Saving the world is easier than you think

If you wish to save the world, begin by taking a closer look at yourself. State of mind relates to the state of the world around you.  As you sense what you think, feel and how you act is reflected in the exernal world, you begin to realize saving the world begins with being kind to yourself.  Show compassion. Just to notice thoughts and ability to focus is empowering.

Ask yourself what makes you believe the natural world needs saving. Are you listening to fear-based opinions and allowing this to impact how you feel and what you see? The mind plays tricks to convince you something is wrong where the heart knows everything is actually unfolding perfectly.  Thus, you could recognize that if you think the world needs saving, you are allowing your focus to be controlled by the mind and its limiting filters.

Another perspective is offered by Michael Norton.  He shares a book called 365 Ways to Change the World: How to Make a Difference - One Day at a Time. It draws attention to the importance of how we feel about our individual life choices.  Feelings determine what we see.

This book is full of ideas, some of which you may have heard before as well as others that may surprise you. For example, ever thought of using recycled toilet paper? Maybe not. Yet, rest assured, this doesn't necessarily mean wiping with leaves or sandpaper. Why not become a virtual volunteer and share your lessons learned? What prevents you from giving away items that clutter your home and your life? It's not as hard as you think to help reverse bio-piracy or silently react to Internet spam. Identify how your consumer choices affect wider, natural resource management.

Imagine benefits of performing anonymous acts of generosity, planting trees, watching only non-violent movies, choosing not to buy blood diamonds or products that perpetuate sujugation. Support local craftspeople and fair trade agricultural products, and make a living will. Readers can consult http://www.365act.com for other ideas and inspirations based on key book sources.

If you're solutions-oriented and aim to help the planet, consider these tips:

1) Plant a tree weekly. If everyone on the planet did, we could reverse key destructive processes.

2) Drive less to reduce your carbon emissions. Favor and use alternative energy forms and avoid or minimize carbon producing materials like aerosols, not burning leaves, vegetation or garbage.

3) Re-think your position on water projects, such as dams and other means of redirecting existing water supplies. Favor clean-water generating plans, conservation practices and surveillance. of ground water flows so rain will be more effectively captured to supply underground water.

4) Support urban plans that include more vegetation. Organize petition for council.

5) Rather than favor expanding cities, encourage rural living, explore Internet-based business and other sustainable practices in harmony with nature.

6) Increase self-sufficiency by growing food in backyard gardens and composting.

7) Raise awareness about local environmental issues which affect you directly. Discuss options with other people you think are affected. Cooperate to devise and implement solutions.

8) Encourage education on family planning to and share information about global over-population.

9) Reward children and adults in community/ business as they reduce waste and increase recycling.

10) Learn about the land and balance of local ecosystems. Heed fire bans and prevent bush fires.

11) Support wildlife reserves, conservation an preservation charities and nature associations

Strategies to get over hurdles

Risk-taking is sometimes compared to thrill-seeking in such sports such as rock climbing, deep-sea diving, spelunking, hang gliding, bungy jumping or parachuting from planes.  Of course, gambling and feeding addictions or obsessions describe very serious and perplexing problems in societies. A need for safety is fundamental, so are risk-takers illogical? irrational? or somehow mentally ill?

People who take a chance to lose things recognize value can be found in a hazardous situation.  You may find yourself in a position where you're unsure if you're willing to do what it takes to get the adrenalin flowing or to redefine an acceptable or menaingful life.  You may hear people telling you all those reasons why they think you should or shouldn't, when a voice inside whispers what you really wish to do.  Consider these questions when contemplating how to proceed:

1) What is your confidence level? Sporting risk takers tend to have high self-confidence they can manage the risks involved, and friends also choose to take fatal risks. Physical challenges in extreme altitude or temperature may trigger fight or flight response, although because confident people believe they're in control of the risks, they sense high arousal as excitement rather than fear. If you're a sporty sensation-seeker with a track record, go for it! If you have no record, but you have attitude, confidence and emotional support, that's a good sign.

2) How would you describe your anxiety level? No matter what you wonder about, from those potential job changes, developing or leaving a relationship, to making other decisions you've never made before, it's natural to second guess yourself, at least initially.  Your own conscience you may seize your attention to ensure you think before you act. If fear and doubt grab your attention, only you determine whether you permit them to control you for good reason or if your imagination runs wild. Consider the impact of prospective decisions on other people and if you act with self-interest or for the greater good.  Refer back to the principles and values you've been taught, on how you evolve, and on the future you desire.

