EcoRadio

Author: Geoff Ebbs

  • Europe divided over Ukraine

    Europe divided over Ukraine

    Writing in Al Jazeera today, Dimitar Bechev, writes that the visit by Hungarian President Viktor Orban to Moscow to secure a new gas deal and express support for Russian resistance to NATO shows how complex the situation in Eastern Europe is. Poland, the Baltic states and Romania have strongly expressed support for NATO involvement in the Ukraine. The Balkan states are less enthusiastic and support Russian concerns about NATO expansion. Germany has refused to send troops to the Ukraine. Bechev believes that despite the complexity, most states will resist Russian intervention in the eastern region of the Ukraine. British troops are already on the ground and have been involved in battles with Russian soldiers. Land mines are being used to booby trap trenches on the front line.

    The song Putin Khuilo

    Meanwhile, anti-Russian Ukrainians have taken to song to express their frustration. The popular ‘Putin Khuilo’ is belted out at rallies, clubs and quoted in official speeches, labelling Putin as a ‘dickhead’. The 2019 song Alga by symphonic rock outfit, Ignea, continues to be a staple at similar events. It famously advises the Russians to get off Uklranian soil with the words ‘you godless bastards, put your two headed eagle into your asses and run.’

    https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/2/1/in-central-and-eastern-europe-ukraine-crisis-proves-natos-worth

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/1/on-the-front-line-britons-fight-alongside-ukrainian-troops

    https://theworld.org/stories/2014-06-25/putin-khuilo-ukraines-obscene-anti-russia-chant-has-been-turned-ridiculous-music

  • How can we make urban water smart?

    How can we make urban water smart?

    Simmonds & Bristow trainees on the job
    Simmonds & Bristow trainees on the job

    The next in our series of episodes about water management, is a series of interviews with David Bristow, water engineer, expert witness and owner of the water services, training and engineering firm Simmonds & Bristow.

    Two weeks ago Dave Whitfield interviewed Dr Aysin Dederkofut-Howes about Smart Urban Water, this week, Geoff Ebbs interviews David Bristow about some of the challenges to realising that ambition and how we overcome them.

    The interview is in three parts:

    • the first part discusses the existing urban water system and the possibility of recycling,
    • the second part discusses current attempts to be smart about how we use water and what impact that has on our overall use and
    • the third part discusses mining the sewer for energy and nutrients.

    You can catch the entire interview by visiting the playlist.

    https://soundcloud.com/thegeneratornews/sets/david-bristow-discusses-urban-water
  • Week starting Saturday 4th Dec

    Week starting Saturday 4th Dec

    Arnwood Place Bushcare at work
    The Arnwood Place Bushcare group at a recent working bee

    Saturday 04/12/21

    08:00-10:00 Lugg st bushcare Working Bee – Lugg St, Bardon

    08:30-11:00 – Mackenzie Bushcare Group Working Bee – Mt Petrie Road Reserve, Mackenzie

    14:00-17:00 – Moorhen Flats Freecs Working Bee – 106 A Deshon St, Woolloongabba

    15:00-17:30 – Working Bee Arnwood Place Bushcare Group – Bank of Sandy Creek beside bikeway, Annerley

    Sunday 05/12/21

    08:00-10:30 – Friends of Tallebudgera Creek Conservation Park – Car Park opposite 114 Tallebudgera Drive, Palm Beach

    08:00-10:00 – Bushcare at Berrinba Wetlands – Wayne Goss Dr, Browns Plains

    08:00-10:00 – Platypus Park working bee – Platypus Park, Banksia Drive, Mount Crosby

    08:30 – Ardes Lomandra Street Bushcare Group Working Bee   – 20 Kirkdale Rd, Chapel Hill

    08:30-10:30 – Bennetts Bush Defenders Working Bee – Bennett’s Bushland Park, Norman Park

    WEDNESDAY, 8 DECEMBER 

     07:30-09:30  CreekWatch Working Bee at Success St Park – Success St Park, Acacia Ridge (corner of Beatty Road and Success St)

  • Bluesky greenwashes 7 million bottles

    Bluesky greenwashes 7 million bottles

    Local drink manufacturer, Blue Sky Beverages, will launch a campaign at midday tomorrow claiming to replace single use plastic bottles with 3D printed, aluminium ones.

    BlueSky founder, Matt Isles, said the facility is designed to print seven million bottles each year.Where the press release refers to 3D printed bottles it actually means the label is printed on the bottle, not that the bottle itself will be 3D printed in Brisbane. The company will not be collecting or reusing the bottles.

    Wallaby Water and Cotton On launched a similar product in August last year that was designed to be recycled rather than reused.

    A detailed analysis by US company Tappwater indicates that individual aluminium cans have a carbon footprint almost three times that of plastic bottles. Their advantage is that aluminium can be reliably recycled.

    https://bluespringwater.com.au/

    https://www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au/packaging/cotton-on-launches-water-bottled-in-aluminium

    https://tappwater.co/en/glass-vs-plastic-vs-aluminium-what-is-the-most-sustainable-choice/

    https://slate.com/technology/2008/03/the-eco-guide-to-responsible-drinking.amp

  • Australia coerced into war in Asia

    Australia coerced into war in Asia

    Australia is being coerced into war with China over Taiwan by US strategists, Nury Vittachi writes in Pearls and Irritations this morning.

    Colby's book Strategy of Denial
    Colby’s book, Strategy of Denial

    ANU Professor of strategic studies, Hugh White, wrote in the Australian last week that there is a much greater advantage for Australia to live in a Chinese-dominated Asia than to join a US war over Taiwan. “There is a moral imperative to avoid war, especially nuclear war,” said Professor White.

    Australian Strategic Policy Institute director, Peter Jennings, countered with an article confirming that Australia’s regional strategy is to support the continuing US dominance of Asia and the Pacific.

    A recent book by US defence strategist Elbridge Colby reveals that the US is deliberately provoking a war with Taiwan to cement an alliance between Japan, South Korea and the Philippines to protect its commercial interests. It is inevitable that Asia will dominate the world’s economy, Colby writes, and the US wants to dominate the region.

    https://johnmenadue.com/strategists-admit-west-is-goading-china-into-war/

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/china-now-likely-to-call-americas-bluff-over-taiwan/news-story/286511e9587c240c05901a6d1d504a8e

    A Strategy of Denial
    https://johnmenadue.com/hugh-white-the-us-shouldnt-go-to-war-with-china-over-taiwan-and-nor-should-australia-aspi-the-strategist-13-feb-2019/
  • Between the Stories

    Between the Stories

    “We are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human.”

    David Abram

    Leading voices of Australia’s First Peoples and North American cultural ecologist David Abram explore our place in the more-than-human world

    Mon 6th Dec • Wed 8th Dec • Fri 10th Dec 

    12.30-2.30pm AEDT (UTC+11)* on Zoom

    This series of three yarning circles will probe how our thinking and acting in the world is shaped by cultural understandings of language, place and time. 

    Australia’s First Peoples understand well that there exists no separation between humans and the more-than-human world – that humans, with all our culture and technology, remain fully embedded within, and participant with, an animate world that far exceeds all our knowing. Such insights also pulse at the heart of North American cultural ecologist David Abram’s work.  His dialogues with Australian Indigenous thinkers will explore the convergences, and contrasts, between Western ecological ideas and Indigenous knowledges.

    All registered participants will receive the Zoom link for this program by email  prior to the first session and a link to access videos of all sessions when the series is over.

    https://events.humanitix.com/between-stories-atn