The Greening of Gavin

Bring On a Low Carbon World

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A low carbon global economy strikes me as a good thing, but I think that some just don’t get it yet. I was reading this article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled “Bracing for the new, low carb economy“

The article states;

“Bankrupt power generators, regular blackouts, abandoned cement and steel factories, a 10c a litre jump in petrol prices, spiralling electricity bills and unaffordable air travel – welcome to Australia in 2010. An emissions trading scheme has just been introduced and the worst fears of Australian businesses have been realised.”

Now this is of course the worst case scenario, but with typical media flare and sensationalism, I believe it paints an overly grim view of the upcoming Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Petrol jumping 10c a litre? Well its not like that doesn’t happen every week anyway due to the end of cheap oil!

The article goes on to say that;

“The introduction of a carbon price will affect every company in Australia, boosting the cost of electricity, transport and fuel. It has been likened to the GST and globalisation in terms of the impact it will have on the economy.”

Of course it will have an effect on every company, and tell me again, why this is a bad thing? The big emitters of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gasses will have to pay more because they pollute more. So, inversely that means that companies that reduce their carbon footprint or are based on sustainable and renewable practices will be the big winners because their bottom line will be lower. The public will win, if he or she purchases products that have a low carbon impact, which will encourage people to find alternatives in their lifestyle, hopefully for the better. And what is this rubbish about the cost of electricity soaring. Maybe, just maybe, it will spur electricity generators or investors to start building more wind and solar farms which will benefit by the ETS because they are basically carbon free investments once the cost of the embedded carbon used to build them is generated by the system itself. Renewable energy should drop in price and Fossil Fool based energy will rise. Well, that is what I am hoping will happen. Whatever the outcome, my PV system continues to chug away, reducing my energy bills even further. Maybe more people (including governments) will understand that home power generation is also a good thing for them as well as the human race and is not a case of who can or cannot afford a system!

The SMH article was typically one sided, with comments from the CEO of Cement Australia, who, funnily enough has a vested interest in the ETS and the way it is constructed. The process of making cement is a large emitter of CO2, so why wouldn’t they want articles like this one in the press, used to confuse and place fear into the minds of the average Australian. I have also noticed the same sort of stories in other newspapers that have comments from Coal companies, Coal fired Electricity companies, and of course Oil companies, but little in the form of a balanced view by looking at what good will come from an ETS. It reminds me of the Tobacco industry all over again. All these companies are losers in a low carbon economy. These type of smear tactics make me sick to the core, as does the lobbying by these companies towards every government on the planet. The future of the human race as we know it is at stake, not the planets, for gods sake! The planet still will be here long after we have killed ourselves off, or at least a considerable number of us. Profits should not come before people and their ultimate survival on this planet! Nero fiddles, whilst Rome burns, literally.

So get your act together, all you polluters, stop whinging and lobbying, and actually show us your green credentials by determined actions, and make us and future inhabitants of this wonderful planet proud. You can do it, I know you can, because companies have souls, and the souls are the people that work there. When enough people have the courage to stand up for what is the right thing to do, then good stuff happens.

Change happens. There is that scary C word again, I love it. So much self inflicted change (for the better) has happened to me and my family in the last two years, and the musings of this blog is testament to that, so what is another one? Bring on the low carbon economy. I am ready for it, and so are many others like me. We must all remember that we only have one place to live in this big wide universe, so lets treat our tiny blue green marble with the respect it deserves, and stop stuffing it up for our grandchildren and future generations.

BRING IT ON!

Fuel Saving Tips

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As I mentioned in my post “Why Oil Prices Are Going Up“, I promised that I write a post about fuel saving tips, so here goes.

If I was a real cynic I would simply write in big letters “DON’T DRIVE“, but as the entire population of Australia seams to be addicted to the motor vehicle that spews out masses of CO2e (79.5 million tonnes in 2005), I will be a little more sensible than that.

So here is my real advice (scroll down),

“DON’T DRIVE MUCH!“

Enough humour for one day. If you want some real tips on saving fuel in your daily travels, check out some sound advice at the Australian Government website for Sustainable transport. You will notice that their first tip is minimise your vehicle use, in which they even mention cycling and walking as an alternative to driving short trips less than five kilometres. Or, alternatively, have a look at the Green Vehicle Guide for when your old banger finally dies.

Sound advice yes, now if we could just get more cycle paths or have less cars on the road, that would be a great achievement! But, wait, here are the steak knives. Bicycle Victoria have a great site that aims to promote bike riding for everyone. Even Melton, the town I live in, has a Bicycle Users Group. Check out their blog at MelBUG.

Happy walking or cycling, and safe motoring if that floats your boat!

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
Douglas Adams English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 – 2001)


Smoke Haze

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A word of warning. This post will be a rant, sorry, but I need to get this issue off of my chest!

The last few days we have been suffering from smoke haze and a burning smell every morning and for most of the day. This is because the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria are reducing the fuel in some of our state forests. The smoke was so bad here yesterday that I thought that it was fog, until I went outside and smelt the burning eucalyptus smell. We had to keep Ben off of school all day and kept him inside where the smell was not so bad, and Kim and I were coughing on and off most of the day.

So why are we pouring tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, in Autumn which is notorious for calm, sunny cool days, that keeps the smoke lingering at low levels for many days? Are the DSE crazy, and have lost their marbles? Can someone please explain this to me? Why would a department that is responsible for the environment be burning off in forests, killing native animals, and destroying habit, and my families bloody lungs? Here is the official response.

“EPA regional fire manager Bernard Barbetti said fuel reduction burns were necessary to prevent the impact of fires on communities and water supplies.”

Last time I looked water doesn’t catch on fire, and don’t we have things like fire breaks in our state forests to help fire-fighters if we have a bush fire? And to reduce the impact on local communities, we pollute a city with a population of 3.5 million? Time to rethink the strategy fellows, me thinks. It won’t be long when some bright spark lodges a civil case against the DSE and Parks Victoria for lung damage or increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. Last time I looked, smoke contained some very nasty things that are bad for the environment and planet Earth.

Who will come to our rescue? Will it be the toothless tiger, Environmental Protection Agency, who issue us with Air quality warnings that blind Freddy could figure out for himself. Melton has a EPA monitoring station but it only monitors for Ozone, and not all the other contaminants listed in the air quality warnings. At least the rest of Victoria knows what’s going on in their area, which at the moment is VERY POOR air.

So not only are we burning brown coal to make over 90% of our electricity in our state, we are burning our forests as well, just in case we have a fire over summer. Seeing that we just had the hottest summer on record, and the least amount of rain since records have been kept, it is a wonder there is any fuel to burn off. Let just burn the entire planet and be done with it, DSE! I though this department was supposed to be helping. With friends like this, we don’t have much hope combating climate change, do we now!

Here is a link to some video footage about the issue. I tried to embed it, but failed (a bit like the DSE). Told you it was a rant, sorry.