In the midst of a debt crisis the people of Greece are still giving back. Bella Papadopolous Dobrowolska and Morgan Pettersson report.

Pimp My Kid in Thessaloniki. Image: Bella Papadopolous Dobrowolska

It was all about giving style and giving back in Greece’s second largest city Thessaloniki at the Pimp My Kid, fundraiser event (for the charity Amimoni); the local community were having fun, getting styled and giving back through children participating in creative activities.

“The kids are given an opportunity to be creative, and through this we can raise money for a good cause,” said event organiser Maria Alexiadou.

The two-day festival was held last week in the centre of Thessaloniki and the kids could participate in activities such as jewelery making, rock climbing, dance lessons and having their style ’pimped’ through face painting and crazy hair styles.

All the proceeds from the event are being donated to Amimoni, a Greek organisation which fights for equal rights and education for disabled children as well as providing psychological support.

The CEO of Amimoni, Sotiria Alexopulou said she was happy to see so many people attending the event.

“All proceeds are going to go towards building a new school,” she said.

The debt crisis has slowed the Greek economy but Councillor for Volunteers and Youth, Maria Paschalidou, believes charity events such as Pimp My Kid are most successful when times are tough.

”Times like these, when the crisis is weighing everyone down, it is the best time to volunteer so everyone wakes up and acts,” she said.

Pimp My Kid organiser Maria Alexandriou agrees.

Creativity in action at Pimp My Kid. Image: Bella Papadopolous Dobrowolska

”I personally think that in periods of crisis this is the time when we need to do this. People are disappointed and depressed, events like Pimp My Kid pimps your mood,” she said.

The volunteer coordinator for the event, Marisa Krystallakou was surprised about how many people expressed an interest in volunteering.

”I was glad to see that so many people wanted to help by volunteering; through this event people have a chance to play and spend time with their child,” she said.

Radio producer Nikolas Chatzis was happy he could give back to the community by volunteering, especially while the economic situation is bleak.

“I feel very good to be volunteering for a good cause like this. Everyone should be volunteering in the time of the debt crisis. To help someone is free,” he said.

The event chose to not print flyers or posters but instead used social media to promote the weekend. In doing so the organisers minimised the environmental impact and kick-started the community spirit during the tough economic climate.

The saying “take only pictures, steal only time, leave only footprints” isn’t one you would normally associate with a three-day music festival – that is, until now. Nicky Champ discovers how Peats Ridge is environmentally redefining music festivals.

A chai tent at the 2008 Peats Ridge Festival. image: Chris Fape.

“For our recyclable materials, we have a return rate of about 85-90%,” says Nic Moodie, the Festival’s sustainability manager.

That is no mean feat for a music festival, the aftermath of Woodstock took weeks to clean up, and even then the rubbish was bulldozed into a pit and the garbage burned. Fast forward 40 years and the festival folk at Peats Ridge are making sure that we can have a good time and an environmentally sustainable event.

The high recycling rates can be put down to the container deposit system the festival introduced in 2004. Which is a bit like collecting aluminum cans for a 5c coin, only a lot more lucrative.

A $1 levy is added on to all drink vessels sold at the event and when the empty containers are taken to one of the many return stations set up at the festival, the $1 is refunded.

“It not only encourages recycling, it also provides the opportunity for people to make an income,” says Moodie.

With 120 musical acts scheduled to play over the three days the Festival’s environmental consciousness extends beyond recycling programs; the Eco Living Village is dedicated to educating individuals in developing practical ways of living sustainably.

These free workshops have been met with great success over the years and go on to have a positive effect on the patrons’ behavior around the environment long after they leave.

“90% of people come away from the Festival with more knowledge about living sustainably than they had before they came,” says Moodie.

This year Peats Ridge consulted with toilet experts Splashdown, (from the movie Kenny) to develop a world first, composting flushable toilets.

Now, before you conjure up any nightmare toilet scenarios you may have experienced at festivals past, know this: there is also going to be eight full-time staff to constantly clean the amenities throughout the event.

Since the Festivals inception in 2004 it has been the aim of the founder Matt Grant to create an event that marries sustainability with art, music and a rollicking great time – not to mention great toilets.

