More 350

Here’s my attempt at 350 – some images that I made on my way to Uni in Thursday morning. A small gesture, but if mine is one of thousands, or even millions, that adds up to something – right?

Get involved, its pretty simple! For some inspiration visit the gallery at 350 org

Maybe you could make some art:

What do you get when you mix the arts and activism? Artivism!

With the International Day of Climate Action only a week away, now is the perfect time to start building some creative visuals for you action. You’ve been planning your action, making phone calls and having meetings: now is the time to have some fun, and get into the “hands-on” part of creating an action. The plan: organize an “Art Build”. Call your friends, or round up some local youth and set a time to spend 3 hours making art for your action. It doesn’t matter if you have 2 people or 20, we’ve got a few simple tricks that will help you make your action louder, more colorful, and more fun. A little art goes a long way! Fun events such as this are also great ways to strengthen your action community, and to get more and more people involved. You can even invite the press, and get some coverage before your action even starts.

There are lots of ways to get creative, and each day we receive new photos with all sorts of wonderful ideas. We’ve got a few things on our site that can help you, step by step, with the logisitics of making art for your action. Look at a few of the following pages, and let them spark your imagination. A good place to start is to make a banner for your action, this can appear front and center in your action photo: so everyone knows what your message is. You can create t-shirts for your action using these great stencils, or you can make headbands using potato prints. The possiblities are endless… Want to get some theater involved? Check out this script for a short skit that can be done quickly with groups of any age. Want to put some movement into this movement?  Look no further than this great idea for a dance performance. Don’t be afraid to push your limits – its all for the good of the climate movement.

Looking for more ideas? Check out our Spread the Word page for even more tips on how to create hand-made posters to advertise for your event, cardboard hats, instruments made out of garbage, and other fun ideas to get your action to stand out in a crowd. We are a vibrant, colorful and diverse global movement, lets show that to the world! Become an artivist today!

Or get involved in someone else’s action. Check out the actions that are happening near you. In Hobart, there are several events happening, including a plant collage at the Botanic Gardens, a procession on the waterfront, and the 350 photo challenge.

To find out and register to attend an event, search the map at 350.org

View Actions at 350.org

 

350? What the?

Read more here: Science of 350

350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.

Accelerating arctic warming and other early climate impacts have led scientists to conclude that we are already above the safe zone at our current 390ppm, and that unless we are able to rapidly return to 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt.

There are three numbers you need to really understand global warming, 275, 390, and 350.

For all of human history until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained 275 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Parts per million is simply a way of measuring the concentration of different gases, and means the ratio of the number of carbon dioxide molecules per million other molecules in the atmosphere. 275 ppm CO2 is a useful amount—without some CO2 and other greenhouse gases that trap heat in our atmosphere, our planet would be too cold for humans to inhabit.

So we need some carbon in the atmosphere, but the question is how much?

Beginning in the 18th century, humans began to burn coal and gas and oil to produce energy and goods. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere began to rise, at first slowly and now more quickly. Many of the activities we do every day like turning the lights on, cooking food, or heating or cooling our homes rely on energy sources like coal and oil that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. We’re taking millions of years worth of carbon, stored beneath the earth as fossil fuels, and releasing it into the atmosphere. By now—and this is the second number—the planet has 390 parts per million CO2 – and this number is rising by about 2 parts per million every year.

Scientists are now saying that’s too much – that number is higher than any time seen in the recorded history of our planet – and we’re already beginning to see disastrous impacts on people and places all over the world. Glaciers everywhere are melting and disappearing fast—and they are a source of drinking water for hundreds of millions of people. Mosquitoes, who like a warmer world, are spreading into lots of new places, and bringing malaria and dengue fever with them. Drought is becoming much more common, making food harder to grow in many places. Sea levels have begun to rise, and scientists warn that they could go up as much as several meters this century. If that happens, many of the world’s cities, island nations, and farmland will be underwater. The oceans are growing more acidic because of the CO2 they are absorbing, which makes it harder for animals like corals and clams to build and maintain their shells and skeletons. Coral reefs could start dissolving at an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 450-500 ppm. These impacts are combining to exacerbate conflicts and security issues in already resource-strapped regions.

