Go Greener, Australia

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash is a documentary from 2006 about peak oil (yeah, I’m slow to get to watch these things!). It’s about how our addiction to oil, a non-renewable resource, is going to force us to reimagine our society. You can see a rather good preview of it on YouTube.

The directors, Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack, lay out the details of the problem without any hype or fear-mongering. Many of the people interviewed have worked as CEOs of oil companies, or have done extensive research into the issue. The other interviewees are non-experts who’ve taken an interest: a US politician, and a guy who runs a peak oil information website.

The film starts off showing the discovery of oil around the world, and the thousands of things we use it for. We then see the way it has influenced wars throughout the 20th century: it began as a strategic factor in WWII, but by the time of the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein, it was worth starting wars over.

The segment “The Numbers Don’t Add Up” covers the problems of reserves vs production vs consumption. We want more and more oil every day, but there’s only a finite amount of the black gold. The At The Movies website has some good clips from the movie that illustrate the situation.

So what happens when oil becomes more and more expensive to get hold of? The film discusses the suggestions people have put forward. They’re dismissive of alternatives like biofuels or hydrogen. Some say that new technology will make oil cheap again. Others say we’ll find new sources. More likely, we’ll keep tapping the more difficult sources, like tar sands. To me, that’s a bit like a junkie tapping veins in his toes, because he’s wrecked his arms already.

Finally, the movie looks into what might happen in a post-oil world. The experts speculate about everyday life, the stockmarket, population levels, etc. One or two of them seem to think we’ll end up living an Amish-style life. But I don’t think we can simply return to old ways of doing things - there’s too much water under the bridge to make it happen. If we’re to get past this addiction, we’ll have to be more imaginative.

Recommended? Yes, for everyone interested in learning about the challenges we’ll face over the next decade. A Crude Awakening isn’t a slick, hyped documentary, but a simple and down-to-earth presentation of the facts. You can read other reviews at Empire and At the Movies, or check out the official site.

I’ve been puzzling over this for a few days now. Here’s what Garnaut had to say about the how serious climate change is for Australia:

“If we fail, on a balance of probabilities, the failure of our generation will haunt humanity until the end of time,” he told reporters in Canberra. We are entering territory here that humanity has not been in before. We will delude ourselves if we think that uncertainty about the climate change science… is a cause for delay.” (The West Australian)

Well said, I agree. Strong cuts to our greenhouse gas emissions are necessary. What kind of cuts do you think will do the job?

Prof Garnaut has recommended Australia push for a strong global climate pact, which would mean a 25 per cent cut in emissions by 2020. “Strong mitigation, with Australia playing its proportionate part, is in Australia’s interests,” the report says. This ambitious target would be in the context of a global deal to keep atmospheric carbon concentration to 450 parts per million (ppm). (as above)

“(Australia) should express its willingness to reduce its own entitlements to emissions from 2000 levels by 25 per cent by 2020, and by 90 per cent by 2050 in the context of an international agreement.” (Herald Sun)

Ok, well, 450ppm is alright, I suppose. I think aiming for 350ppm would be more likely to give us good results, and a bit of leeway in case we can’t quite acheive that number, but we can’t agree on everything, I guess. So what course of action will you be recommending to the Australian government?

“There are reasonable chances of a practical agreement adding up to 550ppm concentrations in the atmosphere. Australia’s fair share of such an agreement would be to reduce emissions from 2000 levels by 10 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. Australia should offer to play its full part in such an agreement.” (Garnaut Review press release)

Sorry, what was that? 550ppm? But that’s going to put us past quite a few tipping points. It’s as good as doing nothing at all. What happened to you liking 450ppm?

“Such an agreement, aimed at 450ppm would not be easy to reach. It would place constraints on emissions from both developed and developing countries that go beyond what is being discussed and, more importantly, planned, for any but a few countries.” (as above)

He knows what needs to be done. He knows how urgent it is. But his recommendation to the government is that we won’t be able to achieve what’s necessary, so we shouldn’t commit to doing anything more than the bare minimum. WTF?

I’m not the only one who thinks this is depressing and weird. Tim Hollo discusses Garnaut’s defeatism (also, check out the other posts at Crikey’s new group blog on environmental topics) and Clive Hamilton thinks Politics trumps science in Garnaut Report.

This Friday is Walk To Work Day around Australia. The Pedestrian Council wants you to walk all or part of the way to work, or take a walk in your lunch break. You can register as an individual or a business at their website.

My office is organising a group walk, with a healthy lunch afterwards. I often catch a train and a bus to work, but was going to skip the bus section, which would be about a 15 minute walk. However, Friday is my day for jogging early in the morning, and I’m not sure I can manage a walk after my run! We’ll see how I go.

There’s several benefits to walking to work, or taking public transport.

