Stop Greenhouse-Gassing Your Planet!

West Australians are amongst the world's highest (per head) emitters of greenhouse gases. These gases cause global warming - which is already affecting Australia's climate, vegetation and animal life (including us!) with more drought, more floods and more hot days per summer.

Travel Sustainably

About 40% of the Australian public's GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions come from private cars. Do you drive to places you could get to by bus or train, foot or bicycle? Bus routes can be confusing. Phone 136213 for help & timetables to be posted to you or use the Transperth Journey Planner, If the bus service in your area seems poor, campaign about it; planners need to know there is a demand. Spend your petrol money on a good bike and get fitter while you get from A to B.

Cool yourself but don't heat the planet!

The trick is not to let the heat into the house in the first place! Take notice of where the sun shines on your house or paving. To stop hot air coming in, shade these windows and walls on the outside from direct summer sun and minimize openings on the hot side. If your house has already heated up, the thing to do is lose the heat. Open windows/doors on opposite sides of the house to let in the afternoon sea-breeze, and let it out the other side. Open windows overnight to let cool land breezes take heat from inside the house. Good design and/or good management means you shouldn't need airconditioning in Perth. If you do have air-conditioning, see how little you can use it!

Other Energy Savers

Buy long-life compact fluorescent lightglobes, now in a big choice of sizes and shades of white to yellowy colours. Choose new whitegoods carefully, no bigger than what you really need and the more stars the better. Waterwise appliances save power too. WA Government Home Energy Line 1300 658 158 gives free advice.

Solar Hot Water

If you own your home & can get a loan: Install solar hot water (with good rebates) and insulation in your roof & perhaps walls too. What you save on power bills will help pay off your loan.

Wildlife in your Backyard: Protect it or Invite it!

Native Plants

Convert at least part of your garden to Australian plants that will host the right butterflies, birds, lizards and other creatures. Songbirds need insects & the right insects need the right plants, which means as close as possible to what was on your block before British settlement. Swan Catchment Centre 9374 3333 has great information on how to attract the right birds, butterflies and frogs to your garden (also available at Environment House).

Your cat, the cute killer!

Remove non-native hunters from your little wildlife sanctuary. Murdoch Uni Vet Centre says ALL cats can adjust to living indoors, or in a cat run, with a scratching post, kitty litter, less food and stimulating toys (eg cottonreels) instead of live birds, lizards & frogs. Explain this to the owners of cats who visit your yard. Young cats can be trained to take you for a walk on a lead just like a dog; this is normal in many cities overseas.

Dogs

If you want your dog outside, keep it around the back and protect or restore natural habitat in the front.

Drains, Rivers, Oceans

The Swan River

The Swan River is on the danger list - partly due to an overdose of phosphorus - which feeds the wrong algae - which suffocates the river and its inhabitants. QUIT today! Just say NO to phosphates in garden fertiliser & cleaning products. There are plenty of other good ways to grow things and clean things. Phosphorus Action Group advises on phosphate-free gardening. Tel: 9458 566 www.sercul.org.au/paghelp.php Parts of the world's oceans can't support fish anymore because of toxic overload so read the fine print on everything before you buy it. Don't buy products containing petrochemicals or bleaches, which end up in the sewer (then out to the sea) or in landfill,which leaches down to the river. Use microfibre cleaning cloths, vinegar for the toilet, and gentle cleaning products.Ask carpet shampooers to use only steam.

Boating and Riverbank Erosion

Please pass on to boating friends that they should cut their wash when boating in sensitive areas, eg all the way upstream from East Perth. If they travel at 5 knots (not 8), and carefully distribute their load (and lower the outboard) they won't be eroding riverbanks, undermining trees, destroying bird & fish breeding habitats or scaring swimmers and canoeists. They'll be respecting the work of volunteers who work hard in many ways, to restabilise the banks.

Water

Cut water use by converting to local plants, mulching, installing a waterwise shower head, and diverting some water from your house into your garden, even just half a bucket of pre-hot shower water. Wash car with 3 half-buckets of water and microfibre cloth - no suds at all! You'll get WA government rebates on waterwise appliances.

Don't Waste Our Planet! 6 R's + a little magic = Less & Less to Landfill

Refuse plastic bags, polystyrene trays and toxic household chemicals. (You may have to shop elsewhere!)
Reduce packaging. Buy bulk or buy products with a minimum of packaging (that can be recycled).
Repair damaged items: Ask a senior to teach you to mend clothes, repair chairs etc or pay someone to do it.
Re-Use cloth hankies & nappies, durable plastic picnic plates & cups. BYO containers for takeaways.
Recycle everything you can and complete the process by buying products containing recycled materials.
Recharge batteries, buy solar torches and calculators etc.
Abracadabra! Compost your food scraps in a compost bin or tumbler OR ferment them with Bokashi microbes in your kitchen OR feed them to worms. All methods make fantastic fertiliser for flowers or vegies; scraps from food will make food from scraps!

Challenge your household to send less & less waste to the tip each week!

Act Global: Think Local Government!

Most councils can do much more to conserve the environment & to help residents live more sustainably. If you hear of another Council in WA - or over East or overseas - taking more or stronger sustainability actions than yours is, ask Council staff to note your requests and ask your Councillors and candidates if they will support similar sustainability moves in your patch of the planet.

Web Links for Earth lovers!

Preserve, protect, restore, respect - your backyard, your community, your planet!

Global

United Nations Environment Program
Friends of the Earth International
Greenpeace
Environmental News Service
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
World Wide Fund for Nature

Australia Wide

Non-Government Organisations

The Australian Conservation Foundation
The Wilderness Society
Friends of the Earth Australia
Mineral Policy Institute 'Keeping an eye on mining' in Australia, Pacific & Asia
Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Networkr
Australian action and daily global eco news headiines
World Wide Fund for Nature
Climate Action Network of Australia
Australian Marine Conservation Society
Sustainable Gardening Australia e-mag
Australian Wind Energy Association
Australia & New Zealand Solar Energy Society
Alternative Technology Association (publishers of ReNew)

Federal Government

Department of Environment and Heritage
The Australian Greenhouse Office
Check this site before buying gas or electrical appliances

Western Australian

Non-Government Organisations

Conservation Council of Western Australia
Urban Bushland Council
Greenskills
Naragebup Rockingham Regional Environment Centre
Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia
Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association
Men of the Trees
City Farm Perth
Birds Australia WA branch
The Wildflower Society of Western Australia

WA GOVERNMENT

Finding a local hand-on conservation groups
Swan River Trust
Waste Management Board's useful guide to reducing your waste
Sustainable Energy Development Office
Water Corporation
Department of Conservation and Land Management
Excellent flora identification site for WA native plants
Department of the Environment