Bring Back Proper Solar Rebate Mr. Rudd!

Please sign up this petition - Bring Back Solar Rebate 'Proper' !

Some weeks back media published first news that the Australian Government changed it's solar rebate policy and put it behind means testing. If this plan stays, the rebate that makes solar panels affordable will only be available to households earning less than $100.000(AUD) a year.

I have spoken to many people, and read comments and blogs online, and yet haven't seen anybody who supports this new change of plan. Quite the contrary. Many people have cancelled their orders, many are hesitating and obviously the Solar Industry is taking a hit with sales slumping up to 60%.

The latest confirmation of this bad news came in last week, when even after lot of lobbying from various parties, Treasurer Swan re-inforced his message and using e.g. inflation as one excuse told media that the means testing is staying.

Is this really a way for a "forward thinking" Goverment who in their election speached raised Global Warming to be one of they 'key' topics? Is this a true follow up for the impression Mr. Rudd (Prime Minister of Australia) made in November



"Labor will add a renewable energy fund to its environment policies to make use of Australia's great energy resources and to develop wind, solar, geothermal and wave technologies." & " I am determined to make Australia part of the climate change solution, not just part of the climate change problem."

I don't think so. In this current economical situation I feel that we need more encouragement from our state leaders to help our citizens to move towards sustainability - including giving financial perks to do so.

When Channel 7's Sunrise TV program some weeks ago published these news, they got an amazing amount of feedback from angry Australians. Now the team has put together a petition online to bring back proper rebate. This is a truly valid and beneficial incentive. Our government should stick to their promises and ensure that ALL Australians are encouraged to battle climate change.

So if you didn't do it yet - go to Sunrise website Bring Back Solar Rebate 'Proper' ! and sign the petition. Thanks!


Picture of Mr. Rudd by Andrew Taylor from a Smh.com.au article .

Climate Change and Fires

Yet again state of California has been ravaged by massive wild fires. Not a day goes past when there has been news about another outbreak of a new fire. Reading an article from USA Today there are now over 1000 fires raging in the c. 160K acre area - and unfortunately 38 homes have been distroyed - with many, many more under threat. And the weather doesn't seem to help as there is no rain in the radar.

Australia is one of the dryest continents, and our risk for bushfires is increasing "in line" with the changes related to our weather patterns. Rainfall has decreased, drought periods have extended and amount of extremely hot days have increased - all which contribute towards drier soil and 'fuel' in bush. CSIRO in Australia has released an interesting study which seems to imply that there is an increased risk of bushfires in Australia. Apart from fires' impact on our forests & bushland, and people & property, the fires also impact our water yiels. After the initial decreased water requirement from the burned trees, the new growing forests actually require more water than the original forest, causing reductions in water yield from that catchment area. So when planning our water policies, we must not only look at the rainfall figures, but also to phenomenas like bushfires and their impact on our water supplies.

For an ordinary citizen like you and me, the water aspect may not mean much. However the increased bushfire risk should remind us of the importance of our actions. If we can do something to decrease the climate's warming, we should be able to decrease the bush fire risk as well.

Even if we are still in the lower fire-risk season (here in Australia = winter), we should stop for a moment to think about if our homes and houses could be in risk. Specially if you live or have property near or in the bushland. Check out the NSW Rural Fire Service site for some helpful advice. There is lot you can do now during the cooler months to prepare your property to be 'FireWise'!

Gardening

Having grown up and lived most of my life in flats, my green garden credentials are not very good. Actually I am better in killing plants than nurturing and growing them. However, recently me and my husband have started to think about putting a little veggie patch behind our house and are now investigating options.

Surfing the ocean of blogs and various websites I got totally lost, but found this cool business which is growing in US - Sky Vegetables

According to the company's website they are building and operating commercial greenhouses on supermarket rooftops in the United States. An Australian organisation called Green Roofs Australia had a blog on their site about this one as well, and implies that the company is looking to expand to Australia as well. Wouldn't it be cool to get your tomatos straight from the local Coles' roof?

But still, it doesn't help me with my own 'lil green patch....best to get up and go to one of the nurseries in Arcadia/Dural to get some advice.