“We want people to live the life for a few days and not only have an incredible time, but to also come away thinking that sustainability can be a bit rock’n’roll as well,” says Moodie.

Festival goers may notice the solar powered stage sets look remotely familiar, that is, if you are a seasoned theatre goer. As chances are they came straight from the sets of the Belvoir Theatre or the NIDA in Sydney. The festival teams up with these theatre companies to reuse their old sets and at the same time helping them to reduce their waste to landfill.

This mutual relationship is one that the festival creates with many of their suppliers as well the local community. A vehicle levy for all cars coming to the event is spent on site remediation and carbon credits to offset the audience’s transport emissions. It’s recommended that you carpool or train it to Hornsby station where a shuttle will take you to the event. Or if you bike, a chaperoned ‘bike bus’ ensures you can take all your camping gear on the bus escort and cycle along the F3 highway in safety.

So whether music, juggling, hula hooping or can collecting is your thing, the organisers at Peats Ridge have ensured that the only footprints you leave at the Festival will be environmentally sustainable ones.

Green business now stands for good business, and Australia’s design and building industry is leading the trend worldwide. Dave Drayton reports.

ANZ Centre in Melbourne received a 6 star Green Star rating. Image: Charles Van Den Broek

As cars, tourism and even coffee went eco-friendly, it was inevitable that the building and design industry in Australia would eventually follow suit.

And while Australia cottoned on to the trend slightly later than Europe, it has by now well and truly caught up, according to the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA).

“Australia is definitely one of the world leaders. We have transitioned a lot faster than a lot of the other countries,” says Suzie Barnett, Executive Director of GBCA.

Around 11% of buildings in Sydney’s CBD are “green-star” rated, which means their environmental impact has been assessed based on management, indoor environment quality, energy, transport, water, materials, land use & ecology, emissions and innovation.

“[This percentage] is quite high given that this ‘green-star’ only came onto the market in 2003,” Barnett says.

However it seems the greatest catalyst for this change is not a moral or ethical decision but a business one, with companies that remain stubborn in their ways left behind.

“Buildings with a five or six green star rating are becoming fashionable to companies wanting to present a ‘clean green’ image to their customers,” says construction and property recruiter Julian Murray.

“Developers and construction companies as well as government agencies are now seeing green methods of construction and environmentally sustainable projects as a key selling tool at the point of sale.”

In an interview with the GBCA, Managing Director of Leighton Properties, Mark Gray, said it is the leadership of the property and construction industry that brought about such rapid change in “both the way we deliver and use buildings”.

“Green Star ratings have become integral to the design and construction of developments, from single buildings to whole precincts, which has been fostered through increased stakeholder and community awareness.”

Murray expects that this is only the beginning of the transformation.

“As base line consumer perception changes to favour organisations that are perceived to be green, business will invariably change to match the needs of their consumers.”

The GBCA, which has 830 registered members, was established in 2002. From a small organisation, it has rapidly grown into what many consider to be the foremost authority on the subject of green building and design in the country, alongside counterparts such as the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS), Green Biz Check and The Fifth Estate.

Be it a drive for dollars or genuinely caring for the environment, Barnett says what matters is that green building is no longer a niche market, it is being indoctrinated throughout the industry.

“It’s the whole industry, I can’t pinpoint any one company because it has actually become the norm rather than the exception.”

Barnett believes the shift towards green building is so strong that newer buildings that don’t adhere to green star ratings are doing themselves a severe disservice.

“They can build the building and it’s going to be obsolete before they even open their doors,” she says.

Murray expresses a similar opinion.

“Large infrastructure projects funded by government are now under intense scrutiny from the public in relation to their environmental impact and as a result, contractors are having to provide environmentally sustainable construction blueprints in order to win contracts.”

Barnett says the perceived cost differential, often seen as a significant deterrent to going green, is misguided.

The Economics and Commerce building at University of Melbourne has a 5 Green Star rating. Image: Christopher Eliot

Gray explains that the reduced cost of technologies is due to the increased adoption of sustainable practices, which “has produced improved cost and value outcome”.

The GBCA is banking on the increasingly green attitudes of industry heavyweights such as Stockland, Lend-Lease and Mirvac to lower prices of sustainable products and materials for smaller companies.

According to Barnett, the effects of this are already showing.

