What will the coastline look like in the future?

Many highly populated areas are now directly adjacent to the coastline or in very close proximity to the coast. This is lovely for those that get to live with lovely views of the ocean or live there because of proximity to trade routes or similar.

However, with climate change and sea level rise there are likely to be significant consequences for all those people that live near the coast. Not only are people going to be directly affected with houses being inundated, but much of our society's infrastructure is located in close proximity to these areas and will likely have significant challenges because of these environmental issues.

(Source: The Guardian) 

In light of these significant impacts that will be faced by millions of people, I cannot see anything but gloom for coastal environments and coastal processes that remain intact nearby these large human populations. 

Do you think governments will stand by the ecological value of the community of mangroves or salt marshes when the people that live behind them face imminent inundation and furthermore the government could take the easy option for these people through the construction of a seawall or similar? 

I feel so pessimistic about this. My professional world is immersed in this reality based economic development sector and I can't see the broader community supporting the retreat of communities (and protecting the coastal environments) over the "easier" solution of building walls and providing coastal engineering solutions (due to the externalities associated with these strategies).

I would love to hear your opinion about this and perhaps lift my mood about this. Perhaps you have some of the picture that I have forgotten to consider in the first place. 

  

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Success!

Recently I applied for funding to my local council as part of their Landholder Environment Grant initiative. The Council received hundreds of application and awarded over $300,000 in grants. The big activities in my proposal were weed management works and revegetation activities. 

Due to the number of applicants most proposals were not fully funded, which was the case for my application. However, I was successful in securing $650! Woo hoo! Council has specified this money is to be spent on 250 native species tubestock and 50 bales of straw mulch, as outlined in my proposal.

250 native tubestock won't go far in revegetating the southern paddock on my property, but I certainly consider that all contributions will go a long way to making things happen.

Last night, I have forwarded a species list to my local Bushcare nursery to request a stocking rate estimation for each of the species I have proposed and request what sort of timeframe they could supply these tubestock to me. Once this information is in hand, I will be able to plan my planting day!

So exciting! So as they say, you've got to be in it to win it and let the fun begin!

I will post photos as we go through the process and hopefully it will inspire you to either apply for a grant to undertake something you've been meaning to do at your place or alternatively just think about what native plantings would suit your block.

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Do you know what a ghost net is?

Ghost nets are discarded fishing nets. These nets can be deliberately discarded or lost at sea during fishing expeditions and end up traveling around the world on ocean currents. Here in Australia, the northern shores of our continent are significantly impacted by these nets, with particular effects on marine wildlife. These nets are known to capture, injure and kill a number of our marine species, including threatened marine turtles and sawfishes.

What can be done about this situation? There is certainly room for improvement to netting and fishing technology and restrictions to locations where nets are permitted. But as many of these nets are released or lost in countries other than ours, these solutions won't help the Australian marine wildlife in the short to medium-term.

So, here in Australia the majority of attention and funding is on the removal of these nets from our coasts and waters. Ghost Nets Australia is an alliance of indigenous communities across northern Australia which are funded to remove ghost nets from our shores. What a big job! Their website shows many initiatives that have been generated from this project, including recycling and art programs and scientific research.

 (Source: Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2011)

This is certainly a big problem, particularly for northern Australian marine species and one which is generally out of sight of the majority of the Australian population.


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What is Palm Oil?

In recent years I have heard bits and pieces about palm oil and how it is used in many, many products that we consume (grocery and cosmetic items) and how it is impacting on precious tropical forests in south-east Asia, particularly orang-utan habitat. Other than these things, I don't know a lot more about palm oil or its issues.

I was reminded of this issue this morning when reading the finished box of soap as I took it from the bathroom and to the recycling bin. I think the brand is "Country Life" and it advertises itself as Australia made and owned and Palm Oil Free. You will also find in smaller print it is made from locally and imported ingredients (as most things do).

