J for JUNK

Although Darebin Creek and the Darebin Parklands are a relatively clean urban natural reserve, pollution and litter are still major concerns. Some drains along the Darebin Creek have signs with a number to help in the location of pollution points, and if one is present please ring the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) quote the number printed on the sign and report the nature of the effluent.

Shopping trolleys are one of the biggest items that litter the Darebin Creek and the Darebin Creek Management Committee has pulled hundreds of trolleys out of the creek since 2003. As we are having a dry spell at the moment, the ponds in the parklands are at low level, exposing parts that are normally underwater. All sorts of junk has been exposed, which has been unconscientiously dumped there: Tyres, metal pipes, wire mesh, building materials, all sorts of litter.

EPA Victoria regulates the environment and is an authority on the things that impact on our environment. Call EPA 24 hours a day to report sightings of pollution or illegally dumped materials. Their phone number is: 1300 372 842 or 1300 EPA VIC, and their website is: https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Nature Notes meme.

PIXEL BUILDING, CARLTON

Melbourne’s Pixel Building is the first carbon-neutral office building in Australia and has set an impressive environmental benchmark by achieving the highest ever Green Star score awarded by the Green Building Council of Australia. Melbourne company Grocon’s ambitious project achieved a perfect score of 100 points under the Green Star rating system for building design, with 75 points being the benchmark for a 6 Star, Green Star rating. LEED is the environmental rating tool of the United States Green Building Council. Pixel has achieved a Platinum score under this rating system.

Situated on 205 Queensberry Street, Carlton, the Pixel Building has renewable energy sources on the site that are generating all of the energy that Pixel requires to run, plus surplus energy to be fed back into the grid to offset all of the energy that was used and the carbon that was generated in the manufacture of the materials and equipment that enabled Pixel to be built. Pixel has also been designed to be water balanced. This means that on the basis that Melbourne returns to the 10-year rainfall average 1999-2009, Pixel could be disconnected from the mains supply and would be self-sufficient for water supply.

The building features Pixelcrete – a type of concrete which halves the embodied carbon in the mix – as well as wind turbines invented in Bendigo, a Melbourne University designed ‘living roof’ which re-introduces Victorian grassland species to the Melbourne area, and tracking photovoltaic roof panels. The sun shade system on the exterior of the building provides the maximum amount of daylight into the office space, protecting it from glare and heat in the summer, while smart window technology ensures windows will open automatically on cool nights to enable air flow into the building.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

MELBOURNE SUNSET

Air pollution is a problem that no major city in the world has avoided. Air pollution from industry, from the large numbers of homes clustered together in and around the cities and the widespread use of motor vehicles means that the quality of the air in cities suffers. Although the most obvious large emissions from factory chimneys have been eliminated – there are still lots of smaller amounts of polluting emissions from a broad range of large and small industries which contribute to Melbourne’s air pollution.

In Melbourne and other Victorian cities and towns, we are lucky. Air quality is good most of the time, thanks to low population density, favourable climate and tight regulations (see graphs below). The main air pollutants of concern for Victoria are ozone (in summer) and very small particles (mostly in winter) that we can breathe in. Unlike many of the developed countries in the world, acid rain is not a problem for us.


When the air quality is relatively bad with many fine particles suspended in the atmosphere, one thing that occurs is a range of colourful sunsets because of the light diffraction.


This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.