I’m leaving on a jet plane…

I won’t be posting as often over the next two weeks, as I’m off for a well-deserved holiday with a good friend, in a place that has unreliable internet connections

However, this is still relevant to environmental issues, since I’m flying to my overseas destination. My round-trip is about 27660 km altogether. According to a few carbon-calculators, this creates approximately 9.4 tonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions. I’m trying to reduce my eco-footprint in as many ways as possible, so I’ve bought a flight offset for this trip.

I chose to go with Neco’s flight offsets, for long-distance international flights. Neco is accredited by the NSW GGAS program, one of the first greenhouse gas trading schemes in the world, and is just about all that’s available in Australia. The scheme is audited regularly by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART).

Neco gains carbon credits from the GGAS by helping individuals and businesses reduce their carbon emissions. When I buy a flight offset, they give some of those carbon credits back to NSWGGAS on my behalf. In effect, the carbon dioxide I’m creating by flying all over the place is offset by Neco’s hard work in reducing carbon dioxide emissions elsewhere.

There are other options for flight offsets in Australia: Todae, Climate Friendly, GreenFleet, Easy Being Green and Elementree offer a range of offsets, and some airlines and travel agents sell them too.

It’s very difficult to check up on the quality of offsets. More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better quality, but there’s not really any other reliable indicator that you’ve spent your money wisely. Choice magazine is used to assessing the marketing claims of consumer products, and even they say it’s very difficult to tell what’s going on.

The ideal solution would be to find a method of fast long-distance transport overseas that doesn’t cause so much pollution. Teleconferencing for business is a good alternative to sending people, but it’s not really a replacement for spending time with your friends and family who live in remote areas. Until someone comes up with a better idea, I’m going to keep my flights infrequent, and offset the ones I do take.

I hope you all have a lovely time while I’m away. I’ve lined up one post for each week I’m away, to keep you entertained

A new government…

… a new chance for Australia to make a real difference to the impact of climate change. Now that Kevin Rudd and the Labour party have been elected to run the show for us, what’s in store? One of Rudd’s major election promises was that he would ratify the Kyoto Protocol – but was it just a ‘non-core’ promise to sway the voters, or is it the beginning of a new era of environmental responsibility for us? Crikey.com.au has tackled the question with two good articles.

The first is Rudd at Bali and Beyond, from Clive Hamilton (author of Scorcher: The dirty politics of climate change, which I reviewed a few months ago). Rudd is expected to ratify Kyoto when the next meeting of member nations is held in Bali this December. Hamilton discusses what Rudd will need to do at this meeting in order to be taken seriously. Other nations will be watching to see if we negotiate in good faith, and if Rudd removes the fossil fuel lobbyists from our international delegation. If Rudd looks like he means business, the rest of the world will be sighing with relief.

The second article is from Guy Pearce, author of High and Dry. He says that ratifying Kyoto will be the easy bit, since all Rudd has to do is show up at Bali and receive the gratitude of everyone who has been waiting for so long for us to join in. After that, he has to begin the hard work of actually cutting emissions. Pearce says that there will be several clues as to how Rudd will proceed after Kyoto is signed. If he replaces Garrett as Environment Minister, keeps taking the advice of ABARE on climate change issues, or delays setting binding emissions targets, then things don’t look good – we’ll have to make sure we keep the pressure on him for real action.

Only time will tell if Rudd will help Australia to do the right thing. I think the signs are good – but I’ll be happier once the Cabinet ministers are announced, and we know the fate of Peter Garrett.

Election Watch

This is my last post before the Federal Election on Saturday – I thought I’d provide one useful item and one funny item, because I think we’re all pretty tired of the campaigning by now!

Firstly, GetUp has a How Should I Vote questionnaire, that compares your opinions to those of the candidates in your seat, and tells you which ones you have the most in common with. They also have an election FAQ, which covers topics like how our votes translate into which MPs are chosen, how preference votes work, and so on.

And now for a bit of silliness: The Chaser’s Election Watch, part 5, explains how environmental issues affect the election.

Edited to add: it looks like WordPress doesn’t like the embed script for YouTube, so here’s a direct link instead: Election Watch, part 5: The Environment.

Dreaming of a green Christmas: food

Today we’re looking at ways you can green your Christmas meals with your family and friends. Food is an area where we can make a big difference with our choices, and I think it’s pretty easy compared to greening your gifts or decorations.