Anyway, I thought I should have a look into what "palm oil" is. WWF has an informative webpage that describes palm oil as being derived from the "fruit of the oil palm tree", which comes from two main oil palm trees (African Oil Palm and American Oil Palm). Further information about palm oil and its uses from WWF site include that

"the palm fruit yields two distinct oils - palm oil and palm kernel oil. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit, is edible and used in food. Palm kernel oil is extracted from the seed of the fruit and is used mainly in the manufacture of cosmetics."

The growing of oil palm trees seems to be quite widespread around the tropics, with palm oil plantations in our region being focused in Malayasia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Furthermore, these plantations are apparently often associated with illegal or unsustainable deforestation activities (although I will have to investigate this further).

Once again, the consciousness of the consumer can make a difference to such matters and certainly impact on businesses and activities outside our national boundaries. We can achieve this just by making informed choices about the products we choose to buy.

As the GreenPalm.org website states that if we just stop "our" consumption of palm oil, it is likely that the product will then just be purchased by another "user". But, if appropriate assistance (in the way of education and trade support, for example) can be provided to primary producers in these regions (many countries being third world nations) there is the possibility they will be able to modify their  businesses towards sustainable practices. There may also be better planning (through assistance) for new plantations, thereby reducing or preventing deforestation of these important areas.

My understanding is that the GreenPalm group is supporting such actions for this industry through the development of a certificate trading program for palm oil, which includes the labelling of products containing sustainably produced palm oil. WWF and a number of other interested groups also seem to tackling the issues and providing education to consumers and producers, as well as developing standards for responsible palm oil plantations, through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Again, it can come down to being conscious of your choices, choose products that have sustainably produced palm oil or no palm oil (where there is sustainable product alternatives) and try to find out where the "imported ingredients" come from and generally make informed decisions.  

If you'd like to know more details of what countries and brands are using palm oil, as well as their commitment to utilise sustainable palm oil sources in the future, the WWF has developed the Palm Oil Buyers' Scorecard 2011: Measuring the Progress of Palm Oil Buyers.

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Skeletal Australian soils: fertility & moisture

Australia has what are described as very old soils, with little fertility being added to them in any recent history. I am discovering the extremity of this at present with my new garden and the biggest challenge I am facing is keeping the moisture in. Without this essential ingredient I can't plant or plan any new plantings, as there won't be enough water to allow the plants to grow and take up the necessary nutrients that might be lurking in the soil.

I have planted one hybrid, showy eucalypt at the front gate and have found this plant is almost daily suffering from water stress despite now having been in the ground for nearly five weeks. The main stem isn't coping without support, the leaves have once started to die off and approximately three-quarters of the flower buds that I bought it with are starting to shrivel and die. Boo hoo hoo!

I have never had to deal with such poor soils. And it seems not only is it likely that my soils are particularly clayey but also they are extremely thin. In the future I will have to ensure that all dirt is mulched thoroughly to ensure they don't wash down the hill to the neighbour's yard and just leave me with rock, only open dirt up when I intend to plant things and ensure plants are well watered for a longer period than I am use to (potentially an irrigation system will need to be constructed to cope with water demands). And given that we are on rain water only this is a little daunting.

In regards to nutrients, I fear that my soils are particularly lacking and I will have to invest in some supplements. For the short term, a healthy dose of native plant fertiliser when establishing plants may do the trick, but I will have to look into a long-term solution. I also have to figure out if the soils you can build for things such as veggie patches are useful or toxic to native plants (which is what I plan on planting mostly).

So many more questions raised and certainly not enough answered! But the journey continues


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Permaculture and the concept of edges

I have been looking into permaculture recently and it seems to be a very interesting concept for a person interested in producing their own food in a sustainable manner. I do however have some issue with the permaculture principle of increasing edges within your system. My understanding is that edges in nature are highly diverse and productive and therefore if you introduce edges into say your veggie patch you potentially have more microclimates and potential to have more species, meaning more food in your garden.

