US emissions are down

Emissions in the US are down 3.7% last year, for a total of 16% reduction since 2007. Back home, South Australia has reduced it's emissions from electricity by more than a third, and Australia's reduced by 8.6% after the carbon price came in.

With all these emission reductions, perhaps it's time for Australia to have a more meaningful target, instead of the paltry 5% by 2020. After all, the USA achieved nearly that in just this year alone. Our government's previous excuse was that they wouldn't do anything until the USA did. Clearly that time is now.

New Year's Resolution - Move Your Money

As we come up to December 31, we think about things we might do better in the new year. SBS did a news story about people withdrawing their money from banks that invest in fossil fuels.



One mum closed an account she'd had since childhood. For the sake of her kids, she decided to close it. Felix Riebl, lead singer of Cat Empire, was also one of the people choosing a more ethical place to put their money.

Check out the comparison from Market Forces to see if there's a better place you could put your money.

PS. In other news, ANZ is being sued for charging customers illegitimate fees.

Ideas For Christmas

I love Christmas time. But it's sad that it can generate so much waste.

Australian Ethical have 10 tips to make less Christmas waste. Apparently the average person spend about $1000 each Christmas. It'd be great if that is creating things and memories that will stick with us - rather than items that will be landfill by the new year.

Planet Ark also have their 12 Do's of Christmas, which I wrote about last year. If you're interested, yes the last pair of those rechargeable batteries are still going. 1 camera. 8 years. Haven't had to buy a battery for it yet.

Hottest Australian Spring

2013 was the hottest spring in Australia. September was the hottest ever September, and the other two months were also well above average.

No part of the country was colder than average, and only a tiny bit was at average temperature. Almost the entire nation experience temperature well above average. And it wasn't just the areas that had the bushfire.

The Human Cost of Power

"The biggest threat to public health this century". That's how climate change has been described.

16-minute documentary Human Cost of Power looks at how coal and gas power are damaging our health. If you're short on time there's also a 5-minute and 2-minute version.



So is the fossil fuel industry worth our health? According to the documentary, more people die from air pollution than from car accidents. Mining is one of the largest causes of occupational injury and death. People who live within half a mile (800m) of a gas well have a greater risk of neurological, respiratory problems and cancer.

In America the health costs were calculated to be greater than the value of the industry to the economy. In Australia, health costs are estimated at 2.6 billion dollars per year. The federal government also provides 10 billion per year in subsidies. With mining companies 83% foreign owned, we pay the price but don't see the benefit.

It's easy to see how the health experts in the documentary reach their conclusion. "If a proper cost-benefit analysis was done on this industry - of the true cost of the waste, the cost to agriculture and to community health - it would never be allowed go ahead."

Related Posts:
Climate Change and Health
Addicted? Time to Quit
Carbon Emissions Make Us Sick
Who's Naughty and Nice

Fossil of the Year

Each year nations of the UN hold two weeks of talks to 'negotiate' on how, as a planet we should deal with climate change. A group called Climate Network awards a "Fossil of the Day" award to the country most backward in its approach, or that is doing the most to prevent global action on climate change.

Australia seems to pick up this award quite often. Here's the scoreboard part-way through the conference.

Here's the weird bit. In Australia, politicians like to say that their lack of action is because they are 'waiting for the rest of the world'. References are often made to the US and China.

Yet in reality, the rest of the world is doing fine. On the scoreboard of slackers, Australia is far in front. Six times as many points as China. The USA doesn't even feature.

I think when people who say we're 'waiting for the world' should have a look in the mirror, because it's this particular part of the world that is the biggest obstacle.

Economy or Ego-nomy?

A guy at work was saying "you don't get a return for the money you spend on CFL light bulbs". So I decided to join the conversation, mentioning that a single one can save you $25 dollars per year - assuming 4 hours use each night.

He said "Sure, for those ones. But what about the ones in rooms you hardly ever use?". Later I did the math. It turns out that even a room that gets used 8 minutes a night (like a toilet for instance) is still worth switching to CFL.

