Caught up with Brian and Sandy, Mum and Dad's great friends on mum's anniversary.

We are so lucky in Brisbane to have urban bush, parks and wildlife. Tōkyō is an amazing city, the largest in the world, with an energy to match. But I saw only two species of bird in 3 days, a few crows being one of them. Very few trees as well which doesn’t help, tree canopy at only around 7% and declining. Bird numbers are also declining https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/science-nature/environment/20241015-216633/ We should do all we can to keep and improve what we have in Brisbane. They are an asset the world will love come 2032.

The Kyoto/Osaka region has over 19 million residents, but the streets are much clearer of rubbish compared with Tokyo, despite there still not many rubbish bins. Less tourists or different attitude of the locals??

In Tokyo with my girls. Amazing city, people and culture. As usual I’m observing through a partial environmental lens, and I notice no rubbish bins. Heaps of rubbish in many of the streets. Apparently they were removed after the 1995 sarin terrorist attacks. A Time Out article in 2018 says the locals carry their rubbish with them until they get home. Maybe the increase in tourists post covid has contributed 😔

I met with Sarah from Impact Dragonfly and had a great discussion about the future of greenbrand.org. Thanks Sarah for your feedback.

My flight home is not until tonight so had some time to myself during the day. I thought I’d clean up some of the rubbish in the local square where I was staying. I reacquainted myself with the same pick up stick I’d used in France on my last trip! I also had a helper, though I think he was only helping because he thought I had food lol Even collected a Fosters can. People drink it????

I had travelled to Dublin to watch the Wallabies play Ireland in rugby, a close game that Ireland won at the end. Wandering through the streets and parks beforehand I can see Europe is way ahead of Australia in promoting biodiversity and managing its park estate.

Visiting Cannes and Antibes with friends. I note that the marina has a floating automatic waste machine that collects rubbish. You can read more at ekkopol.com

I attended an information evening about Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s (AWC) wonderful work in protecting Australia’s ecosystems at scale. CEO Tim Allard’s session was not only inspiring, but optimistic. Optimism and joy is often missing in climate and biodiversity discussions. I also had the pleasure of meeting Kurt and Charlie from Co-Exist Australia. Another dynamic duo doing important repair at scale!

Removed some balloon vine growing amongst paperbarks along the footpath in Whipbird park. I had a lovely chat with a local resident. Anne had inquired about joining the local Bushcare group, but it is no longer active. I showed her Greenbrand.org and how it records stories and impact. You can see the removed vines on the grass on picture 2.

I planted the remaining 6 free trees I was gifted, 5 bottlebrush and a grevillea. I did some weeding so council can easily see the plantings, and also watered the previous plantings as we missed the recent storms. It’s looking quite nice and lush now. Amazing what one person can do. I also removed a glycine vine that was loaded with seed pods. Removed via the roots, so can’t regrow, and I removed the vine and seeds so they can’t germinate. An hour well spent!

I walk or jog past this tree a few times a week. It’s in the process of being smothered by glycine vine. On Saturday afternoon it took 30 seconds to save by cutting the vine stems. The leaves in the canopy will die, the tree will continue to grow. And as I pass it often, any regrowth will be simple to remove.

I attended 2024’s last King’s College UQ Bushcare session on Sunday morning. During the two hours there I worked with residents Ned and Sam to remove glycine and balloon vine from trees planted some years previous. The White Cedar would have died without our intervention. Countering the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change are not just about planting trees, it’s their nurturing and survival as well.

This story is just to illustrate one of the many impacts you can make. No matter how small. Each matters. This praying mantis was sitting on the front door screen, an easy target for the local cats and birds. Do I took it to my back yard, with lots of potential food and shelter. Not quite a kangaroo Joey being saved after mum being hit by a car, but you get the idea. All nature counts. And I used the privacy setting for the map, so I don’t ‘dox’ myself! lol

While I was getting my car serviced at joy motors I spent some time removing glycine vine from lillypillies near the mechanics. These trees were over 2 metres tall but had been cut near the base as they were smothered in vines. Sadly this was happening again. And the solution is so simple. Pull the vines out by the roots, and do the same in future maintenance. No poisons. No pruning. So so simple

My friend’s dad was given some grevilleas and callistemon for free from Toowoomba council which he was going to throw away. They were given to me and I planted 5 of them in the biobasin. You can see my earlier plantings of casuarinas are much taller than me ❤️ I also picked up some rubbish. A very productive and enjoyable hour. 😇

Meeting heaps new friends at the People planet Pint event in Brisbane. And I picked up some rubbish along the way to the event! Doing some good for our world can be fun and mentally rewarding.

Here at the planet, people pint evening with Keerthi! And I picked some rubbish along the way.

The council lawn mowers got to the rubbish before I did sadly. Mowing over rubbish just makes things worse. 😢

Did another of my semi-regular clean-ups near the 7-eleven, KFC and Starbucks. I had been feeling a bit down after scrolling some analysis of movies I’m fond of about corporations and modern life, Idiocracy, Fight Club, Office Space and Falling down. But we don’t have to blow up buildings or fight with violence. As I was picking up some of the over 250 pieces of branded corporate detritus, a lady in a car stopped and said ‘thank you’. Made my day 😊