We hope that readers got to visit the very successful Electrify Southside Expo on Sunday 22 June and are looking to move forward with their electrification goals.

We like the new City of Port Phillip trial that is adding separate baskets for holding Container Deposit Scheme bottles and cans to public recycling bins so that people foraging for these containers have an easier time.

I was enraged to learn recently that abandoned coalmines and oil and gas wells are now one of the biggest sources of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, new data shows, and little effort is being made to clean them up. For the details.

I have been watching the evolution of The Cape estate at Cape Paterson for several years, and was interested to learn that it is leading the way for electrified communities in Victoria – there is no gas, nearly all properties have solar panels, and 30% drive electric vehicles. As a result residents have much lower energy costs, saving $6,000/year, on average. Learn more.

It is very disappointing to read that the shortsighted, and I think negligent, Victorian government is unwilling to buy what seems to be the last natural habitat of the grassland earless dragon lizard, which was thought to be extinct until they found a colony on marginal Victorian farmland a few years ago.

We were also disheartened to read that companies and other organisations are leaving the Australian government backed Climate Active carbon emissions offsets scheme because it does not seem to work – they are investing the funds received in projects that are not actually reducing carbon emissions!

I fully support and agree with Fortesque Mining’s push to remove the diesel fuel excise rebate for large mining companies and partly replace it with rebates for emissions reduction projects.

On a brighter note, we congratulate La Trobe University for bringing online a new 2.9MW urban solar farm at its Bundoora campus. We do wonder, though, why the panels are not over their large onsite car parks?

We were also very interested to read that Melbourne University researchers are running a trail that partially replaces the sand in concrete in Victoria’s North East Link project with crushed glass from recycled solar panels – much better than sending them to landfill. It seems a very positive initiative to us, especially given that the world is running out of sand.

According to very disturbing new research presented at the recent united Nations Ocean Conference we may have crossed an ocean acidification tipping point, meaning that climate problems will keep getting worse.

It looks like we may finally be seeing some movement on dealing with plastic waste. Australian businesses have not fulfilled their voluntary commitments to improve plastic recycling rates, but a proposed new international treaty may force them into action.

Our economic system and our planetary system are now at war. Or, more accurately, our economy is at war with many forms of life on Earth, including human life. What the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources; what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion. Only one of these sets of rules can be changed, and it’s not the laws of nature.The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy – and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation, and we scientists do not know how to do that.

Naomi A Klein

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.

During June, PECAN and its affiliates were quite active:

• The Electrify Southside Expo was a lot of work, and very successful
• Submissions to the Balaclava and St Kilda East Precinct Plan
• Submissions to the Council Budget
• Participating in the Beyond Coal and Gas vigils outside Labor MP Josh Burns’ office to protest against approving new coal and gas projects
• Supporting the Port Phillip EcoCentre premiering – Nature: A Call for Reconciliation – which was a visually stunning documentary!

The City of Port Phillip has a public consultation open about the Urban Forest Strategy (until 7 July). It is vital that we all provide feedback on this important strategy, which will shape our streets for the coming years.

Also, you can become an environmental leader with the City of Port Phillip’s free course kicking off in August! Join this free 10-week course to learn from experts, receive one-on-one coaching and join an incredible network of people responding to the biggest challenge of our time. Apply now to book your place. Places are limited, so get in quick. Register here.

Like always, our friends at the Port Phillip EcoCentre have lots of events and activities happening during July. Find out about them here.

Take personal action

You may want to make a plastic free pledge and join Plastic Free July – you can find out more and access lots of resources here.

BCCAG (Bayside Climate Crisis Action Group) are hosting a community event about investing in a home battery 7pm-9pm, 1 July at Brighton Secondary College. Learn more and get your free ticket here.

While it is not strictly, climate related, Open House Melbourne is on during July, and there are several venues within the City of Port Phillip that you might like to visit.

Greenpeace is asking for 50,000 people to sign a petition to pressure McDonalds in Australia to take deforestation off the menu by being more selective in where it buys beef.

