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What is in this issue
- Enviro Jottings
- Steps we can all take to reduce costs and go green
- Garnaut’s Draft Report
- Links to articles
Enviro Jottings
- We held my brother's birthday party at my house on Monday. It was great fun and wonderful to have the family together. BUT I could not help being appallaled at the amount of plastc and aluminium wrap the women in my family were using! These are products we need alternatives for.
- Apparently the iPhone is eco-friendly (?) – or at least its starch based packaging is. I suppose that is a start. It is hard to see mobile phones as wildly environmentally friendly and starch based packaging will emit methane if it goes to landfill but it sounds better than the mountains of plastic that came around my latest phone.
- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has hinted at a new frontier for tackling climate change: a national overhaul of public transport. WOW!! He said it was “time to act” on public transport, and signalled the federal government would get involved. Not before time!
- The United Nations Environment Program have concluded that regulations, such as more sustainable building codes, are the most cost effective policy option available to governments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the built environment.
Steps we can all take to reduce costs and go green
If you are worried about the soaring costs of energy - now fuel, tomorrow, power, then why not try Enviro Action’s training programs that show you how to identify where you can cut some of these and other costs.
- The next group training course starts in just over 1 week so don’t miss out! This costs only A$2,400 per person. Just compare this with the tens of thousands of dollars it can cost! AND I guarantee to keep helping so that you will be able to pass an ISO 14001 if you implement all the training in your business.
- If you already have ISO 9001, you can easily integrate ISO 14001 for only A$1,600 with our Add-On Module
- There are also home study courses – exactly the same training but without the coaching
Australian residents need to add 10%gst to all prices. International readers go to www.enviro-action.com for US$ pricing
Garnaut’s Draft Report
There have been more than 1,000 media stories about the Garnaut’s draft report since Friday last week so many of you are probably super saturated by it. It is important and we do need to pay attention. It certainly will impact on us all both at home and work. Surveys show that only 36% of CEO’s are aware of the pending emission trading scheme. We do need to be aware of changes and how they impact on our businesses.
I listened as Professor Garnaut released his report at the National Press Club in Canberra. He said that by 2050, unmitigated climate change on middle of the road outcomes would mean major declines in agricultural production across much of the country, including a 50 per cent reduction in irrigated agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin. By 2100, irrigated agriculture in the Murray Darling Basin would decline by 92 per cent.
In my opinion it is good to see transport and power generation are included and he is strongly opposed to giving away any permits. I hope political pressures don’t change this. I would like to see incentives for recycling also. Once they start exempting groups, everyone else ends up paying more.
I hope the proposed 50% compensation for lower income households includes some of the hard working middle income ones as well and I sincerely hope the compensation is about mitigation not cash that can be diverted without changing behaviour and emissions. I also hope that in the 30% of compensation suggested for business, they do not forget the very diverse small business sector but I certainly did not hear them mentioned at all.
Global warming is a direct cost of the way we go about our businesses. Sure the earth has warmed and cooled in the past due to the heat from the sun, but now the pollution that’s being dumped into the atmosphere is actually changing the chemical composition of the earth’s atmosphere.
The longer we put off acting the more it will cost us and the more damage our children and grandchildren will have to live with.
Australia will be one of the hardest hit countries by climate change and South Australia the hardest hit state. We do have some great hot rocks in SA which could provide us with geothermal power.
I am mystified by the people who either don’t believe it or even worse who do not think we should do anything until everyone else does as well. If every nation says the same, no one will start – or is the world to all collective say “one two, three Jump” like some sort of game. I tis like saying I recognise there is a danger of theft but I won’t lock my doors until everyone else does.
I did enjoy seeing The US president looking very uncomfortable at the G8 summit in Japan. They really do need to get their act together on global warming because they are world leaders and do not have the excuses that China and India have. They did, however agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
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According to a 2005 study, standby power currently accounts for about 10.7% of the average household consumption. Australians are wasting over $950 million a year on power we're not using, and as a result, releasing more than 6.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
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Here are the links to the latest articles on the Enviro Jean Blog
Emissions trading scheme assistance must include SMEs
Small and medium sized business must receive their fair share from any Federal Government scheme to assist those facing increased costs under a carbon trading scheme, industry groups say. 95% of all businesses in Australia are in the small to medium sector. Read more...
Capturing and storing carbon emissions from power generation holds the key to managing climate change amid rising use of polluting oil, gas and coal, an international CO2 conference heard in The Hague. Read more..
The Australian Federal Government is heading towards a system of rebates to protect consumers from price rises caused by an emissions trading scheme (ETS). Read more..
The Australian Institute of Management surveyed a broad spectrum of industries, finding only 36 per cent were aware the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is to begin in two years. And 80 per cent said they “know very little” or were only “somewhat aware” of the scheme. Read more..
Mahatma Gandhi said the “earth provides enough to satisfy everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed”; little did he know his words would one day be applied to the politics of greenhouse gas emissions. Read now..
WE have been altogether too gloomy about climate change. Just look at the fun Arnold Schwarzenegger is having in California, which contains the sixth largest economy in the world. Where Australian politicians see only risks, the Governator sees opportunities. I love this “glass half full” approach! Read more
The European Union has had an emissions trading scheme since 2003, has set targets for 2020 and has taken other steps to significantly reduce emissions. New Zealand has legislated for a trading scheme. US states are setting up markets and the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates are promising to end the Bush administration’s recalcitrance on climate change. Read more
If you’re a renter living in a small apartment, the chances are you’re not allowed to hang your clothes on the balcony - most bodies corporate forbid it. Instead, you’re probably forced to use a clothes dryer. It’s bad for the environment and bad for your bank balance. Read more
Some endangered species may face an extinction risk that is up to a hundred times greater than previously thought, according to a study by University of Colorado in the journal Nature. Read more
Kindest regards
Jean Cannon
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