Earth Hour - I will if you will

Saturday is Earth Hour - now celebrated by over 7000 cities in over 150 countries - each turning off there lights for one hour at 8.30pm.

Here in Australia the theme is "lights out for the reef", recognising the damage climate change can do to one of Australia's most enjoyable destinations. There will be a special Great Barrier Reef documentary on Channel 10 at 4.30pm, in the lead up to Earth Hour at 8.30pm.

You can host your own event, or attend one of the public gatherings. To do a bit more, visit the I will if you will site to accept the challenge of someone else - or to create your own.

If you're outside Australia, check Earth Hour around the world for your local Earth Hour site and information.

I voted for Lappeenranta

At We Love Cities, I voted for Lappeenranta (Finland). Denmark's Copenhagen was also good, but I couldn't resist Lappeenranta's 90% renewable energy, heading towards 100%.

Cities are important for sustainability. Even though 70% of energy-related carbon emissions come from cities, they have the potential to do so much good, including public transport, and bicycle facilities, recycling programs, and efficient use of energy.

You can vote for your favourite sustainable city (up until March 27) at welovecities.org

PS. Obviously there are no Australian cities :(

How hot will you get?

The Guardian's new interactive guide shows you what temperature increases you (or your child) can expect to see in your (or their) lifetime.

Adding these kind of temps to last summer is a sobering exercise, but that's not the whole story.

4°C of warming brought the planet an ice age to what we have today. That's a lot of energy, and that's what causes climate change. Drought and bushfires become harsher, extra energy fuels hurricanes and cyclones, and polar ice melts to cause sea level rise.

Often people talk about taking environmental action to leave a better world for our grandchildren. Having seen this data, we can probably now remove "grand" from that sentence. If we don't get serious about this soon, it's our own children who will face the consequences.

Spain almost halfway there

In 2009, I wrote about Spain predicting 25% renewable energy by year's end. They've now reached 42.4%. That 18% in 5 years!

Wind power (21.1%) and hydro electricity (14.4%) made up the bulk of it, and solar capacity is growing rapidly. With all this renewable energy, the amount of coal power has shrunk to less than 15%.

Meanwhile in Australia, we get excited when coal gets below 75%. And our small 20% (by 2020) renewable target is under review - with the potential to be reduced.

Landfill Harmonic - Recycled Music

This video is music to the ears of recycling fans, to music lovers, and to those inspired by the poor.



I normally just talk about recycling from the view of reducing waste and saving energy. But these kids show that recycling can do even more than that.

If, like me, you are inspired by these kids from Paraguay, you can follow the landfillharmonic facebook page.

Angry Summer 2013/14

The results are in and 156 record were broken. Here are just some of them:

Here in Queensland, we had the hottest day ever. Victoria had 4 days in row over 41°C (106F). Adelaide had 11 days over 42°C (108F). 5 of those days were in a row. And the nights were hot too. Perth had it's hottest night of 29.7°C (85F).

The worst part is when you remember that scientists are predicting a 4-6°C rise by the end of the century. Read the previous paragraph with another 6°C (11F) added on to those temperature, and it doesn't sound good.

Add to that the bushfires, and the drought areas (my state of Queensland is now 80% drought-declared - the most ever) and it doesn't paint a very nice picture.

Perhaps it's time to take global warming seriously.

Full report and high-resolution graphic
Last year: Angry Summer 2012/13

Aruba to go 100% renewable

Caribbean nation Aruba plans to go to 100% renewable energy by 2020. Other Caribbean islands are looking to follow their lead.

There are plenty of benefits for the small island nation. Apart from utilising the plentiful sunshine and wind, there's financial savings to be made. Aruba used to spend 16% of its economy of fuel - purchasing 6,500 barrels of diesel a day. Already renewables have brought down the electricity price by 25%.

Jamaica and Barbados lead a group of nations looking to switch to renewables.

More info: News article

Related link: Philippines to go 100% renewable

So much for "Sunshine State"

Just when I thought the Queensland government was running out of the ways to attack renewable energy, they have announced the end of the 8 cent feed in tariff that householders get for each unit of solar energy they feed into the grid.

