The Greening of Gavin

Archives for January 2011

Climate Irony

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A 5 billion dollar package to repair climate change damage?  Current events here in Australia seem a little ironic to me. Here is why.

13 long years of drought in Australia kinda clinched the existence of climate change for many people, as has the flooding rains the followed.  The heating of the oceans are causing so many different effects on the climactic system that Gaia has thrown everything into a spin.  2010 was, on average, the 3rd hottest year globally since records existed.  Australia had one of its coldest years on record, and in the eastern part and some of the west, one of its wettest.  The extreme weather events that the climatologist predicted would happen are now happening with regular occurrence not only our country, but globally.  To put the icing on the cake, two tropical cyclones are heading towards Queensland as I write, probably making landfall within a week of each other.

Sounds like a strong response is required to cut our carbon emissions are in order, just like our learned scientists have been screaming at us to do quickly.  Will we ever see this happen?  I don’t believe so.

So what has been our Government’s response to this climate devastation?  Well, a simple one really.  Lets cut funding to climate projects, like large scale renewable energy, clean car fund, and even Carbon capture and storage (yes, even clean coal gets the cut).  WTF??? Are they on some kind of hallucinogenic drug?  Are they missing the forest for the trees (albeit, the cut down ones that they give the logging industry permission to cut down in swathes).  Climatologist have a majority consensus regarding Climate Change. Sure not all of them, but the vast majority and that we should have acted at the turn of the century to prevent what is now occurring.  So why should we pay for a levy, when the Hon. Julia Gillard PM, decides to cut Climate Change programs, to pay for Climate Change effects? So is a tax in disguise the answer to Climate Change? How stupid, short sighted and very, very ironic.

A levy (tax) for 12 months to pay for the damage caused by the flooding in three states of the country?  Personally I am all for a levy to help pay my part, but without the cuts to climate change mitigation projects.  However, it seems that it may not even be legal as I found this tit bit posted as a comment under a news article;

“Has anyone looked at the legality of such a tax? Under section 51(2) and 99 of the constitution, the commonwealth would be unable to impose income tax at different rates in different states. Under section 51(2) the parliament has power to tax but so as not to discriminate between states or parts of states. Under section 99 the commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade, commerce or revenue, give preference to one state or any part there of over another state or any part thereof.  All for supporting the flood victims but lets not disregard the constitution in the process!! – boulder”

It doesn’t sound legal to me either but I am not a constitutional QC, so maybe that is why they are calling it a levy and not a temporary tax.  A tax on the few with exemptions for certain parts of the population.  It doesn’t seem fair.

Perhaps I could write a movie about a man who lost his wife and children due to Climate Change, and takes the law into his own hands to revenge Climate Change deniers in Parliament. The movie could be called “The Greater Good”.  Mind you, the man would have to take out most of the Parliament for the effect to be any good.  Not that I am advocating a Guy Faulks like event.  Far from it.  It just irritates me that either our politicians have not connected the dots, or have and are just ignoring the evidence.  What happens when the next climate disaster occurs?  Do we just get a continuous levy imposed aka tax.  Why aren’t the industries that pollute pay more?  That’s right, they have the ample funds to lobby the government for a cut in company tax, and to delay an inevitable carbon tax on the worst of them.  Yet again the people pay for companies outright greed.

I believe that We will need to be in a Climate Change Disaster movie before Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott believe or act upon Climate Change decisively.  What will it take?

Bloody ostriches!

Be Prepared Challenge – Acquire #1

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Now to the fun part of the challenge (mind you, last week was fun).  You would have put aside a space somewhere by now if you have been following the challenge, however before you rush off to the food co-op to stock up on goodies, lets start at the very beginning. 

What do you already have on hand?  What do you really need to get you through a short interruption or an extended one for that matter?  Do you honestly need 24 cans of Spam in your pantry?

Task #1 – Inventory.

So, these questions need to be tacked before we start to acquire anything at all.  The very first thing I suggest you do as task number one for this week, is to perform an inventory!  Sounds boring, but believe you me, it is essential if you want to do this as effectively and efficiently as you can. As Bec will be covering the budgeting aspect of being prepared, I will not repeat it here, but it you have a tight budget this will be an essential task.

Get out a pad and pencil, and go through your existing pantry/storage area and write down exactly what you have at hand.  How else will you know if you already have items stocked up already for a rainy day?  Don’t include stuff you have in the fridge, because in an emergency, consider that the electricity supply in your area to be either unreliable or non-existent. 

