Regrow Qld 27 January 2021 Issue 4 Vol 2
Renewable energy, regenerative farming, and revitalising our communities. Unashamedly parochial. Unashamedly political. Let's Regrow Queensland.
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Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
Image by Martin Kraut from Pixabay
It’s probably not a surprise to you all that I may have put on a kilo or two over the Christmas/New Year period. Add my birthday in there as well, and the bathroom scales have slunk away under the linen cupboard and refuse to come out until I eat a salad.
My New Year’s resolution is to get on my bicycle a bit more often, but I am hampered by the clothing choices.
My usual trailing drapery is unfortunately impractical for interaction with spinning things. I received an early lesson involving a shoelace and my front wheel, an unforgiving bitumen road, and a mild concussion. So the floaty florals are out.
Don’t even mention lycra. No lycra would be seen dead on my rusty red bicycle with activist stickers.
Unfortunately, a lot of women’s sports clothes seem to be designed for supermodels. Being on the vertically challenged side, and a little wider than I’d like, buying decent leggings is a challenge. It would be nice if I didn’t come out of the changing rooms looking like a Dr Seuss character with the ends of the legs trailing behind me. Cutting that knit fabric never ends well either because the unravelling starts before you have even squeezed into the rotten things.
T-shirts at least are still sensible, although I confess that I find the men’s ones far more comfortable for gardening or exercise. In fact, men’s clothing in general seems to be better made, and with the elusive pockets as standard.
It’s a first world problem, sure, but if we want to reduce our CO2 emissions and get more people using bicycles, some decent clothing options for women that you can wear into the office, or at the shops would be very helpful.
{Anna}
NEWS
This weeks’ news comes from From Future Crunch No 120 - you can subscribe to their free weekly newsletter here: https://futurecrunch.com/the-crunch-120-free/
Image by e-gabi from Pixabay
Renewable energy production in Germany, the world's fourth largest economy, exceeded that of coal, natural gas and oil combined for the first time last year. Wind alone produced more electricity than all of the country’s lignite and hard coal plants, heralding "the end of coal,” and emissions fell by 80 million tonnes meaning the country has reduced emissions by 42% since 1990. It is possible.
Image by Hay Smits from Pixabay
Norway has become the first country to record more sales of cars powered by electric engines than cars powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines over the course of a year. Battery-electric vehicles made up 54.3% of new passenger-car sales in 2020, up from 42% in 2019, putting the country on track to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2025. Market Watch
Image by mailanmaik from Pixabay
Southeast Asia, the last great hope of the coal barons, radically reconsidered its commitment to coal last year. Four of the region’s largest emerging economies – Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam – cancelled nearly 45GW of coal power in 2020, equivalent to the total installed capacity of Germany. Energy Tracker Asia
Forward thinking -
Peter van Beek
Converting vehicles from fossil fuel to electric
No need to fret about not being able to join the electric car world with your almost new ute or van when that still has of years of life in it. Converting from diesel to electric has very quickly become big business.
In May 2019, the Australian company GB Auto placed a photo on the internet of a converted Landcruiser used in the mining industry. It went viral: 800 shares, 1,200 comments and over 340,000 views.[1] They had sourced the vehicle for testing from Tembo, a Netherlands based company.
In Dec 2020 GB Auto signed a A$330 million contract to distribute Tembo conversion kits. They are for a range of four-wheel drive and utes including the Toyota Land-cruise and Hi-Lux.[2].
And in Jan 2021, Toyota Australia woke up and got into the act itself. With BHP it will trial a converted Landcruiser 70 at a WA mining site.[3] One advantage they mentioned is continued availability of an untold number of spare parts and dead vehicles. So, you are not likely to run out of spares.
The reasons are purely economics. Savings in fuel cost are obvious. Energy from the sun is basically free with your own solar system. And installing your own solar is rapidly becoming an economic no-brainer in the bush, be it on farms, businesses, mining sites or whatever.
Other savings come from stripping out all ICE-related hardware: starter, distributor, engine, gear boxes, diffs, fuel tank, fuel pump, muffler, exhaust, radiator, water pump, belts etc. That is a lot of maintenance, repair and replacement cost gone with less risk of breakdowns. Even with an old model hybrid that still has a small engine (2005-Prius) I pay a lot less for maintenance than I did for my old Holden ute. That is on top of saving 60% in fuel cost: 5L/100 km instead of 12L. With full electrics you’ll do better than that.
When a leading car company like Toyota moves into a new market, the rest will follow soon. So, conversion is coming and the savings are likely to make up for its cost. Conversion of city-based working vans is not far behind. Solar on large roofs has become a money saving part of buildings, meaning free fuel for delivery vans.
Keep asking your dealer for further information. It may spur them on.
[1]https://thedriven.io/2019/05/23/electric-landcruiser-converted-for-australian-mining-industry-goes-viral/
[2]https://thedriven.io/2020/12/24/gb-auto-signs-330-million-deal-to-distribute-tembo-all-electric-ute-kits-in-australia/
[3]https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/01/20210108-bhp.html
What we’re watching:
We think this new documentary could be just what a tired old activist needs to get inspired again. There a number of advance screenings planned and hopefully the full film will be available to us soon.
“WILD THINGS is a feature length documentary that follows a new generation of environmental activists that are mobilising against forces more powerful than themselves and saying, enough. Armed only with mobile phones, this growing army of eco warriors will do whatever it takes to save their futures from the ravages of climate change. From chaining themselves to coal trains, sitting high in the canopy of threatened rainforest for days on end or locking onto bulldozers, their non-violent tactics are designed to generate mass action with one finger tap. Messages go viral within seconds. It’s a far cry from the heady days of the Franklin River Blockade when street marches were the only way to be heard.”
