Veronika Wild

Melbourne looked much greener than I’d seen it in quite a while and there was some lovely Autumn colour about Had a quick trip to Melbourne for family reasons this week. Though I didn’t get a chance to do much sightseeing, there were a couple of things which caught my eye and some ideas worth sharing. Getting There Bringing nature inside. This vertical garden refreshes body and soul   The first thing that struck me was that greener airports are catching on. Though modest compared to say, Singapore’s exotic indoor gardens or even Sydney’s, Hobart now has some lush green living wall panels which add a bit of life and colour and give a foretaste of what’s to come. I’ll swear the air quality was much better too.  A Children’s Corner has been added as well with a cubby -house made of local timber, depictions of native animals and a carpet that looked like moss. It’s all very low key and calming after the frenzy of getting to the airport, standing in check -in queues and g...

  ‘Toxic cover-up ’: 6 lessons Australia can draw from the UN’s scathing report on greenwashing Alastair Grant/AP Keegan Robertson , Curtin University ; Hugh Finn , Curtin University , and Ifan Odwyn Jones , Curtin University The United Nations this week slammed corporate “greenwashing” and said organisations cannot claim to be net-zero while supporting fossil fuel projects. The report , released at the global COP27 climate conference in Egypt, called for new rules to ensure emissions pledges were credible and transparent. UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed the expert group in March. Releasing its report this week, Guterres had strong words for companies that use “bogus” net-zero pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion: It is rank deception. This toxic cover-up could push our world over the climate cliff. The sham must end. Guterres said loopholes in rules around corporate emissions reporting are “wi...

[Greenpeace together with the Break Free From Plastic coalition conducted a beach cleanup activity and plastics brand audit on Freedom Island, Philippines in 2017. © Daniel Müller / Greenpeace]   Whenever I think of our problems with plastic, I think of the story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice – how a really good idea turned into a nightmare. If you don’t know the story, the Master Sorcerer tells his Apprentice to clean up the workshop while he goes out for the day. The Apprentice has just enough knowledge to make the broom do it and he commands it to fetch water to wash the floor. Unfortunately he can’t remember the magic spell to stop it and the broom fetches more and more water until the place is flooded. The Master is not pleased when he comes home, but the Apprentice certainly is. How we got here  It’s hard to imagine now how little plastic there was when my sister and I were growing up in the 1950s. Our first encounter with modern plastics came in the form o...