What are these “annual holidays” of which you speak? They are not something I’m familiar with!
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More a social commentary and reflection on giving up financial gain or commitments for better climate outcomes.
We have all served different masters. Some of us blindly followed the way of the mighty dollar. The one release from serfdom for many? A brief respite of not having to work every hour to keep the masters in wealth. A choice still enjoyed post employment to seek release by going as far away as possible and pretending the world is a more welcoming place. Usually at some added expense to the annual budget.
As old fashioned as it may seem it has a beginning in the days of Enlightenment and Victorian England.
We have moved on. Retirement can be simply staying at home and doing the same thing every day 365 times each year. That is OK for many. Travelling, and seeing how the rest of the world lives in small episodes is one way to appreciate what we still have to loose in Australia.
P.S.
There is really no excuse for those in the community who have the means to not give up some of life’s luxuries. And to convert them into a BEV such as a Tesla, or one of the newer crop coming from BMW etc. Such decisions don’t need to deliver a vehicle that can meet 100% of needs. Perhaps meeting 90% is good enough when most will be two+ car families.
One viewpoint. One in five Australian households have annual incomes of more than $260k. There appears to be plenty of scope for increased personal investment in GHG reducing technology by this section of our greater community.
https://mccrindle.com.au/insights/blog/australias-household-income-wealth-distribution/
At the other end approx one in five households have average annual incomes of less than $23,000. Slightly less than the single aged pension.
27 out of 100 Australians are not loosing any sleep over climate change, according to one report. Join the dots, which ever way is most appropriate.
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We have recycled for years. Luckily we live in South Australia where recycling has been promoted for years. KESAB has been excellent in promoting Tidy Towns etc, gutter guardians and adopt a street etc.
We recycle all cardboard, paper etc via our yellow bin. In fact we have within the house a recycle bin to take that rubbish. Our general rubbish is very small. Any plastic bags etc we take to our local supermarket. All of our green waste is recycled. We bought a north south facing block and have shades on the eastern side. It means we can open doors and windows and have a wonderful breeze passing through. When we built we put insulation in that was above specifications. We use our air conditioner sparingly. We bit the bullet nine years ago and installed solar panels. Once our gas hot water system dies we will install a solar system.
I don’t consider any of the listed things as giving up something, but lifestyle choices we have made.
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I’m off-grid, have been for 7 years. Have to go outside to get water which makes me more aware and therefore careful with my use of it. I do have an internal shower but have to go outside to turn it on and it only has a ten litres capacity (self made solar heated) before it runs cold. Not producing my own food yet. Never done any gardening but am preparing to. I have both a car and motorcycle. The car is a van and except when I use it to go away(every few years), get’s driven maybe once a month for half an hour and twice a year to get supplies from a larger town 160km’s away. Otherwise I walk.
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Not getting a new car every couple of years (the current is 18 years old, the next will be a mobility scooter), using LED light globes (I’ve gone with LIFX which can be dimmed down to nearly nothing) but havent replaced all, because, well, they are quite expensive, recycling what I can. Composting, no, i dont (am unable to) garden so theres little point. Not changing furniture though I need new lounge chairs, I am looking to maybe get cane. Benefit, much lighter so I can move them easily for vaccing. I’d love to get rid of the horrid carpet, but don’t have the funds to replace it with anything else… boards would be nice, but on a concrete slab with little room to float them… nope. I’ve changed my w/mach back to front load with a 4 star water rating, and my vented clothes dryer has been replaced by a heat pump dryer with a 6 star energy rating. Plus, the water it extracts goes onto the garden. I would prefer to buy my meat from the butcher, but since he moved into a Coles owned centre, the prices have escalated beyond my meagre means. I tend to buy fruit and veg from a fruit and veg shop, because their product is fresher than what I can get at the supermarket. They are all just small things, but its what I can do.
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I am interested in trying to develop a carbon neutral footprint.
I have installed solar, reduced air travel, eaten less meat and taken a number of small steps to try and reduce waste. I buy unpacked local food as a preference and refuse plastic bags in shops.
I understand there are tools available in some countries to calculate household carbon output and offset this, but I am not aware of any companies offering this in Australia (hopefully someone on this forum does).
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Be aware if you are not already that faulty connections in your solar system will dramatically reduce their effectiveness? In my experience by a good half for a merely touching connection rather than a binding one.
Wow!
What an inherently criminal civilisation we have built??
It’s no wonder that so many people can’t see the point in trying to save it?
Where do i get steel bullets? Always happy to drill a few bunnies but I didn’t realise lead bullets were a problem…
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A few reasons for the lead problem. One is that it can be ingested by a healthy native species when eating the dead remains which ends up as a case of lead poisoning of the native animal. Lead metal in the environment leads to lead oxide (as the lead metal oxidizes) getting into water sources again elevating lead levels for anything that drinks it, which can cause mental and physical impairments…one bullet not so much a problem but add many over time and the level of the problem can get to levels that do affect.
Small steps by many adds to big changes for all.
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It is an aside to this topic but worth considering. Some things we do have a direct and readily measurable carbon footprint. Eg each litre of petrol we use or each kWh of electricity we consume.
The national greenhouse gas accounts factors provide typical data.
Is there value in measuring the carbon in our daily footprint. Seeking to change what we can might be all we can do for now.
Notes:
There are many items for which there are no direct measures available. Overseas models appear to use some form of statistical averaging. Whether it is really practical and reliable, or comprehensive complexity beckons.
