Kim
| Name: |
Kimberley Schultz |
| I live: |
Sydney, Australia. |
Background: I was born and raised on a farm in rural NSW. I moved to Canberra after high school to complete my Bachelor Degree of Psychology, with minor studies in Political Science and Philosophy. And now, I'm living in Sydney, completing my Masters of International Relations, and working as an Intern with Act Now! How exciting!!
Passions: Ever since I can remember, My family have been drawn to the outdoors, whether it was bush-walking, bird watching, or playing sport. So, I'm extremely passionate about environmental biodiversity and conservation issues, as well as reducing climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. I also love contributing to the community, and support the promotion of multiculturalism as a positive asset in Australia. Apart from all this, I do love my Australian Rules Football!
What Makes Me Laugh: Stupid funny movies, People who trip over in the street (especially me!).
Best Piece of Advice: A very wise person once said: "If you're not sure, don't buy it!" It can be applied to any situation, and it's so true!
This work is licenced under an Attribution licence.
© 2008. First published on actnow.com.au
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Since finishing my time with Actnow, I've been thinking about what else I could do to continue being active and taking action. I wanted to become a little more active in my community and get involved in a organisation or society that will help me to do that.
And so, I've decided to give amateur theatre a go! I had an audition with the Strathfield Musical Society for a part in their production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar', and was accepted! WHOO!! In the lead up to the production, the SMS does a lot of work throughout the community, putting on fundraising events and showcases to gain the interest of the community. I'm going to be not only a member and a part of the cast, but an active member promoting the society in the community.
Wish me luck!
I've just realised that I haven't closed off my attempt at being environmentally friendly. I think it was pretty successful! As in my last blog, I made the home-made laundry detergent and put it up against a store bought. This one was probably the least successful: the home-made detergent turned out to be very clumpy (even after being watered down several times) and attached itself to all my clothes leave big white marks! So I think I will be staying with the good old store bought. However, I've found a phosphorus free laundry liquid that is brilliant and cheap, so I'll be using that!
The amazing thing about the whole eco-house action is that it's almost effortless. Once I implemented something, it was very easy to continue doing it. how hard is it to use different light globes or a water-saving shower-head. I am still totally excited about the worm farm (I know it sounds a bit strange to get excited over worms, but I find it intriguing to see them squirming around!) The hardest part of the whole exercise was to implement the recycling system (some old habits die hard!), but even that now has become second nature. "paper in the basket, bottles and glass in the white container, scraps in the worms!" Not rocket science that's for sure.
I guess my point is that, little changes don't impact on you life, but they can still have an effect! If modifying one behaviour will help
out someone or something else (eg. the environment), without being a burden, then why not?
And so ends my time as an Intern for ActNow, and I'm extremely sad to be finishing up. But as I said, this is not goodbye, just see you later. I'm going to be helping out on the incubator which is going to be great fun as well as productive! And i'll continue to contribute to the site when I can!
YAY!
For those who are interested, for the past week I've been trialling some home made cleaning products (got the recipes off the websites i listed before), and put them to the test against store bought chemicals.
Battle 1: multi-purpose cleaner
The home remedy is half water and the other half of either white vinegar or lemon juice. Tried lemon juice, and it kinda left everything a little sticky, but made my kitchen smell pretty. As for the vinegar, I really couldn't see the difference between that and the store bought! Cheap can be good!
Battle 2: Bathroom cleaner
Now, for an effective bathroom cleaner, you need Borax salt, Bi-carbonated soda, and water to make a paste. As for effectiveness it does a pretty good job! The only real difference between that and the store bought is that you may need a little extra effort for scrubbing tiles to remove the mould build up, but other than that, works good!
Battle 3: Window/Glass cleaner
Once again, the main ingredient is white vinegar (this stuff can do anything!). And I will go as far as to say that it works just as good, if not BETTER that normal window cleaner. it polishes glasses, and mirrors and EVERYTHING!! NB. if you rub eucalyptus oil over bathroom mirrors and the front windshield of your car, it acts as a anti-fog!! Try it!!
I have one more recipe to try and that the laundry detergent, will write about that one next time!
