Synthetic fertilisers made a huge difference to the world during the 20^th century, massively increasing crop yields, and allowing the human population to grow by billions. Indeed, many of us might not be here today if it wasn’t for their invention (read up on the Haber-Bosch process, if you want to learn more).

But synthetic fertilisers also cause greenhouse gas emissions (c. 2.5% of global emissions), created during the manufacturing process, fossil fuel mining and transportation, synthesis of ammonia and conversion of ammonia to various N fertiliser products. Plus, many farmers apply excessive nitrogen fertiliser to their crops. When nitrogen and phosphorus are not fully utilised by crops, they can be lost from the farm, emitting potent nitrous oxide (N2O) and deteriorating downstream water quality.

The problems with synthetic fertilisers are widely reported, and the solutions offered range from regulating fertiliser producers (improving standards of nitrogen performance in fertiliser and increasing environmental credentials), educating farmers about appropriate fertiliser use, planting N-fixing crops, and reducing tillage. But rarely will you see individuals empowered to contribute to reducing the emissions caused by agriculture. Solution 9 'Support Regenerative Farming’ addresses this, but we also think that everyone with the privilege to grow plants can make a positive difference.

For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to feed your plants. Instead of using store-bought fertiliser or perpetuating the synthetic-fertiliser-hungry-big-ag, have a go at making your own fertiliser for free! You can make excellent supplements for your garden using worm tea, manure, compost, green weeds, and seaweed! It can be a simple as popping some nitrogen-rich material into a clean bucket of water and letting it steep for a few weeks – the result will be a lovely liquid fertiliser that you can use on your plants. In doing this, you will avoid the greenhouse gas emissions from the store-bought fertiliser, avoid packaging, and contribute to growing your own food, thereby abstaining from polluting big-ag. All while saving a bit of money.

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Here’s a little flashback excerpt from our book, which just celebrated its 5th anniversary! Thankfully, this info is timeless so it’s all still very relevant info. This makes for a quick and easy weekend project with whatever you have access too, so have fun and get brewing!

Make this: liquid fertiliser to feed your garden

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One in every five bags of groceries ends up in landfill. Organic matter in landfill does not decompose properly but releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. When you scrape your dinner plate into the bin, it may seem like a relatively benign action, but food waste constitutes approximately 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Such an unnecessary waste of a valuable resource.

It seems that more people can afford to waste food, in part because of the relatively low prices of food (compared with any time in history). High levels of disposable income (especially amongst the wealthier demographic), means there is a low consequence of wasting food - if food is wasted, then people can just go out and buy more. In contrast, millions of people go hungry.

We can help alleviate the disparity of food distribution by wasting less. This can be done by planning ahead (we’ll cover this soon), and by using up what you have. For this week's #52climatesolutions, we ask you to use the leftovers. As Lindsay Miles said in her terrific book ‘The Less Waste No Fuss Kitchen’, there IS such a thing as a free lunch, and it’s leftovers! Leftovers can be created unintentionally when you or your family don’t eat all that you prepared. They can also be the scraps left in food preparation. Rather than disposing of this food, think of ways you can use it later – this might be as simple as reheating food, or adding a fresh salad or rice to a leftover curry. You could use leftover veggies in a stir-fry, frittata, or stew. You may intentionally cook a bit more food than usual so that you have another meal leftover – cook once, eat twice! 

The festive season sees a big increase in food wastage, so now is a good time to think about how you will ensure all your food gets eaten. Perhaps grazing platters for a few days and a well earned rest for the cook. Maybe a Boxing Day celebration to share the leftovers of your Christmas feast. Or a plate delivered to a neighbour who’d appreciate a meal. Maybe you’ll use veggie scraps to make stock. Or perhaps you’ll make room in your freezer and savour the flavours of that special meal again, in the new year. Make that thinking a habit, and take it through the next year, so that food waste is a thing of the past.

Much love from us,
Lauren & Oberon. xx

Humans are generally awesome at celebrating. We celebrate people, events, anniversaries and triumphs, and in many different ways. Celebrating is often viewed as a time to let go and indulge. But even seemingly trivial celebratory practices can contribute to the growing problems of pollution and environmental harm. Waste quantities and the use of fossil fuels in the production, transportation and consumption of goods, consistently increases around Christmas time. But there is no need for our celebrations to exacerbate climate change, given these are activities completely of our choosing.

At this time of year, a lot of people are preparing for Christmas by buying gifts for loved ones. So, for this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to give consciously. Rather than buying into the latest fad or buying expensive new, wasteful gifts that your loved ones could live without, consider alternatives. Make a gift, upcycle something broken into something useful and beautiful, or buy secondhand. If you buy something new, consider how long it will last and whether it benefits the artist or maker. Think about the needs and principles of the person receiving your gift, and aim to support their way of living. Perhaps they asked you not to buy plastic toys, or asked for no plastic or paper wrap so try to do that – wrap gifts in fabric or recycled paper, instead. Consider re-gifting - giving away something that you don’t need, but that others may find useful. Source handmade (whether made by you or someone else) and locally made. Consider making them something delicious or luxurious to eat or pamper themselves with. 

One of our favourite approaches is to adopt the four-gift rule as a guide – giving something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. You might like to give experiences over things - time spent together doing something special, or a workshop in something they’d like to learn.

We don’t need to overload people's lives with unnecessary stuff, otherwise, is that a gift or a burden? Think about the longevity of your gifts. What purpose do they serve, for how long, and what will happen at the end of your gift’s life – will it go to landfill, or be composted, providing a ‘final’ gift of nutrients to the soil?

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More about Christmas…

I (Lauren) was interviewed by Koren Helbig for her article in The Guardian recently, with a specific focus on decorations. Just a small part of that interview was used, but it covered all manner of Christmas-related stuff, so I thought I’d share my answers with you here!