Consider:
For the next kilo of potatoes you purchase, depending on the time of year, they may be sourced locally or far away. Different regions have different fertiliser needs, sources of water, and growing periods, and much more to consider. Add the intermediate handling, transport and retailer costs. Note that along the way there is the time and cost of many hands in delivering that kilo of potatoes. Now us the person who stacked them at your grocer and drove the till at the checkout someone with a low carbon footprint lifestyle, or a high carbon lifestyle. They have gifted you some of their carbon footprint with the purchase.
Without much greater insight all we have is an average that may be far from actual. The same level of complexity applies to every purchase or service used. Not enough to choose one kilo of potatoes over another based on it’s total carbon footprint.
The truth is well hidden at times.
It would be difficult for anyone of us to say we are truely zero carbon. At best those with a genuine net offset project might claim carbon neutral. My personaL view is many offsets simply repurpose existing natural resources?
Even if each of us as consumers gave up all electricity, it would not result in zero carbon emissions from electricity. Households only use approx one third of all electricity.
We would need to give up a lot more, street lighting at night, air conditioning in offices and shops, employment in industries that need power to operate, etc. to make a real change.
Changing how we do things individually is just a small step. Reality as a nation is we may need to do many more things differently.
P.S. (edit)
The national greenhouse gas average of 22t of CO2e per person per year for us Aussies is not a reliable guide to individual household emissions. It includes emissions from industry, mining, export activities, Parliament House in Canberra, domestic air travel etc.
As individuals we have direct control over as little as one third of this total. (7-10t pa) Every household is different.
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For the next kilo of potatoes you purchase…
Most of the spuds we eat have less than 10 food metres on them. They are super easy to grow, even in a pot if you have no garden, so no reason not to grow at least some of your own.
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I am sceptical of such offset schemes. There is alway the risk that they are clever accounting disguised as action. Unless I can see evidence that the system actually results in a long term net change in the problem area it belongs in the Titanic deck-chair rearrangement bin.
For example in NSW coal mines can employ environmental offsets. They get permission to sterilise a chunk of habitat for some specie by promising to hold a similar offset area for their use.
Two problems are common. One, nobody demonstrates that this offsetting makes any difference, the offset area might well have been available to the endangered species anyway, so the net effect is the mining lease is lost but nothing is gained. Two, the offset gets mined anyway! How can that happen? Well they find another offset elsewhere and it becomes the area held in perpetuity for habitat. Permanent is a flexible concept for some.
The process is simple, the miner buys a chunk of land, shuts its gate and affixes a sign that says keep out as it is reserved and all is well. Surely anybody can see how that will save the planet.
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Not much more we can realistically do.
Our solar & battery system produces more power than we use so we are a nett exporter.
Our lounge room, kitchen and main bedroom aircons are all high efficiency inverter splits, our washing machine is low on power and water use and our dryer is a condenser model.
The roof has insulation under the iron. the ceiling has Rudd’s batts on top of it and we have 2 rotary ventilators on the roof.
The glass on the Western side of our home is tinted and all external doors and windows have blinds or curtains installed.
Growing our own veggies did not work as the tomatoes wilted, the lettuce bolted, and the rosellas and egg plants failed after the first season so no point in ripping up the best garden in our street.
We do not buy newspapers or magazines and all recyclables are cleaned thoroughly prior to going in the yellow bin.
We only use around 1,000 litres of petrol a year as we do not travel very much and do not fly much either.
We also do not waste food or buy things we do not need, so about the only thing left is meat, and I am not stopping eating it for anything or anyone.
PS.
I overlookied the fact that we have a solar HWS, every light globe is LED, and we use our Weber Family Q for all roasts and grills along with our gas cook top for boiling things and our air fryer for heating foods. Total LPG usuage is aroung 50kg per annum.
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Where do i get steel bullets?
I’m guessing @gordon uses steel shot from a shotgun rather than steel bullets from a rifle. Imagine what those would do to the barrel! You’d have a smoothbore in no time.
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@bottville Please note that I have changed the name of this thread to be more positive in nature (pun intended), and to better encompass the range of answers being given.
Hopefully this will encourage more people to join the conversation who don’t see themselves as giving anything up, but are still doing lots of good things to minimise their footprints.
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I sourced the steel bullets from a local gun shop. It was a special order to get them in, in .22 magnum size. They are still Copper coated, so don’t damage the barrel.
Initially when I enquired about them, they said they did not exist, which I knew wasn’t true, but after they checked with their supplier, discovered they could get them.
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That sounds a lot like you not liking the question and changing it to what you want. That,sir, is not only downright insulting, but shows you have totally missed the point of my question. In the words of the new messiah, the 17yo puppet, Greta Thunberg…HOW DARE YOU. If you didnt like my question, ask one of your own. From the general trend of the answers, the point of the question was totally missed by a lot of “well meaning alarmists”(not all…there are a couple of people who get it) including yourself. You are denying my right to free speech. My question was not offensive. Nobody came back to me and made that assertion. So, is this what open and free discourse has become now?
From one of your fellow ''defenders"…“A great question and topic, although some of us might be a little reserved in responding personally. Should we offer up and expect to be judged by our peers? I would hope not”.To be honest, it was meant to be provocative. If the question merely opened the door to people with a certain leaning, then that would be denying half the population who’s opinions are equally valid.
However, to suggest that some people might be a “little reserved” exactly demonstrates my point. Alas, being able to voice an opinion that does not conform to the powers that be seems lost. HOW SAD
Nothing wrong with the original topic. IMO.
Thank you SueW…I wonder how many others feel the same but dont want to stick their necks out.
