One good calculator of your personal CO2 is http://www.reversetheeffect.com.au/ but I have used many different ones to get a good idea of my personal CO2 output.
Use the Green car guide: http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/ to figure out your vehicle and transports output.
The green car guide calculate about 3.9 tons of CO2 annually for the both of us. I then used 1degree: http://www.1degree.com.au/ to calculate other CO2 output Household 2.18 tonnes of CO2 and Flights 1.13 tonnes of CO2
So that gives 4 + 2.2 + 1.2 for a grand total of 7.4 tonnes of CO2 for the both of us or about 3.7 tonnes each. Given that each person should be aiming for under 3 tonnes of CO2 per year Min and I are about 1.4 (0.7 each) tonnes away from our goal output.
I'll try and write a piece soon about how to reduce our output. In the meantime check out the one degree website for your own calculations along with great ways you can reduce your personal CO2 output.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Cyclone Yasi
There was a very tense mood in Townsville before cyclone Yasi. There was a quiet expectancy, a nervousness that you couldn't quite put your finger on. Everyone actually took it quite seriously, which was good considering the size and power of the storm. Nearly everyone was busy clearing yards tying down bits and pieces (like sheds and roofs) in the yard and packing emergency kits and vital documents. Lots of people where out taking photographs of houses yards favourite places etc so that there were before and after photo's.
Min and I were busy with all of these things as well. We had the added drama of a 80 year old house and no rooms that were small and well protected. Our nervous energy before the storm fuels and whirlwind of packing and moving, of which that house had never seen the like, either before or since. It was decided that the Dinning room would be our last retreat. It is definitely the safest room as it is completely internal and surrounded on all sides by other rooms.
The lounge room was emptied completely except for my canoe which came in from outside. All clothes and nick-nacks were packed into cupboards and then the cupboards were ratchet strapped down. Emergency clothes, documents and other essential items (such as the computer backup) were packed into a Nally bin each. This was for grabbing on the way out if we needed to run at any stage All pictures were taken off the walls and packed under the bed in the spare room. The outdoor furniture was turned over and ratchet strapped down to the deck. The table and chairs from the dinning room were moved into the spare room and the lounge chairs were moved into the dinning area. the mattress from our bed was also moved into the dinning area as a last ditch protection method. The Idea being that the lounge chairs would be our walls and the mattress our roof if the roof of the house went.
Once everything was racked, packed and stacked there was not much to do but wait, wander around and look for things to put away or strap down. One problem that we had was the Car. There was nowhere to put it so it was decided that it would be left out on the street.
The other thing that could be done was religiously follow the cyclone tracking map and warnings from the BOM. The Map above shows how big the storm was but it also shows the direct hit on Tully. 24hrs before this the tracking map showed a direct hit somewhere just south of Ingham, which needless to say would have been much more devastating for us here in Townsville.
I saved 3 of the tracking maps that the BOM put out on the day before TC Yasi. These maps become really important to you when something like Yasi is heading towards you.
This was the final map I was able to get. it was 6pm the night that Yasi was about to hit and as you can see from the map it was already quite windy. We lost the Power a couple of hours after this 6pm map.
With our house prepared and maps looked at all that was left was to ride out the storm. Min and I decided that the Puppies should come inside in the cement area beside the Kitchen/dinning area where we were. while outside the dogs would be quite stressed but once they came inside they were as calm as anything not worried at all. Their bed food and water were all inside. The water actually presented a problem due to Bear drinking the water all the time and having to pee. Bear had to pee but wouldn't go outside without me, so I would have to run out into the yard squat down and shelter from the wind as best I could then call to Bear to get him to come outside. No the most fun I've had but at least we only experienced the equivalent to a category 2 cyclone.
Other than Bear's little expeditions the night was reasonably uneventful. I was tweeting until the power went out so that people knew how we were. We were expecting the power to go we just didn't know when it would happen. It happened just after 10pm, so we just shut down the mobile phones to conserve power and gave up on reading. After that the noise was more noticeable and the house would occasionally hum with vibrations from the wind. I think that Min's place though is sheltered from the worst of it by Castle Hill. The worst thing about the cyclone was the heat. Stuck in a closed up house with no fans was a problem. The Next night was without power as well and I had to leave the front and back doors open and lay in the breeze way between them to get to sleep. It's the things your not ready for that get you the most I suppose.
