Posts tagged ‘land use’
Spotlight on Zoos: Good or Bad?
Last week, I was looking at some photos my mother-in-law took when she was in Australia several months ago. One of the things she really wanted to do was hold a koala, so we went to Lone Pine Sanctuary (it’s local!) and she and Mr Teeny-bop held koalas and had their photos taken. Lots of other photos were also taken, such as the following one.
Mr Teeny-bop feeding a kangaroo at Lone Pine Sanctuary
There were heaps of other animals there too – birds of prey, kangaroos, wombats, cassowaries, dingoes, tasmanian devils, parrots, cockatoos, galahs, lorikeets, bats, wallabies and farm animals (not sure what the farm animals were about, but anyway…), and Yankee Elv’s mom even took photos of the ugly wild scrub turkeys scratching around outside.
Yankee Elv feeding a kangaroo at Lone Pine Sanctuary
It was nice to go to a place where it’s not overly tourist-y (like Australia Zoo is these days), but still get to interact with all the animals. It did get me wondering though – are zoos, sanctuaries and other places like that good for the environment? I’m not going to argue about whether or not they’re good for the animals – some will say keeping animals in captivity are never good, others will say places like this provide a service to all the animals hurt on roads or displaced by deforestation. Regardless, I’m not going to debate that. What I’m interested in today is: are these places good for the environment?
With a motto like, ‘The Earth is not only for humans’, you’d think Lone Pine would be into all that eco-stuff. The Lone Pine Sanctuary website does encourage people to do environmentally friendly things like drive safely and be aware of wildlife crossing the roads, plant eucalypts as food trees for koalas and avoiding disturbing vegetation generally (but especially in National Parks). Although all of these are aimed at wildlife conservation, they are also good for the environment generally. There is no statement on the Lone Pine Sanctuary website, however, that indicates they are working towards reducing their environmental impact.
People and animals can live together!
Ultimately, it seems like zoos are under the same environmental pressures as any other big business, such as:
- Water use
- Energy consumption
- Waste disposal and recycling.
Taronga Zoo has a comprehensive page on their site that explains it all quite clearly.
As well as Taronga Zoo, some other places, like Australia Zoo and the Philadelphia Zoo, are making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and potentially become carbon neutral. Chester Zoo was the first UK zoo to be awarded ISO14001s status. Other zoos are following in their footsteps. Some new campaigns that service both the environment and animals are cropping up too. Answer the Call, for example, is a mobile phone recycling program that helps save gorilla habitat.
Granted, my research has been pretty minimal, but what I’ve read seems to indicate that zoos are no worse than many big businesses, and the larger zoos are taking measures to counteract their environmental impact. Considering most zoos get visitors thinking about conservation, I think the good these zoos do likely outweighs any negative impact.
Your thoughts?
Update Again
I haven’t posted since the big dust storm, which seems ages ago now. We’ve had a couple more since then, but nothing like that first big one.
I’m sorry I’ve neglected the blog, but it’s just been a bit crazy crazy. Here’s an update on the latest goings-on.
Diva Princess broke two of her toes and has been stuck inside for a month with a bandage on her foot that she insists on trying to rip off. She looks so pathetic with the cone around her head that I try not to make her wear it unless she’s getting really crazy with the bandage pulling. She’s also had an ECG to check on a mild heart murmur we just found out she has.
Diva Princess is highly disgruntled that she is stuck inside with a bandage on her foot.
There are new white Tim Tams. Yankee Elv is obsessed. There have been a lot of Tim Tams in our house. Yankee Elv’s mom is obsessed too, except she lives in America, so it’s hard for her to have lots of Tim Tams in her house. Fortunately for her, they’re staring to sell them in the US soon. There’s lots of excitement about that, on both sides of the Pacific. I feel bad that the Tim Tams come in a plastic tray, in a plastic packet. They need to make eco Tim Tams that come in cardboard and paper. Plastic or not, I still eat them. Bad hippy. Bad.