But here's what I found odd. People will worry about whether it's worth buying a $3 CFL to save on energy, but are happy to pay $30,000 to $100,000 more for a house with extra rooms they obviously don't need.

That night a friend commented to me that the problem is not the economy, it's the ego-nomy. Her theory is that we could easily consume less energy and material goods - and actually be better off, psychologically and economically. But ego-nomically we might struggle. It seems that society strokes our ego only when we can point to (wastefully) expensive purchases.

I hope that changes. It would be great if the admired decisions were those which are good for us, good for society and good for the planet.

100% Wind power for Denmark

On November 3 Denmark wind power produced over 100% of the nation's energy needs. The excess wind power, along with that from other energy sources, was exported to neighbours Sweden and Norway. In the future, it could be used to produce hydrogen - helping convert transport to renewable energy also.

It's inspiring to see this level of action already happening. Many countries talk about renewable energy as an energy source of the future. But Denmark are already realising the potential - and benefiting from it.

Trivia:
1. Wind had reached 93% in October.
2. Denmark has a website of live data on its energy production.

PS: I had another look later on, and the wind production was up to 123%

Every 4 minutes

It can be sad. Climate change is a huge problem, and often it seems like we (in particular government and business) aren't doing enough (or it's happening too slowly). It can be quite depressing.

So I'm starting Good News Tuesday - at least one day per week of great or inspiring action.

This week it's the USA. On average, every 4 minutes a solar system is installed somewhere in the United States. A few have probably gone as I type these words.

I'm going to try to think about that during today. As I eat breakfast, that's another 2 systems. If I wait 4 minutes for the bus, that's another system. You get the idea. It'll be nice to remember that all the time there is positive action taking place.

That's good news.

How Climate Change hits the poor the hardest

Climate change hurts poor countries more than rich ones. This is doubly unfair, considering that these poor countries have done little to cause the problem. After writing about this for Journey magazine, I found this map of countries most likely to suffer the effects of climate change by 2025.

Red colouring indicates extreme risk from climate change. Clearly, with names like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Haiti and Ethiopia in the top 10, it's the poorest nations that are most likely to suffer - and without much financial ability to recover from disaster.

Interestingly, this analysis was done before the recent Typhoon in the Phillipines. Sadly, it seems some forecasts come true very quickly.

Energy Tales

Energy company Origin recently did a promotional campaign involving fantale-style chocolates. Given their anti-renewable comments, this parody of their chocolate wrappers amused me a little.

There is an Origin Energy petition site, asking Origin to stop undermining the Renewable Energy Target.

While being a major player in gas sector, Origin barely makes the top 20 in renewable energy.

Why vegetarians should go for greenpower

One of my workmates is a strict vegetarian. Despite loving the taste of meat, she won't eat it. Like many people, she would feel bad about killing an animal herself. For her, it's equally bad if someone else does the killing for her.

Perhaps the only factor enabling many people to continue eating meat is that picking up a supermarket product or some fast food is so disconnected from the slaughterhouse floor.

I wondered if the same is true for electricity from fossil fuels. The acts of watching TV, running the fridge, or having a hot shower are psychologically separated from the coal and gas burnt to make the energy.

Just as many people would never want to kill an animal, I'm sure many people don't want to pollute the air and contribute to climate change. But our actions do just that, when using 'normal' electricity.

Just as vegetarians joins the dots, and switch away from meats, I hope we all join the dots on electricity, and subscribe to greenpower.

[More posts on greenpower]

How to defeat your own argument

A politician here in Australia has tried to downplay the link between climate change and increased bushfire. He described fires as part of living in Australia, and not a function of climate change.

On what basis? Because we've had them before. As Graham Readfern points out, that's like saying that cigarettes don't kill people, because people still died before cigarettes were invented.

But the clincher was the list of previous fires given by the same politician. The 1850s, 1939, 1968, 1983, 1994, 2001, 2009 (and now 2013). Look at the maths - in particular the gaps between those years. 80-plus, then 29, 15, 11, 7, 8, and now 4 years. This is precisely the point that climate scientists make. These events get more and more frequent as we continue to heat the planet.

