Regrow Qld 30 March Issue 12 Vol 3
Earth Hour and the symbolic gesture, filming with QSEC, Shipping sunshine, Tesla Dream Car Blog, IPCC latest, and Greg visits Canberra.
Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
My friends,
Saturday 26th March at 8:30 local time was ‘Earth Hour’ when we are supposed to switch off our lights for an hour to raise awareness for planetary climate change. It was started as a lights off event in Sydney in 2007, and I recall there was significant publicity at the time.
While this was a useful concept when it started, I think the ‘symbolic but ineffective gesture’ is no longer something we have the luxury of putting our energy into.
There are far more effective ways of making a difference to the world’s climate - stopping new coal mines, fighting gas fields, adding solar panels to everything, and holding politicians to account for their donations.
A tiny virus - COVID-19 - has done a far more effective job of reducing emissions and raising awareness of just how unnecessary a lot of our consumption is. Those who used to commute to offices are staying home, and video conferencing has replaced a huge amount of travel.
I spent Earth Hour in a medieval encampment listening to a choir rehearsal by candlelight, having spent the day demonstrating spinning and wool craft. There’s a low carbon day for you!
No more symbolic gestures please, let’s just get on with the work of fixing our atmosphere.
Anna
GCC Project Update
This week we are pleased to report that we have been doing some filming in partnership with QSEC (Queensland Social Enterprise Council) -
We had a lot of fun, but the mosquitos nearly carried us away! The Botanic Gardens needs to do some insect control, as visitors were few and far between. Perhaps some microbats could do the trick?
As for the filming, we should receive a short video presentation towards the end of the year which we will use to promote our Community Nursery concept.
Thanks to QSEC who provided this much valued in-kind support.
GOOD NEWS
Shipping Sunshine
A couple of years ago, the idea that Germany would be a major hydrogen export prospect for Australia seemed laughable. The transportation of liquid hydrogen by ship (which involves chilling the molecule to -253°C) is energy intensive and expensive, and Germany is a long way away from Australia.
But over the past year, the business case for exporting hydrogen – even long distance to Europe – has improved.
New Marine Parks off Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
An alliance of leading environment groups has welcomed the Morrison Government’s declaration of two new marine parks off Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, which together form one of the largest highly protected marine sanctuary areas in the world.
The marine parks, which have been co-designed and are supported by the local island communities, include marine sanctuaries covering around 739,000 square kilometres, an area bigger than Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT combined.
Fuel Transition in Europe
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has turned out to be a much better mobilising force than the climate catastrophe paradigm. The speed of change has been astonishing. Shell, Exxon and BP spent decades building inroads to Russia’s fossil-fuel wealth, but in less than 60 hours earlier this month, all announced exits, with no clear path to recoup their billions of dollars of investments. The $11 billion Nord Stream 2 project, a carbon bomb that had paralysed the West for years, is bankrupt, and Russia's prospecting plans in the Arctic looks like they're dead in the water too.
Tesla Dream Car blog #26
Arthur Hunt
Editor’s note: this article was written in 2021
One of the best features of electric cars is the ability to use “one-pedal” driving. Although they have a brake and accelerator pedal like other automatic cars, the brake pedal is rarely used. During our recent trip in our Tesla Model 3, we probably used the brake pedal to slow or stop the car, no more than five times each day. When the accelerator pedal is released, the car goes into regeneration mode and the car’s forward motion is converted by the motor into electrical energy which recharges the battery. The car slows down and will come to a standstill without any use of the brake. When coasting downhill, if a speed has been set using cruise control, the regeneration effect will maintain that speed so again there is no need to use the brake to slow the car, unless there is very sharp curve in the road. Regeneration makes electric cars incredibly efficient. For instance, when driving up Mt Archer, our car used 8% of the battery capacity going up the mountain, but 6% was reclaimed when descending. There is additional energy saving when the car is stationary because the motor is not idling and using energy.
We have very easily adapted to “one-pedal” driving and enjoy the fact that we don’t have to move from accelerator pedal to brake pedal and back to the accelerator while driving. This was particularly so on our recent trip to Victoria, when driving up the winding mountain road towards Marysville. It was possible to slow down before the curves and accelerate afterwards. just by using the accelerator. It was like rally driving but without any wear on the brake pads and without any waste of energy by braking. Unlike a rally car, there was no engine noise to disturb the tranquillity of the surrounding forest.
When driving around town and approaching an intersection, it is easy to judge when to ease off the accelerator so that the car smoothly comes to a stop at the right place. On most short trips, the brake pedal is used only once when the driver presses the brake pedal to start the car. Even when parking in our carport, we just use the accelerator to move forward until the display shows that we are the correct distance in centimetres from the end wall.