Dog/cat/turtle-sitting is over. A great time was had by all. We introduced the dogs to a new dog park, which is full of very friendly people and is split into a section for big dogs and another section for little dogs. Loodle was not very sociable with the dogs but wanted everyone to pat him. Everyone loved him. Pseudo-Marley was simultaneously scared of the big dogs and desperate to play tag with them. Everyone loved him too. I like how they supply all the dogs with biodegradable poo pick-up bags.
I got a long-awaited promotion, Mr Teeny-bop has become a Drama-king (lots of school plays) and Yankee Elv has gone back to school.
I walked to the supermarket last weekend (for exercise and to reduce car trips – I took my green shopping bags too). Loodle can’t walk that far with us anymore, but Mr Teeny-bop came on his scooter. It was nice to walk along with him. We’re keeping our eye on a mango tree in a park along the way. In a couple of months we may be able to score some free mangoes. Yum!
Mangoes!
Loodle is getting into shaving season. He’s a North American dog all the way and doesn’t handle the heat, so we have to shear him like a sheep (although he ends up looking like a pink piggy when we’re finished). Shaving will occur this weekend. The first shave of the season is always very laborious, but not as bad as the weekly bath. The arthritis in Loodle’s hips is getting so bad he needs to sit down for his bath now. 
Yankee Elv and I celebrated (quietly to ourselves) a year of using menstrual cups and cloth pantyliners instead of disposable ‘sanitary products’. Going for reusuable menstrual items is one of the best decisions I ever made and I don’t just not regret it, I celebrate it – every month, every time I walk past tampons in the shop, every time I see an ad about pads and every time some poor girl tiptoes up to me at work and whispers “I don’t suppose you have an extra tampon in your bag, do you?” (I actually do keep a few tampons in case of emergencies so they are always lucky.)
Diva has figured out how to open the screen door and Loodle has figured out how to open the gates. I love having smart pets but this kind of extreme Houdini-style behaviour is a bit much. We’ve had to institute some counter-measures. Now our gates rival Fort Knox and the screen doors are always locked. That doesn’t stop Diva climbing them, and with summer coming we can’t close the wooden door all the time. Any suggestions?
Yankee Elv went blonde (partially). Anyone know what the ecological impact of bleach is?
I keep forgetting to water the herbs and veges regularly, so while they are not dead, they are not flourishing as they should be. The Spanish onions down the side of the house are growing best – they are out in the sunshine (but not too much sunshine) and the rain. I have had a tarp down beside the driveway for a couple of months to kill off the grass and hope to create a proper vege garden over the next couple of weekends. I think between exposure to the rain and my haphazard watering, they should fare better.
I got my empty witch hazel bottle refilled at the local organic shop. The cost was nearly three times what I pay for a whole brand new bottle in the supermarket. I don’t think I can justify spending that money to save buying a recyclable plastic bottle, which makes me really sad.
Yankee Elv has been helping me avoid buying lunch at work by cooking up big batches of food and freezing it. It’s like I have a restaurant inside my freezer that I get to go to every morning. I love that I’m saving money, eating super tasty food and not getting a bunch of disposable containers and cutlery each day.
Many, many grapefruit.
We got rid of about 80% of our grapefruits from the fallen branch via Freecycle, which I love! There is no way those hundreds of grapefruits were going anywhere otherwise. There are still hundreds more on the tree – the possums and bats are stocked for the summer. The passionfruits and pawpaws will be out before we know it too (if the morning glory doesn’t choke them), and then they’ll have dietary choice. I hope this choice encourages them not to eat anything out of my vege garden-to-be though. My colleague tells some lovely stories about possums eating her herbs and capsicums and her mad spraying with garlic and chili water (first the plants in an attempt to stave off the eating, and then the possums in retribution).
Cheeky possums eat everything, including bread, grapefruits, passionfruit, pawpaws and people's herb and vegetable gardens. They especially like the flavour of chili and garlic.
We’re planning another local holiday – south this time, just after Christmas. It should be good! No tents for a change. I need a break from holey air mattresses and tarps. I really hate putting up tarps.
So that’s what’s been going. Life has been interfering with my eco-life, which kinda sucks. Why are there so many things I wanna do, that I can’t do, cos I don’t have time, energy or money? (Mostly the first two.) Has anyone managed to find a balance? I could really use some advice.