(Text from the 350 website)

 

24th October – A Global Day of Climate Action – Invitation

Invitation

Dear World,

This is an invitation to help build a movement–to take one day and use it to stop the climate crisis.

On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we’ll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.

This movement has just begun, and it needs your help.

Here’s the plan: we’re asking you, and people in every country on earth, to organize an action in their community on October 24. There are no limits here–imagine bike rides, rallies, concerts, hikes, festivals, tree-plantings, protests, and more. Imagine your action linking up with thousands of others around the globe. Imagine the world waking up.

If we can pull it off, we’ll send a powerful message on October 24: the world needs the climate solutions that science and justice demand.

It’s often said that the only thing preventing us from tackling the climate crisis quickly and equitably is a lack of political will. Well, the only thing that can create that political will is a unified global movement–and no one is going to build that movement for us. It’s up to regular people all over the world. That’s you.

So register an event in your community for October 24, and then enlist the help of your friends. Get together with your co-workers or your local environmental group or human rights campaign, your church or synagogue or mosque or temple; enlist bike riders and local farmers and young people. All over the planet we’ll start to organize ourselves.

With your help, there will be an event at every iconic place on the planet on October 24—from America’s Great Lakes to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef–and also in all the places that matter to you in your daily lives: a beach or park or village green or town hall.

If there was ever a time for you to get involved, it’s right now. There are two reasons this year is so crucial.

The first reason is that the science of climate change is getting darker by the day. The Arctic is melting away with astonishing speed, decades ahead of schedule. Everything on the planet seems to be melting or burning, rising or parched.

And we now have a number to express our peril: 350.

NASA’s James Hansen and a team of other scientists recently published a series of papers showing that we need to cut the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from its current 387 parts per million to 350 or less if we wish to “maintain a planet similar to that on which civilization developed.”

No one knew that number a year ago—but now it’s clear that 350 might well be the most important number for the future of the planet, a north star to guide our efforts as we remake the world. If we can swiftly get the planet on track to get to 350, we can still avert the worst effects of climate change.

The second reason 2009 is so important is that the political opportunity to influence our governments has never been greater. The world’s leaders will meet in Copenhagen this December to craft a new global treaty on cutting carbon emissions.

If that meeting were held now, it would produce a treaty that would be woefully inadequate. In fact, it would lock us into a future where we’d never get back to 350 parts per million—where the rise of the sea would accelerate, where rainfall patterns would start to shift and deserts to grow. A future where first the poorest people, and then all of us, and then all the people that come after us, would find the only planet we have damaged and degraded.

October 24 comes six weeks before those crucial UN meetings in Copenhagen. If we all do our job, every nation will know the question they’ll be asked when they put forth a plan: will this get the planet back on the path to 350?

This will only work with the help of a global movement—and it’s starting to bubble up everywhere. Farmers in Cameroon, students in China, even World Cup skiers have already helped spread the word about 350. Churches have rung their bells 350 times; Buddhist monks have formed a huge 350 with their bodies against the backdrop of Himalayas. 350 translates across every boundary of language and culture. It’s clear and direct, cutting through the static and it lays down a firm scientific line.

On October 24, we’ll all stand behind 350–a universal symbol of climate safety and of the world we need to create. And at the end of the day, we’ll all upload photos from our events to the 350.org website and send these pictures around the world. This cascade of images will drive climate change into the public debate–and hold our leaders accountable to a unified global citizenry.

We need your help—the world is a big place and our team is small. Our crew at 350.org will do everything we can to support you, providing templates for banners and press releases, resources to spread the word, and tools to help you build a strong local climate action group. And our core team is always just a phone call or e-mail away if you need some support.

