Always say thankyou

Well, that was a surprise. I just got my latest issue of G Magazine in the mail, and when I looked at the letters page I realised that my name was on it. They published a letter I wrote a while ago to thank them for a recipe they’d had in the second issue, Roasted Vegetable Salad. I’d made it and loved it, and have made it a few times since then (next time I’ll post a photo!). It seemed only fair to write and say thanks for the yummy goodness – I didn’t expect it to get published.

The best part is that my letter won a prize – an Organic Delectables hamper from Biome. Yum! It just goes to show that you should always remember your manners and say thankyou to people who’ve made your life more pleasant

Prius test-drive

Last weekend we took a Prius, a hybrid petrol-electric car, for a test-drive as part of our plan to buy a green car. Treehugger explains how hybrids work in it’s Green Basics article on hybrids. They’ve got both a petrol and an electric engine, can use either one (or both) depending on which one is more efficient for the type of driving you’re doing, and can switch off both if you’re coasting or just sitting at the lights. They also have really low greenhouse-gas emissions and pollution emissions compared to other cars.

Dave did the driving, and says the Prius handles much the same as any medium-sized car. I thought it’d be a bit spooky when the engines switched off as we were driving, but after a while I barely noticed it. There’s a computer display that shows you everything from your rate of fuel-efficiency to how long it’s been since your last oil change.

I really enjoyed our ride, but I’m wondering if that was because of the new-car smell and swish features as much as the eco-friendly advantages

Pros:

• it’s the best car for the environment that’s available in Australia: the Green Vehicle Guide rates it as number one in the Top 10 Performers, considering it’s fuel-efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions and air-pollution.
• as a hybrid fuel-electric car, it could maybe be converted to an all-electric vehicle later on.
• by being early-adopters, we create a market for environmentally-friendly cars – the more people buy them, the more manufacturers will be encouraged to make models at different (i.e. cheaper) price points.
• it’s the right size for us – we could go smaller, but we wouldn’t go larger than this.

Cons:

• it’s expensive: the basic model, which is what we’d buy if we get one, costs $37,400 plus on-road costs (can anyone give me a rough estimate of on-road costs?).

So for us it comes down to whether or not we want to spend the money on the Prius. We can afford it, although we wouldn’t normally spend that kind of money on a car – we’ve always been the types to get secondhand cars. But as the Union of Concerned Scientists says:

“In some cases, a purchase of one item can reduce your consumption of other more environmentally damaging materials, especially fossil fuels. In other cases, you can be a leader who helps new environmentally beneficial products gain a foothold in the marketplace.”

Next step: test drive a standard fuel-efficient car, like the Toyota Yaris or Holden Astra.

Gunns’ protests

A few places you can register a protest against the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania:

The Australian Conservation Foundation sends an email for you to the Minister for the Environment, Malcolm Turnbull.

GetUp’s email comment camapign sends either a prepared email or your own comment.

Turnbull is accepting public comment until this Friday, 31st August. He’s probably going to approve the pulp mill, since he’s already given interim approval. However, there’s been a celebrity campaign against it recently, and it’s starting to become an election issue, so it may be possible to get stricter environmental standards applied to the mill than are currently proposed.

Buying a car

Our car is getting old: at the time it rolled out the factory door, The Bangles had everyone walking like an Egyptian; and when we bought it Bill Clinton was still the President of the USA. So our cheap and cheerful small car is now expensive and grumpy. Its time to buy a new car.

The Union of Concerned Scientists says in their book The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices:

“Major, out-of-the-ordinary purchases have an especially important impact on your overall environmental profile. By being careful when making such consumer decisions, you can generally (even if not always) reduce environmental damage faster and more easily than through smaller, everyday actions.”

I don’t know about you, but some days I get a bit fed up with switching off lights and recycling my wine bottles – it seems like too little, too late. It feels good to do something huge instead, and make a big difference for a change.

