Cycling in the city

Steven Flemming rides into our work on various bikes all very handsome (the bikes, that is). Maybe in the pursuit of handsome, I have noticed Steven wearing outfits to match his particular bike choice of the day. That would be helpful for me. Today I chose my outfit to match the lovely hand-made felt handbag I got at St. Vinnies. But dressing to match my bicycle...seems more suitably post-consumer!
Steven has written a book which should be very interesting. Have a look below. He needs to get some funds up to support it so if you are a cycle in the city type...you can support it and get your name up there in cyberspace as a cycle-space supporter!

Sustainable House Day

A Date for the Diary: Sustainable Homes Day...
On the weekend of the 13th/14th September, houses which are sustainable will open their doors for the public to come in and have a look, and ask questions of the residents. ANZSES (Aust and NZ solar energy Society) are organising some of the tours. Their site has details of tours which may be in your area. http://www.solarhouseday.com.au/
Your local council may also be organising something.

Newcastle city council will be running something at the GAIA Sustainable living demonstration home, which is open every third Saturday of the month generally, and well worth a visit!

BLURB: My published Blurbling

In case you missed it, here is a copy of my letter to the editor which appeared in The Newcastle Herald on Tuesday, July 10, 2007:

..........
Low coal sales a high achievement
THE Herald's coverage of the Live Earth concerts reported 2 billion people world-wide showing their commitment to cut carbon emissions ("Powerful plug for revolution" Herald 9/7).
A few pages later NSW Minerals Council chief Nikki Williams appeared sad that the growth in Australian coal exports was remaining low ("Now's not the time to let coal boom pass us by" Herald 9/7).
I feel we should celebrate this low figure, and keep it small.
Australia may be rich in coal but it is also rich in other, less carbon-emitting resources.
Solar power, wind energy, and the resources and knowledge to generate these and other forms of renewable energy are the best investment for the government and industry of our country.
Ms Williams hopes for the Government to take a long-term vision and to have the willingness to take a gamble.
We can't make a wager on the future of our planet.
As the 2 billion people who watched the live earth concerts shows, we need to invest in renewable energy for exports and local use, and certainly not coal or nuclear any more.
..........

The Talented Nikki Williams presenting an environment award to Hunter Valley Coal Corporation 2005

Interestingly, Nikki Williams appeared on the forum panel which came after the ABC screening of "The Great Global Warming Swindle" (see my previous post). She is a magnificent PR agent for the new coal industry. The only woman on the panel, she appeared sophisticated, intelligent, and very caring about the climate change predicament. (She certainly is involved in many environmental community initiatives, which I cannot complain about, but we must keep following her motives.) The comments she made on the panel did not mention her push to increase coal exports for financial gain (as she mentioned in the Herald), but the "need" for coal fired power in developing nations in order to end poverty. Apparently, coal-fired electricity is the way to solve the issue of 3rd world poverty and health. Once again, I wish it was that easy! Sadly, here in Australia, we have a huge population of people living in 4th World conditions, with shameful poverty and health issues, and these populations HAVE electricity. I very much doubt that the short term solution of coal fired electricity is going to be much appreciated by anyone who 1. can't even pay the bill 2. Will absolutely not appreciate the temperature increases and changes in climate, health, farming practices in their homelands which are predicted to be the result of climate change caused by co2 increases (i.e. by producing this coal fired power in the first place!)

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Last night on ABC TV certainly was exciting. They broadcast the controversial "documentary" by Martin Durkin "The Great Global Warming Swindle" followed by an interview by Tony Jones and then a forum with an expert panel and an audience full of interesting characters.

Basically the documentary put forward a case that humans are not creating climate change through carbon dioxide emissions, that temperatures are increasing and climate change is part of the earth's natural process, volcanic emissions and sunspots.

The conclusions I guess were that we can keep driving our cars and we don't have to bother pushing for renewable energy in developing nations, that those nations need to invest in coal right now, in order to end world poverty (?)

How I wish it were true! I wanted to believe! Imagine if all we had to do was cope with climate change, and not have to reduce our carbon emissions as well!
I could stop worrying about energy efficient housing and get back to worrying about resource depletion, ecosystem and habitat preservation, clean water, etc.

Unfortunately, from the outset, the doco appeared flawed with un-rigorous presentations and dubious science. The panel afterwards confirmed my fears.

Today I read an interesting article "The Great Global Warming Swindle": a critique., published in the Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Vol 20. by David Jones, Andrew Watkins, Karl Braganza and Michael Couglan of the National Climate Centre, Bureau of Meteorology.

I suggest you read it for a bit of scientific rigor.

The main errors it saw in the documentary were:

• Graphs and information used in the documentary were incorrect and/or had no identifiable source and/or have been superseeded and/or were made up in part.
• Temperatures today ARE higher than they have been in the last 1000+ years (evidenced by many different temperature measurement methods worldwide)
• Human activities ARE creating climate change, evidenced by climate "fingerprints"
• Volcanoes actually only produce less that 2% of the annual emissions of carbon dioxide produced by humans.
• Ice core temperatures measurements from the past only tell us the local temperature and not the global temperature so are not relevant to measuring global temperature, and indeed do show the climate scientists more intricate understanding of the fluctuations in earths temperatures .
• Sunspot theory is some kind of unsubstantiated conspiracy theory, and not fully documented in the documentary.

Anyway, the document is well written and a good read, so don't just read this post on the issue.
And there is a lot more stuff out there.

Moral of the story:
SORRY BUT THERE IS NO CLIMATE CHANGE SWINDLE :(

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR 100% GREEN POWER YET?

INFO: 2050: Young Future Leaders of the Built Environment

2050 has been running since 2004, but I only JUST found out about it!
It be an "an incorporated not-for-profit association of like-minded young development professionals dedicated to a more sustainable built environment for Australia."

