Regrow Qld 28 July Issue 29 Vol 2 (Subscriber)
Creating joy, No coal mine bumper stickers, Madrid's urban forest, cheap solar panels, creating a non-Instagram life, and Greg considers the Great Barrier Reef 'In Danger' listing
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
My friends,
Gladstone Conservation Council has had another successful year, and recently celebrated at our Annual General Meeting. We don’t do things in the ‘conventional’ way, and so our AGM was a quick run through the paperwork and then we had dinner together (luckily these two weren’t driving anywhere that night!)
The environment movement is in general very, very bad at celebrating success. We fail to acknowledge people’s hard work and passion as it’s always on to the next thing to fix. At the moment the concept of ‘Joy’ is on my mind, and I think it has a lot to offer. Just consider: what if volunteers had fun at your meetings? What if people were able to offer small amounts of help because they knew it would be appreciated and acknowledged? Those little bits of help really do add up quickly to create an engaged membership and a powerful movement.
So this AGM season, take a breath. Sit back on your heels, and ask your members what they are proud of. Tell each other how much you appreciate the hard work that everyone puts in.
It’s hard enough fighting the good fight, make it joyous as well.
Anna
Letters
From ‘Bundaberg Today’ - July 23 2021
We’re pleased to see Maxine’s letter get published in some of the local papers in Bundaberg. Letters to the Editor are definitely worth doing as we know that local politicians keep an eye on the papers in order to take the political temperature. Keep it going!
NEWS
Madrid is building a huge urban forest in a bid to combat climate change and heat issues. They have water issues, just like Australia, so they are planting indigenous trees to make sure the green belt is sustainable. (duration: 2 minutes)
Forward thinking - Peter Van Beek (1)
RENEWABLE ENERGY – at next to no cost!
Solar panels are expensive, right? Wrong, not all of them. Panels can cost almost nothing if used when not connected to the main power. Where do you find them? At some tips. (2)
“$10 each.”
Image: Dr Nick Engerer - CEO of Solcast (3). Source: One Step off the grid 22 July 21 (2)
A well-known axiom in conservation circles is: “Refuse, Re-use and Recycle”. When talking about Renewable Energy, the ‘Refuse’ bit applies to the, dirty, expensive, increasingly unreliable and above all destructive coal and gas industries (see endnote (4) for aerial views). The ‘Recycle’ bit has been started with solar panels being recycled in Adelaide and Brisbane (5) and Melbourne (6).
The ‘Re-use’ bit has been slow to start but is speeding up. That is due to improvements in how much sunlight panels can turn into electricity. Initially only 8% of sunlight became electricity but currently it is more than 22%, and researchers are already achieving 40%. (6) That means that one new panel will produce as much electricity as five old ones.
When areas are limited such as on roofs and much more power is wanted, it pays to replace five old panels with one new one. And yes, we do want more home-made power: to work from home, to charge cars at home and to be free from blackouts.
BUT: the panels being replaced can still have 80% of their initial capacity left and are expected to produce for another 15 years or so. And 80% of 250 Watts is till 200 Watts. Ideal for re-using them.
Solar irrigation near Bundaberg - Source: Bundaberg Now
Potential uses are many, from free-standing irrigation and sheds, to small and not so small home projects. At present the main domestic market is direct selling or buying on E-bay or Gumtree but it is growing. Testing them is not difficult. All it needs is a multi-meter, basic knowledge on how to use that and a sunny day, (search using How to test a solar panel).
A viable re-using industry will do more than save hundreds of thousands still good panels from being buried in tips or crushed while still working well. It will make Renewable Energy a truly clean industry, one with maximum re-use before recycling its components into new products. An industry that does not damage the world around us.
The only way to go: socially, economically and environmentally clean. Check with your local tip if they have some.
Peter
This article may be copied and re-distributed under Australian Creative Comments Licence with attribution of author and source: Peter Van Beek - Regrow QLD – Gladstone Conservation Council.
https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/second-hand-panels-australias-massive-wasted-solar-opportunity/
CEO of Solcast and the main source of the above referenced article https://solcast.com/
Search Google Earth for Moura Queensland to see damage by coal, and Chinchilla Queensland for damage by Coal Seam Gas to the forests South of Chinchilla.
Eco Friendly Living:
The dangers of an Instagram approach to life
Anna Hitchcock
I know you’re all following one or more ‘mummy bloggers’, ‘Homesteaders’ or generally people who look like they have their act together when you feel like your life is lacking. Sometimes it’s pictures of their weight loss progress, sometimes it’s their manicured gardens or gorgeous kid and husbands.
As a writer, I can tell you that we all sit on a throne of lies, yes even me. To illustrate, here is the picture I should have put in last weeks’ blog when I talked about my lavender:
It’s well lit, well framed and Instagram worthy. Why didn’t it go in the last edition? I was flat out and couldn’t be arsed going out to the backyard to make it happen.
