Hi everyone,

I have recently come across a local (UK) company www.biologicdesign.co.uk whose aim is 'creating multi-species constructed wetlands for sustainable wastewater purification, biodiversity enhancement and resource production'. (Theirs is not a gravel reedbed system). Although obviously based within the UK environment, I thought perhaps some of the principles described on the website might be of interest to the 'wastewater treatment' or 'wetland/pond' people in the village. I know that this company uses bentonite successfully to line ponds in situations where the water would otherwise drain away, and including situations when the pond is dry for some of the time.
 
Deb H

If you were interested in the work of artist Chris Jordan, featured in the News Feed earlier this month under the headline: Art as a strong environmental statement, then you might also be interested in “meeting” the artist via a You Tube video clip at the following link, and learning more about the intention behind and making of is art.

http://opaleye.blogspot.com/2009/08/intolerable-beauty-chris-jordan.html

From Abundancy Partners (via Opaleye): "Open Letter to the Queen" - 14 August 2009

A letter signed by a range of eminent thinkers, activists, academics and businesspeople... including Rob Hopkins of the Transition movement. A similar letter to the Australian Government is badly needed:

We, the undersigned, noted with interest the letter to Your Majesty of 22nd July 2009 from the British Academy in which they respond to your question about how the current economic meltdown was missed. They talked of a "failure of the collective imagination of many bright people" and a "psychology of denial".... .

....Our premise is that our current economic malaise is symptomatic of a far more serious systemic failure to acknowledge what Archbishop Rowan Williams has identified in saying "It has been said that 'the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment'. The earth itself is what ultimately controls economic activity because it is the source of the materials upon which economic activity works".

Energy underlies everything – Scylla and Charybdis of peak oil and climate change. The underlying cause of the current economic meltdown is a multi-generational debt-binge inextricably linked to a concomitant multi-generational energy-binge. The Academy's letter focuses on some "imbalances in the global economy". However, the key to addressing our current situation is to recognise the far more serious imbalances between our insatiable hunger for energy, its finite nature and the environmental pollution in its use.

Read the full letter at: http://abundancypartners.com/open-letter-queen

There are some great things that could grow in a society that has gone beyond the current “economic-growth-at-any-price” paradigm, as identified by James Gustave Speth in Harvard Business Review:

“Of course, it is abundantly clear that even in a postgrowth society, many things do need to grow, such as the number of good jobs; the incomes of the poor; the deployment of climate-friendly and other green technologies; the availability of health care; security against the risks of job displacement, old age, and disability; and investment in public infrastructure and environmental amenity. We need targeted government policies to address such objectives. Of particular importance are policies that temper growth while improving social and environmental well-being—policies establishing, for instance, shorter workweeks and longer vacations; greater labor protections, job security, and benefits; restrictions on advertising; a new design for the twenty-first-century corporation, one that embraces rechartering and stakeholder primacy rather than shareholder primacy; rigorous environmental, health, and consumer protection; greater economic and social equality; heavy spending on public services; and initiatives to address population growth at home and abroad.”

Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2009/08/doing-business-in-postgrowth-society.html
and full article at:
http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/09/doing-business-in-a-postgrowth-society/ar/1

The Wetland Feasibility Report is now available.

You may have noticed there has been a change of wetland consultant. Our present man is Barrie Ormsby and he comes with vast experience and impressive qualifications, including:

CIVIL ENGINEERING 1959-1974: Road and drainage design with private engineering practices, worked with the Snowy Mountain Authority and The City of Salisbury.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT 1974-1997 for the City of Salisbury and responsible for all landscape and wetland design and management of Park and Landscape.
PRIVATE WETLAND CONSULTANCY since 1997
He has won many significant environmental awards for his projects and is recognized internationally for the ground breaking work done with the Salisbury wetland development.

I recommend you to read this report as it answers the many questions asked by the community last year and offers solutions for creating a wetland ecosystem. The present detention pond or dam system is 12.5 times greater than our needs and Barrie has identified ways of environmentally improving the design.

You can find the report on the AAEV website at:
http://www.aaev.net/management/nec/nec_documents/index.html [first item on list]
or go to the home page at www.aaev.net then click on “Landscape Design” in the menu, then “NEC Documents.”

A hard copy will also be placed in the Library.

If you are interested in further reading, Peter Andrews’ book “Back from the Brink” gives insights into recreating natural water patterns for the Australian Landscape.

