environment matters

 Jumping off the grid, not the fiscal cliff...collage

In this image, I started by creating a background collage using old christmas paper wrappings and a few feathers, glued on with modge podge. I added the string very randomly at the end, and was surprised that it turned out to look like a person. We are still on the grid. But we are still exporting electricity from our solar panels (and getting a negative power bill as a result) more often than importing it. But I know this is just a drop in the (rising) ocean. Sometimes, it can all seem overwhelming.

This is what I wrote about the Environment in January 2011, at a time when half of Queensland was under flood water:

'I have recycled and donated clothes and linen for people affected by the flood. We continue to compost, recycle leftovers for chooks, recycle waste, and collect rainwater (as much as the tank can hold, anyway). We have solar panels and solar hot water, so we are generating our own electricity when the sun shines.  S bought a new car this month: it runs on diesel like the previous one, but I could probably do better at using public transport some of the time, or my bicycle! '

This year the climate in Australia was more restrained, but North America had severe drought, and Superstorm Sandy, while parts of Britain are currently flooded. Many other parts of the planet have been affected adversely by 'extreme weather events'. I think we are getting used to these events, so they no longer seem extreme. 

Australia now has a carbon price (tax) - however, the momentum for action on climate change was lost when Kevin Rudd was still Prime Minister, and he failed to reach an agreement on (then popular) carbon trading with the Greens. The so-called 'moral challenge of our times' was allowed to float away out of reach, and this failure seems to have empowered the climate change sceptics, who now conflate their disapproval of our current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, with her infamous promise not to introduce a carbon tax, so that suddenly it has become the most unpopular policy in this term of government.

Is that you Julia? At one with the environment: collage and pastels

So, what can we do? Apart from recycling, gardening, and generally trying to reduce consumption? (Probably just too late for this year...). This is one idea. Walking. And to complete the trifecta of Guardian stories, some good news! 

While I am on the subject, here is a cartoon created by Josh, of Tamsin, aka Flimsin, climate scientist, sister, and expert on uncertainty. And the link leads to another cartoon by Josh.

Interesting that all three images this week are of women in a landscape/environment. We take it for granted, that we can move around within our environment, usually without harassment. Like many worldwide I was horrified to hear of the death of 23 year old Indian medical student who was gang raped and thrown off a bus in Dehli. This is a sobering article, written before the student died, about living in Dehli, or as the author Mommysan calls it, the Subjugation Capital.

Tomorrow's blog is on Community. Let's make it a safer one.

more later.