• better air quality because there’s fewer cars on the streets: air pollution, such as smog, kills about 4,000 Australians every year
• reduced greenhouse gas emissions from traffic: each kilometre we don’t drive saves up to half a kilogram of greenhouse gas
• improved mental and physical health: exercise increases the levels of ‘mood lifting’ chemicals in the brain, lowers our risk of heart disease, and improves muscular and bone strength
• it’s also cheaper than driving: with the way petrol prices are going, it’s worth looking into the alternatives!

You can read more about the benefits on the Walk To Work Fact Sheet (pdf).

Maybe you could try the walk to walk as a test run to see if you could do it more regularly. Or use it as an opportunity to figure out the best combo of trains or buses for your regular trips. I’m a walker from way back, so I’m hoping to set a bit of an example for other people who might not realise how easy and fun it is. I’m just hoping that the weather holds out, and we don’t get any rain!

A little while ago, I was sent a sample of BioZet washing powder to review (thanks, Karina!). It’s made to suit grey-water systems, since it’s low in sodium and phosphorus. Karina also sent me some info about grey-water, which was handy since I didn’t know much about it before. I gave the BioZet a go this weekend, doing two loads of laundry: one of mine, and one of Dave’s. Well, Dave did his own, but I watched him and questioned him about it afterwards

I tried the Advanced Concentrate type, but there’s also one with added fabric softener, and one for front-loading washing machines as well. We didn’t add any fabric softener, partly because I’ve been cutting back anyway, and partly because fabric softener isn’t good if you want to reuse your rinse water.

Our clothes came out of the wash exactly as clean as you’d expect from a leading brand of washing powder (and I have high expectations!), and we hung them up to dry on the line. I liked the scent, which was soft and mild, and could be smelled on our washed clothes. Dave thought it smelled “nice, not too floral-ish”.

We don’t have a grey-water system hooked up to our washing machine, but we do have a hold button, which stops the machine just before the rinse cycle. This gave us time to grab a bucket and put it under the drainage hose, to catch the rinse water. The water from the wash cycle is usually too alkaline to re-use on your garden, but the rinse water is fine.

A full load of washing gave us five 10L buckets of rinse water: that’s 50L of water per wash, or 100L for both. That’s a lot of water saved from going down the drain! We put it on our garden bed - not on the vegie patch, as you don’t want grey water on plants you’re going to eat, but on the section with our hibiscus bushes and other decorative plants. It was tempting to splash it all over the garden, but deep watering is better than a shallow sprinkle, so we stuck to just one area. We haven’t started up our reticulation for the summer yet, and the shrubs looked grateful for the drink.

I was really surprised by the amount of rinse water that came out. If Dave and I each do a weekly load of laundry, that’s 5,200L of water that could be re-used each year instead of going straight down the drain. Because our house can’t have a proper grey-water system attached, I hadn’t looked at any washing powders that are suited to reusing the rinse water. But now I realise how much water we’re wasting, I fully intend to keep using the BioZet and putting the rinse water on the garden. We might hook up a hose to go out the laundry door though, instead of messing around with buckets!

If you’re looking for a washing powder that’s suitable for grey-water reuse, look for one that’s low in sodium, and low in phosphorus. Sodium dehydrates plants and prevents them from taking up new water, while phosphorus contributes to algal blooms in waterways (like the Swan River algal blooms that have been happening more often in recent years). Other tips from BioZet:

• Avoid using harsh products in your wash, like bleach.
• Don’t reuse rinse water if you’ve had things like nappies, etc in the load.
• Don’t let kids or pets drink it - I can’t imagine it tastes any good, but that’s never stopped kids or pets from finding out for themselves!
• If you’re not sure how your garden will react, test the rinse water out on a small patch before using it all over the place.

Overall, I was really happy with the BioZet. I’d definitely purchase it in the future, and will recommend it to anyone who’s interested in washing powders that are compatible with grey-water systems. You can find out more about it at their website, and there’s also lots more information about safely re-using grey water in your household, in particular the Grey Water fact sheet (pdf). Check it out, and have a think about how much washing water is going down the drain at your place!

Starting next Monday, 29th September, it’s National Vegetarian Week. This is an event put on by the Australian Vegetarian Society to promote the benefits of plant-based diets and encourage Australians to lower their meat intake. NewsPoll shows that 7 out of 10 Australians already eat vegetarian meals sometimes, so this is a good chance to try a few new recipes and find out how eating less meat can help the environment.

Eating less meat is my 7th way you can eat better for the environment. Livestock farming uses lots of water, about 156GL a year, which isn’t good in our current drought. And cows and sheep produce about 12% of our greenhouse gas emissions, mostly in methane. So anything we can do to cut back on these things is a good idea. Other good reasons to eat less meat are the health benefits, and the fact that animal farming can be pretty cruel. You can read more about this at the AVS website if you’re interested.