This is like a final exam for human beings. Can we muster the courage, the commitment, and the creativity to set this earth on a steady course before it’s too late? October 24 will be the joyful, powerful day when we prove it’s possible.

Please join us and register your local event today: http://www.350.org

Thanks,

Bill McKibben – Author and Activist- USA
Vandana Shiva – Physicist, Activist, Author – India
David Suzuki – Scientist, Author, Activist – Canada
Bianca Jagger – Chair of the World Future Council – UK
Tim Flannery – Scientist, Author, Explorer -Australia
Bittu Sahgal – Editor of Sanctuary magazine – India
Andrew Simmons – Environmental Advocate, St. Vincent & The Grenadines
Christine Loh – Environmental Advocate and Legislator – Hong Kong

View Actions at 350.org

 

The Cascade Brewery & Tip Birds

From the top of the ridge separating the Brewery and the South Hobart Tip, I look down from above, and think of expansion and growth, and capitalism.

The Cascade brewery building is one of Hobart’s iconic buildings. From above, the Cascade Brewery is a different place to the one that is shown in the glossy tour brochures. A material symbol of the company, it has been expanded as the Brewery has grown, and eventually it has become a big messy group of highly functional, but pretty ugly, warehouses.

I had thought that a rubbish tip located almost in the middle of a city was a terrible bit of planning (of course, the city has expanded somewhat). The smell of the rubbish apparently wafts down the valley on a warm summer’s evening, into the houses of South Hobart. I see the tip birds flying overhead when I look out my window. Flocks of crows and seagulls fly to and fro from the tip. These birds are the carrion-eaters, the birds we instinctively recoil from. They are not cute birds.

On this particular walk I change my mind. For the tip is us. All of the objects we have discarded, our refuse, goes there. Perhaps we need to see it,  deal with it. For if it is out of sight, it is out of mind. That pile of rubbish is us. The tip birds, as they fly over in flocks heading towards or away from the tip are simply symbolic pointers to our bloat. We feed them with our waste, the increasing excess from our drive to grow and expand. The rubbish tip feeds these birds. We feed them.

So I suppose this rather rambling post is about change and expansion, and wondering if growth is always smarter. Sometimes the most elegant and beautiful solution may involve re-use, renewal and regeneration.

For some discussions about some new ways of living in cities check out ’smart growth’ and ‘new urbanism’, (new terms to me!):

New Urbanism Org

Smart Growth Org

Celsias

 

Passionate People Think Better (more on Creativity)

I have finally signed up to Twine. Now I get a daily digest of inspirational and interesting articles in my inbox. From the human brain to art, from information systems to sustainable living, every day my life is a little more enriched by the wonderful words and images that I find on Twine.

Today Twine pointed me towards Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk on why schools kill creativity. I had seen it before, and watching it again, I wondered why I didn’t pay more attention the first time. Its fantastic!

Sir Ken talks about the public education system as an invention of the nineteenth century, designed to meet the needs of the Industrial Age. To make sure you become a Good Worker. The most successful output of this system is a University lecturer. After all, as he points out, the hierarchy of subjects starts with Mathematics and Languages at the top, through Humanities to Art at the bottom.

The problem is that there are now more University graduates than there ever have been before, ever. When once a Bachelor degree would land you that fabulous job, academic inflation has caused degrees to be worth so little that a Masters has become an entry point, and a PHD equivalent to a Masters.

Like Sir Ken Robinson I truly believe that developing a capacity for creativity actually causes better thinking and more passionate people. It is such a relief to stop feeling alone in this!

Late last year, after fifteen years in the workforce, I resigned from a good job, started a little business with my sister and embarked on my second degree, a (Bachelor of Fine Arts at UTAS).

I have long felt that I am very effective in my work when I am also actively pursuing my passion. By developing my creativity I will be able to bring new abilities and skills into the workplace, my home, my community. In that scenario, everyone wins!

 

From the archives

Wednesday, 1 October 2008

This week I have been thinking about, reading about and watching things about creativity.

