Another Good Reason

As if climate change wasn't a good enough reason to reduce petrol consumption, Alan Kohler (ABC News) gives us this information.


The red line is how much oil is discovered each year. The blue line is how much is consumed - including future predictions. It doesn't take Alan Kohler to realise where the price is going to go (and keep going).

Efficien-City

Over at Greenpeace UK, they've put together a cool interactive animation called Efficien-city, that shows just how a city can run efficently using renewable power, and shows how some of the lesser-known renewables work (like wave power for instance).


I dropped in for a visit, and found it to be quite fun.

Fantastic Ad

The guys at GetUp have put together a great spoof ad. The target is the government's proposed Fuelwatch scheme that has been in the news in recent weeks.

Apart from being incredibly funny (in my opinion) the ad also points out that there are far better solutions (better vehicles, alternative fuels, public transport).

Saving Money on Fuel

Amongst all the recent huff about the cost of petrol, i received this picture as an attachment. I liked it.

Let's Encourage Solar Power

You may have heard recently that the federal government plans to introduce restrictions on who can claim the solar power rebate. The result is that is slows down the solar industry.

In fact, the environment minister even said in parliament that the uptake of solar power was "overheating" (a poor choice of words, given the global warming connection). But i still don't get why a fast uptake of solar power is a bad thing. I would have thought that the environment minister would be encouraging solar power.


So if, like me, you think that the government should encourage the use of solar power, ACF has a webpage where you can send an e-card to the environment minister. Alternatively, you can send an email to Kevin Rudd, or the climate change minister (Penny Wong) via the Federal Government links i've listed in the right hand column.

Lots of Greenpower

We all know the suscribing to greenpower means an increase in the amount of renewable energy that is produced. When a lot of people subscribe to greenpower, then it really adds up.


According to the most recent figures, there are now around 700,000 households subscribing to Greenpower. And in the last quarter of last year, 349 gigawatt hours of renewable energy was created trough Greenpower.

In electricity bill units - that's 349,000,000 kWh!

58% Flick Their Switch

Remember Earth Hour? About a month ago we turned our lights off for one hour on a Saturday night. According to polling published on the Earth Hour website, 58% of Aussie adults took part in the event.


"The overwhelming support for Earth Hour from Australians across the country has amazed us and shows the willingness of both business and individuals to start cutting emissions," said WWF-Australia Earth Hour Director, Andy Ridley.

"The polling only targeted people over 18 years of age and, given the popularity of Earth Hour among kids, the actual number of participants is likely to be much higher."

We Pay BHP $117million

A couple of weeks ago i mentioned the tax-breaks for huge mining companies. Well today i read that BHP Billiton is going to reap $117 million in tax credits during the 4 year expansion of one of its mines.


And as if that wasn't bad enough, it is estimated that the company's annual rebate from the Australian taxpayer is $138 million. Personally, i could think of much better ways to spend $138 million.

In A Jam Over Food Miles

Ok, so most people probably know about food miles. The shorter the distance the food has to travel, the smaller the transport emissions. And i had a good laugh at the Brits when i heard they export 10,000 tonne of butter to Denmark - and then import 10,000 tonne of Danish butter back to the UK. "How proposterous!" I thought.


Then i bought my favourite jam (bargain price and a funky-shaped jar) and was happy with my purchase until i read the fine print.


I had falsely presumed that something made by Coles Australia, was made in Australia. Not so. Not even close.

I Love Brisbane

This evening i was going to write about food miles. You'll have to wait for that, because i was interrupted by a phone survey by Brisbane Council. It started fairly standard ... "How do you rate the council on a scale of 1-5?"


Then.. "i'd like to ask you about climate change". Now she had my full attention!! After some inane questions about lightbulbs etc, she asked what i thought council could do to reduce greenhouse emissions. Suffice to say, the entire call went for about an hour.


She also asked about the Greenheart Citysmart programme. "Has it helped you take positive actions?". I had to say no, because it's only suggesting things that i've already done. Changing bulbs is great but council needs to think bigger if it wants to meet the reduction targets.

Meat Feeds Climate Change

While "food miles" (the distance food travels to get to us) are important, for some foods it's also about how they are made.

Meat appears to be one of those foods. According to an article in New Scientist magazine, switching from red meat to veggies just one day per week would save greenhouse gases the equivalent of driving 1860 km. (And probably save some money too!)

The author of the study says that food miles, while important, are only part of the equation. Other things need to be considered, such as the transport of ingredients, the energy used in processing, etc.

If you're thinking that it's near-impossible to pick the most greenhouse friendly food, you're not alone. Several community groups are calling for carbon labelling of foods, informing the customer just how much greenhouse gas was produced in making the product.

Solar Incentive

On the 7.30 Report, Prof David Mills, says solar power can provide 90% of our electricity, if only governments provide some support. In the effort to reduce greenhouse emisisons, lots of money is being thrown at clean coal, which is not yet proven, while many believe there should be more support for solar - which is ready now.


In the report, it was mentioned that SA is the only state with a "feed-in" tariff (a bonus rate paid to people putting solar power into the grid). But don't despair Queenslanders, our state government has announced its own Solar Bonus Scheme, which will take effect this year.
[7.30 report article (video/text)]
[interview with energy minster (video/text)]

$2 billion cars

Ok, so we've all heard about the strange subsidies that exist for companies to pollute the environment. But what are they? Well i saw the speech by Don Henry (ACF) the other day, an he outlined some of the things our tax dollars are subsidising.


Tax-breaks for company cars are estimated to reach a cost of $2 billion dollars by 2009-10. Great for CEO's and the like. Not so great for the planet. The strange thing is, the more kilometres they drive, the bigger the tax breaks get.

Another one is petrol tax. While the average car-driver pays 38 cents per litre in tax, big companies pay either 3 cents per litre (airlines) or 0 cents (mining companies). [Full speech]

12 hours in 12 mins

One of the things that saves energy, and greenhouse gases, is recycling. For aluminium cans, the energy required to make one from scratch is 20 times the energy used to recycle one. So recycling aluminium is a 95% energy saving.


So today i picked up any aluminium cans i found on my walk - which was 4. The energy saving for 1 can is equivalent to 3 hours of TV use. So my little collection saved the equivalent energy of 12 hours of TV-watching.

Close to Home

Spotted this article in my local paper. Ben worked out that driving through the CBD twice a day was not the most enjoyable thing to do. Smart Ben!


Reminds me of a guy i met when we started our new jobs on the same day. He told me that "they pay the same as the old job, but it's a $50 pay-rise" on the basis that 50 bucks was what he was shelling out in fuel each week. It also means 10 hours he's NOT spending in traffic jams - not to mention the pollution.

It seems so obvious. More free time. Less fuel costs. Less pollution.