Fresh from its gig in Paris, the Bicycle Film Festival is about to start the Australian leg of its world tour. First stop Sydney this Friday and Saturday night, 14 and 15 November. Then onto Melbourne from 21 to 23 November.

Video: Have a sneak peek at ‘Perfect Circle’ – featuring Matthew Modine. (Many of the films in the festival are shorts.)

Audio: Listen to a clip from the Bicycle Film Festival movie – Perfect Circle.

The humble bicycle is an amazing thing. It can get you from A to B, doesn’t use oil, doesn’t generate pollution, costs almost nothing to run, keeps you fit and makes you feel great. It also takes cars off the road and makes cities more human.

A growing number of people are buying and riding bikes. And with it there’s a growing number of hard-core proponents. A few them are even making movies about their big bike love.

Useful links: Bicycle Film Festival Sydney program, Bicycle Film Festival Melbourne program, BFF Sydney blog.

More videos: at the Bicycle Film Festival international website.

Watch the FuelWatch commercial.

Rob Stewart, an underwater photographer, set out to show the beauty of sharks in his film ‘Sharkwater’, but stumbled instead onto the billion dollar shark fin industry. He found sharks having their fins cut off and their bodies thrown back in the ocean on a large scale. All to supply the demand for shark fin soup in Asia.

I went to see the film, then tracked down the director – who was in Paris on his way to Cannes – to flesh out the story. Click here to listen to the interview with the PR Manager for sharks, Rob Stewart.

Check out the trailer and the making of the Sharkwater film.

And if you want to help, you can adopt a shark through the Nature Conservation Council. They’re one of the few organisations campaigning to protect sharks in Australia.

Professor Gehl was commissioned by the City of Sydney to re-think its centre. He’s proposed to divert cars and give streets back to the people. Sound radical? His plans have been implemented in other cities like Copenhagen and Melbourne, and surprise, they’ve made life heaps better. And, interestingly, not just for people. Businesses have thrived too.

Check this interview out – Jan’s quite a character. No wonder he’s been called an ‘urban planning rock star’.

His next commission, by the way, is to develop a plan for New York City.

The day of the election at the end of 2007, I went to a polling both to gauge the mood of the people – for change generally and to check the importance of the environment in their decision making. Listen here to what they had to say: election day vox pops.

The booth was at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in the contentious seat of Wentworth. Wentworth was held by Malcolm Turnbull – who was at that stage Environment Minister.

Listen to the ‘Into the Wild’ film review.

Both Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd argue the Japanese whalers are carrying out commercial operations in what has been designated by Australia as a whale sanctuary. But the Japanese don’t recognise Australia’s territorial claim or the sanctuary and continue to argue strongly their culling of whales is for scientific purposes, a line that’s hotly contested by the green groups.

I’ve been following the whaling story for awhile and have been intrigued by the sheer determination of the Japanese fishing fleet to continue whaling despite strong opposition from many quarters, including Australia, a nation that would normally be an ally of Japan.

I spoke to Junichi Sato, Oceans Project Leader for Greenpeace Japan, to get a better understanding of why these Japanese are so hell-bent on whaling.

Whaling interview – with Junichi Sato Greenpeace Japan

Paul Watson is a man on a mission. He has played a leading role in alerting the world to what he calls the illegal actvities of Japanese whalers. In 2007 I spoke by satellite phone to Paul in the Antarctic, the day after his ship the Farley Mowatt had chased down and collided with a Japanese whaling vessel. Click on the link above to play this podcast.

Following is a link to an emotive video posted by Watson’s organisation Sea Shepherd on YouTube. It explains where he’s coming from:

Wikipedia sums up some opposing views on Watson:

“Paul Watson has been denounced as an ecoterrorist. Some former colleagues in Greenpeace have distanced themselves from him. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jim Bohlen, one of the founders of Greenpeace, said: ‘I’ve known the guy for 15 years, and he’s absolutely insane’.”

“Thus far, all attempts at prosecuting Watson have failed. Watson defends his actions as falling within international law and Sea Shepherd’s right to enforce maritime regulations against illegal whalers.”

