I am a Researcher, Educator, Planet Lover, Grandmother who accepts the science of climate change and cares deeply about the state of the planet my grandchildren will inherit.
‘So all the cracks had gathered to the fray’
The title is a famous refrain from “The Man from Snowy River” by Banjo Paterson (1890) https://allpoetry.com/The-Man-from-Snowy-River. The highly valued colt from old Regret bolts to join the wild bush horses, ‘He was worth a thousand pound, So all the cracks had gathered to the fray’ to find him and bring him home. Climate has…
Grandma enters the Metaverse
All my Australian grandkids go to school now, and it’s a new era which takes some getting used to. My strategy to stay involved and connected with my grandchildren has been to immerse myself in the metaverse (not the real physical world), specifically the virtual realm of Roblox, an interactive form of storytelling and social…
Scotty’s Road to Damascus?
He may not see the light, but no doubt he’ll feel the heat at COP26 in Glasgow next month. Incoherent yabbering about plans and pathways, vague thoughts on targets. “Technology not taxes”, or is it “Technology not targets”? Hard to pin him down on a revised concrete emissions reduction target, much less a date. Australia’s…
Wake up Mr Morrison
The planet is burning Mr Morrison, how do you sleep while our planet is burning? The time has come to face the facts. You do not own the planet Earth, you are a caretaker, a very poor caretaker. When markets fail, governments are obliged to intervene and find ways to help the price mechanism find…
Radio-controlled
It was grandparents’ day in Brisbane this week, and along with other grandparents I was invited to my granddaughter’s Prep class to chat about memorable toys from our time as children. It was a Science class event with emphasis on materials that were used in the construction of toys. I prepared a short story in…
Self-settling
At any age we can benefit by observing what distresses us and finding ways to tune out and self-settle. Even though I live on the other side of the world, following the long, drawn-out US election process has been sufficiently distressing that I was becoming agitated. Observant and savvy parents can usually pick up on…
Anxious Kids
I’m reading a book called ‘Anxious Kids: How children can turn their anxiety into resilience’ by Michael Grose and Jodi Richardson (2019). I bought it for guidance on helping my grandchildren navigate the current COVID-19 pandemic and the changes to climate from global warming – not entirely unrelated concerns. On the anxiety-calmness continuum I usually…
Kudzu Republic
Donald Trump was grudgingly accepted by the Republican Party in 2016 to eliminate the Democratic Party’s control on government just as the Kudzu vine was enlisted to combat soil erosion caused by relentless dust storms on the American prairies in the 1930s. There are several similarities between Donald and Kudzu. Both outsiders, or in the…
Swedish Death Cleaning
You don’t have to be dying to want to sort out the stuff that will inevitably have to be thrown out, sold off, or given away when you die. Margareta Magnusson has written a book on “the gentle art of Swedish death cleaning”, with practical lessons on how to deal with your earthly possessions. Some…
Counting Down 