What will the coastline look like in the future?

Many highly populated areas are now directly adjacent to the coastline or in very close proximity to the coast. This is lovely for those that get to live with lovely views of the ocean or live there because of proximity to trade routes or similar.

However, with climate change and sea level rise there are likely to be significant consequences for all those people that live near the coast. Not only are people going to be directly affected with houses being inundated, but much of our society's infrastructure is located in close proximity to these areas and will likely have significant challenges because of these environmental issues.

(Source: The Guardian) 

In light of these significant impacts that will be faced by millions of people, I cannot see anything but gloom for coastal environments and coastal processes that remain intact nearby these large human populations. 

Do you think governments will stand by the ecological value of the community of mangroves or salt marshes when the people that live behind them face imminent inundation and furthermore the government could take the easy option for these people through the construction of a seawall or similar? 

I feel so pessimistic about this. My professional world is immersed in this reality based economic development sector and I can't see the broader community supporting the retreat of communities (and protecting the coastal environments) over the "easier" solution of building walls and providing coastal engineering solutions (due to the externalities associated with these strategies).

I would love to hear your opinion about this and perhaps lift my mood about this. Perhaps you have some of the picture that I have forgotten to consider in the first place. 

  

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Changes to QLD Feed-in tariff

The Queensland State Government has announced that they will be reducing the feed-in tariff rate for solar energy produced from residential houses from 44 cents per kilowatt hour (kwh) to 8 c/kwh. This change to the tariff will occur after the 9 July 2012, but those already receiving the 44c/kwh feed-in tariff will continue as long as you still meet the relevant eligibility criteria.

A State Government factsheet is available at:  http://www.cleanenergy.qld.gov.au/demand-side/solar-bonus-scheme.htm

This change will have a significant impact on the amount of income that a house can potentially generate in the future and also reduce the incentives for families to invest in this technology. Hopefully the investment that the residential sector has generated over the last few years will have brought the cost of solar panels to reasonable level and still provide enough incentive for families to continue to think of this renewable source of power as a reasonable alternative to traditional non-renewable sources of power.

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Google view can go anywhere

On Treehugger's website there is an article about the Google group now having the capability to capture "Street View" in areas that don't have roads. Now you can check out all sorts of places from the comfort of your own lounge chair.

I'm not sure this is a step forward for the human species. In the future I fear there will be no exploration available for one to undertake in their own life and imagination will be a thing of the past.

Have a look at the full article at: http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/google-trekker.html Pin It

Inspiration to "convert" your street

Here is a couple of ordinary Australian people that have changed life in their street (for the better). Maybe you'll get some inspiration from them too.

You Tube presents: Sustainability Street

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Where to put your power points?

Having moved in our new home not too long ago and this coinciding with my increased passion for energy efficiency and sustainable home design, many "home renovation" ideas have been added to our family's "to do list".  One of our key considerations, is how we function with existing infrastructure in our house (one of the key "environmental" principle - reuse), or alternatively what we would need to do to the house to make our life easier or improved without creating a significant cost to the environment.

One of the things that should be considered, but may not seem so obvious to most people and surely should be towards the top of the list, is the location or placement of the humble power point or power outlet. Why, you might ask?

(Source: South Australian Government)

In the modern household, power points are typically low down, in the corners of rooms throughout the household or just generally tucked away. However, if you re-locate these to locations that are higher on the walls or just surrounding the "edges" of your furniture, you will be encouraged to turn off your appliances at the wall. Through this simple re-location, you have the potential to create significant environmental and energy savings in your home (particularly, if you live in a typical modern, western household).

The mere action of moving power points to more accessible and more prominent locations means you are more likely to turn them off (at the wall) when your appliance isn't in use and if you're really diligent even remove the appliance's plug from the power point. Why do you need to remove the appliance's plug from the wall as well? There is actually a small amount of current used by many modern appliances even when they are turned off at the wall but remain plugged in, quite often to run memory requirements or maintain batteries, etc. Therefore, the simple act of removing the plug to the appliance from the wall removes this energy requirement and save you money.  