It's a compelling point. Just not one that this politician intended to make.

What keeps scientists up at night?

We hear about what the science says on climate change. But what about the scientists? What do they think? What keeps them up at night?

This video lets us hear from scientists - unscripted and talking about what matters to them. Their work and their concern for everyone.



It's refreshing to hear the personal reflections, even the emotional difficulties of working in an area studying the potential human impacts - or feeling sorry to their kids for not leaving them a better world. Thanks Climate Institute for putting this together.

[More about the video]

A Bully with a Brick

You probably already know about the tragic bushfires in New South Wales, that have already claimed 193 homes.

Meanwhile, Adam Bandt has drawn some controversy for linking the bushfires to global warming. Clearly he's right - scientists agree. But some say it's not the right time to say so. But I agree with the person who said that's "like watching a bully smack someone in the head with a brick and saying 'Please don't talk about the bully now, it's disrespectful to the poor person with the headache.'"

Bandt quotes Ronald Reagan "The first duty of a government is to protect its people", and encourages "action to protect Australians from this kind of disaster and tragedy in the future".

Bandt doesn't want "every summer (let alone every spring) to be worrying about whether we are going to see these kind of bushfires again". But this is what scientists, and firefighters, have been warning Australia to expect from global warming. If we don't get global warming under control, the forecasts are for fires like 'Black Saturday' to happen about once every two years in Victoria. And that doesn't include the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, the government this week announced legislation to remove Australia's main policy to reduce greenhouse emissions - the carbon price. Now that's bad timing. While the government talk about the financial savings of doing that, they don't talk much about the other costs of climate change. Like losing your home in a bushfire.

[Link: Article by Adam Bandt]

World Solar Challenge 2013

This solar car Darwin-to-Adelaide race is held every 2 years in Australia. What excites me is that rules get tougher each time, as the cars improve. They are looking less like science experiments, and more like everyday, usable cars.

For those interested in the race, the Nuon team of the Netherlands looks like the favourite to win it. The live race map, photos and more are at worldsolarchallenge.org.

Related post: Running on Sunshine

What does it mean for Australia?

The latest climate change report is out, as I wrote on Monday. But what does it mean for Australia?

The hottest days will be up to 6 degrees hotter (remember Sydney was already 46°C last summer). Increased sea level rise could affect our coastal cities, and increased flood and drought will be bad news for agricultural areas.

During the release of the report, some prominent scientists had some comments about the effects for Australia:

"I am concerned about the unabated increase in upper ocean heat content reported by the IPCC. This is of particular relevance for eastern Australia where heat stored in the upper ocean has contributed to the major extreme rainfall and Queensland flood events during the summers of 2011 and 2012.

With a large population living close to the coast in Australia it is a real worry that sea level estimates have been revised upwards in the current IPCC Report – and their estimate is on the conservative side. This means we need a major rethink of how we manage, use, and develop our coastal communities and cities."

Dr Helen McGregor, University of Wollongong

"For Australia, this ratio (of more warm records, fewer cold ones) has been noted for decades."

Dr Julie Arblaster, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)

"This is really going to be crucial to Australia's future. We're looking at impacts in Australia that are going to be at least as bad as other places because Australia sits at a range of latitudes that are expected to dry out as a result of a warmer climate. We tend to live on the coasts and sea levels are going to keep rising, and it's also a country that experiences extremes of heat."

Professor Steven Sherwood

Yes - The Hottest September Ever

It's official. September 2013 was Australia's hottest September on record (breaking the 2005 record). That also means the last 12 months is the hottest 12-month period on record (breaking the record from earlier this year).

On a 1-10 scale orange areas indicate a 10, and dark orange indicates hottest on record. Obviously, a number of states also set records.

Combined with our hottest summer ever (particularly in January) and a very warm winter, it looks like 2013 could also be Australia's hottest calendar year. Surely it's time to do something about this.

PS. It turns out that my colleague and I were both right.