The end of the year can be such a busy and frenetic time. It’s really easy to lean towards pre-packaged, cheap and mass-produced ‘convenience' products when you’re feeling under pressure. We live waste-free year-round because we feel it’s a meaningful and practical way to reduce and take responsibility for the impact we have on our local environment. It’d feel pretty unnatural for us to throw it all out the window at Christmas time!

There’s no waste in nature, so it’s a great starting point for thinking about food, decorations, gifts and how we spend time. Our approach is to simplify our celebrations as much as possible. We focus on spending time relaxing together and enjoying the season we’re in. Gifts are practical, much-wanted, pre-loved, long-lasting, or will compost after they’re no-longer useful. Gift wrap is made from fabric and re-used each year. Food is local and seasonal, with some things (like cherries) that we wait all year to enjoy, so they’ve become festive treats. Leftovers are eaten in the restful post-Christmas days. We’ve found approaching Christmas in this way also saves hundreds of dollars, making it more financially sustainable.

Look for decorations that can be re-used year after year, creating your own traditions rather than following fashion. Seek out decorations made from natural materials that can compost at their end of life (eg. wool, cotton, wood, paper, clay). Make your own decorations in the lead-up to Christmas, or look for second-hand decorations you can use for years to come. Use eucalyptus leaves and blossoms, plants, flowers from the garden to decorate your home and your dining table and compost them when you’re finished with them.

We’ve used the same decorations for years and years, adding to them occasionally as the kids have grown. Some are plastic baubles we used on our first tree when our eldest daughter was a baby and well before we lived waste-free. Some are felt or hessian hearts we’ve stitched by hand. Some are wooden decorations we’ve chosen or were given to us by family members.  The kids love seeing our old decorations year after year, especially the ones we made together when they were small. Some have hilarious back-stories that we re-share each year. Sometimes the tree is a little wonky and the decorations are eclectic, but that’s life and nature for you. We all have a little laugh about it and we love it! This year’s tree is looking quite symmetrical and we’re all a bit amazed with it - haha!

Our wreath on the door is made from old scraps of fabric and the kids usually add to it with leaves and gum nuts or bells and ribbons. In previous years we’ve made a wreath from cones of re-used paper or flowers and leaves from the garden. Christmas crackers are made from old toilet rolls and filled with useful things or plant seeds, paper hats and terrible jokes!

Usually, if we reach an impasse with kids/family members around something that doesn’t match with our views, we explain why we make the choices we make, explore suitable alternatives and respect their choices if they choose differently for themselves. 

Christmas decorations are commonly discarded which can be damaging to wildlife, and even when thoughtfully discarded can overwhelm charity shops. Your local op-shop is a great place to look for something sparkly to add to your tree. Christmas lights can use a startling amount of energy each year, commonly left on for an average of ten hours a day. LED lights use 95% less energy, so look for sturdy LED lights and rechargeable batteries. Millions of plastic Christmas trees are bought and discarded each year and will eventually sit in landfill for thousands of years. They travel long distances to get to your home and have a carbon footprint equivalent to 40kg of greenhouse gases. A real or living tree has a much smaller environmental impact and can even have a positive impact if managed correctly.

We choose a freshly-cut tree each year. We realised many years ago that the fresh pine-tree smell is an important part of our family’s christmassy vibes, so a perfectly-shaped plastic tree wouldn’t do (even a thrifted one). We’ve had a couple of living trees in pots but we’ve not had great luck in keeping them alive year-round. In some years our trees have been grown on a farm, but usually we’ll stop by a roadside and cut down a weedy pine tree sapling that shouldn’t be growing in the bush anyway. We’ll compost or use it in the garden in later months. Our kids love taking part in the tree-foraging and we have a great time decorating the tree with our favourite Christmas albums playing.

We like to give gifts that are practical, wearable, edible, heirloom and where possible, thrifted. We wrap them in fabric and ribbons we use year after year, which makes them super special. It also eliminates the huge amounts of gift wrap that is commonly discarded at Christmas time in most households. 

Have a wonderful Christmas/solstice!

Much love,
Lauren & Oberon.

Happy weekend, friends! This might be a good time to tackle this one and check out what networks are near you.

To sufficiently tackle climate change, we are going to need to act cooperatively. Unfortunately, events of recent years displaced lots of community groups and encouraged more of us to find social connection via our screens and away from real-life connections. As it is, the design of many populated areas is often not conducive to sharing space and/or time with others. Many of us share similar ethics and aspirations for the planet but may only act on these in individualistic ways. While we remain physically siloed, our ability to enact positive change, especially in our local communities, is limited.

Collective action on climate change has the potential to be greater than the sum of its parts, especially where our individual strengths and interests complement our neighbours’ in ways that can create enormous positive change. Besides, as isolated individuals, we miss out on stuff - especially the sharing of practical know-how that can be gained (and shared) with others.

For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to join a community group. Working with your community can be motivating and instil a sense of shared purpose. It can help you do more with the time and energy you have. Taking a leap to join an environmental- or social-cause-oriented community group might involve stepping outside your comfort zone, but it can be highly rewarding.

Alternatively, you might consider joining a group based around learning a new skill, or an interest you have, or even just a social group unrelated to climate action. Cohesive groups can surprisingly provide climate resilience and support in unexpected ways (read below for our personal experience). Acting towards a common purpose with people from different backgrounds or viewpoints can impart interpersonal skills that can translate to other areas of your life. Groups improve social cohesion and increase collective empathy for ‘us’ and nature – prompting ongoing actions on climate.

Community groups are less about what you can ‘get’ from joining, and more about the collective benefits of shared efforts. Not every community group will have a climate solutions angle, but many fit well within the spectrum of positive actions on climate, including activism, gardening and permaculture-based groups.

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Here are a few groups to help you connect with climate-conscious people near you -

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We want to preface this post by noting that it is not explicitly directed at the 90% of our readers, who are women. There is an imbalance that exists around the implementation of climate solutions and we posit that men, in general, can do much more to contribute than they presently do. So, if you are a woman and don’t feel this applies to you, please feel free to share and direct this post particularly to men whom you reckon should read it.