Spotlight: Crop Diversity and Buckwheat
I’m trying to eat less wheat. Primarily this is for my health, but I’m learning that this is also good for the environment. Currently, wheat is one of the top three plant foods eaten in the world. You can imagine how much is produced. This is leading to decreased crop diversity. As the climate changes, we need this crop diversity so our farming practices can change too. You can read more about all that here.
So the other day Yankee Elv made pancakes (yes again, we like pancakes). She made some buckwheat pancakes for me. (Note: buckwheat comes from an entirely different plant than wheat.) You can just go buy them from the supermarket these days – the pancake mix is marketed towards people with gluten intolerance, but of course anyone can eat it.
Woolworth's buckwheat pancake mix.
I didn’t really like them. They tasted like I was eating a musty plant with the texture of a thick, dense, crumbly pancake. Some people say they taste kind of like mushrooms. I’m also not the biggest fan of mushrooms, which makes life hard as a vegetarian when you’re at a catered event, because apparently that’s all we eat. Right.
Anyway, not my favourite. Loodle likes them though. I ate a plateful, but there were still lots left as no-one else really liked them either, so the dog has been having a pancake-y snack every couple of days. I don’t want to just throw them out, because that’s a bit too wasteful for my sensibilities. Today I ate the last two just to get them out of the fridge (ok, the last two of three… the dog got the last one, technically). They’re ok if you smother – and I really mean smother – them in jam and add some honey and cinnamon yoghurt. I try not to eat too much dairy yoghurt either (in fact, I went years without eating it at all, but these days I occasionally have a tiny spoonful of Yankee Elv’s just for the taste, as long as it doesn’t have gelatine), but these things needed all the help they could get. I mean, it’s good that they’re there for people who shouldn’t eat wheat, and if I’m really craving a lot of pancakes, maybe I’d eat them again to avoid the wheat. However, I think I add so much sugar-y jam that it actually makes the avoidance of high glycemic index carbs redundant, so maybe not.
Of course, now I’ve done some more research on buckwheat and found that the grain isn’t even commonly grown in Australia (heck, none of the 20 top foods eaten worldwide are Australian natives). How are you supposed to eat local in a country like this!? I wonder if the buckwheat used in the pancake mix is Australian grown? I don’t think I’ll bother to email to find out… it’s doubtful we’ll be buying it again. I guess we could just try making much thinner pancakes though. It’s not like I dislike buckwheat in all forms. I eat soba noodles. That reminds me, we have some noodles in the cupboard we have to use up. I’ve never been rich enough to waste food in the past, but now there’s an environmental reason driving that too.
Things on my food to-do list:
- Increase diversity in the food we eat (I must post this awesome quinoa recipe I created the other day).
- Reduce food waste (read more about why food waste is bad for the environment from No Impact Man and at the Wasted Food blog).
- Compost food scraps (we just need to finish the compost bin - we have a lid now. It’s a work in progress).
Spotlight: Wind Power
So often when we think of renewable energy, we think of solar. But what about wind?
Wind turbines.
There are plenty of advantages, such as:
- Wind is free and doesn’t create pollution. Any greenhouses gases created in the production of the wind turbines is negated within the first few months of energy production.
- Wind turbines take up much less land thank solar panels, so the surrounding land can be used for things like agriculture.
- Some people think the turbines are unsightly. I think they’re pretty! They’re like a symbol of the climate revolution for me.
There are some potential set-backs when considering wind power though.
- Wind turbines do create noise pollution. Commercial wind turbines sound like a small jet engine, so they can only be installed in remote areas, away from towns. Considering Australia’s small population as compared to land area, I don’t think this would be a problem though.
- Sometimes birds and bats are found dead around the base of the turbines. That’s a big one for me – I don’t like the idea of hurting the wildlife. I’m not sure how to get around this.
- You need to locate the wind turbines in areas where you get a lot of wind, otherwise the energy produced is too sporadic. Again, this isn’t a problem for Australia. We have plenty of big, open, windy spaces. You can even locate the turbines in the ocean! (I wonder what impact that would have on the ocean-life though.)
Wind is becoming more and more popular, and more commercially viable. Recently, in north-western America, over 2000 megawatts of energy were created by wind in just one hour!
