Now in its fifth year, Garage Sale Trail is expanding to all Australian states and territories for the first time ever. If you haven’t heard of it before, here are the basics:
Photo credit: Jordi Martorell (Flickr)
Lindsay Schiffhauer catches up with ‘office hippy’ Shelby Burns, who negotiated getting a recycling system set up at her workplace. Plus, tips on how to get your office to green up.
As a nation, we have the dubious distinction of producing more waste than most per capita, second only to the United States in one study. Yet 78 percent of Australians say that recycling at home is easy. So why the discrepancy? Considering most of us spend almost half of our waking hours at work, this surprising statistic underlines the need to bring more sustainable practices into the workplace. Continue Reading →
Catherine Mah reviews The End of Plenty, a new book looking at the problems and solutions we’re faced with as the world’s population keeps growing.
What happens if/when we run out of food for the planet? For environmental journalist Joel K Bourne Jnr, ‘producing food for more than 9 billion people without destroying the soil, water, oceans, and climate will be by far the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced’.
His book, The End of Plenty, looks at this very issue. As the human population increases and demand for food rises, riots break out. At the same time, climate change, pesticide resistance and political maneuverings mean that there’s less supply and the distribution of what little there is, is uneven. The poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer. And nobody’s happy. Continue Reading →
Are you an Otter reader with something to say? Lucky you, because we’d love to hear it!
As you know, Otter is a fortnightly newsletter with a sustainable lifestyle focus. We give people tips, info, event ideas, and recipes to help them live greener, happier lives.
We’re interested in any of the following:
Catherine Mah looks at the dark underbelly of the international fishing industry, where modern slavery is rife in supply chains that get the fish to your table.
Most of us have heard about how unethical fishing practices kill thousands of dolphins, turtles and marine life that get caught in nets. How overfishing to cater for the world’s demand for cheap seafood is destroying our ocean’s ecosystems. But the US Department of State has just shed light on another sinister aspect of the global seafood industry. Continue Reading →