All in all, the action of turning off appliances at the wall means you save electricity, money and  reduce the amount of greenhouse gases and "obviously" save the planet in the process. And all this is more likely to happen if you can see your power points and reach them.  





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Another overwhelming moment

This week I listened to Nicole Foss and her writing partner at my local permaculture meeting. It brought me to a point of concern, which quickly spiralled into a overwhelming feeling of no hope (for the environment).

My concern was raised because Nicole's position is that the future (and this is really in the short to medium term) is bleak! It is Nicole's thought that the global economy will spiral out of control in the next 10 years and result in no money/economy left to fund things that are considered fundamental to our modern lifestyle. According to Nicole, there will be no funds available for things such as future mining exploration, continuation of large-scale industry, maintenance of existing infrastructure (such as electricity grids, roads, etc) and that unemployment will be a norm.

This apparently will all occur in the next 10 years! Oh my goodness! My mortgage has another 29 years life on it and if I don't have a job, then how do I pay for my home?

During this question and answer session with Nicole I asked "is there any hope to avoid economic and environmental collapse"? The answer was, "no, for economic collapse, but environmental collapse will be slowed because people won't have money to undertake major environmentally devastating activities". Not exactly the positive glimmer that I was hoping to hear. I was thinking that maybe our society would wake up to itself before it is predicted to "implode", but apparently according to Nicole, we won't!

So, this sent me into a gloom and doom mood and gave me some realisation of how many people must feel when they receive many of these dooms-day environmental messages. Anyway, after a little bit of, 'then I may as well not try and stuff being good to the earth' attitude, I snapped out of it and realised we are all masters of our own destiny and I needed to pull up my socks, so to speak. I need to make myself more resilient if such scenarios are to eventuate. I also should not loose faith in people that have initiative, spark, drive and commitment to make the world a better place. We might still end up in the black hole, but I may as well go down fighting.

So, my outcome is, we should all encourage people that want to make a difference, share their knowledge and experiences, become educated, prepare yourself and your family for things that you consider will happen in the future and re-ignite community spirit in your area. Personally, I think this will make a difference to our attitudes, moods and ability to 'ride the storm'.   Pin It

Food waste

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how much thin plastic was dominating my domestic, internal rubbish bin. I thought this was so peculiar and a significant burden on the landfill to which this rubbish was destined.

 (Source: Tree Hugger)

The second fact is still true, but as I washed my dinner dishes this evening I had a bit of a light bulb moment. At the time all this plastic was going into the bin I was doing a bit of a cook up. I perhaps might not have noticed the complete dominance of plastic in my rubbish bin if I had been mixing all this plastic with food waste as well. However, there is very little food waste that enters my traditional (in urban environment) rubbish stream.

Food waste in my house generally gets separated between the worm farm, the compost bin and the dogs. Hopefully in the near future I will also be sharing my scraps with some chickens too! In fact, I might not have enough food waste to sustain the chickens and may have to actually grow some goodies for them! Amazing.

All green waste from kitchen, including fruit and vegetable peelings, fruit stones, ends of herbs and old and sloppy fruit and vegetables all go to my worm farm and compost bins. The meat wastes and any small amounts of old left-overs go to my dogs! The only food scraps that on occasion goes into my mainstream garbage stream is my onion and garlic skins. Worms don't like these and as such most of the time they go into the normal rubbish bin.

 (Source: Colin J via Earth 911)

Interesting what little light bulbs turn on when you're up to your elbows in grey-water appropriate soaps suds!   Pin It

Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand

I have started to read Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand by Haydn Washington and John Cook (2011). So far, I am truly enjoying this book, but I wanted to share a part of the forward to this book by Naomi Oreskes.

"Most of us are aware that scientists say climate change is under way, but even if we accept it as true we act as if it had no implications. We deny, what it means, and continue business as usual. 

....will that is needed.....not the will to keep calm and carry on in the face of tragedy. It is the will to change the way we live in order to avoid an even greater tragedy; a tragedy that will affect not just Queensland, or even all of Australia, but the whole world, including the plants and animals with whom we share this rock upon which we live. 