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It is apparent that not all action on climate has been carried out equally, especially in the home, where environmentally-friendly actions are disproportionately implemented by women. It remains common for women to be the ones to impart skills that provide local resilience, such as learning to cook, clean, shop and/or act in ways that are considerate of the environment. There are exceptions, but the pattern is clear. There are also strong links between patriarchal systems and waste. For example, processed, packaged foods, originally were (and are still?) designed and marketed for women to prepare meals for their household whilst also keeping all their other balls in the air (e.g. parenting, work etc.). And commonly, eco-friendly products are marketed to women. Also, patriarchal systems have normalised roles for women in households to take on increased educating and care of children at home, reducing capacity to do other work. It seems (unnecessarily) normalised for women to take on the mental load for environmental issues, too.

We hear about the importance of ‘collective action’ on climate. But collective action should not be limited to mostly women. That’s why for this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask men (and capable children) to share the load. Can your household members make a pact to take steps to reduce their ecological footprint? A great way to act is to work with one’s strengths and establish clear roles for each other. A big part is in being honest and open about your aims for climate action and seeking support to meet them. Collective action might mean supporting each other to allow others time to take certain environmental actions. Co-supported, collective action amongst household members can be a very powerful climate solution.

But what do I do if my partner still won’t get on board?

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Despite best efforts of waste warriors, it is still a cultural norm in Australia to send waste to landfill. On face value, this seems a good idea – hide all that waste in a hole in the ground a whack a lid of earth on top of it. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Besides, the greenhouse gas emissions relating to household waste are quite small when compared to other factors – the waste sector contributed only c. 2.4% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.

But, when it comes to household waste, the problems are more than the emissions they directly produce. Litter created intentionally or inadvertently, causes harm to wildlife and creates pollution. For city folk, household waste collection is dependent on diesel-fuelled trucks. But possibly the greater problem is that waste is a visible symptom of the over-consumption of stuff. Each piece of discarded rubbish relates to a product, whether it be some form of packaging, or a product no longer considered useful. And that consumption of stuff is what feeds the industries that generate the bulk of human-caused GG emissions. In general, the more waste discarded, the larger the ecological footprint likely to be associated with that waste. Australians produce more plastic waste per capita than any other country in the world. Our footprint is LARGE.

That’s why, for this week’s #52climatesolutions, we ask you to try to go bin-free. This involves pretending like your kitchen or bathroom rubbish bins don’t exist. The ease of this solution will depend partly on how much waste you already produce, and the motivation of you and your household to commit to trying to avoid landfill waste. Perhaps you’re already doing plastic-free July, or you’ve tried it before and want to tackle your waste output in a different way? This could be the right challenge to level up your waste reduction.

If you can eliminate food waste (e.g. by composting) then you are likely to be able to switch to a ‘dry-bin’ (when you may not need a plastic bag liner), then see if you can find ways to avoid the other most wasteful items you normally put in the bin. Commonly, these involve food packaging, so it might be worth trying to do your weeks’ shopping at a bulk food store or local market (if open). Try to say ‘no’ to wasteful things too!

Going bin-free will make your house smell nicer. It also makes you conscious of any waste you happen to produce because you’ll have to walk outside to put it in the kerbside bin! This can be a great motivator!

Our family’s move to no bins

Something we’ve not talked about much is that before we shifted to living waste-free,

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It’s World Environment Day and this years theme is #BeatPlasticPollution, which feels like the perfect time to share this climate solution. Plastic pollution is an issue broader-reaching than litter, but the vast majority of litter you’ll find polluting your local ecosystem is made from it. So what can you do about it?

Litter in our oceans can prevent oceans from absorbing and sequestering CO2. It can impact biodiversity in sensitive regions. The presence of litter suggests something has gone wrong in our society. It can imply poorly managed waste (including poor bin placement), poor product design, or the ignorance, negligence and lack of accountability of individuals or businesses. These reasons are important to identify so we can stop litter at the source. It is more effective to repair a leaking tap than it is to continue to try to catch (and manage) the drops that fall.

Don’t get us wrong, we encourage litter clean ups, but we also recognise that solutions go far beyond scouring beaches for trash. The presence of litter also means overall, we aren’t doing enough to reduce the over-consumption that contributes to climate change.

Many litter clean-up groups focus on plastics, which makes sense as ¾ of litter on Australian coasts is plastic. And removing litter from the environment has benefits; it makes places look less spoiled and removes hazards to wildlife. As you probably know, animals can be entangled and injured by litter. Some ingest plastic litter and die as a result. As wildlife rescuers, we have been confronted by how frequently birds are found with hooks in their beaks. Litter clean ups have been and will continue to be important for conservation and health reasons.

However, to prevent littering, we need to apply solutions at the source. Auditing litter helps identify culprit companies that produce or distribute littered products. These vary from place to place, but repeat offenders include the fishing industry, and multi-corporate beverage companies. For some products, the manufacturers might not be immediately obvious, e.g. plastic straws and bags, cigarettes or nurdles. The solutions for these include regulating or banning certain products, requiring manufacturers to take responsibility for the end-use of products (including better design), and supporting businesses that offer better, less litter-susceptible alternatives.

For this week’s #52climatesolutions, we want you to try a litter clean up with a difference. We want you to observe it and target the source. Go for a walk in your local area and pick up some litter. Take a photo before binning it properly. Next, see if you can do a little sleuthing and then write to the companies or industries that produced litter items that you find. If the responsible company is not obvious, ask your local council to act on reducing litter in your area. Consider your own consumption of packaging and plastics and ways you might reduce your reliance on single use, moving towards reuse. Plastic Free July is just around the corner and this is a great time to reframe your relationship with plastic and how you want to move forward. Plastic pollution can feel like a huge, insurmountable hurdle. But friends, there are plenty of ways you can have a positive impact on this very

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Read & Watch

Resources and links to get you thinking and talking about how you can help reduce littering and plastic pollution.