Comments are appreciated and any questions will answered with links to reference points.

Maria Bray for the NEC - Phone: 8556 5752 or email

In response to Jacqui's “Village Moments” message of the previous newsfeed, here, in the present UK half of my life, I too treasure the often small but meaningful “moments” between people. I expressed similar sentiments in a piece of my (UK) artwork last year...... Image ATTACHED - and see the PDF also ATTACHED, which explains the work and also shows it exhibited in the marketplace at Hay-on-Wye.

Deb H
Deb's Haymarket canvas

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s oil supply rapidly dried up, and, almost overnight, the country faced a major food crisis. Already affected by a US trade embargo, Cuba by necessity had to go back to basics to survive - rediscovering low-input self-reliant farming. Havana now has almost 200 urban allotments - known as organiponicos - providing four million tons of vegetables every year - helping the country to become 90% self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables.

For more, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8213617.stm
(There is also an interesting video clip - but you will have to endure a commercial to watch it!)

Cuba shows us what’s possible, and how “feeding the Village by 2020” is a worthy vision for future security in a lower-oil world.

Congratulations to Heidi Karo on winning the Advertiser Business SA Contemporary Art Award at the SALA Festival - what a wonderful achievement!

Read about it in Adelaide Now:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,,25950008-5006301,00.html
and in yesterday’s Advertiser:
Heidi in Advertiser

Well done, Heidi. Your Village is proud of you!

People sought for watering Neighbourhood Group orchards:

During summer, the orchards need someone to be responsible for the ongoing assessment of watering needs. Contact your NHG representative or Cam W (0431 922 072) if you are able to take on an orchard and learn the taps and pipework!

For those of you who have not heard me enthuse, I LOVE living in the village.  There are many reasons but the shining one for me is the wonderful exchanges that happen between residents.  These can be fleeting and unplanned or quite organised.  I call these “Village Moments”.  Many of them make my heart sing.  I'm sure many others have these experiences  and I would love us to share them with each other.  I would like to volunteer to be 'Keeper of the Village Moment'.  These would be published in the Village Newsletter / calendar etc.  Who knows, one day we may have enough for a book!
 
A small example is that I was on my way to visit a friend in the village to use one of her kitchen machines, when another resident gave me a bag of silverbeet from their garden - yum.  Whilst using my friends machine, someone else popped in to borrow my friend’s kettle for drinks for a meeting and my son was beautifully happy being read to by the husband of my friend.
 
Nothing mind blowing happened in those exchanges but how delightful to live somewhere where we have these relationships with our neighbours.  It made me feel so blessed and warm that I have a life in which these opportunities arise.
 
Please keep your eyes, ears and hearts open for your own 'Village Moments'!
 
So, if anyone wants to share them with me, please just send me an email and I'll record them for future sharing.  Anonymous is good - names don't have to be mentioned.  'My neighbour, a resident, a visitor' etc is plenty.

Jacqui Good - Ph: 0412 182 365

It seems British folk are complaining that their newly built homes are too small. Funny - we don’t hear many grumbles about Australian homes being too big, even though our new homes are on average more than twice the size of those in Britain! As a nation, we must really enjoy doing lots of housework and paying for more heating, cooling and furnishings.

See the very telling graph in this story and in the ATTACHMENT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8201900.stm
Floor space of new homes

Calls to provide full compensation to coal-fired energy utilities from the emissions trading scheme are probably based on the premise that there is little or nothing they can do to reduce their emissions. But that may not be the case. Private Melbourne company MBD Energy is about to introduce technology that allows algae to capture half or more of the greenhouse gases emitted by a power station, at virtually no cost to the utility. What's more, MBD stands to make a small fortune from the algae by-products: fuel, plastics and meal for livestock.

