Yes, it’s another new birth For the Village!

Yesterday, a new group was created.  It is to be called the YaccaDoodle Art Group.  And a photo was taken to commemorate the occasion - see below.

We are having an exhibition during the fringe (see previous January Village News Feeds) and we can still welcome some new members.

Phone Annette 85578180, or email

Ever had a speeding fine? If so, you will love this one - very nearly a bit of exquisite revenge!

[Thanks to Hugh R for sending it in.]

Top this speeding ticket

Economic growth cannot continue! Continuing global economic growth "is not possible" if nations are to tackle climate change, a report by an environmental think-tank has warned.
The New Economics Foundation (Nef) said "unprecedented and probably impossible" carbon reductions would be needed to hold temperature rises below 2C (3.6F). Read more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8478770.stm

The impossible hamster - crazy consumption and really gross domestic product! If you think the above article is a bit dry, check out this brilliant, quirky way of making the same point. It gets a complex message across in simple terms - with a funny element:
http://www.impossiblehamster.org/

Stop population growth, says Dick Smith in The Advertiser of January 25:
Plans to massively boost Australia's population are a bad idea and must be stopped, entrepreneur Dick Smith says, even if that means limiting women to two babies. Mr Smith says the Federal Government’s plan for a "big Australia" is ridiculous. Read more at:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26631970-5007380,00.html

Social Change 2.0 - a six-part series on Huffington Post: Author David Gershon is pleased to announce a 6-part weekly series on Huffington Post entitled: "Empowering a Climate Change Movement: Low Carbon Diet and the Cool Community." It is based on chapter 11 of his book -Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World. The series is attempting to build new momentum for the climate change movement. Here is the first article:
www.huffingtonpost.com/david-gershon/empowering-a-climate-chan_b_434874.html

Latest newsletter from Sydney Coastal Ecovillage (SCEV):
http://scev.org/january-2010-newsletter

All You Need is Love: 156 Nations sing together to raise awareness of AIDS in Africa. Wouldn’t it be great if cooperation like this could apply well beyond singing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh7D2g5v-Sg

[Thanks to John H, Vanda R, SCEV, and Cruxcatalyst for the links.]

Last Friday, one of the pumps at the Wastewater Treatment Plant failed - at four o’clock in the morning! - resulting in unwelcome nighttime emergency calls to several registered volunteers.

The pump was found to be jammed up with tampon strings - the unravelling of which was a dirty, smelly and tedious job that no volunteer should have had to tackle.

So - to all our Village women - please do not flush sanitary products down the toilet (including the toilet in the Sharing Shed), and please make sure you also pass this instruction on to any female guests in the Village.

John H - for WMG

Here’s a close-by source of honey, olive oil, and various fruits in season (recommended by satisfied villagers):

How about this Irish Traffic light!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FNbSTemxqs&feature=player_embedded

Untidy beds may keep us healthy! Failing to make your bed in the morning may actually help keep you healthy, scientists believe. Research suggests that while an unmade bed may look scruffy it is also unappealing to house dust mites thought to cause asthma and other allergies. What a great excuse! Read more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4181629.stm

Seed Savers’ Foundation and Network: The Seed Savers Foundation is a registered charity that fosters fruit and vegetable seed exchanges in twenty countries. It manages eighty local seed networks around Australia. It is associated with the 24 year old Seed Savers’ Network based in Byron Bay, Australia. Find out more at: 
http://www.seedsavers.net/
 
The concept of “Deep Walkability”: Walkability is clearly critical to bright green cities. You can't advocate for car-free or car-sharing lives if people need cars to get around, and the enticement to walk is key to making density wonderful, to providing realistic transit options, to making smaller greener homes compelling. So knowing how to define "walkable" is important. The big thing I think, is a quality critical to the actual experience of walkability, and that's the extent to which the place in which you live is connected (by walking routes and easy transit) to other places worth walking to. Read more at:
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010931.html