The next day was also a bit of a surprise as it was still really windy. Min and I didn't start the clean up till a couple of days after due to the wind. On the note of the clean up I would like to say that Ergon Energy did a great job in restoring power. The Townsville City Council during it's cleanup produced 10 years worth of Mulch in just over a month.About 200 trucks an hour were dumping green waste at Lou Lister park, producing over 120 cubic meters of mulch an hour for 3 weeks. Townsville's streets and back yards started to look bare with an estimated 63,000 trees destroyed or damaged by Cyclone Yasi.
All in all we were lucky and came through relatively unscathed. Our sympathy and best wishes are with the people of Tully and Cardwell who were the hardest hit and are still trying to rebuild.
Min and I were busy with all of these things as well. We had the added drama of a 80 year old house and no rooms that were small and well protected. Our nervous energy before the storm fuels and whirlwind of packing and moving, of which that house had never seen the like, either before or since. It was decided that the Dinning room would be our last retreat. It is definitely the safest room as it is completely internal and surrounded on all sides by other rooms.
The lounge room was emptied completely except for my canoe which came in from outside. All clothes and nick-nacks were packed into cupboards and then the cupboards were ratchet strapped down. Emergency clothes, documents and other essential items (such as the computer backup) were packed into a Nally bin each. This was for grabbing on the way out if we needed to run at any stage All pictures were taken off the walls and packed under the bed in the spare room. The outdoor furniture was turned over and ratchet strapped down to the deck. The table and chairs from the dinning room were moved into the spare room and the lounge chairs were moved into the dinning area. the mattress from our bed was also moved into the dinning area as a last ditch protection method. The Idea being that the lounge chairs would be our walls and the mattress our roof if the roof of the house went.
Once everything was racked, packed and stacked there was not much to do but wait, wander around and look for things to put away or strap down. One problem that we had was the Car. There was nowhere to put it so it was decided that it would be left out on the street.
The other thing that could be done was religiously follow the cyclone tracking map and warnings from the BOM. The Map above shows how big the storm was but it also shows the direct hit on Tully. 24hrs before this the tracking map showed a direct hit somewhere just south of Ingham, which needless to say would have been much more devastating for us here in Townsville.
I saved 3 of the tracking maps that the BOM put out on the day before TC Yasi. These maps become really important to you when something like Yasi is heading towards you.
This was the final map I was able to get. it was 6pm the night that Yasi was about to hit and as you can see from the map it was already quite windy. We lost the Power a couple of hours after this 6pm map.
With our house prepared and maps looked at all that was left was to ride out the storm. Min and I decided that the Puppies should come inside in the cement area beside the Kitchen/dinning area where we were. while outside the dogs would be quite stressed but once they came inside they were as calm as anything not worried at all. Their bed food and water were all inside. The water actually presented a problem due to Bear drinking the water all the time and having to pee. Bear had to pee but wouldn't go outside without me, so I would have to run out into the yard squat down and shelter from the wind as best I could then call to Bear to get him to come outside. No the most fun I've had but at least we only experienced the equivalent to a category 2 cyclone.
Other than Bear's little expeditions the night was reasonably uneventful. I was tweeting until the power went out so that people knew how we were. We were expecting the power to go we just didn't know when it would happen. It happened just after 10pm, so we just shut down the mobile phones to conserve power and gave up on reading. After that the noise was more noticeable and the house would occasionally hum with vibrations from the wind. I think that Min's place though is sheltered from the worst of it by Castle Hill. The worst thing about the cyclone was the heat. Stuck in a closed up house with no fans was a problem. The Next night was without power as well and I had to leave the front and back doors open and lay in the breeze way between them to get to sleep. It's the things your not ready for that get you the most I suppose.
The next day was also a bit of a surprise as it was still really windy. Min and I didn't start the clean up till a couple of days after due to the wind. On the note of the clean up I would like to say that Ergon Energy did a great job in restoring power. The Townsville City Council during it's cleanup produced 10 years worth of Mulch in just over a month.About 200 trucks an hour were dumping green waste at Lou Lister park, producing over 120 cubic meters of mulch an hour for 3 weeks. Townsville's streets and back yards started to look bare with an estimated 63,000 trees destroyed or damaged by Cyclone Yasi.
All in all we were lucky and came through relatively unscathed. Our sympathy and best wishes are with the people of Tully and Cardwell who were the hardest hit and are still trying to rebuild.
Historical Note
It's always worth noting where names came from, it's not always high on the priority list but if you come across an interesting tit bit it is usually worth noting.
We currently live on Plant st in West End. How would a street get a name like plant.
Well I just came across a report titled "Highways and Byways" which states as follows.
