Powerdown

Less power means less carbon pollution.

Today I started with an exterior light.  It has a motion sensor that flicks it on when you walk past at night.  It used to stay on for seconds, not long enough to walk to the end of the drive.  Far from ideal when guests were trying to leave.  I changed it a while back so it stayed on longer - but over-compensated, so it stayed on for a long, long time.  Today I trimmed back both the time and brightness.

I was going to leave it there for the day but figured that I could make another, bigger difference just by cranking down the boiler thermostat.  It was easy.  I walk past it every day.  I just had to stop, open the door, push in the thermostat and turn anti-clockwise.  I just went one notch.  Let's see how that goes, and maybe I will be able to crank down further.

I also switched off the second fridge. It has been used less and less.  The freezer used to be full, but now almost empty.  So everything was moved to the main fridge which is now much fuller, but not bursting at the seams.  If I leave it switched off I can save 1500-2000 Kilograms of carbon a year according to this energy/carbon cost calculator

Green Veggies

Well, the Aus election has not yet produced a result. But it did produce its first Green party representative, and double the number of Green senate seats. Let's see what the planet is looking like in three years or so when the next election comes along.

What did I do today to reduce, reduce, reduce?

I put out the hard rubbish. For those not in Aus who don't understand, we have 'clean ups' where you can throw out big stuff that you wouldn't or couldn't throw in the bin. Furniture, whitegoods, TVs sterios. We tend to put in a bit of stuff that you think is perfectly ok but you just don't need anymore. Pots, pans, vases...whatever. Its a national pastime. People drive round to see what they can see, see if they can pick it up, sell it, re-use it. I've put our stuff out a bit early this week, even though the council tell me this is an OFFENCE, so folk can pickup anything if they want it.

So that has reduced the level of unwanted stuff in my house, but has not really reduced my consumption. It is helping me to think differently though. I like the clear space and that is an incentive for me not to buy more stuff to fill the space. I also need to work on getting people to stop buying me stuff I don't want.

I fixed up the wheelbarrow. Punctured tyre, but needed to hack through a rusted bolt to remove the wheel. Will need to buy a new bolt. But I reparied rather than throwing it out with the rest of the hard rubbish. I also fixed up the irrigation system, using parts I had bought a while back, plus some clever cannibalisation of old parts.

I planted some old (2 year old) seeds and can now use the irrigation system to water them. What usually happens is I plant seeds and they sprout, illustrating the magic coding of DNA & new life in those gnarled, dried old seeds...and then I don't water them and they die. So hopefully the irrigation will help me reduce wasting my time. Not sure how viable 2 year old seeds are. The seeds are veggies. I've always liked growing veggies. It seems a basic skill we should all have. I don't have this skill, but I am going to try a bit harder this year. I've put in eggplant & watermelon in pots to see if I can get some seedlings going. I've put carrot, cos lettuce and spring onion in rows.

I don't have a lot of land to play with. It's not a small property but most of it is taken up by house, lawn and concrete. So not sure how big my food growing enterprise can get.

How, you might ask, is growing food in my own property reducing consumption. Well, I don't need to travel to buy it, it doesn't have packaging, it doesn't have the overhead of being distributed from farm to shop so less fuel used. Imagine if everyone in the street grew their own veggies. We could trade lemons for squash, and carrots for scallions. Awesome. As it is we hardly speak to our neighbours.

Oh, and I fixed up the compost bin. It's been doing nothing for ages, and I even (for the first time in years) stopped collecting compostable material in the kitchen. How low have I sunk?!? Oh well. In the midst of the pile there was some humus-like, earthy material which I was quite pleased with. The rest I have put back in the compost bin, in its repositioned site. I even went down to my own hard rubbish to rescue on old broken, plastic pipe. I cut it to size, drilled holes in it, and placed it in the middle of the pile. I think it will help aerate the compost pile.

Election Scorecard

Election day tomorrow.  Neither of the main options are offering any vision, any long term view, or any maturity.  They are clowning around - looking no further forward than three years.  I also read an article today about the green party, basically complaining that the greens weren't focussing totally on green issues, and spending some time on the issues the other parties are whining on about. Hell's teeth.

I don't know how long this link will be good - hopefully for a long time so we can see how whoever is elected matches up to their promises.  Hm.  But note that the two main parties aren't promising much.  Here is the election scorecard of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF):

WWF Election Scorecard

This week at work an email from the green initiative (it's good working for a company that considers green issues and has set a target to be carbon neutral) to announce Green Games.  It seems like a reasonable enough initiative.  It aims to get people thinking about how to change their behaviours to reduce carbon emissions.  It looks a bit cheesy :0(

A couple of people in our team are ok to get involved so maybe we will give it a try.

Greenhouse Games

Goodbye Amnesty International

Well not quite goodbye. Amnesty International are a top organisation, one of the best. If you don't know about them you should check them out here and donate some money.
Amnesty International

I am an Amnesty member and I donate monthly. But I've asked them today to stop sending me letters. I get lots of letters from them telling me about some pretty horrific things that are happening around the world, sometimes asking me for more money. Printed letters, with glossy printed leaflets, and return envelopes. I have on occasion donated extra money, but usually I hold onto the letters for a while, and then feel guilty about throwing the papers in the recycling.
If I think back from when I throw this paper in the bin there is a whole chain of waster power that has generated these letters that I don't want. The postie drove them to my postbox. Some machine probably packed the envelope. The leaflets were printed. The reply envelope was printed. The letter was printed. The paper was transported to the printers. The Ink was transported to the printers. The ink was manufactured. The paper was manufactured. The raw materials were transported to the manufacturers. Hell's teeth. The raw materials probably include some trees that were pulled out of a forest that had been capturing carbon. An endless cycle of energy use and waste for a letter that I didn't want that I threw in the recycling.
So, I've asked Amnesty not to send them. I hope they listen. I've also asked them to stop calling me too. The decision not to get letters goes with the decision that I will probably not donate more. That is a very hard decision. If I donate more to anyone it will probably be to WWF or someone who is doing something about climate change. Well, never say never. I still get emails from Amnesty...or did I unsubscribe??!

Goodbye Joseph Sin

This blog used to be about Joseph Sin, a fantasy/sci-fi/comedy manuscript I wrote.  I still think it is an ok book, and would still like to do something with it, but my efforts to date have been v slack.  i was working at home today, and meant to take out 15 minutes to make a call to a lit agent.  But did I? No, I didn't.  I think this is called avoidance.

So, the blog is effectively dead.  Like an old mobile phone in a drawer that you think... well, not sure what you migth think you're going to do with that old phone.  Certainly you're never going to use it again.  So like that old mobile phone I should dispose of it.  In the case of mobile phones, of course, we should recycle.  I learned recently that they contain some metal/chemical/substance that is found in the Congo and so mining of it threatens the habitat of gorillas.

And so, goodbye Joseph Sin, the blog, and hello Reduce, Reduce, Reduce.  Why?  My current reading matter suggests that the earth is irretrievably ruined already.  Climate change is too far gone. The greenhouse gases are high, have raised temperatures already, and started positive feedback loops that will make things worse.  Simultaneously I am watching the leaders of the two main parties in Australia, campaigning for an election at the end of the week, behaving with an astonishing lack of maturity and perspective.  Democracy will never fix climate chage because they see an horizon only 3-4 years away.  Business won't fix it either while their focus is on the next annual statement.

So it is up to us...to reduce, reduce, reduce.

Here's the book I'm reading should you care to have a flick through it.  I'm only up to chapter three so far.

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet