Earth Hour

Good news for all the eco warriors out there – sex is the new green when it comes to saving the planet.

Forget about the Kama Sutra, it’s about to be replaced by the “Clima-Sutra” in the form of a brave new handbook titled Eco-Sex. And author Stefanie Iris Weiss says it’s the most fun she’s ever had researching a book as she personally tried and reviewed every item it uncovers.

Due to hit the bookshelves on March 31, Eco-Sex reportedly leaves no stone unturned in promoting bonking as a means of saving the planet. That ranges from, but is by no means limited to, hand-cranked sex toys, bio-degradable latex condoms and “healthy” bamboo underwear.

Continue reading "Green movement’s next big thing: the Clima-Sutra" »

One of the worst things I’ve seen in ages was the Copenhagen Climate Summit opening film, where a small child has terrible, apocalyptic nightmares after learning about human-induced climate change.

Talk about scandalous fear-mongering. If we’re serious about enlightening young people about sound environmental custodianship, surely the worst approach is a campaign of outright fear.

Less extreme but just as futile is the path of symbolic, one-off action underpinned by a threat of doom. Earth Hour is one such initiative. Its official slogan might as well be “Lights off for an hour tomorrow or it’ll be lights off forever”.

Continue reading "Scaring kids to death about climate change won’t help" »

We are all too familiar with the satellite picture of North Korea in darkness at night and the horror stories of millions of people living in impoverishment. More recently I have read Barbara Demick’s, Nothing To Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea.

This book is both depressing yet insightful. The journey you take while reading is one of disbelief of a state starving its people yet demanding hero worship of its leaders. The book shows too that no matter how hard a state seeks to control its people, individual spirit cannot be crushed. North Koreans inventiveness and street smarts have been tested to the limit, just in order to survive in such a dysfunctional regime. The book does, however, drive home that a functioning electricity sector is indeed the backbone of every economy.

At the weekend, Federal Minister for Energy, Hon Martin Ferguson MP, in plain speaking, said that we need to come to terms with the true cost of electricity. I couldn’t agree more and full credit to him for raising the issue.

Continue reading "How much are you prepared to pay for civilisation?" »