#Sustainable Australia

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review XV (Victoria 2022): Sustainable Australia Party—Stop Overdevelopment/Corruption

Prior reviews: federal 2013, federal 2016, VIC 2018, NSW 2019, federal 2019, federal 2022

What I said before: “I have a very hard time finding their ‘we need a smaller population’ talk to be anything but eugenicist and racist. I have an even harder time accepting their absolute claptrap that Australia’s sprawling, low-density cities are overdeveloped.” (federal 2022)

What I think this time: It’s always a bad sign when a party tries to shoehorn a slogan into their registered name. Amazingly, this isn’t even the worst sin Sustainable Australia (SusAus) has committed against party names: they once had a hashtag at the start of their name.

This party has a habit of scooping up some votes from people who see the name and think “oh 'sustainable' sounds good!” They gain the rest from anti-immigration NIMBYs, at least some of whom think that their weird phobia of apartments is environmentalist praxis. SusAus have realised that people on the left are increasingly calling them out, so they try to claim they are pro-immigration and that they are jUsT aSkiNg QuEsTiOnS about migrant numbers. It’s rather easy to pick holes in their rhetoric and expose it for what it is: racist bullshit that won’t make Australia any more sustainable.

SusAus can’t even be bothered providing an actual policy platform for Victoria. Their page for the 2022 election just links to their generic policy platform, as if a suite of national policy priorities is in any way suitable. Each state has its own pressing issues, and state and federal governments have different powers. If you’re a serious party, you’ll provide a proper platform for each election you contest. SusAus are not a serious party.

So, their policies are just the same shit that I’ve reviewed before. Sometimes I’m even on the same page! Clifford Hayes, their member in the Legislative Councillor, voted to support trans people self-identifying their gender on documents without having had surgery. They really aren't all bad. But, especially on policies regarding the environment, heritage, housing, and migration, SusAus have deeply unpalatable motives that are at best conservative and often racist. Moreover, some of their objectives would prolong environmentally destructive car-dependent suburban sprawl rather than do anything positive for sustainability.

(I keep waiting for them to add a policy of removing “we’ve boundless plains to share” from the second verse of the national anthem…)

Oh yeah, and of course SusAus are one of the parties to have profited from the anti-democratic system of Group Ticket Voting. At the last election, Hayes got into the Legislative Council off 1.32% of the vote in Southern Metropolitan. This was one of the most egregious distortions of the GTV system: the Greens polled 13.46% but did not reach the threshold of 16.7% for a seat because GTVs harvested almost all relevant above-the-line preferences away from the Greens and towards SusAus in a manner that would literally never be replicated if above-the-line voters controlled their own preferences.

My recommendation: Give Sustainable Australia—Stop Stupid Party Names a weak or no preference. Remember to vote below the line on the large ballot for the Legislative Council so that your preference goes where you want it to go; all ballots with 5 or more preferences marked below the line are valid votes.

Website: https://www.sustainableaustralia.org.au/vic

[itscolossal]

Barriers Made of Concrete and Oyster Shells Mitigate Erosion and Offer Alluring New Habitats on Australia’s Coastline

[nando161mando]

Capitalism is not sustainable…

[arc-hus]

Bruny Island Cabin, Tasmania - Maguire & Devin

[reasonsforhope]

In 2014, the Australian firm AMP Capital launched a bold and bizarre call to action to the architectural community of Sydney—replace their skyscraper headquarters without demolishing it.

They wanted their AMP Center, the once-tallest building in Sydney, to become the world’s first “upcycled skyscraper,” and the results were truly inspirational.

By grating a second tower onto the existing core of the AMP Center and not demolishing it, 12,000 tons of CO2 were saved which would have otherwise been created through the use of heavy machinery and the loss of carbon captured in the cement. 12,000 tons is equal to 3 years of the 49-story tower’s maximum energy consumption.

Built in the 1970s, the AMP Center wasn’t necessarily on its last legs, but wasn’t viable for the company any longer. But the firm was unwilling to commit to the massive costs of carbon and money when another option was available.

First though, sufficiently bold architects were needed for the project. Three firms teamed up, led by Danish architects 3XN, an Engineering company called Arup, and the Australian architects BVN.

