Gulf of Mexico oil spill, climate change, election issues, local issues. Interviewee canceled at the last minute.

Jim Reiher is the Greens candidate for the seat of Latrobe.

There is a need for more targeted local services such as transport, weed control and so forth.

The electorate (including business) are changing in a way that they demand greener goods and services. For example, some companies now refuse to buy wood chips produced from old-growth forests.

Australia's preferential electoral system lets you vote for a minor party and give your preference to a major party. You get to register a protest vote and the party that gets your primary vote earns $2.31 for it. This is an important source of income for a party like the Greens who don’t take donations from the corporate world.

The Greens didn’t support the CPRS for different reasons than the coalition. The coalition believed it would be too hard on industry, but the Greens thought it was too weak. The proposed CPRS would have prevented future governments from increasing targets without a huge impost on taxpayers. The Greens would support an amended version of the proposed CPRS.

Australia can afford to take a lead in climate change action – other nations are already ahead of us. Although Australians produce less than 2% of global carbon emissions, we export much carbon in the form of coal and are amongst the greatest per-capita carbon emitters in the world.

Refugees represent around 7% of our annual immigration intake. The Greens refugee policy is to adopt the UN recommendation that a country's refugee intake should be 0.1% of its population. For Australia, this would mean an increase from around 14,000 to around 21,000 refugees each year (Australia's annual immigration intake is between 200,000 and 300,000 people).

At the 33.59 mark on the podcast, Jim gives a lengthy reasoning for the Greens refugee policy. If you were to listen to only one section of the podcast, this should be it.

Podcast…

0-13.41 Chat

13.41 – 40.07 Interview

40.07 – 43.30 Chat

Giselle Wilkinson has always felt empathy with the earth. When she was young she wrote poetry that drew comparisons between deforestation and hair-pulling.

For some time, Giselle had been searching for a way to take the sustainability message to a more mainstream audience and decided that food would be a good vehicle for that. In writing The Conscious Cook she discovered that oil was even more critical to our food supply than she realized – its used for transport, pesticides, fertilizer and packaging. This realization meant that our food supply chain was even more fragile than she first thought.

The Conscious Cook honours the Italian slow food movement which is about taking the time to appreciate your local wild and cultivated foods.

Giselle is also involved in the Transition Towns movement. It is pushing for a major restructure of our consumer society within a decade.

Important links…

www.t10.net.au

www.transitiontown.com.au

www.storyofstuff.org

Podcast…

0-10.51 Chat

10.51 – 28.39 Interview

28.39 – 39.10 Annie Leonard – The story of bottled water

39.10 - 42.19 Chat

Victoria McKenzie-McHarg runs the Replace Hazelwood campaign for Environment Victoria.

Hazelwood is an old brown coal fired power station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, and the dirtiest power station in the industrialized world. A recent Environment Victoria report demonstrates that Victoria's alternative power generation projects with planning approval in conjunction with efficiency efforts, are sufficient to allow the closure of Hazelwood by 2012 without impacting on the state's power generating capability.

The public are annoyed that climate change abatement efforts are being made by householders, but the government is not doing its bit.

The State Government's recent proposal to compensate Hazelwood's owners for its part closure sits well with Environment Victoria. They would prefer direct compensation for the purpose of shutting Hazelwood down to compensation that would allow them to keep running under an emissions trading scheme.

Government needs to help communities transition into a non-coal economy. Overall, energy efficiency projects equate to increased employment.

For more information go to www.replacehazelwood.org.au.

Podcast…

0-12.35 Chat

12.35-32.18 Interview

32.18-42.31 Chat

Sam Vine is Conservation Manager for Birds Australia, a bird advocacy, conservation and research organization.

Birds aren't faring so well in Australia and many common species of birds are in decline. The biggest threat is loss of habitat followed by loss of water flows, and consequent drop in nectar availability. Once a species becomes critically endangered they also become vulnerable to events such as drought.

On a positive note, many bird species are benefiting from the new habitat created when people plant native trees and shrubs.

The Birds Australia web site has information on bird calls, plants that encourage birds, and much more.

For more information go to www.birdsaustralia.com.au

0-12.03 Chat

12.03-31.43 Interview

31.43-45.03 Chat

Nick Ray and his business partner Clint have written The Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping, an inexpensive pocket-book to help people make informed ethical shopping decisions. Clint and Nick both saw the Your Dollar Your Vote – Who Did You Vote For Today? slogan on a t-shirt at an event nearly a decade ago and the discussion it sparked between them was a meeting of minds. It is a significant slogan in the Australian context because 80% of our supermarkets are owned by two retailers. So far Nick and Clint have sold 50,000 copies of their guide, have launched a website www.ethical.org.au, have an iPhone app, and run workshops and supermarket tours.

Ethical shopping can be overwhelming if tackled all at once, so Nick's advice is to use the guide to inform one shopping choice each time you grocery shop. Over a year, that adds up. The best shopping choices are usually the ones that involve local goods and Nick recommends having a dialog with the producers of the food you eat. Food co-ops where local home-gardeners share and swap their produce are another option.

More information about the The Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping can be found at www.ethical.org.au

Start thru 11mins 45sec Population discussion

11mins 46sec thru 32mins 20sec: Ethical shopping interview

32mins 20sec thru 43mins 36sec: Van With a Plan

Today we spoke to David Ryan about Melbourne Water's constructed wetlands. Melbourne Water uses wetlands to treat stormwater by settling solids in suspension and using plants to remove nutrients such as nitrogen. Nitrogen is of great concern because at high concentrations it can cause algal blooms which in turn impacts on the fish and animals that use the waterways.

Many wetlands have been funded by Melbourne Water, but many also have been funded by land developers. Householders can make a contribution too. Melbourne Water has a 10,000 RainGarden project where householders can install their own small stormwater buffering systems. The aim of these is to prevent large pollution laden storm flows from entering local water courses.

We also talked about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and Barack Obama's Oval Office address possibly signalling a tipping point in government policies on energy, the Orange Bellied Parrott, and the hazards of mineshafts to wildlife.

Dean Bridgfoot is a 100%Renewable campaign officer (www.100percent.org.au and masg.org.au). His job is to dispel the myths about renewable energy and show that base load renewable energy is possible.

In 2001, John Kelsall boarded a boat called Taluka in Chile, sailed around Cape Horn and then on to Antarctica. John will talk to us about his impressions of Antarctica's ice, birdlife, wildlife and landscape. What is it like to see an iceberg roll, to tie up a boat where there is nothing to tie to, and to survive on a sailboat in a cold climate for a month at a time. Originally planned to be an ice climbing and nature adventure, John's trip changed pace altogether when a fellow adventurer fell down a crevasse.