Info-Activism: Using Technology For Social Change: What do local government corruption in India, bloated EU farm subsidies and police backhanders in Morocco have in common? They have all been targeted by a new generation of info-activists - using new technologies to force social change. Their stories are told by “10 Tactics” - a documentary produced by the Tactical Technology Collective, so far screened in 16 countries. Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/info-activism-using-technology-for.html

London’s Olympic Stadium to Be Made Out of Recycled Guns and Knives : London is already ramping up construction plans for the 2012 Olympics. And guess what - the super sustainable Olympic Stadium currently being built there is going to be made out of recycled guns and knives! That’s right, confiscated weapons from the Metropolitan Police Department are being melted down into scrap metal and used to help build the stadium. That’s an anti-weapons and recycling program all rolled into one! Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/londons-olympic-stadium-to-be-made-out.html

Perth’s unique new Greenhouse’ bar is meeting with residents’ approval. Not only is the garden and bar made entirely from recycled and recyclable materials, with floors made of recycled car tyres, furniture crafted from packing crates and retired road signs and old wire twisted into new lampshades, Greenhouse is good enough to eat - literally. The exterior walls host 4,000 pots planted with cascading strawberries, and the rooftop garden grows many of the herbs, fruit and vegetables that the European-style bar uses in its menu. Food scraps are fed back into the garden's worm farm, and there are even plans to start a beehive, which will produce the honey used in the Greenhouse's dishes. Read more at:
http://www.gmagazine.com.au/news/1789/perth-cbd-good-enough-eat

A brilliant way of visually representing how your 'stuff' owns you! The site demonstrates a graphic demonstration of how long you have to work each month for the “stuff” that owns you. Generating your own graphic is very simple and takes just a few minutes. All you need to know is your annual salary and how much you pay every month on each individual bill. See:
http://steadfastfinances.com/blog/2009/12/16/visualizing-how-your-stuff-owns-you/

Why We Need a Cultural Revolution in Consumption: '"It's no longer enough to change our light bulbs. We need to change our culture." So says Erik Assadourian, senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and project director of a provocative and timely new book called 2010 State of the World: Transforming Cultures from Consumerism to Sustainability. Its argument is simple: The most important driver of the world's ecological crises, including climate change, is not venal oil or coal companies or indifferent politicians but western consumer culture - that is, us. Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/why-we-need-cultural-revolution-in.html

Thanks to Steve P, John H, and Cruxcatalyst for the links.]

Here’s an antidote to the last Feed’s “Lesson in humility” - enjoy!

http://dingo.care2.com/cards/flash/5409/galaxy.swf

[Thanks to John H for the link.]

TED - Riveting talks by remarkable people - inspiring and creative ideas:
http://www.ted.com/
and check the following few examples among many:
http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_uniqueness_of_humans.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man.html

Urban and rooftop farming: More links illustrating the rise of creative urban horticulture:
The rooftops of New York City could feed 20 million:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/study-finds-that-14000-acres-of.html
Harrods of London sells vegetables off the roof:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/harrods-of-london-set-up-productive.html
South Africa invests in urban farming:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/south-africa-invests-in-urban-farming.html

The Immobility of the Traffic Commons: Interesting that its driver frustration over wasted time and costs rather than greenhouse emissions that is - pardon the pun - the driving factor getting people out of their cars... 'The car promised mobility, and in a largely rural United States it delivered. But with four out of five Americans now living in cities, the growth in urban car numbers at some point provides just the opposite: immobility.' (Sounds like this applies to Australia as well. Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/immobility-of-traffic-commons.html

‘Post Growth’ - New blog site: Post Growth is a blog about ditching “bigger” for “better.” It turns out that economic growth and human prosperity aren’t one and the same – and too much growth can harm both our societies and the planet’s support systems. So let’s move beyond growth and find a better alternative: a sustainable economy whose purpose is something greater – like the well-being of people and nature. Read more at:
http://postgrowth.org/

[Thanks to Scott J and Cruxcatalyst for the links.]