It is about the way of life that does not reckon the true cost of living, an economics that does not take into account environmental damage and loss.

Climate change is the ultimate accounting; it is the bill for a century of unprecedented prosperity, generated by the energy stored in fossil files. By and large, this prosperity has been a goof thing. More people live longer and healthier lives than before the industrial revolution. The problem, however, is that those people did not pay for the full cost of that prosperity. And the remainder of the bill has now come due. 

What we need now is the will: the will to face the facts, the will to accept their implications and the will to do something about it."

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Clean Up Australia Day

My family and I trundled down to our local park to help out at an organised Clean Up Australia day event. Thankfully the weather was fine this morning and decided it was a great morning to do something a little different. At the park, we registered, got our bags, took out our gardening gloves and set to work cleaning up the site.

There had already been some collectors of rubbish, in the form of cub scouts, in the main park area before we had arrived, but we decided to take a leisurely stroll through the broader surrounds of the park. Not only did we collect a bag full of rubbish, we took our dogs for a walk and involved our toddler in a community volunteer activity.

So what did we collect?

A fair few beer bottles (the area is next to a bowls club), some aluminium cans, a 2L PET bottle, some plastic scraps (including broken down plastic shopping bags), paper from the inside of cigarette boxes, chocolate bar wrappers, newspaper and cardboard, a plank of wood broken off a fence from the local neighbourhood probably and a section of plastic that I think is part of the protective bits from under a car.

At our event, there certainly wasn't millions of people volunteering but by the time we signed up I think the site organiser had registered about 15 people and probably another 10 by the time we left. The site certainly was improved (measurable by amount of observable rubbish) after the efforts of all the volunteers and it is nice to make a little bit of difference to our local community.

Special treat on the way home was purchasing some locally grown, spray free bananas, which are especially sweet.

Looking forward to hearing of all the rubbish that was collected around Australia as part of this event and some of the wacky locations people chose to clean up this year. If you managed to make it out to help Clean up Australia, I look forward to hearing of your experiences.


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How much energy does your household use?

Would you like to know exactly how much energy you use in your home?

CSIRO is conducting a study examining 500 homes across Australia (Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne) to look at how much energy households are using for cooling and heating. The researchers are presently looking for households that would like to one of the 500 households.

One of the conditions of entry is that your house has to be less than ten years old, which removes my household from participating, as well as many of the people I know, but if you meet the criteria you can sign up and reap some of the benefits.

Have a look at their website: http://www.csiro.au/house to see if you are eligible to take part.

Benefits that CSIRO states households will receive from participating include:

• learning how to reduce your energy bills;
• a report on your home's heating and cooling energy performance;
• a set of infrared photographs that show if you are losing heating and cooling and where it is going 
• $100 cash for looking after and returning a pair of thermometers; and
• some homes may be eligible for installation of an energy monitor, valued at $1500, to provide online access showing where your electricity is being used.

I think this would be so cool, particularly the photos of your house showing the heat/cool leaks!

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Call for flying fox cull....aargh!

On 6 January 2012, the Courier Mail reported that MP Bob Katter had suggested he would introduce legislation to the Queensland Parliament seeking that landholders gain the right to control "deadly" animals from their backyards, including flying foxes because of the threat of hendra virus. Can you believe it?

I wrote about hendra virus and flying-foxes a little while back and in this you can see the risks associated with the presence of flying foxes are not significant. It astonishes me the lack of understanding people have and for people in the public eye spreading such crap, it is unforgivable!

Living with nature is part of our world and should be celebrated not demonised. Be aware of how to live with these creatures and you will be surprised at the richness of your life and the type of interactions and experiences you will have. Enrich your lives with these creatures, let's not try and make a "moonscape" of suburbia.

If such legislation did ever get up (doubt it with the current political climate, probably just trying to get some media attention) I'm sure the hospitals and health practitioners would request that such legislation be overturned due to the significant increase in the number of people they had to treat through snake bites and other mis-adventures when landholders attempted to "control" these animals in their backyard.


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Resilience

Oh my goodness, I just came across an article on Tree Hugger about resilience and I love it. It is just what I was trying to discuss with my mother (in a round-about type of way) this morning.