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The fashion industry contributes c. 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions each year. Most emissions come from raw materials, particularly fossil fuels extracted and used to make synthetic materials. ‘Fast fashion,’ where cheap clothing is produced quickly for mass-market retailers who respond to the latest fashion trends, perpetuates a feeling of need to endlessly consume in order to fit societal ‘norms’. With a constant stream of low-quality, new clothing, there can be a false impression that resources are infinite. This can steer people away from the urgency and potential severity of climate change.

The fashion industry is aware it must change but is changing slower than needed. Governments can improve standards and better regulate imports and materials used in clothing, but their priorities are elsewhere. Governments should support local and sustainable types of fibre and material production but rarely do. Big business needs to improve too, with their choice of clothing suppliers and manufacturers, the frequency of release of clothing ranges, the type of materials used, and workers conditions – but their business models put profits for corporate execs over all else. Media should modify their messaging around fast fashion or else will perpetuate a culture of disposable consumerism - this is difficult to change. So, we as individuals are going to have to change the way we consume (and produce) clothing.

Most of us have the free will to make choices around clothing. For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to bring it back to basics, to knit and make your own clothing! Let’s harken back to knitting jumpers that last generations, as opposed to lasting only months for the latest ‘in-season’ sweater. Making one’s own clothes can take many hours, but a well-constructed piece of clothing can last years and pay itself off many times over. If you can’t knit (or sew), there are online tutorials and probably local makers who could help you. You could even unstitch a ratty old jumper and create a new garment from it. Be your own fashion icon. So, kick back on the couch and knit while watching a movie and change the world, one stitch at a time.

Some projects to get you started…

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Advertisers aim to convince us we need things sparklingly clean to an industrial level. Hygiene is important (especially in pandemic times), but do we need hospital-grade hygiene in our homes? Ads have normalised single-use wet-wipes, synthetic cloths, aerosol sprays, industrial grade disinfectants and ‘chemically-proven’ powders, liquids, and gels. But products that appear ‘good for you’, which are designed to clean dirt and harmful bacteria, may kill the good bacteria too, and cause more harm than good.

Greenhouse gas emitting petrochemicals are commonly used in household cleaners. Many contain palm oil, grown where tropical rainforests are cleared and burnt, releasing huge amounts of CO2 into the air. Some household and industrial cleaning products contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can trigger asthma, cause headaches and allergic reactions. Some products contain benzene and formaldehyde, and endocrine disruptors which pollute waterways, our soil and our bodies.

The perceived convenience of buying packaged cleaning products can mask their harmful impacts. Do you know what ingredients they contain? How many carbon miles are in shipping them? What happens to the packaging after it's used up? Disposable cleaning supplies like sponges, wipes, plastic dish-brushes and mop pads usually end up in landfill, but there are alternatives.

For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we want you to clean green. Most household surfaces can be cleaned with simple products containing ingredients like soap, vinegar, bicarb soda and water. These simple and affordable ingredients can replace a whole aisle worth of supermarket products, but retail companies won’t tell you that. Inform yourself about the impacts of the chemicals and packaging in products you usually use.

Also, consider how frequently you clean yourself and your home. Washing your hands regularly (and well) is a good idea, but it may be ok to skip a shower to save water and soap. Your home may be clean enough with frequent superficial cleaning, rather than weekly deep cleaning. Check for dirt and smells before washing clothes. Ditch your dryer and harness the sun! Clean green, but only when you need to.

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Our favourite cleaning products and recipes

We keep our cleaning products to a minimum. Straight vinegar is great for cleaning windows. For stubborn surface dirt and grime, or to polish up stainless steel, bicarb does a great job. For the floors, we use hot, soapy water with vinegar and/or methylated spirits and eucalyptus oil, and a mop we make with an old t-shirt wrapped around the broom head. You’ll usually find us wielding our simple multipurpose surface spray for dusting, cleaning benches or the bathroom. We use our bee balm moisturiser for furniture polish! We save time and money in making our own. We’ve helped reduce the incidence of eczema in our family. We’re keeping chemicals to a minimum, and we’re reducing packaging waste. It’s wins all-round!

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The globalisation of society certainly has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, we have improved global communication, connections and cultural understanding, access to a wider variety of goods and services and, in theory, we can support each other better. But a down side of globalisation, besides making the rich richer and the poor poorer, is extreme waste, especially in transport and over-consumption. Whilst it has become much more affordable to move people and goods around the planet, the cost of these activities have been externalised, causing harm to biodiversity and disrupting the climate.

A while back, we put forward a climate solution of ‘knowing your neighbours’ highlighting the importance of local social cohesion for acting on climate. For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we complement knowing your neighbours with this solution; to use local resources. Take a walk around your neighbourhood. Focus your attention to resources and services within walking distance, that you could utilise to meet your needs. How much of your food could you gather within walking distance? What about public reserves where you can gather kindling for your wood fire? Do edible foods grow in the cracks in the footpaths and marginal areas? By utilising what is already available near you, you can contribute to reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Most Australians (>70%) live in major cities containing suburbs that were not designed with climate change in mind. Urban planners rarely (if ever) design ways for residents to meet food, water, and energy needs from within their suburb. It is often up to leaders (yes, that can be you!) in local communities to add services that make it easier for people to act local, such as street libraries, community gardens, community batteries, seed libraries, tool libraries, food co-ops, local pantries and composting services. These sorts of initiatives make communities more resilient and cohesive.

Consider what you have near you, what you can use that you don’t already, or what you might help to start up. We may have to retro-fit our way out of climate catastrophe, and live more locally, if we want to avoid the harmful aspects of globalisation.

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Make a local resource map

Here’s a fun household project to get started on. You can add to it through the year, perhaps giving it more consideration in the winter months when you’re likely to be outdoors less.

