Low Impact

So pretty much all nations are coming around - climate change is a problem.  By and large, to greater or lesser extents, governments everywhere are beginning to take steps to transition to greener power sources, and to help their citizens shift to more efficient ways of doing things.

Which makes the fact that solar-powered clothes driers are banned in many parts of the US and even some pockets of Australia, all the more difficult to comprehend!

I should be more specific.  I’m talking about clothes lines - you know them: a line outside which you peg your clothes to so they can dry in the sun.  Its an invention that has been with us over a… Continue reading

The Australian Bureau of Statistics just released their 2008 Year Book where they present a variety of statistics, including a number on energy production. There’s an inevitable lag in reporting due to the time taken to collect and analyse the statistics. Consequently, the 2008 Year Book discusses energy production in 2005/2006 and finds that in that year Australia’s energy production consisted of 98% non-renewable sources (like coal and gas), and only 2% renewable sources (like solar and biofuels).

Not terribly impressive!

The energy produced is measured in Peta Joules (PJ), and adds up to 16,729 PJ. Contributing to the 98% non renewable figure, 49% is black coal, 28% is uranium, natural gas is 10% and crude… Continue reading

There have been a lot of books published lately that aim to provide a quick and easy introduction to environmental issues. They perform a valuable function in making information about sustainable living accessible and easy to understand. The flip side is that in many cases, they don’t have much detail - should you happen to get involved in a workplace debate with your resident climate change skeptic, you may quickly get out of your depth!

“Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy”, by Dr Mark Diesendorf takes a different tack altogether.

This is a book crammed with tables, graphs, figures, and summaries of countless reports… Continue reading