Thanks to Vanda for forwarding the following tip on a good website to help us all reduce our ecological footprint!

"Blackle" - http://www.blackle.com/ is the Google website but with a black background.

How is Blackle saving energy? Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's colour settings and desktop graphics, as well as the colour and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002

How can you help? We encourage you to set Blackle as your home page. This way every time you load your Internet browser you will save a little bit of energy. Remember every bit counts!

Website of interest - "The Big Switch" - campaigning against global warming: http://www.thebigswitch.org.au/
 The list of climate change solutions that the group are using to lobby politicians ATTACHED. It's a good common-sense list of political demands. You might like to join the campaign.
TBS_Climate_Change_Solutions

Hi everyone,
 
Now that Village residents have recorded their mains water usage for the past year, there are some interesting results to display. See the ATTACHMENT to find out how your water consumption compares with that of others in the Village and with Adelaide average.
 
The good news is that, thanks to our rainwater tanks, average consumption in the Village is well below the Adelaide average.
 
The bad news is that there are still nine water accounts outstanding. Please try to get them paid this week so whoever is the Treasurer after the AGM does not have to start the business year by chasing up unpaid bills!
 
John Heij
070813 Mains water use 06-07

While we are thinking of Levies it may help to contemplate what rates and charges we do not pay in The Village and the benefits this brings. See the attachment to find out how lucky we are.
 Kind Regards - Lou de Leeuw
070809 Water and Sewer Rates

In the middle of a damp winter, it's easy to forget the drought. Spare a thought for the citizens of the Turkish capital, Ankara, who have had their water supply cut to 2 days on and 2 days off because of severe drought. In the driest continent of all, could this be our water future? Check the following link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6929186.stm

Thanks to Bridget O'Donnell for forwarding this valuable reference - It is really great.

Dear Aldinga Arts EcoVillage,

All of you who live at AAEV have chosen to live closely with other people. Excellent choice! There is so much to be said for that. It is spiritually very supportive, and environmentally very efficient. We wish more people would do the same.

We would like to offer you all a gift, a short e-book that we wrote called, "Toward Enlightened Community." Please forward this e-mail to the inhabitants of AAEV.

Everybody knows that what the world needs now is love. And most people long for a sense of community. Yet, few people know, realistically, how to implement those dreams. One of the biggest challenges humanity is facing today is the challenge of learning to live together cooperatively.

We are a successful community who has been around for over 20 years now. Most of our members have been with us for at least 10 years. In those years we've learned a great deal about what it really takes to live together harmoniously. It has certainly been a challenge -- a very HEALTHY challenge. We've discovered a lot about ourselves, about human nature, and about what
makes community really WORK, in the process.

Now, having learned, we want to share what we know with others. Our e-book describes the many advantages of community living, and explains in detail the essential success factors that would permit any community to flourish. Here is the link to the e-book page of our website, where you will find it online:

http://www.soulprogress.com/html/eBooks/eBookMain.html

Once you get to the page, click on the link that says, "Toward Enlightened Community," and you will be given the option to either view a black and white printable version or a color version suitable to read onscreen only.

If you find the things you read to be beneficial, then please feel free to share this e-book. We would be very happy if you did. The information in the book is helpful to people both inside and outside of actual communities.

And if you have any questions, or want to talk about it, feel free to write to us.

Good luck with the extremely worthwhile and wonderfully beneficial challenge of community living!

Sincerely,

The Living Love Fellowship

[I have both versions as PDF documents so, if you cannot access the book online and would like me to email a PDF to you, please let me know - Elizabeth H. - Email. I will also be seeking to have a hard-copy printout made for the Library in due course.]