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Holiday at home

People go on holidays to learn, explore, connect, play and relax. The pros and cons for society can vary. Sometimes tourism can support local communities, but this might be at the expense of a local people’s identity, customs and traditions. Tourism contributes approximately 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, presenting a serious problem. Pre-pandemic, cheap domestic and global aviation enabled millions of people to travel almost anywhere in the world (see solution ‘fly less’). But harmful impacts occur from cruise ships, and other transport, as well as from the consumptive behaviour of many tourists, such as from excessive use of fossil-fuel derived single-use plastic!

We are heading into the Easter period soon, when many people might go away on holiday. Of course, it’s a privilege to be able to go on holidays at all, and we understand that many people don’t ever get to travel. But for those who do, this might be time for some self-reflection. What kind of impact does your travel have? Can you choose lower impact forms of transport? Choose to stay at places that operate with an environmental ethos? Look for near-by places to shop package-free, or compost your scraps? Or maybe re-think traveling far away, altogether?

For this week’s #52climatesolutions, we suggest you try to have a holiday at home. Home-holidays can be a budget-saving measure as well as a climate-solution. You can bet that your ecological footprint will be much lower. Home-holidays might sound like a peculiar concept (especially post-pandemic where many of us spent much more time at home than usual), and that’s okay. Climate action will require us to think and act in ways that we never thought possible. Try to create fewer reasons to want to escape your day-to-day life. This might involve a bigger shift in thinking about what you need and what brings you contentment.

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Some great ways to enjoy your holiday at home

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Road transport accounts for roughly 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To keep the rise in global heating below a 1.5^oC increase, we have to radically shift behaviour around driving - starting now! Without drastic changes, transport emissions will increase at a faster rate than emissions from the other energy end-use sectors (reaching c. 12 Gt CO2eq/yr by 2050, based on IPCC reporting). Our down-shifts will also need to account for the increased transport demand per capita in developing countries, where rising incomes and development of infrastructure are making driving accessible to more people than ever.

Common solutions offered to reducing road transport emissions include driving more fuel-efficient vehicles, using “cleaner” fuels (or waste-fuels), converting petrol cars to electric vehicles, or driving electric vehicles (because an EV powered by renewable sources should produce zero emissions to drive). But all of these maintain a certain status quo around travelling and each perpetuates the demand for large amounts of earth’s resources. EVs require mining of rare earth minerals such as lithium and cobalt – and lithium mining, for example, is degrading ecosystems in Chile.

Another solution is to simply drive less. With fewer vehicles, there is less wear and tear on fossil-fuel-constructed roads, less congestion, fewer emissions, and fewer resources wasted. Even a small reduction can have dramatic results on a larger scale. This will be made easier with better designed cities.

For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to drive less. Can you limit your vehicular driving to essential trips only? Stack your errands so that you get more essential tasks done in a single trip, rather than making a separate trip for each errand. It can be easier to drive less by supporting more local businesses and services, and shopping online (although benefits will vary according to what you buy and where it comes from!). When you need to get from A to B, can you utilise a lower-carbon transport system, such as public transport, walking or cycling? Skateboarding or scootering? Carpooling or car-share? The solution that best fits will depend on where you live, but thankfully there are many alternatives!

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Every living thing on earth needs water to survive. But fresh water is a limited resource. Only 0.5% of water on earth is available for drinking. We need water for our homes, agriculture, energy production, and manufacturing. But many industrial and domestic activities pollute water, and it’s more expensive to recover polluted water than to conserve fresh water in the first place. Desalination applies reverse osmosis or other (energy-hungry) methods to convert sea water to drinkable water, which has been a saving grace for some places (e.g. Kuwait). But desalinisation is very expensive and can damage marine ecosystems. It’s much more cost-effective to conserve fresh water, if you can.

Climate change presents another threat to our access to fresh water. In some places, warmer air means it will rain where it once snowed (the resulting faster runoff will be harder to capture for storage). In the sub-tropics, climate change leads to reduced rainfall in already-dry regions. We’ll continue to see heavier rain in some areas and less in others. In recent years, we’ve already seen the influence of drought with bushfires and devastating flooding. Times of flood can mean water pollution and fresh water scarcity. It’s projected that half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed regions by 2050.

There are politics to this too. In Australia, state governments permit the extraction and purchase of our fresh water resources. When we lose control over water resources, we become less resilient. Let’s not be held to the vested interests of a few powerful people, and to the water prices they wish to set for us. Water should be freely available to all, and equitably shared. 

This week’s #52climatesolutions asks you to try some easy shifts to save water. Try washing clothes only when dirty, shower less often, place a bucket in your shower to catch water while it warms up, then use the captured water on the garden or to flush your loo. Siphon bathwater onto the garden. Link a grey water hose to your washing machine outlet, consider a tank to collect water from your roof, or a composting loo! Treat water as a precious resource. Write to MPs and tell them you’d like them to do the same! And support Water Aid who are working to provide access to clean water for all. 

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More ideas and links for saving water

• If you have a garden space, observe how water flows through the landscape.

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The global food industry has many problems, which we have talked about in the climate solutions ‘preserve food’, ‘support regenerative farming’, ‘forage’, ‘ferment’ and ‘make your own drinks’. One of the less-touched-upon problems relates to the transport of food over long distances (food miles), with convoluted journeys between its origin, factories, distribution centres, retail outlets and your home. Foods generally include the place of origin on their labelling, so you know when your maple syrup is from Canada, or your canned tomatoes are from Italy, or your chocolate is from Germany or Peru. These far-travelling foods may have a high ecological footprint, having travelled around the world to reach you, on diesel-fuelled ships, trucks or planes. Whilst transport makes up only around 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the food industry (most occurs on-farm), this still could amount to as much as 2.5% of global emissions.

Local food helps avoid transport, but there are other benefits too. Local food can instil a stronger connection to the area that you live in. Local, fresh food is likely to be less reliant on long-term (GG-emitting, energy intensive) and refrigeration. Local food can also improve local resilience, reducing dependency on faraway places to meet local needs.