Readers are encouraged to consider the electric car options available for their next vehicle While buyers in Europe. USA and China are already spoilt for choice, options in Australia are more limited but increasing each year. Makes and models available in Australia are listed at https://thedriven.io/ev-models/ More information can be found on the websites of the individual car companies.
The Carsales website currently offers 497 second-hand electric cars which may be more affordable, at https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/electric-fueltype/. (Hint: sort from lowest to highest cost) The Good Car Company imports affordable second-hand electric cars and will do special deals for community bulk buys: https://www.goodcar.co/
Arthur
Editor’s note: As of the end of March 2022, there were 674 EV’s available at www.carsales.com, a substantial increase since this article was written.
What we’re watching:
A comprehensive briefing from the Climate Council on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is well worth a watch to bring yourself up to date with the latest findings.
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/special-briefing-ipcc-webinar-22/
Opinion
Greg Bray
Homeless and Away
Folks, with the pandemic still raging and the price of fuel soaring higher than a kestrel that’s been rear-ended by a jet fighter, you’d have to be mad to go on a driving holiday.
Which is why I’m glad to be home from my whirlwind, week-long, tour of NSW (and extremely grateful to be back on ‘Queensland Time’, but let’s not touch that one).
Anyway, as part of the trip, I popped into Canberra to visit a few local attractions: the War Memorial, Mt. Ainslie Lookout, National Portrait Gallery and Parliament House.
Unfortunately, for some reason, Telstra Tower was off limits to visitors and old Parliament House was still closed for repairs after protestors set fire to the front doors. I also failed to find the fabled Barnaby Joyce Bar – where cheap shooters and nuts are served 24/7.
Plus, I got to see a couple of other attractions which didn’t get a mention in the fistful of glossy brochures I read while waiting in the laundromat. Starting with the remnant ‘Cooker’ activists (the anti-vaxxer, pro-freedom, anti/pro-whatever, super angry and noisy people protesting outside Parliament House and ABC offices).
There were a few, straggly, maskless, mobs of them, wearing ‘Freedom’ slogan t-shirts, waving upside down Australian flags and yelling through loudhailers. Because of this very vocal group, getting into Parliament House proved to be trickier than an echidna’s mating ritual.
Eventually, with a lot of luck, and two very illegal traffic manoeuvres, I eventually managed to find Parliament House’s rear carpark entrance, where I was greeted by several, unsmiling, Federal Police officers gripping the sort of weapons which feature prominently on the Ukrainian segment of the news each evening.
Apparently they were there to make sure the ‘Cookers’ (anyone looking like a ‘Cooker’, or a protestor) couldn’t access the hallowed halls of Australian democracy. Fortunately, I’d chosen that day to wear presentable clothes, have a shave and brush my hair.
Oddly, the Cookers were roaming free on the lawn nearby, in spite of being responsible for locking down half the capital, the closure of several tourism sites and numerous threats of violence to politicians (on both sides), while peaceful, environmental demonstrators were being arrested and jailed for protesting on industrial sites in Botany Bay.
Go figure?
Anyway, after wandering aimlessly around the acres of carpeted, vacuous, and vacant halls of Parliament House I visited the shopping district to do my laundry and pick up some snacks for the next leg of the trip and was shocked to discover numerous homeless folk begging outside the shops.
A local informed me there were a lot more these days as insane rent increases, and Governments’ refusal to raise the Job Seeker/Pension rate to anywhere near the poverty line, was pushing more and more people onto the street.
I was also stunned to learn that according to Services Australia, living in your car was now defined as ‘Adequately Housed’.
Also, soaring house prices mean that private home ownership for many people is harder to get into than Scott Morrison’s private toilet.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly didn’t vote for a system where millionaires, billionaires and corporations are gifted generous tax breaks, allowances, contracts and other assorted taxpayer funded goodies, grants and gifts, while the poor, working poor, unemployed, mentally ill, sick and disabled folk fall through the many and gaping cracks in our social security safety nets and wind up begging for spare change on the street.
This situation has to change, and soon!
Later that night (8.30pm Queensland time) I lay in my safe, warm, bed listening to the toilet flushing in the unit next door and tried to think of a solution to the housing crisis as it’s apparent that no one in power gives a rats backside about it.
Sadly, I didn’t come up with an answer, but I think I have a sure-fire method to cure insomnia.
The next day, in a thoughtful frame of mind, I did what a lot of people in Canberra wished they could do, got into my car and drove home.
Greg
gladconscouncil@gmail.com - 0466 396 388