3 influential books I will mention:

Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964 (this version reprinted 2001)

Thinking with Things: toward a new vision of art, Esther Pasztory,  2005

Creativity: Unleashing the Forces within, Osho, 1999

The movie: Pollock, with Ed Harris & Marcia Gay Harden

And finally the exhibition: Art Deco at the NGV

Have all had an influence on me and are shaping my current conversation around creativity and what is means in our contemporary virtual media driven society.

So I would like to start my little essay with this quote  ending McLuhan’s book (which I have updated to use more MODERN terms so that younger people may understand):

Since electric energy is independent of the place or kind of work-operation, it creates patterns of decentralism (decentralisation) and diversity in the work to be done.

This is a logic that appears plainly enough in the difference between firelight and electric light, for example. Persons grouped around a fire or candle for warmth or light are less able to pursue independent thoughts or even tasks, than people supplied with electric light.

In the same way, those social and educational patterns latent (inherent but untapped)  in (computer) automation are those of self-employment and artistic autonomy. Panic about automation as a threat of uniformity on a world scale is the projection into the future of mechanical standardization and specialism, which are now past.

I feel that this is going to be a number of posts, or it would be one really lengthy one. So I will split it over a few posts.

Thursday, 2 October 2008

I have become a bit fascinated by McLuhan’s predictions about the coming of electronic technologies. So I have included some links and quotes in this post, before I continue my little essay on creativity next post.

I am curious to know what would happen if art were suddenly seen for what it is, namely, exact information of how to rearrange one’s psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties… (Marshall McLuhan)

Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it. (Marshall McLuhan)

As the unity of the modern world becomes increasingly a technological rather than a social affair, the techniques of the arts provide the most valuable means of insight into the real direction of our own collective purposes. (Marshall McLuhan)

http://www.onthemedia.org/yore/transcripts/transcripts_041604_mcluhan.html

And I highly recommend devoting half an hour or so to this little curiosity from the vast world of information that is the www:

Here is a curious recording: vispo.com/temp/mcluhan.m3u (if m3u (streaming) audio work for you, or vispo.com/temp/mcluhan.mp3 if it doesn’t (though the latter URL requires a 25 mb download before you can hear anything)). This is a recording of Marshall McLuhan (warts and all) visiting a High school classroom in Toronto, in conversation with the students. I’m not sure of the date of this recording. Probably late sixties (his book ‘Understanding Media’ was published in 1964). A friend of mine taped this recording when it appeared on the CBC radio program Ideas back when it was aired, which was probably late sixties or early seventies. It was recorded and edited by Alan Anderson.

http://vispo.com/temp/mcluhan.mp3 (THIS ONE IS THE 25MB DOWNLOAD VERSION)

From http://www.vispo.com/writings/essays/mcluhana.htm

Btw, I have turned my Mac’s speech recognition on, and I am teaching it to understand my voice. It speaks as a little alien. A little like EvA in Wall-E the latest Pixar movie which Will and I went to see this week.

 

Personal Knowledge Management

Is this the future for Knowledge Management?

In 2025, every individual in every organization uses their own personal computer for both personal and work applications. Almost all information is Web-based, with organizations’ proprietary information only accessible through authorization software. E-mail has disappeared, replaced by a virtual presence application that includes instant messaging, screensharing, voice/videoconferencing, filesharing, calendaring, tasklists.

The KM department still manages the purchase of external information, though almost all information in 2025 is free; information producers have realized that their business model is to apply that information to specific customers’ business environment, in consulting assignments, rather than trying to sell publications. Most of the mainstream media were nationalized after they went bankrupt using their traditional business models, and now operate as public services.

Most of what the KM department does now is trying to facilitate more effective conversations among people within the organization and with people outside the organization, including customers. They facilitate many meetings that use the virtual presence application, especially those that involve more than five people. That facilitation includes organizing the meeting, distributing advance materials, facilitating the discussion (conflict resolution, staying on schedule etc.), and even recording, editing and publishing the meeting as appropriate. They run courses in effective conversation, meeting and presentation skills.