Every Tuesday morning I go for a beautiful bike ride, leaving from outside my house (3 Clematis Walk) at 7am.  I generally go along the Esplanade to Aldinga Beach Boat Ramp (12km return) then on to Silver Sands Boat Ramp (about 18km return total).

I then usually go up Norman Road, onto Justs Road to the top at South Road (another 7km?) which is a slightly more challenging ride but do-able if you have reasonable bike experience. Total ride about 25km.

I'd love to open the ride to anyone who wants to join in.  It's for FUN - not a race and all abilities are welcome.  You can go as far as you want and as fast as you want - not a competition. I just want to encourage people to 'get on their bikes'!  We have such a beautiful area here for riding and there is hardly any traffic.

I know from experience how much more attractive exercising can be in a group!

So, I'll be outside my house, leaving at 7am sharp every Tuesday.  If it's forecast to be over 35 degrees that day, I'll leave at 6.30am sharp.  If it's very windy or wet, I'll be staying in bed with a nice cup of tea!  You're welcome to still use my driveway as a hopeful meeting point on the inclement days if you're made of keener material than me!

See ya next Tuesday!

Any queries, contact me on 8556 6459 (not at 7am though - rest of household
would not thank you for it!) or email

The Community Development Committee (CDC) would love to receive recipes and any suggestions you may have for processing the fruits and veg that we grow in our gardens and orchards.

If you have developed anything yourself or have some good old tried and tested recipes, please send them to me!  This includes drying, pickling, etc etc.

Hopefully one day we'll have a Village Cook Book - yummmm! - something to support the sorts of processing we can do together.

Thanks so much - Jacqui Good - email

Feeling important? Convinced of your crucial place in the grand scheme of things? Believing that human society sits at the peak of universal relevance? Well - here’s something to think about:
Lesson in humility
[Thanks to Vanda R for this useful ‘deflator’!]

Apocalypse - No!: Lord Christopher Monckton on the Scientific Reasons Why Global Warming is Not a Global Crisis: It seems that so many of those pushing 'global warming' are largely doing it to impose another tax, but can we differentiate between political propaganda and scientific fact? Certainly the climate is changing, but how and why? Of course mankinds' reckless burning of fossil fuel, and the industrial activity that goes with excessive consumerism, must be to some degree a factor in climate evolution - but to what degree? And no-one can be sure that rising CO2 in the atmosphere, precedes or follows a change in climate. For those who are concerned enough to carefully examine the evidence, this 80-minute video is an important part of the evidence against a current crisis:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5206383248165214524#

Hospital cleaners worth more than city bankers: Pay matters, but to what extent does what we get paid equate with ‘worth’? Do those that get more contribute more to society? A new report from the New Economics Foundation (nef) examines high and low paid jobs from across the private and public sectors for the contributions they make to society, and finds that, in this case, it is the lower paid jobs which involve more valuable work. The report goes on to challenge myths around pay and work: People who earn more don't necessarily work harder than those who earn less. The private sector is not necessarily more efficient than the public sector. And high salaries don't necessarily reflect talent. The report offers a series of policy recommendations that would reduce the inequality between different incomes and reconnect salaries with the real value of work. You can download the report “A Bit Rich: Calculating the real value to society of different professions” [PDF; 922 KB] at:
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/bit-rich

Economic Growth a ‘False God’: Political fixation on growing the economy is becoming a 'false god' according to Lord Turner, chair of both the Financial Services Authority and UK government's Committee on Climate Change. Not only is pursuing economic growth at all costs damaging the climate, it isn’t doing us much good either. All the evidence shows that beyond the sort of standard of living which Britain has now achieved, extra growth does not automatically translate into human welfare and happiness, and much of the work done by the financial sector is 'socially useless'. Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/economic-growth-false-god-uk-financial.html

Biodiversity crucial to the lives of billions: Ecosystems are buffering humanity against the worst impacts of global warming and also alleviating poverty, says United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The continued loss of animal and plant species, and ecosystems such as forests and coral reefs, is causing poverty as well as environmental damage. So why are we undermining our very life support systems as if we believe this is normal behaviour? Read more at: http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/biodiversity-crucial-to-lives-of.html

[Thanks to Hugh R and Cruxcatalyst for the links.]

