Blog: throw another tofu-burger on the barbie will ya mate. #Geekgirl on behalf of #tcktcktck

Tcktcktck invited me to write a blog on climate change. I knew immediately what I wanted to pen about – animals!

Have you ever tried to get your head around what it actually takes to feed the planet!? It’s something I find difficult to come to terms with.

Even my little shopping village of Northcote, Melbourne, Australia opened a new butcher the other day. Another one! You’d think 4 existing butchers plus all the restaurants in the area would provide enough meat.

I’ve become more educated lately on the nature of food production, and films like Food Inc are a good start to understand the process from pasture to plate.  Although, I still don’t quite understand who is feeding, farming & processing the 60 billion animals we kill each year.

It’s horrific that most of this is inhumane and, to be quite frank, not producing animals that even taste good. I’m not a vegetarian (yet) but I have massively reduced my consumption of meat and although I try and stick to the MOOS principle (Meat Only on Sunday). I have a lot of reverence for what I eat, and I am conscious of what it takes to get my food on the table.

I know most people eat meat for the flavour and texture. And my smart vegie friends know a lot of tricks developed by Asian food producers who provide some meat-tasting alternatives. Unfortunately, most of this is soaked or prepared in soy sauce and as a Coeliac I can’t go there. But, there must be a huge potential in coming up with an alternative to meat, which tastes like meat, but ain’t. As much as the electric or hybrid cars are being driven (excuse the pun) by an industry that has to, perhaps rather than wants to. There’s a huge market in developing electric sheep, too.

As Copenhagen (COP15) rapidly approaches I would think that food production especially animal production would have to be high on the agenda. But, if ordinary folks like me can’t persuade the masses to re-think what they eat, what about politician turned good guy Al Gore, musician Moby or even PETA pet Pamela Anderson?

Australia needs to take part on a moral and uber-logistical stand on this issue. We can no longer farm or export meat in an inhumane fashion. Even if we do get our farming processes to the point it is compassionate, we need to become sustainable: that means all of us need to reduce our consumption of animals! “Throw another tofu burger on the barbie will ya mate”, might have to become our new national saying!

So, consume less & be informed more!

My personal top ten
1) stop live animal exports (join the Humane Chain)
2) make choices that respect animals; don’t eat them – or at least buy free-range, organic etc
3) moderate your meat consumption
4) support organisations that are compassionate re: ‘farming’  like Campaign for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW)
5) support organisations that also protect our marine life like Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd
6) keep having a go at growing your own food and find out what and when to plant
7) read labels when buying food and insist that labels reflect ingredients like palm oil
(de-forestation is destroying the natural habitats of Orangutans)
8)become a volunteer join local organisations that protect animals and wildlife (Wildlife Victoria)
9) keep informed of campaigns and if need be, write or tweet our Australian politicians

10) On Dec 12, 2009 join the world for a global day of Action

With much love & respect, RosieX

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Blog Action Day 2009 Climate Change

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Topic for Blog Action Day 2009 is…Climate Change.

BAD press release…

We’re thrilled to announce that after receiving more than 10,000 votes from past Blog Action Day participants, the issue overwhelmingly voted as the topic for Blog Action Day 2009 is…Climate Change!

You can now register for Blog Action Day 09 by going to: www.blogactionday.org

To be a part of this year’s event, all we ask is that you commit to writing one  post, in your own voice, on October 15, on the topic of climate change.

You can learn more about the issue of climate change and see sample topics you might write about — like the connections between climate and clean energy, food choices, green products, health, transportation, and the broader economy.

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Fake New York Post makes New Yorkers wakeup to Climate Change

This week nearly a million New Yorkers were stunned by the appearance of a “special edition” New York Post blaring headlines that their city could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding, and other lethal effects of global warming within the next few decades. The most alarming thing about it: the news came from an official City report.

Distributed by over 2000 volunteers throughout New York City, the paper has been created by The Yes Men and a coalition of activists as a wake-up call to action on climate change.

Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.

“This could be, and should be, a real New York Post,” said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. “Climate change is the biggest threat civilization has ever faced, and it should be in the headlines of every paper, every day until we solve the problem.”

The fake Post’s cover story (“We’re Screwed”) reports the frightening conclusions of a blue-ribbon panel of scientists commissioned by the mayor’s office to determine the potential effects of climate change on the City. That report was released in February of this year, but received very little press at the time. Other lead articles describe the Pentagon’s alarmed response to global warming (“Clear & Present Disaster”), the U.S. government’s sadly minuscule response to the crisis (“Congress Cops Out on Climate”), China’s alternative energy program (“ChinaÕs Green Leap Forward Overtakes U.S.”), and how if the US doesn’t quickly pass a strong climate bill, the crucial Copenhagen climate talks this December could be a “Flopenhagen.”

The paper includes original investigative reporting as well. One article (“Carbon counter counts New Yorkers as fools”) reveals that Deutsche Bank – which erected a seven-story “carbon counter” in central Manhattan – not only invests heavily in coal-mining companies worldwide, but has recently entered the business of coal trading itself.