For this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask that you eat local food. How you define ‘local’ is up to you, but as a guide, see how much of your food comes from within, 100 km from your home. Perhaps you would be willing to try a locavore challenge this Christmas? What would your Christmas dinner table look like if laden only with local food? Maybe fewer tropical fruits than usual? Less maple syrup, and more local honey? Local seafood rather than imported frozen stuff? Celebrating does not have to be wasteful or environmentally harmful. Visit your local market, independent grocer, or other local food producers, or grow your own. Avoid local food produced in fossil-fuel-demanding ways – you may need to chat with your growers to learn more about the energy demands of the food you buy. But being informed enables better choices for the planet.

If your Christmas lunch is already decided, perhaps consider giving a locavore diet a go in the new year? Aim for as much local as you can, or go local-only for a week, a month or a whole year! Decide on how local you want your food to be. Find out where to access your food fresh and preserve some for the winter months - summer is a great time to do this!

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Dive a little deeper…

A couple of books that were particularly inspiring to us before shifting to living waste-free just happen to focus on local food challenges. If you can get your hands on these, we highly recommend them!

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Humans are generally awesome at celebrating. We celebrate people, events, anniversaries and triumphs, and in many different ways. Celebrating is often viewed as a time to let go and indulge. But even seemingly trivial celebratory practices can contribute to the growing problems of pollution and environmental harm. Waste quantities and the use of fossil fuels in the production, transportation and consumption of goods, consistently increases around Christmas time. But there is no need for our celebrations to exacerbate climate change, given these are activities completely of our choosing.

At this time of year, a lot of people are preparing for Christmas by buying gifts for loved ones. So, for this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to give consciously. Rather than buying into the latest fad or buying expensive new, wasteful gifts that your loved ones could live without, consider alternatives. Make a gift, upcycle something broken into something useful and beautiful, or buy secondhand. Think about the needs and principles of the person receiving your gift, and aim to support their way of living. Perhaps they asked you not to buy plastic toys, or asked for no plastic or paper wrap so try to do that – wrap gifts in fabric or recycled paper, instead. Consider re-gifting - giving away something that you don’t need, but that others may find useful. Source handmade (whether made by you or someone else) and locally made. Consider making them something delicious or luxurious to eat or pamper themselves with. 

One of our favourite approaches is to adopt the four-gift rule as a guide – giving something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. You might like to give experiences over things - time spent together doing something special, or a workshop in something they’d like to learn.

We don’t need to overload people's lives with unnecessary stuff, otherwise, is that a gift or a burden? Think about the longevity of your gifts. What purpose do they serve, for how long, and what will happen at the end of your gift’s life – will it go to landfill, or be composted, providing a ‘final’ gift of nutrients to the soil?

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On a personal note…

Last year we gave all secondhand gifts, which we wrote about a couple of weeks ago. This year our focus is on experiences, secondhand and smaller gifts we’ve shopped for locally. We’ll all get a fave record too!

Something we also changed up with extended family last year was, instead of sending each other small individual gifts, we used the money we’d have spent on each other on a large household gifts we chose for ourselves. The deal was everyone had to take photos of themselves enjoying the bigger gifts through the year and share them with the family. It means things like camping trips, concert tickets and even visiting each other interstate could finally happen - side bonus was not needing to run around buying things and getting to the post office on time. We’re not sure if we’ll do it every year, but it’s sure helped our extended family through some super challenging/busy/expensive years where the mental load needed to be reduced. And we could choose ethical family gifts that were just right.

Have you switched up any traditions to keep things simpler? Have you ditched the Christmas thing altogether? Or do you love things as they are? Let us know! We want to hear about it!

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Now for the shameless plug…

We still have lots of signed copies of our book ‘A Family Guide To Waste-Free Living’, 52 Climate Solutions art prints and tea towels available, as well as a giant lot of Living Landscapes card games. We’re shipping everything with a free express post upgrade before Sunday night, so it’ll arrive before Christmas. A perfect gift for gently encouraging some positive actions and conversations in the new year! And if you’re after something completely different, maybe a secondhand record or voucher from our other project/shop, Suffragette Records!

Or… if you’ve loved following this newsletter/Substack this year (thank you!), you might consider giving someone a gift subscription.

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Paid members, we’ve made this post available to the public because it’s short and sweet (having one of those weeks!), but there’ll be more just for you in coming weeks. We really want to talk about how waste-free living saves us time, and share some spesh family recipes - among so many other ideas we have for this space. Let us know if there’s something you’d like us to write about, too!

We hope you’ve had a lovely week and your weekend continues on swimmingly.

Much love,
Lauren & Oberon.

Modern society has normalised the constant getting of new stuff. Clothing, household goods, books etc. continue to be manufactured and sold to ‘consumers’ like there are no other options. Our desire for new belongings is influenced by media and advertising to drive profits to business owners. Businesses justify production on notions of ‘need’, such as to meet societal expectations, appear fashionable or desirable, or to 'improve your life'. Governments encourage us to buy new to boost the economy. But all that shiny comes at a human cost to low-paid workers, and an environmental cost, from extraction and use of resources (esp. fossil fuels to the tune of 12% of global GG emissions), leading to huge amounts of waste, pollution and litter. 

Many of us have power to choose what we want to buy. We don’t have to accept mass marketed stuff or seek the latest shiny thing. We can just say “no” to many things. Or, adopt this weeks’ #52climatesolutions; choose secondhand.

This month is #SecondHandSeptember, aiming to avoid throwaway fashion. How long can you go without buying new? The useful life of stuff can be extended in many ways. Hand-me-downs can be great for prolonging the life of clothes. Donate, or swap with friends who will find a use in a belonging, where you might not. Borrow what you need through sharing economies (e.g. toy/tool/book libraries). Next, consider secondhand shops, online classifieds and garage sales.  

