This is the transcript of a recent speech by Paul Hawken - a noted environmentalist and author - to the "Class of 2009" students graduating from the University of Portland, Oregon.

I remember it as one of those hazy memories from a distant childhood... it was at a football game in Maryborough (I later learned that there was another town by that name somewhere down south, but we Queenslanders knew those southerners like to copy the Sunshine State) and I was collecting discarded soft drink bottles and taking them to the shop. There, the shopkeeper would give me money for them. I didn't know then that this was something called 'container deposit', nor that it would become an environmental cause in later years. For me and my friends, it was nothing more than the opportunity to come across a little extra pocket money.

Swapping thrown-away bottles for a coin is one of those practices now long gone except in enlightened states like South Australia. It is the memory of such practices that has inspired Meg Bishop and Graeme Gibson to produce their little book, Stories of Experience — learning from the environmental experiences of older Australians.

Let me say a good word about someone new to her job... someone still learning but who is bound for success because she has the needed combination of right motivation, right attitude and right action. Her name is Annie Walker and just this January she started her new job with City of Sydney as its volunteer and community gardens officer. Young and smart, Annie comes with a background in local government sustainability education.

The 2005 Sydney Metropolitan "City of Cities" Strategy, prepared by the NSW Department of Planning, covers the period up to December 2010 and is due for review in 2010. The review process is proposed to include community consultation. The questions now are...

To avoid dangerous climate change, we must not burn more than one quarter of our remaining reserves of fossil fuels. That's the conclusion of the most comprehensive effort yet to work out how much carbon can be pumped into the atmosphere without pushing warming past 2 degrees celsius.

(from Russ Grayson)

Katoomba-based permaculture educator, Rosemary Morrow, left an interesting package when she was here in Manly recently. It was her recently published booklet, A Good Home Forever, and the accompanying CD.

I've had a chance to take a look at them now, and following, you can find my impression....

If you ever wanted evidence that community food systems are riding the wave of the future, you need look no further than Food Connect. Brisbane's premier community food system, Food Connect now boasts around 75 core and around 30 peripheral farmers supplying fresh, regionally-grown food to something like 1000 city subscribers.

Bringing the good news to those at the first of the TransitionSydney Cafe Conversations at Glebe's Fair Trade Cafe was Robert Pekin, coordinator of the ambitious social enterprise. He reported that, despite the recession, trading has increased by 86 percent this past year, yielding something like $50,000 turnover a week. Story by Russ Grayson follows...

In the past week I have attended two events featuring Professor Peter Newman, speaking on the topic of sustainable cities. He is currently Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in WA, and a board member of Infrastructure Australia, the body recently formed to oversee  the infrastructire elements of the Australian government's economic stimulus package. He has written 8 books and over 200 journal articles on issues of urban sustainability, city planning and transport issues. His latest book "Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change" was co-authored with professor Tim Beatley, Professor of Sustainable Communities atThe University of Virginia in USA.

Tim's brief article gives some insight into the 'survivalst' approach to concerns surrounding peak oil, climate change and economic meltdown. The Transition movement is different in its approach as noted by our own Russ Grayson. While Elliot associates Permaculture and the Transition movement with survivalism, we must point out that both of these focus on proactive moves to build sustainability and resilience for whole communities and in that they are very different in attitude and action from survivalism as we know it. Read the article here