I’ve been reading alot about toilets lately. It’s exciting to see that the enthusiasm many people have for cloth nappies and reusable sanitary cloths has extended to other bathroom activities.

There’s  Crunchy Chicken’s annual cloth wipe challenge which involves using fabric cloth instead of toilet paper for either number one or number two depending on your enthusiasm. Even those the cloths need to be washed, it reduces the use of water in manufacturing toilet paper, oil, energy and of course tree production. It also saves money.

pic from Treehugger

I was interested by her comment

I know when I first started out, I felt like I was doing something illicit. Like wiping my ass on the bath towels and not telling anyone. Or picking my nose and wiping it on the carpet. Well, you get the idea. Once you get over that strange feeling of wrongness and embrace the softness of cloth wipes, one can become rather giddy with excitement. Or something like that.

There’s also a murmur of interest in DIY bidets, either clip or or more organic means such as a garden hose trigger gun (hehe). Find out more here

I’m really excited to hear that “No Impact Man” film is opening in the US.

The doco is about Colin Beavan who decides to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for the next year.

It means eating vegetarian, buying only local food, and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, buses, or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption, and no garbage.

No problem – at least for Colin – but he and his family live in Manhattan. So when his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter are dragged into the fray, the No Impact Project has an unforeseen impact of its own.

Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein’s film provides an intriguing inside look into the experiment that became a national fascination and media sensation, while examining the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from Colin and Michelle’s struggle with their radical lifestyle change.

Want to find out more? You can check out the No Impact Blog and even try the challenge yourself!

Cadbury removes palm oil

By Sally Glaetzer

The Mercury

August 20, 2009 12:01am

CADBURY has caved in to pressure from outraged chocolate fanatics and pledged to remove palm oil from its Tasmanian-made blocks.

The company had tried to persuade Cadbury lovers its new recipe, replacing some cocoa butter with palm oil, would make its chocolate smoother, The Mercury reports.

But consumers were not convinced and Cadbury has been forced to apologise and revert to the original recipe, after being flooded with complaints.

“We are removing palm oil and returning to a cocoa butter only recipe for Cadbury’s entire moulded block chocolate range, including our flagship Cadbury Dairy Milk brand and product lines such as Old Gold and Dream,” Cadbury Australia managing director Mark Callaghan said yesterday.

“We will soon commence the production of a cocoa butter only recipe at Claremont in the coming weeks.”

Cadbury changed the Dairy Milk recipe earlier this year, at the same time as it downsized its chocolate blocks and changed its packaging. Rather than a money-driven decision, the company insisted it was adding palm oil to make the chocolate softer to bite. The Mercury website was inundated with comments from once-loyal Cadbury fans who vowed never to buy it again.

“Why do Cadbury imagine we would prefer an adulterated, second-rate product?” one reader said.

Hobart chocolate lovers Maggie Abraham and Nina Middleton-Tubb yesterday hailed Cadbury’s backflip as a sign of people power.

“If people can change chocolate, they can change the world,” joked Miss Abraham. Miss Middleton-Tubb said: “It is good that they listened to the fact that people didn’t like it.”

I was excited to read about the town of Ghent in Belgium which started a ‘meat free’ day once a week.

On this day all restaurants serve veggie food only and local officials and residents choose a meat free day in recognition of the impact of meat production on the environment.

A great scheme that should be adopted everywhere!

The ‘In the Hot-House’ festival combines the celebration of music, art, craft, dance, films and food with an exploration of the environmental and social challenges that exist in our own backyards and around the world. Learn how to take action on climate change as some of the best of Melbourne’s environmental and community groups show you ‘What you can do’ and present alternatives perspectives on the crises facing us today.

The festival program continues at the picturesque and inspiring CERES Environmental Park. The program is busting at the seams and consists of art, music, workshops, food, drink, films, children’s entertainment and much more including the premiere performance collaborative performance project with two Moreland based schools, Voices of our Future.
Festival Highlights Include:

Music from The Conch, Orkeztra Glasso Bashalde, Radiant City and more.
Collaborative art projects across the site including Photography, Sculpture and Found Art with contributions from the ‘Outsiders Guide’, Sudeep, Ero, Peter Hutchinson and more coming
‘Voices of our Future’ schools drama performance

Children’s Clown, face painting and kids workshops

Food and drink from local and sustainable companies, including the infamous Good Brew beer bike
Workshops on a wide variety of subjects from environmental issues, open source technology, radical craft, alternative thought, green renting, Slow living and activism.

Run a workshop
Community stalls to inform and educate. Apply for a stall
Film night showcasing short films on environmental and social issues (6.30pm, Sat 18th)
Chris and I are running a “Green Renters” workshop and i am involved in a huge craft installation teaching people to embroider! Stayed tuned for more details.

Turn off your lights and any non-essential electrical appliances between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on Saturday 28 March, 2009.

Earth Hour 2009 will only be a success if we have wide support from every section of the community – households, businesses, governments and not-for-profit groups – and huge participation.

We have a target of one billion people worldwide to “switch off” but we need your support.

Please register you support at www.earthhour.org/australia

The first Earth Hour in 2007 reached more than 2 million people in Sydney. In 2008, it’s estimated that between 50 and 100 million people around the world joined Earth Hour by switching off their lights and turning appliances off stand-by. Earth Hour 2009 aims to reach 1 billion people in over 1,000 cities.

This global vote for action in the lead up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen helps prove to world leaders that the public wants strong action to be taken on climate change.

In 2009, Earth Hour will be truly global.

After having between 50 and 100 million people around the world taking part in 2008, we’re now setting ourselves a target of reaching one billion the world over.

More and more countries will register their participation as the campaign continues.

 Is Earth Hour just for the big cities?