However, I come from a ecological background where edges in disturbed environments are the bad. They are the areas where weeds occur, water evaporates, winds increase, pests are present, etc, etc. As such, I fear the introduction of significant amounts of edges into a garden will in fact create issues for your garden and may in fact bring weedy species into your space, taking over other spaces that could be utilised for specialised species, increase evaporation and winds. I am also concerned about the weedy species that might become successful in your garden, may also become successful in adjacent areas, be that your neighbour's garden or a pristine environment.

People I have listened to about the principle of permaculture edges indicate that edges are a natural system. My thoughts on this matter are not quite the same as what I perceive to be a black and white representation of the natural environment. Edges are in fact quite rare, transition spaces are in fact more common resultant from gradual changes in soils, geology, climate, species and so on. I would appreciate if anyone could either further explain or clarify this principle in permaculture. Until such time I am hesitant to adopt this principle in my garden with any vigour. Pin It

Don't sit back, make a difference

An issue with the modern generations is their inactivity in decision-making in either their neighbourhood, the political environment, their workplace, their family or anywhere decisions are required.

In discussion with some friends this morning we were chatting about some infrastructure development in their neighbourhood and the options that have been put forward by the infrastructure provider.  My friends were passionate about the option that was proposed through one of the last remaining patches of bushland/wetland in their area. That is, they don't want it to go through that area.

There are a number of options the infrastructure provider has put forward for comment and many others that have not been raised to the public. At present, placing the infrastructure through the environmental reserve is the easiest option and therefore one the project manager would definitely prefer. You may ask, why is the environmental reserve option the easiest option? Well, without any public outcry, the infrastructure provider would only have to deal with the local government, as the current custodian of this land, and this does not pose much restraint when community infrastructure is seeking an easement or land. It is certainly much easier to deal with than a commercial entity who is looking at lost profit and therefore potentially significant compensation or a number of home-owners who feel passionately about their home that they have lived in for the last X number of years. All the infrastructure developer would need to do is come up with a suitable compensatory package and certainly in my experience and many project managers' experience this is much cheaper and more politically stable option than dealing with the other landholders and economic interests.

I know that many people have concerns for the retention of environmental spaces and parks within their local neighbourhoods, but without communication of this concern to the decision makers and project managers these intact, environmental area will always end up having the conflicting landuse placed in them or being sacrificed to. They don't have a voice, they don't have traditional economic value and they certainly don't have anyone putting up significant or costly barriers to their resumption and/or development. There isn't anyone else but the general public and caring souls to defend these areas. Commercial activities/industries, schools, churches, recreation facilities all have significant groups of interested people attached to them and thus will always have a voice and someone defending their interests till the last battle. This doesn't seem to be the case for most environmental areas.

It is important to realise we are the voice of the environmental reserves, national parks, conservation reserves, wildlife, threatened plants and animals, marine parks, remote locations, environmental water allocations, groundwater quality, etc, etc. If we don't stand up and put our voice forward and express our concerns about particular developments within these area, the developments will also win and the environment will continue to lose. Economic interests will always prevail and our land will end up being over-developed, over-utilised, degraded, without recognition of the public's concerns for these areas and values.

Speak up! If there is a chance to put your view forward it is important to do so. And if there isn't an invited comment period take the first step and engage in the process. You can contact your local politicians, the infrastructure developers, the general land developer or the agent of land use change. Stand up and be heard! Take action now or it will be too late! Pin It

Weed wash down

Weeds are significant issues across Australia and I often think about what the country would look like with intact vegetation and no lantana or the many other weeds that are invading natural bushlands and in some cases smothering them. 

There are numerous pieces of legislation which outline declared pests. Here in Queensland, we have the Land Protection (Pest and Stock Route Management) Act. Local councils also quite regularly identify lists of environmental weeds, these are usually invasive species that are non-native but widespread and unlikely to be completely removed from Australia without significant effort and investment. 

