitary requirement for their production. Janet

Wednesday, January 4th

On Wednesday evening we took a couple of hours to visit the Sydney Aquarium. They had some very unusual displays.











Here is Katie going nose to nose with a long necked turtle.











My best aquarium photo was of this spotted manta ray, which we were told by aquarium staff are found up on the Great Barrier Reef. Maybe we will see one there!







Here is Corrin enjoying Sydney.

Wednesday, January 4th

At 10:30 this morning we had a lecture by Professor Christopher Wright from the University of Sydney Business School in the Education Building. He talked about “The Business of Climate Change.” It was very interesting to hear his views on climate change from an Australian point of view. He told us that Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and they export a lot of that coal to China. Australia also has a carbon tax of $28/ton of carbon. Professor Wright says $28 is not enough, but despite this there have been protests against the carbon tax. I think what impacted me the most about his lecture was when he addressed the emotional aspect of the argument. He explained how you can’t take emotionality out of the equation, but the real challenge is how do you have passion without being seen as too passionate? You don’t want to be so zealous that people just write you off and ignore your ideas.
At 3:00 pm we toured the Museum of Sydney, which details the history of Sydney from 1788, when the first European colonists arrived, through to the present day. Most of those first colonists were convicts who were sentenced and then transported to Australia. I was surprised that this museum had an entire room dedicated to surfing history in Australia, but my favorite part of the museum has to be the “Edge of the Trees” sculptural installation. This piece symbolizes the first meeting of the Aborigines and the European colonists. The vertical timbers are inscribed with the signatures of the First Fleeters and names of botanical species in native languages and Latin. In the "Edge of the Trees" from L to R are Zelynne, Callie, Katie (hidden), Alex, Jimmy, Taylor, Preston, Emily, Stena, and Danielle. Janet

Tuesday, January 3rd

After our orientation at The Women’s College, which is part of the University of Sydney, Danielle, Zelynne, and I did a little exploring around campus. There are a lot of beautiful old buildings and lots of sandstone as in the Wesley sign. I love the sandstone!


















During our tour of campus we bumped into more PLU students at the Nicholson Museum, another gorgeous old building with a very interesting display entitled Egyptians, Gods, and Mummies.































































































As Danielle has already blogged, we saw our first ibis (pronounced with the first i long), a shore bird which we are quickly learning a lot of Sydneysiders consider a pest. And people who know me won’t be surprised that I found a tree that I love... don’t know what kind it is, but very cool! Janet

Long Plane Ride

I downloaded my photos today and wanted to share some photos taken from the airplane. We left SEATAC airport at about 12:50 pm on Sunday afternoon, January 1st. After a fast paced plane switch in South Korea we arrived in Sydney, Australia at 7:10 am on Tuesday, January 3rd. Here are some photos of the spectacular view from the plane as we flew over Alaska.

Crystal Waters on YouTube

Here is an interesting 19 minute video on Crystal Waters Ecovillage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UH51W9tYFE

The highlight of our trip was meeting the goats, this one in particular loved Danielle!

Janet petting a goat

Getting friendly with a goat



Danielle and the goats!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw