A wild and woolly Christmas, a tornado and Boxing Day

Chistmas Day in Australia was eventful.  Storm clouds were brewing up during the morning, then late in the afternoon the skies opened up.  High intensity thunderstorm cells dumped very heavy rain at some locations, and hail that broke the windows of parked cars.

Section of train line were badly damaged near Hurstbridge when floodwater washed away the track ballast.

A tornado was even forecast for western Melbourne. It duly arrived at Fiskville and Keilor Downs where it caused some local damage to properties.  This is the only actual tornado in Melbourne that I can recall.

There was some rain early Boxing Day but the storms had subsided.  Lena, Chloe and I did a family to the National Art Gallery of Victoria (curious name!) and visited Picasso's Weeping Woman among many other fine paintings.

We stopped at Waffle On for a nice waffle and a chat with Marc.  Then we visited Myer's famous Christmas windows, which were fun and not too crowded, before heading home on the train.

Chloe asked "why is it called Boxing Day?".  I wasn't too sure so I looked it up.  It turned out to be a good question.  

The exact etymology of Boxing Day is unclear. There are several competing theories. The tradition has long included giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions. The European tradition has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown and there are some claims that it goes back to the late Roman/early Christian era; metal boxes placed outside churches were used to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen.

In the United Kingdom, it was a custom for tradesmen to collect "Christmas boxes" of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. This custom is linked to an older English tradition: wealthy landowners allowed their servants were allowed to take the 26th off to visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses, and sometimes leftover food.

In many Western countries, Boxing Day has become synonymous with consumption, where many line up at department stores in search of bargains at "Boxing Day sales". Many products are bought for their reduced price rather than for real need.

There is an opportunity for us to rediscover the traditional roots of Boxing Day and give a gift to someone who may need it. Using up leftovers from the Christmas Day dinner is also a good practice.

All the best for the New Year.

Photo slideshow

External links

• Boxing Day, Greenlivingpedia
• Storm toll sparks rail safety fear, The Age 
• Tornado, hail as storms lash Melbourne, The Age 

Is an Android phone better than an iPhone?

I have been using an HTC Magic phone for two months. It is powered by the open source Android mobile operating system that Google was involved in creating.

My experience is that the platform provides excellent access to Internet services such as browsing, searching, accessing email and contacts (via Gmail or other web account), and it also performs well as a phone.

I think the killer features are:

• Unified contacts list via Gmail - no more scattered contacts between phones, PDAs, laptops and email clients
• Tethering is available without hacking the phone so you can use it as a modem
• Integration with Google maps and GPS. You can hyperlink to maps directly from contact and calendar addresses, and use Google Maps to navigate there.

This Greenlivingpedia article provides more details.

In summary, I thin that Android has many features that make it superior to an iPhone, and many of the handsets are cheaper. You also now have a wider choice of handsets, including Samsung, HTC, Motorola (the Droid) and now even Google with its Nexus One (currently only available in the United States, and is manufactured by HTC).

Will Copenhagen yield a safe climate outcome?

The international negotiations at Copenhagen to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions have some significant hurdles to overcome.

The governments of first world countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia wish to continue their high energy use and/or export of fossil fuels and do not seem willing or capable of undertaking structural and economic reforms to move to low carbon economies.

These countries also want the ability to "offset"some of their emissions by "purchasing credits" from developing nations. This is an exercise of smoke and mirrors, as offsets in reality mean no a country can avoid emission reductions.

Developing nations such as China and India wish to continue their growth in use of carbon dioxide emitting fossil fuels as their economies and lifestyles grow and change towards the levels of first world countries.

Small and poor nations, many of which are bearing the immediate brunt of climate change - such as many Pacific Island nations and African nations - want immediate significant emission reductions by first world counties and also money from them to improve their economies and living standards.

Given these tensions, it seems unlikely that the Copenhagen negotiations will yield a binding treaty that will move us collectively towards a safe climate future - one where global temperature increases are kept below 1.5C and atmospheric CO2 is below 350ppm.

I think it is likely that the outcome will be:

• a voluntary "non-binding" political agreement
• offsets will be allowed
• emissions trading will be endorsed - even though in most cases it will not reduce emissions
• greenhouse gas measurements and reporting will not be subject to independent reviews

If this is the case we will need to rethink our approach and mechanisms for addressing and tacking climate change - as "politics as usual" will have failed to give us the best chance of a safe climate future.

I have described the commercial, social and political pressures that were are facing in this wiki article: The end of the world as we know it.

I am documenting progress and outcomes at Copenhagen in this wiki article: Copenhagen Climate Change Conference 2009

I think the only fair and equitable policy to adopt is to decide on an appropriate carbon emissions per capita amount that all countries should commit to reduce their emissions too.

This figure would be lower than what China is currently emitting, and much lower than most other developed nations. Perhaps Costa Rica is at the best level already?

Victorian feed-in tariff introduced with improvements

I have just received a media release from Energy Minister Peter Batchelor stating that the Brumby Labor Government’s feed-in tariff legislation passed by the Victorian Parliament on 25 June 2009.

The final structure of the Victorian feed-in tariff includes:

• 60 cents credit per kilowatt hour for energy fed back into the grid within that year. This is about four times the current cost of electricity in Victoria.
• The tariff is paid to residences, community organisations and small businesses with energy consumption less than 100 MWh a year
• An array size limit of 5kW applies
  

This outcome is a significant improvement on the feed-in tariff initially proposed by the government. Amendments introduced in the Upper House which improved the scheme include:

• extending participation to community organisations and small businesses with energy consumption less than 100 MWh a year
• increasing the array size limit from 2kW to 5kW

Two electricity retailers have also provided letters which state they will provide cash or rollover credits for energy produced, rather than these credits "expiring" as was initially proposed.

