What the world needs now is a Revolution

I’m trying to only blog on the weekend (so I will actually write my thesis) but today is such an auspicious date, so I had to post before the weekend.

All balance is being destroyed. The Gulf Stream is dying and climate change will spread deserts over the face of the Earth. In just fifty years the age of oil will be over and the industrial machine will cease. Its death throes will be agonising. Without oil, modern agriculture will fail. In the coming decades we face endless war, disease and starvation – a terrible and unavoidable apocalypse.
– The Amethyst Child by Sarah Singleton

I feel like this has morphed into a book review site. I’m about to blog about another book I just read. The Amethyst Child by Sarah Singleton (Simon and Schuster, 2008) is a teenage book, pretty much an adult book, but with teenage protagonists. I feel passionately about the need for everyone to understand and listen to teenagers because they are our future. And if we do, they’re more likely to listen to and thus understand us. This includes reading the books they might read (although my research highlights what we all knew, that the majority of teenagers don’t read “YA” books, unless they’re forced to at school).

London’s Secret War

After thinking I’d left kid’s book behind with my childhood, as a children’s librarian, I rediscovered their fun and haven’t looked back. I’ve been reading Un Lun Dun by China Miéville (Macmillan, 2007). Even though it’s written for children, I recommend it to every discerning adult. This is the first book I’ve read of his (and until today I thought he was a she) and it’s his first children’s book. Perhaps because he usually writes for adults, it has lots of subtext which might go straight over kids’ heads. I’m sure adults who wouldn’t usually look twice at a kid’s book, will enjoy Un Lun Dun. And his illustrations pop up at just the right moments.

Is the dingo Australian?

Are you thinking, “Of course the dingo is Australian, what else would it be?”

I just read Animal Nation: The True Story of Animals and Australia by Adrian Franklin (UNSW Press, 2006) and it got me thinking about dingoes, cats and Illyarri gum trees. Animal Nation is about Franklin’s research into our views on animals. At times Franklin’s writing can tend towards the academic (I zoned out a bit during the discussion of Durkheim’s theories of Totemism), but it’s written for a general readership and most of the time the writing is accessible. His references are endnotes, so they don’t interrupt the flow of the text, but they’re available if you want to read more.

Some of Franklin’s ideas are confronting. I was shocked in his questioning of the continued effort to eradicate feral animals, particularly cats [1]. Franklin wonders why we continue in these eradication efforts when scientific opinion shows this can’t possibly succeed (p. 148). I read about feral cat control in Western Australia in the summer issue of Landscope and it’s not pointless. I was both saddened to see the cute litter of tabby kittens that would grow into “murderous moggies” and heartened that small steps toward “conservation gains” are occurring. Cats are amazingly ingenious at learning to avoid baits and survive well in dry and drought-prone environments, common in WA. This, combined with the fact that cats arrived in WA before foxes, and evidence from CSIRO, enables Dr Jeff Short to counter

Tim Flannery’s claim that the majority of those who assert that cats have caused extinctions in Australia are simply cat-haters who have allowed their prejudice to override their scientific reason. [2]

Why a Diamond is Forever

The ads told her it was. The ads said that you should buy make-up, and colour your hair, and drink Coke so that you will be the sort of attractive that men can’t resist
– Alyssa Brugman, Solo (Allen & Unwin, 2007)

As well as Alyssa Brugman’s amazing (if harrowing) book, I’ve been reading The Empire of Mind: Digital Piracy and the Anti-Capitalist Movement by Michael Strangelove (University of Toronto Press, 2005). In the first chapter our saturation in advertising is discussed.

I don’t think much of diamonds or diamond engagement rings. My mother never had an engagement ring and has lived her married life happily without it. I always thought they’re a waste of money. If someone proposed to me with one I’d probably say no because he obviously doesn’t know me well enough to know my views on such wasteful consumption.

Another Political Event Couldn’t…

…achieve anything useful.

Over the weekend of 8-9 September I was in Sydney for my cousin’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, but I won’t bore you with that. That weekend also happened to be when the 2007 APEC meeting was held in Sydney and the powers that be of Sydney were in lock down mode. The government and police were just a little bit paranoid about their visiting celebrities and there was just a smidgeon of security overkill.

Why aren’t there Big Solar Projects in Australia?

Businesses developing renewable and energy efficient technologies search in vain for a sympathetic ear in Canberra. (p.66)

Matt from The Coffee House asked,

Are there not any big solar building projects going on in Oz?

My original answer to Matt was,

The University of NSW and Australian National University are internationally recognised in solar technology development, but research ideas are often commercialised overseas because the venture capital can’t be found in Australia. eg. UNSW’s recent $1.7m licensing agreement with Taiwanese solar cell manufacturer E-Ton Solar Tech Co. Ltd.

I also thought Australia’s government is not very helpful because our Mandatory Renewable Energy Target is set at 9,500GWh by 2010. This target will only increase Australia’s renewable energy market by about 1-2 percent. I didn’t think, Why is this so?

Correcting Earthworms and more Composting tips

After writing about earthworms and composting the other week, I read Composting: from organic waste to black gold by Victoria Heywood (Penguin, 2005) and found out I got some things wrong. I thought I’d better correct my mistakes.

I’ve always thought that composting and vermiculture were completely different. I knew in the back of my mind they were both recycling organic matter and thus both composting, but I still thought worm farming was somehow lower on the composting ladder. It may have to do with reading books about composting in a heap, in which earthworms were only one aspect of the process. I’ve now realised they are both equally composting, just different methods to come to the same conclusion. This view may have coloured my statement,

Although Vanessa at Green as a Thistle blogged about making a composting unit, it’s actually a worm farm.

Vanessa probably doesn’t even know my blog exists, but if you happen to read her thoughts as well as mine, I am trying not to be a compost snob. If you read further you will discover I’m not even doing my composting right. I probably should just bury myself in the compost heap right now!