Sunday was the day for change! My worms are sitting nicely in a slightly shady part of my balcony so they don't fry, but they seem happy and they're definitely not going hungry!
Have also made up three type of home-made biodegradable cleaning products to test. They're easy enough to make, it's just the ones with the lemon juice need to be used within two week (the lemon starts to go a little rancid after that), and I just don't think I will be cleaning that much!! But we shall see.
I have also begun to properly recycle bottle,s plastics and papers. I have designated bins for all of them (though food scraps go to the worms!). It's quite alarming how much stuff I have just thrown away which could have been recycled, I'm actually a little ashamed. But I've seen the wasteful error of my ways and have reformed! Before throwing out newspapers to be recycled, I have discovered that they are far superior to paper towel for cleaning bathrooms, kitchens, mirrors and glass! Another way to re-use and NOT abuse!
I'm also going to be buying some indoor plants. They naturally purify the air without chemicals or aerosol cans! I just hope I don"t kill them! I'm also phasing out aerosol cans (fly spray, hair spray, deoderant, etc.), and becoming all spray bottles and roll-ons!
While I have been looking up different ways to be environmentally friendly, I have stumbled upon a couple of websites that have fact sheets on how to kepp you house clean the green way! there's a couple of really easy ways to make up disinfectants, all-purpose cleaners, detergents, and laundry detergents from stuff that is already lying around the house. They contain no phosphate (bad for the water ways) or ammonia, or any real harsh chemicals, as well as being completely dirt cheap!
www.livingthing.net.au/WYKD.h1.htm
www.nancysnatural.info/index.html
I'm going to try out most of these recipes to see what actually works and what doesn't, so if you're keep, give them a go yourself!!
I got so caught up in the hype of Earth hour that I forgot to mention my final tally of sign-ups. I ended up getting 22 people to sign up for Earth Hour in a week, which is not what I was hoping for, but still is a pretty top effort!!
Family and friends were easy, very supportive. Face book was a bit of a disaster, with only four sign-ups, which normally would be good, but they were friends that I made sign up!! And my work mates had great intentions, and most of them signed up, some of them forgot, but still participated. There were a number of people at book club that hadn't signed up, but were still participating.
All in all, I'm taking that as a win for the good guys!
So hopefully, the many people that I rambled to about the benefits of Earth Hour at least had the thought in their head! It was fascinating to see how many people were actually interested in Earth Hour and participating (formally or not).
I'm particularly proud of the results of Earth Hour (can be seen on http://www.earthhour.smh.com/ ). It is amazing to see actually how much energy Sydney alone uses in such a small period of time. The real question now is how many of those lights are really necessary? Can we have them off on an more permanent basis?
I've finally sorted out my event page for Earth hour on facebook. So check it out! If anyone want to join up or show support, then go to www.earthhour.org.au. I'm getting so excited now, almost hyperactive! I've got a party planned now for the night which should be great. Dinner, candlelight, many like-minded friends, a good bottle of wine, and good times by all!! Then a view of the city to see all the lights go out. That's going to be a specticle in itself! If anyone else has something planned for Saturday, give a shout out and share your Earth Hour!!
The whole concept of environmental conservation and cleaning up the world has me thinking... Am I doing enough? I'm starting off with Earth Hour, which is a fantastic way to start, but there's so much more I can do! Of course I understand that I can't change the world, single-handed, over-night! Nor will it ever happen that way. However, I am still one person who can start to change the world I live now!
And so, the best way to start is at home! I've decided to make my home more eco-friendly. And hopefully along the way, I can convince some family, friends and anyone else who wants to take action, and make their world more environmentally-friendly!
It's less than one week to Earth hour, and I'm totally excited by the whole event! What a fantastic concept! And so I'm going to be doing my part to not only bring the stars back to the skies of Sydney, but to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And since I'm trying to be as pro-active about it as humanly possible, I'm going to see how many people I can get to sign up in a week! My aim will be to get 25-30 people to sign up before Saturday, so it's going to be tough, but fun! I'll keep you all posted on my quest (and possible failures, but hopefully I won't be having many of these). If anyone out there wants to sign up, do it and share your stories and plans for the big hour! It would be great to hear everyone's ideas, and you can help me reach my goal!! WHOO!
