Future generations face hunger, thirst, disease and disaster if we carry on trashing the environment. Sounds like a stark warning, from WWF, as the world celebrates World Environment Day.
I’ve taken it upon myself today, to research what kind of future we all have in a world were environmental issues are in the news everywhere.
Food, clean water, medicines and protection from natural hazards are important ingredients in maintaining our security and quality of life. But, if we want to continue living the way we do then the species, natural habitats and ecosystems that support them need to be protected.
I think this message hit me hardest upon reading WWF’s report 2010 and Beyond: Rising to the Biodiversity Challenge. While reading a report may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it explains how we all will be affected in our changing world.
But, lets not forget that today is a day to celebrate the environment. So, whether your in an office looking out the window, taking a walk, or sitting on a park bench. Take a moment from your day and appreciate the environment that’s around us.
Vincenze beats me to the punch by highlighting the news that Labor has committed to halting the sale of inefficient hot water systems if elected.
I was shocked to learn how much energy heating water chews up in the house - so we turned down the thermostat on our service and installed a water-saving shower head and saw significant savings in our electricity bill. As the shower is also one of the biggest consumers of water this has a double benefit too…
Legislation such as that proposed by Labor would see a very significant reduction in energy use, helping to delay the need for new power sources as population grows - the first pillar of Reduce, Renew, Offset. That combined with compact fluoro lights would make an even bigger dent.
Of course, if you own your home or are building, you don’t have to wait for the legislation - you can take action sooner by installing an energy efficient water heater, like a solar system.
Google are installing a whole bunch of solar panels to create an estimated 1600 kilowatts of power. They’re about 90% there so far, and they’ve created a page where you can check out how much power the site has generated in the past 24 hours or 7 days. Very cool… [via Make blog]
GoogleBlog: Carbon neutrality by end of 2007. [via Phil]
Google are setting an excellent example so far:
Our plan to neutralize Google’s carbon footprint includes three basic strategies:
- reduce energy consumption by maximizing efficiency;
- invest in and use renewable energy sources; and
- purchase carbon offsets for the emissions that we can’t reduce directly.
To calculate our carbon footprint, we took into account emissions from purchased electricity, employee commuting, business travel, construction, and server manufacturing. In a partnership with the Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), we have independently verified this assessment, and will do so every year.
In order to meet our short-term goal of carbon neutrality, we have decided to purchase some carbon offsets. To be clear, we see carbon offsets not as a permanent solution but rather as a temporary tool which allows us to take full responsibility for our impact right away. … When considering an offset project, we carefully examine the project’s environmental integrity, its ability to be monitored and verified, and the impact that our investment will have in furthering that project’s goals. In other words, we want to make sure that our offset funding directly enables the project, and that the carbon savings of the project are real.
The post goes on to spruik some of the other things Google is doing to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s really great to see such a big company making an effort to go carbon neutral and doing it with the “Reduce, Renew, Offset” method we’re so fond of.
In the comments to the Install energy efficient lighting action, a comment from “whale call” points out that there are environmental concerns with using compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
It’s a good point - CFLs do indeed include traces of mercury - a toxic metal. It’s an issue that’s been picked up in other enviro-blogs around, but it’s probably pertinent to mention here as well.
I did a bit of digging and found that the amount of mercury in a given bulb is about the equivalent to the amount contained in a watch battery - so it is very small - but it is still important to dispose of CFLs carefully.
Manufacturers have reduced the amount over time - I’m aware of some Philips products having a super-small amount of mercury - “The new Extreme Low Mercury designated products can be recognised by a logo on the packaging and product,” according to this press release. But the mercury remains…
So there is a question over whether the mercury in the bulbs outweighs the energy (and emissions) saving benefits.
The US EPA did a study that found the amount of mercury expelled through coal-fired power plants being higher than the total of a CFL when taking into consideration the amount of energy required for an incandescent bulb - the graph is displayed on Wikipedia and in this article at Treehugger.
Although the EPA study is US-centric, Australia’s electricity production is heavy reliant on coal, so the figures would be similar in Oz.
At the moment there are no recycling or disposal programs for CFLs in Australia (that we’re aware of anyway - has anyone heard/found any different?) - so they will unfortunately mostly end up in landfill. I’m told that landfills have a seal to stop contaminants from leaching into the soil and ultimately the ground water.
Although this situation is far than ideal, on balance, WWF still recommends using CFLs over incandescents. But certainly keep an eye out for recycling and disposal facilities in the future…
Yahoo! founder David Filo announces that Yahoo! is going carbon neutral [hat tip to Phil]:
Yahoo! going carbon neutral is equivalent to shutting off the electricity in all San Francisco homes for a month. Or, pulling nearly 25,000 cars off the road for a year.
Sometimes when a company announces they’re going carbon neutral it is only because they are offsetting their emissions, and not making a particularly big effort to actually reduce emissions. David goes on to mention what he terms the “controversy” over offsets, and how Yahoo! believe they’re doing it the right way:
We know carbon neutrality isn’t without controversy. And it’s honestly deserved if companies and individuals don’t first make an effort to find direct ways to reduce their impact. We’ll continue to be vigilant about cutting ours, looking for creative ways to power our facilities, encourage even more employees to seek alternative commutes, and generally inspire Yahoos around the world to think differently about their energy use
This approach is similar to the “Reduce, Renew, Offset” approach mentioned in our offsetting guide. Nice work. Google, surely, won’t be far behind…
We’ve teamed up with Domain.com.au, the online real estate website, to create a quick sustainable home guide in support of Earth Hour.
It highlights some of the things you can do to reduce your energy consumption around your home. Many of the tips appear here as well in more detail, but we think it’s a pretty good introduction - perhaps useful for passing onto friends who are interested in finding out more about reducing their emissions.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports today:
THE world’s leading economist on climate change, Sir Nicholas Stern, has challenged Australia to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 per cent by 2020 - and 90 per cent by 2050.
Check out the full story: Stern words for Australia - slash emissions now. They’ve also posted a video interview with Sir Nicholas.
The Sydney Morning Herald is running a poll today asking Will you turn off your lights on Saturday, March 31, 7.30pm?. If you’re participating in Earth Hour would be great if you could show your support there too.
Hot on the heels of STA’s announcement, Virgin Blue in Australia have announced that they are introducing a carbon offset offering for customers.
We’ve talked about offsetting flights before. In that action we noted that the first step is to reduce flights where possible. But as we all know, sometimes the only way to travel is fly. So in those cases, offsets are a great option.
Although Virgin Blue’s offering is not completely integrated within their booking system (yet) - you have to go to a separate page and enter your booking number - this is great news, and will hopefully speed the awareness and adoption of carbon offset programs in the flying public.
Virgin Blue’s offsets program is also accredited under the Australian Government’s Greenhouse Friendly initiative. This means that the carbon credits purchased by Virgin Blue on behalf of customers are the “real deal”.
Of course, if you don’t (or can’t) fly Virgin Blue, you can still offset your flights through other offset providers such as WWF partner Climate Friendly.