I am a great admirer of Dave Pollard’s thought provoking posts, so I really don’t have anything to add to this one.

Read Dave Pollard’s post

 

Online open forums

What does this really mean?

Is it possible to have a truly democratic space on the internet for everyone to contribute?

I have been Twittering for a few months now, and have found this the most open place to contribute my own or hear other’s point of view. You can be highly political, or not. Its up to you.

However, the limitations of 140 characters may not work for all. Also it can be hard to keep on track. Pretty, shiny, juicy tit-bits of information contantly pop-up and its easy to be diverted.

Here is something newish: Open Forum (http://www.openforum.com.au/content/learning-change) This is what they say about what it is:

OpenForum.com.au is a non-partisan site that aims to stimulate focused discussion on social, political, economic, ecological and cultural issues facing us today.

The site accomplishes this in two significant ways; by promoting time-limited (and often outcomes-based) discussion on forums, and through less formal blogs, written by and for users of the site.

Now a collaborative thinktank is a great idea. They go on to say a little bit more about the site:

Open Forum is an independent collaborative think-tank built around an interactive discussion website hosted and moderated by Global Access Partners (GAP). It provides a platform for focused dialogue on social, political, economic, ecological and cultural issues and challenges.

The Forum is registration-based and enables participants to make connections, share their opinions and concerns, test their ideas, raise and discuss specific topics, suggest solutions and ultimately contribute to policy development and economic outcomes for government and business, as well as the democratic process in general.

With support from the Australian Government and a number of industry partners, the forum operates as a powerful web-based consultative mechanism enabling access to and by, key people in our community.

Sounds SERIOUS, doesnt it? Obviously, there will be no 140 characters mini-posts showing up here. Also, if you don’t have a post-graduate degree, political affiliations or connections with the movers and shakers of Australia, chances are you will be too intimidated to post here. Yes, you’ve got to have balls.

Anyhoo, back to twitter, here’s a post that interestingly, twitter put me onto.

Twitter the forum killer. Read it and join up, now!

 

Fear and deep suspicion

The fog of fear

If we are coming to a crisis point on this planet, (and I believe that we are, but I also believe that crisis can be a catalyst for change), then reductive, linear ways of thinking are not going to deliver the transformation we need (Well, have they, yet?). For transformation on a planetary scale we may be required to create a bigger context than just you, just me, just your workplace.

A social network is non-linear. But is it an ecology?

The ‘ecologies’ of networks

Network Citizens (available as a pdf download from Demos) reports on the shift of power created by social networking and the rise of ‘network citizens’, who no longer respect hierarchical and bureaucratic structures.

The Network of Public Sector Communicators (NZ) blog has this to say about networks and public sector agencies:

Many public sector agencies view access to social networks, the likes of Facebook, Twitter and – incomprehensibly – LinkedIn, with what can only be described as either fear or deep suspicion. Some of them even go so far as to block access …As if, in the minds of the people that think blocking access to these sites will make people more productive (or protect them from themselves…), there is some sort of impermeable divide between what we do at work and who we are.

The message is clear. Understand the change that is happening inside your agencies. Ensure that you provide people the sorts of tools that will allow them to develop professionally and to invest and grow their social capital. Attempts to restrict the ability of your staff to build their networks (online or off) will only result in a disengaged workforce. (Networked Citizens)

 

Introducing Deb Foskey’s campaign strategy workshops

Organisations often have a strong sense of what they want to achieve but lack the tools and techniques to achieve their aims. These can be developed through learning experiences which strengthen group cohesion and personal empowerment while building expertise in advocacy, democratic processes and planning and implementing a campaign.

Dr Deb Foskey, Associate at HERENOW Collective offers workshops either as a series, where a campaign strategy is developed by the group; or as single workshops tailored to meet the group’s needs. All are aimed at increasing the effectiveness and advocacy skills of organizations.

