When poetry can be enough

Sometimes, by accident when reading, or talking, or listening, I come upon words and ideas, or silence; and then what I see or hear can be enough.  Sufficient.  Sustainable, sustaining. May I offer Will Shakespeare’s 29th sonnet in this sense, and invite you to read it aloud with a song in your heart: When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state And trouble deaf heaven with my... Read More

Sleep at last

Sleep is as important as waking. In sleep we make sense of the day, of our life and we restore our body. To see the ravages caused to our body and mind by unhealthy sleep, and to see solutions,  see this article in one of Australia’s leading new publications, The Conversation.  Read More

Bronte sunrise today, Chippendale pollution yesterday

Bronte sunrise, Friday 14 June 2013 Last Friday morning I swam in Bronte pool.  At 19 degrees the pool was clear amidst a clear sky, the light and the moment exactly like the moment Leonard Cohen sings of  . . . ” There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in . . . ” (Anthem). Diving in, there was just silence in my monkey brain and pure sensual pleasure at being alive.   But after the gifted moments I got out of the pool and considered... Read More

George Monbiot, words and ideas . . . and passion

George Monbiot – whom I regard as one of Earth’s great journalists and hearts – has written a book about ‘rewilding’.   Look now at this cartoon about rewilding and feel your heart beat in your flesh with hope,   M  Read More

How we save 4 million litres of rain each year for less than $300

Cutting leaky drain to size Each year in Chippendale we save over 4 million litres of water to irrigate our road gardens.  We built the drains for this ourselves at a once-off cost of $300.  The story is here.  Read More

Urban farming adds life to your life

Chooks in Sarah’s garden When we grow plants or nurture bees and wildlife something grows in ourselves. I thought of this when I received this lovely email from Sarah Townsend, who came with her partner and did an Urban Farm Working Tour here: “Hi Michael, Just a quick note.  I attended your Urban Farming tour in February.  It was so inspiring and has really had a great influence on our home life.  We got 3 chooks the next day after meeting your chooks.  I had... Read More

Climate change a cause of Arab spring and more to come . . .

In his New York Times column today, Thomas L Friedman attributes climate change and the collapse of the world’s food crops, particularly wheat, as a major cause of civil unrest, particularly in the Middle East and specifically as a cause of the “Arab spring”: “Consider this: The world’s top nine wheat-importers are in the Middle East: “Seven had political protests resulting in civilian deaths in 2011,” said Sternberg. “Households in the countries... Read More

Citizens may self-approve their road gardens

Sydney City Council has recognised that its citizens don’t need nannying if they wish to garden. Citizens may give themselves  approval to garden in public in the road verge. A new policy adopted by Council on Monday 25 February 2013 makes clear that Sydney citizens may self-approve their own road gardens. “The Footpath Gardening Policy (the Policy) allows residents and businesses to put planter boxes on the footpath and/or carry out gardening on footpath verges... Read More

Watch ice bigger than Manhatten Island break away from a glacier

This speeded up film on Youtube, taken from a remote and distant mountain in the Arctic, shows ice breaking away from a glacier as it gets smaller and smaller. The video shows the 75 minute collapse in 4.41 minutes. Ice in chunks as high as 90 or more storied buildings and the size of Manhatten Island (87 square kilometres) rises three to four hundred metres high as the ice smashes and collapses. It took the glacier 100 years to break up and become 8 miles (~ 20 k) smaller –... Read More

Spiders getting bigger, ants dying out in hotter cities

Black roads that absorb heat are killing ant populations, making spiders bigger and causing premature human mortality, too, mainly among the young and old. There’s growing research and more diverse research into the impacts of the growing heat in our cities. Our cities are 6 or more degrees hotter in summer because of black roads, no tree cover and dark roofs. At least two PhDs are underway into these impacts in Sydney; one by Matthias Irger into the different impacts of... Read More