Sustainability
John Ashe Vegetable Garden
I hope you all had an amazing and lucky long weekend. I know our garden has loved the up and down weather. Hopefully you will all have a chance to pop in and see how well our garden is growing.
Please join us for afternoon tea on Monday the 13th of November from 3:30-4:00pm. The year 6 leaders will be busy preparing some scrumptious treats for you to enjoy while you enjoy our a wonder through the garden.
Fun Healthy meal options
As the weather starts to warm up, I am preparing a lot more of the same old salads for our lunches and dinners. I don’t know about you but I get worried and scared about adding different combinations. This week I have included a ‘Salad of the imagination’ recipe to help spark some life into our summer meals.
If salad isn’t your friend you might want to try a ‘Cauliflower, caramelised onion and herb risotto’ or some easy to make ‘Pumpkin wontons’ which you can make with the kids.
Cauliflower, Caramelised Onion and Herb Risotto
SAVE OUR GORILLAS
By Liam S, Cillian and Peter
Year 6 Leaders
Dear Parents,
Gorillas are our furry friends in the Eastern Congo. They are one of our closest relatives, sharing 90 percent of our DNA. However, their population is being wiped out rapidly as a result of Coltan mining. We need to put a stop to this outrageous problem immediately before it's too late and we have lost all of these beautiful creatures.
Over the past two decades the population of gorillas has decreased by 77% and it's all because of Coltan. There are only 880 Mountain Gorillas currently left in the world so this species is on the critically endangered species list.
Coltan is a type of metallic ore mined in the Eastern Congo in Africa, which is where many of the world’s gorillas are found. These poor, innocent animals are being killed so that the miners can cut down the rainforest and start a new mining industry there. As well as being endangered because of the impact of coltan, gorillas are also hunted and killed to be used as bush meat.
How are we in Australia involved in this slaughter of innocent animals? Our use of Coltan is the answer. It is a key material used in phones, computers, tablets and other electronic devices. If you are the owner of one or more electronic devices, the chances are that you own products containing coltan. Did you know that Apple sold 340,000 iphones per day in 2012? That is a lot of coltan, and that was back in 2012. Imagine how much more they’d use now!
So, how can we help improve this problem? We can start by recycling our old phones, and electronic devices, to reduce the amount of coltan being produced. Coltan can be reused, therefore by recycling your old devices these materials can be reused in the future, limiting the amount needing to be mined. There are many places in our local area where you can recycle your old devices, including, Mazuma Mobile, Cashaphone, Melton Recycling Centre, Darebin Resource Recovery Centre, mobilemuster and phonecycle. Ensuring that you dispose of your electronic devices in the correct manner will not only be better for our environment, but it will reduce the amount of Coltan needing to be produced which, as a result, will positively impact on the environment of these gorillas.
Although here in Australia we are very far away from this problem it doesn’t mean that we should ignore it and forget about it. You can also make a difference by recycling your old phones and donating generously to the Melbourne Zoo’s gorillas appeal. Zoos Victoria makes helping save gorillas easy by supplying pre-paid postage recycling satchels and free courier pickup for organisations and schools collecting mobile phones. Funds generated through the refurbishment and resale of old phones through Phone Cycle supports both Gorilla Doctors work protecting wild gorilla populations in Africa, and Zoos Victoria’s conservation program
Something so small and easy can have such a huge impact on these animals and their future survival. Answer the call to recycle your old mobile phones and help save wild gorillas.
Will you answer the call?