And, last but not least, going vego for a week will give you a chance to branch out in the kitchen. If you’re like most Aussies, you’re not getting your 2 fruit and 5 veg every day. Why not take the opportunity to try new recipes, or new ingredients that you wouldn’t normally bother with? National Vegetarian Week includes cooking demonstrations in Vic, NSW, Qld, Tas and WA: you can see the list of events here (pdf).

I’ll be going for vegetarian nachos (using organic blue-corn chips I got from a Mexican friend), and baked potatoes using the ones we’ve just harvested from our vegie patch this week. I’m thinking of trying to cook tofu for the first time too - I’ve eaten it plenty of times before, I’ve just not done it myself. Dave will probably surprise me with something yummy, but he never plans ahead when it’s his turn to cook. I’ll post pictures or recipes if we make anything too delicious to keep to ourselves.

If you’ve got any good vego recipes, please let the rest of us know in the comments!

Just thought I’d mention another project I’m working on now: I’m blogging for G Magazine! Each month G Magazine has an eco-challenge for all their readers: things like not using takeaway coffee cups or bottled water. They’ve asked me to write about how I’m going with the challenge a couple of times a week.

I’ll still be posting here twice a week, but if you want to join in the G Challenge, please come on over to the newly re-designed G Magazine website and look me up! There’s other blogs there too, about science, home and garden, travel, etc, all with an environmentally-friendly perspective. Their new site also has news and longer feature articles, and looks pretty spiffy!

Meanwhile, in more national news, PM Rudd has gone on the record saying that reaching 450ppm of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is necessary to stabilise our climate. This brings him in line with many environmental groups (I’d still like to see 350ppm though!). It’s particularly good since Garnaut seems to think that only 550ppm is politically achievable. Rudd knows that 450ppm is necessary, and is on the record about it - that gives us something to hold him to when the details of his ETS come out.

I’ve just watched a really good short film (11 minutes) online, that explains the concept of tipping points in relation to climate change. It’s called Wake Up, Freak Out, Then Get a Grip - the site has the film, references to the science that backs it up, and a statement from the film-maker about his goals.

It’s made by Leo Murray, with the support of the Royal College of Art in the UK. It first explains the tipping points in our climate, such as the albedo effect, increasingly acidic oceans, and melting permafrost. Then it shows what the consequences might be if any one of those tipping points pushes our only planet past the point of no return. Finally, just when you’re ready to freak out at this catastrophe, it reminds us that we already know the solutions to this problem: all we need to do is make sure we act before it’s too late.

If you like it, I hope you’ll share it with your family and friends. Or with anyone who is concerned about climate change, but thinks it’s a problem our children will have to deal with in some far-off future. Climate change is an urgent problem, and the sooner we make the necessary changes, the better.

Ok, so last week Professer Garnaut suggested that since the rest of the world wasn’t going to adopt tough emissions standards, neither should we. I’ve been pretty annoyed by this: I can’t stand apathy or the “can’t win, don’t try” attitude.

So here’s a list of the different campaigns I’ve found about climate change. I haven’t found any that are specifically related to Garnaut’s latest release of figures, probably because they’re too new yet for anyone to have responded. The ones listed here are more generally about getting the government to make large cuts to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

GetUp.org.au has several members who have started climate change campaigns. You can join in any or all of these:

• Donate to get a billboard outside Parliament, asking for 50% cuts by 2020.
• Write a letter to your newspaper - you might want to update the details now that Garnaut has released new info.
• Tell your friends about the Garnaut Report, again updating the details if necessary.
• Buy t-shirts, stickers, or placards you can display to show you want 50% cuts by 2020.

Oxfam Australia is also campaigning for tougher emissions restrictions with several actions. Currently there’s a petition, help with hosting your own event (with a dvd), and advice on how to write letters to politicians on the topic. Oxfam is particularly concerned about climate change because it will affect the poorest people in the world before it hits those of us living more comfortably in Australia. Their requested target is 30% reductions by 2020.

Climate Campaign has got suggestions for letters you can write, asking for tougher action on climate change. They recommend targets of 40% reductions by 2020. They have suggestions for writing letters on the issues of rising sea-levels having an impact on coastal towns, the solar-power rebates, and other related climate-change topics.

The Climate Action Network of Australia has actions for members, although I haven’t joined yet so I can’t tell you what they are. They have a handy state-by-state description of the impact of climate change on Australia which is very informative.

Friends of the Earth has a Climate Justice campaign. They recommend 50% cuts by 2020, and a moratorium on new coal plants.

If you know of any more groups encouraging activism for greater emissions cuts, please leave a comment with details so we can all join in together.

