'Think globally, act locally'

Sent to: Great Lakes Advocate
Status: published
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We get gloomy reports about global warming every day, we see hurried conferences being arranged by international organisations, and our government is berated for not signing up to Kyoto.

I don't really care whether our misguided government does or not - but perhaps I could ask our local government to set a good example?

When I see council workmen patrol footpaths in Tuncurry - and elsewhere, I suppose - heavily armed with petrol-driven leafblowers it sort of blows my mind!

May I modestly ask our elected representatives to prepare an energy conservation plan for our shire that rules out, among other things, the use of inappropriate technology in their day-to-day activities?

Perhaps this would then encourage others to buy a $129 manual push-mower to keep their 10 or 20 sq m of lawn shorn to regulation height.

If necessary, we - as an aged pensioner couple using two such devices to keep perhaps 450 sq m of orchard trimmed - could give interested people some lessons in how to use these mowers most effectively...

Let me admit to ownership of a petrol-driven whipper-snipper, which I DO use very occasionally - I much prefer to use my 35-year-old English scythe now that I've learned to handle it! One scythe fits all, to coin a phrase...


With best wishes for a saner 2006,

carioca