We currently live on Plant st in West End. How would a street get a name like plant.
Well I just came across a report titled "Highways and Byways" which states as follows.
Plant St, West End. The Street was originally two streets known respectively as Hodel and Newman Streets. They were combined to form one street in 1919, which was named after Lieutenant Colonel Plant, the commanding officer of the 31st Infantry Battalion, First A.I.F.
A fact that one day may be worth knowing!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Another Video Worth Watching: Sir David Attenborough
I love David Attenborough. I grew up watching his documentaries and no other narrator quite says "Nature Documentary" like Sir David Attenborough. He gave a speech to the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, it is well worth a listen.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Wall Clocks
I've been thinking that Min and I should get a wall clock to replace the clock we have. The clock we have is nice and all buuutttt... The problem as I see it though is that all wall clocks are essentially the same, a round dial with hands pointing out the time. the only real difference is in the trimmings. In Short, They're boring!
So I searched the interwebulons for something different. I found a few that quite appealed to me, and some that were at least different.
The above clock would have to be my favorite. Very Steam Punk just need a few of the cogs to be made of brass. While it's still round it reverses the movement in most clocks with the face moving around the hand.
This one rotates and the ball tells you the time. At 12 the ball goes through the hole in the middle and comes out the bottom to start the cycle again. Very Ingenious!
Now we have what would have to be my second favorite. Each of the little white sticks rotate. Each group will line up every 12 hours to form a word that correspond to the time. In the picture above the time would either be 4am or pm and you can see a messy 'three' and 'five' above and below the current time. Unfortunately this is a One off art project, so it's a little hard to get a hold of. Considering it has 180 different rotating pieces each with it's own movement it's also hard to make yourself.
Penultimately it a wall clock that is probably not great at being a display piece but might be handy, say, in the kitchen somewhere.
Finally we have the Vertick. This would be a nice display and tells you the time accurately. I do wonder what happens at 12:59 though.
So I searched the interwebulons for something different. I found a few that quite appealed to me, and some that were at least different.
The above clock would have to be my favorite. Very Steam Punk just need a few of the cogs to be made of brass. While it's still round it reverses the movement in most clocks with the face moving around the hand.
This one rotates and the ball tells you the time. At 12 the ball goes through the hole in the middle and comes out the bottom to start the cycle again. Very Ingenious!
Now we have what would have to be my second favorite. Each of the little white sticks rotate. Each group will line up every 12 hours to form a word that correspond to the time. In the picture above the time would either be 4am or pm and you can see a messy 'three' and 'five' above and below the current time. Unfortunately this is a One off art project, so it's a little hard to get a hold of. Considering it has 180 different rotating pieces each with it's own movement it's also hard to make yourself.
Penultimately it a wall clock that is probably not great at being a display piece but might be handy, say, in the kitchen somewhere.
Finally we have the Vertick. This would be a nice display and tells you the time accurately. I do wonder what happens at 12:59 though.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
New Look
Hey All,
Well I thought with a new year I should try a new look. I had a look through the design templates that Blogger has and this is what I came up with.
Let me know what you think of the new look.
Well I thought with a new year I should try a new look. I had a look through the design templates that Blogger has and this is what I came up with.
Let me know what you think of the new look.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Airlie beach
Well the Airlie Beach regatta has come and gone again. As usual it seems the women were the stellar performers coming third in the marathon and sprint. Also Jan smashed the OC1 race finishing her 6km race in just over 35 minutes to place first in the master women. Sue and Loren finished second and third respectively in the senior masters women.
I finished my OC1 race in 40 min 40 sec. This is not a great time I need to work at it more and get my times down to about 31 min. I got a very bad start to the race and was in last place but I gathered myself at the first turning buoy and I ended up passing quite a few people through the race. I ended up finishing 6th in the open men category. After Talking to Jan I found out she paddles 8 times a week. Unfortunately at the moment I cannot commit that much time to paddling. I have a unit to paint still. Once that is finished and I have started to pay down my debt I should be able to have a proper crack at paddling.
I should use this year to lose weight and get fit then extend that in the last half of this year and do some of the longer OC1 races that are on offer, like the Marlin Coast Challenge.
In the Mixed races we didn’t produce any medals for Maggie but they were good fun races and some great experiences for our newer paddlers. Hopefully we will see more of the people new to the club at the next regatta. Thanks go to Outrigger Whitsunday for hosting such a great regatta year after year.
The northern Zone has been exceptionally active and already posted the results from last weekend up on their website – Here.