Topics include:

1. Working with government and using government processes
2. Developing a campaign strategy
3. Effective group processes which enhance democracy
4. Developing strategic alliances
5. Getting messages out
6. Sustainability in organizations – preventing burnout and empowering members
7. Sustainability in organizations – reducing our ecological footprint
8. Building community climate change resilience through community development

HERENOW Collective can provide facilitators such as Deb Foskey or design workshops in consultation with representatives of the client group.

HERENOW Collective is committed to working in ways and for outcomes which enhance social, ecological and economic sustainability.  Our overall aim is to empower organisations whose work in some way contributes to their own and the Earth’s sustainability.

 

Social Networking in the workplace

The Future of Work’s Newsletter just arrived in my inbox. Interesting article about Social Networking’s maturity as a form of collaborative communication: Read it here – http://www.thefutureofwork.net/newsletter_1108_Notes_Social_Networking.html

 

Database of Things

Chris Brogan has posted this seminar on his blog. Its Kevin Kelly from Wired talking about the next step. It accords with my observations about where the Web is heading. HERENOW Collective is interested in assisting organisations to prepare for the changes caused by the power of this ‘collective of things’ in the virtual world. It is also the new power of the collective mind. Be prepared, it will change our world.

Meanwhile, I would like to introduce another associate of HERENOW Collective: Fiona McIlroy. I have added her webpage as a link under Collaborators, and this is her picture

Blogged with the Flock Browser

 

Enterprise 2.0 adoption

An interesting article by Matthew Hodgson over at the AppGap about adoption models for social media and collaborative computing in the workplace.

Did you know that the top-down model is the least successful in organisations that are unused to change? No suprises there.

 

Getting excited about saving the planet

suzemuse posted yesterday (Social Media is NOT an Innovation) about the WWW finally becoming a place of connection:

Communication, collaboration and communities are starting to become the mainstream ways in which people are using the Web. The social Web is no longer just for the “social media crowd”. I suspect, over the next 6 months, that this is going to become even more prevalent. I also suspect, that over the next little while, our label of “social media” is going to, if not go away, at least change. 10 years ago, people saw the Web was a place to get information. Today, more and more people are seeing it as a place to connect.

Some of the comments were really interesting. Including this:

allan isfan, on December 1st, 2008 at 10:22 am Said:

Amazing how long it has taken to finally get here. We are finally using the web the way it was intended and yet, it feels like we’re at the tip of the iceberg.

The trick will now be to figure out how to actually improve the planet we live on through the web. Solve big problems. That is what I’m really excited about.

Yes that is something to get excited about. It’s time to roll up our sleeves people. Let’s get working!

 

Yes we have a logo

A version of our new logo!

Its been a busy, but satisfying week!

And now the plug:

HERENOW Collective assists organisations to implement electronic media solutions.

Why? We want to make a difference to the way people work and ultimately cut down on our consumption of the planet’s resources. We are passionate about collectively creating a sustainable future for our planet. We are interested in collaboration as a way to achieve outcomes for a sustainable future. Creativity is at the heart of everything we do. Interested? Want to know more?

Drop us a line at: enquiry@herenowcollective.com.au

 

What will 2009 bring?

Rain clouds over the Bowen Mountain range

The pundits are busy predicting the shape of our year to come. What’s in store for humanity and the planet? This article from the International Herald Tribune is  worth a read I think.

I thought I might gather together my thoughts and expectations and those of others for a few posts over the quieter month of January.

Firstly, now more than ever, it is time to invent new ways of working.

Secondly, own ideals, but share ideas.

Thirdly, get connected. However or whatever that means for you. Don’t wait. Start now. Time to think collectively.

 

What will 2009 bring? (II)

The future of Work Agenda Newsletter has hit my inbox, and Jim Ware and Charlie Grantham of the Work Design Collaborative have this to say re 2009:

The people of America are tired. Tired of being afraid; tired of checking under the bed every night for the boogeyman; and, yes, tired of being taken for granted while greed and hubris run rampant.