Read more at:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,25938026-30538,00.html

Signaling a bright future for sustainable energy, 15-year-old Javier Fernandez-Han has created a remarkable algae-powered energy system that is capable of producing food and fuel, treating waste, containing greenhouse gases, and releasing oxygen. Dubbed the VERSATILE system, the project recently netted him a $20,000 scholarship for winning this year's Invent Your World Challenge. See:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/24/versatile-system-by-javier-fernandez-han/
http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/blog/view/
youth_taking_action_a_15_year_old_invents_the_future

A deadly plant that eats rats has been discovered by British experts. The giant pitcher plant - believed to be the largest meat-eating plant - lures rodents into its slipper-shaped mouth and dissolves them with acid-like enzymes. Read more - and even get to play a video clip of a rat falling into the trap - at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/weird/2590769/Brit-scientists-discover-plant-that-eat-rats.html

Every year, farmers in the rural town Inakadate, Japan create rice field art by using red rice in with their regular rice in special patterns. A few others fields in rural Japan have also followed the trend of this beautiful rice field art. Inspiration for art on the Village farm perhaps? Could be quite a hit with a small-aircraft aerodrome close by!

To see more of the process, check out “Hemmy.Net” at: http://www.hemmy.net/2007/09/23/rice-field-art/

The answer it seems, depends on the angle at which the panels are mounted. In a nutshell: panels mounted on a steep angle are cleaned pretty well by the rain but those on a flatter roof may need occasional cleaning. Read more at:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/should-you-spring-clean-your-solar.html

[Thanks to Kevin C for the link.]

The residents of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs in Victoria are in process of funding their own private community wind farm. See the ATTACHMENT:

Could we look to using our abundant wind for something similar here in the future?
Hepburn Wind initiative

If you are into clever software, check out this download. You can run your own realistic solar system:
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/download.html

Check out the website below to turn an idle moment into someone’s meal:

It is a multiple-choice quiz on a variety of subjects. Every time you get an answer right you get a harder question. If you get it wrong, you get an easier question.

For each answer you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program.

WARNING: This game may make you smarter!
http://www.freerice.com/index.php

New book: “SpeakOut: the Step-by-step Guide to SpeakOuts and Community Workshops” - www.speakoutplanning.com

How-to manual for innovative and highly effective community engagement by authors:

Dr Wendy Sarkissian, widely acknowledged as a leading authority in community engagement, has co-authored seven books on community engagement, including Kitchen Table Sustainability (Earthscan, 2008) and SpeakOut: A Step-by-step Guide to SpeakOuts and Community Workshops (Earthscan, 2009). She is Adjunct Professor, School of Sustainable Development, Bond University, Queensland.

Wiwik Bunjamin-Mau, a qualified Indonesian-born community and social planner. After a career as a community facilitator who utilizes the arts as engagement tool, she is establishing a community engagement consulting firm in Honolulu.

Hi everyone,

Here’s something for those interested in Earthships - more about the Scottish earthship with one or two interesting photos in the PDF ATTACHMENT.

Deb H.
Greenhead Moss Earthship update 060809

Is Local Food Better?

This excellent article by Sarah DeWeerdt from the WorldWatch Institute looks at all the angles.

The answer is yes, probably - but not in the way many people think. See: 
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6064

Rent-a-Chook - some good laughs on this one!
www.rentachook.com.au

Grandma’s Bottle Village - look what creativity can do with junk - at any age!
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/08/03/grandma-made-village-out-of-tens-of-thousands-of-bottles/

Solar powered handbags - the solar panels on the front of the bag allow you to charge cellphones, cameras, and other small devices. On a bright, sunny day the battery should be fully charged in 6-8 hours. When fully charged, the battery pack will hold the sun's energy for several days.
http://www.inhabitatshop.com/home.php?merchant=NoonSolar

Renewable energy - Actually, Rudd DOES Break Promises! Despite proudly asserting that his Government mostly keeps his promises, Rudd's track record on climate change commitments is appalling. Mark Diesendorf lifts the lid on dirty dealings of politicians in cahoots with the fossil-fuel-based industries to limit growth of renewable energy! Read more at:
http://newmatilda.com/2009/08/05/actually-rudd-does-break-promises

Utne Reader online - US online magazine with plenty of “front” for the pursuit of controversial subjects:
http://www.utne.com/daily.aspx

EcoVoice - Australian ecoNews and product info free online:
http://www.ecovoice.com.au/index.htm

How I became a “Locavore” - the latest cool idea to find local seasonal foods (but probably not in Oz yet)
www.takepart.com/blog/2009/05/21/how-i-became-a-locavore/

Consumerism is eating the future - ‘New Scientist’ opinion piece by Andy Coghlan
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17569-consumerism-is-eating-the-future.html 

Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity
By Tom Crompton and Tim Kasser, published by WWF-UK

This major new publication, written jointly with Professor Tim Kasser (Knox College, Illinois, and author of 'The High Price of Materialism') examines those fundamental aspects of human identity that operate to frustrate approaches to meeting environmental challenges.