“Against a backdrop of unprecedented drought, fire and floods; we witness how today’s environmentalists are making a difference and explore connections with the past through the untold stories of previous campaigns. Surprisingly the methods of old still have currency when a groundswell of school students inspired by the actions of 16-year old Greta Thunberg say, ‘change is coming’ and call a national strike demanding action against global warming.”
Upskilling:
We had a quick look at Amnesty International’s skills training modules for activists. You can find them here - https://www.amnesty.org.au/skill-up/fundamental-skills/ The modules are in .pdf format which makes them easy to print out to give to your volunteers. We looked in detail at this one:
While I’m not too keen on the Outrage / Hope / Action model, mostly because I think we are bombarded with outrage too much these days, the guide is perfect for giving to volunteers who are going to be working at a stall with a petition or something similar. It will give them confidence in what they are ding and how to do it, and the section on difficult conversations is excellent.
Thumbs up to Amnesty International for providing this resource.
Opinion:
Editor’s note: We’d like to just mention that while Greg Bray is a raging union-sympathising tree-hugging protest-organising Leftie, we at RQ officially hold no particular political views, except that clean air and water are a nice thing to have. Also, we think koalas are a Good Thing even though the little buggers are less fluffy and friendly than you’d imagine. Anyway, enjoy a spot of rage against the machinery of government, and we’ve sent Greg a teabag and a valium in the post.
Who cut the cheese? PM Scott Morrison
“There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader!” quote attributed to Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin
You don’t get far in politics without possessing a fairly large chunk of Rat Cunning (Note: I was going to write Shithouse Rat Cunning, but I’m not sure this phrase would have survived the editing process… you’ll just have to mentally add the word in yourself).
So, it’s fairly safe to assume that to get to the top of the steaming political pile, you must have slightly more rat cunning than your nearest (and non-dearest) opponent.
If this is the case, then Scott Morrison had the inside edge in the rat cunning stakes to pick up the highly coveted, weekly pay packet of the Australian Prime Minister. Mind you, he was competing against the delightful Mr. Dutton, so it was pretty much a one rat race.
Anyway, Scott’s in the Big Boys Chair now, and after nearly three years in the job, what is his political legacy?
At this point, I think it’s sneaking off for more holidays than any other sitting PM. Shamelessly organising less parliamentary sitting days. Gutlessly shutting down question time every few minutes to avoid accountability. Zero engagement with journo’s outside his ‘pet media kennel’. Sports Rorts. Robodebt. Maximum smirk. Angusgate (Angus everything!) Record national debt. Media censorship which would have impressed Mao. Building refugee supermax prisons. Having more marketing people fawning around him taking badly staged photos and, chiefly, being allowed to get away, Scott Free, with the political equivalent of murder.
That’s one hell of a legacy!
Even now, his greatest boast is ‘I Stopped the Boats.’ But how he actually did this remains shrouded in mystery, as he always replied to any questions re: boat turn-backs, with the standard response: “That’s an on-water matter.”
Look, is it just me, or does anyone else think this is a sure-fire sign he gleefully signed off on methods so inhumane, or illegal, they would make his mother cringe in shame if they were to be made public?
Luckily for him, after scribbling down ‘… on water matter’, the all too compliant journalists would put away their pencils then dash off to find some struggling, poor, stupid, black or foreign looking person to criticise, condemn or humiliate.
Then in 2018, seconds after nobly wrapping his arm around his embattled leader, PM Malcolm Turnbull, Scott pocketed the keys to the lodge while Mal’s political corpse lay twitching on the ground in front of him.
The mantle of leadership didn’t change him much, as he continued to dodge questions, e.g.: ‘I don’t accept the premise of that question.’ ‘It’s not up to me to comment on such matters.’ ‘I don’t hold a hose mate.’ ‘That’s a matter for the states.’ ‘That’s a matter for the minister concerned.’
What he actually takes responsibility for, apart from basking in the glory of others’ success, is yet to be revealed.
Still, for better or worse, the failed marketing guru has been given a rare opportunity to make a real mark on our country.
Unfortunately that mark so far is the decaying Great Barrier Reef, the ongoing imprisonment of a refugee family from Biloela, a recession, the destruction of the ABC, rampant de-forestation and dead, and fracked farmlands.
Scotty’s not exactly knocking it out of the park at the moment.
But, the savvy King Rat is constantly sniffing the air and, somewhere above the fetid pong of rotten cheese coming from his own front bench and the decaying privilege of his backbenchers’ seats, he must sense change?
‘The people are leaving. I must follow them, for I am their leader.’
The PM may not be aware of this quote, but in his political heart, he knows what he must do to stay on the payroll he has clearly grown so accustomed to.
The people, and progress, are moving on. Solar roof top take up is growing at a rapid rate, hybrid and electric car sales are off the charts and big businesses, banks and super funds, tired of waiting for political leadership on Climate Change and reliable, renewable electricity options, are taking matters into their own hands and walking away from fossil fuel investment (much to the foot-stomping annoyance of the Minister for Coal Mining Barons, Matt Canavan).
Surely even the shrewd, smirking shill who presented a lump of coal to the Australian Parliament, must realise Old King Coal cannot be relied on to carry Australia’s economy into the next century, or perhaps, even the next decade?
Regardless of what the brazen, corporate, mining lobbyists (and an increasingly desperate sounding Matt Canavan), are telling him.
Will the man, who dubbed himself Scomo, continue to pile all his political chips into a dirty, old coal wagon and hope for the best?
Or, will he finally dig up a little courage and show some real leadership by following the people?