More scary, depressing DVD watching going on here tonight. I received a DVD with 3 doco's on it from Robert (the guy mentioned in the previous post). We watched one written and presented by the late Dr David Lloyd called Interesting Times and he referred to the book Powerdown by Richard Heinberg who defines the difference between survivalists (those who just wish to survive the collapse, grab their guns, run for the hills and kill and gather what they can to get by) or preservationists (who form communities that wish to preserve as much of human culture as is possible in the event of collapse. These communities hope to provide useful knowledge and skills, as well as maintain and continue to form cooperatives with other such groups).
I struggle with the fear to not become a survivalist...this is where living in a like-minded community and educating as many people as we can, can only be a good thing. Preservationist all the way!
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
August 12, 2007
July 08, 2007
Bloggers for Positive Global Change
Melanie over at Bean Sprouts nominated me for the Bloggers for Positive Global Change. Thanks Melanie!
The award is the brain child of Climate Of Our Future to commemorate blogger's efforts around the world to share their knowledge, thoughts and inspirations in making this a better, healthier, more sustainable world.
I am only going to nominate a few blogs, most of my other regular stop-offs are ones already mentioned and of course Melanie's place.
1. Anoushka at Sad Little Garden who is really our NZEcoWarrior - talks about a range of global issues.
2/ Sara at Walk Slowly, Live Wildly - Sara and her family are going to be travelling around America for a year in their converted RV which runs on straight vegetable oil on her Live Lightly: Spread the Love Tour.
Fellow Positive Global Change Award recipients, it’s easy to participate in this meme. At minimum, you can proudly display the BPGC badge( Click here for the image url )on your blog and bask in the glow of our collective good will. If you are sharing the kudos, however, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. The participation rules are simple:
1. When you get tagged, write a post with links to up to 5 blogs that you think are trying to change the world in a positive way
2. In your post, make sure you link back to this post to so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Leave a comment or message for the bloggers you’re tagging, so they know they’re now part of the meme.
4. Optional: Proudly display the “Bloggers For Positive Global Change” award badge with a link to the post that you write up.
June 24, 2007
A quote I like..
Fear can paralyse, confuse, cause panic or become continuous energy-draining anxiety. Or it can stimulate, clarify, act as an agent for positive change, & become a constant source of energy & motivation.
I discovered this last night while googling permaculture gardening. With all the changes happening in the world and particularly climate change and peak oil - things can become a bit overwhelming and fear can set in. However, I have found by coming up with positive ways to plan and prepare it can become empowering. That is what inspired my blog - the positive things we can all do to help us be prepared and make the world a less scary place for ourselves and our children.
90% Emissions Reduction Project
I've been over at Anoushka's blog trying to figure out with her on where to progress with this - the project stared at Simple Living, and you will find out what it's all about including the rules. So, after gaining the conversions for the NZ equivalents based on the US figures, this is my own audit of where we are currently standing. It has taken me about 6mths of slowly implementing more earth friendly ideas to what I was already doing. I still have a way to go to meet some targets though. However, with car emissions being the #1 reduction that all of us can do that currently has the biggest impact - I am pleased that we are looking very good in that area. There was no family holiday in the past year though, so that has had a positive effect on that number - as far as week to week use, I have not been overly conscious of reducing aside from my carfree Tuesday (which sometimes is allocated to another day of the week) - we just happen to live in a small town that I rarely leave.
1- Petrol - Tricky, I haven't included Simon's work travel since his job is as a rep, but we do occasionally use his car in the weekends so will include that. 94% reduction.
2- Power - last year we used 6973 kW, so well over the 10% allocation which puts us at 63% reduction. We don't use heaters, don't use hot water in washing machine/dishwasher - I do suspect our old upright freezer is the culprit and am thinking of ways of reducing this. We have recently replaced our 50 yr old hot water cylinder so that could also have been adding unnecessarily to the issue. I have just started switching my hot water cylinder off every day for 16hrs of the day. Heating for 8hrs provides adequate hot water - so will be interesting to see the results of doing that.
