Living Lightly is a collection of local stories about sustainable living.
The column commenced in 2012 and until 2023 was published in the Border Mail newspaper each week.
The content is community sourced – groups, organisations and individuals have written and contributed each of these informative and entertaining articles – all overseen by a local volunteer coordinator.
We are currently considering a monthly schedule for articles, stay tuned as we explore this option.
Here you can browse and search previous articles or subscribe to receive an email each time an article is published.
The Living Lightly coordinator is always keen to receive articles! Use the link below to find out how you can submit an article for the column.
With a big thank you to all the Living Lightly authors for contributing to this wonderful collection of articles.
By Lauriston Muirhead Coal is mostly carbon (C). When we burn it for energy, the carbon combines with oxygen (O2) in the air and produces carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 is very good at absorbing heat – so more CO2 means more energy from the sun is retained in our atmosphere.
By Kirsten Coates As with most people who have spent the last few months isolating from the general public, I could be accused of “letting myself go”. No trips to the hairdresser, no brush with the makeup bag, no accessorising with matching scarves. In other words, my wearable wardrobe has
By Alan Hewett ‘If a tree falls in a forest and no-one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ It is a famous philosophical thought but what role does that dead tree really play? We have heard a lot lately about the amount of debris in our
By Mick Webster Since retiring I’ve participated in many ‘citizen science’ programs all over the world – the best-organised and most satisfying to me has been the Victorian Malleefowl Recovery Program (VMRP). The Malleefowl is an amazing bird that inhabits our semi-arid scrublands from north-west Victoria and western NSW to
By James Sloan Everyone knows bike riding is a great way to get some exercise on the way to somewhere else, be it to work or shopping or (finally) visiting friends. Millions of commuters across Europe and even America are turning to cycling to avoid crowded public transport or jammed
By Chris McGorlick With social restrictions beginning to ease, there is a group gathering whose return I am eagerly awaiting. In February this year, 30 of my neighbours, young and old, responded to a simple letter-box invite to a pot-luck dinner to share thoughts, ideas and feelings about climate change.
By Lauriston Muirhead The challenges of COVID19 and climate change are global in scale but also affect all our lives. The two issues are having, and will continue to have, major effects on our health, our society and our economy. Since many human lives are at stake in both situations
By Lauren Salathiel This time last year, my husband and I were setting out from Yackandandah towards Queensland on two bicycles. The 2000-odd kilometre trip took us over mountains, through storms, down highways and across gravel roads, and by the end of it, we promised ourselves we’d not get back
By Lizette Salmon, Wodonga Albury Toward Climate Health (WATCH) and Gardens for Wildlife Albury-Wodonga Project Officer We’ve long associated autumn with leaf fall and spring with blossoms, but this autumn you may have noticed something odd. Several locals spotted unseasonal flowers on pear and apple trees. In most cases it
By John Whale I met Wally early one morning while I was walking around Willow Park, after having moved down to Wodonga, just two and half years ago. I instantly recognised his foliage and we immediately formed a close personal bond because he too had recently moved down from the
By Chris McGorlick In times of crisis, governments of all persuasions are wont to encourage citizens to focus on the future and the response to the crisis, rather than the circumstances that led us there in the first place. The words ‘now is not the time’ have been used so frequently in response
By John Whale It was the hour before midnight, the moon shone brightly and some very welcome rain, which had been falling since I went to bed had finally stopped. From out of a rain drenched garden, I heard a distinctive voice calling out, or more precisely I should say,