“Things like using low-VIC paint and e-zero laminate particle board have become pretty much standard practice,” she says.

Nicholas Bernhardt, the managing director of Green Biz Check, agrees.

“Green products and practices are now more widely available, accepted and expected,” he says.

Barnett believes that greening is becoming so mainstream that “the industry has now shifted to say ‘We’re not actually looking at sustainability as additional costs, that’s just what it costs us to build it”.

Government regulations are also influencing the green trend, albeit in a more forceful manner.

“If it’s not the demand that’s coming, it’s the regulation,” Barnett says.

Regulations such as the Local Environmental Policy (LEP) planning reform, and the imminent Building Efficiency Disclosure Bill encourage an environmental consciousness across the board.

“These new plans will also provide the framework for planned growth and development in each local area - enabling economic investment and protection of environmental assets,” says Barnett.

“Green-washing” has proven so popular that the GBCA now also caters to the education, health, retail, public, multi-unit residential and industrial sectors.

And to encourage building and design companies of all sizes to run more sustainably, the GBCA membership fees are set according to the size and worth of a company.

“We don’t have a criteria for membership. Our belief is people who are members of the Green Building Council are paying that fee because they want to be more educated and more switched on,” Barnett says.

Building on its success and looking to the future, the GBCA has taken up a new challenge: to make existing buildings as sustainable as their newly built counterparts.

“We’re looking at evolving that asset, at investing that capital now to get that asset to be greener in the future.”

But Barnett also argues green renovations could benefit from a little more help from the government.

“We’d like to see some focus from the government, whether it’s a cash incentive for a developer to do it, whether it’s a tax incentive…Things like that.”

Various incentives have already been established around the country, at different levels of government. Overall, they have had a positive effect, assisting major developers in making the transition to become environmentally friendly, and Barnett sees this as a real solution.

“Basically, our strategy was: if we can get the top tier developers demanding this it will actually mean economies of scale for everyone else,” she says.

But the market is suffering from a lack of environmental sustainability experts.

“The CSIRO believe we need 3.25 million people to be skilled up to actually deliver what we need to deliver in the market over the next five to ten years,” says Barnett.

“The sooner we can skill up the workforce to these ‘green-collar jobs’ the sooner we will be able to bring those costs down and also have the expertise in the market so it becomes a lot more accepted than it is now.”

Murray says he has noticed a “significant increase in the number of positions created with an environmental focus, but more importantly, these positions are becoming more and more senior within the construction sector”.

Asked for the ideal framework to help green building to continue to flourish, Barnett says the GBCA seeks “a balance between stringent regulation and government incentives”.

But Bernhardt from Green Biz Check says it is arguable how effective incentives and grants may be “without an overall business environmental sustainability policy on developing greener practices”.

While Australia may now be ahead of the pack when it comes to a greener future for the construction and design industry, a delicate balance where government regulations direct and guide this shift is required to ensure Australia’s ongoing focus, commitment and innovation in this field.

State laws protecting Aboriginal objects and places came into effect last month, but Aboriginal bodies are so far unimpressed. Jessica Tapp reports.

Plans for indigenous heritage to be protected in legislation. Image: Peter Nijenhuis

Aboriginal groups say new changes to the National Parks and Wildlife Act, which impose harsher penalties on individuals and companies who damage cultural heritage sites, are disrespectful.

The National Parks and Wildlife Amendment (Aboriginal Objects and Aboriginal Places) Regulation 2010, was instigated by the New South Wales government and came into effect in September 2010.

However, aboriginal communities believe the new rules will destroy heritage sites, rather than protect them.

The head of Native Title Services Corporation, Warren Mundine, finds it insulting that Aboriginal cultural heritage continues to be treated under the same legislation as that covering flora and fauna.

“We welcome the fact the government takes the offence of destroying Aboriginal heritage objects so seriously. But there’s no reason why stand alone legislation can’t be introduced in NSW,” he said.

Mundine said aboriginal groups want a separate act to deal with Aboriginal culture and heritage, rather than include heritage legislation within the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

Under the new changes, companies can face fines ranging between $22,000 to $1.1 million for heritage offences, while individuals face $55,000 to $1.1 million fines and up to two years in prison, depending on if they’re liable or if the damage was deliberate.

