Michael Green

Waves of change

michael — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:18:27 +0000

King tides give residents a view into the future of our coasts

TWICE a year, the tides reach their peak. And when they do, the sea washes over piers and paths, and inundates parks. It’s a prelude to a coastline with higher seas all year round – one in which seaside real estate will be at increasing risk.

“King tides are a great proxy,” says Caitlin Calder-Potts, from Green Cross Australia. “They’re a way of bridging the gap between an abstract projection for sea level rise, and actually seeing what the impacts are in your local area. By observing them, we can understand how our coasts might change.”

Breaking the gridlock

michael — Sun, 12 May 2013 02:26:52 +0000

In 2020, could citizens hold the power?

MAY 12, 2020: Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by nearly a third in the last decade, according to a report by the Department of Energy Transition, Efficiency and Enoughness.

The report showed a dramatic shift to localised, renewable energy production, made possible by radical improvements in efficiency. One in every three Australian households supplies its own electricity – whether individually, in clusters or small communities.

Police have no leads in delayed investigation

michael — Tue, 07 May 2013 01:15:26 +0000

THE State Coroner has heard that the police have no leads into the death of a man who was found in the Maribyrnong River in July 2011.

Michael Atakelt was 22 years old when he went missing on 26 June 2011. His body was retrieved from the Maribyrnong River in Ascot Vale eleven days later, on 7 July. In February, the Coroner suspended the inquest into his death and directed the police to reinvestigate with a different detective in charge.

In a hearing yesterday, Acting Senior Sergeant Peter Tatter-Rendlemann, from the Hobsons Bay crime investigation unit, told the Coroner’s court that there were no witnesses or evidence about what happened during the period Atakelt was missing. “I have nothing so far that can shed any light as to what may have occurred,” he said.

The right kind of urban growth

michael — Sun, 05 May 2013 12:55:20 +0000

Green roofs and streetscapes make a cool change for the city

FROM his own patch of turf in Coburg, Emilio Fuscaldo can see south all the way to the skyscrapers. The grass is on his roof.

It’s one of only a few residential green roofs in Melbourne. Mr Fuscaldo is the founder of Nest Architects; his motives were both private and public. “It’s incumbent on architects to practice what we preach. I wanted to show that you can devote a large percentage of your budget to sustainability,” he says. “You can compromise on other things, such as kitchens, cupboards and tiles, and still achieve a beautiful result.”

Regenerating after the bushfire

michael — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:22:22 +0000

Kinglake residents came out of the fire and into a plan – it just wasn’t theirs.

LAST Sunday, over seventy people gathered in the renovated, rebuilt hall at Kinglake Central. David Engwicht, a placemaking expert, told the audience that the fire was an opportunity “to burn the triviality” from their lives. They could create community, relationships and “systemic resilience”, however they wanted.

It was the first week of a free, two-part event called Regenerating, sponsored by RMIT University, Australian National University and CSIRO.

The living fossil

michael — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:09:00 +0000

It’s as old as the dinosaurs, grows in a top-secret location and – until the early ’90s – was only known through 150 million year old remains. This is the story of the Wollemi Pine.

Published in Smith Journal, Volume 6

ON a cool, clear day, in early spring 1994, David Noble rested for lunch deep in a canyon in Wollemi National Park, 130 kilometres north-west of Sydney. The meal was nothing special; he’d brought standard bushwalking fare – sandwiches, muesli bars, nuts and sultanas. But the location was extraordinary. One-in-150 million, or thereabouts. He just didn’t know that yet.

Local investing

michael — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:31:31 +0000

Living local includes shifting your shares too.

IT’S Friday evening, and four residents are sitting around a broad wooden table in Thornbury, talking money. They’re at the regular monthly meeting – bring a plate – of the “community economics” group from Transition Darebin.

The organisation is part of the worldwide Transition Network, in which local volunteers begin to “adapt to diminishing resources and a rapidly changing global climate”.

Climate adaptation plan: the devil is in the appendix

michael — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:17:31 +0000

HERE it is at last, the good news climate story we’ve been waiting for: the synthetic turf industry is about to boom – a happy consequence of our inability to grow grass.

So says the Victorian government’s Climate Adaptation Plan, released last month. Sweet reprieve! Providence still smiles upon the (artificial) garden state!

Chris Simpson, from TigerTurf in Campbellfield, confirms the speculation: yes, he anticipates bumper growth in a hotter, drier future.

Superannuation's carbon footprint

michael — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 23:49:33 +0000

If you insulate your home against the climate, insulate your money too.

YOUR carbon footprint comprises emissions from household energy use, transport, food, shopping and waste. But is that all?

A new social media campaign called The Vital Few argues there’s something we’ve overlooked: “Are you accidentally investing in climate change?” it asks. “Maybe you reduce, reuse and recycle. Maybe you’re into using renewables… But are you even remotely aware of how your pension contribution is being spent on your behalf?”

Interview with Annie Leonard

michael — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 22:11:52 +0000

Her Story of Stuff animations have been viewed over 36 million times. Now, in her latest short film, US environmental advocate Annie Leonard looks at social change itself. She argues that we need to do much more than alter our shopping habits.

There are so many complex problems with the way we live – how can we make sense of it all?

While the details are complicated, the big picture is not: we are using more resources than the planet can regenerate and creating more waste than it can assimilate each year. We’re simply using too much stuff.