On the way back from Walhalla, we decided (at Peter’s suggestion) to go via Yallourn. He said there was a lookout with a good view over the Latrobe Valley, and the power plants, and the road through Yallourn was very close to one of them.. We started off by diverting off the road to a ... [More]
Category: Going green
New for June… a Lego house with solar panels on the roof. Here’s a few thoughts on the carbon scheme announced yesterday: 1. I simply don’t understand how the deniers can continue to be taken seriously by anybody when the vast majority of climate scientists agree there’s a problem that needs to be fixed. It ... [More]
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When not to use CFLs
Letter the other week in The Age: Not worth the cost AM I the only person having trouble with expensive ”green globes” alleged to last 10,000 hours? Used eight hours a day, a globe should last more than three years. I have replaced the globe in one lamp four times already this year. I want ... [More]
Often when I listen to Radio National, I’ll learn something I didn’t know before. In this case, I was listening to Saturday Extra last week. Cutting power consumption? One item talking about electricity efficiency noted that enormous amounts of money are being invested in distribution networks, instead of being spent on measures to cut consumption ... [More]
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Rubbish goes user-pays
I didn’t spot this myself, but apparently Glen Eira is revising its bin charges: 120 litre bin charges are dropping from $138.40 to $120, and 240 litre bins are going up from $151.20 to $240. I switched to a small bin a couple of years ago when I realised my big bin rarely had more ... [More]
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CFLs
Lights again. I seem to have reached the point where the first of my compact fluorescent light globes are starting to be replaced. Many of them I installed about two years ago, and most in the house are still going strong. The three that have expired get switched on generally for only short periods of ... [More]
ABC AM on Wednesday on Green power: JEFF ANGEL: Polluters are using our money which we’re paying as a premium for GreenPower, in order to report lower emissions, when in fact they’re not doing anything. DAVID MARK: Jeff Angel is the director of Total Environment Centre in Sydney. He says the schemes don’t work, because ... [More]
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It can’t be real
The deniers like Steve Fielding would say climate change can’t be real. (An ultra-conservative “becoming” a climate-change skeptic — who saw THAT coming?!) After all, to take a simplistic view, if the planet were starting to heat up, we’d be seeing record low rainfall… Melbourne has recorded its driest first six months of the year ... [More]
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DNA quote
A letter from Lola Jones in this morning’s Age has this quote: We don’t have to save the world. The world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it. — Douglas Adams, ... [More]
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Passive cooling
I wouldn’t pretend to know a great deal about house design. But obviously it’s more energy efficient to design a building so that as far as possible, in summer it is kept cool by shade (rather than by air-conditioning) and in winter kept warm by the sun (rather than by heating). Apparently this is called ... [More]
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Recycled tissues are back
I wrote in December that recycled tissues had disappeared from the supermarket shelves. I did find an email contact for ABC Tissues (who make the Naturale brand) — they told me to expect their recycled tissues back into Woolworths/Safeway stores soon, in a new packaging. Last week Flerdle commented that they’d been spotted in Brunswick. ... [More]
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Five percent?!
Letter of note in yesterday’s Age: IT IS interesting to note the objections and opposition to the Government’s climate plan, particularly from more affluent groups and individuals. They see it as up to industry, particularly the power industry, to lower consumption of energy and reduce emissions. What effort are these people prepared to make to ... [More]
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155 litres a day
There’s a bit of fuss about the new water target of 155 litres per person per day. (It seems particularly fussing were people on talkback radio with big families who couldn’t quite grasp that it’s per person not per household.) I have an efficient shower head, and generally have sub-4-minute showers, and have a garden ... [More]
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CO2 isn’t so bad
A full-page advert for the coal industry in The Age caught my eye the other day. I just love this bit (quoted here from their web site): Carbon dioxide in our daily lives Carbon dioxide itself is not a danger in our everyday lives. In fact, all life on the planet depends on carbon dioxide. ... [More]
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Own your own wind turbine
I’ve been wondering about this for a while: if the government won’t fund wind power, is it possible to invest in it privately? I may not be able to buy my own personal windfarm, but could I buy a share in one? Yes I can. Thanks to a story on AM this morning, I found ... [More]
Here’s how I’d work carbon trading if I were appointed Grand Emperor of the World, based on my ten minute assessment of the situation. I’d set an emissions cap on the world, starting in say 2010, based on the total emissions output of the world as of 2009. Each country gets a share of this, ... [More]