The 2050 mission:-

"2050 exists to drive national initiatives towards a more sustainable Australia with passion, commitment and youthful energy."

Sound good? They also say:

What is the 2050 demographic?
Being made up of so many professions concerned with the built environment, the 2050 demographic is broadly based along the following:-

• Age : 21 - 35
• Sex : 55% male, 45% female
• Education : over 95% tertiary qualified
• Employment : over 90% full time, over 40% in management positions

How do I Join?

Are you a young professional or student working towards a sustainable built environment? Simply send an email to info@2050.org.au and we'll sign you up to our mailing list so you can receive our monthly newsletters and information about upcoming events and activities. Membership is FREE and entitles you to access to the members forum on our website.

Looks like I should join! Maybe you should too.

NEWS + EVENT: Local greenie legend becomes official climate change ambassador

Bernie Hockings, a well-known environmental activist around Newcastle and beyond, has been recognised by Al Gore.
One of only 86 Australians chosen by Al Gore, Bernie now represents his local community as a Climate Change Ambassador.
Bernie is one of the few people I know who has a great head for envisioning environmental change, and then making that change through very practical, apparently simple, but really very smart methods.
He is a green builder, educator, a main player in the creation of the Nationsal Association of Building Sustainablility Assessors (ABSA) and much more.
Bernie will be speaking at a presentation with Sarah Bishop, who is currently walking from Brisbane to Sydney to raise awareness about Climate Change and Earthhour ( Where sydney will turn of its lights for an hour. wow.)
The free presentation will be held on the 17th March, from 2-4pm at Panthers Newcastle.

NEWS: Banner drop creates climate awareness

This news story is from the Aotearoa Independant Media Centre and is well worth the click.
It seems 2 talented climbers from the Save Happy Valley Coalition shimmied up these cranes and hung their banner early this morning.
I like the the wording on the banner "solid energy=govt sponsored climate change". Energy sources which come from solid matter such as coal and biomass are major contributors to CO2 and methane emission buildup, unnaturally heating up the atmosphere, thus contributing to climate change. Non-solid energy sources such as solar, air and tidal energy are such a great alternative.
Is that something significant? Yes.. probably the tying up/ release of carbon! Since black coal is at least 92% carbon, dry brown coal about 70% carbon! And methane is 60 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2! (Figures from Tim Flannery, The Weather Makers, The history and future impact of climate change (Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, 2005)(A great book to read if you haven't already))

NEWS: Research suggests coalmining caused Newcastle Earthquake!

National geographic news reports about a study by Christian D. Klose of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York. Christian Klose claims that coalmining caused the Newcastle Earthquake in 1989. After about 200 years of coalmining in the Newcastle area and the use of groundwater pumping in the mining process stressed the geology and caused the earthquake. "All told, he added, the monetary damage done by the earthquake exceeded the total value of the coal extracted in the area."
Time to go renewable Newcastle?

NEWS: Take survey to help green power research

Reserchers at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Sydney are researching why people choose Green Power or not.
They have a quick on-line survey here
It's a nice little survey so help them get lots of feedback by contributing your answers!

NEWS: Sustinable living at home workshops

On Saturday 13th August 11am-1pm I will be running a FREE workshop with Mim Woodlands on Passive solar & Water Sensitive design. Mim will be doing the water and I will cover Passive solar design. It will be held at the EcoHome, Hobart Rd, Lambton, NSW (Just near West's Leagues Club). I will be covering:
() Site analysis for solar access etc.
() Thermal Mass
() Insulation
() Windows

If you would like to come please bring along a rough floorplan of your home and garden.
Bookings are essential so please call 4974 2847.
Click the comments link below if you have any questions.
For other great free workshops Newcastle City Council is running, go to newcastle.nsw.gov.au/go/sustainableliving

NEWS: BASIX Alts and Ads implementation date extended

I quote directly from the basix e-newsletter some news many will be glad to hear...


1. BASIX Alterations and Additons to commence on 1 July 2006
The Hon. Craig Knowles, MP, Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, announced a revised timeline for BASIX Alterations and Additions at the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) "Building on BASIX" forum, Wednesday, 20 July 2005.

BASIX will now apply to alterations and additions in New South Wales from 1 July 2006.

The new timeline will allow for more extensive consultation with all stakeholders such as industry, local government and homeowners. It will also allow more time for developing practicable and cost effective greenhouse and water reductions for the broad range of household renovation scenarios, including first floor additions, new kitchens, new bathrooms and swimming pools. An extended exhibition period will now be possible to ensure far-reaching public participation and feedback from across the State.

The Department of Infrastructure Planning and Natural Resources (DIPNR) welcomes feedback on the best possible approach for the new BASIX Alterations and Additions tool. Relevant information will be provided on the BASIX website, www.basix.nsw.gov.au, and via future BASIX e-newsletters.

NEWS: Rainbow Warrior in Australia to build Clean Energy Revolution

Rainbow Warrior sails to build the Clean Energy Revolution

JOIN US ON BOARD THE RAINBOW WARRIOR

The Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior sails into Australia at the
end of July and will be open for visitors.

The Rainbow Warrior will be visiting Australia to help tackle climate
change by building the Clean Energy Revolution. We would like to invite
you, your family and friends to tour the boat.

FREE OPEN DAY

When:

Sydney – Saturday 23rd July
Newcastle - Saturday 30th July No. 1 Throsby Wharf
Melbourne - Saturday 13th August
Adelaide - Saturday 27th August


Time:
10am to 4pm each day

Please note: Venues are to be advised and as the Warrior may be called
into action at any time dates may change. For venues and confirmation of
dates please check greenpeace.org.au/events or call 1300 797
978.