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is asking people to sign a petition to keep Australia nuclear free. This is particularly important now that the Liberal and Country Parties have proposed a particularly tone-deaf and stupid nuclear power “policy”. Hopefully, voters will recognise that we must embrace renewable energy generation and batteries as the only credible and low-cost path towards improving the resilience and flexibility of our electricity grid. Hopefully they will also see that we do not want to be living near any potential Latrobe Valley Chernobyls, and that we have no credible way to store nuclear waste for thousands of years. The ACF are asking people to contact their local representatives to tell them we do not want their nuclear nonsense. Solar Citizens also have a comparable email campaign.

The ACF is also running their Wild at Art 2024 threatened species art competition for kids until 12 August.

Environment Victoria is asking people to tell the government that they support efficient and liveable homes for renters. This can be achieved by setting minimum efficiency standards for rental properties. You can make a submission here (closes 1 July).

Here’s a fun way to take action: make your shopping a greener, more community-focused experience by participating in the next Share and Swap on 6 July at Port Phillip Ecocentre. Donate some pre-loved items then browse a pop-up full of treasures for free! Get more details, including what kind of things you can donate, from the Share and Swap Instagram.  

Finally, if you like trivia, the Australian Marine Conservation Society is hosting a night of fun on Tuesday 9 July at the Golden Gate Hotel in Clarendon Street South Melbourne. Get your free tickets here.

There are also even more petitions to sign…

• The Albanese government has committed to make 30% of our national oceans highly protected sanctuaries by 2030. You can express your support for this action by signing this petition.
• The Boomerang Alliance has a petition asking our federal politicians to commit to reducing plastic waste, and to show leadership by eliminating single-use plastic cups from Parliament House.
• Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is one of the biggest threats to our oceans. The Australian Marine Conservation Society is currently running an email campaign to inform politicians about how we need to prevent the importation of unethical, destructive or exploitative wild-caught or farmed seafood into Australia. 67% of our seafood is imported, and it is largely unregulated.

A spectacular new cycling bridge has opened over Footscray Road

This is a very valuable addition to Melbourne’s protected cycling network – learn more. We need much, much more investment in protected cycling lanes to encourage more personal mobility (bikes and scooters, electric or not) in the City of Port Phillip.

And if you like cycling, you might like to challenge yourself in the Round The Bay 2025 ride on 26 October.

A possible positive use for fracking technologies?

Using fracking techniques originating from the oil and gas industry can potentially make geothermal energy production viable in many more places around the world. Drill a hole down to hot rocks, then pour water down the hole to be converted to steam which comes back to the surface to drive an electricity generator. Geothermal is a good candidate for base load energy production. Learn more. You also can learn about Australian geothermal energy projects and research here.

An ice-free Artic Ocean by 2030?

Recent research indicates that we could experience ice-free artic days before the end of this decade. Not to be alarmist, but if this happens it could trigger several tipping points that would totally change the global ecology of our planet, dramatically change coastlines (including submerging some of Port Phillip) and make other parts of the planet totally uninhabitable. I believe that we need to start telling everybody how bad climate change could get – without strong action, the future is not going to be just a few more heatwaves, fires and floods.

Friends pool money to build Scandinavian ecovillage in self-owned factory

One way to get around the high cost of housing and to reduce your carbon footprint is to pool resources, especially if you can find a group of like-minded people. Learn more. This is a good idea that has been around for many years – the Montslavat Artist Community in Eltham, for example.

Double glazing should be the norm in Australia

The great energy saving benefits of double, and even better, triple glazed windows are well known so that they dominate in Europe and are common in North America. Not in Australia, though. Learn more. We should be requiring at least double glazed windows in new build and renovated housing.

3D printing – another way to build houses

An interesting video about how they are starting to 3-D print houses, a method that has several advantages over conventional residential construction. Unfortunately, I think that there are several problems with 3-D house printing: (1) how do you do an apartment building? (2) cement is a highly polluting construction material, (3) it only speeds up framing and cladding, (4) you are still at the mercy of the weather. Prefabricated modular construction, especially using engineered timbers is a much better approach.

A bit of fun…

If you visited the Venice Architecture Biennale in May 2025 you could have gotten a coffee made using the city’s canal water. Click for the details. Even though they seem to have had a good water filtration system, I would not trust the water from the canals there!