The Act also offers defences for individuals who might otherwise be liable for actions such as grazing by animals, maintenance work on disturbed land or mining exploration on disturbed land.

The NSW Minister for Environment, Frank Sartor, attributed the changes to the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 to the government’s commitment to Aboriginal places and objects.

“Consultation with the Aboriginal community has been extensive…We have heard their comments and have incorporated elements of their feedback in the final regulation. As a result, NSW has a much stronger, more comprehensive set of provisions to protect and preserve the heritage of Aboriginal people in NSW,” he said.

But Aboriginal groups said the laws offer too many exemptions.

Shadow Minister for Environment, Catherine Cusack, agreed. She said the current system is administered as a license to destroy heritage.

“Our policy is to have a separate Aboriginal Heritage Act. We think it’s disgraceful that the government has been reviewing this legislation for so long, but all it’s really come up with is a band-aid solution and a recommendation for another inquiry to do what other states have done long ago,” she said.

According to Minister Sartor, the state government has organised a number of community information sessions about the changes. They say they’re working towards a separate Act by mid-2012.

“The proposal for new stand-alone legislation will be developed by a working party comprised of representatives from both government and community groups, within a two-year period,” Minister Sartor said.

For the Aboriginal community, those changes can’t come soon enough.

“Aboriginal People have the cultural responsibility to protect their significant objects and places and the traditional right to speak for those places but in NSW we still don’t have the legal right to protect and speak for our own cultural heritage,” Mundine said.

ReportageOnline contacted the Department for Aboriginal Affairs for comment, but spokespersons said it would be inappropriate to comment. The Native Title Tribunal (National and NSW) were also approached, but would not comment on state legislation.

By Nastasia Campanella

Enviro friendly markets could be the new solution to sustainable living. Image: Sydney Sustainable Market

Shopping for fruit and veg just got a whole lot more environmentally friendly with a new farmers market opting for a BYO bag policy.

Each Saturday, Taylor Square in Darlinghurst, Sydney, is host to a new farmers’ market selling fruit, vegetables, cakes and cheese.

The community initiative was established by Sydney Sustainable Markets, and visitors are encouraged to bring their own recyclable carry bags to take produce home in as a way of decreasing the amount of plastic used.

“We want to do everything we can to protect the environment and stop harmful materials going into landfill,” said Cathy Wills, market facilitator.

“We want people to bring their own bags and we’ve also set up a drop off station where bags can be given so that if people haven’t bought their own along with them, they can grab one off us.”

Some produce however, is sold in plastic, but Wills said those products have to be stored that way.

“Many products like meat and wheat need to be covered in plastic according to occupational health and safety regulations,” she said.

“Generally though, organic traders don’t like to sell things in plastic – they get the produce, weigh it and see if they can place it straight into the enviro bags or into a paper one.”

Markets have been popular in Sydney for decades, but Wills believes farmers’ markets are popping up everywhere because of an increasing appreciation for great food.

“It’s very hard to find good produce with integrity in the city,” she said.

“It’s extremely important that consumers are aware of the source of their products and these markets are great for farmers to get a fair dollar and most importantly, to ensure independence in the industry and competitive prices.”

Wills said she hoped the public sourced beautiful food at a great price.

“We’ll be starting up sessions soon teaching consumers about how to go organic and how to live in a more sustainable way so we are hoping people can walk away from our market with knowledge as well.”

Running the farmers market in Darlinghurst is quite a task as the area is very busy on weekends.

Andrew Duckmanton, Vice President of the Darlinghurst Business Partnership said parking was a concern.

“In the first week of the markets, we haven’t seen parking as being a problem for the community, but its still early days yet.”

He said he didn’t feel the Council put enough expressions out into the community as to the best operation for the event.

“What we’re concerned about is the fact Council hasn’t spoken with the community about what they think a market operator should do,” he said.

“I think Council should have worked harder to investigate where it should have been held and how it would work.”

The market, which runs from 8.00am till 1.00pm each Saturday, attracted 500 people in its first day on May 4.

Wills said crowds were diverse.

“We’ve got your young, 30 something professionals, uni students, young families with kids and the homeless people who are regularly found in Taylor Square,” she said.

“The atmosphere is quite beautiful, there is a real community spirit about people chatting to the farmers and browsing.”