The additional amendment put by the Greens for the tariff to be paid on the gross output (rather than the net output) was not accepted.

The tariff does not apply to large scale solar or wind either, so there is potential to further improve this legislation in the future.

On balance, this is a significant improvement over the legislation initially proposed. The government states that the amendments were made "in response to input from responsible environment groups" which demonstrates that the efforts made to contact politicians and build community support for a good feed-in tariff were successful.

Well done ATA, Environment Victoria, Climate Action Groups and everybody who spent time and considerable effort on this campaign.

2008 Feed-in Tariff rally at Parliament

External links

• Victorians to benefit from the fairest and best solar feed-in tariff, Media Release, Peter Batchelor, 25 June 2009
• Victorias new solar laws, Greenlivingpedia
  

Climate Emergency Rallies across Australia give us some hope

The Climate Emergency Rallies across Australia on Saturday 13 June 2009 were inspiring. They delivered a targeted message to the community and our political leaders.


We need to reduce carbon emissions now through emergency action, and we can do this by creating thousands of green jobs to replace those lost in the polluting carbon-intensive industries.

More details on the rallies with photos and videos is available on Greenlivingpedia here.


Unfortunately, Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong has demonstrated why our political system and federal and state governments are currently part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Rather than listen to what the protesters were saying, she reacted with denial.

Penny Wong stated that "what these people are asking for can't be done".

That is a lie Penny. We can transition to 100% renewable energy by 2020, and we need to for a safe climate future.

Penny Wong also stated that "the government is bringing in laws (the CPRS) to reduce carbon emissions".

That is another lie Penny. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will not reduce Australia's carbon emissions until at least 2020, and probably not even by 2050.

This is because the government is handing out corporate welfare of $18b in the from of free emission permits to the worst polluting industries - which means they will continue on their polluting ways.

Penny Wong should resign as the Minister for Climate Change and take a job in the office of the Minister for Fossil Fuel Industries, Martin Ferguson.

We need to get action on climate change and energy policy out of the hands of incompetent politicians who are intent on "business as usual", "politics as usual".

We need to establish a taskforce informed by climate and energy scientists, not those under the thrall of the fossil fuel industries.

Electric vehicle on show in Melbourne

I took some photos of the Mitsubishi iMiEV electric vehicle that was on display in Melbourne on 9 April 2009. The car has 30% of the carbon emissions of a comparable petrol car. There is no availability to date for Australia however.


More information and photos: http://www.greenlivingpedia.org/IMiEV_electric_car

Unfortunately the best that General Motors Holden has come up with so far in Australia is to commit to building another four cylinder petrol car - with generous government handouts. They don't seem to realise we are running out of petrol and the age of the electric vehicle has arrived.

Like dinosaurs, these industries will go extinct if they don't adapt. General Motors in the United States is very nearly bankrupt and about to go into receivership.

Councillor Fraser Brindley launches Greenlivingpedia in Melbourne

Melbourne City Councillor Fraser Brindley and Peter Campbell launched Greenlivingpedia, a free resource for sharing information about green living and building at Melbourne’s innovative CH2 building on Monday 15 October 2007.

"Today I am launching Greenlivingpedia, an important resource that enables everyone to create and share information about green living and green building, such as the CH2 building," Cr Brindley said.

"Melbourne City Council’s innovative CH2 building provides an excellent example of how we can design and build for a sustainable future," Cr Brindley said.

"Greenlivingpedia is a wiki website similar to Wikipedia that anyone can use to create and edit articles about their own sustainable living project or area of interest,” said Peter Campbell, the founder and creator of Greenlivingpedia.

"I created Greenlivingpedia to complement and link to Wikipedia and other information sources on the Internet so that people can view and create examples of green living and green building solutions," said Mr Campbell.

"Issues like climate change and reducing our energy footprint are now major concerns in the community with the focus now shifting towards what we can do to address them. Greenlivingpedia can play an important role in empowering our community to take local action on climate change and sustainable living," said Cr Brindley.

"Greenlivingpedia provides a mechanism for people to collaborate and share information about a range of topics including sustainable house and building projects, energy saving tips, green computing, solar power, community action, water conservation and recycling" said Mr Campbell.

"Many people ask for more information about our sustainable house renovation in Surrey Hills so I have written an article on Greenlivingpedia with details of what we have done and how much energy we have been able to save," said Mr Campbell.

"Wikis and blogs are dramatically changing how we can work together to create, access and share information on the Internet. Photos and images, and even video and interactive maps can be easily added to Greenlivingpedia articles, and the articles will appear in search engine results," said Mr Campbell.

More information: Peter Campbell 0409 417 504

www.greenlivingpedia.org

Video of the launch

New low energy light bulbs to reduce our footprint further

When we completed our sustainable house renovation in 2001 we had about 8 light globes that were on dimmer switches in two of our main living spaces. At the time, compact fluorescent light bulbs would not operate on dimmers, or you needed a special very expensive dimmer switch. We also had some wall lighting that used small bulbs. We have been running high electrical consumption incandescent bulbs in all these areas, which has bothered me for some time.

Happily, a much larger variety of compact fluorescent are now available.

Today, I visted The Environment Shop in Northcote and bought the following globes:

• Compact fluoro spotlight - for outside (top)
• Dimmable compact fluoros - for inside living areas (left) to replace incandescent bulb (second left)
• Small bayonet compact fluoro (right) to replace small bayonet incandescent bulbs (second from right).

This will dramatically reduce our energy consumption - next I will calculate by how much.

I also plan to install more panels to our solar array. Adding about four 150w panels will hopefully make us net generators of electricity and further contribute to us reducing greenhouse gas emissions.