The Greening of Gavin

Assessing The Situation

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About this time each year (around my birthday), I reassess the things that are important to me and where I am on life’s highway.

As a gauge,  I look at what my values are, what progress I have made over the last year, and figure out if I am still holding true to them.  I also look at society in general to see what has changed (for better or worse), and what I as an individual can influence.

So what is my current assessment?  Well, I still hold true to my values and main goal of lowering personal and my family’s consumption and emissions, and to educate others, whatever form that may take from here on in. I believe I am still on track.

As for society, it feels like everyone around me is scrambling for a seat on the express train that is hurtling towards the edge of a cliff.  Even those clever enough who want to avoid disaster are getting sucked along slowly by the train’s forward momentum.  It seems inevitable that the cliff’s edge is approaching faster and faster, but no one else can see it.

All I can do is put on my own brakes and hope they (whoever they may be) hold on long enough so that the train driver (whoever or whatever form that takes) can wake up to apply their own, or at least enough passengers realise that they are in peril and pull the emergency brake chain.

So my pledge to you is that I will keep doing what I do, write about what I write, on this blog, my podcasts, and by other mediums, any chance I get.  Hopefully not boring you all to tears in the process (If I am boring, I hope someone lets me know!).

However, I think it is not only time to continue with the small, individual actions like we have been doing, but also time for very big, and bold actions.  To that end, my daughter Amy and I am going to attend the Bill McKibben Do The Math tour Down Under, when it comes to Melbourne on Friday 7th June.  Date and ticket informations at this link.  Currently politicians won’t listen and act, so lets see what Bill has to offer us as an method of action.  I do like the cut of this mans jib.


Onwards and upwards, as they say!

Call To Country

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Our country will end up being just one big hole in the ground.  Grant another coal mining licence here, grant another Coal Seam Gas (CSG) well there.  When will it stop?

When our climate gets so hot that other countries will force sanctions upon us to stop the export of these fossil fuels?  When our water tables become so polluted that we cannot drink it?

Both fossil fuels are equally as polluting, and don’t let anyone try and pull the wool over your eyes and tell you that CSG is less carbon intensive than coal.  It is on par.  CSG is not the miracle transition fuel that the industry is trying to create a social licence for.

So, why are we still letting this happen? 

I don’t know the answers, but I do know that there is a failure of leadership.

Things have to change.  If our so called leaders won’t do anything, it is time for people to act strongly.

Great organisations like Lock The Gate Alliance and the Victorian Wind Alliance are doing a fantastic job of spreading the word.

To read more about this campaign, visit http://www.lockthegate.org.au/calltocountry

So I ask you to get behind these campaigns, participate where you can, or donate if you cannot, and lets make our country a better place to live in.

Death and Destruction for a Fistful of Dollars

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A harsh title for a harsh reality.  Our continued fetish for exporting and using coal is killing us and many other species on Earth.  Let me explain.

We all know that coal is a fossil fuel that when burnt, releases additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which in turn increases the amount of solar radiation trapped in the Earth’s biosphere.  These additional greenhouse gasses throw out the delicate balance of the natural carbon cycle.

This creates an enhanced greenhouse effect, which is causing climate change, and this additional heat fuels the extreme weather events that we are experiencing more frequently.  A 1-in-100 year event are now 1-in-10 year events, or even shorter.  Welcome to the Anthropocene.

Australia exports black and brown coal, and lots of it.  In 2011, coal was our second biggest export behind Iron Ore, and was worth A$46.8b in export revenue.  We also use a lot of it to generate electricity for the national grid.

Source

It is had to imagine that figure so this is what it looks like,  A$46,800,000,000.  That is a lot of coal, and it makes a lot of money for some of the richest people in this country.

Money also means power. Political power in the form of lobbying, to entice governments to change policies in favour of exporting more coal, building more coal infrastructure with taxpayers funds, and making more money without looking at the long term damage it is causing future generations.  Shareholder returns for death and destruction.  Cash before the welfare of Earth.

Even though Australia has a price on carbon pollution, this price per tonne of CO2-e is only calculated on the extraction and transportation of the coal within our borders.  It does not extend to the coal we export which when burnt overseas is adding to the global levels of atmospheric greenhouse gasses.  With governments approving new coal mines in this country, they are damaging any good effects achieved by the carbon price.

Ironically, as other countries burn this exported coal, it affects the global climate, which causes extreme weather events all over the planet including the originating country.

We all know that these extreme weather events cause death and destruction, not only here in Australia, but throughout the world.  I won’t dwell on the tragic loss of life, suffice it to say that it is happening, and it is sad that we are the makers of our own destruction.

Even more ironic is that the main states affected by the increasingly frequent extreme weather events here in Australia are Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, which are the biggest exporters and users of coal in the country.

Even though our coal exports may contribute greatly to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), they are causing more harm than it is worth.

Domestically, it was estimated that the 2010-2011 Queensland floods caused over A$3b in damage, with an estimated reduction in Australias GDP of about A$30b.  This was quickly followed by the Victorian floods, which caused over A$2b in damage.  This years floods in Qld and NSW have caused over A$2.4b in estimated damage to date, with an unknown impact to GDP, so one would expect a similar reduction to the 2010-2011 floods.  All events are currently being attributed to warming oceans and a hotter planet.  Last financial years flood levy was not to pay for flood damage, it was to pay for our own stupidity.

I hope the shareholders who benefit from these short term export profits think that it is worth it all of the current suffering and future heartache for their descendants.  In the end everyone suffers.

Now, dear reader, the irony continues, as Australia has one of the highest per capita ecological footprints (7th of all countries) on the planet.  This is driven by our own consumer culture that is one of the main causes of coal demand from China.  We buy stuff made in China and across Asia, who makes the stuff with electricity generated by burning coal that we export.  Our own coal exports harm us directly.

Simple logic would determine that if we demanded less stuff, we would import less stuff, and they would need less coal to burn to make the stuff, therefore lowering atmospheric pollution.  However it is not that simple anymore.  It may have been the case a decade ago, however increasing affluence in Asia makes domestic demand rise, and therefore increasing domestic resource utilisation. It is a very ‘Catch 22’ situation.

Australia and China are not alone.  All countries that export and consume fossil fuels expedited by a consumer culture are at fault to some extent, which really makes it a global issue.

The only solution I can think of is to divest from fossil fuel companies, via either a reduction in consumer spending or ethical investment and switching to renewable energy sources reduces the political power held by these conglomerates, and transfers it to the greater good (in theory, anyway).

I believe that every single dollar that we spend or invest makes a difference in our current economic system.  So to stop or at least slow the death and destruction, spend wisely.  Invest in renewable energy sources, or consume less.  The future is everyone’s hands, not just governments.

We are the people we have been waiting for, so lets work on the solution to biggest challenge that has ever faced humanity.

Ourselves.

P.S.  All I ask in return for you reading this post it to share it via you favourite social network if you agree.  Lets get the conversation started.