Don't forget - if you need support to help with sickness, crisis, emergency transport, or other difficulties and don't know who to ask, or if you just need someone to talk to and don't know where to turn, call Gillian Clampett, our Community Support Contact, who can help you find the support you need - Phone: 8556 5998 or 0429 690 004.

A few additions to the good tips from Jaqui G and Elizabeth H in the last News Feed:

An excellent air-conditioned refuge is the Aldinga library - you would never run out of books; there are computers, and children's activites are programmed.  The eco section is full of possibilities.
 
The beach has been glorious over the past weeks.  The mornings when I go have never been too hot, and early evenings are beautiful.  Avoid the burning afternoons.  Aren't we lucky the beach is so close!
 
Shade cloth over the veggie garden is a great help.  Jon Lamb on the ABC garden program says it should be 50%, but he also says even old sheets will do the trick.
 
Best wishes - Gillian C

There has been a start to offers of photos for the Home page of the Community website, BUT we need more to choose from.

If you have good photos or artworks illustrating an “arts-eco-community in action” send them to Elizabeth Heij by email, prefereably in JPEG file format.

The origin of that Mayan Prophecy?



From Bizaro Blog: http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/2009/12/countdown-to-catastrophe.html

New solar cell assembly technique at the boundary of oil and water: Researchers have shown a simple, cheap way to create self-assembling electronic devices using a property crucial to salad dressings - the fact that oil- and water-based liquids do not mix - forming devices from components that align along the boundary between the two. Read more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8452912.stm

Blood pressure drug may protect against Alzheimers: Researchers believe a drug used to lower blood pressure could be even more effective against Alzheimer's disease than they previously thought. People taking angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) were up to 50% less likely to develop dementia than those taking other blood pressure drugs. Read more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8453885.stm

Ancient map has China at the centre of the world:
A historic map of the world, with China at its centre, is now on display at the Library of Congress in Washington. It was created by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli who wanted it to help scholars and explorers. Ricci was the first Westerner to enter Beijing, so the map the map represents the momentous first meeting of East and West. He was also a smart missionary - putting China at the centre of this new universe, to underscore its importance. Read more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8454049.stm

The unforgivable can sometimes be forgiven: An ex Guantanamo Bay guard has travelled to Britain for a reconciliation meeting with two of the former detainees in his charge. The journey of reconciliation began almost a year ago in Texas, where the guard, now a police officer, was still struggling to come to terms with his time at Guantanamo. He felt anger at a number of incidents of abuse he says he witnessed, and guilt over one in particular. Read more and watch a video of the meeting at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8452937.stm

Hi everyone,

The lovely photo of Village kids with the Echidna Lantern has served us well on the home page of our community website at http://www.aaev.net, but it is getting rather out of date. The young villagers in the photo have grown up so much since Justin’s lantern workshop!

It would be nice to feature a new front-page pic. So, if you have a suitable digital photo, please send it in for consideration. [Note: the photo could be of an art work rather than a photo from life so long as it conforms to the “rules” below.]

“Rules”
The photo must have been taken at medium or high resolution
I needs to express at least two of: “Arts”, “Ecoliving, and Community
Any people featured in the photo must be willing for it to be used in this way.

Send your entries to me on CD or as an email attachment.

Once I have a number of possibilities in hand, I will post them on the website so folks can vote on which one to choose for the home page.

(Others could potentially be used to illustrate other pages of the website if the owners are willing.)

Elizabeth H - for Communications Group

Local beef - direct from producer to consumer

We like to grow our meat in the same way that we grow our fruit and veg, with as little added or taken away as possible.