For home production though, I think solar is better, since it’s silent, cheaper, easily installed on rooves and produced energy more reliably in most areas. For commercial energy, however, I think wind is a great way to go… except for the impact on wildlife. Any ideas on how to combat that?
Meanwhile… Daffodil Day
Yankee Elv is sick at the moment. Yesterday when I stopped off at the shops to get her some icy poles and ginger ale, since she can’t keep anything else down, I saw some fresh daffodils for sale. I bought some to cheer her up, and she really liked them. They’re in a vase in our bedroom right now, so she can see and smell them (they have a really strong, lovely smell).
Daffodils for Yankee Elv
Daffodils aren’t usually just sitting around in the supermarket, it’s just that Daffodil Day is coming up next Friday, so merchandise is everywhere. I don’t like to buy random stuff that I probably won’t use again (like badges or teddy bears), even if it is for a good cause. I’d rather just donate. However, the flowers won’t hang around in landfill for all time and there was a very good reason for purchasing them – to make Yankee Elv feel better!
It did get me thinking, on the bus home though. Where are the daffodils grown? Are they grown sustainably? And, big picture – are cut flowers bad for the environment?
I know that the flower industry in the US and South East Asia is really bad – lots of chemicals that leach into the ground and affect the workers, illegal workers who are taken advantage of, sometimes slavery is involved… but I thought that it couldn’t be that bad in Australia. I can’t find much on the importation of flowers to Australia (although Australia does make up about 1% of the world market in the cut flower industry, mostly exporting Australian and South African natives). Apparently we do import roses (and snow peas) from Zimbabwe, which is pretty bad considering we’re thus giving tacit support to Mugabe’s reign. I think the for the most part, Australia must grow it’s own flowers – apparently about 90% of flowers grown here are sold on the domestic market. If we imported more, then I think there would be some record on the net.
However, to be sure, I’ve emailed the Queensland Cancer Council, asking where the fresh daffodils sold for Daffodil Day are grown. I’m definitely going to be interested in the answer…
Spotlight: Beekeeping
On Saturday morning, Diva Princess and I had some bonding time watching the bees outside the window. They were very busily collecting nectar from the little yellow flowers in the tree along the side of the house, which has just bloomed. The tree was covered with bees!
I’ve been thinking about bees lately. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about honey, and whether I should be eating it or not. I read a book on honey production last month, and I’ve done a bit of research on the net. Beekeeping is pretty environmentally friendly (aside from the debate over native vs imported bees… but I think the imported bees are here to stay, so I wonder if that’s a non-issue). Mostly comes down to whether I think it’s ethically right. Vegans are divided on the issue. Some eat it, some don’t. The vegans that don’t eat it say the vegans that do eat it aren’t really vegans. Yes, it’s very convoluted.
I don’t have a problem with mutually beneficial relationships with animals. I have pets. I take care of them, they hang out with me. If I had pet chickens, who laid unfertilised eggs (and they definitely would be unfertilised because you can’t have roosters in suburban Brisbane), would I eat them? No, I wouldn’t, cos I don’t like eggs. But Yankee Elv and Mr Teeny-bop would, and I would be cool with that. If I had a pet sheep that I had to shear in the summer so it didn’t get too hot, which is very likely in this climate – I already have to shave the dog for that reason (he hasn’t adapted from North American temperatures to Australian temperatures), would I spin and use the wool? Sure would, if I knew how to spin.
Just FYI, no, I don’t spin and use the dog’s fur. It smells too much like dog. But some people do.
My point is, I think if animals are treated like part of the family, living happy lives, then I’m ok with making use of any by-products, provided their use doesn’t upset the animal. In fact, I hope one day to live on a property with animals rescued from factory farms, and if they lay eggs or provide me with wool, then that works for me. So there’s that argument out of the way.
Diva Princess watching bees with me.
What’s the deal with bees, then?
For the most part, the bees just do their thing. It’s in a beekeeper’s best interests to keep the bees happy anyway, so they produce more. Plus, Queensland has some pretty strict regulations on beekeeping. The apiarist isn’t really stealing their honey either. Often they’re providing additional food for them to use to make the honey, so it’s kind of symbiotic, and the bees just keep making honey anyway. Unlike some areas of the northern hemisphere, the honey doesn’t need to be saved as food for a cold, barren winter. Queensland has flowers all year round.