When it comes to feeding your family and friends, you can use the same guidelines that you would to make your own meals more eco-friendly. I’ve written about these 6 ways to choose eco-friendly food before in detail, but the basics are:

• choose local, organic and fair-trade food that’s in season for where you live
• avoid overly-packaged or over-processed food
• try to make your own if possible

When you’re shopping for your Christmas meal, choose food that meets as many of those guidelines as possible. You could also try serving your guests organic wine, local beer from micro-breweries, fair-trade teas and coffees and chocolates.

Luckily, most Aussies have ditched the full roast meal in favour of BBQs, seafood and more relaxed options. This is better for the environment because you’re not running a hot oven for hours at a time. And it’s nicer for you to be able to spend time with your guests instead of being stuck in the kitchen. On the other hand, Aussies can waste a fair bit of energy by giving our fridges a workout – a hot Christmas day can be a very thirsty way to socialise! Ask your guests to bring eskies with ice to keep their drinks cold, instead of overloading your fridge or running a second one.

Another way to reduce your environmental impact is to use your own dishes instead of plastic, disposable plates. However, if you’ve got a lot of guests (or are on strict water restrictions!), this can just lead to a lot of stress as you wash a mountain of dishes. If that’s the case, then give biodegradable plates and cutlery a go: a few eco-shops like Todae and Biome are stocking them now. They break down much faster in landfill, or you can put them in your compost bin. This year I’ll be feeding Christmas lunch to 10 adults and 6 children, so I’m going to try the biodegradable plates – I’ll let you know how they work out

This is the last of my series on making your Christmas more eco-friendly. Previous articles were on coming up with a plan, decorations, cards and wrappings, choosing gifts,
and gift ideas. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and it’s been useful – if you’ve got any tips or advice to share, please feel free to leave a comment, or ask a question.

Dreaming of a green Christmas: gift ideas

Last time I went through some ways you can choose greener Christmas gifts. Today I’m listing my favourite green gifts! All of these products are things I’ve either given, received, would like to give or would like to receive myself.

I’m a bibliophile, so my favourite place to do Christmas shopping is in a bookstore. Kids love Graeme Base’s books (remember Animalia?). He’s written a couple with environmental messages: Uno’s Garden is a story, a maths puzzle and shows us how we change our environments (and how there’s always time to fix our mistakes!); The Waterhole is a counting book with a story about sharing our common resources. Younger kids like the beautiful pictures by Base, and as they get older they enjoy the secret puzzles hidden inside.

For adults who want to read about how to live sustainably, I recommend Greeniology by Tania Ha. I was going to write a review of it, but I’ve lent it out to people who are enjoying it too much to return it! It’s a fun and practical guide for the millions of Aussies living in our cities who want to reduce their environmental impact.

Getting away from the bookshops and into the great outdoors a little… when my nephews and nieces are a little older, I’m going to adopt an endangered animal for them at Perth Zoo. Other ideas include buying paw prints and going on behind-the-scenes tours, with profits going to help the zoos rescue endangered species in our region. But for now I’ll be getting my nieces some Anamalz instead.

While we’re still outside, you can try a fair-trade football; Sigg re-useable water bottles; or a wind-up torch and emergency phone charger .

Around the home I like the Ripple gift pack (the one with the duckie that’s a shower-timer!); Stuffit reuseable bags in a 3 pack; or Candelas for energy-efficient mood lighting (we received these as a wedding gift and love them!)

In the kitchen, I’m a big fan of seasonal cooking. A book of recipes organised by ingredient or season rather than by meal plan can be a winner – it makes it easier to find something to do with that unusual vegetable you picked up at the markets. I like Stephanie Alexander’s The Cooks’ Companion (another wedding present), but there’s plenty of them out there.

And you can’t go too far wrong with food. There’s a huge range of organic, fair-trade and sustainable chocolates, coffee, tea, wine, olive oil, native jams and spices and so on – a quick trip around your local supermarket will find you some, and most eco-shops have a great range.

Finally, if you’re short on time but want to make sure you give a nice gift, have a look at Biome’s hampers. I won one earlier in the year, and was really impressed with it! They’ve got a huge range, with food, pampering and kids versions, and will deliver around Australia.