Here’s a more accurate photo of what’s going on in that section of the garden:
Two fruit trees in that very ugly stage between losing most of their leaves and coming out in new greenery, a very small lavender plant, and a giant weed in the foreground. But wait! There is method to my madness…
Solanum nigrum is the blackberry nightshade, and can be edible - although there are lots of strains around so your mileage may vary - with varying levels of toxicity in the leaves and berries. The strain in my garden appears to be edible, by myself and the chickens. To be honest, it’s not that tasty compared to a native raspberry, so I leave these ‘weeds’ to come up and the chickens harvest the berries as they ripen.
This approach to gardening leaves a kind of messy appearance, as things grow where they want to - which isn’t in neat rows, I can assure you.
If you’re busy, and creative, and have kids, pets and livestock, let’s face it: life will be messy. If you’re fighting a coal mine or gas expansion, the housework is going to take a back seat. If you’re out planting trees or looking after wildlife, you’re unlikely to be sanding back your paintwork.
No one has a completely Instagram worthy life - but we all have little bits that bring us joy. Share your joy on social media, but don’t assume the bits you see from other people’s lives are a representative sample.
Here’s my home-grown apples - which should be hashtagged with #homegrownlife, #homesteading and #organic.
Unfortunately, that picture-perfect image contains my entire apple harvest for the year, and there are precisely two edible apples in that lot - the others are small and mushy and sunburnt and there’s one that’s been picked too green.
That’s the reality but here’s the joy:
I shouldn’t be able to grow apples at all in this climate, so I’m winning already
It’s a tropical variety called “Anna” so I’d be growing it even if it never gave a single piece of fruit.
It’s a young tree. I’ll be giving apples away by the bucket at some point in the future.
Eco friendly living isn’t always Instagram worthy, but there’s a lot of joy here.
Anna
Opinion:
The Biggest Barrier to Saving the Reef
Folks, the Great Barrier Reef is in danger, but the good news is, it’s not going to be listed as in danger!
And it’s all thanks to the plucky efforts of our Federal Environment Minister, Susan Ley, who racked up thousands of k’s flying time on Taxpayer Airways to lobby (bribe?) influential Unesco people around the world to stop the reef from being put on the ‘Danger List’.
It’s a pity Susan didn’t step foot on a plane to Queensland in order to talk to the many scientists who have been ringing the alarm bell for decades.
Mind you, the last time she flew to Queensland she attended an LNP meeting then flew home. It was only revealed sometime later that she and her hubby had also bought an $800,000 unit on the Gold Coast during their visit.
Somehow, this had slipped her memory.
Look, I understand. I’ve often gone on holidays and found out much later I’d impulsively blown a lazy million clams on a luxury unit, then forgotten all about it. I’m sure you do it all the time too.
Still, I did feel a bit sorry for Susan. When the alleged rort was exposed she was booted from the front bench (eventually) and sent to the political boondocks. Had she been a man, she’d have been sent a stern email advising her not to get caught again, then left to carry on as normal.
But like the proverbial bad penny, she popped back into circulation as the Environment Minister and quickly got to work. Just after Australia’s worst bushfires destroyed over a quarter of Oz’s known koala forests, Susan rubber stamped the destruction of 50+ more hectares of critical koala habitat for a quarry.
So long Blinky Bill…
I’ve often wondered if LNP Environment Ministers realise they are supposed to protect our country’s environment.
Seriously, is there a single natural wonder conservative politicians don’t want to see exploited to death? I wouldn’t be surprised if there are secret plans to pebble crush Uluru then toss the rubble into Kakadu gorge so it can be turned into a giant car park.
Anyway, let’s get back to the Great Barrier Reef (before it’s too late). I’m old enough to remember when the reef was a multi-coloured wonder and a marvellous place to go snorkelling, fishing and pottering about on tropical, coral fringed islands.
I can also remember the outrage in the 1980’s when ex-Premier Bjelke Petersen wanted to allow oil drilling on the reef.
And it wasn’t so long ago I watched in horror as large sections of the Far North Queensland reefs were bleached by overheated seawater, then smashed to pieces by a series of devastating cyclones.
I was a reporter for our local paper at the time (another extinct entity), and I won’t mention the politician’s name, but they saw this calamity as a wonderful economic opportunity for the southern reefs, and I quote: “No tourist will want to see the dead reefs up north, so they’ll come to our region!”
.
I hung up and felt like crying. These morons were in charge of deciding our reefs’ future, and to my ongoing dismay, they still are.
So, with that in mind, I would earnestly say to you, come and see The Once Great Barrier Reef.
Greg
gladstoneconservationcouncil.com.au - 0412 502 798 - gladconscouncil@gmail.com