The paper has the world’s gloomiest weather page, covering the next 70 years rather than just 7 days. The “Around the World” section describes the disproportionate effects of climate change on poorer parts of the world, including extreme droughts, floods, famines, water shortages, mass migrations and conflicts. Developing countries will bear the brunt of climate change effects even though they have done very little to cause the problem.

To participate in civil disobedience visit http://BeyondTalk.net and pledge to risk arrest in a planned global action November 30, just before the conference in Copenhagen.

Links:

Fake New York Post: http://www.nypost-se.com/
Video News Release: http://www.nypost-se.com/video
City report on climate change: http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2009/NPCC_CRI.pdf
Wake-up call: http://www.tcktcktck.org/wakeup

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World Television launches online video portal on Climate Change

World Television has launched climatetalks.tv, an online video news portal for journalists in the lead up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15). COP15, the most significant global meeting this year, will be held in Copenhagen between 7 and 18 December.

World Television, which has a long track record in environmental communications, has developed climatetalks.tv in order to host video footage and other multimedia assets related to climate change from a variety of sources to support broadcast, print and online journalists’ stories around the event.

Video footage will be available for download in broadcast-quality from October through until the end of December 2009 and beyond into 2010. In addition to providing the latest stories on the debate, the site also incorporates RSS-feed functionality so journalists can sign-up to receive alerts when new content is added.

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#The Yes Men. #Age of Stupid. Climate Action Week in New York.

If you live in New York, please visit http://newyorkbigevent.com/ to sign up for some GIANT, extremely FUN, potentially WORLD-FIXING shenanigans on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. (Even if you don’t, you can sign up to participate in The Yes Men’s  “digital fun squad” by clicking the option on your profile.)

Everyone who shows up Monday morning will get a FREE GIFT you can SHOCK your friends with for years. Even just a few minutes Monday morning will help. Sign up now! http://newyorkbigevent.com/

The Yes Men can’t tell you much about what they”ll be doing, as the element of surprise here are crucial. But they can tell you that it’ll be huge and absurdly fun, and when a hundred world honchos meet the next morning to discuss climate change at the UN, you may have helped set the tone for progress.

Then, that evening (Monday, Sept. 21), we’ll unwind from the action by dressing up in our very best, er, suits and heading to the global mega-premiere of climate blockbuster The Age of Stupid (http://www.ageofstupid.net/). (LA Times: “Think An Inconvenient Truth, but with a personality”)

The premiere will be linked by satellite to 444 cinemas across America and 300 more worldwide,with special guests Kofi Annan, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (singing live), Gillian Anderson, Heather Graham, Moby, James Hansen, Mary Robinson, and the film’s star Pete Postlethwaite.

The Sept. 21 events (http://newyorkbigevent.com/ and Age of Stupid premiere) are part of Climate Action Week in New York. A good way to warm up is to join an “international photo opportunity” coordinated by Oxfam on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 20 in Central Park: the Human Countdown.

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Sustainable House Day 2009

Yes folks, Sustainable House Day 2009 is nearly on our – hopefully ecofriendly – doorsteps [*tah-boom-tish!*].  The day where you can meander round your neighbourhood and get all creepily ecologically stalkerish visit those special greener-than-green dwellings is approaching, so make sure to mark it down on your recycled paper calenders:

“Almost 10 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from households.  But every Australian can make a big difference to the environment and their wallets through simple, cost-effective, everyday actions.  Visit an open home on Sustainable House Day…to find out the practical and often easy steps you can take to reduce your impact on the environment as well as your energy and water bills.”

Sunday 13th September 2009.   Houses open between 10am and 4pm.

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Eco-Lego: Building Material for Geeks

There’s definitely something all-things-Lego in the air>water>element of your choosing. Yesterday I blurbed about an entire house made from Lego. Today’s Lego fetishists will enjoy the news that’s a’coming from HIB-Systems about their lego-like assembly of wood based building materials:

“The HIB-System is a virtually problem free self-build system. The blocks are easily handled without the need for expensive lifting devices and lock into each other in a “Lego” style operation which achieves a very quick assembly time. Either part or total self build options give the potential for money saving.”

I must admit I am a tad worried about the logging side of the operation + whether it’s as eco-friendly as the company suggests:

“We are still cutting and manufacturing our timber building materials from local Black Forest Fir trees. We are convinced that timber houses are going to be the key to developing the energy efficient houses of the future.”

Ahem.

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Building Online Games To Save Nature

Geekgirlers: meet Pawan Maulik. Maulik is a game developer who actually cares about the state of the natural world. As a fresh 2008 Toy and Game Design graduate from the Ahmedabad National Institute of Design, Maulik found:

“…that people did not like to read pamphlets or literature about social messages on environment. I was looking for some way to make these things interesting for the younger generation. It was then that I started exploring the medium of online games and spreading social messages through them…The games that are under development right now are on global warming, tree plantation, power consumption, renewable energy and water conservation. The games would go into the public forum and be accessible in a couple of months. I am waiting for funding and as soon as it is through, these games will be available on already existing online gaming websites.”

Read more about Maulik and his projects here.

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Complimenting Strangers

A shiny happy video showing how strangers react to random compliments:
“Just having fun being friendly to strangers, hoping to brighten their day! ”

Watch the video here.

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