Powershift

Saw this on tv and liked it.

Climate Poverty

Oxfam has just released a report Suffering the Science that describes regions where seasons are already changing and harvest are failing. Spokeswoman Julianne Richards says "thousands of communities are facing hunger and destitution already" and that without urgent action "climate change could reverse 50 years of work to end poverty".


Oxfam Australia executive director Andrew Hewett states "The evidence is clear - the human cost of climate change is as real as any redundancy or repossession notice" and called for Australia to show leadership at the UN negotations.

[Read more: ABC news report - The Oxfam report]

Sweden's Efforts

With the news that the new president of the European Union is Swedish, there is some expectation that Europe will have even more enthusiasm for tackling climate change.


Sweden has reduced its emissions even further than its Kyoto commitment, and currently sources 43% of its energy from renewables. The country also plans to be oil-free by 2020.

Busting The Prius Myths

A friend of mine recently repeated one of those Prius-myths, so i did some checking around. Turns out there are a few of these myths (and enough people believing them) for Toyota to designate a section of their website to setting the record straight.


So if you've been put off a Prius by something a bloke in a pub told you - that he reckons he heard somewhere - i'd recommend Toyota's Myth Buster. As an added bonus, it has neat animation and sounds effects :)

PS. If you want to know where the false rumours start, see my previous rant on this issue. Although it's probably helped along by human tendency to be scared of new things.

Pick The Best Car

Some handy tools for knowing which car is best... To rate the car you're looking at (or compare cars) there's the Green Vehicle Guide for cars 2004 or newer. For cars up to 2003 there's the Fuel Consumption Guide (1986-2003).

To convert those consumptions into a dollar amount, there is Fuel Cost Calculator which can do the sums for you.

ps. i've had a dig at holden before, so i thought i'd test them out. I used to drive a 94 Barina - 5.8L/100km (highway) 8.5L/100km (city). 15 years later, the 09 Barina consumes 5.9 (highway) and 10.5 (city). Any wonder holden are struggling?

Myth-busters

So there's a fair amount of "hot air" coming out of the big polluters - including several claims about the economy.

In myth-busting style, the Australian Conservation Foundation have checked out these claims and put the results in a full-page ad in the metropolitan newspapers.

Know The Number

In the heart of New York, a new electronic billboard has popped up. This one keeps track of the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - which is a staggering task, considering that it's increasing by 800 tonnes per second.
Check out the live version at know-the-number.com but be ready to be stunned as you see the numbers whirring. As i've written this, it's gone up by 700,000 tonnes. Since the pic was taken, it has gone up almost 1,000,000,000 tonnes!

Copenhagen

Later this year, there will be a meeting in Copenhagen. So what's it all about?

Back in 1997, the countries of the world got together in Kyoto and agreed on greenhouse reductions up to the year 2012. As that's only 3 years away, agreements need to be made on what the world does after that. (eg. by 2020) That's what will happen in Copenhagen.

Of course, Australia has (almost) committed to a mere 5% reduction. Hopefully, during the meeting in Copenhagen, our government can sign up to something more decent (such as the 25-40% recommended by the world's scientists).

By comparison, Europe has agreed to a minimum of 20%, Germany is going to double that with 40%, the UK's minimum is 26% and Scotland has announced 42%.

Great Prius Ads

A friend of mine might be getting the choice of a company car, so i did some in-depth research on the Toyota Prius. In the process, i found out that the Prius has the number 1 and 3 most popular ads on US TV (Coke is number 2).


You can see the ads online, including the ad for the 3rd generation Prius, which has the added feature of using solar power to keep you cool.

My Say In Parliament

You may remember me mentioning a feed-in-tariff petition i signed. Well yesterday it was presented to parliament by Greens Senator Christine Milne.

Senator Milne had a fair bit to say about the matter, including the following...

I'm thrilled to be tabling this petition today which shows the extraordinary level of public support for renewable energy and the best policy to bring it on.

The Government is bending over backwards to provide certainty to coal, but seems determined to undermine any certainty for renewable energy.

State of Origin Score

As we're in the State of Origin time of year (game 2 tonight) i thought i'd present a slightly different State of Origin scoreboard.


This one is the precentage of Queensland and New South Wales houeholds that choose renewable energy from their electricity company.

Of course if this is the score in the rugby league state of origin, that would be fine with me.

Running on Sunshine

Found "Running on Sunshine" at my local library - it's a behind-the-scenes documentary made during the 2003 World Solar Challenge.

It was interesting to see how things unfolded over the 5 day race from Darwin to Adelaide. It also reminded me that this event (which is held every two years) is coming up again later this year.


I had a look through the WSC website and it seems that, as solar technology gets better and better, each race is being run under stricter conditions (smaller panel area, smaller batteries).

I guess it's also a safety thing. Even in the 2003 race, the German team reckoned their car could do 125 kph. With improvements in technology, the race could be over in three days if they didn't make the rules harder :)

Sprung!

I read the news that the ACF has asked the ACCC to investigate 6 corporations, and their statements about the effect of government action on climate change.


Rio Tinto, Woodside, Xstrata, Boral, Caltex and Bluescope Steel have alleged to have made contradictory statements to shareholders, and to the government and the public. Don Henry (ACF) summed it up..

Some of Australia’s biggest corporate polluters appear to be presenting the worst case to government and the public, in an effort to gain excessive free permits, while presenting the best case to investors, in order to keep their share prices up.

"Murder Mystery"

Saw this great DVD documentary last night. With all the recent talk about electric cars, it was interesting to see that they were fully operational in the 90's up until their sudden disappearance.


So, who killed the electric car? Well, I won't "spoil the ending" for you, but it was interesting to examine all of the potential suspects.

Time To Get Real

While the Australian parliament is still deciding whether or not to introduce the Renewable Energy Target, the Repower America people have put out this new clip:


I think it's message is also relevant to us here in Australia.