Water powered cars - fairytale of the week?

This morning I woke up to read an interesting newsarticle from the ENN about a New eco-friendly car that runs on nothing but water.. Crickey I thought, finally they have cracked the 'holy grail' of transport and days worrying about running out of oil are over?

Unfortunately it's all not that clear. The article didn't articulate how this can be done, it only refers to the comment from the manufacturer's rep who's saying ' that it uses a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which contains a material that breaks down the water to hydrogen and oxygen'. Obviously they are not going to give away their primary trade secret in a hurry, but in order to provide some substance to this, I was hoping to find more information. Quickly looking at Genepax's english website I didn't get very far. And unfortunately my Japanese isn't up to the level of figuring out the technical details.
Anyone willing to explain to me what on earth this means?

Reading some posts and comments e.g. from reddit it looks like the jury is still out there. A lot of people call it scam, but some people think it's doable, but only with something with which acts as the 'energy generator'. We'll keep on eye on this.

At least ethanol powered cars are already out there. Story from Planet Ark recently brought news about an US company Algenol Biofules which has signed an US$850 million deal with a Mexican company BioFields to grow algae, one of the planet's first life forms, that has been trained to convert water, sunlight, and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into motor fuel.
Before you jump up and start gathering green stuff form the sea, let me tell you that,the first commercial batch of this stuff will only be available sometime in 2009,in Mexico.

Hmm, meanwhile we must just try to keep our petrol bills in control and maybe think about if you really need to travel by car, every time?

We'll I think I'll just cycle back from work today.

Love Miles expanding the Carbon Footprint

Ah, long weekend is gone. Apart from doing some hiking, enjoying great time with friends and checking out the state of our water tanks I was helping my husband yesterday to do his open uni homework. One of the things they had to do was to calculate their personal carbon footprint. One way of doing this is by using one of free calculators online which quizzes one about your energy consumption, indoor and outdoor water use, amount of waste you generate and/or recycle, self sufficiency, support for wildlife, transport habits and community engagement. The one suggested by the university was Victorian Government's 'Ecological Footprint Calculator'. This calculator breaks down your impact to topics and in the end, generates a report showing how many 'Earths' it requires to support your lifestyle.

Up until now my husband has tried to live in denial about the impact we have. Yes, we have cut our energy use enormously, have installed energy efficient lighting, we only use rainwater, have native garden, recycle a lot of our waste and so on. However, filling in the questionnaire made him realise how big impact we actually have on our earth. The brutal reality was, that with our current habits we require 2.6 Earths to support our lifestyle. Horror!! Where can we improve then? Aren't we already doing a lot of the 'right things'? The biggest impact for us was our transport habits...

And here comes the dilemma. Our families live in different parts of Europe - and us here in Australia. Almost every year, we make a trip by plane to see them, and in some years we also make another plane journey within Asia-Pacific to meet our closest friends and relatives. These are referred to by some people as 'Love Miles'. And they contributed a big part to our footprint. Without 'neutralising' these miles - is there anything else we can do to cut this impact down? Can we be in close contact with our loved ones in the other side of the world only relying on phone calls, emails and Skype?

We talk a lot about changing our lifestyle habits to cut down our impact on the environment. It is easy to change car to a bike or public transport in the city, cutting down meat and poultry to vegetables is also good for ones health, and seeking local and second-hand products is what we do anyway. But replacing your mother's hug to a virtual smile over the internet, and instead of having that night long conversation over a glass of wine with your dearest brother we try to exchange our news over an 1/2 hour conversation over a cracking line. Will the relationship be the same? Can I live with that? And if I can't - what then? Do I have to acknowledge that if I want to be physically close with them, I am going to be the 'carbon baddie', regardless whatever else we do to minimise our impact on this planet. Or do we have to rethink about where we live?

Raising petrol prices are only going to make air travel more expensive in the near future, so annual flights to Europe may not be a viable financial option anymore anyway. Yet, we are not the only people suffering from this dilemma. I would love to hear your comments about how you deal with your 'Love Miles'?