Weed control in your own patch of land is important, but where opportunities present themselves it is important to undertake weed seed spread prevention methods where available. I came across a public wash down facility when I was in North Queensland a couple of years back. 

 

I thought this was a great initiative but I don't think many other drivers on the road where even aware of the facility (it wasn't mandatory and you almost had to know it was there to see it) and certainly didn't seem to be using it. Therefore it probably wasn't very effective at this location, but you never know.

Here is a photo of the wash down facility in action. 

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How to build your own soils

An important step to becoming self-sufficient in producing your own food is having fabulous and healthy soils. Modern agriculture has all sorts of inputs that they pour into the soil to boost their productivity, but overtime the soils become depleted and require additional inputs and larger amounts. Such strategies are a long way from producing soils, are not self-sufficient and are generally very resource hungry, with many petro-chemical based inputs.

I went to a seminar today on Green Manures and Crop Rotation at my local library. This was presented by Sonya Wallace, a well known permaculture teacher here on the Sunshine Coast. This session was very informative and relieved some of my concerns about have green manure crops within my personal food production system. The concerns that I had previously about green manure crops was that I was loosing a good patch of soil which I could have been producing another viable vegetable crop.

For those that are unfamiliar with green manure crops, these are crops that assist in replenishing the soil with vital nutrients such as nitrogen as well as providing organic matter into the soil encouraging a good soil structure and a great diversity of life-forms within the soil (microbes, bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, etc). These crops are grown to rest your soils and also ensure that you have great soils to produce the food you want on your table.

Sonya presented information on types of green manure crops and the importance of rotating crops throughout your garden to ensure the soils can produce the best crops possible, with your rotation program to include green manure crops.

I now understand it is important to use such crops and strategies to ensure I will have long-term productive soils without having to utilise artificial sources of nutrients, in turn allowing for ongoing gardening success. Pin It

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Have you ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? If not, here is a little bit of information about it.

Basically it a massive amount of plastic pollution floating around in the Northern Pacific Ocean circulating with the oceanic currents. Apparently it is quite large, between 0.41 & 8.5% of the Pacific Ocean. It is however difficult to gain a true estimation of its size because it isn't visible in satellite imagery as the material is suspended in the upper water column rather than directly on the surface and much of it is plastic particulates rather than entire plastic containers.

Its presence was originally hypothesized in a paper in 1988, but its presence was 'discovered' by a sailor in 1997 who brought its presence to the attention of the scientific community. It is thought that the patch has formed over time through the accumulation of marine (plastic) pollution collected in oceanic currents, with wind-surface currents retaining the pollution within the Pacific region.

If this was a visible feature on our coastlines I'm sure people would have paid attention to the issue more readily before now, but as it is out of sight, I guess it is also a little out of mind. My hope is that the dissemination of such information will bring about changes to people's habits, particularly in relation to consumption of products within plastic containers to start with (as it has to go somewhere once you're finished with the product) or alternatively just dispose of these items more appropriately.  Reduce, reuse, recycle! Pin It

Health issues from modern society

I have been reading that many of the incidences of children's asthma in our modern society can be attributed to our polluting lifestyle, in particular air pollution. This is quite often overlooked as something that shows our polluting habits are affecting our health not just the 'environment'.

I'm sure very few of you have really considered that our modern, polluting lifestyle can directly kill people. One of the case studies that I read about was in America, where a little girl died after having an asthma attack on a day when the public had been warned to stay indoors because of poor air quality. The little girl and her friend were playing outside and due to the particulates in the air her respiratory system closed over (an asthma attack) and ended up in hospital where they couldn't save her because her asthma attack was too advanced.

I certainly am interested to know what distance from major roads that direct particulate air pollution can affect people and also whether our general air quality here in south-east Queensland is as bad as some of the 'polluted' cities in America that we see on the news and has the potential to significantly affect our health.

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Cling Wrap

Until recently I had used what I consider to be copious amounts of cling wrap (clear plastic film) to keep my sandwiches intact when going to work, covering fruit & veggies that were half consumed for storage in the fridge, covering up packets of ham that I had opened and then don't seal again, etc.

