The Greening of Gavin

Archives for March 2011

Wet. Not Dry

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A while back, I predicted above average temperatures and rainfall for southern Australia based on information from the Met Bureau.  The post was titled ‘One Wet Year‘  How wrong was I.  Lucky I am not a meteorologist!  The only part I got right was the wet bit.  Now that summer has officially passed us by (even though I think we have a few warm days ahead still), it turns out that it was Australia’s second wettest year on record, and if you single out Victoria it was our wettest summer ever.  In fact it was our first wet summer ever, in recorded history anyway.  The La Nina in the Pacific Ocean still has a lot of potential in it, it looks like the wet season will continue up north until April/May.

However that does not change the fact that 2010 was a tie with 1998 for the warmest combined land and ocean surface temperature on record worldwide.  If you want to look at that data, pop on over to www.sciencedaily.com for the rub.

So forget any clueless weather forecasts from me in future and take it with a grain of salt.  However, please do take heed of the consensus of a overwhelming majority of climate scientists, when they warn that the Earth is indeed warming due to increase levels of CO2-e in our atmosphere and oceans and that our climate is changing for the worse.

However, to cap it all off , I read this article today that made me grimace with a sense of loathing.  I shouldn’t really pick on this bloke, but hey, it was in a NewsCorp rag so it had to be bent towards climate change denialism.  Have a read of this article in the Tasmania Mercury titled “Victim unmoved by flood“.  It is a gem.  After all, this bloke is highly qualified to pass commentary about climate change when the, and I will say it again, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists that anthropogenic climate change is occurring, but he has an opinion just as I do.  What gets me is that after he dismisses man-made climate change, he offers solutions on how to solve it.  Recycling more and using less stuff is the key folks. Kind of right mate, but you left out the part about lowering our carbon emissions.

Or that is what NewsCorp would have us believe.  It must be part of Rupert’s grand plan.

Slacker

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So what have I been up to over the last week?  Well not a lot really.

I have been recovering from another bout of abdominal pain (aka diverticulitis), and spending a bit of time in bed, and working from home.  Lethargy overcomes me more often than not and I have spent far too much time sleeping.  Unfortunately,  I have a little less mojo to go around.  Hopefully all that is changing as today, I feel well rested and not as sore as the last few days.

Yesterday, as I was feeling a little better, Kim and I spent about 4 hours in the garden tidying up.  Basically weeding and a bit of harvesting.  Here are some photos that Ben took for me.

Our sweet corn, that is yet to be harvested.  It is about two weeks away from being ripe.

Very artistic Ben.  The tops of the corn stalks.

Maybe this lad should not be let loose with the camera?  “Nice bum Gav”, Kim said!

After cutting back many tomato vines we moved to the eggplant patch.  Here is a nice sized eggplant that you would normally see in the shops.

This is the eggplant patch in its glory.  There are about 6 plants in there somewhere that I grew from seed.

Here are some finger type eggplants, which I have found are great in curries.

And a Listada de Gandia.  I love the purple and white stripes.  It tastes like the normal purple variety, but I think it is cool.

To put the corn into perspective, I took the camera away from Ben and asked him to pose for me.  He is about 168 cm, so that would make the corn over 2 metres tall.  Each plant has two ears on it.
 

I posted this one before, but I am so proud of this caerphilly cheese.  It worked out perfectly.

Last but not least, Kim decided to harvest all of the Jonathan apples today mainly because the chooks kept eating the low hanging fruit and even Holly the dog decided that they were just too good to resist.   I expected some apples, but this is beyond my expectations.  They taste a little tart, but sweet enough for my liking, with not a chemical spray in sight!
Now that I read back on this post, I haven’t been very slack at all!  Maybe I just feel this way, because I am only working at 50% of my normal pace. 

Carbon Fear Tactics

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One thing that never ceases to amaze me about climate change is the fear campaign that precedes any affirmative action that government decides to take. It really does get on my goat.

Case in point has been the opposition’s reaction and subsequent fear campaign regarding the introduction of a price on carbon which if legislated will commence on 1 July 2012.  A price per tonne of carbon has not even been established, yet quotes of 6c per litre extra on petrol and $600 extra on electricity bills have been thrown around by Liberal scare mongers and radio shock jocks. 

They also keep bringing up evil carbon polluters like India and China, yet China has the largest installed based of solar power in the world and a growing base of wind power and is doing active research in both areas.  Meanwhile in Australia our investment in solar and wind R&D has been so low that we continually see researchers and companies close up shop and moved overseas.   Both countries has far less emissions per capita than we do here in the ‘lucky country’, but I realise that they have much larger populations that count in the billions, than the paltry 22,580,965 citizens we have, but just imagine that they all had a lifestyle like we do, and an attitude to boot.  We would all be up shit creek without a paddle.

It seems to me that Australians are content to scrabble around in the dirt and flog off the assets of future generations of Australians at rock bottom prices for little to no long term gain to the Australian community. We should be investing in the technologies of the future, like wind, solar thermal, geothermal and keeping some of the natural gas for ourselves to get over the large bump called peak oil.

A carbon tax is a price indicator to an open market is the first step in saying that this way of business is no longer acceptable.  So well done Julia and Bob! I give credit were it is due. No Guts no glory. One for leadership which is sorely missing of late.  Which is more than I can say for the other Coalition of wannabe Tea Party members.  She changed her mind, which is not lying in my book.

Denial is fear based. Fear of everything that involves change. This country can’t be dictated too and run by fear campaigns from climate change sceptics.  This is the kind of crap that I have heard lately;

  • She lied…
  • It will cost too much money….. 
  • It will wreck our economy… 
  • It won’t change anything…. 
  • It’s a global government…
  • Its not happening…. 
  • Your all Lefties….
  • The sky is falling!!!

Essentially they’re just cowards not willing to accept their role or look beyond their own self interest.  I would rather back an intelligent liar than an absolute fool to run the country but better still, the more Indepentants and Green we can gather in Canberra, the better.

We absolutely must adopt a carbon price system as part of a wide range of changes and innovations to start to reverse the environmental damage wrought upon the planet by us foolish humans.  I am embarrassed by our backward thinking on this most important of topics compared to the leading countries of Europe and elsewhere.  And of course folks, people’s behaviour needs to change before it is too late, and the implementation of a carbon tax is phase one.

We’ll get over the problem of a new tax, we got over the GST, now that was an ugly tax. If there is no carbon tax, the levies on disasters will be much higher, long term.

Just my 2 bobs worth!