The big problem would be the treatment of the queens. They are sometimes killed, or have wings removed so they can’t lead a swarm. Sometimes new queens are specially bred and brought in to replace old ones to reduce the likelihood of swarming, which has dire consequences for the original queen. Some bees are sent from one apiarist to another in the mail. The other bees aren’t always treated nicely either, but they tend to do these horrible things to each other, so it’s not like humans can help that.
So I guess what I need to do now is find out if there’s an apiarist who works with bees humanely, without doing anything to the queen or shipping bees in the post. If said apiarist works with native bees, so much the better… although it’s unlikely due to low rates of production. I only eat a little bit of honey, though…
Anyone know an apiarist like that, local to Brisbane?
Recycle: CFL Lightbulbs
Earlier today, @LighterFootstep tweeted that in three years of using CFLs (those squiggly lightbulbs that save energy and money), not one had needed replacing. That’s pretty cool, and valid – mine haven’t needed to be replaced either, although I don’t think it’s been a full three years we’ve been using them yet. We just replace our regular bulbs with CFLs as they blow.
Talking about replacing them got me thinking about recycling them though, and lo and behold, Lighter Footstep has a challenge going (kind of like a pledge) over at their site. CFLs have mercury, and need to be recycled sustainably so the toxic chemical doesn’t screw over the world. The challenge asks that you pledge to become a CFL Recycling Superhero.
Take the CFL Recycling challenge at Lighter Footstep.
I’m all for that.
Brisbanites, check here to see where you can recycle your CFLs. Everyone else – google, or look in that article I mentioned if you’re American. I know we’ll end up at Ikea – what better excuse for a couple of eco lesbos to take a trip to the dykiest furniture store ever, than recycling lightbulbs?
Spotlight: Digital Dumping Grounds
I knew developing countries were, to a degree, the rubbish dumps for electronic waste (e-waste) shipped in from developed nations, but I didn’t know how bad it was. I watched this episode of Frontline World this morning that really made it hit home for me. Here’s the promo:
You can access the full 20 minute segment about Ghana here. Sorry Deafies, there are no captions (which annoys the shit out of me – c’mon PBS!), but underneath the video there is a transcript of the segment (if it’s not exact, it’s pretty close). You can also see some photos with captions here on Jane Hahn‘s site.
It’s not just Ghana either – Vietnam, Pakistan, Malaysia, China and lots of other third-world nations are being taken advantage of. In fact, the segment discussed how the average computer-owner (and dumper) is also being taken advantage of, by companies who say they’re dumping responsibly, but who ship out unusable computers for reuse. Clearly, since they’re unusuable, they’re only going to become scrap, but labelling them ‘for reuse’ enables their export courtesy of a legal loophole.
I have a bunch of e-waste here at my place that I was looking to dispose of responsibly, but now I’m unsure how I can do that if I can’t even trust the recycling companies. Plus, I want to make sure no-one has access to my data (that image of the FBI guy smashing the hard drive with the hammer also make an impression on me). Is it really best for the environment for me to be smashing stuff up, regardless of how cathartic that may be? However, is it best for me to not smash it? Ghana is one of the world’s leading areas of cyber crime, after all – there’s has to be link between that and the dumping of e-waste, it’s too convenient a co-incidence.
The one ‘positive’ thing to come out of the whole thing isn’t even very good. I wrote a while ago about the impact of metal mining on the environment (here and here). Trawling through the e-waste for scraps of copper and other precious metals does at least eliminate the need for so much mining… but at what cost? The toxic fumes produced by the burning needed to scavenge this metal is detrimental to both the environment and the unsuspecting people who participate, not to mention every man and his dog who lives nearby.
Aside from making pretty earrings, and giving away old items on Freecycle, what can we do with this stuff? Does anyone know of a recycler who actually recycles stuff responsibly without exporting it?