Basically the article states that the environment is "up shit creek" and there is little we can do to change this path. However, if we build a future that is resilient, there might be hope for the survival of the human species.

My favourite quote from the article, although a little twisted, is "Environmentalism hasn't failed. It just didn't win yet. But blaming environmentalists for not turning things around is a little like bashing the foster parent for not eradicating child abuse".

The article is fabulous. Have a look at this resilience article by Sami Grover  at http://www.treehugger.com/culture/save-us-ourselves-resilience-key-making-sustainability-mainstream.html.

I think 'resilience' is going to be the new buzz word and hopefully will be adopted into the mainstream as  'sustainability' has over the last decade. Pin It

Do you read books?

If you're still in the paper realm of books (which I love) a library is a great source of reading material and overall reduces your environmental footprint!

How you might ask? Well, instead of producing book material only for your personal pleasure, which once you've read it often ends up on your bookshelf, libraries allow many readers to access the same material, thereby reducing the number of times the book or reading material needs to be printed and in turn reducing the amount of raw materials required!

Other ways to improve your environmental footprint whilst still enjoying printed books:

• purchase books/reading material for your collection but share them with friends;
• if have books that you don't want anymore, hand on to friends, give to charity bins, hold a book swap, freecycle;
• buy second hand books, particularly from charity organisations;
• catch a bus to the library; or
• car pool to library.

If you're worried that you're local library doesn't have the specific book or type of books that you like, quite often libraries can buy books that you like (if they deem them likely to be attractive to a wider audience) or alternatively they may have an inter-library loan service (this may attract a small fee depending on the location of the material you require). Pin It

Another useful blog...development watch

I came across an interesting blog today which is providing residents of the Redland Shire Council area (in Brisbane city, Queensland) information on development occurring within their shire and giving them a useful and easy reference point to link in with the development process. The blog is called "Development Watch - Redlands" and is located at: http://devwatchredlands.wordpress.com/.

I think this is a fantastic idea, allowing the average Jo to access relevant information about developments in their area and also provides useful links to things that can affect or impact development and development applications in their early planning and approval stages.

My philosophy has always been to get connected and make a difference in this process. This is certainly a useful tool that could be applied anywhere. Maybe you might be interested in creating something like this for your local area. Pin It

Keelbacks and cane toads

I have had a number of keelback snakes in my garden over the last few weeks as spring has warmed up. They are certainly on the move around my place!

(Source: snakecatcher.com)

Since identifying these snakes at my place as keelbacks (Tropidonopgis mairii), I have been interested to learn that this Australian, native snake species is in fact capable of eating cane toads, despite the toad's known toxicity to many Australian species. I believe this species' capacity to ingest cane toads is probably the reason they are calling my garden home! I certainly have a prevalence of cane toads.

According to a paper published by researchers from James Cook University, the keelbacks ability to tolerate moderate levels of the cane toad's toxin is a result of genetic history rather than a behavioural or physiological adaptation to cane toads since their arrival in Australia (Source). And it is likely still that keelbacks can be affected or overcome (die) as a result of ingesting too much toxin, potentially as a result of a particularly large, tasty cane toad. A case of eyes too big for their stomach, but with more fatal consequences.

If you're interested to know more about the keelback, DERM's website, as well as the Queensland Musuem's, provide some more overview information and interesting facts about this northern Australian snake species.


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Clean energy future?

The Australian Senate yesterday passed the package of Clean Energy legislation to allow Australia move into a new phase of its history! This legislation is aimed at driving the production of non-renewable energy down and increase the amount of renewables or clean energy available to Australia in the future. The legislation will also attempt to cut emissions that Australia would have otherwise generated by 2020. And the biggest and most publicised component, is that there will be a price on carbon from the 1 July 2012. This will commence at $23 a tonne for the top 500 polluters in Australia.

I was recently interested to know that Brisbane City Council is one of these top 500, but from the information that I recently heard from their Mayor, they are well on their way to looking at alternative sources of energy and ways to improve their activities and how to reduce their "bill" as you might say.