What’s the latest? Well, the new Rudd government in Australia appears to be taking Watson’s outcries more seriously, recently sending a large Australian Customs vessel to monitor the Japanese whalers and gather evidence which may be used in international courts against them.

There’s more on the new Australian government’s stance in this ABC story just prior to Christmas. Click here.

Expect to see Paul’s ship tangling again with the Japanese on a TV screen near you. They’re down there now. How he finds them, I don’t know. Next interview.

Castrission speaks by satellite phone in an exclusive interview about the expedition to be the first to cross the Tasman Sea – from Australia to New Zeland with kayaking partner Justin Jones. At the time of the interview, James and Justin were out on the Tasman, 115 kilmetres short of NZ. A few kilometres later, they were to sight Mt Taranaki in New Zealand and paddle non-stop, flat out to reach their goal. This was their last interview in the midst of their journey.

Above is a link to a great video on YouTube. It provides a good, simple explanation of how and why old-fashioned commerce is damaging the planet. (Part 1 is first up. Click on the ‘menu’ to bring up the other parts after that. Each is a few minutes long.)

What’s the answer? Bring on the second (smarter) industrial revolution where business works in a cyclical way like nature. More on this idea in Hawken’s book ‘The Ecology of Commerce’.

Phil Stubbs is an environmental journalist, producer, blogger and podcaster. He is a regular contributor to Radio 2SER. (Sydney Educational Radio which broadcasts out of the University of Technology Sydney.)

Phil lives near the ocean in Sydney. His work keeps him in the city, but he’s really most at home when he’s off ‘into the wild’.

Phil has over 15 years experience in the media. He has worked as a journalist, corporate communication strategist, writer, producer, ad exec and media lecturer at university. In his spare time he’s been a DJ, film & music reviewer, surf instructor and outdoor guide. And he’s done a stint as marketing manager for the outdoor education organisation Outward Bound Australia.

Phil has had a long interest in the environment. He’s chuffed it’s getting more attention in the media, but believes there’s plenty more to do to make it more accessible.

Phil is keen to help people re-connect with the real world: nature. He believes we all share that bond at a very basic level – and the more we realise it, the less likely we’ll be to trash the joint.

And he believes many of the answers to our current environmental challenges are just common sense and are already there for us. His goal is to unearth them and present them in ways which are easy for people to understand and connect with, so they become mainstream rather than fringe ideas.

The Environment Show is Phil’s vehicle.

Keep watching this space. There’s heaps more to come. Including podcasts and a radical upgrade of the site in 2008. We’re just starting out and your feedback is very welcome.

Special thanks to the Stubbs family: my brother Matt for his IT genius and support, my sister Jen for believing in me, my 3 year old Archie for his brilliant lateral thinking and humour, my father John for introducing me to the ocean (which I love so much) and for helping when I needed it, and my mother Joan for showing me the beauty of nature and the importance of making the most of every day on this earth. We miss you mum. You would have liked this show. (Though my grammar would have got a shallacking.)

TES is a weekly program for radio, the web and podcast.

We’ll do our best to avoid preaching to you about the environment and getting bogged down in the minutae (as the media can often do.) Our aim is to make the environment interesting and accessible, as it should be.

The Show features important current environment issues, interviews with leading campaigners and experts, best practice and solutions to our big environmental challenges, how you can find work in the environment, the best of what the environment can offer in terms of pristine places, reviews of environment films and books, ‘gentle music for gentle people’ and a what’s-on guide to events.

And we’re going to make it interesting by using multi-media: video, audio, photos, weblinks and no-nonsense text from our writers.

Please let us know of any other good material on the blog topics or other environmental issues – especially in these different media formats. We also plan to take video, audio, photo and text submissions from our audience in the future. (Just needs to fit the TES mantra.)

In the meantime, we welcome your feedback and ideas via our blog.

Stay tuned. There’s loads more to come. Cheers,
Phil.

The Environment Show
‘A show for the real world.’