Recycle: Cleaning your Recyclables
I’m trying to get back into the swing or writing regular posts after an unplanned almost week off. Work is still ugh, but today I escalated some stuff that has been a concern for a while, and it does feel good to get it off my chest and also no longer be potentially accountable for any wrongdoing. That is really good. Today I even had time to empty the work recycling bin. Yay!
Recycle - even the dirty stuff!
On the topic of recycling, I found out last week that you don’t have to have perfectly clean recyclables. This is a good thing, because the people at work cannot rinse the milk bottles out to save themselves. It’s also good for me at home though, because even though I rinse my soy milk cartons, this means I don’t have to spend ages and waste water scraping peanut butter from inside the jar (although Loodle the hungry puppy often helps me with that anyway).
So yeah – rinse, but don’t do so to the point where it really wastes water. The recycling gods are not going to reject your items cos they’re a bit nasty.
Reduce: Plastic Bags
Plastic bags. Everyone loves to hate them. Me too. But I’ll let you in on a secret.
I still use them.
Plastic bags are the devil... right?
OMG OMG OMG! I know. Don’t scream at me, I know it’s bad and I want to change my ways. I mean, I used to use green bags really consistently so I know I can do it. But first, don’t you want to know why a staunch environmentalist doesn’t already always use green bags (which, mind you, are made from plastic anyway). I don’t always use calico bags either. C’mon… wanna know why?
I use plastic shopping bags for my rubbish bin. We make such a small amount of waste that the big bin with the big bags wasn’t working out for us. We switched to a much smaller bin, and why buy bags (with all the additional packaging) when I can get shopping bags for free?
I also use the bags as poo pick-up bags. We don’t walk Loodle much anymore; he’s old and his hips tend to protest if he walks around too much. When we do walk him though, the plastic bags are a definite must. There is, always, poo.
The last thing I regularly use the bags for is to carry my lunch to work. I pack my lunch in old takeaway containers and sometimes they leak. The plastic bags prevent my laptop bag from getting curry or stir-fry sauce all through it.
I must say though – I feel really uncomfortable getting plastic shopping bags at the grocery store, like I’m a bad environmentalist. Aside from the fact that everyone can see me being a bad environmentalist, I also know full well that plastic bags, even the biodegradable ones, don’t really biodegrade properly because landfill is too anaerobic to allow for proper decomposition. But I have these dilemmas, listed above… so what should I do? Here’s my thinking.
Avoid using bin bags altogether. I don’t use bin bags for my recycling bin, or any bin except the kitchen bin. With the introduction of a compost bin/worm farm (no, I don’t have one yet – we’re in a rental house on a very low budget, but it’s in the works) I should be able to prevent food scraps from being dumped. Then all I have to do is manage the plastic waste (pretty much everything else is biodegradable). At the very least, I can dramatically minimse the number of plastic bags we use in the bin.
Poo-pick up bags. I don’t know how this will work for everyone else, but Loodle is just about over going out walking anymore, so this isn’t a huge issue for us. He mostly poos in the backyard, which we clean up by doing a big poo-pick up every few weeks. The poo goes into one of his empty food bags and then into the wheelie bin. I wonder if you can compost dog poo… and if that would be nasty. Maybe nasty. Or maybe good like manure. I must research this. For people with dogs who are young and go for walks lots, you could try:
- Taking a small bucket or container with a lid (and a little shovel?)
- Getting a pooper-scooper
- Going to dog parks (they have biodegradable bags available there, at least in Brisbane)
- Using paper bags (not sure how well this would work – there may be seepage)
- Using empty bags or packaging from other products.
The final thing I regularly use plastic bags for is to protect my bag from food leakage. I think this wouldn’t be an issue if I used proper lunch containers and lunch bag/box. There are lots of different kinds, but my current favourite is Harold the lunch monster!
Harold the Lunch Monster from Ones and Zeros Fashion
A bit expensive, especially with the exchange rate, but awesomely cool. I’d still need to use lunch containers though… maybe that could be another use for jars, if I have something that might leak! Jars are pretty air/water-tight. I like that idea.
So I’m really going to make an effort to reduce my plastic bag usage. Before too long, we won’t have a choice anyway – shopping bags will be phased out as of 2011 or sooner here in Australia.
I just have to remember to take my reusable shopping bags with me!
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