What an environmental step forward our country made yesterday and I am pleased that the government stood up to big business. Pin It

Greywater...what is it & where can you use it?

Greywater is an overarching term that describes water directed from your bathroom basins, laundry (both washing machine and basins), showers and baths. It is not from toilets and kitchen sinks.

Greywater has traditionally in Australia directed straight into the water treatment process (sewage system) and not utilised within the home.  However, now that Australia has been and in some parts still going through a drought, there is obviously a consciousness about water and how we could be re-using it for a variety of purposes.

Greywater diversion is the easiest and most convenient way to re-capture some of the water in our households. The best re-use of greywater is to divert the water from the sewerage system and utilise it for watering plants or lawn around your garden. Some people even use it for washing their car, other vehicles or even their house. This in turn, reduces your requirement to use potable (or drinking) water on your garden, leading to more efficient use of potable water. And it will also result in a cost saving for you, as you won't need the water from the water mains that you use to use on your garden and you therefore won't be charged for this water.

It is important to note, that diverting greywater for immediate re-use is considered non-treated greywater. There are systems which you can install into your house for greywater treatment, which allow you to store treated greywater water and utilise for a broad range of applications. As an example, treated greywater can be used for toilet flushing and washing your clothes (ie in the laundry). It important to note, if you don't have a treatment system for your greywater, you should not store it, as it will quickly turn septic.

Simple measures to divert your greywater for uses around your house, such as on your garden, include:

• collecting it with a bucket, for example, when you're showering; or
• connecting a flexible hose to your washing machine outlet pipe.

One important thing is to ensure that whatever you put into any of these input areas (eg laundry, bathroom) is appropriate to go onto your garden. Attempt to utilise products that have low nitrogen and phosphorous and salt levels. Inputs with either high levels of these or accumulation due to "over-use", can lead to issues in your garden, particularly if you have native plants.

So, let's all give it a go.

My initial problem, is that I will need to invest in a very long hose to be able to utilise my washing machine's water in my garden. But it will save me using my precious captured rainwater (see previous post) for garden purposes.

If you would like some more basic information on dos and don'ts of greywater and how to use it in your home, have a look at the Department of Environment and Resource Management's information page.




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Reclaim your rights!

In a previous post, "Don't sit back", I discuss the requirement about the requirement for people to participate in public comment periods and become involved in shaping their communities. I just attended a conference which not only confirmed this thought pattern but took it one step further and discussed the requirement that people within the community need to start to participate as citizens.

What does this mean? Surely, by just occupying space within a community you are considered a citizen. I'm afraid not. We need people to start to participate in the political process to re-engage the politicians with their constituents and actually act on their (our) behalf rather than the large corporations that are currently hijacking the political process and our rights.

Stand up and be counted!

What can you do?

• Contact your local political representative, at all levels of government (local, state and federal), and discuss your interests and express that as your elected representative (no matter what their party lines are) they should be representing you and your community! Bring your ideals, values and beliefs to the front and allow them to be counted and considered.  
• Another thing to do is join up with some of the internet groups that represent your values (perhaps groups like GetUp, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Avaaz, etc) and sign their petitions. Politicians are beginning to take notice of these group actions and make decisions based on these groups'/peoples' interests. 
• Engage with people in your community and make them aware of your concerns/beliefs. Your beliefs may seem a little different to many that you share them with, but eventually you will link up with like-minded people and all these individual voices together will add up and be heard. 
• Stand up for your convictions. Don't be scared to rebut other people's opinions and create useful debate. With such dialogue, learnings can be made and challenges can be explored.  

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Story of Stuff

I just went to a lecture by Annie Leonard, author of the "Story of Stuff". What an amazing and awesome public speaker with a strong message as well. The Story of Stuff is a short animation that examines how things are produced and our patterns of consumption.

Have a look at their website: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ and if you have 20 mins have a look at the actual animation explaining where things come from.

Very inspiring and brings some reality to our western consumptive and obsessive behaviour! Pin It

Solar hot water...things you need to consider

I have now had three commercial companies come and provide me with quotes for a solar hot water system for my house and I feel that it would be easy to get caught up in the sales pitch that these "environmentally-friendly" companies give you. So, here are a few things that I learnt about solar hot water systems and some of the greenwash or sales pitches I have heard.

