Bill McDonough

Bill McDonough features in 'The 11th Hour", the new film by Leonardo DiCaprio that is discussed on TED.com blog. He is an architect who is tackling sustainability with intelligent design. TED is a great place to watch amazing thinkers from all over the globe.

"The 11th Hour" Trailer

Leonardo DiCaprio's feature length film "The 11th Hour" will be released August 17th in US. What you see will concern you, in much the same way as 'An Inconvenient Truth' did. This film urges you to Take Action now and there are suggestions for how on the site. Hope is Free. I hope....

Cow Dung Power

As mentioned earlier in the week, it seems the whole concept of cow poo power is becoming more and more mentioned. I seriously thought it was a joke!

Cow Poo

In 1983 when I was doing year 12 or the HSC as it was called in Victoria then, we were studying a theme of 'The Future'. Interestingly many of the books I read at that time and things I learnt have had big impacts on my life. We had to write an essay on what would happen if the oil ran out. One of my friends came up with what I thought was an amusing story about using methane gas from cow poo. We all cracked up and thought this was an amazing joke. I saw this a couple of months ago and wondered whether Greg was perhaps just a bit ahead of his time.
inhabitat: Poo Power:Could Cow Poo Power Your Home?



Snoskred recently wrote a very informative post on cows also, which reminded me of this Habitat article I'd saved. She asks "Everybody Loves Cows, Don't They?" Well here's yet another reason to be grateful for all that cows can offer the world. Read the comments as there are lots of interesting links.

Planting Trees

It feels so great to do something practical. We took 50 kids from our school out to a park today and planted 900 trees. I am exhausted tonight, but I feel satisfied. The kids really threw themselves into it. When we asked for volunteers, my entire class immediately volunteered and brought their forms back the next day to ensure they got to go. There were plenty of kids in the school who wanted to go, so we had to make it a first in best dressed arrangement. Kids were rushing into the office before school to try to be the first and the cut off occurred before homeroom started.

If you were cynical, you could say it was just about having a day out of the classroom. I believe 80% at least though want to do the right thing. They want to make a difference and are quick to jump to opportunities to do so. I see many kids doing amazing volunteer work in my community and I will tell you more about some of the things they do soon. Today it's the tree planters day.

We could harness this enthusiasm and good will more often. If only we had the energy to keep up and keep it safe!

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore is in Australia. This is the trailer of the film referred to in the latest newsvine feed:

GENI - Global Energy Network Institute - International Electricity Transmission - Renewable Energy Resource Interconnections - Sta

Introductory Page - GENI - Global Energy Network Institute - International Electricity Transmission - Renewable Energy Resource Interconnections - Stable Sustainable Development Solutions

This is the GENI I was wondering about last night. So in answer to my question that I was most curious about, yes they do still exist and it seems they are still plugging away at the Global Enerery Network. Phew!

An Inconvient Truth - Watch this trailer - Important

I hope this film comes soon and makes a difference.