Regrow Qld 4 May 2022 Issue 16 Vol 3
Choosing happiness, upcoming plant sale, good news on climate change, Plant profile: Lillypilly, Tesla Dream Car blog, 10 minute excerpt from Q+A, and Greg ponders the fate of the blue face masks.
Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
My friends,
It’s a beautiful day again, and that’s no surprise, because it’s always a beautiful day to me, no matter what the weather.
I choose to see it as a beautiful day, and that choice always lifts my spirits. There’s been bereavements around me this week and as I support my friends it has reminded me that happiness is a choice we make, again and again.
You can choose misery, and I’m sure you know someone who is always unhappy no matter their circumstances. I certainly do!
Happiness is also a choice.
I don’t mean manic behaviour by this, (and I’m certainly too old to be dancing on tabletops), but if you have a circumstance in front of you, it’s possible to focus on the positive aspects while acknowledging the negative.
It does take practice though, and there are times when I fail entirely. I am human, after all, as are you.
You can choose to lift your spirits up - watch the birds, notice the patch of sunlight, acknowledge the opening of a flower. It’s in such small things that happiness is to be found.
Anna
Project Update
We’re excited to say that we now have a selection of native plants which we are hoping to bring to you on May 15 at the Rotary Markets (Tondoon Botanical Gardens), Covid permitting.
Meanwhile, please contact us via gladconscouncil@gmail.com to put in an order. We have a selection of local native ground covers, bushes, shrubs and small trees suitable for suburban gardens. As this is part of our Rewild program, we have chosen species that will feed and provide habitat for our local wildlife.
Prices will range from $5 to $30 per plant, depending on size. These are things you can’t get at your local garden centre - they have local genetics so will be more likely to survive in our harsh climate.
We can recommend plants to suit your garden, feel free to contact us and let us know your needs.
gladconscouncil@gmail.com or 0466 396 388
Good News
Our selection of Good News comes courtesy of Future Crunch - Good news delivered free to your inbox every fortnight or you can become a paid subscriber.
Saving the world is cheaper than ruining it
There's an extremely important and hopeful paper out in Nature this week. The researchers find that if all the countries of the world fulfil their climate commitments, we will likely limit climate change to just under 2°C. To put this in context, when Future Crunch started this newsletter in 2015, the world was on track for 4-5°C. Seven years later, we're in a position to meet the Paris Agreement.
What's even more encouraging about the paper is that the modeling only looks at national pledges, and doesn’t account for the more ambitious plans of cities, states, and corporations. Volkswagen's zero emissions strategy after all, has a bigger impact than Guinea’s, and California’s decarbonization plans matter more than Tuvalu's.
What does this mean for the climate emergency? The bad news is that 1.5°C is no longer in reach because the fossil fuels industry managed to delay action for so many years. That's a tragedy. The good news is that staying below 2°C now seems eminently possible. It's going to require an enormous amount of work, and there are plenty of battles still to come. But the horror scenarios of just a few years ago are no longer in play, and that's gotta be worth celebrating.
This survey includes estimates based on current policies, nations’ intended climate policies, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), for 2030, and pledges for net-zero emissions. The analysis suggests warming will be at the low end of the range presented, but only if net-zero pledges are fulfilled.
Buoyed by a surge in investment and new projects, wind power has become Spain's main source of electricity generation, and just in time, as Europe seeks to curb its energy imports from Russia. The country now plans to become the 'energy breadbasket' of Europe, aiming to generate 74% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030. TechXplore
The Philippines is massively ramping up its solar capacity, with planned projects growing 10-fold in the last year. As of March 2022, the country has 13 GW of solar in the pipeline, up from a paltry 1.3 GW in March 2021, with wind power also growing substantially. PV Tech
Plant Profile: Syzygium - Lillypilly
Syzygium is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. The genus comprises about 1200 species,[3][4][5] and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific.[6] Its highest levels of diversity occur from Malaysia to northeastern Australia, where many species are very poorly known and many more have not been described taxonomically.
Most species are evergreen trees and shrubs. Several species are grown as ornamental plants for their attractive glossy foliage, and a few produce edible fruits that are eaten fresh or used in jams and jellies. The most economically important species, however, is the clove Syzygium aromaticum, of which the unopened flower buds are an important spice. Some of the edible species of Syzygium are planted throughout the tropics worldwide, and several have become invasive species in some island ecosystems. Several species of Syzygium bear fruits that are edible for humans, many of which are named "roseapple".
Fifty-two species are found in Australia and are generally known as lillipillies, brush cherries or satinash.[7]
Tesla Dream Car blog #30
Arthur Hunt
Following the previous blog about EV charging, I have been asked for more technical details about energy consumption and range. Drivers of petrol or diesel cars are used to measuring fuel tank capacity in litres, fuel level as a fraction from Empty to Half to Full and consumption as litres per 100 km. Drivers of electric vehicles become accustomed to using new terminology – battery capacity in kilowatt hours (kWh), battery level shown as a percentage or kilometres of remaining range and energy consumption in kilowatt hours per 100 km. Our Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus has a battery capacity of 54 kWh, shows a range of about 400 km when it is 100% full and consumes 11 to 16 kWh/100 km. Consumption increases and range decreases with high speed, heavy load, an ascending road, strong head wind and extreme cabin heating or cooling. Unlike petrol or diesel cars, the consumption is lower in slow-speed urban driving because the inefficiency of stop-start driving is overcome by regeneration.
