Get Up’s Response to Rudd’s 5% Carbon Emissions Target
December 18th, 2008 — Environment
A monkey burger – do you want fries with that?
December 15th, 2008 — David Scheel, Environment
by David Sheel
Some years ago, while travelling in the Amazon, I found myself involved in the rescue of a three-toed sloth which had endangered itself by accidentally wandering into the territory of a carnivorous ocelot. While we were busy trapping and trussing up the unfortunate animal, my local guide asked me if I had ever eaten sloth. Of course I had not, and asked him what it tasted like.
“Oh, just like monkey.” Which left me none the wiser.
Farewell to the light bulb
December 5th, 2008 — Environment, Martin Oliver
by Martin Oliver
Following in the footsteps of Cuba, Australia stands on the verge of becoming the second country to phase out the traditional bulb-shaped incandescent light globe due to its comparative inefficiency. Incandescent bulbs, whose appearance has changed little since their invention back in 1879, waste 97.5% of their energy as heat. Many other countries, including Ireland, Italy and the Philippines, are pursuing similar phase-out plans.
There is no black and white in being green
November 16th, 2008 — David Scheel, Environment
by David Scheel
At the recent 20-20 talkfest – for that is all it was – a government arts spokesperson stated that Australia’s goal should be to “double its cultural output by the year 2020”. If ever there was an artistic mantra delivered by a bean counter, this has to be it. What does “doubling our cultural output” mean, except an affirmation that quantity is more important than quality? Pushed to absurdist limits, we can only assume that if there was a great Australian opera composer, called Merv Wagner, each of his Ring Cycle operas would have to last eight hours, instead of four. Or that T.E. Lawrence would write a personal testimony entitled “Fourteen Pillars of Wisdom”. Or yet that we would double the number of visual and performing artists, and somehow achieve this in a climate of savage cutbacks in arts budgets, thus leaving even more of our creative talents working full time on incomes below the official poverty line.
Too good to waste
November 5th, 2008 — Environment, Martin Oliver
by Martin Oliver
Once upon a time, Australia households generated only a minimal amount of garbage. However, since the start of the modern consumer era in the 1950’s, the volume of what we throw away has grown exponentially as a result of mass consumption, overpackaging, and the arrival of planned obsolescence, where products are designed to fail and are cheap to replace.
