Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand

I have started to read Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand by Haydn Washington and John Cook (2011). So far, I am truly enjoying this book, but I wanted to share a part of the forward to this book by Naomi Oreskes.

"Most of us are aware that scientists say climate change is under way, but even if we accept it as true we act as if it had no implications. We deny, what it means, and continue business as usual. 

....will that is needed.....not the will to keep calm and carry on in the face of tragedy. It is the will to change the way we live in order to avoid an even greater tragedy; a tragedy that will affect not just Queensland, or even all of Australia, but the whole world, including the plants and animals with whom we share this rock upon which we live. 

It is about the way of life that does not reckon the true cost of living, an economics that does not take into account environmental damage and loss.

Climate change is the ultimate accounting; it is the bill for a century of unprecedented prosperity, generated by the energy stored in fossil files. By and large, this prosperity has been a goof thing. More people live longer and healthier lives than before the industrial revolution. The problem, however, is that those people did not pay for the full cost of that prosperity. And the remainder of the bill has now come due. 

What we need now is the will: the will to face the facts, the will to accept their implications and the will to do something about it."

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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!



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Do you read books?

If you're still in the paper realm of books (which I love) a library is a great source of reading material and overall reduces your environmental footprint!

How you might ask? Well, instead of producing book material only for your personal pleasure, which once you've read it often ends up on your bookshelf, libraries allow many readers to access the same material, thereby reducing the number of times the book or reading material needs to be printed and in turn reducing the amount of raw materials required!

Other ways to improve your environmental footprint whilst still enjoying printed books:

• purchase books/reading material for your collection but share them with friends;
• if have books that you don't want anymore, hand on to friends, give to charity bins, hold a book swap, freecycle;
• buy second hand books, particularly from charity organisations;
• catch a bus to the library; or
• car pool to library.

If you're worried that you're local library doesn't have the specific book or type of books that you like, quite often libraries can buy books that you like (if they deem them likely to be attractive to a wider audience) or alternatively they may have an inter-library loan service (this may attract a small fee depending on the location of the material you require). Pin It

Permaculture Resources

The new blog for the Permaculture Eudlo group has just posted an extensive book list covering numerous topics relevant to permaculture.

It is available on the Book list tab of their blog.

Well worth a scan! Pin It

Useful Native Plant Identification Books

Here are three readily available and easy to use native plant identification books useful in South-east Queensland.

• Wild plants of Greater Brisbane - Queensland Museum
• Noosa Native Plants - Noosa Integrated Catchment Association Inc.
• Mountains to Mangroves (there is a new edition available that combines the previously available two volume set) - Logan River Branch of Society for Growing Australian Plants

These are all photographic plant identification books and group the plant species into their supporting habitats/ecosystems. Easy to flip through to identify and no keys or fancy terms necessary.

Great reference texts and if you're keen it is a great idea to carry at least one of them in the field with you (if you're back can handle it) to help expand your knowledge of native plants in South-east Queensland! 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

Food for thought

Quote from "Green Metropolis" by David Owen that I thought might generate some personal opinion and perhaps even some conversation.

"In the very long run...life itself is unsustainable, no matter what we human beings do or fail to do, because the sun will eventually burn out."

This is from the book that is doing my head in but some of the reading today made me a little less prickly and made me think that perhaps bits of the book are a little more insightful than I had given it credit for.

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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.

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David Suzuki lecture

Yippeee. A friend of mine has just organised for us to go to the David Suzuki lecture during the Brisbane Writer's festival. It is my understanding that he has a new book and hence the association with the writer's festival, but it certainly will be an interesting seminar to listen to since I have grown up being surrounded by David's books and my mother thinking that I should work for him when I suggested in my late high school years that I was going to do environmental science at uni.

Hope it is a great night out.

More information on this seminar can be found on the Brisbane Writer's festival home page (http://www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au/) and the Powerhouse's home page (http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org/). 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.

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Books versus Ebook readers

I have a personal passion for books and love to read, but even more than that I just love looking through book stores. The onset of e-readers may see the end of my strollings in these wonderful commercial entities. There is however debate as to whether the e-readers are truly more environmentally friendly than our lovely paperbacks!

I read an article in the latest G Magazine today which compared the environmental footprint of our traditional paper books and the e-readers. The first portion of this article made me feel that there certainly must be an overriding detrimental impact from the e-reader, however, the conclusion of the article in fact was the total opposite (based on a number of assumptions). The e-reader despite needing to be powered by electricity and requiring new batteries on occasion has less environmental impact than our normal book, even when the book is sourced from local publishers and printed with vegetable dye on recycled paper. Ho hum!

Despite all this, I think I will probably continue to purchase the lovely paperback on occasion, but certainly will be utilising my library as much as possible and forward on to other people books that I have purchased and loved. I also love attending the annual Lifeline bookfest, a great place to purchase pre-loved books and help out a worthy charity organisation. Pin It