3) Could you afford to lose? Where health or financial stakes are high, consider the worst case scenario. If you bet your life savings on one horse race or a handful of companies in the stock market and you lost, would you be able to live and survive with the consequences? If you know substances from smoking to illicit drugs will lower your life expectancy, and you take them anyway, how does this impact family and friends? If you're willing to take serious health risks, you go beyond rebelling against social conventions and rules and risk physical well-being and your life.

4) Are you in line with your priorities? The nature of the risk you ponder may not "fit a specific profile." Think about your personality in relation to your view of risk-taking behaviour. You may not know anyone who has taken risks you contemplate.  You may desire to be a pioneer, or do things no person in your family has done.  Generalisations of what is or isn't a good risk may not apply.  Reassure yourself about exceptions.  Profiles of desireable risks for certain types of people need not be your reference.  If you research pros and cons of taking the risk or not, you will have to decide if the possible sacrifices and rewards would be worth it.

5) Could you live with yourself if you didn't take the risk? Your circumstances may be humble, and you're offered the chance to try out for a professional sports team in another country.  Your life may be hanging by a thread, and you're given the chance to test a non-proven drug which could save your life.  Your young child has the chance to accomplish significant in life but it goes against what you know. Do you pass guardianship to a foreign coach and send the child away?  You're nominated for a position that would enable you to enrich your community, but it would require compromise and sacrifice beyond your current limits. You may be in love with someone and feel shy about sharing how you feel. What if they never know? Taking the risk to step outside your comfort zone, to do something uncomfortable or scary has the potential to change your life or the life of someone you are about. Reflect on the power of control and ego and the benefits of making trade-offs.

Expand possibilities with Aussie-based SKA

When you think of outer space, you may consider how it inspires your imagination. Most people have dreams of some kind. We ponder our limits, projects to work toward, and the sorts of initiatives they would require. Space enables us to learn more about who we are, where we came from or what may be next. If we desire a future on Earth, it makes sense to learn to better look after it. By studying and comparing other parts of the universe, we expand our views.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project will be a radio telescope with a collecting area of one square kilometre. The potential of this concept is revealed in the 1997 science fiction film Contact with Jodi Foster. You may know this was adapted from the popular novel by Carl Sagan. The film echos how humans desire to talk with and understand other planets, and how we also wonder if other civilizations exist in the universe. The 305m Arecibo radio telescope in Puero Rico seen in the film, and rows of satellite dishes are small beans compared to the billion dollar project which may soon be built in Western Australia. Who says dreams don't evolve into reality?

Groups in several countries around the world submitted proposals to host the SKA. Australia’s proposal of Mileura Station, in remote Western Australia, was a finalist along with a location in South Africa. The final decision will be made in 2008 by members of 17 countires on the SKA Steering Committee. The broad mission of the SKA will be to address fundamental questions in research on the origin and evolution of the universe. The SKA design criteria calls for a large central collecting array and additional receivers spread over continental distances. The SKA is planned to operate over a frequency range of about 100 MHz to 25 GHz and have 50 to 100 times the sensitivity of the best radio astronomy receivers currently in use. That is quite an impressive new point of reference.

The Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is bidding to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an international undertaking to build the world’s premier radio telescope. The Australian Government supports this bid, and the creation of an Radio Quiet Zone (RQZ). Appropriate regulatory support from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Western Australia (WA) Government, will strengthen Australia’s bid for SKA.

Although its too early to determine the final decision for the international SKA site, its notable levels of signals from ground-based radio-communications transmitters are very low in the selected area of Western Australia. This is favorable since little “noise” interference for radio astronomy receivers exists. Security also isn't an issue like it could become in South Africa.  The CSIRO has indicated that, should an a RQZ be implemented in Western Australia, it will likely lead to other significant facilities developing in the near future. This is great news for everyone who hopes to expand a vision of the future of our planet. Looking ahead begins with each of us.

Australian waste as a mineable resource

More and more people would like to reduce garbage in landfills. We may recycle and compost, but a much trash still remains. In an ideal word, you might dream of recycling everything and then, laugh this off as a pipedream. Yet, your dream may not be far off the mark! Reality always begins with a dream. You make it happen.

Global Renewables Limited (GRL) is an innovative subsidiary of an old Australian mining company. It's Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility is a world first in Sydney, which gains international attention as it sets standards for diverting waste away from landfills through processing and resource recovery.

Back in 1998, GRL began exploring whether techniques its mining company had used to extract diamonds, gold and tin from the earth could be adapted to extract recyclable commodities from piles of waste. No kidding! This is really significant for Australia since among nations, only the U.S. discards more household garbage. One enormous landfill south of Sydney is ~50m high.  Some people consider it a more memorable view than the famous Harbour Bridge or local Opera House!

