10/10/10 = NUC Wheels of Change

350.org has done it again!

"Dear friends,

It's happening--and it’s even bigger than we thought it would be.

From what we can tell from reports streaming in from East Asia and Australia and New Zealand, 10/10/10 is going to be the biggest day of climate action ever--from one end of the planet to the other, people are already hard at work."
(Bill McKibben 350.org)

10/10/10 marked another 350 day of Climate Action! Yesterday in Darwin there were 3 events planned.




NUC Wheels of Change - A bunch from Nightcliff Uniting Church decided it would be a great idea to ride to Church

Lakeside Drive Community Garden 10/10/10 Working Bee - The Lakeside Drive Community Gardeners chose this date as the time to turn the first sod of soil in the creation of their ambitious new community garden on a spit of land between the road and the Rapid Creek.

Peddalling for the Planet - A bunch of cyclists planned to get together dress their bikes up and ride a 3.5 km circuit to promote climate action.


I was fortunate enough to attend two of these events and the atmosphere was great.

A pretty large bunch of people turned up at Nightcliff Uniting Church on their bikes... I shouldn't have been surprised really! There's a lot of active enthusiastic participants in life who attend that Church. I should have known they wouldn't need much prompting to jump on their bikes and have some fun riding to Church! Unfortunately my family weren't feeling too good on Sunday morning (it seems they'd finally caught the cold I brought home from work a week ago!) so it was a party of one who left our house at 8:30 am. I didn't have to ride far before I met with Penny, then Lucy and her two boys. The 5 of us had quite a pleasant ride along the McMillans Rd cycle path and then past the farm on Rapid Creek. By 9:15 we'd arrived at the Church early enough to watch all the others come peddling in! It was so cool to see everyone rolling up. There were about 5 families who rode together and a bunch of others who peddled solo from various locations around Darwin. I'm pretty sure now the youngest riders were a pair of 3 year olds while the oldest would have been somewhere over 60 years old... The atmosphere was so great that Jana (the Minister and worship leader of the day) had to come out and ring a bicycle bell to get the crowd to come in and join the service!
This spontaneous effort spurred people to think about future rides we might like to do together as a group.

Later in the day at about 4:00pm when my girl was feeling more like riding we hopped on our bikes and rode down to Lakeside Drive where we met with a bunch of others who had peddled down there to start work on the new Community Garden! Once again the atmosphere was buzzing with enthusiasm and a sense of fun! Once again there were a great mix of children and adults all participating in an activity of affirmative action toward a carbon neutral future!



It was great to take part in these events! Being part of a community of people from all age groups working together for a sustainable future is a great buzz. We don't know exactly what the future will bring. Maybe we will never achieve the goal of 350 parts per million of Carbon in the atmosphere but working together as we have may help us to build the skills necessary to participate in a rapidly changing and increasingly hostile environment.

One less Car

I've got about 5 minutes to post this before I have to go and punch the dough... (Baking Bread again!)

So here it is! When I first started seeing my Sam she'd just bought a second hand Ford Festiva. It was her first newish car and she was very happy to own it. It then became our shared car and we have had many an adventure in the little 1.3 liter Coupe. A couple of trips through the centre of Australia the East Coast and a trip across to Broome proved that you don't need a large car to travel long distances.



(Our little Festiva... but not for long)

After a couple of years of marriage we had our first child and managed pretty well with the three of us in the car. As the old girl got older we have had to spend more money to keep her going and alas we lost the airconditioning and that was the final straw for me. I declared that I would not pay to have that fixed (It uses heaps of fuel) and after about 11 years of service we decided to get a new car.
About a year and a half ago we had the opportunity to get a small station wagon at a reasonable price and so we became a two car family... (Not really in line with my low impact beliefs)

As you may know I am quite concerned about environmental issues and attempt to ride my bicycle as much as possible, however we have family visit from interstate fairly regularly and the second car has been handy.

Anyway it's crunch time and I've finally decide to be true to my ideal of reducing our impact on the planet and would dearly like to wear my One Less Car T-shirt without feeling like a complete fraud! So we've decided to give the car away to a friend! Yes we are giving it away! Basically they need it... we rather try living without it so it works out just fine.

Farewell little MOJO Mobile (The car's name). Thank you for 11 years of wonderful service and great millage.

I will now rely on my bicycle for all (Most) personal trips and endeavor only to use the automobile for family travel and emergencies.

(Primary Transportation Unit .1)