Regrow Qld 7 July Issue 26 Vol 2 (Subscriber)
Wildlife camera images, fossil fuels are still dying, automatically folding side mirrors, and Greg breaks out the bunny slippers.
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.
You can change to a paid subscription using this link, or become a supporter for any amount: regrowqld.substack.com
You can also forward this link to encourage your friends to sign up and share in the best positive environmental content every week.
If you don’t want to give out your credit card details or you would like to make a one-off donation, you can find those details here:
https://www.gladstoneconservationcouncil.com.au/gcc-support-us/
Thanks in advance : )
{Anna}
Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
Regular readers will know that we used your subscription money to buy wildlife cameras and we deployed them recently.
As any scientist knows, you sometimes find what you aren’t looking for, especially when you deploy new technology. I was expecting pigs and there weren’t any. I wasn’t expecting this epic series of an owl catching dinner.
We were looking for platypus and I believe we may have caught one of the elusive creatures on camera, although there is some disagreement about the daytime shots - I’m holding out for platypus, even though everyone else thinks it’s a duck! The night time shots are more likely to be a platypus at this stage.
I’m now looking into DNA testing which will be more conclusive.
Meanwhile, here’s the owl series:
There’s a streak just above the tree in the centre of the photo which is something flying past.
The owl catches it - talons up
The owl flies away with the catch. Since it was a flying animal, I’m guessing it was a small bat?
If you would like to help us buy more and better wildlife cameras please become a paying subscriber or make a donation:
https://www.gladstoneconservationcouncil.com.au/gcc-support-us/
NEWS
From Future Crunch:
“More than 1,800 schools in the Indian state of West Bengal have installed mini-solar plants in the past two years, and there are plans to expand installations by 1,000 schools a year until the number reaches 25,000. Schools have used the savings for tree-planting, additional teachers, computer classes and sanitation upkeep”. Reuters
“On the other side of the Atlantic, the first three months of 2021 saw 2.5 Hoover Dams worth of capacity added to the US grid, a 46% increase compared to the same period in 2020. Solar and wind accounted for 99% of all new power generation capacity in Q1. Endgame for coal and gas. That's certainly how Maine sees it, after becoming the first state in the United States to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Perhaps they'd gotten wind of a recent survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas of oil and gas executives, which included this little gem:
We have relationships with approximately 400 institutional investors and close relationships with 100. Approximately one is willing to give new capital to oil and gas investment.
Ouch.”
If you’d like to subscribe to Future Crunch here’s the link: https://futurecrunch.com/
Dream Car Blog
Arthur Hunt
Tesla Dream Car blog #6
We have been enjoying the features of our Tesla Model 3 as we drive it, but it continues to be a work in progress. In the last fortnight, we drove it to Rockhampton to have the side and rear windows tinted to keep the car cooler in summer. The glass roof is already tinted. We also received floor mats and a tyre repair kit which we had ordered from Brisbane. To reduce weight and save space, the car does not carry a spare wheel. The tyre repair kit includes a 12V pump plus a canister of sealant which can be pumped into a tyre to seal a puncture and then reinflate it. Tesla provides roadside assistance for more seriously damaged tyres.
We have downloaded and installed another software update which provides further improvements to the cruise control and we hear that another update has been released in the USA which will allow video recordings from the security system to be played on the monitor in the car. We look forward to receiving it soon.
We have had another visit from the electrician who installed the charger. On this occasion he upgraded our meter box so that Ergon Energy can provide a connection to Tariff 33 which will reduce the cost of charging the car from 26.0 c/kWh to 21.2 c/kWh.
In the last blog, I mentioned the use of a voice command to fold the mirrors. We have now been able to set a location where the mirrors automatically fold as we approach our house and turn into our driveway. We have also discovered that when we leave the house and start to drive down our street, the mirrors automatically unfold.
The cruise control continues to make driving easy. When we turn onto the main road from our street and activate the cruise control, the car automatically accelerates up to the speed limit and continues at that speed unless it has to be disconnected due to traffic lights or some other reason. In our previous car, we had to watch the speedometer so that cruise control was set at the correct speed. We can now keep our eyes on the road. Initially the centre-mounted touch-screen monitor seemed an odd place for the car information, but it is very easy to use and the large digital display of the current speed in the right-hand corner of the screen is much easier to read than a typical car speedometer with a dial and needle.
Due to the current COVID-19 travel restrictions, our car trips are limited. However, our grandson has found this is a great chance to try out the electronic games and karaoke music which can be accessed on the central monitor when the car is safely parked.
If you plan to order a Tesla, you are welcome to use our referral link so we will both get some free charging at a Tesla supercharger: https://ts.la/arthur62474
More in a fortnight.
Arthur Hunt
arthurhunt@ozemail.com.au
Opinion:
Just Another Week
So, let’s recap: last week the ocean caught fire - twice, the Federal Govt. got away with murder (again), I flew into a Covid lockdown and was genuinely shocked when some actual cold weather turned up in the middle of Winter.
What the…?!
But first, the good news. Even though I hadn’t planned a fishing trip or motorcycling holiday, we had some decent rain here in Queensland. So good in fact that a planned farm visit this week won’t be going ahead because, and the farmer could scarcely keep the joyful tone out of her voice, ‘it’s too boggy’.
Now, while things are quite lush (but nippy) in my neck of the woods, spare a thought for the slightly singed folk in Europe and North America who are currently sweltering through the sort of record-breaking high temperatures their regions haven’t experienced since the local volcanoes stopped erupting.
Folks, when Mother Earth has a hot flush, she doesn’t muck around.
Right on cue, as if reading from the well-thumbed pages of the manual, ‘You’re Not Helping and What You’re Doing is Seriously Making Things MUCH Worse!’, the dingbats in the fossil fuel industry had to take a few minutes out from counting their cash and deal with the PR disaster of two massive fires which, and I can’t write this without shaking my head, the ocean can’t put out!
Granted, it’s a disaster, but still, you have to be impressed.
Meanwhile, here in Oz, our Government, stung by global criticism of their super relaxed attitude to actually doing something, or anything, meaningful about curbing runaway climate change, immediately decided to dig deep and allow a couple of new coal mine owners to do the same.
Then, because they were obviously in ‘the zone’, they catapulted the Deputy PM into the wilderness of the back benches and replaced him with a boozy, bumbling, cheating, climate change denier.
Honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up.
So, right now, it’s time to take a deep breath and focus on the things I can actually do something about; for starters, beating the cool weather by breaking out a fleecy jacket and my fluffy bunny slippers.
Just kidding. I don’t own a fleecy jacket…