Sustain Myself

Back in December, I wrote a post about the pitiful effort of the Australian government to reduce emissions. Kevin Rudd had set a guaranteed 5% reduction by the year 2020 despite the uproar from the public and some scientists, this figure has remained in place.

Today I received an email from GetUp asking for me to write a message to the government with my opinion of their 5% reduction scheme.

This is my message:

To whom it may concern,
When I watched kevin rudd in the debates on TV prior to his becomming prime minister, I remember being so excited that we were about to elect a forward-thinking, environmentally conscious man to run this country. So far, I have been nothing but disappointed in his decisions surrounding climate change and the environment as a whole.

The Australia under john howard was a follower. We were seen as like america and were mocked as weak. Instead of following the rest of the world in the crusade against climate change, how about we lead the rest of the world and gain the respect that we would deserve for taking a stand. 5% is simply not good enough and Australians are intuitive and intelligent enough to acknowledge that not only can more be done, we can do it in innovative, industry-leading means which will eventually create more jobs as well as lessening the countries footprint.

We cannot escape climate change. Many scientists believe that the human race will not survive this century which is not the future I want for my daughter. Please, I beg that you reconsider this pitiful stance.

Regards,

Christian Biggins
PS. Certain words were left non-capitalised intentionally

Please join me in sending messages to the government by going to GetUp.

So its been a long time since I updated this blog. The main reason for that is that I was made redundant in December from my job at realestate.com.au and have been working on some personal projects with my friend Michael Little in our new joint prospect Fliquid Studios.

Anyway, enough plugging…

I am currently reading about my new solar prospects, I have just built a chicken coop (details in next post) and am planning my Vegie garden and rain water drip irrigation system. Details on all of these will be coming soon. Today’s post is about a big decision I made recently. To give up coffee.

The reasons behind me giving up coffee are vast and include health, environmental and social problems. As I am not one to put my health before a good cup of joe, I’ll stick to the environmental and social issues that made this decision easy for me.

While I was aware of the claim that there are 2 ounces of carbon in every cup of coffee (due to the transportation and general manufacturing of the coffee after it has been harvested), it was this article by treehugger that pushed me over the edge.

Also, the social issues surrounding farmers who supply coffee. Most coffee growers in South America actually receive less than the cost of growing the coffee (Global Exchange Link). This includes those farmers who supply Starbucks and their shameful ‘Fair Trade’ claim (New Internationalist Article).

Lastly, and by far the biggest contributing factor for me to stop supporting the coffee industry as a whole, is the waste. The amount of cups used, daily, and then disposed of. It makes me sick. The image above is from Celina’s coffee cup project on Flickr and is worth a look. Sustainability Is Sexy has a table on the use of coffee cups daily.

Sorry for such a disjointed post. I have had a helluva night running after my almost-two-year-old while we had a ‘nice’ and ‘peaceful’ dinner for my brother-in-law’s 30th in their oh so child unfriendly house. I simply can’t stand by while the world implodes from excess waste and transportation for a stinking drink. Time for a cuppa.

Further Reading:
New Internationalist

Yesterday afternoon I received an email from GetUp about the governments climate action decision. I was astonished that the ‘educated’ decision would be to cut emissions by 5% by 2020 with an option to go up to 15% if they were pushed by other nations…

As Simon, in his email from GetUp stated "Many Australians voted for change at the last election on the promise of strong action to solve climate change." – Kevin was supposed to be this fantastic move towards a greener future but has so far fallen short on this. Strangely, everybody seems to have a similar opinion;

Greens, Coalition join forces on emissions inquiry
Emissions scheme ‘not enough’ to save reef
Rudd does too little on climate change
Scientists call for stronger emissions targets

Why is this so difficult for the government to do? I understand the implications surrounding jobs and our economic future, but the fact is that many scientists already believe that humans will not survive the 21st century. How important are the jobs and economic stability of the country then, Kevin?

See the GetUp Campaign and please donate!