Back.

 

In case anyone has noticed the blog has had a bit of a break for the last week or so. I have just gotten back from a long weekend away at Moreton Island. I spent my last afternoon there snorkelling at the above wrecks amongst all kinds of fish, dolphins and starfish with the sun setting in the background – truly paradise.

The blog is back now with plenty to report although I do apologise if posting slows down – I had a crazy idea for a book when I was away and expect that I might be distracted entertaining the idea for a while.

Thanks for reading.

Simple yet great ideas

It looks like the kinda thing you see in outdoor lights, so why not bring this technology indoors to help save power by making sure lights are only on when you need then? Great idea.

Check it out

Meet the Kill-A-Watt. This little device (which recently became available in Australia again) will tell you exactly how much power any device plugged into it is using. Great for narrowing down those power hungry, enegry wrecking applicances you might have.

Check it out

Do you have any other simple yet great little contraptions for helping the environment? Post them up in the comments.

Air Car update

 

Sorry for the latest lack of blog entires – has been a busy time.

If like me, you were excited to read in detail about the Air Car then you will be interested to read the latest on this potentially revolutionary and oil indutry destroying product. The fantastic site, The Oil Drum has the latest.

Check it out here

To me it seem like a lot of spin…not a good sign. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next six months or so. I for one will be following very closely but not holding my breath…

Time’s up, oil.

 

Good news today in the fact that peak oil seems to be getting some main stream recognition, the message, however, is far less than positive;

THE world’s biggest car maker, General Motors, believes global oil supply has peaked and a switch to electric cars is inevitable.

In a stunning announcement at the opening of the Detroit motor show, Rick Wagoner, GM’s chairman and chief executive, also said ethanol was an “important interim solution” to the world’s demand for oil, until battery technology improved to give electric cars the same driving range as petrol-powered cars.

GM is working on an electric car, called the Volt, which is due in showrooms in 2010, but delays in suitable battery technology have slowed the project.

Mr Wagoner cited US Department of Energy figures which show the world is consuming roughly 1000 barrels of oil every second of the day, and yet demand for oil is likely to increase by 70 per cent over the next 20 years. Some experts believe the supply of oil peaked in 2006.

The remaining oil reserves are deeper below the Earth’s surface and therefore more costly to mine and refine.

“There is no doubt demand for oil is outpacing supply at a rapid pace, and has been for some time now,” Mr Wagoner said. “As a business necessity and an obligation to society we need to develop alternative sources of propulsion.”

He added: “So, are electrically driven vehicles the answer for the mid- and long-term? Yes, for sure. But … we need something else to significantly reduce our reliance on petroleum in the interim.”

GM is so convinced about ethanol it has signed an agreement with a supplier that claims to have come up with a way of producing ethanol that is cheaper and more efficient than refining oil. The supplier claims it can produce ethanol from “almost any material” such as farm waste, municipal waste, discarded plastics – even old tyres.

The car industry has had a love-hate relationship with ethanol, which is most commonly derived from crops such as corn, wheat and sugar cane. At first, car makers criticised ethanol-blended fuel because most vehicles weren’t compatible with it. Then car makers changed their tune and embraced ethanol-blended fuel after retuning engines to suit the new mix. [Source]

It is no doubt a positive step to see people like the chairman of GM acknowledging peak oil, but I do take anything they say with a big grain of salt, considering the EV1 drama…. Let’s see what becomes of the Volt…

Jeremy Clarkson for PM? No thank you.

 

I know it is probably not going to happen but still…

HE’S the host of one the world’s most popular television programs and now many people in Britain apparently want him to be prime minister as well. Jeremy Clarkson, the gruff and opinionated presenter of Top Gear, a program about cars watched by 350 million people from Finland to Australia, is the subject of an online campaign being waged in the very heart of British government. A petition, posted on the official website of Prime Minister Gordon Brown (www.pm.gov.uk), calls for Brown to step down and make Clarkson, 47, prime minister instead. As of today, 30,311 people had signed the petition, making it the sixth most popular posted on the site. Parts of the British media have rallied behind the campaign, with the conservative Daily Mail newspaper running a full page of suggested policies Clarkson should adopt if he were to suddenly find himself running the country. [Source]

I mean don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Top Gear and find the guy very entertaining but the leader of one of the most infuential countries in the world – no thanks. So why do I oppose this and post it up on the blog? Check out his opinion on the environment;

“I do have a disregard for the environment. I think the world can look after itself and we should enjoy it as best as we can”

What an arrogant attitude – something we don’t need in world politics right now… I should add in here that in a way he is right – the world in the end will probably look after itself, but only after we as the dominant species take it for all its worth, in the process wiping out our own and many other species and doing significant damage to the planet, un-repairable for the foreseeable future…

For the most part it is a bit of fun anyway and I am probably taking it too seriously…flame away.

Would you like a bag for that? – Not anymore!