The consensus among experts is that battery life is preserved by limiting routine charging to 80% and only using higher levels when needed for long trips. It always helps to leave some unused battery capacity to allow the car to add more energy when regenerating while going downhill or slowing down. The charge limit can be changed by using the controls in the car or the mobile phone app. Charging the car at home overnight offers the advantage that the car is charged ready for the next day. It takes about 30 seconds to connect or disconnect the charger which is on the wall next to the car. Only on long trips will an 80% charge be insufficient for the day. Unlike a petrol or diesel car, there is no need to make time for trips to a service station to fill up with fuel.
How long does it take to charge the car? This will depend on the capacity of the charger and the battery level. The charge rate slows down as the battery fills up. Typically, we will add a 60% charge from 20% to 80% for which the time on various chargers will be:
· 2kW home power point – 14 hours
· 5kW home charger – 5.5 hours
· 22kW Tesla destination charger – 75 minutes
· 50kW highway charger – 35 minutes
· 175kW Tesla supercharger – 12 minutes
I encourage all readers to attend to evaluate the options. Factors to consider:
· Whole of life cost – price plus energy plus maintenance plus registration plus insurance – initial cost may be high but there will be savings on running costs.
· Battery size and range – you may not need a long range.
· Performance - acceleration and speed – unlikely to be an issue
· Connectivity and system integration – does it have the latest electronic connections, software updates?
· Navigation system – regular free updates of GPS maps
· Safe driving features – cruise control, traction control, collision avoidance, lane departure avoidance, etc
· Space – is it adequate?
· Service frequency and location – is it convenient?
· Model options – battery size and range, number of motors, colour
· Entertainment – radio, audio, internet, games
· Delivery time and warranty
For the full list of cars currently available in Australia, go to https://thedriven.io/ev-models/
Arthur
What we’re Watching:
In case you missed it, here is Carol’s question to the Q+A panel, and the subsequent 10 minute discussion. The whole program is worth watching though as it covers many topics relevant to the Gladstone region such as the Biloela family who are currently in immigration detention. You can find the full episode on ABC iView here: https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2022-21-04/13841444 or click on the picture below for the 10 minute segment.
Opinion
Greg Bray
Masking Over the Reef
Folks, last week I was suffering from mind-numbing anxiety and frequent, stomach-churning, nausea.
No, I wasn’t watching a Scott Morrison presser, I get like this every year during my First Aid training day… and from watching Scott Morrison pressers.
First Aid courses can be pretty confronting, which is probably why most people avoid doing them.
Ignorance truly is bliss.
Until the day your partner strolls into the room in a state of shock and casually announces that one of your children now has a bone sticking out of their arm.
At this point, you’ll be manically wishing you knew how to treat fractures, minimise the effects of shock and how to stop yourself from projectile vomiting.
But I’ll admit staying alert during a long, and frequently gruesome, day of First Aid training can be a little tricky. Especially when we moved on to preventing infectious diseases.
Believing the last two years has taught me more than I’ll ever need to know about foiling bugs from turning my blood to germ soup, I mentally hopped aboard the Muse Express for a quick visit to The Land of Daydreams.
Except, I was snapped out of my reverie when the trainer asked us to snip the ear straps of our facemasks before disposing of them.
Apparently facemasks are now appearing in growing numbers all over the Great Barrier Reef, and not only are they sticking to corals, but the straps are also getting caught around turtles’ heads as well.
Floating cotton masks must look very much like jellyfish, a favourite turtle snack.
People, I can’t stress this enough, the only turtles who should be wearing masks are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Anyway, as the training session moved on to a series of ghastly slides of burns, bites and stings, I gloomily pondered the fate of our Great Barrier Reef.
In First Aid, it’s critical to assess exactly what the problem is in order to provide the correct, timely, vital care and treatment.
So, a good start would be to acknowledge just how dire the reefs’ condition is, instead of avoiding the horrible facts like a certain Federal Government is so determined to do: ‘Unscientific’: Morrison government wanted IPCC to say Great Barrier Reef ‘not yet in crisis’ | Great Barrier Reef | The Guardian
Also, how do you provide CPR to a living organism that’s over 2,300 klm long? And would dumping plane loads of Panadol into the Coral Sea bring the water temperature down? Note: I checked with a scientist who asked me very nicely to go away and stop bothering him.
All jokes aside, ignorance (and weasel words) won’t stop the reef from literally dying right in front of us.
And I fear it’s going to take a lot more than masking over the facts, snipping our masks straps and some token dollars to bring it back to life.
But the two lessons I took away from First Aid training were:
Call for professional help first, then do what you can until it arrives.
Because doing something, anything, is better than doing nothing at all.
Greg
When you come upon a path that brings benefit and happiness to all, follow this course as the moon journeys through the stars. Gautama Buddha