So we enter a new year with Hope (sometimes that’s all we have). In 2009 that’s hope for new leadership – leadership that is already being tested by the lesser angels.

So what does all this mean for the future of work? Our short answer is “A lot.” We think Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, said it best when he spoke recently about the events of the past few months, saying “Someone has hit the reset button. This is not a normal change in the business cycle.”

Read more of their article

Over at Do You Stand For Something, they speculate that 2009 is a turning point where:

we might expect to see the role of corporations in cause-related activities to be diminished as government and individual involvement increase in caring for communities.

My favourite predictions for the year come from the Future Exploration Blog. Their Trend Map is in downloadable pdf format. I’m always a sucker for pretty pictures!

 

2009 – the year we rediscover community?

As we progress into 2009, and summer hits the south-east of Australia with full force, the issue of weather becomes unavoidable.

by Deb Foskey

Melbourne and other places in Victoria have experienced the longest period of 40+ degree days in recorded history.  Our need for comfort and the predominance of poorly designed housing has led to a mass turning on of air conditioners and consequent loss of power altogether for many electricity ‘consumers’ (weren’t they clients once?).

There are some interesting stories, such as the parrots gathering at a suburban swimming pool in their scores. Luckily the pool owner was also there and was able to rescue all but eight of the birds that fell in. All species must cooperate during periods of intense weather.

Big cities feel the impacts of hot weather in the power outages, the rail-dependent public transport breakdowns and cancellations. I imagine it is very unpleasant to find yourself by-passed on a crowded platform as yet another full train goes past without stopping. Those who can afford it are renting rooms in air conditioned motels. During the 2003 January fires in Canberra, neighbours in my street all visited the only house with gas connected (the electricity had gone) so we could have our drugs of addiction: tea and coffee.

Sadly, most buildings these days are designed on the assumption that they will be air-conditioned, and retrofitting them will be very difficult. However, it can be done, as Australian Ethical Investment has shown with its conversion of its very ordinary (but correctly oriented) Canberra office building which won a Banksia Environmental Award in 2008.  Have a look at Trevor Pearcey House to see how AE and the architects managed to reduce water use by 75% and energy use by 70%. Perhaps this summer’s experiences will entice other office managers to reduce their resource use (as water and energy are proving to be unreliable resources) – but office owners will need to be given enticements and regulation to provide this amenity for their tenants.

The Victorian Government looks as though it never really thought the present circumstances would ever happen – abnormally hot weather and a fire to boot – and seems singularly unprepared. In South Victoria, the fires are serious. Yesterday I was with a friend whose partner was protecting their house in a town too near the Delburn fires in South Gippsland. The smoke cloud was visible just out to sea from Orbost.

The positive theme that comes through in many of the interviews and news reports is that community caring and good communication are key factors in preparedness and ability to handle fire situations. Coping with climate change will throw up many challenges that will need to be dealt with at the community level. Communities organising locally seem better able to cope than the government. Government, even local government, is too far removed to deal with situations at a sub-town or suburb level.

Jane Jacobs had much of it right back in the sixties in her book The life and death of great American cities. Check out the Project for Public Spaces website for more about Jane, her writings and activism.

2009 must be the year that we stop building inappropriately and instead design communities – not just ‘developments’ – with social and environmental sustainability as their focus. We have many planners, writers and examples to guide us. The Transition Towns movement is a growing community-led movement which provides many tools for individuals and organisations to work with (see their website for further info).

Meanwhile, we could be finding out what makes successful local communities work. I believe we have understood the importance of working collaboratively as communities – whether connected by place or interest or kinship – since we started being conscious of being human. But from time to time, we seem to forget its importance and how to do it. The Howard years, wherein we were meant to see ourselves as individuals and (heterosexual, nuclear) families, have necessitated a new attention and relearning of the efficiency and sheer pleasure of working cooperatively. And 2009 is the year to do it.

Dr Deb Foskey will be writing the odd post for Herenow Collective. Her website is: www.debfoskey.com