“The tower was coming to the end of the end of its life, in terms of viability… but the structure and the ‘bones’ can actually last a lot longer,” said Fred Holt from 3XN in a video interview. “You can’t always retain everything. But if you can retain the structure—and that’s where the majority of your embodied carbon is—then you’re lowering your footprint.”

At first it was unclear how much of the original structure would be saved. Beginning on the project, the team realized the original tower was actually about 4 meters shorter than the original drawings suggested.

They installed hundreds of sensors to track the tiniest of movements to ensure that by aligning their new construction with the old one, there wouldn’t be any surprises waiting for them at key moments.

In short, the build was a huge success, and the architects boast that walking from the new construction into the old tower is an unnoticeable transition.

Five stacked units with sharp points twist up toward the sky, while an envelope covers both the new extension and the old tower such that no one could tell the difference. Office space was expanded from 4,500 to 9,000 personnel, and the lack of demolition saved AMP around AUD$150 million.

The Quay Quarter Tower, as it’s called, won World Building of the Year upon its opening late in 2022. 3XN hopes it serves as a case study for the future potential in upcycling towers.

-via Good News Network, 5/1/23

[sitting-on-me-bum]

The speckles on this Capricorn night octopus, Callistoctopus alpheus, are cells full of pigment. If the animal were to open them all, it would appear red with white polka dots.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID LIITSCHWAGER, QUEENSLAND SUSTAINABLE SEALIFE, AUSTRALIA

[asteroidtroglodyte]

Hey Australia how’s tomorrow going?

[indigenousidentitytheft]

Eating to Extinction credits Bruce Pascoe as an Aboriginal writer and farmer for introducing him to Murnong. (Correct your errs, Dan Saladino)

In actuality, he is evidently white - as per his ancestry, ie. all four of his grandparents were English. Yet he goes so far in his claim to aboriginal identity that he wrote an award winning booking on indigenous history and practices and operates a huge farm and company selling indigenous produce that he refers to in said book.

If you want to learn more about indigenous food culture, ie. more sustainable and nutritious eating -- look to actually indigenous people. That requires some work, but here's one example: Karlos Baca, an Indigenous Foods Activist from the Southern Ute Nation

https://www.instagram.com/tasteofn8vcuisine/?hl=en

Karlos Baca, formerly a chef, and now a teacher says his students travel from places where there are more gas stations than grocery stores.

"'Here I'm teaching them how to survive the American food system.' Baca is on the front line of a food war, one being waged against indigenous people. The way he sees it, the first casualty is health. 'That's why we need to decolonise our diets,' he says."

"During the class, he took a handful of blue maize flour and mixed in some water, turning the grey-white powder into a deep purple porridge. To this, he added a pinch of burnt wood ash that made the colour of the maize more intense. With a small blade, he sliced tiny slivers from what looked like a gnarled and blackened piece of wood. 'I can tell you my life story through this one bowl,' Baca said, 'and this food can also show you what happened to my people.'"

[timallenphoto]

Planned Burn by Tim Allen

Website | Store

Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review XV (NSW 2023): Sustainable Australia—Stop Overdevelopment/Corruption

Prior reviews: federal 2013, federal 2016, VIC 2018, NSW 2019, federal 2019, federal 2022, VIC 2022

What I said before: “This party has a habit of scooping up some votes from people who see the name and think ‘oh “sustainable” sounds good!’ They gain the rest from anti-immigration NIMBYs, at least some of whom think that their weird phobia of apartments is environmentalist praxis. SusAus have realised that people on the left are increasingly calling them out, so they try to claim they are pro-immigration and that they are jUsT aSkiNg QuEsTiOnS about migrant numbers. It’s rather easy to pick holes in their rhetoric and expose it for what it is: racist bullshit that won’t make Australia any more sustainable.” (VIC 2022)

What I think this year: I’ve said my piece in the reviews above. SusAus are not all bad, but besides how cringe it is that they shoehorn a slogan into their registered name, it is tremendously telling that they were originally the Stable Population Party. I am aware of some well-meaning people in this party with centrist or centre-left environmental views, but the overall thrust is NIMBY and anti-immigration and I cannot in good faith offer any endorsement. The fact they’ve drawn the column immediately to the right of the Greens means they’re quite likely to fare well off preferences from “oh ‘sustainable’ sounds good!” voters misled by the party name. Don’t be one of them!

