Welcome to issue #34 for October 2025.

The Chinese say “may you live in interesting times” and we seem to be getting that with our new Australian climate targets – see the article below.

The “pop-up” bike lanes on Marine Parade will be improved in 2026 – they need it, but seeing is believing.

I read with interest that they are opening another 290ha in Port Phillip Bay for shellfish farming. I am happy to see more productive, environmentally positive use of the bay, and mussel, oyster and scallop farming seem much better than salmon farming.

Personally, I am OK with a New Zealand style road use charge based on vehicle weight and distance traveled (because it should encourage people to drive less), but I feel that EVs should be exempted because we want to encourage their adoption.

I was pleased to see that the Wilderness Society has won its court case to deliver stronger protections for threatened wildlife on the brink of extinction.

Personally, I support Leigh Read helping his entire worksplace (the Centre for Non-Violence) moving their superannuation savings out of HESTA because of its ongoing investments in fossil fuels – the enablers of the fossil fuel industry need to start feeling the pain.

This fascinating video is an architect explaining how well his own home, designed according to PassivHaus principles, performs during a heatwave in Perth, WA. And this article explains two different ways that cities can beat the heat – urban forests or cool (light colored) roofs. Both have a place, but the article does not talk about getting rid of asphalt roads which absorb and re-radiate lots of heat.

The more I learn about Dutch urban areas, with their strong emphasis on people centered, pedestrianized spaces and greenery, the more impressed I get and believe that many of their ideas can be adopted in Port Phillip, as explained in this video (think Port Phillip instead of the UK).

I was very glad to hear that South Australia will soon ban small soy sauce fish bottles – I collect many of them from beaches in my BeachPatrol activities, and wish Victoria would follow their lead.

There can be no Plan B because there is no Planet B

UN Secretary-General Ban Kai-moon

We are living and working on the unceded lands of the Yalukit Willam people. We pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land and their ongoing connection to land, waters, sky and culture.

Australia’s new climate target is to reduce emissions by 62%-70% from 2005 levels by 2035

Just a few days after extending the North West Shelf gas export project until 2070, the federal government belatedly released its first National Climate Risk Assessment – see the Climate Council briefing paper on it, for example. It paints a terrifying picture of millions of Australians at risk from future sea level rise, and many, many homes becoming uninsurable, along with greatly increased heatwave risks and other problems.

This news video about Wamberal Beach in NSW give us a flavor of what is to come with sea level rise in the next 50 years. There is also the news story about a local Council in Wales publicly deciding that it could not afford to protect a coastal town from future sea encroachment and will abandon it! I think this will increasingly happen all round the world in coming years, and it will result in substantial losses for a lot of coastal home owners.

You either believe climate scientists or not, and there is no “sensible” middle ground, which is what the Australian government seems to be opting for. Scientists, environmentalists and their communities are generally very disappointed at this outcome – for example Melbourne University researchers say that Australia’s new target to cut climate pollution is undermined by fossil fuel expansion.

Making matters worse, there seem to be instances of industry capture of government – like the NT gas industry regulator simultaneously working for the same industry while processing terminal leaks were being covered up.

Finally, watch this video if you want to understand the full costs of what we are all paying because of our continuing use of fossil fuels – you should be outraged!

PECAN hosted an excellent talk about the Plant Based Treaty in September and is getting more and more involved in protests about Australia’s new climate targets and the ongoing litany of new fossil fuel export project approvals.

The Plant Based Treaty is an international campaign that aims to progressively transition humanity to more plant based food systems. Our seminar was a real eye opener regarding the major health and environmental benefits of making this change. Visit their website to learn more and consider endorsing the treaty.

Come to a meeting, or reply to this email to see how you can get involved in climate action. Also, forward this email newsletter to everybody you think it might interest.

Have Your Say

The City of Port Phillip currently has open public consultations on:

• the draft of the new waste and recycling strategy

As always we recommend that you Have Your Say

We are also pleased to see that the City of Port Phillip website now has advisory information on building eco-friendly homes, if only building regulations reflected this thinking.

You may also might like to sign up for the City of Port Phillip Biketober activities – travel locally by bike instead of car. (If only they would invest more in separated biking infrastructure!)

As always, the Port Phillip EcoCentre has several events coming in October – check out their October events calendar to see what you might like to get involved in. For example, the Share & Swap Shop and Climate Cafe events are always popular.

