Pale blue dot

 

Referring this photograph of the earth taken from the Voyager spacecraft about 6.5 billion km away, the late Carl Sagan said:

“Look again at that dot. 
That’s here. 
That’s home. 
That’s us.
On it everyone you love, 
Everyone you know. 
Everyone you ever heard of, 
Every human being who ever WAS lived out their lives there.
The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, 
Every hunter and forager, 
Every hero and coward, 
Every creator and destroyer of civilization, 
Every king and peasant, 
Every young couple in love, 
Every mother and father, hopeful child inventor and explorer, 
Every teacher of morals, 
Every corrupt politician, 
Every “superstar”, 
Every “supreme leader”, 
Every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there 
On a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. 
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. 
Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. 
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, 
How frequent their misunderstandings, 
How eager they are to kill one another, 
How fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. 
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life.
There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. 
Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand… There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. 
To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Australia is the driest continent yet we continue to waste water. It's easy to save water. For watering the garden try installing a simple mechanical timer to shut the water off after a while, even when hand-watering, then you can tell how much water was used. Save the bath and laundry water for the garden too, a collapsible bucket is ideal for this, just store it in the bathroom or laundry cabinet. Install a rain diverter on a gutter down pipe to divert rainwater from the roof to the garden, or store it in rainwater tank for later use.  A grey-water diverter can be installed under the laundry basin to divert grey water to the garden.

Eco pest control methods avoid using harmful chemicals. Natural insect deterrents such as sandalwood, eucalyptus and citronella are well suited for use around the home to deter pesky mozzies and flying insects. Sandalwood sticks come in various sizes and burning times and can be extinguished for relighting at a later time.  You can even just leave a few fresh sticks in closets to deter bugs as they emit a gentle scent of sandalwood. The Envirosafe flytraps are very effective, they attract flies to a solution in a container that traps them inside. The baits are non-toxic and made from food grade ingredients. Place one in the garden and you will soon see the difference, but it does generate a strong smell to attract the flies so keep it a few meters away from the living areas. Our own Ecopia fly swatters are made from recycled mesh and fencing wire, they are very tough and guaranteed to last for many years.

About 18 million trees are cut down in Australia every year to make woodchips, pulp and paper. Any recycling of paper will go a long way to preserve forests and the many native animal and plant species that live in them. Printing and paper production is detrimental to the environment. Our oceans, waterways and their inhabitants are being polluted and damaged by exposure to toxic paper mill effluent & printer waste, which is a significant contributor to global warming. Do your bit to reduce the environmental damage by using recycled 100% environmentally friendly greetings and gift cards. They are carbon neutral. These eco friendly greetings cards are made in Australia on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable ink, but just as important is the fact that Earth Greetings operates in a totally sustainable fashion, considering the impact on the earth in every step of the production process in order to preserve our forests and wildlife.

Eco friendly cleaning products are non-toxic natural products that will not pollute the home environment. Synthetic cleaners and aerosol sprays can pollute the air in average home to levels found on a busy city street. The toxic residues adhere to surfaces for months and years causing various chronic ailments. Natural detergents and dishwashing liquids don’t contain harsh chemicals that pose a hazard to human health or the environment. Possibly the best eco friendly cleaners are micro-fiber cleaning mitts and cloths, you can use the micro-fibre mitts with just water to clean just about anything, add a little eco friendly cleaning solution for stubborn spots. The easiest eco friendly alternative is to avoid using harsh detergents that pollute, most household cleaning can be done using biodegradable detergents and do try micro-fiber cloths as they really will do the job.

Dont waste electricity on appliances. Electronically controlled home appliances these days usually have a stand-by state, which means that even when the unit is switched off it is still consuming electricity. The easiest way to save on your electricity bill is to use a timer to automatically turn the mains power to the unit off when it’s not in use. If you dont have these handy units then switch the power off at the wall to ensure that all power circiuts are off.

Eco lights can reduce your lighting bill by 80%. Most energy-saving lights are compact fluorescents, commonly called a CFL. CFLs are a great improvement on the incandescent light bulb that has a tungsten filament, because that filament is really nothing more that a heater in a glass bulb, the electricity is used to heat up the filament until it gets so hot that it begins glowing, that's why its called 'incandescent'. CFLs use only one fifth of the electricity compared to an incandescent because they don't waste electricity to produce heat, another great benefit is that they will last 6 to 10 times longer than a filament bulb. They can produce different shades of light; the most popular is 'warm white' because it most closely resembles the Colour of a tungsten filament globe. A lot has been said about mercury used in CFL lights but the truth is that the amounts used is only a few milligrams and in areas with coal-fired power stations the use of CFLs and other energy efficient technologies saves on mercury emmisions due to reduced power demand. LEDs are a relatively new technology, they consume very little electricity and are useful for spotlights, reading lights and down lights.

