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Urban butterflies are declining at alarming rates around the world (Photo: David Clode / Unsplash) By Bethany Kiss, Mark Jacques and Sarah Bekessy – RMIT University Native animals can make excellent neighbours. Blue banded bees pollinate our vegetable gardens. Microbats eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes a night and powerful owls keep rodents at bay. But could we go one step …

Recently I attended a consultation day with Blue Mountains City Council to discuss a new Community Climate Risk and Adaptation Plan and the ways in which it could be implemented. What transpired renewed my belief in our community, our council and our shared future.

“Every body can help the planet” is the tagline of Earthly Remains, a not-for-profit organisation set up to advocate for human composting as a more sustainable death care option in Australia. 

Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre will host the Disaster Risk Awareness Expo and Family Day on Saturday, 22 November, offering a fun and informative day focused on building safer, healthier and more resilient communities.

In Katoomba, a grassroots litter-picking group tackles rubbish before it reaches our water supply. Their story shows how local environmental action, fueled by community connection, can drive meaningful change for planetary health.

As global food insecurity increases, research suggests that the ‘planetary health diet’ is one solution. This calls for a shift towards a plant-based diet and more local food production. Local social enterprise Farm it Forward is showing how this can be done in school yards and one backyard after another.

There is a little bit of magic happening on Wednesdays at the Planetary Health Centre as young volunteers from Kindlehill School, and Council staff, work together to create a demonstration site for the wider community. This hands-on program is inspiring all involved, including teacher Sarah Daniel.

Dave Spees, Katoomba-based carpenter and founder of Against the Grain, has turned the by-product of his craft into a sustainable, sought-after winter fuel. His compressed sawdust briquettes are now helping to heat homes across the Blue Mountains, all while dramatically reducing landfill waste.

As challenges mount globally there is one group of community builders who, for 120 years now, have been strengthening the world’s social fabric and addressing ways civil society can help alleviate suffering and inequality; improve people’s quality of life; and create a more peaceful, healthier planet.

On the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima the Planetary Health Initiative and the Blue Mountains Peace Collective hosted a Peace Symposium and Community Picnic to provide pathways for everyone to take steps for a more peaceful future.