So when it comes to buying a car, we want it to be as eco-friendly as we can manage. The UCS recommends that if you’re buying a car, you should try to choose:

• the right size for your everyday needs (ie not for your occasional holiday),
• the most fuel-efficient and least polluting in it’s class, and
• some eco-friendly features, if possible.

Our car isn’t luxurious, but it’s been a good fit for us for seven years. We usually get around 400km to a tank of petrol (about 40L) but that has been getting lower as the car gets older. This costs about $55-ish when we fill up each fortnight. We live close to the city, combine trips where possible, and I use public transport a lot. Once or twice a year we might drive it out to the country – either 500km up to Geraldton, or maybe 250km down south to Margaret River or somewhere like that.

We don’t need a large car, because we rarely carry large loads and we don’t have kids. We’re not rev-heads, so a performance vehicle isn’t what we’re after. Small to medium sized cars are a better fit for us.

So far we’ve tested a Prius (more on that later), we’re going to test-drive a Yaris (for a standard fuel-efficient model) and we’re still considering diesel and LPG alternatives. I’ll keep you posted on how we go…

Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change

Clive Hamilton’s book Scorcher is a history of climate change politics in Australia since the mid-90s. Hamilton shows that the Howard government has had a clear agenda for climate change during this time, but not one that many Aussies would approve of.

Hamilton starts with details of the power-brokers in Australia who try to prevent government action on climate change. It’s a lot like the Four Corners expose from last year, The Greenhouse Mafia. Then there’s an explanation of where Australia’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from and the consequences for us, as well as the ethical implications of this global problem.

The next section of the book gets to the point. Hamilton explains how the Howard government threatened to withdraw from the first Kyoto Protocol negotiations unless we got a special deal (the inclusion of land-clearing emissions) and permission to increase emissions. After we got this cushy deal, Howard refused to ratify the agreement. The rest of the world were not happy, Jan, and the refusal of Australia and the US to join in caused a 5 year delay before Kyoto could come into force.

When the Kyoto agreement finally got underway in 2004, the Howard government tried to discredit it and undermine the second round of negotiations. Because of this, Australia will be restricted to observer status only in 2013 when the second phase of Kyoto is organised. Understandably, other nations feel that if we don’t think Kyoto is a good idea, then we shouldn’t bother showing up for meetings.

Finally, the book shows how the Howard government has tried to deal with the majority of Aussies who want more action on climate change. So far they’ve:

• raised the idea of nuclear power, which didn’t go down well with most Aussies,
• started the Asia-Pacific 6 group, which died when the US refused to fund it, and
• created a carbon-trading task group, which copied what was already being created by the Kyoto deals.

Hamilton takes a jab at environmental groups and the Australian public, for not speaking up sooner. Later he has a go at Tim Flannery for promoting individual action as a solution instead of government policy. I can’t remember Hamilton being active on environmental issues before anyone else figured it out, and I think he misunderstands Flannery’s position. This finger-wagging is a strange addition, and I think Hamilton would’ve done better to stick to political history.

Recommended?
If you’re going to claim that the Prime Minister has sabotaged the Kyoto processes and prevented climate-change action within Australia, then you’d better be able to back it up with solid facts or you’ll end up looking like a conspiracy theorist. Hamilton documents everything, and makes it easy for anyone to confirm his claims. He lists the facts, with supporting statistics, graphs, references to published material and so on.

The disadvantage of this is that it’s pretty dry reading. However, Hamilton is probably aiming for a narrower audience: journalists, academics, lobbyists and people with the background to understand and take in the amount of detail he presents. If you’re part of this target audience, or have an interest in politics, recent history and the environment, then you’ll find Scorcher both relevant and important.

I know it’s an important topic, but it’s not fun to pick up a book just to find out more of the dishonesty of politicians and businessmen, and how their actions make the rest of the world think we’re selfish and ignorant. And it’s not exactly surprising information. I’m glad I read it, but I’m a bit reluctant to recommend it to other people! If you’re a casual reader with an interest in the environment, this probably isn’t the book for you.