 

Kind of old news but I thought I would throw my hat into the comment arena anyway;

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has confirmed he wants a phase-out of plastic shopping bags introduced within the year. The Government is under pressure to act quickly after the Chinese Government yesterday announced plans to ban free plastic bags within six months. Mr Garrett will meet his state and territory counterparts in April to discuss introducing a phase-out by the end of the year. “We think it’s absolutely critical that we get cracking on it,” he said. “There are some 4 billion of these plastic bags floating around the place, getting into landfill, ending up affecting our wildlife, [and] showing up on our beaches while we are on holidays. “I think most Australians would like to see them rid.” [Source]

Oh and a sidenote as more evidence of my previous point;

The Opposition’s environment spokesman, Greg Hunt, says plastic bag pollution is a significant problem and the Coalition is willing to examine the idea.

Excellent progress in my opinion, especially due to the fact the Chinese already do it. There is talk of either choosing to ban them or make you have to pay for them. I personally don’t like the having to pay for idea, as just like higher petrol prices, people tend to just absorb the small increased financial impact if it means it won’t impact on their lazy lifestyles. A total ban however would only work if biodegradable bags were implemented on a much larger scale – although I still really advocate the reusable alternative over plastic altogether.

Retailers are really going to like [sarcasm] this but they can choke on it in my opinion….

A new era for the Australian Liberals?

 

I didn’t think I would ever be saying this but the new look Liberal parties environmental policies and spokesman (Greg Hunt) are really growing on me. Over the past few weeks I have read headline after headline detailing the Liberals supporting more and more pro-environment moves, often taking a further left stance than Labor. Here is one example;

The Federal Opposition says the Government should not be refusing help from Greenpeace to find Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean. The Opposition’s environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the Government should welcome the help. “It’s a bizarre situation where Greenpeace is trying to provide the Australian Government with information as to the whereabouts of the Japanese whaling fleet,” he said. “And the ship is being prevented, by its masters in Canberra, from receiving that information.” [Source]

I really don’t know what to think here. Is this the stance of the new Liberal party or just Mr Hunt? Is Rudd and the Labor party being too cautious? Are the Liberal’s being reckless with their comments now they aren’t in power anymore? Have they realised the error of their ways? Was getting rid of the dodgy old corrupt bastards like Howard all the Libs needed to kick off a fresh, forward looking resposnibleparty stance?

It sure is going to be an interesting year in Australian politics…

Virgin and Biofuels

 

I was very pleasantly surprised to read today that Virgin Airlines – owned by a man I am quite a fan of, Richard Branson – will be launching a flight between London and Amsterdam next month. The catch? The plane will be running totally on biofuel. Although a while away from regular biofuel powered passenger flights from Virgin, this is a very positive step in my opinion. The biggest environmental benefits of using biofuels as opposed to crude oil is that firstly, they are by and large a renewable fuel source and secondly, usually produce less pollution and what is produced is often ‘offset’ (although I’m not a fan) by the actual production of the fuel. There is a lot of controversy over biofuels in general – an argument that in my opinion largely depends on their source, and as seen by the article before this one, can produce some very positive solutions. Expect more on this topic from me soon.

[Source]

The future of fuel!?

 

That disgusting picture above may hold the answer to our future needs for fuel if one New Zealand company has their way;

Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, a local start-up, has patented a process to extract biofuel from sewage, and last year the country’s minister for energy, David Parker, roadtested a car run on the oil of microscopic algae. “Wild algae is one of the ubiquitous units of nature,” says Nick Gerritsen, a partner in the firm. “If you leave a bucket of water outside, the water will turn green as it is settled by wild algae. We realised very early that we needed to create a model that took advantage of wild algae feedstocks.” The challenge was to catch what he calls “the little blighters”, the algae that contain oils or lipids, in the work’s outflow pipe, a cleansing process known as bio-remediation. In May 2006, the company produced what it claimed was “the first biodiesel crude from wild algae”. The process is secret, although oil was extracted from algae that had been separated from water, which Aquaflow wants to leave clean enough to drink. [Source]

This story is just the tip of the iceberg really for potential biofuels – something I read a lot about. In my opinion they are severely misunderstood as a potential oil replacement. Expect a comprehensive post on this issue very soon…

The Chinese Problem

 

I read this excellent quote from the very respectable and switched on Nichloas Stern this morning;

“We underestimated the flow of emissions from developing countries, especially China,” he said, observing that emissions of greenhouse gases from China over the next 25 years will equal the total emissions from the U.S. and Europe over the last century. Emissions from developing countries and developed countries must be capped, he said, but the ethics of allocating the pain are delicate. “If you’re consuming the goods, you can’t blame the location of the factory,” he argued. [Source]

That fact really struck a chord with me and is one that I am sure is missed by many others. It is often made out that China and India are the huge problems (which they are really) and that the blame for all these emissions rests with them but what NEVER gets mentioned is why their emissions are so huge – we are the ones consuming all their crap….