New year wishes

I always spend a bit of time around New Year’s Eve thinking over what the past year has brought, and what I’d like to happen in the next year. It’s a bit of planning, and day-dreaming, and hoping – best enjoyed with a glass of wine and like-minded friends So what are my hopes for 2009?

I hope Australian citizens can convince Kevin Rudd to take stronger action on climate change.

I hope the Great Barrier Reef stays ok.

I hope the farmers and everyone else in the Murray-Darling basin can sort out their water issues fairly.

I plan to make my home more eco-friendly – add some waterwise features, maybe solar panels if we can afford them.

I plan to make my office more eco-friendly – not sure how, but maybe getting a group together to work on it.

I plan to talk to more people about the urgency of climate change. Maybe I’ll pester some politicians in person – I’m quite hard to ignore!

And wouldn’t it be nice if everyone finally got it, if it just clicked in people’s heads that we’ve only got one planet to live on. We need to treat it better – if we wreck it, we haven’t really got anywhere else to go.

How about you? What do you hope to see in the new year? What do you plan to do about it?

Resolutions 2008

Well, let’s see how I did on my green New Year’s Resolutions that I made back in January.

1. Switch to reuseable bags
I think I did really well on this one! We’ve been remembering our green bags for grocery shopping nearly all the time over the last half of the year. And I use the Envirosax bag that Chris gave me very regularly. I liked mine so much I gave some to my friends for Christmas this year!

The Envirosax has been a real conversation-starter, too – I lost count of the number of sales assistants and other shoppers who commented positively on it. People always want to know how they can get one too. Maybe I should ask Envirosax for a commission, I think I’ve sent a lot of sales their way this year!

2. Reduce household water use by 25%
This one didn’t end up happening, really. We had plans for installing a dual-flush toilet, a waterwise showerhead and aerators on our taps, but ended up making other improvements to the house instead. Our water use wasn’t wasteful to begin with, so changing our habits didn’t have much of an impact. It’s a shame, but we’re going to try again next year.

3. Writing to politicians and businesses about green issues
I kept copies of all the emails I sent, and made a note of the letters I wrote. I did fantastically well for this one – over 2 dozen emails, and 3 letters. Some got better results than others. GetUp campaigns I took part in did well, mostly because they’re part of a larger action. And I think the letter-writing to ANZ and politicians about the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania did well, for the same reason. My most disappointing effort was the letter I wrote to my federal MP, because I only got back a form letter, which showed that he thinks recycling his rubbish (a service provided for free by the council!) is all he has to do to save the planet. Not unexpected, but sad all the same. Perhaps I’ll try to have a chat with him in person next year.

So I give myself a score of 66%. Not bad, but with room for improvement! How did you go on your resolutions? Have you made green improvements in your life this year? Every little bit counts – large changes are just small changes all piled up together, after all.

What is it we’re trying to save again?

In a few days, people around Australia (including me) will be starting their Christmas holidays. Everyone I know is looking forward to taking some time off from work and the daily grind.

And it’s been a long year for some. Environmental activists have been working hard to lobby politicians, conservationists have been trying to get regulations passed, everyday greenies have been trying to change their lives to lower their eco-footprints. We could all use a break.

So what is it we’re trying to save again? Oh yeah – our unique wildlife, our amazing landscape that’s like nothing else on earth, our family and friends who we want to have a happy future.

Don’t get stuck in the doom and gloom. Get out there and enjoy it all! Play cricket with your friends at the beach. Get some fish and chips and eat ‘em by the river. Take the kids to the zoo and show them what a numbat looks like. Take a picnic to a national park. Anything you like – just get out there and enjoy how lucky we are to be living in Australia.

I’ll be taking next week off from blogging – I’ll see you again after Christmas. Here’s wishing you all a happy and safe holiday, with much love and laughter and maybe a numbat or two.

Rudd’s hypocrisy on climate change

PM Rudd has just announced our target for the emissions cuts as part of the planned Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It’s a tiny little 5% cut. Yep, that’s it, just 5%.

The galling thing is that he announced the number after talking about how important the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the Murray-Darling basin are to Australia. And went on to talk about how urgent it was to do something about climate change.

So why the hell don’t you actually do something about it, Kev? Like, say, set a target of 40% cuts, which is what it’d take to get to 450ppm of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

He’s claiming that scientists and greenies are radicals, and that what we want (you know, a country to live in that isn’t crippled by drought) is too bizarre, too controversial, and that’s he taking the safe path. Sure Kev, about as safe as wearing half a condom to stop your girlfriend from getting a little bit pregnant.

Last year a lot of people voted against Howard and for Rudd, because they believed Rudd was going to do more about climate change than Howard would. Those voters have every right to feel betrayed. He’s talking the talk, but he ain’t walking the walk.

More details on the proposed scheme include extra pollution permits for polluters who don’t bother to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and a pitifully small amount of money actually going into developing renewable energy. You can find out all the gory details at these sites:

Deeply Unserious Targets at Larvatus Prodeo
Rudd’s Climate Placebo at Rooted
White Paper Released, Rudd Announces Target at Climate Dilemma

If you’re annoyed about this, you might like to get out to one of the protests around the country tomorrow – details at the Green MPs blog. They’re all being held in the middle of the day, so I won’t be able to make it. (Why is that? they’d get a bigger turnout for these things if they were held in the afternoon or on weekends!).

Finally, you can leave a supporting comment at the Australian Greens’ YouTube video Is this Kevin Rudd or John Howard?

Australian citizens are going to have to get vocal if we want to change this situation. At the moment, money and denialists are talking louder than we are.

Fresh green links

Last night PM Rudd was on the 7:30 Report, implying that since his government has been attacked by both “the far right” and “various radical green groups” (I didn’t know we had any radicals in Australia – seems out of character for us!), then their do-almost-nothing method is therefore a “balanced” approach.

Perhaps he needs to look at this cartoon: The Sensible Centrist.

Meanwhile, a study has shown that charging people more money for putting out more rubbish on bin day doesn’t do much to reduce their waste. However, giving them smaller bins works really well…

And finally Choice Magazine has a good article up comparing alternative fuels and other methods of saving money on petrol.