3rd Degree

With many people anlready conceding that the world will warm by 2 degrees (which is more dangerous than it sounds) the title of Murray Hogarth's book refers to what we can do from stopping it going further.


He talks a fair bit about politics and business, but also about what we as individuals can do. It appears that the trickiest thing is a change of attitude. Sourcing the world's electricity from renewables is already do-able. Hogarth sees the challenge in doing things like "putting quality of life above dollars" and "taking our values shopping".

110% Solar

I read today that the installations of solar panels in 2008 were up 110% on the previous year.

Thanks mainly to European countries, the yearly installations totalled 5.95 gigawatts (5,950,000,000 Watts). By comparison a typical rooftop system is about 1000 Watts.

Extreme Conditions

Saw this pic on the ACF website. One of those cases where a picture really does tell a thousand words.

ACT starts FIT

Over the weekend the ACT's gross feed-in tariff came into effect. This means households that generate solar power into the grid get paid 50c per kilowatt hour produced (3.88 times the normal electricity rate).

Importantly, it applies to all the solar power produced, unlike the situation here in Queensland.

The Greens, in particular Ronan Lee, have been promoting such a feed-in tariff for Queensland. You can download a copy of his petition.

"Clean" Coal

Reality and the Coen brothers have teamed up to produce the following spoof ad about "clean" coal.


In other news, I see that even Malcolm Turnbull has admitted that clean coal doesn't actually exist.

The Burning Issue

You may have heard politicians describe the heatwave and the bushfires as a one-in-a-100-year event. So far the record goes to John Brumby at 1000 years!

Why do they say this? Well if something's a freak occurence, it can be put down to bad luck. To admit it's because of climate change (and government's lack of action) is an inconvenient truth.

But the Sydney Morning Herald seems to get it. In their article Scientists warned us this was going to happen, they point out that "if seeing is believing, then it's time to accept climate change".

Oh The Irony!

I read that Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman is currently on a trip to Abu Dhabi - a city known for its use of solar power and public transport. In fact, it aims to be the world's first carbon-neutral city.

My local member, Ronan Lee (The Greens) pointed out the irony...

It's a sad day when the oil producers of the Middle East can see the benefits of basing their economy on renewable energy but our leaders in Queensland can't

In other news, Ronan Lee and federal Greens leader Bob Brown have announced the Greens' plan to build two solar-thermal power stations (big enough to power 600,000 homes and business) and intiate energy efficiency plans. Apart from saving energy and reducing greenhouse pollution, it would also create 7600 jobs.

Just Add Sunglasses

Apparently, the coal industry in the US has launched an ad campaign for coal (the world's most polluting fossil fuel). The surprising part is the similarity to the "Joe Camel" campaign used by cigarette companies to promote cigarette smoking, especially to teenagers.


Our friends at Reality contrast the claims of the add with the facts. The also remark that perhaps "clean coal" is about as believable as a "healthy cigarette".

Climate Change Tops Survey

Recently, the organisation GetUp released the results of its 2009 survey. The most important issue amongst those surveyed was Climate Change, with people wanting more support for renewable energy, and improved public transport.

Also, 86% of people felt their MP did not represent them well.

A Solar Future

That's the website i've just discovered. They have an online petition, asking the PM to initiate a gross feed-in tariff which ensures people who produce solar electricity are rewarded for it.


It's a great idea to encourage solar power, so i've signed on.

Eco-button & Stats

Good friend of mine sent me the following link to an eco-button, a device that plugs in to the USB port of your computer. When you're away from your computer, one hit of the button switches the computer to ultra-low-power mode until you get back.


Apart from the device itself, i mention this because the website has an interesting animation (partially shown above) which demonstrates the amounts of carbon dioxide generated (to power computers) in terms of hot-air balloons and football stadiums. Scary stuff!

Melbourne Heatwave

I saw the 7.30 Report last night where the Victorian Government is blaming the public transport breakdowns on the heat.

Another expert mentioned that it will need a lot of funding to address the issues, as the number of heatwave days will only increase with global warming. (Another example of the financial cost of NOT acting on climate change).

Meanwhile the ACF has put out a media release about this, which includes a CSIRO projection where Melbourne's "Days over 35°C" are predicted to triple.

"My fellow citizens"

Apart from the stiring inspiration that might be expected an an inauguration speech, Barack Obama made more than a couple of references to the task of dealing with climate change.

Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.

..and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed.

With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the spectre of a warming planet.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America... We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories... All this we can do. All this we will do.

More than 5%

I read today that the Greens have intiated a petition to the Prime Minister. It asks him to listen to the advice of the world's scientists, and make serious reductions in Australia's greenhouse emissions.


You can sign the petition here.

The Hot Topic

When a book comes with recommendations from Al Gore and Tim Flannery, you know you're in for a good read - and so it is with The Hot Topic by Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King.


It is in three sections - the problem, the technical solutions and the political solutions. The last section includes actions we can take as individuals in our own lives - and also an informative comparison of the emissions of various countries (both current and historical).

For instance, the much-talked-about China and India produce 5.0 and 1.6 tonnes per person of greenhouse gases (in a year). By comparison, the US (24.0) and Australia (26.2) are clearly slackers - even compared to Japan (10.6) and France (9.0)