Also on display at the regatta was a new to Australia brand of paddles, Viper Va’a. They seemed like excellent paddles, some of the examples on display seemed like factory seconds with marks and some (probably just Cosmetic) defects. The shape and style of the paddles though made them well worth a look if your interested in the Tahitian style of paddles. In addition to paddles they sell some accessories that our rudderless paddlers could be very interested in carbon Iakos.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
An interesting January
I have spent January up until the 26th renovating one of my units. It was finally finished and rented out on Australia Day. It is awesome not to have to worry about at least one of my units and to have a break from renovating. I have been working until 8:30 om every night of the week and it got very tiring by the time it was finished.
I've meant to be taking a break but since Australia Day but We have had a Cyclone menacing us since then. Tropical Cyclone Anthony turned out to be a bit of a fizzer. I even went out for a paddle on Sunday afternoon and the water was dead flat and there was no wind or rain. It would not have been so much fun down near Bowen though.
As soon as TC Anthony came and went though we started looking at TC Yasi. Yasi is a whole different beast to TC Anthony. Anthony was only a category 1, Yassi is going to be a minimum Cat 4 and is about 1000km wide. So even if it does follow it's present course and hit Cairns it won't be much fun here. If it turns South and hits near us it could be devastating.
Under current advice I want to put out a message to my friends in Cairns. Be safe and careful, My best wishes go out to you guys.
So with all of that said I have taken some photo's as a bit of a before and after. Hopefully my photo's will show very little change!
I've meant to be taking a break but since Australia Day but We have had a Cyclone menacing us since then. Tropical Cyclone Anthony turned out to be a bit of a fizzer. I even went out for a paddle on Sunday afternoon and the water was dead flat and there was no wind or rain. It would not have been so much fun down near Bowen though.
As soon as TC Anthony came and went though we started looking at TC Yasi. Yasi is a whole different beast to TC Anthony. Anthony was only a category 1, Yassi is going to be a minimum Cat 4 and is about 1000km wide. So even if it does follow it's present course and hit Cairns it won't be much fun here. If it turns South and hits near us it could be devastating.
Under current advice I want to put out a message to my friends in Cairns. Be safe and careful, My best wishes go out to you guys.
So with all of that said I have taken some photo's as a bit of a before and after. Hopefully my photo's will show very little change!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Earth Systems science
From the ABC website 10 Jan 2011
For most scientists working in the relatively new area of Earth System Science, talk of the earth “growing a brain” trivialises the growing body of knowledge about the functioning of the whole-earth system. Critically, it misses the point that changes are taking place to this system and that we must understand and monitor these changes for the sake of humanity’s continuing viable development and progress.
While the Gaia hypothesis, first popularised by British scientist James Lovelock as a metaphor of “the living Earth”, has been given religious overtones by some, most scientists, including Lovelock himself, do not assert that the Earth is “alive”. To observe that the earth has some self-regulating features that are similar to those found in living organisms is not to say that it is in fact a living being with a consciousness.
It is also important that the Gaia hypothesis is not confused with Earth System Science, which is in fact a major new development of formal science, embraced by CSIRO and many Australian universities and building on studies of global environmental change, environmental sustainability, economics, complex system science and more.
Earth System Science emphasises the interactions and feedbacks between changes in the earth’s various components - the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, the ice-caps and the biosphere comprising all living things - interactions which can fall through the cracks between traditional scientific disciplines. This is important because many of today’s human-induced changes to the earth’s environment are affecting each other and coalescing to become issues of major global concern.
Climate change, the future of energy and water resources, food production, and decline in biodiversity stand out as much discussed examples of such interacting processes that have a strongly global character.
A critical feature of Earth System Science is to recognise that human activities now form a major interactive part of the functioning and evolution of the entire planet. This is a significant departure from the past where humans have been studied separately from the environment around us. We have been regarded as villains impacting the planet’s natural systems, and victims suffering from the way the planet reacts, for example through changing climate.
This new approach means that the natural science of global environmental change must be linked with social science, economics and the humanities, that is, “global environmental change” must become “global change”.
It also means that the research encompassed by Earth System Science spreads beyond the traditional concerns of environmental sustainability to consider factors as diverse as the psychology of denial or the institutional and political arrangements that can lock societies into behaviours incompatible with long term societal aspirations on this finite planet.
Activity in Earth System Science is going through a growth spurt both in Australia and internationally. In December the Australian Academy of Science, with support from the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, ran the First Australian Earth System Outlook Conference. At this conference a decadal plan for the new science in Australia was launched by the Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett: To Live within Earth’s Limits: An Australian Plan to Develop a Science of the Whole Earth System.