We provide our animals with the best possible life they can have up until they provide us with our food. To ensure this our animals are free to range, which has the added benefit of decreasing sickness so then we do not need to treat our animals preventatively or perform "boredom" based husbandry tasks (in a piggery a piglet will have its teeth and tail clipped because they nibble on each other and then they get an antibiotic because they had them clipped... its a vicious circle).

Beef is now available for delivery this week and next week - see the ATTACHED brochure Please let me know if you are interested and wish to order. 

Cheers - Phaedra Reynolds* - 8388 3233 or 0403 905 103 or email

[Phaedra is Michael Vawser’s sister.]
Local Beef Jan2010

Hi to all new villagers and friends,

If you are feeling hot, take heart. - that saying, “what goes up must come down again”, also applies to temperature!

This is the sort of weather when lots of thermal mass can seem like a disadvantage, and even the best performing houses in the Village get warmer than comfortable.

If the nights don't cool down, the inside of the house can't cool down overnight, hence a very warm house the next day.  However, if the house is sitting at 28-30 degrees while the outside temperature is 42-43 degrees (as applies to a number of our passive-solar homes), that’s really not too bad.

We never cook anything inside on hot days as it can easily increase the temp by 1 degree or so.  We plan ahead with hot-weather food, outdoor cooking on the ‘barbie’, cooked chooks from Willunga butcher (free range), salads etc etc and the odd treat of fish and chips down the beach - lovely! And won’t it be great when solar cookers become more readily available and all that lovely summer heat can do some good work for us.
 
A great way of coping with the heat is to put your bathers on and get wet in the shower.  Walk around with them on and you'll feel really cool.  When you warm up again, back into the shower - works beautifully. If you are into water saving or don’t want to be in and out of the shower, another way of coping is to wet a thick cotton T-shirt and wear it under (or in front of a fan) - works so well you will nearly freeze! Wearing a wet sarong or placing a wet towel around the neck also work. And, if you are having trouble getting to sleep and need a bit more cooling than just the ceiling fan, try sleeping under just the sheet with a wet (but not dripping) flannelette sheet or large towel spread over the top. It is more comfortable and easy to move under than a wet towel directly against the skin, but will make a real difference, especially under a fan.

And don’t forget the comfort of your pets and chooks who also find extreme heat stressful but can’t take off their fur and feathers. Various adaptations of old hard-plastic paddling pools work very well for extreme days. If using one for chooks, fill it with wet straw. They love burrowing down into it.
 
Summer living in passive solar houses does take a bit of planning and organising but it's so lovely to be able to say that we don't have air con, and really, don't need it.  There are really very few days in the year when we feel like we could do with it, but then, if we are really desperate, we can always go visiting, to the movies, a shopping mall, or, with a bit of luck, to a friends pool!  It makes you slow down too, which for a lot of us, is not a bad thing!
 
It's so important to have your house 'closed up' when it's hot.  That's when the insulating blinds and block out curtains come into their own.  We close up all windows, blinds and curtains just after dawn on these really hot days and don't open up until the outside temperature has dropped to the same as inside.  If there is a cool gully breeze or sea breeze, it cools down really quickly.
 
It's all a bit of fun really and the biggest topic of conversation when you meet other villagers is 'what temperature did YOUR house get to?'!
 
Jacqui G and Elizabeth H.

Gratitude - for a good day - every day: Beautiful thoughts and a great philosophy for achieving peace, tranquility, and a greater appreciation for the wonder of life:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdbSVSMwHPA&feature=player_embedded

Permaculture with a mycological twist: If you ever thought ‘mycology’ (the study of fungi) was just a boring academic sideline, check out this amazing mycologist, Paul Stamets, who shows us just how vital and important fungi will be in any system to achieve a more sustainable world:
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html
http://landscapeandurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/fungi-perfecti.html
http://www.fungi.com/mycotech/mycova.html