3- Heating - wood allocation only - have included in petrol section as per their calculations - n/a
4- Rubbish - 98% reduction - I weighed ours in at 2.5kg rubbish per week (one plastic rubbish sack every fortnight), also all non-biodegradable, so non-methane producing.
5- Water - room for improvement! 82% reduction . At the moment I don't recycle any water. We do run our washing machine and dishwasher every day (188 litres + 18 litres) - when dd is no longer in nappies it will drop by 2 loads a week. Kids only bath a couple of times a week with a shallow bath, dh and I shower every day but it's a low flow (just did a test) and for 5mins max (if that). But it's things like rinsing dishes, hand washing, cooking water etc that I could be more resourceful with I suspect.
6- Consumer Goods - I went through my visa accounts for the past 6mths and just doubled it (since I've been more concious of all of this since the beginning of the year). We're still only at 68% reduction though. I have included things required for house maintenance, paint, home car maintenance, bed for Danielle etc - mind you figures also include 3 of our own birthdays in that time and I also had a big book buying binge... This one is tough even though I thought we were doing really well.
7- Food - No idea, but definitely not the best it could be. I am hoping by growing our own veges (and plan on providing almost 100% of our needs) that will eliminate our current vege box delivery. We have gone 50% vegetarian (still too much dairy in our diets to be anywhere near vegan) in the past 6mths, not a lot of locally produced items where I live, so there will always be significant food miles involved. I do limit packaging and processed where possible - I think I need to pick a single parameter to stick to reducing rather than a % on total food as I have no idea. I'm happy just focusing on growing produce at the moment and cutting back on one or two more meat meals. Also, gluten free items are often made in Aussie - hopefully all shipped rather than air freighted though!
1- Petrol - Tricky, I haven't included Simon's work travel since his job is as a rep, but we do occasionally use his car in the weekends so will include that. 94% reduction.
2- Power - last year we used 6973 kW, so well over the 10% allocation which puts us at 63% reduction. We don't use heaters, don't use hot water in washing machine/dishwasher - I do suspect our old upright freezer is the culprit and am thinking of ways of reducing this. We have recently replaced our 50 yr old hot water cylinder so that could also have been adding unnecessarily to the issue. I have just started switching my hot water cylinder off every day for 16hrs of the day. Heating for 8hrs provides adequate hot water - so will be interesting to see the results of doing that.
3- Heating - wood allocation only - have included in petrol section as per their calculations - n/a
4- Rubbish - 98% reduction - I weighed ours in at 2.5kg rubbish per week (one plastic rubbish sack every fortnight), also all non-biodegradable, so non-methane producing.
5- Water - room for improvement! 82% reduction . At the moment I don't recycle any water. We do run our washing machine and dishwasher every day (188 litres + 18 litres) - when dd is no longer in nappies it will drop by 2 loads a week. Kids only bath a couple of times a week with a shallow bath, dh and I shower every day but it's a low flow (just did a test) and for 5mins max (if that). But it's things like rinsing dishes, hand washing, cooking water etc that I could be more resourceful with I suspect.
6- Consumer Goods - I went through my visa accounts for the past 6mths and just doubled it (since I've been more concious of all of this since the beginning of the year). We're still only at 68% reduction though. I have included things required for house maintenance, paint, home car maintenance, bed for Danielle etc - mind you figures also include 3 of our own birthdays in that time and I also had a big book buying binge... This one is tough even though I thought we were doing really well.
7- Food - No idea, but definitely not the best it could be. I am hoping by growing our own veges (and plan on providing almost 100% of our needs) that will eliminate our current vege box delivery. We have gone 50% vegetarian (still too much dairy in our diets to be anywhere near vegan) in the past 6mths, not a lot of locally produced items where I live, so there will always be significant food miles involved. I do limit packaging and processed where possible - I think I need to pick a single parameter to stick to reducing rather than a % on total food as I have no idea. I'm happy just focusing on growing produce at the moment and cutting back on one or two more meat meals. Also, gluten free items are often made in Aussie - hopefully all shipped rather than air freighted though!