This document was four years in the making by the National Committee for Earth System Science. Overseas, the International Council for Science working with the International Council on Social Sciences, has just released a major document, based on an open web-based consultation, entitled: Grand Challenges for Global Sustainability Research. That document is providing the framework for a major revamping of the international global environmental change research programs, which have been running since the 1980s.
With these Australian and international programs getting under way in the coming year or two, we can anticipate a substantial increase in the information that science can bring to inform people, businesses and governments about the limits and opportunities that the earth provides for the growth, development and well-being of present and future generations.
For most scientists working in the relatively new area of Earth System Science, talk of the earth “growing a brain” trivialises the growing body of knowledge about the functioning of the whole-earth system. Critically, it misses the point that changes are taking place to this system and that we must understand and monitor these changes for the sake of humanity’s continuing viable development and progress.
While the Gaia hypothesis, first popularised by British scientist James Lovelock as a metaphor of “the living Earth”, has been given religious overtones by some, most scientists, including Lovelock himself, do not assert that the Earth is “alive”. To observe that the earth has some self-regulating features that are similar to those found in living organisms is not to say that it is in fact a living being with a consciousness.
It is also important that the Gaia hypothesis is not confused with Earth System Science, which is in fact a major new development of formal science, embraced by CSIRO and many Australian universities and building on studies of global environmental change, environmental sustainability, economics, complex system science and more.
Earth System Science emphasises the interactions and feedbacks between changes in the earth’s various components - the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, the ice-caps and the biosphere comprising all living things - interactions which can fall through the cracks between traditional scientific disciplines. This is important because many of today’s human-induced changes to the earth’s environment are affecting each other and coalescing to become issues of major global concern.
Climate change, the future of energy and water resources, food production, and decline in biodiversity stand out as much discussed examples of such interacting processes that have a strongly global character.
A critical feature of Earth System Science is to recognise that human activities now form a major interactive part of the functioning and evolution of the entire planet. This is a significant departure from the past where humans have been studied separately from the environment around us. We have been regarded as villains impacting the planet’s natural systems, and victims suffering from the way the planet reacts, for example through changing climate.
This new approach means that the natural science of global environmental change must be linked with social science, economics and the humanities, that is, “global environmental change” must become “global change”.
It also means that the research encompassed by Earth System Science spreads beyond the traditional concerns of environmental sustainability to consider factors as diverse as the psychology of denial or the institutional and political arrangements that can lock societies into behaviours incompatible with long term societal aspirations on this finite planet.
Activity in Earth System Science is going through a growth spurt both in Australia and internationally. In December the Australian Academy of Science, with support from the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, ran the First Australian Earth System Outlook Conference. At this conference a decadal plan for the new science in Australia was launched by the Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett: To Live within Earth’s Limits: An Australian Plan to Develop a Science of the Whole Earth System.
This document was four years in the making by the National Committee for Earth System Science. Overseas, the International Council for Science working with the International Council on Social Sciences, has just released a major document, based on an open web-based consultation, entitled: Grand Challenges for Global Sustainability Research. That document is providing the framework for a major revamping of the international global environmental change research programs, which have been running since the 1980s.
With these Australian and international programs getting under way in the coming year or two, we can anticipate a substantial increase in the information that science can bring to inform people, businesses and governments about the limits and opportunities that the earth provides for the growth, development and well-being of present and future generations.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Banging On
So every so often on this space on the internet I bang on about Climate Change. The last time was back in November of last year. At that time I had come up with the idea that you really need to relate the global problem of climate change and excess CO2 back to an individual level. You need to say that this is the level of carbon that you produce now and this is what you need to aspire to.
Turns out that someone has approached the problem from this angle. I was looking at tons of CO2, Saul Griffith's looks at it in terms of watts or energy. I think his approach has several benefits as it's not just a climate change issue but it is also a energy security issue and it relates the global problems back to an individuals experiences. It is also a more direct and complete measure of ones impact on the world.
This is a long video (bit over an hour) but a very worth while one. Please take the time to stream/download this and watch it.
Turns out that someone has approached the problem from this angle. I was looking at tons of CO2, Saul Griffith's looks at it in terms of watts or energy. I think his approach has several benefits as it's not just a climate change issue but it is also a energy security issue and it relates the global problems back to an individuals experiences. It is also a more direct and complete measure of ones impact on the world.
This is a long video (bit over an hour) but a very worth while one. Please take the time to stream/download this and watch it.
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