Things you need to consider:

• Size of hot water storage tank (this will depend on the number of people using hot water in your household)
• Whether you want a split system or not (this is whether you want the storage tank on your roof or not)
• Where you can and/or want to accommodate the solar system on your roof
• What type of boosting system (gas or electricity) you want for your system
• What orientation your roof has (use a compass to find out) and whether it will appropriately accommodate a solar hot water system (see previous post on Solar Hot Water).
• How large your house is in area and where the areas that use hot water are (this will help you position your storage tanks and/or solar collection "panels" on the roof and whether a solar hot water system will efficiently deliver hot water to those areas)
• How much money you have to purchase a system
• What rebates are available to you from the government (if this an important factor)
• What your climate is like and whether is it appropriate to a solar hot system
• Is there enough open solar access for a solar hot water system to be effective and efficient at your location
• The amount of structural capability your roof has and whether it can accommodate a roof-mounted hot water storage tank
• Whether you want to show the world you have a solar hot water system (this will determine whether you are happy to mount the collector panels to achieve best orientation, if needed, or have a flat panel system on your roof)

Now here are some things I have learnt about:

• for maximum efficiency and to increase the likelihood that I can get hot water all year round, I should be positioning my solar hot water collector panels to the north. This is particularly important for those winter months when I want to catch as much of the sun's energy as possible, when the sun is positioned further into the northern hemisphere
• on my house this means mounting the panels on a frame, these are constructed to position my panels in a northerly direction, my problem with my position is that these potentially collector panels will still be shaded in some parts of the year and thus, boosting from either mains electricity or a gas system will be required
• insulation of pipes between the collector panels on the roof and the storage tank below (if you're opting for a split system) will ensure maximum hot water is collected in your tank and therefore you don't loose heat through the transfer process
• the storage tank is either boosted (from electricity or gas) or water re-circulated into the "panels" when the water is lower than sixty degrees Celsius
• in a split system the water is pumped onto the roof with a small motor in the storage tank
• you may require more than two "panels" on your roof if you have a particularly large family or have a significant hot water use
• most of the storage tanks seem to have what is called a sacrificial anode, which corrodes overtime and requires maintenance approximately every five years (depending on the quality of your water)

Here are some things that I am a little unsure about and either smell of greenwash or just outright competition between businesses (there may be legislative requirements but can't seem to figure it out yet):

• one company offers a titanium based panel which means that you can orient them outside of the optimum orientation (north) and not loose efficiency....apparently the titanium has the capability of heating hotter than the standard components and therefore can orient outside the optimum north facing 
• consideration of winds if you are mounting your system on racks. Obviously this is important in some locations, but the amount of winds and strength that we have at my place i think is unlikely to impact on the system, but you should definitely get this checked out
• the size of your storage tank needs to be the next size up from your current storage tank. Apparently, this is because solar hot water can only be generated during the day and not consistently and therefore for continuously available hot water, whenever you want you need a larger storage capacity. To me you just need to train your family to use hot water when available and not demand hot water anytime. 
• If you are mains electricity boosting your hot water storage tank, you're not suppose to have this on Tariff 33 (the overnight/off-peak tariff). I am unsure about this and will have to contact my energy provider to see if this is true. The company that told me this said it was legislation. If this is the case and you only use this for hot water, again this company told me that I should have the meter for this tariff disconnected because the energy company would still charge me a service fee for this meter even if I wasn't using it for hot water heating any more.
• the life span of these systems seem to be about 10 years, but no one will put a firm number on it and there is often the statement that the technology has improved so they are likely to last longer than this magic number. Also from the information I received from the companies it seems as if it is the storage tank that will need replacing first and this is just as you would with a traditional hot water storage tank.

A useful Australian government publication is the "Your Home: Technical Manual", which has a section on hot water systems and provides a lot of facts that you need to consider when deciding what hot water system is appropriate for you and has great tips and facts associated with solar hot water.

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