Buying secondhand can be a fine art. To find the right items to meet your needs might involve a bit of rummaging or willingness to be patient until the right thing turns up. You may get lucky and find something of higher quality than the modern equivalent! Keep in mind that some people rely on secondhand stores for basic needs, due to limited finances, and that aspect needs to be supported in an ongoing way. Remember, secondhand stores receive more donations than they can sell, so check with your local to see if they can find use in what you want to donate, so as to avoid landfill. 

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure! Let belongings cycle through until they have truly met their end, and help reduce reliance on virgin resources.

A secondhand Christmas

Last year, we sent ourselves the challenge of buying only secondhand gifts for each other.

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In recent years, there has been a lot of talk in politics and the media about billionaires. Having extreme wealth affords powers, privileges and influence that may be detrimental to many (e.g. buying politicians or spending millions on the spread of climate denial information). But actions of billionaires can also do good (e.g. via philanthropy). In any case, wealth disparity is increasing. The world’s 26 richest people own as much as the poorest 50%, and this can cause all sorts of perverse outcomes for society. Companies run by the mega-rich, by and large, have long-supply chains and to varying extents, exploit nature and people.

Climate change itself contributes to economic inequality. Poorer, hotter countries are less well-off than if global warming had not occurred. So, tackling climate change will rely on addressing financial and human inequalities. We must be careful that our actions on climate change do not worsen wealth inequality. An increased wealth gap limits positive action on climate change because fewer people (esp. in poorer, hotter, harder-hit countries) have the means to take climate action or make decisions to reduce their ecological footprint.

One of the ways to tackle wealth inequality is by removing support for businesses that increase financial inequality. That’s why, for this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we ask you to shop small. Think about the brands and businesses you support. Consider whether your dollars help or hinder financial equality, and therefore help or hinder positive action on climate. By supporting small, independent shops, you are more likely to avoid feeding billionaire-owned companies such as Amazon, Nestle, H&M, Costco, Nike and the like. You can both boycott the harmful mega-rich and support local businesses at the same time!

Many small shops (including those who support low-waste living) have been doing it tough through the past few years and would benefit from our support. Online retail for food and all products has almost doubled since 2019, as people have reduced small and local spending habits through the pandemic. Shopping from local, small business supports community resilience and allows people to abstain from the dominant economic systems that increase financial disparities. It also means you can have face-to-face conversations with the people supplying your food and other products, which makes it easier to know exactly what systems you’re supporting. It means you have more say in the systems you want and get to normalise them. So, let the local charm of small businesses shine!

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On a personal note, we can say that it’s been seven years since we last did all our shopping at a large supermarket and we avoid the large chainstores wherever possible. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, our food bill has stayed roughly the same as before, despite shopping at small, local suppliers. It’s still well below what the average family of five spends on food. We’ve shifted what we buy slightly, but our diet hasn’t changed too much, and we don’t spend hours preparing food from scratch each day. Our biggest shift in going waste-free was shopping small and local. And we’re just as surprised and were just as skeptical as everyone else, before we tried it. We wandered into a supermarket recently, for the first time in a couple of years, and realised that it’s very hard to see options beyond that paradigm when you’re in the habit of supporting it each week. But it’s well worth taking the leap and normalise shopping small. We’re so glad we did.

Storytime...

Imagine a town with a small row of shops at its heart, down the main street. There's a green grocer, a butcher, a baker, a grocer to buy dry goods, a hardware shop... you get the picture.

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In natural ecosystems, nutrients are recycled, and little energy is wasted. But modern-day recycling schemes are different. Resources are extracted and used (often inefficiently) by humans, then distributed (often long distances) to sorting plants, and then (possibly) recycled to base component materials. Each step in the process contributes greenhouse gas emissions, though you generally don’t hear about those impacts. Recycled materials are sold (or stockpiled) and used to make other items for consumption. Large amounts of energy are used through recycling processes, albeit less than when making the same items from virgin resources. Recycling diverts physical waste from landfill, but much of the time the recycled items could have been avoided altogether.

Recycling is big business and like most other industries, it is primarily about creating jobs and profits. The industry needs to be constantly fed waste products, to exist. Despite kerbside recycling being around in Australia for over 40 years, most plastics are not recycled, and systemic problems remain for the recycling of other materials. China’s effective ‘ban’ on receiving waste for recycling, and Australia’s lack of manufacturing infrastructure, means supply doesn’t equal demand for recyclable materials. And recycling remains a confusing and mysterious process to many. A couple of years ago, Victoria claimed to have a ‘recycling crisis’, although a broader view of the issues suggests more of a consumption crisis than a recycling one.

Recycling supports the plastics, mining, logging and oil industries. It requires virgin inputs and supports the notion of single-use, as products are down-cycled into less valuable materials. This means that each time a product is ‘recycled’, it’s actually down-cycled into an item of less quality, value or usefulness. A recycling-based economy is not a circular economy and it can be unsustainable in the long term.

Governments fund the recycling industry and make policy targets around the percentage of recyclable material in circulation. But these initiatives avoid the larger issue of the ongoing and increasing levels of consumption of stuff. Meanwhile, we pay local councils to collect our ‘resources’ so they can recycle and profit off the items that we paid for.

This week is National Recycling Week in Australia. It’s a great time to make sure you’re recycling as effectively as possible, but it’s perhaps even more important to reflect on your reliance on the recycling industry and whether it’s really sustainable and effective. So, for this weeks’ #52climatesolutions, we challenge you to go recycling-free. This does not mean sending recyclables to landfill! Rather, consider items that you regularly put in your recycling bin that you could reduce or go without. We want you to look at the waste hierarchy and think about the levels above recycling, first - Reframe, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse… Recycling should be the last resort.

Examine the systems you’re part of. Look for alternatives such as refillable container schemes and BYO. Consider which canned and bottled goods you could make or grow yourself (e.g. baked beans, tomatoes, drinks). Reduce and reuse or compost scrap paper and cardboard. Refill and reuse your bottles and jars. Close the loop, like nature does, and halt climate change.

