Regrow Qld 21 July Issue 28 Vol 2 (Subscriber)
Winter harvesting, Coal mine update, driving with a light foot, avoiding food waste, passwords, and Greg wonders what if?
gladstoneconservationcouncil.com.au - 0412 502 798 - gladconscouncil@gmail.com
It’s winter, such as it is in Queensland. Southerners skip about in shorts and a T-shirt while we drag out doonas, fluffy slippers and hot water bottles. A perfect time for some gentle reading and reflection, so we have created a magazine with a positive vision for our future, every week. If you would like to help us out, $5 /month or $50 /year will be greatly appreciated. Donations are going to much needed equipment such as wildlife cameras and air monitors - and you’ll see the results here.
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Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
It’s freezing here (in Queensland terms) - as I write this it is 10 degrees. This is lovely in terms of lack of lawn mowing, but not so lovely when your house is built to catch the breeze and shed heat.
Europeans are often surprised at our complete lack of winter preparedness - but of course our ‘winter’ here doesn’t last for long. There’s already signs of spring happening, which some decent winter rain has helped along.
In my garden there are apples to be harvested (around 6 this year - but it’s a young tree), the native raspberries are fruiting after the rain and there are some coffee beans to pick.
My young lavender plant sent up a flower, too! One of the joys of gardening is seeing something you have planted flower and fruit for the first time. This garden will be amazing in 20 years time, and I hope I’m around to see it happen. If not, it’s my gift to the next person to live here.
We are stewards, not owners.
{Anna}
Letters
State Government continues to play both sides
The May 13th (2021) decision by Bundaberg Canegrowers to oppose Fox Resources’ proposed coal mine near Bundaberg, should be the end of the matter.
We now have the Labor Member for Bundaberg, Tom Smith, LNP MP, Stephen Bennett, Bundaberg Regional Council, The Burnett Mary River (conservation) Group, Fruit and Vegetable Growers, Bundaberg Canegrowers and many thousands of residents who have said ‘no’ to a coal mine in this region.
Of course, this combined opposition didn’t stop representatives of Fox Resources sneaking into Bundaberg late last month to lobby both the Bundaberg Chamber of Commerce and the Coastal Burnett Groundwater Management Advisory Committee.
The Chamber has momentarily decided to ‘sit on the fence’ with regard to its support or opposition to the mine and Minutes of the Advisory Committee will ultimately tell us what occurred behind its closed doors.
Meanwhile, the State Government continues to play both sides. While heavily investing in renewable energy and the new energy technologies, it continues to support fossil fuel exploration and the opening of new coal mines.
As for the Department of Resources, it is still assessing Fox’s application for Mineral Development Licence (MDL 3040) and contemplating profound questions such as; is a dirty polluting coal mine on prime agricultural land likely to be in the public interest?
Alan Corbett
NEWS
Boiling Cold: Bungled carbon capture and storage
“Chevron was allowed to build its $US55 billion Gorgon LNG plant on the Barrow Island nature reserve for one reason only: to bury millions of tonnes a year of carbon dioxide from offshore reservoirs into a formation deep under the island.”
“Since LNG production began in March 2016, Chevron's attempts to meet its commitments to the WA Government to inject CO2 underground have been late, then bungled and now curtailed by a worried regulator.”
“The importance of CO2 injection at Gorgon goes well beyond WA. It is the world's largest carbon capture and storage project dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, not enhancing oil recovery.”
“If oil and gas giant Chevron backed by its two major partners Shell and ExxonMobil, could not get it right at Gorgon more than a decade after the project was approved, then forecasts of a massive global CCS rollout before 2050 look doubtful.”
https://www.boilingcold.com.au/times-up-on-gorgons-five-years-of-carbon-storage-failure/
Tesla Dream Car Blog #7
Arthur Hunt
Because our car is driven by a single electric motor on the back axle and has no reciprocating engine, gearbox or clutch, it provides a very smooth and quiet ride. It is possible to go from zero to 225 km/h just by pressing on the accelerator, but I am taking the word of the experts on the top speed. It also provides great torque or acceleration at any speed – there is no need to rev it up or change gears. It will go from 0 to 100km/h in 5.6 seconds – again a report from the experts! But this acceleration is very convenient when overtaking, changing lanes or climbing hills. Of course, the lack of engine noise means that the sensation of speed is missing to some extent so, if cruise control is not in use, a light foot on the accelerator is essential.
The car is fitted with collision avoidance technology. I have yet to experience an emergency stop but there have been some occasions when the car has slowed down as it detected a risk of collision. For example, this has happened when a car travelling in the opposite direction, has made a right- hand turn in front of the car. Our car has slowed down to maintain a safe clearance. It is also used by the cruise control to maintain a safe distance from a car travelling ahead of us.
During the current COVID-19 restrictions, it has been a source of reassurance that we have not had to visit a service station to buy fuel. All the battery charging has been done at home. One day we may have to make a visit to top up the tyres, but there is a tyre pressure alert system in the car to warn if any of the tyres are under-inflated.
The absence of a motor in the front of the car means that there is an extensive crumple zone which will make the car safer in a head-on collision – a feature I do not plan to test. This empty space is occupied by the “frunk” which provides a useful space to carry the shopping or other luggage.
One of the reasons the car is so efficient is that the motor is not working when the car is stopped. The car holds its position when stopped at traffic lights and there is no need to release a brake before driving forward again. There is no parking brake handle – just a button to push on the end of the control stalk on the steering column when leaving the car.
In the next issue I hope to report on the expected installation of the new electricity meter for Tariff 33 by Ergon Energy
If you plan to order a Tesla, you are welcome to use our referral link so we will both get some free charging at a Tesla supercharger: https://ts.la/arthur62474
More in a fortnight.