We Australians have relatively clean air, but occasionally it is a problem. Don’t allow air pollution to go unnoticed, complain about the smog and industrial pollution. It requires an ongoing and concerted effort on our part to make the legislators sit up and take notice of our feelings. Complain to your local shire or council and write letters to your newspaper. Put up posters on your school and library bulletin boards, start a petition, stomp yer feet! 
 
Be aware of the known health risks associated with unflued gas heaters.
A report presented to Government by Len Ferrari, the President of The Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand (CASANZ) in October 2002, showed that unflued gas heaters were a source of toxic gases.  CASANZ represents the majority of air pollution specialists across Australia and New Zealand. 

Poor air conditioning systems are more prevalent in old office blocks than in the home but it is worth noting that even in the home breathing difficulties and asthma in children has been linked to home air conditioners.
Air conditioners with poor filtration or clogged and dirty ducting re-circulate stale indoors air containing dust particles, hair and skin fragments, dust mite excretia and many other air-born particles.

Here in Australia, a vast dry continent, we lack clean water. Drought, pollution and groundwater salination compound the problem. The farmer trying to survive till the next rains because the old river that used to run all year round is a mud pool, the land turning white from rising salt.
Maybe we caused that, you..me..our parents..the pioneer farmer clearing trees for more grazing land, anyway blame is futile.
It’s time to turn back the clock, restore the balance, it can be done. It will take a hundred years but it can be done.  
The rivers, waterways and lakes are part of an ecosystem so we must not allow them to become polluted. Fortunately the policing of the water systems has become a priority but if you notice cases of water pollution then report it to the authorities.

Conserve water. It’s just common sense. Fix dripping taps, reduce the flow when washing your hands or doing the dishes. Any time you use water just use less.
Try to upgrade to water saving showerheads and toilet cisterns. Bucket the grey laundry water and bathwater and use it in the garden or install a grey water diverter to automatically divert it to the garden. 

In the garden
Catch the rainwater from the roof by diverting the downpipe runoff to the garden or storage tank. You can even drink it, first allow the initial runoff to rinse the roof and flush out the pipes.

Use a watering can to water the garden, but if you use sprinklers then fit a tap timer and  set it to shut off after a while, in case you forget. Remember it’s better for the garden if you give a good soak twice a week, that promotes deep root growth and the plant becomes resistant to temporary lack of water.

Replace those silly alien plants with hardy Australian plants. Consider removing that water guzzling, nineteenth century anachronism called the lawn if you live in a low rainfall area.

Make conservation  your career
Get an environmental job

Ecopia eco shop’s main objective is to promote an environmentally friendly lifestyle

Ecopia’s main focus is to promote genuine green products that will have minimal impact on the environment.
We concentrate on promoting 12 volt solar power to reduce greenhouse gases because portable solar energy is probably the most viable green technology available today. Solar panels, along with wind turbines, are now accepted as practical clean energy alternatives to conventional power.
You'll love our popular solar chargers like the  soldius solar charger because they are really useful alternative to throw-away batteries and  the inconvenience of finding an AC power outlet, plus they allow you the freedom to use clean free energy to recharge your phone or personal device in remote areas.
It's also important to use less grid-fed electricity so we also provide the most energy efficient lights, commonly called LED lights like the popular Dot-It lights from Osram.
We advocate domestic water conservation by installing grey water diverters, rain water diverters, tap timers and low flow devices.
Another important aspect of conservation is using recycled products, we have a beautiful range of greetings cards and gift cards  made entirely from recycled paper and vegetable-based inks . Our most innovative recycled product is a  fly swatter
In order to reduce toxic waste we advocate the the use of non-toxic household consumables, and  to minimise kitchen waste there are odourless kitchen composters like the popular bokashi bucket.
contact ecopia If you do not find the parcicular eco product you want and we'll try to get it for you, by finding a new eco product  you will be helping us to provide a better service.