Regrow Qld 9 March Issue 9 Vol 3 (Subscriber)
Another air monitor installed, Good News, Arthur's Dream Car Blog, and Greg ponders the consequences of annoying Mother Nature.
Stuck for a gift that’s ecologically friendly for the person who has everything? Give a gift subscription to Regrow Qld - the positive news magazine that’s locally sourced and has zero food miles.
Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
From my awkward birthday date, to my neurodivergent brain, I have spent my life never fitting into neat boxes. If there’s a system, I am guaranteed to break it.
So I really feel for people who have lost everything in the floods who are trying to navigate the labyrinth of MyGov, Centrelink and Federal assistance grants with nothing more than a poorly charged mobile phone and persistence.
It made me boiling mad this morning when I saw a certain Federal government Minister make excuses for the lateness of the support to Lismore. If the Sikh volunteers in a van can get in there, surely the Australian Defence Force have that capability?
But of course, the ADF need to wait for orders, and there’s the problem.
Meanwhile, on Facebook and Twitter people are mobilising like never before to create support networks and get food, water and equipment to where it is needed.
Here’s the thing though: a population once mobilised into this sort of informal group mind never forgets how to do it. They don’t forget who helped and who didn’t. They certainly won’t forget photo opportunities being more important than actual help.
That’s bad news for those who are late to the clean up party.
Anna
GCC Project Update
Air monitors
We’re pleased to let you know that another of our air monitors has been installed, this time very close to the boundary of the proposed coal mine near Bundaberg. Thanks to John and Brenda who agreed to host a monitor for us. We’re still looking for hosts, so please contact us if you think you can help.
Good News
For more good news check out https://futurecrunch.com/goodnews/ and sign up to the fortnightly newsletter.
Big conservation victory in South Africa, after the country's High Court sided with Indigenous communities in the Eastern Cape to stop Shell's efforts to explore shale gas off the country’s eastern coast. The area falls within the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot, and its pristine waters provide habitat for an exceptional array of endemic and endangered marine species. Hakai
Good news for cranes in the UK, with 72 pairs recorded last year, the highest number since the 17th century. A small number of birds were reintroduced to Norfolk’s Broads in 1979 after a 400 year absence due to wetland drainage and hunting. Habitat protections and hand-rearing projects have helped boost the population to over 200 birds.
Adult cranes stand at around 1.2m (4ft) tall and are known for their complex "display" behaviour, where they perform bows, pirouettes and bobs.
The crane is thought to have been a common breeding bird in Britain during the Middle Ages. English place names with the prefix "cran", such as Cranfield in Bedfordshire, refer to areas frequented by the birds. BBC
After seven years, the epic legal battle to protect the pristine Bylong Valley in NSW from a massive new coal mine has been won. The case pitted local residents against the government-backed multinational KEPCO. This project would have generated over 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental Defenders Office
Tesla Dream Car blog #23
Arthur Hunt
Editor’s note: this article was written in February 2021
I am writing this part way through our car trip to Tasmania. The borders opened for us and we hope that they stay open so we can return home at the end of February. We left home with a nearly full charge and 317 km of range. On our first day we used the Bruce Highway chargers at Miriam Vale, Gin Gin and Childers and reached the caravan park at Nanango with 58 km of range left. We plugged into an external power point on our cabin and added 165 km of range overnight for which we were not charged. This was sufficient to get us to Toowoomba, 140 km away. There we used the Tesla Supercharger at the Golf Club to get a nearly full charge while we had a cup of coffee. We headed down the New England highway for Armidale and were pleasantly surprised to be able to use the NRMA 50 kW charger at Tenterfield free of charge to add 226 km of range while we had lunch. We arrived at Armidale with 86 km of range left and again took advantage of a NRMA charger while we stayed there with friends for two nights.
We have been impressed with the installation of chargers by NRMA in regional NSW but expect that they will not be free on future trips. We wonder if RACQ is going to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles by installing chargers in regional towns in Queensland.
On our next leg, we drove to Bathurst with charging stops using NRMA chargers at Tamworth, Scone and Mudgee. We arrived at Bathurst with 63 km of range left but found five Tesla superchargers and one NRMA charger next to the Tourist Information Centre. Perhaps they are getting ready for electric cars in the races at Mount Panorama! At one of the Tesla superchargers it took only 40 minutes to add 260 km of range which cost $17.86
We have been using cruise control and autosteer extensively which reduces the effort required and ensures that we stick to the speed limit. The lack of engine noise means that it is easy to go too fast if cruise control is not engaged. As we pass through towns the car usually recognises the speed limit signs and automatically adjusts its speed, down and then up again.
We have experienced some periods of heavy rain and have gained more confidence that the car will continue to steer accurately even when the road is difficult for us to see. The cruise control will also ensure that we avoid a collision if a slower car ahead is obscured. We have to maintain pressure on the steering wheel during autosteer so that the car knows the driver is still alert.
All being well, we will continue our trip via Canberra, Eden, Lakes Entrance and Melbourne, to Tasmania and return via the Spirit of Tasmania ferry, then returning from Melbourne via the Hume Highway to Sydney, the Pacific Highway to Brisbane and the Bruce Highway to Yeppoon.
More in a fortnight.
Arthur
Opinion
Greg Bray
For The Times They Are a-Changing
Folks, I listened to all the bad news on the radio this morning, and afterwards felt surprisingly upbeat.
Clearly I need a lot of help!
Obviously, I’m not expecting any assistance from the Federal Government whose message to those of us in the non-marginal cheap seats is - Go Fund Yourselves!
Anyway, for many years, the warning bells have been ringing, climate scientists have been frantically waving red flags trying to get our attention and climate activists had taken to either wringing their hands in despair or gluing their hands to the road to raise awareness of the need to make some drastic changes.
But, let’s face it, most of us were sitting pretty comfortably. Sure, there were economic injustices, environmental concerns, and more dodgy political shenanigans than you could shake a stick at.
While we may have agreed changes needed to be made, really, what could we do?
There were bills to pay, holidays to plan, jobs that demanded our time and bodies (and our souls), kids sports and sooo many shows to binge on in our very limited spare time.
Supermarket shelves were full, fuel reasonably-ish priced and each day was pretty much like the last (reliably dull and punctuated with the occasional scandal).
Bad things like famines, war, pestilence, natural disasters, economic collapses, and Donald Trump only happened in far off places.
So, why bother starting a revolution?
Hands up if you thought things would work themselves out eventually? That the people in charge would, in time, finally get off their backsides and we’d smoothly transition to the next political and energy phase with a minimum of fuss and bother.
Did anyone else hear Mother Nature snorting coffee through Her nostrils?
One pandemic, numerous climate catastrophes and yet another oil war wreaking havoc later… and Voila!
To the delight of climate scientists and activists, a growing number of world leaders have abruptly decided fossil fuel reliance is bad for their economies, oh yes and their people… and possibly the planet (but mostly their economies and by default their own longevity in power).
More of us are getting agitated. More of us have stopped asking for, and started demanding, positive and sustainable changes from our leaders.
So, amid all the bad news, there’s even worse news for any governing dinosaurs still welded to fossil fuels and, hopefully sooner rather than later, that will be pretty good news for the rest of us and our communities… oh yes and the planet.