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The Year We Broke Up With Our Recycling Bin

In 2015, we embarked on a two-week zero-waste challenge. As part of that, we decided to stop using our kerbside recycling bin. We’d previously felt we were excellent recyclers so had the waste thing handled, but learning about down-cycling made us want to shift our recycling habit and our reliance on that industry. The week before going waste and recycling-free, we counted 100 pieces of recycling in our kerbside bin. After the following two weeks, we counted zero. Soft plastics recycling wasn’t even a thing back then, so we cut soft plastics out entirely, too. The solution was breaking up with the supermarket, eating more fresh food, and simplifying how we do things. We focused on what we could do rather than what we couldn’t.

Seven years have passed now, and we’re still living kerbside recycling-free. Life is simpler, more affordable, gentler on the planet, and a lot more fun this way. But then there’s a whole book we wrote, that explains more of the ins-and-outs of that.

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Here are some films to get you thinking, talking and feeling motivated:

Here’s this week’s printable colouring page!

If you’re in Hobart on Thursday evening, Oberon’s hosting a virtual Q&A with Joost Bakker and Matt Stone after the screening of Joost’s new film, ‘GREENHOUSE by Joost’, at the State Cinema. It should be an interesting chat! We’d love to see you there! Book tickets here.

Have a fabulous week!

Much love,
Lauren & Oberon.

Australia’s food supply system is fragile. As we have seen in recent years, the survival of Australia’s population is highly dependent upon continued supply of food from major supermarket chains. But during disaster, such as fire, flood or pandemic, the links to food supply can get broken (or demand might exceed supply). Despite Australia producing enough food to feed three times its population (a lot gets exported), people have struggled, at times, to source basic food supplies at their regular supermarkets. The cost of transportation and refrigeration has increased costs of food and the emissions created by this method of non-localised food provision are excessive.

When essential services such as food supply are jeopardised, the focus of a population tends to shift away from environmental causes. This presents a real risk to our ability to take appropriate action on climate change. We need food systems that support our basic needs and allow us to have additional physical and mental capacity to tackle other issues. But as climate change or other calamities become more frequent, we may be simply fighting to stay alive. So, we need systems that are foolproof.  

A resilient society is one that has redundancy built into it. When one part of the system fails, there should be other processes and systems ready to fill that gap and keep society functioning well. Some under-utilised ways to potentially provide food include farmer’s markets, small independent shops, farm gate sales, growing your own food, bartering, crop swaps, and the topic of this week’s #52climatesolutions – foraging! Many of these remain fringe activities but should be normalised.

Foraging can placate the scarcity mindset that leads to panic shopping. Foraging can support a decentralised food supply system that is more likely to cope through broad scale calamities. Foraging provides a fun kind of safety net that can improve one’s sense of place. It can also supplement and support your diet when money is scarce.

There is often more publicly available food around than people realise. Many towns and suburbs have areas considered ‘marginal’, such as along creeks, roadsides and council reserves. Here, one might find edible weeds, fruit trees, rose hips, berries, flowers, herbs, seaweed, mushrooms – even edible roadkill. What food could you forage near you? Consider foraging as part of daily exercise and strengthen your food resilience.

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Tips for good foraging:

• Go with someone who knows their stuff - this can really help you get your eye in for what’s good and safe, quickly.

• Carry a guide book with you when you’re on your own. If you’re unsure, bring it home, and spend more time looking and learning before consuming.

• Check that the site you’re foraging from hasn’t been sprayed. Most councils will sign or mark areas they spray, and spray them out of fruiting and foraging season, but it’s well worth checking.

• Best to leave greens growing in heavy traffic areas - exhaust fumes aren’t so great. Look for marginal zones with low traffic for healthier eating. Likewise for seaweed - choose unpolluted open water for good foraging.

• Take a spare bag with you wherever you go. And snips if you think you might need them! Food can be found when you least expect it!

• Only take what you need. Make sure to leave food for other foragers, pollinators, and for fruit and seed to set.

Here are some of our fave recipes for using foraged foods, some resources for good foraging, and this week’s colouring page:

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In Australia, 11% of greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture. Globally, the figure is closer to 14%, with 65% of this coming from cattle. The cause of emissions depends on the type of farming, e.g. for cattle it mostly comes from cow burps and land use change (e.g. clearing forests). Another massive problem with industrialised agriculture is the harm caused to topsoil. When you mess with soil by adding synthetic fertiliser and pesticides, it harms the soil biome, and this disrupts soil structure and can cause erosion.

Fortunately, there are lots of solutions to these problems, including better feed management, applying interventions that improve animal health (allowing for smaller, more productive herds), and for us, modifying our diet to eat more of the foods that cause less harm. Another solution relates to turning soil on farms into much more of a carbon sink, using regenerative farming.  

Regenerative farming applies techniques that restore the functioning of landscapes, increase nutrient and water cycling, and sequester carbon in the soil. These techniques involve things such as keeping 100% ground cover (with decomposing litter), integrating animals in a way that builds soil rather than eroding it, and using diverse crop rotations. And pumping more organic matter back into the soil (which means more water-holding, which means resilience through tough times). Think of it as a farming system that self-nourishes. It prioritises soil health, whilst raising stands for animal welfare and worker fairness. And when it is applied, it is usually to areas that have been degraded by past land use (hence, it is “regenerative”).

Regeneration International claims that transitioning 10% to 20% of agricultural production to best practice regenerative systems will sequester enough carbon dioxide to reverse climate change. There are clearly massive benefits to be had from providing stronger support to farms that apply regenerative methods.

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For this week’s #52climatesolutions, we encourage you to learn more about where your food comes from. Are you able to find producers who apply regenerative practices? Can you switch to supporting them and buying their products instead?
Read on for some great books to read and films to watch and get inspired, and regenerative-farming-inspired practices for your own food garden.

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