Arthur Hunt
Eco Friendly Living:
Pineapple update:
It’s taken a while, but I have finally potted up my pineapple top in a home made 3D printed planter. It should make a robust houseplant - which is a necessity in my house.
I need plants and animals that thrive on neglect, because I’m often very busy or away from home. My Young Man (YM) is not too reliable as yet, although I can rely on him to demolish leftovers in the fridge so there’s zero food waste at my house. If the YM won’t eat it, it goes to the chickens, and what they won’t eat goes in the compost.
I also buy only the fresh food that I know we will eat - no point buying sweet potato or pumpkin for instance, we’re just not that into it. You can really reduce your food bill by auditing what your family is keen on eating, and what always gets thrown out.
For example, while I’m not keen on fresh pumpkin, I quite like pumpkin soup - just not every day. Instead, I keep a couple of cans in the pantry.
Another way to reduce waste is to pre process the food as soon as you buy it. For pineapple, I cut it up and put it in clear containers in the fridge. It’s then available for snacks. Pineapple is awkward to deal with if you only want 1/2 a slice. If it’s cut up, the kids (and you) can grab some without any effort.
Living sustainably should be cheap and easy. How can you reduce food waste at your house?
{Anna}
What we’re listening to:
This podcast from 7am is just extraordinary and shows the levels of corruption we currently have in the Federal government. I was just gobsmacked listening to this - and then I remembered how the boss of Stanwell was forced to resign recently for saying that some of the coal fired power at Stanwell will be retired. Anyway, let us know what you think.
Upskilling:
Passwords
Let’s have a chat about organisational passwords.
Contrary to what you may think, you don’t need to know every single random password for every program your organisation uses. If you have the password to the group e-mail then you can re-do the passwords, as there is usually a ‘reset password’ option that sends a link to whatever e-mail address was used to set up the account.
This is why you shouldn’t use your e-mail account password for other programs that have less security, and you should change it regularly.
Key passwords that you should make sure other people have:
group e-mail
Paypal, Stripe and other payment gateways which make it harder to reset passwords (and a good thing too!)
Website server and Wordpress passwords
Your own e-mail - give this to a key family member to give to the group if necessary. I know that sometimes things have been set up to go to my personal e-mail and it will save a lot of drama if this account can be accessed by other people in an emergency.
Sharing passwords isn’t a good idea for your bank account, so even though it involves lots of forms and time, please put more than two people as signatories to the group’s bank account. Ideally, you should have 4 people, geographically scattered. Two married people counts as one really, because our experience is that if one of them is in hospital, the other is not available.
You also need to make sure that there are four people who can set up and approve bank payments in your online banking. They don’t need to do it every day, but in an emergency they can go into the bank and get help to approve wages payments or other time sensitive money that needs to be paid.
If you are sharing passwords within the group, make sure that you don’t send them via e-mail - use a more secure option, and make sure the people you give them to are responsible, reliable and likely to be available at short notice. There’s not much point giving e-mail passwords to someone who struggles with computers or who doesn’t have a reliable internet connection.
Likewise, someone who often works away overseas might not be the best choice. Ten to one, they’ll be in Mongolia when you need them.
Make this a group project and let your members decide how to make your organisation more resilient, and who they want to be the emergency backup.
Keeping your members engaged with the day to day business of running the group will help your coordinator lighten their load and avoid burnout.
Opinion:
What If?
Folks, apparently even Noah had a tricky time trying to convince his friends and neighbours that a global catastrophe was about to occur. As a result, he had to restart the worlds’ population from his little family group.
Oddly, the precise details of how Noah managed this were quickly glossed over by my Sunday school teacher.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is, what if Noah was wrong? Worse-case scenario, he would have had much egg on his face, a bountiful supply of boat shaped timber to burn and plenty of animals to BBQ, two by two.
Now I believe that yarn like I believe in Hobbits, but there’s a lesson for all of us here: what if believers in man-made climate change are wrong?
Ok, before you call the Climate Change Cops to have me cuffed and bashed, let me explain.
While I usually disregard most climate change denying rants, memes or links I’m sent, I’m still cynical enough to suspect we probably are having our chains yanked and maybe, just maybe, my screeching mates are right?
By the way, I’d also really appreciate less shrieking, flying spittle and personal abuse (um, from both sides actually, remember, good manners cost nothing).
So, what if I, and 99% of the scientific community, really are on ‘Team Deluded Fools’ and the whole climate change ‘thing’ actually is a huge hoax being foisted upon us by (insert the name of your favourite conspiracy group, political party, cult, corporation, Witch Queen or Evil Overlord here)?
Firstly, how can we stop their nefarious scheme? Honestly, I’m struggling to get people to turn off lights when they leave a room, so my chances of bringing down a well organised cabal with humorous memes are slim at best.
Secondly, even if there is a ‘Great Green Conspiracy’ to stop plucky billionaires from mining oil and gas, and the rest of us from wasting precious resources, consuming less meat and generally being a bit kinder to the planet (and each other), what’s the worst that could happen?
Well, the billionaires will continue pointlessly racing each other into space while the rest of us pottered about our hum drum existences below on a cleaner, greener planet.
Someone explain to me how this is a waste of time, or a gullible goal to aim for?
Because, if those of us on ‘Team Deluded Fools’ are right, and we don’t stop burning fossil fuels like there’s no tomorrow, then, like in the days of Noah, for a whole lot of humans, animals and plants there won’t be a tomorrow.
And this time it won’t be at the merciless, and slightly damp, hands of a ‘loving’ God.