And its not just about putting solar panels on the roof, though they are there too. The P&C organized a tree planting to provide food for the Carnaby Black Cockatoo.

Understorey meets South Fremantle Senior High Sustainability Project Officer, Kathy Anketell, to hear how a high school near you could go carbon neutral.

Jasmyn Paget has some practical suggestions to help parents and schools leave no child inside, to help them develop confidence and skills to explore the bush, opening them up to wonder.

And Jo Vallentine shares a little about practicalities for environmental protest – for Quakers its sometimes promoting nonviolence training, and sometimes they say , don’t necessarily do something, sit there, bear witness about the ways that wars destroy the environment, that steal resources away from social justice and natural resource.

This week Linda Oliver takes a look at the Occupy movement and its potential impact on the environment.

The first comes from American author Bill McGivern speaking at Power Shift in Washington DC.

The second is Leader of the Greens Bob Brown, feeding the chooks at a passionate press conference.

Keith Morris of the DEC discusses the Rufous-Hare Wallaby, or Mala with Danielle Bowler, while Doctor Blair Parsons shares his knowledge of the Northern Quoll with Nicolo Jelovsek.

They discuss the features of the two marsupials, their habitats, threats and what actions are being taken to sustain these native species.

With the high cost of living in Perth in mind, partly caused by the mining boom, more people are turning to shared living to be able to afford a house to live in. David Holgrem comes onto the show to discuss the benefits of large households.

Production this week by Elizabeth PO’

Tom Wilson makes a botched attempt of singing a line from Noel Coward, and then explores Ba Be National Park in northern Vietnam.

Ba Be is an area of deep green rainforest and high limestone peaks.

Tom talks with the Director of the park and some of the villagers in the area.

In the second half of the show we hear from Chris Shepherd of TRAFFIC about the illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam.

There’s also a question, a tricky one for us wadjelas – how do we engage with Noongar people and Noongar knowledge, as Bruce Abbott does, and be changed by it, and then what?

How easy is it to talk about it? How do we connect with a landscape that looks wild but its been cultivated by Noongar for thousands of years. How do we become part of that?

It’s an environmental and spiritual conversation wadjelas and Noongars have to have in Perth, together, and perhaps we will be able to do just that in later editions of Understorey.

Conover is the mastermind behind the contemplative and visually stunning series Sunrise Earth, and he is currently producing a film called Behold the Earth, and exploration of science and religion as different avenues for embracing nature in American culture.

Today you’ll hear excerpts from the film, including the voice of the great writer and thinker Edward O. Wilson. The second half of the show is an interview with Martin Palmer of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.

We have been building houses for over 10000 years, and yet now we require legislation in order to design and build homes that perform better thermally.

In Western Australia two options exist to qualify that the thermal performance of a residence meets the regulatory requirements – a deemed to satisfy checklist or a thermal performance assessment of the house using computer simulation software. Houses are currently required to rate at five stars or above, increasing to six stars on 01 May 2011.

Continual increases in legislative thermal performance requirements should result in reductions of energy usage per capita, and health benefits relating to thermal comfort levels within the home – provided of course that we understand, or are educated in how to drive the house and it’s thermal capabilities.

Then, Adrian Glamorgan and Elizabeth PO’ interview Booyeembara Park through it’s supporters. In the City of Fremantle Boo Park, as it is affectionately known, has Lynne and Ken Tinley worried as they have charted the drop from twenty four to just four species of waterbirds over the past seven years. This reclaimed tip turned beautiful park space of sixteen hectares in the City of Fremantle has been in the news again recently for the wrong reasons – neglect. However, as Stephanie Jennings explains it’s been a rollercoaster ride as this award winning park, that excited everyone with its reclamation of rubbish land and design for varied usage over a four stage development, has become a sad degraded shadow of its former glory.

Then Tim spoke with Ian Scobie, director of Earth Station, a boutique environment and music festival taking place in a National Park in South Australia in October.

On the line-up for the festival is Melbourne-based reggae outfit Mista Savona, which of course gave me an excuse to interview the man behind Australia’s biggest reggae act, Jake Savona.

www.ccwa.org.au
Hear how rubbish from landfill, big businesses and the occasional accidental printing error on a banner can become your next best fashion accessory. Kate Phillips chats with Catherine Curmi from woz waste about how she goes about re incarnating rubbish from Indonesia.

www.wozwaste.com/store/

Kate speaks to Rachel Pemberton – one of the organizers of The Cappuccino Strip Street Club event.

The Mayor of Fremantle Brad Pettitt tells us the role the Council has played and David Engwicht; professional place maker, author, street philosopher and urban thinker chats about some of the idea’s behind creative communities.

It is a show that focuses on local environmental issues, that are a concern to all Western Australians.

On this week’s show:

Mother nature strikes Japan leading to a Nuclear Crisis. We speak to someone involved with FANG – The Fremantle Anti-Nuclear Group.

We take a look at the work of experimental scientist John Tindell.

And we have a look at the topic of Uranium Mining in Australia – sparked by the Nuclear Crisis in Japan.