Strange buildings of the world: Folks coming into our Village find some of our architecture unusual. So it may be in comparison to the endless cookie-cutter sameness of standard suburbs, BUT we’ve hardly scratched the surface of what is possible! Check out the fanciful, artistic, creative and downright weird buildings at the following link:
http://villageofjoy.com/50-strange-buildings-of-the-world/

Economic Growth Version 1.0 Is Finished: The Great Disruption Has Begun: Paul Gilding, sustainability activist gives the Future Focus Lecture 2009 at the Institute of Sustainable Solutions, University of Sydney:
http://www.usyd.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2009/great_disruption.shtml

Food-backed local money: Mendo Credits is a new food-backed local currency project...the overall goals of the project are to improve community health, economic vitality and environmental sustainability through local food system development. Historically in the United States and elsewhere, local currencies are known to stabilize local economies when national currencies are troubled, such as bouts of hyper inflation or deflation and joblessness. Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/food-backed-local-money.html

The Low-Impact Living Initiative (LILI) is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to help people reduce their impact on the environment, improve their quality of life, gain new skills, live in a healthier and more satisfying way, have fun and save money. Lots of good ideas and information here:
http://www.lowimpact.org/index.htm

Biodiversity loss is 'wake-up call', warns UN: The UN launches the International Year of Biodiversity today (Monday), warning that the on-going loss of species affects human well-being around the world. Eight years ago, governments pledged to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, but already it is clear that the pledge will not be met. The expansion of human cities, farming and infrastructure is the main reason. Read more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8449506.stm

ACEB, the Sustainable Building Association: To access a free electronic newsletter containing plenty of interesting information about sustainable building, at the link below, hover your cursor over “News” in the menu on the left of the page and then click on “Newsletter” in the sub-menu:
http://www.aecb.net/

[Thanks to Vanda R, Steve P, Deb H, John H, and Cruxcatalyst for the links. ]

Hi everyone,

We’re starting our own 100-Mile Diet! For our New Year's Resolution 2010 my family will source all of our food from within 160Km (100 miles) of our home. We want to learn more about where our food comes from, reduce our food miles - (the distance food travels from the farm to our plate); and get a glimpse of what a post carbon and peak oil world might taste like.

We are on day 5 and discovering new things about food every day. Even Aarod is keen on this venture, and his cousin who came to stay with us for a few days has become a convert too and may be influencing his mother's shopping list! I hope that you find this as interesting as we are, we are taking it slowly, easing into it as our pantry stores slowly diminish. I sense that as we get further along the track we will become more informed and hence more strict with our diet. I don't want to rush the process and want to keep it engaging, exploratory, and fun, not a regime that we end up rebelling against. Most importantly we want to make changes that we can live with long term. One of the foreign items in my pantry that I knew I would miss big time was anchovies, so we called it "Life without anchovies" In all honesty, I love them so much that I bought them in a big jar, so we will not be running out for a few months, he he!

Bridget O’D

You can follow Bridget & Michael’s “hunting and gathering” experiences via Bridget’s new Blog - Life Without Anchovies - at:
http://lifewithoutanchovies.blogspot.com/

I have also linked it to our Village website. Click on “Sustainability” in the main menu and find “Life Without Anchovies” in the sub-menu. Elizabeth H.

Over the last week there has been fox and feral dog activity in the Willunga Creek line approximately opposite the area between Hakea Walk and Yacca Way. Onkaparinga rangers, called in to investigate a feral dog that threatened Kylie M while walking her dog beside the creek, found evidence of its presence but not the animal itself. However, they confirmed the presence of a pair of foxes, who have also been spotted in the area on a subsequent occasion. In addition, again while walking her dog, Kylie M found a dead part-grown fox that may have been a victim of the bigger feral dog.

The rangers suggested that we keep dog & fox sightings diary for a while to confirm that either or both are still in the region. This will enable (1) the return of the rangers to deal with the dog if it is still around, and (2) a visit from the Fleurieu pest control board to deal with the foxes if they are permanent residents with a local den.