It doesn’t matter what the food item is, write it down.  If it is out of date, this will be a good time to throw it away.  As you work through this process, think of things that you could make with it if cooking facilities are turn out to be primitive.  You may have to resort to an open fire, barbecue, or solar oven to cook your food. However, don’t be tempted to jump ahead and start writing down a whole bunch of recipes.  Just keep it in the back of your mind for now. 

Then sort it out into “meals ready to eat” and “needs preparation”.  Have a think about how you would need to prepare it to make a nutritious meal out of the item.  Do you have other items currently in stock that you need to achieve this?  Add notes to that effect.

This task could take from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how prepared you may already be.  Once you have an inventory of your food, move on to essential items like personal hygiene, water, and fuel.  Think about all the things you use in your day currently, and see if you have these things on hand.  Now, they may not help you in an emergency, but just add it to your list for now.

I too will be participating in this part of the challenge, because even though I have already done all this before, it is good to know what you currently have at hand.  We have been stockpiling food and essentials for about 3 years now, however sometimes these things get out of hand, and you buy too much of one item and not enough of another essential.  We already have our budget each week for our groceries, so I can personally skip that part of the overall challenge.

Anyway, what are you waiting for?  There is no time like the present!  I bet you find all sorts of goodies that you didn’t realise you had.

Later on in the week, both Bec and I will discuss what essentials may be required, covering food, water and your emergency kit.  Until then, have fun.

Be Prepared Challenge – Organise #3

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How are the tasks in your challenge going?  Well I hope.  To add to the ever growing list of tasks that Bec and I have been throwing at you this week, here is one final and simple task for finish off the Organise week.  It has to do with insurance.

The concept of insurance has been around for a long time, some people think it is necessary, others do not.  This is a brief extract from FIDO about how insurance works.

“Insurance policies involve the transfer of risk. The insurer agrees to compensate you for a loss rather than you having to pay for that loss yourself. Usually the insurer assesses whether to accept the risk (and if so, on what terms) through information they get from you. You decide whether the terms the insurer offers meet your needs. Read the product disclosure statement to help you with this.”

I personally believe that a little bit of insurance is a good thing in these troubled times, and I have only ever had to claim once in my lifetime.  I was living in a flat in Sydney a long time ago and was burgled.  The claim on insurance was a pretty straight forward procedure, however there was one thing that I was not ready for, and that was the provision of evidence to the insurer.  Things like serial numbers, photos, warranty documents, that sort of stuff.  I didn’t have much, just a couple of photos of the stolen items, but that was enough to help.  I was glad that I took the time to take out insurance in the first place.

So, on to the challenge.  This task is two fold and is one that is often missed and is definitely not on most peoples list before a crisis hits. 

Firstly, if you have some sort of insurance already for your home, home contents, self, car, etc., then actually take the time to understand what you are covered for.  Policies always list inclusions and exclusions and this is where many good people get tripped up when they go to claim after a crisis.  If you live near a flood plain are you covered for flood damage?  If you are living in a forest or bushland, are you covered for bush fires, or damage to your home from trees falling through them?  Are you covered for storm damage?  What is the excess you have to pay before making a claim?  Know the facts.  Just because your neighbour has insurance and is not covered for a certain item, it doesn’t mean that you are not covered.  Check with your own insurer and your policy.  What have you got to loose?  With 1 in 100 year events occurring more frequently, it pays to have some sort of insurance.  Shop around though and make sure you are covered for the most likely events in your geography.  Don’t forget to factor the insurance payments into you family budget.

Just my take on it.  Your don’t have to if you don’t want to.

The second part of the task is to record items that you absolutely want replaced like for like.  The easiest way to record items is to take photos of them.  Take a couple of shots of each item, showing the layout, and if it is an electrical item take a shot of the serial number and model.  Easy as pie.  Then copy the photos to a USB memory stick or print copies and and a copy of your insurance policies and keep it in a folder in your emergency bag or fire safe.  Anywhere safe that will remain intact.  That way, when you do come to claim, you have evidence of your goods, and it will make the claim process run a lot smoother.  Also don’t forget to update you collection of photos every year or so. 

I also found some advice in FIDO website that is titled “A guide to insurance, protecting your assets“.  It is independent of the insurance industry and is sage advice indeed. 

So if you have chosen to have a go at this task, you will have piece of mind that whatever happens in the near future, you will not be financially bankrupt after a crisis and have to start from scratch.  I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. 

Tomorrow, I will be posting the first task for the Acquire week.  I hope you keep working on the “Be Prepared Challenge”.  I know I will!