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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.
November 18th, 2008 — Issues, Martin Oliver
By Martin Oliver
Most human beings now live in a sea of invisible electromagnetic radiation (EMR) that is millions of times stronger than anything encountered during our long evolution as a species. Networks of towers and base stations emit a cacophony of radio, TV, wireless internet and mobile phone signals. Further emissions are produced by domestic appliances such as computers, microwaves and hairdryers. Metal objects in your living environment can attract and re-radiate these energies.
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.
September 23rd, 2008 — Martin Oliver
By Martin Oliver
We are all familiar with the stereotypes. A manic beermat collector corners people at parties and delivers a monologue about his favourite subject, while his victim searches for an avenue of escape. Young computer nerds with square glasses spend their lives in front of screens learning programming while showing no interest in popular music, current fashion, or forming relationships with girls.
Such individuals were once written off as relatively harmless deviants, and were only superficially understood. As our knowledge has advanced however, a pattern of behaviours that include these examples has been identified under a term known as Asperger Syndrome (AS.)
September 19th, 2008 — Martin Oliver
By Martin Oliver
Across the country, environmentally aware people are recycling their waste, making local trips by push bike, and buying organic food. In many cases, however, their money may be supporting activities that are at odds with their personal values. While investment decisions are often made on purely financial grounds, there is a growing movement to align investments with personal ethics.
What is ethical investment?
The concept of taking an ethical stance towards investments (also known as Sustainable Responsible Investment, Socially Responsible Investment, or simply SRI) originated with the Quakers in the 18th century, and re-awoke in the early 1970’s to target US chemical companies that were manufacturing napalm for use in the Vietnam War.
