Blog Action Day - The Environment

Sue Blimey put me on to this. She has an excellent informative post on the environment and things that we can do or learn about to make a difference. I work in the environmental management field, advising clients how to do the right thing. I get just as much satisfaction working with kids, planting trees, designing water conservation measures and overall environmental awareness through my work at my kids school.

Listening to Tim Flannery I liked his approach of doing something to make a difference. We can all collectively make a big difference by doing a little such as conserving power, water and other resources, not driving so much, taking public transport.

Here in South Australia, where Tim used to be Head of the SA Museum and had a big impact on the State Government in terms of practical implementation of energy saving, water conserving and solar power technologies, the drought is very real and we are living with the dramatic consequences of changing climate.

We are all obliged to do something or absolutely nothing. Now that would make a difference if we all did nothing for a few days.



Sue also has this commercial from the UK, that I liked. Not too preachy and fairly practical.

Toilet Paper Indispensable

In our quiz, we have discovered that toilet paper and cars are the things that people would be most reluctant to give up for a year to reduce their environmental impact.

I have to agree.

A Year without Toilet Paper

A New York Family, living in an apartment are reducing their environmental footprint by getting rid of their car, junking most appliances, only eating food available within 250 miles of New York and giving up toilet paper, amongst other things. How much would you be willing to give up?

Having lived and travelled in a number of countries where toilet paper is not always available, I can confirm that would be a major hurdle for me.

Here in Australia, we have the EcoHouse Challenge, the latest reality show, where two families are deprived of basic services and have to cope.

The challenge starts with a bang. Without warning four environmental hotspots, energy, water, transport and waste removal are shut down until further notice.

Over several weeks, while still living their normal lives, the families must radically reduce consumption and learn to live sustainably.

Even Big Brother Australia is cutting out long steamy showers for the new series that is about to start. Recycled water is being used for flushing and other uses. The series is filmed in the middle of one of the most severe drought zones in Australia in southeast Queensland.

I made up a little kwiz on the sidebar to see what you think. What I know is that it is a lot easier to talk about making changes than to actually implement green friendly changes.