Recommendation: Give Sustainable Australia–Stop Stupid Party Names a weak or no preference.

Website: https://www.sustainableaustralia.org.au/

[bumblebeeappletree]

Being a professional gardener is a great way to make a living. Everyday is different and you get to be creative, active, and continually learn from new challenges. Costa met a gardening crew in Canberra employed by a social enterprise growing skills and opportunities for people of all abilities.

A day in the life of horticulturist and second-in-charge Dillon Crane includes lots of weeding, pruning, feeding, planting and assessing the needs of a garden. He says it’s good to return to the same gardens frequently as “you can see if things have grown back or if things have improved or if they have not improved you can try and rectify it. When it does work it’s nice see.”

Horticulture student Shaelyn Quirke has been with the team for two years and says “I’ve settled in really well and I’ve enjoyed every step of the way. It’s very interesting you get to see all the plants, the ways that they grow, be out with nature and interacting with other people.”

Shannon Cook has found her passion by working with the crew and enrolled to study horticulture. She says the best perks of the job are “being outdoors is a really big thing for me, being active, can’t sit still I get bored. And just seeing the difference you can make in someone’s garden, it’s so beautiful to see the transformation after you put in so much effort.”

Warren Aitken founded The Sustainable Gardener 13 years ago. “I think what we create is quite unique and we have some values in this business of respect and kindness and we work together as a team, as a crew, that’s what makes it work. It’s through the support of people in Canberra that we’ve been able to do that because they’ve been engaged in the overall aim of what were trying to do.” Cate Lyons is one such supporter, who hired the crew to fix up and maintain her front garden after seeing their work in the local area. “I love what’s out the front because I can go out there and just sit. I think, you know, for anyone being in the garden, able bodied or disabled it’s just wonderful to get out and be out in the garden.”

If you love being outside and working with plants, then maybe it’s time to take a leaf out of their book and pick up the tools!

[faithfromanewperspective]

most cities: ‘bus’

brisbane: ‘buz’ ‘metro’ ‘bullet’ ‘city glider’ ‘rocket’

[tomorrowusa]

This video from Australia's public broadcaster ABC News does a better job at explaining China's current economic meltdown than anything else I've read or seen about it.

The root of the problem is China's previous one child policy which lasted for about three decades. Though other factors certainly contributed to it.

Indirectly the demographic situation in China raises some issues which deserve more attention.

The conventional wisdom is that population growth is necessary for a healthy economy. But when a country achieves a certain level of prosperity, the birthrate tends to level off.

So one question which economists should address with more urgency is: Can a country, or even the world, maintain prosperity with a largely constant population?

Obviously human population cannot grow endlessly, that certainly isn't great for the environment or the climate.

The old and endless arguments over capitalism and socialism are ultimately linked to the concept of unending population growth. Such talk needs to be supplanted by discussion and research on how to maintain prosperity in an environmentally friendly way for a consistent population level while respecting democratic norms.

That latter bit about democracy is vital – and not just for touchy-feely reasons. It was the autocratic Communist Party of China which implemented the heavy-handed one child policy and encouraged a culture of mendacity which led to the current crisis. Any system which does not respect democratic rights is doomed to failure in the long run.

——————

PROPS TO ABC AUSTRALIA: Just want to repeat my previous praise for ABC News Australia – the source of that excellent vid. The country punches above its weight with news and public affairs programming from its public broadcaster. It deserves a place on everybody's news menu. They have an app as well as a major presence on YouTube.

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[agentfascinateur]

While "democracies" are causing anarchy, we would be tackling climate were it not for those genocidal attention-whores causing wars.

[startsomegood]

Turn your vision into a powerful force for good! Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just getting started with your first idea, our Good Hustle course will provide you with the tools and guidance you need to succeed. Join us today, and let's transform your idea into a launch-ready business that will change the world for the better! The next Good Hustle Course starts June 17! Enroll now at www.goodhustle.online!