April 18, 2007
Beat your feet!
Walking that is!
With the growing awareness of needing to reduce carbon emissions because of the impact on climate change - and that personal car use rates right up there as one of the bigger contributors to the crisis - being able to reduce our usage is something that those of us who own and run a car can all do.
I have been actively reducing my car usage over the past 2-3mths and it has not been as difficult as I expected - once I put my mind to it and stick with it!
However, until now I have been randomly just deciding to stay home for the day/morning/afternoon or walking to a nearby vicinity. I will now be declaring Tuesdays "car free day" for myself and the kids on top of our other random times of not using the car - this will be increased as the change become a normal part of our daily life - after all, with the oil crisis, it *has* to be changed in the not so far future, so why not start now?
By having car free days, they will likely involve walking much longer distances and going prepared to be out for hours rather than just a short jaunt down to the local playground or beach - I actually look forward to it as an adventure where we will all be spending slow, quality, meaningful time together while doing our walking.
Not to mention the exercise we will all be getting!
Interested in more reading about climate change and why things need to change?
With the growing awareness of needing to reduce carbon emissions because of the impact on climate change - and that personal car use rates right up there as one of the bigger contributors to the crisis - being able to reduce our usage is something that those of us who own and run a car can all do.
I have been actively reducing my car usage over the past 2-3mths and it has not been as difficult as I expected - once I put my mind to it and stick with it!
However, until now I have been randomly just deciding to stay home for the day/morning/afternoon or walking to a nearby vicinity. I will now be declaring Tuesdays "car free day" for myself and the kids on top of our other random times of not using the car - this will be increased as the change become a normal part of our daily life - after all, with the oil crisis, it *has* to be changed in the not so far future, so why not start now?
By having car free days, they will likely involve walking much longer distances and going prepared to be out for hours rather than just a short jaunt down to the local playground or beach - I actually look forward to it as an adventure where we will all be spending slow, quality, meaningful time together while doing our walking.
Not to mention the exercise we will all be getting!
Interested in more reading about climate change and why things need to change?
March 10, 2007
Oh, What to Cook?!
I would not describe myself as being an enthusiastic cook. I have always cooked and am reasonably good at it, but it just doesn't excite me and it's not something I do for fun. I do enjoy having a variety of recipes to call on, but at the same time, like to just whip something together because I know how. I have never really been one to trawl through a recipe book with the idea of making something new.
So today, I wasn't feeling inspired by my usual recipes, so asked Nathan what he would like for dinner. He disappeared off out of the room and started to look through the cookbooks, so I said to find something he liked - not really seriously thinking he would come up with something appropriate (thought he might stop in the cake or dessert section). Well he found something he liked and presented it to me. Creamy Lentil and Vegetable Soup. Hmmm.....interesting....sounds like it could be a goer. So after a quick scan through the ingredients I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a seasonal recipe (which matched with seasonal organic vegetables we have delivered weekly) and I had all vegetables and other ingredients required. It even met the "criteria" * for that night.
* We have made a commitment to eating vegetarian/vegan meals every 2nd night. I initially had in my head that we'd eat vegetarian "2 or 3 times a week" - but I found it easier to be disciplined by having a set rule on it. Suits us good and makes it easier for making the decision on what to eat that night too - we actually tend to eat it several nights in a row if I have a new recipe to try out (yes! I'm actually starting to enjoy cooking and will look for new exciting things to make). Initially we started eating a lot more vegetarian meals when Nathan was around 12mths old as he seemed very adverse to eating meat. So rather than stressing over it and going to all lengths to get meat into him, I switched us onto a half and half vegetarian diet to keep things balanced for him. In recent times, we have made a conscious decision to actually eat less meat (despite Nathan now eating it more readily) because of the impact on climate change and the "footprint" it leaves on our planet (and we like it!).
