Another cool book club

I have just bumped into the very technological savvy Royal Institution of Australia. This seems to be a powerful source of useful scientific information available to the general public and includes many fantastic resources, with many of them being online.

One of their fantastic initiatives is their book club. Unfortunately, I don't think this is online, but for those in Adelaide you can regularly go along to the Science Exchange to participate in these book club sessions. For those of us not in Adelaide, the RIAus website (past events) lists the books to be discussed each session and this provides us all an opportunity to seek out some great science reads.

Pin It

Another great resource book....weeds

A great weed book that I can recommend for the central and southern sections of the east coast of Australia is Weeds of the South-east: An Identification Guide for Australia. It is written by F.J.Richardson, R.G. Richardson and R.C.H. Shepherd.

The second and fully updated edition of this book was released recently (2011) and I think it is brilliant. Great photos, easy descriptions (if you want them) and worth its cost if you are regularly needing to identify weeds in your area and not a true and passionate botanist. It is also easily available from online stores.

I live in south-east Queensland and it is certainly relevant for my area. And because of the geographic distribution of the book's subject matter you can also look at or learn about some of the weedy species that occur in the cooler parts of the continent.

Thumbs up for this publication!



Pin It

Do you know where your food comes from?

I have been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Wow, what a wake up call! This book has definitely opened my eyes to many issues within the current industrialised food system that I was not aware of.

The book is written based on the current American food system and I wonder how transferable the examples are to Australia, but definitely food for thought and still worth the read. It seems that much of the American food system is based on cheap corn, for example, and I don't know how much corn we produce here in Australia and whether it is as heavily subsidised as in America. Certainly products and ingredients that come from America and sold here in Australia will reflect the systems described in the book, but I don't know about our meat production and how heavily it relies on corn on its "raw" material or alternatively whether there is some other "raw" material (perhaps wheat) here in Australia that is just as heavily relied upon and subsidised as corn is described in the book.

One part of the book that left me gob-smacked, was Michael description of "organic beef". Due to marketing and my own pre-conceived ideas, my understanding was organic beef came from cattle roaming freely on green grassy pastures and spending an idyllic life as a cow should, until slaughtered and ending up on my plate, but Michael describes in the book that there is some organic beef (in America) that is now is produced in exactly the same way as traditional meat, being initially grass fed and then off to feedlot. The only difference being that the organic meat gets fed organic corn based food within the same feedlot situation and the cattle is not fed "enhanced" food that has antibiotics. The later, in fact, potentially results in less healthy animals, because of the likelihood of disease that results from being within a feedlot situation and being given food that isn't necessarily great for them. This completely did my head in! Have to check out how my local organic meat is produced now!

If you're not into reading, you catch watch the Food Inc dvd, it covers the topics described in Michael Pollan's book and shows Joel Salatin's farm, as an example of a non-industrialised food system working in America. 

Great read and fascinating watch! A definite read to peel back the layers of anonymity in our food systems.

Pin It

Requiem for a species

Great book...everyone should read it. A climate change book with a difference.

First chapter is a little heavy on the detail and even for the committed might you may feel like you're wading through mud because of the amount of facts that are jammed into the chapter about climate change. I do however believe that it provides a good summary of some of the facts relating to climate change and thought about distributing just this chapter to friends (those that don't understand climate change) to bring them up to speed. The rest is an interesting twist on why many people don't like to recognise the truth about climate change and why we persist the way we are going.

The one thing I found truly horrifying in the book (but on reflection think it is likely to be the planetary outcome) is that many people don't value the natural environment and recognise its intrinsic value.  Thus in the face of this dramatic challenge to the planet and many of its species the human race will be happy to sacrifice the natural environment to ensure they can maintain with their current lifestyles and ensure the persistence of the human species. In some minds we don't need the natural environment. Some of these people consider the human species the greatest species and we will "engineer" a fix to ensure our persistence but it may just be that we don't have any remnant of what we understand to be the natural environment.  

Borrow it from your library. Pin It

Less is More

Another book review for those looking to read something that may potentially change your life. I think I found this latest book through the David Suzuki book club!

I am currently reading Less is More edited by Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska. It is a great book introducing many different authors' ideas on the concept of simplicity and bringing it into your life. It is kind of the equivalent of down-sizing your life and making it simpler so that you have more time to spend with family and friends and doing things that you will really appreciate.

I have borrowed this book from my local library but am definitely thinking I will invest in a copy. It has some great 'ah-ha' moments and I think owning a copy will allow me to refer back to the things that I consider are important because it is really easy to forget these principles when you get caught up in 'normal' life.

Pin It

Found a cool book club

I was just looking at the David Suzuki Foundation website (http://www.davidsuzuki.org/) and found that they have a book club (http://bookclub.davidsuzuki.org/home). The exciting part about this is that it isn't just any book club. It is a book club that reads books that I think I would actually be interested in. For example,

• Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming
• Less is More: embracing simplicity for a healthy planet, a caring economy and lasting happiness.

Cool titles and something that will help me learn about myself, the planet and how I can improve my bond with the world. I have signed up as a member and let you know when the next book is nominated.

Pin It

Riding the black cockatoo

Wow, what a book. I am almost finished this amazing read in a very short period of time and I am truly enjoying the experience. The book is by John Danalis and is based on one of his family's stories. It is truly an incredible read and journey.

The story revolves around John's family having an indigenous person's skull on their mantlepiece and the family returning these remains to their traditional lands and the impact this process has on John and his family.

This book has enlightened me on a number of indigenous issues and made me once again recognise the impact that white settlement has had on both the land and the people who traditionally inhabited Australia. It also highlights the relationship that the original settlers had with the indigenous people as well how the broader population in the 21st century relate to both present and past generations of indigenous people.

I can wait to read the last few pages and start investigating some of the things that have really struck a chord with me. Highly recommended read! Pin It