Other environmental activities and events that you can join in the coming month, include:

• ACF have their annual platy-project over September-October where people can put on their citizen science hats and go out to make observations of platypuses to identify where they can be found (and where they have disappeared)
• The Royal Botanical Gardens Victoria has 2hr forest therapy sessions every Sunday, starting at 10am. Learn more and book here. It may not be very environmentally related, but over summer, you can also hire a punt on the lake at the botanical gardens, weekdays 11am-5pm. Learn more and book here
• You might like to sign the Australia Institute petition asking government to take much stronger action to phase out fossil fuels
• The Guardian has a poll for people to nominate their favourite bird for 2025
• The Electrify Your Life! 2025 Expo is on Sunday 12 October (10am-4pm) at the Hawthorn Arts Centre – I went last year, and it was well worth the trip to get there!
• You may want to sign the Greenpeace petition to eliminate exemptions for forest destruction.
• If you like the work of the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), you may want to buy their 2026 Amazing Oceans calendar – it contains some great photos!
• AMCS also has an email campaign to ask Coles and Woolworths to stop selling Tasmanian farmed salmon from Macquarie Harbour that you might like to sign
• You might also sign Southern Metropolitan MP Katherine Copsey’s petition to more strongly limit the annual corporate lock-out of Albert Park for the Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Electrify Southside is ramping up its activities. During September Electrify Southside held an event on efficient electric water and space heating for houses and apartments.

Electrify Southside also made a detailed submission to the Owners Corporation Act Review, which you can read here. The main purpose of the submission was to recommend changes that could reduce the decision-making barriers to achieving electrification of apartment buildings and the uptake of rooftop solar.

Electrify Southside’s next event on Solar for Apartments: a Guide to Government Grants will be held on Sunday 16 November from 1.00-2.30pm at the Port Phillip EcoCentre. Save the date now, with more details to come in the November issue of ‘What’s Up’.

Mushrooms – intensive, circular economy

Eating mushrooms has many health benefits, and as a food they are much less energy and land use intensive than growing meat and animal feed. Additionally, an exotic mushroom farmer in Queensland is using waste bagasse from sugar cane processing as the mushroom growth medium making good, productive use of a waste stream. Learn more. This is the kind of innovative farming that I like to learn about.

The importance of “third spaces”

This interesting video talks about the importance of “third spaces” – places for people to socialize besides home and work. These spaces are especially important for younger people living alone in apartments. The author is mainly talking about Los Angeles in California, but I feel that much of what she says applies equally well to Melbourne and Sydney. Over the last few years I have begun to think that we need more land use zoning flexibility in urban areas – more mixed use cafes and shops in residential streets, for example. There are good arguments for investing more in ideas of “15 minute cities” and giving much higher priority to people and active transport, rather than truckzillas.

Solar parks – a good use for abandoned coal mines

Around the world there are a lot of abandoned coal mines, and many more will be abandoned in coming years. They are usually wastelands that are unusable for most productive purposes, without very expensive rehabilitation. A new report explains that these wastelands can often be very productive if converted into solar farms – these farms can help pay for needed land rehabilitation and provide good, well paid work for retrained coal miners. The mines are also usually close to strong electricity grid connection points which reduces the need for new electricity transmission lines. Learn more.

The trains that killed an airline – Italian HSR

I am a bit of a train nerd, and I have ridden in good regional trains in Europe, Asia and North America, and regularly lament the lack of high speed rail in Australia, especially up the east coast and across to Adelaide. At 300kph, a Melbourne to Sydney CBD train train trip should take less than 4 hours, which is similar to the flight time if CBD to/from airport travel time is included. This very good video explains the attraction of high speed rail, using the example of Italian high speed rail and how it contributed to the Air Italia bankruptcy. In France they are even talking about banning short air flights between locations less than 800km apart when there are adequate rail alternatives to reduce pollution and costs and improve ride quality.

Superwood is starting to be made and sold in the USA

US researchers have been working to chemically and physically modify natural wood to make it stronger and lighter. Chemicals are used to remove most of wood’s lignin and hemicellulose while preserving the cellulose structure. It is then compressed mechanically to squeeze out all of the air pockets and imperfections. This stage causes hydrogen bonds to form between the cellulose fibres, increasing the wood’s density by up to four times. The technology has been licensed by a US company which has built a facility to make superwood and is preparing to begin shipments. Learn more. We will see whether it really takes off, and it will need building regulation changes to fully take advantage of its properties.

Interestingly, Asian researchers are also developing a similar modified wood – here.

Electrostatic motors – an old alternative to conventional electro-magnetic motors

Virtually all modern electric motors rely on the electro-magnetic effect, but the electrostatic effect can also be used to create motor designs. Electrostatic motors do not need rare earth magnetic materials, or step-down gearboxes, use much less copper and can have higher operating efficiencies, but run at much higher voltages (which is often more dangerous). They are just starting to find applications in low speed, high torque situations. Learn more.

A bit of fun…

This plastic bubble enclosing a building site in Jinan, China protects neighbouring buildings from construction dust and noise. I believe that prefabricated construction which moves most of the dust and noise offsite and into a factory environment is probably a better solution. Learn more.