Of course, it's still quite a saving to produce solar energy to meet your own daytime needs. I wonder if this will spark a move to batteries, as solar owners look to store their own solar for night-time use also - and maybe even disconnect from the grid to avoid the ever-increasing fixed charge.

This was some of the reaction to the news:

Community group Solar Citizens, has more detail on the change - and a petition to stop this move.

The excuse for this is a 'projected' saving over the next 6 years. But spread across all electricity users, it's about $9 per household per year - or $2.29 off the quarterly bill. You could save more by installing one energy-saving light.

RenewEconomy points out that while the government gives the impression of being concerned about household bills, a much larger part of the electricity bill goes straight to the government's - as profits of the government-owned electricity distributors.

The same article reminds us of the QCA report that recommended that the solar tariff should actually be increased rather than scrapped.

A Solar Win for an At-Home Dad

A good friend is looking at getting solar. He works from home and has a kid. I said that solar these days is especially good for his situation, as the more of the solar power you can use directly in your home, the greater the saving.

To explain, I did the maths (like on my Solar Maths page). This is the system he's looking at:

For $8,184 his 6kW system should generate about 9072 kWh a year. That would be a saving of between $1,270 and $2,667 per year, depending on how much is for his own use. Or to put it another way - a 15.5 to 32.5% return on his money. Much better than paying it off the mortgage.

I surprised even myself when I did these calculations. The prices of panels are just so good now. It inspired me to update my Solar Maths page with today's panel prices.

PS. Just to clarify, household solar power goes to the home first (a saving of 29.4 cents per unit) and any excess is then fed into the grid (the credit you receive for this can vary but is often around 14-16 cents). Hence the variation in the amount of savings, and hence my comment about the savings being higher for people (like my friend) who are consuming electricity during the daytime hours.

Philippines to go 100% Renewable

Despite it's relative lack of wealth, the Philippines has decided to get to 100% renewable energy within a decade - to increase energy security, while reducing emissions and power costs.

No Winter Olympics for Australia

Australia isn't always thought of as a snowy place, but it is. In some places. At least for now.

A report by the Climate Institute reminds us the Australian Alps could lose 60% of their snow by 2020, and have almost no snow by 2050.

Apart from the loss to the economy and tourism, it may also mean that it's impossible for Australia to ever host the Games - or even for Australian athletes to train at home for future events.

The Climate Institute also points out, that by later this century only 6 of the 19 Winter Olympic host cities would still be able to host another Games.

I guess this is part of the reason 105 Olympic athletes signed a petition for action on climate change. They don't want to lose their sport.

Calculators and Turnips - We should think differently

Loved this video by Hank. In his own weird way, he makes some very good points.



For some reason, we like get confused between what's happening globally (continual temperature rise) and what's happening in our local area on this particular day (like a polar vortex).

As Hank puts it, saying "It's cold here, that means global warming doesn't exist" is like saying "I have a calculator, which is proof that Jean-Claude Van Damme eats turnips". The two things just aren't related.

A couple more degrees of warmth we don't really notice personally. We may just put a fan on. But the amount of energy involved to heat the whole globe by 2 degrees is massive - and it's that energy that drives extreme weather events, and other disasters.

Save 75% on fuel - Go electric

Recently, I showed the increasing sales of electric vehicles. I guess one of the reasons is the savings on fuel costs.

This stat is from America, and would vary slightly from one location to another. But it's still a massive saving.

Renewable Economy

It's good news that renewable sector is doing so well. It can help us move to cleaner source of energy, and also provide a new source of employment.

PS. A bit of sad news is that there is talk of the government 'reviewing' Australia's renewable energy target. Removing the target is projected to halve the number of solar jobs, and make the other climate policy more expensive.

How a Polar Vortex works

There's been a bit of talk about the USA's recent 'polar vortex', but what is it? How does it work? And why does climate change (surprisingly) contribute to making parts of the USA so cold? This video explains it.



It seems this is one of the reasons that people say 'climate change' rather than 'global warming'. It's not just about a bit of heat. It's about more storms, floods, heatwaves - and in this case, the even occasional cold snap in isolated areas for a short time.

However, leaving the cold snap aside, temperatures year-round and worldwide are still getting warmer.