Scientific research has long been seen as the domain of academics. But as more scientists use mobile phone technology to reach out to ordinary folk for assistance in collecting data, it seems the domain is becoming less exclusive. Miran Hosny reports.

Non-academics are becoming more involved in the once exclusive area of scientific research. Image: Andrew Yang

When University of Queensland researchers announced a project this month that relies on iPhone and other GPS enabled smart phone users to track the endangered and vulnerable Queensland Cassowary bird, the question beckoned: will ‘citizen journalists’ now be joined by ‘citizen scientists’?

Head researcher of the cassowary tracking project, Dr Hamish Campbell, says Australians are very keen to protect wildlife and take part in conservation efforts. The mobile phone technology used in his research makes the interaction between the public and his lab possible.

“It’s a way of getting people to collect data,” the University of Queensland senior research officer says of the project.

“What we’re really trying to promote in our labs is to integrate science with the public for the benefit of nature conservation.”

Researcher in cognitive psychology and mental health at the University of Canberra, Dr Janie Busby-Grant, says that in a field where interaction with people is essential, mobile phones are just another research tool to effectively sample behaviours in the real world.

Dr Busby-Grant collects data from the subject group of her Ambulatory Assessments research project via text messages.

“[Mobile phone technology] allows us to get information about people while they go about their everyday lives, without their coming in to a lab,” she says.

“This is a new tool and it changes the type of information we gather. There are more platforms that researchers can use.”

But how is accuracy ensured when people outside the academic field are involved in scientific research?

In Dr Campbell’s conservation project, where members of the public who sight cassowary birds upload the exact location using the GPS function on their phone as well as an image onto a specified website, methods were used to ensure the data is trustworthy.

“There are a number of steps in the data transfer process. We tried to take out all the steps and so remove errors in the data that comes through,” he says.

“We can trust this data.”

But Dr Will Rifkin, Director of the Science Communication program at the University of New South Wales says that scientists are often reluctant to use data gathered by non academics.

“There is that issue of trust in the veracity of the research- how can I, as a scientist, trust people I don’t know sending me data? How can I be accountable for that?”

Dr Will Grant from the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University says scientists should exercise some caution when using public-gathered data.

“I’d be careful about calling that academic research,” he says.

“We all want to find things quickly but that’s certainly different to finding out things in a more detailed way.”

Dr Rifkin however, thinks that the suspicion is a beneficial factor.

“Scepticism about science where data is gathered by laypeople is good for science, because it attracts the attention of laypeople and gives scientists practice in communication to the public. It creates something for the two parties to talk about,” he says.

And the researchers agree. Trust issues aside, the involvement of ordinary people in scientific research is a useful phenomena that they all predict will remain, and will be helped along with the development of more technologies.

“The crowd-sourcing… I think that’s tremendously powerful,” says Dr Will Grant.

“I think we’ll see more and more involvement of the public in discovering and critiquing research. An example is Wikipedia, where there is collective gathering of information. I think we will be seeing a lot more of this in future.”

Twenty six years after the first official request by the Greek State for the return of its Parthenon, or Elgin Marbles, the British Museum is still claiming ownership and refuses to hand them over. Sofia Belegrinou investigates.

London's British Museum is still refusing to repatriate the Elgin Marbles back to Greece due to concerns over the capital's air pollution. Image: Andrew Dunn.

The Marbles are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures, inscriptions, friezes and architectural fragments that originally formed parts of the Parthenon, a symbol of ancient Greek democracy, and other significant buildings on the Acropolis of Athens.

According to the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the artefacts were controversially removed between 1801 and 1804 by Lord Elgin, then-British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. They were spirited to Britain where they were eventually purchased in 1816 by the British Government and put on display at London’s British Museum where they remain to this day. The Museum originally vowed to give them ”an honorable shelter” and keep them ”safe from ignorance and degradation,” as quoted in the New York Times in 2002.

The British museum argues that some artefacts symbolise the cultural heritage of all humankind through the ages in the world’s museums and private collections. The Parthenon Marbles are part of this international cultural heritage, despite their significance to Greece. Yet the debate surrounding the Marbles is not just about ownership. It has become further complicated by the question of the levels of air pollution in Athens and how this environmental factor will affect the condition of the marble pieces if repatriated back to Greece.