I am happy to keep the diary and communicate with the relevant authorities as needed but I need your help with information. Please send me details (when, what, circumstances) of any sightings of foxes or large loose dogs in the creek area.

Let’s keep Village kids (and chooks!) safe from harm.

Elizabeth H - 8556 6892 or email

Onkaparinga Council, under its Community Development portfolio, has set up a Project in Food Security and Health, with a community reference group.

The Project Officer for this new initiative is Alice Moffett. If you are interested in the Project, contact Alice by phone (Thurs & Fri) on 8301 7254 or email

Sue Eltahir (8556 6441)is a member of the Group representing AAEV and could also give information about its activities and discussions.

According to a Quality of Life Index published by “International Living” an organisation that promotes finding “paradise” offshore and going there to live (especially in retirement), Australia is second equal on the list after France (but you wouldn’t want to go to Somalia!) Check out the list at:
http://www1.internationalliving.com/qofl2010/

2010: The road ahead for SA: Hendrik Gout, writing in the Independent Weekly, forecasts, with chills of anticipation and a touch of humour, the future for South Australians in the year ahead:
http://www.independentweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/2010-the-road-ahead/1713284.aspx

Murray Darling water wars: If you read the comments at the end of the article at the following link, you can well imagine how easy it would be to have a water war right here in Oz!
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/comments/0,22638,26556929-5006301,00.html

A hot 2009 consistent with global warming: Last year was Australia's second warmest on record and closed out the warmest decade on file, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
The latest temperature data "is consistent with global warming", the bureau states in its 2009 annual climate statement just released. Read more at:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26554959-5006301,00.html

Much of Europe is unusually cold - but not everywhere; in fact, some places in the Northern Hemisphere are seeing weather that's unseasonably warm. The cause of what one weather service refers to as these "upside down" conditions is an extreme of the Arctic Oscillation (AO). Read more at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2010/01/arctic_conditions_arctic_cause.html

Building a sustainable village: The goal of ‘Open Source Ecology’ is to build the world's first
replicable, open source, self-sufficient village. The means of achieving that is an ecology, or ecosystem, of open source hardware and permaculture that works as an interconnected ecological whole to provide all needs - the Global Village Construction Set. Check the website and video at these links:
http://www.myspace.com/OpenSourceEcology
http://www.youtube.com/user/marcinose

The New Zealand Transition Towns movement is much more developed than in Australia. Overall, there is a real emphasis on sustainability throughout the movement including lots on food, and the more localised initiatives are similar to the plans for a project now getting under way in the Onkaparinga region.The two websites below provide all the details of the movement as well as links to the more localised sites for each major centre in NZ. The Social Network site is for anyone who wants to join in the discussion of threes issues. 
http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz/
http://transitionaotearoa.org.nz/

Consumer Hell: George Monbiot, writing in The Guardian, takes aim at the senseless stupidity of the consumer culture in which progress is measured by the speed at which we destroy the conditions which sustain life; and governments are deemed to succeed or fail by how well they make money go round, regardless of whether it serves any useful purpose. Read more at:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/01/04/consumer-hell/

Graphic communication of an ecological footprint: Fascinating series of animated video clips expressing various aspects of an individual’s ecological footprint. The data is visualized in 5 motion graphic mechanisms, 4 display daily actions and their consequences in specific fields: transportation, electricity, water and food. The fifth mechanism displays the conclusion and it's national and global ramifications:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-ecological-footprint-1_07.html
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-ecological-footprint-2-electricity.html
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-ecological-footprint-3-water.html
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-ecological-footprint-4-food.html
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-ecological-footprint-5.html

“Right now, the food industry creates patients for the health care industry” - a video interview with Michael Pollan about his new book “Food Rules”:
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/ecollywood/videos/michael-pollan-on-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart

Cancer survivors facing neglect: A cancer charity has warned Britain's increased survival rate is not all good news - because survivors often go on to struggle with other serious illnesses. Read more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8429995.stm

[Thanks to Steve P, John H, and Cruxcatalyst for the links.]