The study suggests that some environmental campaigning currently operates inadvertently to exacerbate these unhelpful aspects of identity. It also points to ways in which environmental organisations could begin to work in order to activate more helpful aspects of identity.

Finally, it highlights new opportunities for collaborations across diverse civil society organisations to begin to address fundamental barriers to delivery on a range of concerns - from biodiversity loss to poverty alleviation, and racism to animal welfare abuses.

If you are interested in this publication sent to us by Zero Waste SA, send me an email request and I will forward an electronic copy of the book [93 pp; 604 KB]

Elizabeth Heij - Email

From the Indaily News - Creative cover story

The first general manager of the Adelaide Festival Centre, Anthony Steel, will feature on the cover of the 2009/10 Adelaide White Pages directory. Mr Steel, who was the artistic director for five Adelaide Festivals during the 70s and 80s and has a long history of involvement with SA arts orgnisations, was chosen under this years theme Creative Australians: Inspiring Our Communities.

Congratulations Anthony - it’s a significant recognition, well deserved!

Did you know that fluorescent energy saving globes contain mercury and so should not be thrown in your bin?  They can be recycled locally though, so store them away until you have a few and then drop them off at the:

• Environment Centre, High St, Willunga
• City of Onkaparinga Field Operation Centre, Railway Road, Seaford Meadows, 8.00 am to 3.00 pm Monday to Friday. 

Ordinary light globes can be wrapped in paper & put in your red-lidded waste bin.

Making the point about the nightmare of floating plastic trash and other human abuses of the World’s oceans, art doubles as a strong environmental statement.

See artist Chris Jordan’s creation “Gyre” made from a mind-blowing number of bits of ocean trash, and also the other works shown that make daunting statements about the human harvest of sharks and tuna:

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=9
[you will need to scroll down the page for the actual artworks.]

Looks like the City of Charles Sturt beats the City of Onkaparinga hands down when it comes to community consultation and action on sustainability. See the ATTACHED outcome summary document on Greening the Western Suburbs.
One Planet Living - Charles Sturt Community Engagement Summar

The National Program for Sustainable Irrigation has made available online the book:

“Water Recycling in Australia” by D Stevens, M Unkovich and A Boland
See: http://npsi.gov.au/products/px061130

A good source of information on the use of reclaimed water in irrigation systems. 
 
[Thanks to Brad N. for the link.]

Dr Michael Roderick and Mr Wee Lo Lim, authors of the new book “An Atlas of the Global Water Cycle”, launched this week, use the synthesized numbers from 39 different computer modeling sources to predict that by 2099:

- Globally, rainfall will increase by an average of 46.9mm.
- While Australia's nationwide rainfall will have increased by an average of 8.4mm, an extra 11.2mm of evaporation across the country will mean a final loss in water availability of 2.8mm.
- The Australian averages hide wider predicted regional variations - the Top End will be receiving 50-100mm more rain than the 1970-1999 average; and
- All of Victoria, and most of South Australia and Western Australia, will receive up to 50mm a year less than now.

Read more at: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25877361-11949,00.html

[Thanks to John H. for the link.]

If you are interested in Earthship buildings, here is another link from Deb H.

Hello all - Have a look at our website and facebook page for some up to date pics of our progress on site.
Attached is a website link for the first earthship in south Africa. Ludvig and Reeta Everson joined us last week for the earthship courses. They are planning some low cost housing earthship 'pods' in central
South Africa and their website e s well worth a look. See: http://www.aardskip.com

Once they start building, they'll be looking for volunteers!

Best link to keep in touch with this project and other opportunities (once we've finished ours of course) is the Earthbuilds website or Facebook page: www.earthbuilds.com

Ann McKillop - Project Manager, Greenhead Moss Community Trust.

We're building an earthship - want to help? See our website for more details or get in touch!

Every day, Australians buy illegal timber without even realising it. Now the Greenpeace Good Wood Guide is set to change that.

The updated 2009 Good Wood Guide helps consumers make an informed, environmentally responsible decision when buying wood and wood products. It”s the essential shopping tool for builders, renovators, designers, architects and consumers. See:
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and-events/news/deforestation/goodwoodguide-010609