The Australian GRL company discovered its process can be extremely useful outside goldmines. Starting with the proven mining principle that the more reusable materials it could separate out, the more profit it could make, GRL built the southern hemisphere's largest waste facility.  Here, it recycles almost all waste received and incinerates nothing. Environmentalists are thrilled this pioneering firm treats waste as a valuable, mineable commodity. Now that's a change of pace!

To maximize profit, GRL uses efficient, mechanical mining devices to extract recyclable contents from inside binbags. Giant magnets remove metals- the plastic film that covers magazines and newspapers is literally "blown" out of waste heaps by heavy-duty cyclone machines.  Then, a giant vibrating conveyor belt isolates small glass pieces. GRL continues to investigate potential clients with a use for recycled plastic film, which the Japanese and Swiss already convert to biodiesel.

After GRL's initial mechanical sorting, more sophisticated technology takes over. Warm water is flushed into the waste mass through a network of underground pipes, creating a chemical process and producing a highly acidic liquid. This kind of glop used to leak from landfills and contaminate groundwater, but GRL's system accelerates waste decomposition. The pipes also collect biogas (methane and carbon dioxide), generated by rotting organic matter, some of which is used to power the plant. Recycling is definitely being taken to a whole new level.

After several days, the decomposed waste becomes sellable compost, or OGM (organic growth media). Rules governing the use of compost made from waste mean that it cannot be spread around agricultural areas but can be used to reinforce industrial sites, landfills and quarries. In Sydney, GRL processes 11 per cent of the rubbish, and the firm sells back 30,000 tons of organic compost a year. That still leaves a long way to go to recycle everything, but we're on our way!

Tumbling space debris on your front lawn?

Many people favor initiatives to improve safety and security. They may dream about peace and harmony yet, still fear what may be around the corner. Increased surveillance and vigilence help. Still, incidents continue to unfold which cause us to question how safe we really are on a fragile blue planet. How might we rethink our actions and learn from the consequences of our choices?

In late February 2007, debris from a Russian rocket booster that exploded over Australia. Few people who realize satellites and spacecraft are launched into space also realize what happens to them. Most people who have access to television and cell phones don't often think about the telecommunications and other systems systems functioning high above that enable us to live as we do.  Not only do the spacecraft which cease to function contribute to the growing cloud of space junk above the Earth, but pieces unpredictably fall in the atmosphere. All of it doesn't burn it either. Look out! What would you say if space debis tumbled high speed into your yard?

Spaceweather.com and the U. S. Air Force Space Surveillance System indicated the rocket booster was orbiting several hundred kilometres above Australia before it fell.  The rocket booster and a communications satellite it was attached to, ended up in the wrong orbit after a malfunction during its launch a year ago. Why is it that these incidents don't often hit the news? And, if the media does run a story, it doesn't keep our attention very long. Apparently man-made space objects that are no longer working get more press when they fall from the sky?

The malfunction left the rocket booster hurtling off-course, partially filled with fuel. According to the US Air Force, radars have so far detected 1111 fragments from the explosion, with that number growing. This debris is from this single incident.Consider what this means for potential space debris and falling, human-created matter from thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth. Its difficult to ascertain the exact implications, but should we disregard the matter entirely?

Back in 2001, the deorbiting of the Russian Mir space station was controlled, yet there was still debris. Mir was brought down and sunk in a desolate stretch of the south Pacific. Responsibility to third parties for possible damages related to the deorbiting of the station was insured for about $200 million. It was a huge and expensive process. Who would pay to deorbit satellites? No company or government or independent party is volunteering.  

It is likely to take many weeks before the fate will be known about the Russian rocket fragments from late February 2007. Some are too small to track. Experts suggest it is very unlikely that a rocket fragment will hit you on the head. Yet, more people are looking upward and thinking about the possibility.

"This stuff burns up in the atmosphere on re-entry," says Canberra-based space researcher Dr Duncan Steel.

"Indeed if you had a big chunk of solid material it might reach the ground intact, just as meteorites do," he says. "The chances of that hitting somebody and causing any damage is exceedingly small."

Some space scientists, space agency professionals and politicians believe the main danger from the swarm of fast moving fragments such an explosion is for humans and functioning satellites and space systems in space.  Other space experts disagree. They feel space debris matters require more attention, such as legal, financial and other proactive systems to deal with potential falling debris. These concerned experts see this as a serious environmental hazard.

Note how space objects like micro-meteorites smaller than a millimetre across have caused problems crashing into the windows of the space shuttle and have damaged orbiting satellites. The issue seems to demand more than simple reflection on Earth. What will it take for action?