Prof. Ross Garnaut has finally announced his recommendations for the amount of emissions Australia should cut over the next decade - and it’s pretty depressing stuff. He has recommended a target of 10% cuts by 2020, with deeper cuts to come later. Given that the IPCC and respected climate scientist James Hanson argue that we’ve got less than a decade to prevent the worst of climate change, this looks pathetic. It seems like he’s admitted that we’re going to suffer the effects of climate change anyway, and we’ll never get enough political action on the issue, so we might as well not put too much effort into making urgent reductions. I don’t think I have to tell you that I’m pretty angry about this.

The IPCC suggests that to stabilise our greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450 parts per million, we would have to reduce our emissions by at least 25-40% by 2020. Setting an upper limit of 550ppm, as Garnaut proposes, means that carbon feedback cycles will have already kicked in and accelerated the rate of change well beyond what we can handle.

This really is a “business as usual” policy from Garnaut. It allows corporations to make a few changes and then carry on polluting as they always have. Combined with the free emissions-permits that will be handed out like lollies to the big polluters, I can’t see how this plan will make any difference at all. Australia will have no ability to convince other nations to do the right thing if we won’t put our money where our mouth is.

If this is the best the world can come up with, it will certainly lead to us losing the Greenland ice (I suspect we haven’t got much hope of stopping the Arctic ice from going now); sea level rises that will be terrible for neighbouring countries and a huge logistical problem for us; and a much increased rate of species extinction as the habitats plants and animals are used to are changed beyond recovery. I guess Garnaut’s completely given up on the Great Barrier Reef, the Murray-Darling Basin, the South-West region (a biodiversity hotspot), Kakadu, and countless other areas that aren’t famous, but are special all the same.

Garnaut states that if an international agreement is reached for higher cuts in our emissions, it will be worthwhile for us to make larger cuts too. This seems pretty weak considering that just a short time ago he was calling for us to lead by example and develop new technologies that would innovate our industries to create a low-carbon future. He says that there’s not much support for an international agreement that will allow the world to reach 450ppm of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, so we’ll have to plan for one that allows 550ppm instead. I say that just because something is difficult, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try anyway.

How can we make sure that the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme sets higher goals? I wish I had an answer. I’m off to buy a 50% by 2020 shirt from GetUp. I’m fed up: I want people to know my opinion and show that there’s public support for politicians to take the hard road instead of the easy one. I’m also going to do some research into ways that maybe we can get harder targets set - which politicians to bother, which groups are taking action. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them, so please leave a comment!

Recently I bought a copy of Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Australian Marine Conservation Society. Julian Lee mentioned it in his book How Good Are You (reviewed by me in March), going into details about the problems with fisheries in Australia and around the world.

Over 75% of the world’s fisheries are overfished - that is, when there aren’t enough fish left to support a viable population, or when it becomes unprofitable. I can’t say that I care much about the profits of companies who are too greedy to maintain a source of income, but I do worry about the loss to biodiversity, and overfishing can lead to collapses of ocean food chains. 90% of the big predatory fish - like bluefin tuna, swordfish and sharks - are gone already. I don’t want to let this go on the way it has been.

Realistic restrictions on how much fishing can be done on a species or area would be helpful, and so would marine parks (networked so fish could migrate between them). The AMCS works towards these goals, among other things. You can help by donating to them, and also by buying one of their seafood guides and using it to help you choose which types of fish are ok to buy.

I got the small guide pack, which includes two pocket guides to what sort of fish are sustainably managed, and one larger guide with more detail. There are other packs available, with more of the smaller guides so you can give them to friends.

The small wallet-sized guides are a simple listing of common fish found in supermarkets and fishmongers around Australia, coded red, orange or green depending on how overfished they are. The red stands for “Say No”, the orange for “Think Twice”, and the green for “Better Choice”.

The larger guide has the same information, only with more detail and habitat maps. It then goes on to explain the different methods of fishing and their environmental impact, and tells you how you can ask your shop about where they got their fish from.

It also explains the need for better fish labelling: at the moment, you’ve got no guarantee that the fish you buy is what it says on the sign or packet, no idea how it was fished, and no idea which company did the fishing. If consumers had this information, we could use our purchasing power to avoid overfished species, and reward the businesses which are doing the right thing.

Before I got this guide, I was almost ready to give up eating fish altogether. As it is, I think I’ll be seriously cutting back: I’m not going to buy any fish, either from a shop or a restaurant, unless I know that it was sustainably fished. This is a bit sad for me, because I do love to eat fish, and some of my favourites are on the “Say No” list, but I think it’s too important an issue to let my tastebuds decide. I’m going to try to find the “Better Choice” species and give them a try instead - hopefully I will find some new favourites! If this sounds like something you could do, check out the Australian Marine Conservation Society website and pick up a copy of the guide.