Creamy Lentil and Vegetable Soup
1 cup red lentils
1 litre hot water
1 Tbspn oil (I use coconut)
1 large onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp paprika
2 Tbspn cream
2 Tbspn cornflour
1 cup frozen peas or other frozen vegetables (I used fresh silverbeet chopped finely)
1 cup fresh tomato chopped finely
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (parsley, spring onions, chives, basil, thyme, oregano)
1 Tbspn sugar
1 tsp salt
Measure the lentils and hot water into a bowl to soften the lentils. Put the oil into a large pan and add the chopped onion, garlic, carrots and celery. Add the cumin, garam masala, paprika to the vegetables (the measurements above are half what the recipe had as the kids don't like it too spicy). Cook over moderate heat stirring occasionally for 2-3mins without letting the vegetables brown. Add the hot water and the lentils, cover and simmer for about 20mins or until everything is tender. Puree all or part, or none of the mixture and bring back to the boil (I stuck the stick-whizz into the pan and did it that way). Mix the cream (coconut cream would work too) and cornflour to a paste with a little extra water and pour into the soup. Add the peas (or alternative veges) and the tomato that has been chopped into pieces the same size as the peas. Add the sugar, then salt to taste. Add the fresh herbs. Done!
Nathan ate it with his corn thins dipped in to it. Danielle wasn't keen, but when Dadda arrived home later for his dinner she quite happily ate some then.
So today, I wasn't feeling inspired by my usual recipes, so asked Nathan what he would like for dinner. He disappeared off out of the room and started to look through the cookbooks, so I said to find something he liked - not really seriously thinking he would come up with something appropriate (thought he might stop in the cake or dessert section). Well he found something he liked and presented it to me. Creamy Lentil and Vegetable Soup. Hmmm.....interesting....sounds like it could be a goer. So after a quick scan through the ingredients I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a seasonal recipe (which matched with seasonal organic vegetables we have delivered weekly) and I had all vegetables and other ingredients required. It even met the "criteria" * for that night.
* We have made a commitment to eating vegetarian/vegan meals every 2nd night. I initially had in my head that we'd eat vegetarian "2 or 3 times a week" - but I found it easier to be disciplined by having a set rule on it. Suits us good and makes it easier for making the decision on what to eat that night too - we actually tend to eat it several nights in a row if I have a new recipe to try out (yes! I'm actually starting to enjoy cooking and will look for new exciting things to make). Initially we started eating a lot more vegetarian meals when Nathan was around 12mths old as he seemed very adverse to eating meat. So rather than stressing over it and going to all lengths to get meat into him, I switched us onto a half and half vegetarian diet to keep things balanced for him. In recent times, we have made a conscious decision to actually eat less meat (despite Nathan now eating it more readily) because of the impact on climate change and the "footprint" it leaves on our planet (and we like it!).
Creamy Lentil and Vegetable Soup
1 cup red lentils
1 litre hot water
1 Tbspn oil (I use coconut)
1 large onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp paprika
2 Tbspn cream
2 Tbspn cornflour
1 cup frozen peas or other frozen vegetables (I used fresh silverbeet chopped finely)
1 cup fresh tomato chopped finely
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (parsley, spring onions, chives, basil, thyme, oregano)
1 Tbspn sugar
1 tsp salt
Measure the lentils and hot water into a bowl to soften the lentils. Put the oil into a large pan and add the chopped onion, garlic, carrots and celery. Add the cumin, garam masala, paprika to the vegetables (the measurements above are half what the recipe had as the kids don't like it too spicy). Cook over moderate heat stirring occasionally for 2-3mins without letting the vegetables brown. Add the hot water and the lentils, cover and simmer for about 20mins or until everything is tender. Puree all or part, or none of the mixture and bring back to the boil (I stuck the stick-whizz into the pan and did it that way). Mix the cream (coconut cream would work too) and cornflour to a paste with a little extra water and pour into the soup. Add the peas (or alternative veges) and the tomato that has been chopped into pieces the same size as the peas. Add the sugar, then salt to taste. Add the fresh herbs. Done!
Nathan ate it with his corn thins dipped in to it. Danielle wasn't keen, but when Dadda arrived home later for his dinner she quite happily ate some then.
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