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This edition has the theme Get Going and Get Growing and it's all about producing food organically in the backyard. There are articles on growing Japanese daikon radish, snowpeas, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, backyard fruit salad, abiu, oranges, coconuts and Macadamia nuts. Also get the good oil on olives – how to grow them and make your own olive oil. There’s a great 4-page article on how to have a healthy organic vegie garden, free of pests and diseases. We reveal the scoop on poop – how to use animal manure in your garden.
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taree/great lakes/mid-north coast LETS group
hi all! have missed LETS, & saw there was no LETS anywhere in these areas. so have just started up TAREE/great lakes/mid-north coast, LETS/CES, (community exchange system). hoping everyone joins & says hi. offer your talents & swap for jobs,etc, that you need & can't do, &/or, anything else. check out site. www.talents.org.za, am looking forward to having you all in a big group & we can have better lives, with no money involved. greenette7
Government rebate put solar power on roof for $185 July 24, 2008 12:00am
AT least 1000 Queensland households will pay as little as $185 for solar panels on their roofs - as long as they don't earn more than $100,000 a year.
Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara on Wednesday revealed German company eco-Kinetics had won the tender to supply 1000 1kW solar systems at $8185 each.
Households earning less than $100,000 annually will be eligible for an $8000 Federal Government rebate leaving them with $185 in out-of-pocket expenses for a standard installation, compared with about $2500 now.
Eco-Kinetics will have up to 12 months to install the systems in households that have already been chosen in a ballot but the offer will then be opened to all Queenslanders.
"The whole idea of this program was to intervene in the market to drive down prices with a bulk purchase," Mr McNamara said.
"We have now changed the price of solar power in Queensland."
Eco-Kinetics managing director Edwin Cywinski said the company had secured enough suppliers to provide the systems and would rely on local subcontractors to install them.
But Mr McNamara conceded some of the initial 1000 households would drop out of the plan after the Rudd Government introduced means-testing, which he described as a "disappointing" decision.
But the Minister would not consider an ongoing State Government subsidy to match the Commonwealth and also dismissed calls to offer solar-powered households a gross feed-in tariff.
The Government recently announced households and businesses would be paid 44c for every kilowatt hour generated by solar panels that wee fed into the state grid.
But they will only be paid for extra power generated above their own consumption, giving consumers less incentive to take up the green power.
Nationals MP Dave Gibson said the Government should be doing more to promote solar energy.
"All Mr McNamara and his government are really doing is riding on the back of the Federal Government's program ... they're not offering much at all to encourage Queenslanders to take up solar power," he said.
Closer look shows southeast will see more scorchers Leigh Dayton, Science writer | July 24, 2008
MELBOURNE, Adelaide and Sydney will blister in temperatures of more than 50C by 2050, according to the first hard look at the impact of climate change on extreme weather.
The forecast is part of a long-term prediction that temperatures on the hottest day of the year will rise dramatically in parts of southern Australia, including the southern Murray-Darling Basin, much of coastal NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
But the study did not find evidence that other parts of Australia would be so severely affected.
"No one's ever looked at these numbers before," said Andy Pitman, co-director of the University of NSW Climate Change Research Centre in Sydney.
Scientists with the CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology have also assessed the nation's future climate but they focused on average changes in extremes of temperature and rainfall due to climate change.
Along with graduate student Sarah Perkins, Professor Pitman analysed daily temperatures. "There is nothing wrong with what they did, but they missed that last bit of evidence that identified the 'extreme' extremes," Professor Pitman said.
The researchers first tested the effectiveness of many climate modelling systems by "hind-casting", testing how well they predicted past conditions.
After identifying the most reliable models, they simulated daily changes in temperature and rainfall as greenhouse gases increased in the atmosphere. They found the increase altered the pattern of warming for rare super-hot days.
To their surprise, there was also an indirect effect. Global warming led to a reduction in rainfall which, in turn, reduced evaporation. "If there's less evaporation, the land surface becomes hotter, a process known as positive feedback," Professor Pitman said.
That is why extreme events in places such as Darwin and Perth did not outpace those in the south: there's no feedback there.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says Australia does not need to resort to nuclear energy as part of its climate change strategy.
A newspaper report today says that former NSW premier Bob Carr and Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes are urging the Federal Government to consider the use of nuclear energy.
The report says Mr Carr believes that nuclear energy can be used while renewable energy sources continue to be developed.
However Mr Rudd told ABC's AM program that nuclear options are not needed.
"We believe that we have a full range of energy options available to Australia beyond nuclear through which we can respond to the climate change challenge and we're confident we can do that," he said.
Mr Rudd has also reiterated that fuel and transport must be part of a broad climate change policy but the question of whether the Government will include fuel in the emissions trading scheme still remains.
"The precise definition of the scope of the scheme - that'll become clear during the green paper, white paper process," he said.
"We're proceeding on this policy development process, calmly, coolly methodically, responsibly and that's why we've been out there in the last six months consulting industry."
With the global changes happening these days a new language seems to be evolving. Phrases such as skilling up and power down, energy descent, peak oil and food miles, are used frequently amongst Permaculture people and environmentalists. A new age is descending upon us as the climate change issue has been globally recognised and even Australia has had a wake-up call last year with the severe water restrictions placed upon us. The times they are a changing! Within our own Permaculture circles there is much talk about food miles. We are now becoming much more conscious as to how far the food we eat has traveled from farm to dinner plate. Until now, not many people gave it much thought. After all, we think nothing of drinking bottled water that has come all the way from France! The misuse of non-renewable fossil fuel can be dealt with only if we choose to recognize that we are actually supporting this destructive practice by our shopping habits. But how about looking at the emissions coming from the way the food we buy is grown? According to the latest statistics, food contributes to 21% of the total carbon footprint. This is more than emissions from cars around the world! So if we truly care about the environment (and who doesn’t?) we need to look at not only buying locally grown food but also at growing as much of it ourselves. When good gardening practices are in place then there is no need to use the amount of water that is used on a commercial scale. It actually takes much less water (and therefore non-renewable energy) to grow organic vegetables at home. So recently I have been dubbed a locarian. A locarian is someone that eats mainly locally grown and produced food and I think I can well and truly fit the bill. We’ve been growing, producing and fermenting our own food for well over a decade now and most of the food we eat is from our own place. At the Maroochy Community Permaculture Gardens at Yandina we are encouraging these practices as people come from the community to volunteer and work in the Permaculture gardens. There is plenty of support for those who are interested in becoming home food producers where people can learn by seeing and doing. Workshops are also a regular occurrence as well as a certificate one in horticulture being taught at the gardens. I really don’t mind being labeled a locarian, although I must admit it takes a bit of getting used to. Locarianism seems to be one very real answer to the global dilemma and it tastes good too!
Posted by elisabeth fekonia
on January 17 2008 07:51:17·
Comments & Ratings · 3 Comments ·
262 Reads ·
