August 2010
Australian Academy of Science releases primer on the Science of Climate Change
The Australian Academy of Science has released a great Q & A style primer on the science of climate change. It has received a bit of media coverage this week (a blessed relief from election obsession), which is good to see. It is very nicely presented and easy to understand. Hopefully it can be a very useful resource for transition active people to spread some authentic and credible information in a world where denial seems fashionable.
You can read the primer here
Maroubra Beach Transitions
(Photo by James Brickwood published in the Sydney Morning Herald)
Recently (May 2010) we saw a dramatic display of Climate Change - a waterspout off Maroubra Beach (and later a mini-tornado came ashore and ripped up a part of a small North Coast beach hamlet)
Maybe it was the catalyst for a Maroubra BeachTransition initiative which is now brewing in the community. Meet-ups are in the wind to start happening soon, so if you are a local and want to be part of the action you might want to make contact. Click on the Local Groups page to find a link and send an email to say hullo.
How do you "Transition" your strata apartment building?
Many unit owners or residents do what they can inside the air-space of their individual lot (basically that's all they have title to) but see opportunities for their whole building complex to make a sustainable transition. The challenge of convincing other owners or the owners corporation executive might seem too high, but now there is a great new website that will provide some answers and a lot of encouragement.
Called "Green Strata" (www,greenstrata.com.au), this website was created by Christine Byrne assisted by a grant from the City of Sydney sustainability grants program. It provides a lot of useful information and showcases unit blocks that have already tackled sustainability issues. It will grow with more case studies, solutions and supplier information being added along with discussion forums to encourage people to share their questions and their sucesses (and failures), In its own way it will be a community of solution-focused strata dwellers and will play an important role in making apartment-block transition a Sydney reality
Inner city living 'not so squeezy' ?
Interesting article from Paul Cleary in yesterday's Australian discusses the benefits of living in the inner suburbs compared to the car-dependent further out suburbs. See the article here