The Acropolis Restoration Project is a highly significant project worldwide. The Greek team uses a technique of combining infrared and ultraviolet beams to avoid a yellowing effect of lasers on the marble. Commencing in 1983, the project is still only partially completed with the main part of the Acropolis and the Temple of Athena remaining. In a report, Evangelos Venizelos, the former Greek Minister of Culture mentions that the main aims of the program are structural and surface maintenance and the protection and re-orientation of old restored sculptures.

According to Theodore Skoulikidis, the chief chemical engineer of the Acropolis Restoration Project, there are six main types of limestone and marble deterioration caused by atmospheric pollution. These include: water freezing in the fissures causing stone cracking due to expansion; erosion caused by suspended particles; biodeterioration; marble cracking due to the corrosion of steel clamps and junctions introduced either during construction or restoration; attack by acids contained in the atmosphere combined with rain water; and attack by SO2 that in absence of rain water creates a gypsum formation (sulfation) on the stone surface.

Maria Ioannidou, the archaeologist heading the Acropolis Restoration Project says that such deterioration is severe.

“The effect of pollution is very serious. It destroys sculptural, structural and painting detail.”
Apart from other causes of deterioration, the Parthenon Marbles have suffered heavily from recent attacks of atmospheric pollution hanging over the Greek capital. The pillars, pediments and lintels remain exposed and continue to deteriorate in Athens’s smog. As a result, acid rain eats away at the marble layers due to the presence of sulphur and nitrogen oxides.

The US Geological Survey confirms that the sculptures receive little rain or rain runoff and seem to be formed by sulfur dioxide uptake, in the presence of moisture, on the stone surface. Subsequent conversion of the sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid results in the formation of a layer of gypsum on the marble surface.

Robin Cook, the former British foreign secretary told the BBC in 2004, “Athens might no longer be a war zone but atmospheric pollution had already caused serious damage to many of the Marbles remaining there.”

In fact, other parts of the Parthenon have already been moved to the New Acropolis Museum in order to preserve and protect them.

Monument reconstructor Konstantinos Boletis emphasises that the corrosion of the Marbles due to air pollution has been limited since the 80s when the Greek government implemented a range of measures to combat the issue: restriction and relocation of industrial activities; restriction of road traffic; extensive pedestrian areas; promotion of public transport and fuel quality improvement for industry and households were the main provisions.

Ian Swindale is a British teacher who in 1997, lead an online student campaign on this subject. He says that the British Museum argument about air pollution is quite obsolete.

“I suspect that the British Museum doesn’t want to return the Parthenon Marbles because it would create a vacuum in the British Museum’s collection of worldwide artefacts,” he said.

Undoubtedly, the case of marbles is more complex than it seems. Based on a recent report about CO2 emissions conducted by Greenpeace, in 2008, the Greek national electricity provider emitted roughly 52 million tons of dioxide. In other words, it exceeded almost 18% of the total accepted limit based on the National Plan of Dioxide Emission, issued after the Kyoto protocol on the confrontation of climate change.

Further research conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) confirms that “although efforts have been made to raise public awareness of environmental issues, lack of familiarity with the concept of sustainable development still constitutes a handicap for policy implementation.” The intensity of air pollution emissions is very high, overall; emissions of SOx, NOx and CO2 per unit of GDP exceed the OECD Europe averages by 100%, 42% and 38%, respectively.

Consequently, the intensity of air pollution emissions is still very high.

“Pollution issue is quite embarrassing considering about the fines Greek Government has to pay in order to save humanity’s cultural heritage,” says Greek journalist Sofia Iordanidou.

Gradually, Greece will observe the emission limits defined by the EU standards. In the meantime, the country has applied to the European Commission to delay compliance with EU air quality limits on this particulate matter from 2005 until mid-2011. Unfortunately, there is no specific plan.

Remarkably, between 1990 and 2006, all member states – except Greece – reported a decrease in emissions.

On the other hand, Swindale’s 1997 student online campaign states, “The Marbles suffered far more damage from their lengthy stay in the heavily polluted and humid atmosphere of London than they would have done if they had stayed in Athens where pollution is only a very decent phenomenon recently.”

