Save Water - Shower with a FB Friend

Please join and encourage your FB friends to join the Facebook Cause:

Save Water - Shower with a Facebook Friend

This Cause supports the Th!nk5: Water blogging competition in the lead up to World Water Day 22 March 2011.

Click for the Th!nk About It Facebook page.

Extreme Weather: Is Global Warming the Culprit?

From Th!nk5: WATER

Is Global Warming the Culprit?

Carnarvon hit by worst floods since 1960. (WAtoday 21 Dec 2010)

There is endless debate about whether AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) is the culprit in recent extreme weather events such as floods. The floods season is still in full swing in Australia, with Carnarvon inundated for the third time in three months.

Two recent contributions to the controversy add fuel to the fire (oops! mixed disaster metaphors).

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Global Voices: Dog-whistling to Islamophobes

My latest Global Voices post: Australia: Dog-whistling to Islamophobes

Australian Opposition politicians have been accused of using dog-whistle politics and courting islamophobes during the last week. Two issues have collided with instant reactions in the blogosphere.

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Morrison & Humphries: Dog-whistling to Islamophobes

Could be a case of dog bites whistling politicians!

My post at Global Voices:

Australian Opposition politicians have been accused of using dog-whistle politics and courting islamophobes during the last week. Two issues have collided with instant reactions in the blogosphere.
Australia: Dog-whistling to Islamophobes

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Can We Make ‘Water’ Sexy?

From Th!nk5: Water

It’s a serious question. One of the biggest problems when blogging about water issues, especially issues such as desalination or use of aquifers, is how ‘dry’ and technical it becomes for aqua amateurs. It’s just not sexy enough for the web. Sexy in the sense of exciting, enticing, stimulating, or provoking the grey matter. We need to disturb, inspire or just plain interest a broader audience.

Is Desalination a Solution? (No pun intended)

When Australia was struggling during a decade of droughts, many State governments saw desalination plants as the answer to water shortages in the Capital cities. A number have been built, are near completion or in the planning stages.

The first was the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant in Kwinana. Unfortunately it doesn’t do public tours. It has deflected some opposition by the use of a Wind Farm for its power. The WA Water Corporation promotes desalination here.

Victoria’s plant-in-progress at Wonthaggi has been very controversial, especially after the decade long drought finally broke. It has been criticised as:

• more expensive than alternatives such as water tanks
• adding to greenhouse gases through its reliance on coal power generation
• destroying the surrounding marine environment

One prominent opponent is Watershed Victoria. This image comes from their website:

http://www.watershedvictoria.org.au/content/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/backgrnd.png

They have tried humour and satire to gain interest. The cartoon below is from one of their bulletins:

http://www.watershedvictoria.org.au/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/stasitoon.jpg

Video may be the answer to reaching a wide audience. Here’s one example:

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Mangrove Cove: Under Bunbury's Boardwalk

Bunbury’s Mangrove Cove is one of the least likely locations for a thriving mangrove ecosystem. The estuary is smack in the middle of a fast-growing city of approximately 70,000 people. Bunbury is 200 kms south of Perth, Western Australia.

Birds, fish and insects greeted us on our morning stroll along the boardwalk this morning. This photo gallery captures some of that enjoyable experience:

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Water Installation: Art Targets Pollution

For Th!nk5: Water

Received this Facebook message on 31 Jan 2011 from new media artist Keti Haliori:

The “World Water Museum” installation is an artistic rendering of the vast environmental problem of the downgrading and lack of clear, potable water on the planet. The target of the project is to make the public sensitive to the problem and through the use of audio-visual means, to activate and awake the desire to hold the valuable water of the Earth in his protective arms.

This artwork project will be completed through the creation and development of human networks, all over the world, in order to send water samples from rivers and lakes from all over the planet.

All vehicles of authority and groups of citizens are entitled to participation should they wish to be co-creators of the “World Water Museum” installation, taking into consideration the issue and ways of approaching it.

Please support by being a member, interacting and sharing

World Water Museum Facebook page

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