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I live in the northwest of Sydney, Australia on a wildlife refuge (private land that is voluntarily maintained as habitat for native plants and animals) with some of my family. We installed a solar system on our property in 2006 - we use a 1320 watt tracking system - the panels are mounted on top of a pole and have sensors so that they follow the sun throughout the day (much more efficient than roof-mounting, but only possible if you have the space). Our house is built from rough-cut sandstone that was sourced locally from a disused quarry - the walls are very thick and have a high thermal mass, meaning that it's very well insulated. We have a slow combustion (wood-fire) stove which performs 3 functions - heating the house and water and cooking food. All our water comes from rainwater tanks - so much better tasting than chlorinated town water! We have always grown some herbs and vegetables, but in the past few years we have started a large (about 20 x 30 metre) biodynamic/organic garden, growing vegetables, herbs, spices and some native Australian foods. We are also regenerating the native eucalypt forest, planting new trees on land that was once cattle pasture. Being a Wildlife Refuge, and because we have no domestic pets like cats or dogs, we have a great biodiversity of birds, reptiles and other animals - check out the profile of my place on SustainablePlaces.org.au, a web site that I desiged and launched last year or jump straight to the photos here.

Work & Travel

I've just returned from a year travelling around Europe by sustainable transport - for all the stories, check out my blog. I originally wanted to avoid flights altogether in traversing the enormous distance from Sydney to France, but alas, it wasn't possible in the end. I caught trains right through the heart of Australia to the far-North capital of Darwin, flew (eek!) to the South of Vietnam, then caught more trains all the way through China, Mongolia, Russia (on the Trans-Siberian railway), Belarus, Poland and Germany. Within Europe I travelled by train, bus and second-hand recumbent bike. To top the year off, I went to Copenhagen during the UN climate summit and protested against my government's lack of leadership and backward climate policies with a group of four friends.

For two and a half years until the end of 2008 I was working as a Climate Change Campaigner for the Nature Conservation Council of NSW - check that out down on the right-hand side of this page. Most of my work was with grassroots community groups who are active in the state of NSW on climate change - primarily workshops, training, strategy development, support and materials for these groups. I also did work on formulating policy and media for our climate change projects and campaigns. As part of this role I also desiged the ClimateMovement.org.au site, a hub for Climate Action Groups in Australia. Apart from all this campaigning, I'm also a professional photographer and graphic designer - you can check out my portfolio and online gallery at ErlandHowden.com or buy prints of my work here.

Background

I grew up in a very politically and environmentally aware family, though I'm always discovering that we all have more to learn. I started getting active on environmental and social issues towards the end of high school - joined the Australian Greens political party and worked on improving recycling and styrofoam cup waste at school. After school I travelled to New Zealand, South America (Patagonia and the Amazon) and a few trips down to Tasmania. In Tasmania I got involved in a couple of forest blockade actions against the massive old-growth logging that happens there - camped at the Global Rescue Station in the Styx Valley, which included a tree-sit near the top of an 84-metre Eucalyptus Regnans. Around this time I began to read more about climate change - projections, impacts and also solutions. In 2004 I stood as a candidate in the Australian federal election for the seat of Berowra, held by Phillip Ruddock, then the Attorney-General and prior to that the Immigration Minister that oversaw some of the worst abuses of human rights against refugees in Australia's mandatory detention centres. I was standing for the Greens party in the election and used the campaign and media attention to highlight two key issues - the logging of Tasmania's old-growth forests and the human rights abuses against refugees - as well as present the case for the four fundamental greens principles: ecological sustainability, peace & non-violence, social & economic justice and grassroots democracy. In mid-2005 I got involved with organising Walk Against Warming in Sydney (Australia's activity for the International Day of Action on Climate Change that coincides with the UN climate talks), coordinated by the Nature Conservation Council, helping to build the website, promoting, designing, flyering and doing photo & video work at the actual event. Mid-way through the following year, after postponing plans to cycle around Australia on my recumbent trike, I got a job with the Nature Conservation Council to coordinate the Walk Against Warming 2006 and worked there on a range of climate change projects and campaigns until December 2008. At the beginning of 2008 I travelled to Papua New Guinea and witnessed some of the environmental destruction of mining there.

I hope I haven't bored you with all that history, but perhaps it'll put me in context... there's more to tell about other activism, volunteering, etc, but that will have to wait for another time.

If you've made it this far, get off your computer and get out on the streets! :-)

Cheers, Erland.