Equally, Anna Panayotarea, a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki claims that there has been no risk of air pollution since the mid 90’s, after the launch of several measures to improve energy efficiency in power generation and industry.

“I believe that the biggest corrosion of the marbles was not due to the polluted air of Athens but when Elgin removed the sculptures. In his effort to take as much as he could, sawing some of the sculptures in half to reduce their weight and ship them easily to England.”

However, as long ago as 1986, during her speech in Oxford Union, then-Greek Minister of Culture Melina Merkouri who was heading up the official international campaign for the return of Parthenon Marbles, confirmed that the Greek Government has never intended on exposing the repatriated piece in the open air.

If the Elgin marble sculptures are returned to Greece, they are to be housed in today’s new Acropolis museum.

Acropolis site supervisor Alexandros Mantis insists on the replacement of 17 original sculpted plaques with replicas because they can no longer endure atmospheric conditions. Mantis insists that keeping the marbles in a safe place will strengthen Greece’s case for the repatriation of the Marbles from London in a brand new and impressive museum which is located some miles away from the Acropolis.

“There can no longer be any question about where or how the marbles should be displayed,” says Eleni Cubitt, secretary of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles.

Speaking earlier this year at the opening ceremony of new Acropolis museum in Athens, the current Minister of Culture Antonis Samaras said, “The main British argument against was that there was no deserving museum in Greece to house the marbles. Now, this argument is off the table.”

GEJI reporter Sofia Belegrinou prepared this report while on exchange at UTS from Aritstotle University.

Welcome to the harbour city – home of the opera house, the bridge and traffic chaos. A battle is on for not only the streets of Sydney but the environment, the economy and just common sense. Will cars and bikes ever get along in Sydney? Strap on your helmet and watch the Battle of Sydney unfold, a documentary by Matt Davis.

With solar rebates and an increased interest in renewable energy, it seems many parts of Australian society are jumping on board the sustainability band-wagon. Nick Evershed takes a look at the use of renewable energy in the music industry.

Figure8/Rejenerate's solar powered dome at the High and Dry festival. Picture: Moz

[See post to listen to audio]

While art with a cause is hardly new, a movement is emerging that seeks to not only raise awareness but engage communities by creating art that contributes directly to the solution, writes Anne Fullerton.

Lynne Hull, "Flowing Water Moon", hydroglyph: a water capture basin for desert wildlife, carved sandstone, Utah, 1992-95.

Lynne Hull doesn’t mind that her sculpture is covered in bird poo, but then Lynne Hull is not your average artist. She’s one of a growing number of conservationists who are using art to counteract the destructive impact of humans on the environment. Her work, Lightening Raptor Roost, atoned for the loss of the Ferruginous Hawk’s nesting ground to utility poles by providing the birds with a safe place to build homes and raise their young.

Sam Bower, Executive Director of online art gallery, Green Museum, says this kind of environmental art is becoming more visible and mainstream.

“These past five years have been extraordinary in terms of the growth and interest in this type of work. More and more artists doing it, more and more galleries (exhibiting it)… everyone seems to be interested in this type of thing now. It’s very exciting and it’s happening internationally,” he says.

Bower began the Green Museum in 1992, after finding through his own work that the traditional arts infrastructure wasn’t equipped to accommodate the varied experience of environmental artists.

“I was involved with a project out on an island – a wildlife reserve off the coast of San Francisco. We worked with scientists there to create a sculpture that would create habitat for endangered seabirds, and also allow scientists for the first time to study the nesting behaviour of the seabirds from inside their burrows. We were working on something that would be pretty much impossible for the general public to visit so we wanted to create an online museum to address that.”

Green Museum now showcases the work of over 130 artists whose work is often large scale, site-specific or ephemeral. One of these is Lynne Hull, who also creates what she terms “Trans-species art,” art which addresses the aesthetic concerns of humans while providing practical assistance to wildlife. In addition to the eagle nesting sculpture, she has also carved rock formations in the desert to act as water catchments for animals, and is currently working on “Migration Mileposts,” a project linking communities that share migratory bird passages.

The practical nature of such works means eco-art continues to make a difference long after an exhibition has closed or the issue has dropped from the headlines. Lightening Raptor Roost was home to hawks for three consecutive summers, while Bower says that the first year the sea bird nesting habitat was erected, 20 of the 32 boxes were occupied.

