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.

I was reading a nice new blog that I found today (Green Change) and came across an interesting post.

This post describes the current ignorance-filled, idiotic water restrictions currently implemented for Sydney. A small excerpt from the site will give you a little indication of the level of sheer moronic thought that must have been excreted from the orifice of some Neanderthal recently revived and given this task…

Hosing residential building structures including windows, walls and gutters is allowed using a hose with a trigger nozzle or high-pressure water cleaning equipment (to a maximum of 10L/minute)

Ok, so we can hose down our houses, thats kinda cool. But…

Hand-held hosing of lawns and gardens and drip irrigation is allowed only on Wednesdays and Sundays before 10 am and after 4 pm

We are not allowed to water our gardens outside the specified 36hrs within the week…

As Darren (from Green Change) says;

Kids can run under sprinklers any time of the day, you can hose windows and walls any time, and you can wash your car at any time. You can also leave your hose running unattended to top up pools or fill containers, and you can even fill pools under 10,000 litres without a permit.

But try to hose your tomatoes any day other than the dictated Sundays and Wednesdays, and then only before 10 or after 4, and you’ll be fined $220.

As my wife said, obviously its more important to have clean cars and houses than it is for you to be able to grow your own vegies (or even use your lawn as a carbon capture! Heaven forbid…).

This insanity makes me sleepy.

Our Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has just stated that he has changed the conditions of the $500m sustainable energy fund. Originally it was to be $500m over six years, starting in 2009, but he has now made the funds available immediately and for the next 18 months. This is awesome news as it means that the government is starting to act on being at the forefront of combating climate change. I have a feeling that a few countries are becoming competitive about the seriousness of their actions surrounding reducing their carbon footprint and that’s great. Even if they make these changes for the wrong reasons (i.e. being competitive)  that’s ok by me as its not as bad as not making any changes at all.

Victoria still has the worst bill of health in Australia, even though it has a few wind farms, this is mainly due to its use of Brown Coal. Hopefully these funds can help reduce Victoria’s carbon emissions.

Great step forward. This type of thing really excites me.

Rudd announces renewable energy funds