Welcome to Issue #24

Who will our new councillors be? 

After some hard-fought campaigns, with much grassroots engagement, we’re all waiting with bated breath for the results of the recent council elections, which won’t be finalised until 12 November. Watch out for the special election-results edition of our newsletter. Nonethless, some preliminary election information is available on This Week in St Kilda.

In some good council news, Port Phillip has joined the Council Solar Savers Program and is running two online information sessions on 13 November to explain how residents can start saving on their energy bills. The current council will also be holding November Neighbourhood Conversations in each ward. Check out the pop-up locations and get down there to have your say on the council’s plans for your community. 

The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.

Gregory Bateson

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.

Show your support for NT Traditional Owners! Come along to the Community Gathering for NT Climate Justice in the Birrarung Building, Federation Square (home of the Koorie Heritage Trust), starting at 9:30am on Sunday 24 November. This is a major event that brings together NT traditional owners and key NT environmentalists to speak about and to seek solidarity for their plan to stop massive fracking and other gas projects in the NT. The situation for NT people is made all the more difficult with the election of the Liberal Country Party government, which now threatens to further weaken already lax NT environment laws. Register here

Campaigns we’re supporting 

Tell banks to stop funding new coal and gas projects: send a letter to them here.

Add your voice to a call for stronger South-East Marine Parks: learn more and sign here.

Sign a petition to ask the Federal Government to make home batteries more affordable. Learn more and sign here

For your calendar … 

Hear PECAN’s Justin Halliday talk about the Green Link Project at the Beaumaris Library on Tuesday 12 November, from 7:30pm. Green Link is a proposed linear park that will run from South Yarra to Gardenvale. Get your ticket here

Care for and learn about Brighton Beach at the Beachkeepers fauna registration and revegetation event at the North Road Foreshore. Find details and register 

Pick up some planet-friendly tips at the Glen Eira Eco Expo, from 12pm to 4pm on Saturday 9 November at the Glen Eira Town Hall. Learn more 

November is urban agriculture month. Celebrate it at Down’s Community Farm in Seaford on Sunday 17 November. Learn more

Get out with your camera and your picnic rug to be part of Australian Pollinator Week, running from 9 to 17 of November. It only takes a few minutes to become a citizen scientist! Get involved here

National Recycling Week is on from 11 to 17 November: see how you can participate

How can your business engage with the UN’s sustainable development goals? Find out at  SEVENTEENx, a TEDx-style program of talks and networking-style meet-ups. It’s at Melbourne University’s Copeland Theatre on 20 November, starting at 6pm. Learn more and register

Are you a woman wanting to make a difference in the world? WELA, Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia, is inviting applications for the WELA 2025 National Leadership Programs. 

For the kids … 

Are you a parent who’d like to try reusable nappies, but feel a bit daunted by the prospect? Port Phillip has teamed up with Evia to run free, online workshops that will talk you through the basics and set you up with a free nappy pack, delivered to your door.  

Looking for good books to read with your kids? These 2024 Karajia Award for Children’s Literature winners may fit the bill: In My Blood It Runs by Danae Coots (Non-Fiction) and Nedingar Ancestors by Isobel Bevis (Picture Fiction). 

Future Council is a good documentary movie to see with children. It’s about school kids on a road trip across Europe to challenge powerful leaders and find solutions to our greatest ecological challenges.

Around the world

Ed Hawkins, a UK-based climate scientist, maintains a great series of animations about how global temperatures, ice fields and other planetary metrics have evolved in recent times. They are fascinating viewing and make climate impacts very clear. Also check out this fascinating 20-minute talk on Youtube about the history and evolution of our global energy system since before the Industrial Revolution till the present day. 

The oil and gas industry is scrambling to discredit an authoritative new report indicating that from an environmental perspective, gas is worse than the coal it’s supposed to replace. The problem is all the gas that leaks from processing facilities between digging it out of the ground and burning it in a power station. We have to remember that methane gas is about 80 times worse than carbon dioxide for heating our atmosphere, although it degrades more quickly. Australia needs to debunk the myth of clean gas. 

In his thought-provoking TED talk, playwright David Finigan points out that many of us have not really thought through the consequences of climate change. How will the world of 2100 be different to today?

Adding value while reducing the embodied carbon in buildings

There are many good ways to improve new buildings that would both add value and reduce their embodied energy and ongoing energy consumption. This report sets out the business case for 9 Investments Commercial Real Estate Developers Can Make Today.

In the same vein, here is what looks to be an excellent all-timber warehouse development now happening in Moorabbin.

Biomass for electricity generation is NOT a green solution

Indonesia is betting big on mixing biomass fuel into its coal-fired power stations to reduce its net CO2 emissions. This approach is limited and inefficient (it replaces less than 5% of the coal used), and brings a lot of other problems with it. Direct generation of electricity from renewables, with possibly some from Australia, seems a lot more logical. Watch this video for a good analysis of the problems with growing trees simply to cut them down and burn them.

Nature is learning how to eat our waste plastics

Some unexpected good news! The magic of evolution means that microbes are adapting to be able to eat a plentiful new food source – our waste plastics. Of course, this doesn’t absolve us from responsibility for creating this giant world mess or for cleaning it up … 

What is the 4th agricultural revolution?

Seems to be lots of robots and automation, and growing stuff indoors in factories – this is an engaging introductory video if you want to learn more. We must say, though, that we’re not fans of John Deere as a company.

Mass timber: So good for the environment, and beautiful too

We can’t help it: we just think mass timber is great. This is the new Portland Oregon airport terminal, with its nine acres of prefabricated mass timber roof. Learn more here

Nuclear energy? Not in my back pocket! 

According to an Australia Institute survey, two thirds of Australians aren’t willing to up their power bills to add nuclear power to our energy generation mix – regardless of who they usually vote for.