Happy New Year to all,

Did you know that the Onkaparinga Libraries offer an impressive range of online databases?

One recently added is called PressDisplay which gives full access to 1400+ newspapers form 82 countries in 39 languages as printed with images.

All you need is your library card.

Jane O’C

“Recipe Puppy” - No, It’s nothing to do with eating your dog! But it could be a good way to avoid wasting food! When you don't know what to make for dinner and you only have a few ingredients lying around - go to this website and add the ingredients (separated by a comma) and voila a bunch of suggestions appear with recipes:
http://www.recipepuppy.com/

Out of the kitchen and onto the couch: The popularity of cooking shows - or food shows - has spread to the point that a great many Americans are now spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves. What’s going on here? Michael Pollan, writing in the New York Times has some observations and answers. Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/out-of-kitchen-onto-couch.html

The “slow food” movement – which began in 1989 – is a revolt against the fast pace forced on us by industrial civilization, specifically fast-food culture. The movement’s manifesto rejects “the machine” as a life model, and blames this mechanized way of life for a frenzied existence in which productivity outweighs all else. The frenetic pace at which we’re forced to live disrupts our natural habits, destroys our environment and is ultimately inimical to life. Read more at:
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/slow-food-revolt.html

Transition to a world without oil: Watch this inspirational TED talk by Transition Towns guru Rob Hopkins:
http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_hopkins_transition_to_a_world_without_oil.html?awesm=on.ted.com_468W

Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization? Lester R. Brown writes of how the biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse. One of the toughest things for people to do is to anticipate sudden change. Typically we project the future by extrapolating from trends in the past. Much of the time this approach works well. But sometimes it fails spectacularly, and people are simply blindsided by events such as today’s economic crisis. Similarly, rising populations, climate change, and declining food security could lead to rapid global chaos. Read more at the following two links - the first from an article in Scientific American, and the second in a new (2009) book, “Plan B 4.0: Mobilising to Save Civilisation” from the Earth Policy Institute:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=civilization-food-shortages
http://www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?books

Positive Feedbacks and our global future: Positive feedback occurs when a change (a rise) in one component (global temperatures) of a system (the climate) leads to other changes (such as the melting on the Arctic floating ice) which then "feed back" to amplify it (increased water temperature as the white ice which reflects heat is replaced by dark water which absorbs heat). The result of the first feedback (increased water temperatures) may trigger another change (the beginning of the melting if the Greenland ice sheet) which will itself produce further feedback (rising sea levels with destabilize further parts of the ice sheets) and so on. Read more at:
http://www.carbonequity.info/feedbacks.html

Sites featuring roof gardens for food production, biodiversity conservation, building efficiency, and beauty:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/rooftop-vegetable-plots.html
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/green-roofs/cook-photography
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/vancouvers-6-acre-living-roof.html

From a Failed Growth Economy to a Steady-State Economy: In this article, Herman Daly of the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, argues that a steady-state economy is incompatible with continuous growth—either positive or negative growth. The goal of a steady state is to sustain a constant, sufficient stock of real wealth and people for a long time. Negative growth, a depression such as experienced in the global financial crisis, is a failed growth economy, not a steady-state economy. Halting a downward spiral is necessary, but is not the same thing as resuming continuous positive growth. Read more at:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5464

Beyond Bailouts: How a Circulation Charge Can Help Save and Transform Global Finance
What if money had an expiry date? What if it cost us to accumulate money? This approach was undertaken successfully in Austria to ameliorate the effects of the Depression! It could work today. Read more at:
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/beyond-bailouts-how-circulation-charge.html

Move your money! ...there is a grassroots backlash in the US against the banking system, and no wonder...this clip by the Move Your Money Project was posted 29 December 2009 and has racked up nearly 150,000 views in three days!
http://cruxcatalyst.blogspot.com/2010/01/move-your-money.html

[Thanks to Vanda R and Cruxcatalyst for the links.]