“The second year it was full up and then they found birds living in places that we hadn’t designed as access points. So the thing has been quite successful,” he says.

Many of these projects are long term, large-scale constructions that involve different parts of the community – wildlife authorities, local councils, scientists, artists, architects, volunteers and school groups. Bower believes this is one of the advantages of environmental art over other types of one-off events and campaigning.

“One of the things about environmental art and why it’s so powerful and effective is that it can address the needs of communities and ecosystems in a way that is fun and engaging and that invites people to participate. There are people who do things that are functional and useful but don’t engage the public in inspiring ways,” he says.

While few would argue that raising community awareness and attempting to limit ecological damage are worthwhile causes, some might wonder what makes an igloo-shaped birdhouse a piece of artwork, rather than just a birdhouse. While most eco-art goes beyond pure functionality to incorporate elements of design and aesthetics, these can often be secondary concerns. For Bower the answer lies in the underlying conceptual framework and the ever-mutating definition of what constitutes art.

“In the art world there are so many things that can be and are considered art now,” says Bower. “There are people doing all types of different things and I really see art as an invitation to think a certain way. For us the bird habitat sculpture first and foremost had to work as effective bird habitat and it had to work for the scientists, so that is a type of aesthetic choice.”

The green philosophy is translated into material practice, and work either benefits or has a minimal impact upon the environment in which it’s placed. Hull often uses materials that she finds in the natural world in her sculptures, while Bower’s birdhouse was constructed from the concrete rubble of abandoned buildings. Even the decision to create an online gallery addressed some of the environmental issues associated with transporting and lighting art in a traditional gallery or museum, as well as increasing accessibility to the public.

Hull and Bower are working beyond the confines of a gallery setting to create work that is almost organic in appearance. While many draw on the beauty of the natural world, Byron Bay-based artist John Dahlsen does just the opposite, using a palette of rubbish and waste. Though he started out making driftwood furniture and sculptures, he began using human debris after finding it far outweighed his organic material supply.

“As I walked along collecting bits of driftwood I just started pulling out a plastic bag and filling them with ropes, Styrofoam, plastic bottles and buoys and plastic bits and pieces,” he says. “At the beginning I was just going to take it to the local recycling centre at the tip. Then after I’d collected maybe five, ten of these jumbo bags I realized I can imagine using this stuff in some way.”

He has created a number of public sculptures, including “Guardian,” a large public sculpture commissioned by Brisbane City Council and made from abandoned roadwork signs and a series of landscape “paintings” constructed entirely of plastic bags. He also speaks about his work at universities and is involved in public art collaborations as part of raising awareness of environmental issues.

Though he is making something beautiful from human wastefulness, for him there is a message inherent in the use of recycled materials.

“There’s the obviousness of the fact that I can be collecting that amount of rubbish off beaches. There’s just so much of it!”

In an age of organic clothing lines, celebrity-endorsed hybrids and concerts for climate change, artists have a cynical audience to contend with.

“Even in the art world I find these areas are viewed almost with a bit of disdain,” says Dahlsen. “Why don’t you become a politician?’ or ‘why don’t you become an environmentalist?’ That’s a question that’s been asked of me any many times.”

Bower says he’s seen artists have a lasting effect on both the environment and also on human consciousness over the last two decades. “One artwork made in 1979 helped save Mono Lake,” he says referring to artwork by Deborah Small which was part of the campaign to stop Mono Lake being pumped dry by Los Angeles City. Small sent a decorated, porcelain brick to California state officials responsible for water policy, wildlife, parks and forests. They read, “one brick in every Los Angeles toilet could save Mono Lake.” The work gained media coverage and launched a public hearing.

“The victory provided a foundation for a very important public trust law case that protects wild lands throughout the United States. So this is one artwork that influenced legislation directly,” says Bower.

For environmental artists the physical product is just one element of the artwork. The process, which encompasses community involvement, education and participation, is just as important.

“People tend to think that art is really about a thing, about a decorative commodity,” says Bower. “What’s happening now with environmental art is that we’re starting to see art as service. To see art as a better way to do the things that are good for us by also making them beautiful.”