Having thought about the amount of cling/plastic wrap that I was going through I was convinced there had got to be alternatives to using all of this thin plastic. I was concerned because of:

1. the amount of plastic I was using and throwing away after a single use
2. the potential for this plastic to be blown from the landfill locations (or on the way there) and entering the waterways and marine environments, in turn potentially being consumed by all sorts of aquatic life forms; and
3. just generally adding to landfill.

What did I do? I invested in some more plastic (this doesn't sound very good) but I purchased a few long-wearing plastic rectangular containers to store left over foods, a sandwich-specific storage box to contain my sandwiches and a spherical container that will store tomatoes and onions.

As a result of this I use hardly any plastic/cling wrap and generally feel a little better about the footprint. I'm sure the plastic containers that I am still utilising in the kitchen domain are not the perfect environmental solutions but I consider it a start and something that I could easily adopt into my lifestyle.

Hope this helps others.

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Revised BP logo competition

Just came across a Greenpeace campaign to have people re-design the BP logo. Some of the logos that people have come up with are very effective, whilst others are amusing.

You can see the designs at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceuk/sets/72157623796911855/

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Get up - community action

I have been a 'member' or interested public participant in the Get Up ogranisation for a little while now. Mostly just get their emails, see what their up to and vote on actions I support when something comes up. Great place for information that seems to support my morals and life direction. Great place to start your action without a lot of effort.


You can get more information about them and their campaigns on their website, which is http://www.getup.org.au/. From there you will see whether it suits you and whether you'd also like to sign up for their emails and maybe participate in their program of action.

Some of the campaigns that they are interested in:

• easier access to enrolment for voting
• refugees
• climate change
• native forests
• internet censorship
• paid maternity leave
• mental illness, etc

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Desertification

What is desertification? I have heard the term but really don't know what it means. From my reading it is where dryland used for agriculture and other purposes loses its economic and biological productivity and usually results from climatic variability (change) or unsustainable human practices.

Some of you might now be wondering...'what are drylands'? Well, these are lands that can be productive with limited input from irrigation or natural precipitation. This does not however mean that they are resilient and can remain productive with no or limited rain, it means that they are adapted to a particular level of natural precipitation or human intervention and when this changes they are no longer productive.

I have heard this term mostly associated with Africa and I would like to learn more about the causes of this situation both in Africa and in other locations. Pin It

Cats......do my head in!

Today I was outside with my toddler and I heard something a bit out of the ordinary outside from front gates. It was a bird making a strange noise. My brain finally kicked into geared, opened the gate, just to see the next-door neighbour's cat with a figbird in its mouth! Arrrrrgggghhh!

I ran out of the gate and told the cat to drop it. The cat just looked disdainfully at me and jumped over the neighbour's fence into their backyard. No doubting the cat certainly had a tasty meal!

Cats whether they are loved pets or ferals running the neighbourhood are often responsible for the death of much of our native wildlife, particularly in the suburbs. If you have a cat:

• make sure it is kept inside at night;
• has a bell around its neck;
• if you can afford it invest in a cat run, so your friendly moggy is keep completely separate from the native wildlife that makes our suburbs a little more friendly.

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Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico

That's right. Apparently BP has been up to its old tricks and spilt a bucket load of oil into the ocean again (with more currently still pouring in). This time as a result of drilling efforts.

As of yesterday, BP is planning on lowering a containment dome over the well to limit the amount of oil being released into the ocean. In the article I heard, up to 85%. What about the other 15%? Shocker.

This situation is just screaming environmental devastation as a result of commercial greed and sloppiness. No matter how much greenwash companies do, few really care about the environment. Let's get real!

Hopefully, BP will prove me wrong and ensure their works reduce the impact on the ocean, the creatures that rely on the ocean's resources directly and the entire planet, where everything is connected. Pin It