One Thing Per Week

6th Weekly challenge * You can't love a disposable thing

So, I love my Sigg water bottle. It was a valentines present last year, and even though the relationship then went pear shaped, at least I got some good things out of it- and the Sigg is one that has given me really lasting satisfaction.

It's my favourite colour (can you guess?), and having it means that I've only bought about 5 water bottles over the past year and a bit. And I've expounded on the evils of plastic water bottles here, so I won't go over it again. But they are EVIL.

I think everyone could do with more love in their life (can't get too much, really), and I was thinking about my Sigg the other day, and realised that you cannot love a disposable thing. You can't love something that you are about to consign to death by suffocation in a landfill.

and I want more things to love! This week, my challenge is to replace something disposable with a lovable permanent item. I'm going to stick to the theme of drinking items, and replace my paper coffee cups with a reusable cup with a lid. One of those ones you can buy at cafes. And probably at camping stores, and Biome, of course.

But other things which could be replaced are

- disposable razors, with a better quality razor that you can replace the blades on. This is expensive, but they are much better quality- and if you dry the blades on a towel so they don't rust after use, they last for ages. (hot tip there!)

- disposable napkins with cloth ones- last forever, just chuck them in the wash.

- disposable batteries with rechargeable ones, also an investment, especially if you need to buy the charger as well, but definitely pays for itself over time.

- one that is catching on, but still has a long way to go- plastic bags. Yesterday I was at the shops and I was the only person in the line of 6 people (night before good friday, everyone was shopping), who had green bags. depressing. Another thing I love is my Biome stuffit bag, which folds (stuffs) up tiny, so comes with me everywhere and means I never have to take a bag when I pop into the shops. Yay!

Can anyone else think of other disposable things to be replaced?

ok, I am off to find my new love!

*I'm calling this the 6th weekly challenge because even though it's the 6th challenge, the 6th week of my project went past a loooong time ago.

Avaaz has a video which has been nominated for a Youtube award, and which is very cool. I'm a little tired after a long day so cannot really elaborate eloquently, but check it out.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_clash_award/5.php?cl=64047229

Voting is on for the next day or so!

maybe I'll move...

I have serious public transport jealousy. And Brisbane just voted Campbell Newman back in, who has cut public transport funding over the last few years, and seems to be only interested in getting MORE cars on the road! nooooooo!

From the Sydney Morning Herald website www.smh.com.au

Sydney to get north-west metro rail link

March 18, 2008 - 12:03PM

Sydney will have a metropolitan style rail system linking the city's north-west to the CBD in a $12.5 billion project to be fully operational by 2017, the NSW government says.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma announced the 17 station project on Tuesday, which will begin at Rouse Hill and travel though the north-west to St James station, in the city centre.

The project will replace the government's previous plan for the northwest rail link, which was to make use of the existing heavy rail system.

The first Metro train will run in Sydney in 2015, operating between Castle Hill and Epping with the entire line to be fully functional two years later.

Mr Iemma said it would be the first in a serious of metro lines which could also link Parramatta and the CBD and a south-east line running from the city to Maroubra and Malabar.

"It will happen because the city needs it," Mr Iemma said.

"Every global city has an efficient metro system, now Sydney is going to get one."

Very late week #2 wrap up

Week #2 task- to get educated!
Read about climate change and hopefully be more effective in action with new found understanding.

Well, I have to admit failure in this task- I was hoping to be able to provide a dot point summary of climate change causes and effects, but have avoided doing this for months now. I did lots of reading, but fell victim to the sort of problems I was talking about in the original post- that climate change is such a huge and confusing problem (set of interrelated problems), with so many ramifications and scary scary predictions attached, that I really did never sit still with the reports for long enough to write a coherent summary. I got depressed and anxious, and went to do something else.

So, I have decided that this is something which I will keep working at, but since it was blocking my personal greening progress (and the progress of the blog), I'm going to put it aside for now. I am also a little scared to write a summary, since there are so many summaries out there, and very few of them agree with each other.

Here is what I think is essential.

Climate change is real. For evidence, go here to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
Climate change is happening now, and for a report that says the above report is far too conservative, gives a very good quick summary and action plan, go here, , to Climate Code Red.
To mitigate climate change will require action from communities, businesses, governments, nations and the international community. And I want to be part of that.

So, I think reading this information actually made me less effective at what I want to be doing (becoming closer to carbon neutral, talking and collaborating with other like minded people), simply because I was paralysed with, well, fear.

So I am now going to put my new knowledge aside and get back to doing what I do best- being optimistic. And getting back to taking action, because really, action is what we need, so if not thinking about the problem in such detail makes me more effective, that is what I will do. Not think about it. Just think about solutions, and actions and successes. Seems counter-intuitive, but there you go. My own personal trial and error process.

so, expect more very soon!

(By the way, I am now an environmental and social psychology PhD (provisional) student!)