The Super-Condensed Version

You may remember, the Garnaut Report - the independent review to tell the government what to do about greenhouse emissions. The printed report was about the thickness of a bible but this poster at greenfest summed it up very simply.

In short, Australia (a) has more to lose from climate change, and (b) more to gain from a low emissions future. The pictures at the bottom left are to illustrate that Australia has the skills, the innovation, the resources and the access to renewable energy.

(ps. if you're keen, here's the longer version)

Free Stickers + Video

You might remember a few posts i've made about the company Better Place (here, here and here). Well now they're giving away free stuff.

There's a choice of 3 stickers promoting electric cars. If you don't want a sticker, just check out the great video clip

A Sharing World

Previously, i mentioned the bike hire scheme that my local council is starting in 2010. Of course, this is by no means a world-first - it's already going on in many cities overseas.


Two guys (Russell and Paul) keep a Bike-sharing blog about the various bike-sharing schemes around the world. They even covered the Brisbane one.

1 Year 8 Months 27 Days

That is how long it took the government to make good on it's 2007 election promise of a 20% Renewable Energy Target. But at least it's there now.


I read the statement by the ACF, which talks about $31 billion in investment and creating 26,000 new jobs. It also gave special mention to the Greens and Senator Xenophon for trying to strengthen the bill.

Sierra Tower of Power

I just read about eSolar, and their new Sierra solar thermal power plant. At a size of 5 MW, it's not the most powerful plant ever, but it still produced 300 jobs during its construction.


Oh, and one other thing about solar thermal power - it can run day and night! The mirrors focus the sun's heat on a central point (in this case on a tower). The resulting heat (hundreds of degrees) produces power even after the sun goes down.

A Carbon Quilt

I recently discovered the Carbon Quilt. It makes greenhouse gases "visible" by giving us a tangible idea of how big our emissions are. Figures like 80 million tonnes per day are obviously big, but hard to physically imagine.

The average Australian's emissions would fill a 3m cube (about the size of my bedroom) each day. An Aussie's yearly emissions would form a 3cm-thick 'quilt' more than half a kilometre wide. It get scarier when you multiply by Australia's population!

Anyway, check it out - it's especially handy if you're a visual person.

AFL Green Round

Tonight marks the start of the AFL's Green Round. Fans attending matches are encouraged to turn off appliances before leaving home; and to get to the game by public transport, by bike or by walking.


If you're going to a game, check out what green activities will be happening on game day.

Green Jobs

Wow - what a day! This morning the CPRS legislation was voted against by the senate. Wilson Tuckey figures global warming is no problem because Canberra winters are still cold. To top it off, Barnaby Joyce doesn't even think there can ever be any green jobs.


While Barnaby admits getting his opinions from the St George hotel, there are quite probably better sources of information. A new one i've just discovered is Clean Energy Jobs. It describes some of the types of jobs, and gives an idea of just how many will be needed in order to transform our nation's energy usage.

A Big Cheque

Saw this news of a creative demonstration of how polluter-friendly the government's proposed scheme is.


I've mentioned before, how it would seem to make more sense to provide money for a solution, rather than to those who caused the problem.

Bob Brown on TV Ad

With the Senate vote on the Climate Change later this week, the Greens leader Bob Brown has put out a short ad explaining why the government's proposal isn't good enough.


If you want to pass on a message to the PM, you can do so here.

Thinking of You

As you may have guessed, i have a bit of a reputation amongst my friends for being greenhouse-friendly. So when i invited some friends around, one friend decides to impress me by bringing carbon-neutral beer.
I thought he might have read my previous blog about this, but as it turns out he just saw them in the shop and thought of me. :)

How Much Power?

One way of reducing greenhouse emissions (and saving money) is to save electricity. But it's so tricky - where does all the energy go? Energy meters can help, by measuring the power each item uses when running. (Or not running - in the case of standby mode - grr)


This meter is measuring my computer trundling along at a mere 26 Watts (don't you love laptops?). If you live in Brisbane, the libraries have these meters available for borrowing - saving you another $30 (compared to buying one). Just type energy meter into the catalogue search.