The Greening of Gavin

Archives for September 2012

Pining For A Wind Turbine

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Have you ever stopped in your tracks and stared at a thing of beauty?  I know I have.  Kim often catches me looking at a bit of roof porn as we drive around (think about it).

My obsession with renewable energy is a little like train-spotting I suppose, but in a nice way, and without the anorak.

I recently moved office buildings down to Melbourne Docklands, and of late, I have become obsessed with wind turbines.

They are on many water craft;

I believe this is an Air Breeze Marine 12v 200watt attached to a fancy catamaran docked at Victoria Wharf.  This was spinning quite fast as it was windy, and I could hardly hear it.  It would connect up easily to my backup battery box.

Then there are the mother of vertical axis wind turbines on top of the ANZ building.  They are five of them and are 6.5kW each when the wind is blowing at 57 kph (36 mph).  That is a lot of electricity.  These are called qr5 turbines and are made in the UK by quietrevolution.

This is what the qr5 looks like before installation. I don’t think they would fit on my house roof, but I can only dream.  Maybe something a little smaller.

So I continue to pine, and seek out my very own vertical axis turbine, which would be better suited to the urban environments and lower wind conditions.  I will keep on the lookout for developments in the industry or an easy to make vertical axis turbine.  How cool would it be to make my own!

Until next time dear readers.

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” – William Arthur Ward

5 Reasons To Grow Your Own Vegetables

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Money doesn’t grow on trees, but you can save a lot of it by growing your own vegetables.  However this is only one of the great reasons to pop some veggie seeds or seedlings in the dirt this spring.  So here are my five favourite reasons to grow your own vegetables this season;

1.  The price is right

We usually buy our vegetables from local green grocers or roadside veggie stalls in a neighbouring town, so last weekends visit to the supermarket was an eye opener.  The most significant reason to grow your own produce is the price.

Take capsicums (bell peppers) for example.  For three capsicums in the supermarket, it costs A$7.99, which was extortionate.  I can buy a packet of capsicum seeds for A$2.95 or a punnet of seedlings for $2.50 and grow in excess of 10-20 kg of green, yellow or red capsicums.  That is just one of the amazing savings.

Plant a couple of zucchinis and you will soon know what I mean!

grow your own vegetables

 2.  You decide what goes on your food

Another reason for growing your own is that you can control what goes into your food. You can either be very strict in keeping your produce organic, or use limited amounts of fertilizer and pest control that you approve of.

I personally only grow with organic methods, but the choice is yours. Best of all, the security of knowing how and what is used in the process can be reason enough to grow your own.

3.  Freshness and Taste

We’ve all run into the problem of reaching into our fridge’s crisper drawers and finding limp or bruised vegetables only fit for the chooks. You won’t have that problem when you can pick them straight from the source and put them in your evening meal on the same day.

Vegetables found in the supermarket are typically picked half ripe so that they can be transported long distances, which has a detrimental effect on its flavour.

4.  A Cornucopia Of Cultivars

Given the choice between a few types of tasteless tomatoes in the supermarket, you will probably be surprised at the variety of different cultivars that are available.

From massive Mortgage Lifter beefsteaks to stripy Tigerella, to the tiniest cherry tomato, no two are alike in size or flavour and there are literally hundreds to choose from.  And that is just tomatoes.

The vast choice of variety among veggies like beans, lettuce, chillies, potatoes, pumpkins, corn, or even onions are just simply amazing.  Just try and grow one variety, I dare you!

5.  Fresh Herbs are simply amazing

If you only begin with herbs, which I consider to be “the gateway plant to gardening”, you will not be disappointed.  Easy to grow from seed or ready bought, herbs will flavour your cooking like never before.  Rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage, and basil are great choices for the beginner.

Fresh herbs are great in any dish and leave dried herbs for dead.

Summary

So if I have convinced you, why not pop down the library and pick up a few edible gardening books? It is a great place to start to learn how to grow your own.  However, remember to only plant the vegetables that you use frequently. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew at the start.  Most of all, start small, and increase your growing space as you gain confidence.

All I can say is give it a go. What have you got to lose?  You will save a small fortune in the process, especially with the climbing prices of fresh food.

Do you think growing your own saves you money? If you are a novice, are you up for the challenge of producing your own veggies?

Why We Need Degrowth

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Let me introduce you to a concept that some may not have heard about.  It is the concept of  degrowth.  
Wikipedia lists the following about degrowth:

“Degrowth (in French: décroissance, in Spanish: decrecimiento, in Italian: decrescita) is a political, economic, and social movement based on Ecological economics, anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist ideas. Degrowth thinkers and activists advocate for the downscaling of production and consumption—the contraction of economies—as overconsumption lies at the root of long term environmental issues and social inequalities. Key to the concept of degrowth is that reducing consumption does not require individual martyring and a decrease in well-being. Rather, ‘degrowthists’ aim to maximize happiness and well-being through non-consumptive means—sharing work, consuming less, while devoting more time to art, music, family, culture and community.”

Sound familiar?  It is comparable to Simple Living, Voluntary Simplicity, Downshifting, Sustainable Living or even the Transition Town movements.

What ever name we give it, why do I think we need these movements?  Well, quite simply, because we live on a finite world that has limits and boundaries, therefore continues growth is not feasible.  Ergo our western lifestyle is unsustainable.   

The planet can regenerate about 2.1 global hectares per person per year on a sustainable basis.  The average Australian has an ecological footprint of 6.6 global hectares per person which is 2.8 times the average global footprint of 2.7 global hectares.  If everyone lived like this we would need four planets to sustain our lifestyle.  As there are no new planets to plunder except the one we have, we better get used to living within our means or suffer the consequences.

This means that a possible solution could be degrowth, or put in my language, to consciously reduce our  consumption.

It would be nice if ‘Buy Nothing Day’ was everyday, and we just reused and produced stuff we grew or made ourselves.  Great stuff in theory, but it would kill our current economic model.  However if you look at it closely, our current economic model is killing itself pretty much on its own because of the finite limits of our world.  

So, the more we walk away from the current economic system, the quicker it fails, which would not be good for anyone.  How do we aim for a gentle landing and not end up in a continuous downward recession/depression cycle when our economic system does fail?  This is not a rhetorical question.  I just don’t know the answer.

However, I do know that we have three possible paths that we can take from this time on.  Woody Allen once said “We have arrived at a decisive fork in the road. One path leads us to the extinction of our species and the other leads to despair.  I hope we will be able to make the right choice… “
So far, as I see it we are on the first path, taking down many other species with it.  Second path is one of negative growth history has shown to generate famine, wars, pandemics and can lead to a society controlled by fascism or totalitarian power.  No thank you very much!  I am a bit more optimistic and believe we can turn it around.
I believe there is a third path.  It one of degrowth by choosing sobriety and taking stock of our current reality.  We need to break our addiction to things.  Somehow we need to be able to change our economic system in such a way that reduced consumerism is seen as goodness and a better way of living, giving us more spare time, and wanting for less, therefore softening the impact.  We need to live within the global limits and on or below those 2.1 global hectares we each have been granted by Gaia.  It may seem very neo-hippy of me, but there has to be a better path than we one we are current embarked upon.  
I for one have chosen not to be on this train wreck any more.  Have you?  
Do you have any thoughts on possible solutions to the end of growth?