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Towards a sustainable future

A panel of experts were present at Sydney's Alliance Francaise cultural centre last Wednesday to explore the many facets of one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century - designing a sustainable world. The forum was titled 'Towards a sustainable city' and offered a rare opportunity for policy makers and environmental specialists to engage with members of the public.

Kerry Nettle, Greens Senator for NSW, was cautiously optimistic in her outlook.

“We are seeing a really monumental shift in society’s attitudes towards recognising the importance of dealing with environmental issues and changing our lives as individuals, as communities, as countries and internationally, to ensure we address these issues,” she said.

The last two weeks of State Parliament sessions have seen global warming issues raised 70 times, a tenfold increase over last year. Senator Nettle believes the impetus for this massive increase in parliamentary interest has been the wide spread effect of Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth.

The Senator was quick to praise several Government schemes, particularly the Federal Government’s investment of $75 million into a Solar Cities program designed to investigate the feasability of moving towards solar energy. She also lauded the existence of cash rebates for the installation of solar panels on properties.

Within her own sphere of influence, however, Senator Nettle was less enthusiastic. “The State Government in NSW has, I would say, a long way to go in addressing these issues, around climate change in particular,” she said.

“There’s a lot more that needs to be done.”

Senator Nettle went on to propose several solutions, including creating opportunities for investment in the renewable energies sector and raising public awareness.

A recent $10 million donation from Rupert Murdoch’s late nephew, Tom Kantor, to the Climate Institute might be a catalyst for increasing such awareness. The Climate Institute, a slightly left leaning think thank, has commenced a five-year campaign to educate the public about the dangers of global warming. Former NSW Premier the Hon. Bob Carr chairs the Institute’s Advisory Council.

Enthusiasm flowed less freely from Gordon Hocking, President of Sustainable Population Australia. He criticised the limited progress made since the 1992 Intergovernmental Agreement on the Environment.

“Cities are at war with nature... we need to recognize that the way we are living is unsustainable," he said.

“Unless our population is stabilised and economic activity is restrained, all the advances made by recycling, public transport, renewable energy, energy efficiency and so on will come to naught. They’ll be overwhelmed by the growth. A sustainable city can only emerge from a sustainable society."

Mr Hocking discussed the latest UN Population Division estimates that predict a total global population of 9 billion by 2050. He contrasted this growth with ASPO figures showing that by 2050 declining oil production will result in levels of availability equivalent to those of 1965. This will have a catastrophic effect on established and burgeoning economies.

A more optimistic view came from John Dahlenburg, an advisor on water sensitive urban design and low-impact development. Working with Councils and other statutory bodies, Mr Dahlenburg has helped institute numerous projects and technologies such as permeable pavers that allow rain to flow into the ground below and green roofs where rain waters gardens planted on roofs then flows out naturally into drainage systems. Municipalities such as Manly and Kogarah have already installed systems to harvest rain and stormwater that would otherwise be wasted.

One Council leading the way in breaking through the usual empty rhetoric is Melbourne City Council. Their new building Council House 2 (CH2) is nearing completion. CH2 will replace the old administration building with a new sustainable building that utilises 72 per cent less water, 85 per cent less gas, 87 per cent less electricity and produces 30 per cent less emissions. Best of all, much of the construction will pay for itself over time.

“The sustainability features they’ve put on this building have a payback period of ten years. All the features will be paid for by saving water or energy and gas and those sorts types of things in ten years, so it’s very realistic,” he said.

Mr Dahlenburg also discussed ways individuals can become more sustainable. Some of the simple options include installing flow restrictors on household taps, applying for Sydney Water rebates to replace top-loading washing machines, installing dual flush mechanisms for toilets, moving to rainwater tanks for water supply and using grey water treatment systems that recycle laundry and shower water.

The corporate sector was also represented at the forum by Richard O’Keefe. Mr O'Keefe is a project manager with Veolia Environmental Services, formerly known as Collex. Several alarming statistics emerged from his discussion, most notably that 28 million tonnes of waste are produced in Australia each year, equating to 1.4 tonnes produced by each person in Australia. Though many food and garden organics are turned into compost and a certain amount of paper, glass and plastics are recycled, the vast majority of waste still ends up as landfill.

Mr O'Keefe discussed the frustrations the waste sector have with the execution of the 2003 NSW Government Waste Strategy. Designed to stem the massive amount of unnecessary waste production, the State Government set a raft of goals for large scale reductions across personal and industrial waste production by 2014. Despite the requirements, a recent progress report showed that per capita Sydney waste generation is actually increasing by 0.4% per annum.

Recent research by the Australian Institute has shown that $5 billion worth of food is discarded each year in Australia, a tragic waste when many of the world's people are struggling to find enough sustenance to survive.

Mr O'Keefe concluded his discussion with a useful question. “In a world where we focus in on gross domestic product and revenue, we need to ask ourselves, do I really need to purchase this product?”, he said.

A date for the next forum has not been set. For more information on sustainable cities visit the Future Cities Project.

Sustainable Energy in a World of Possible Climate Change

A public forum on sustainable energy last month revealed the serious nature of Australia's looming environmental crisis. Attended by government and industry figures, the "Sustainable Energy in a World of Possible Climate Change" forum was held at the Australian National Maritime Museum on the 15th August, 2006.

The keynote speaker was Dr Kevin Hennessy, Chief Research Scientist with the CSIRO’s Climate Impacts and Risk Group. In a speech that canvassed current research into global warming, Dr Hennessy was blunt about the problem of climate change.

“Climate change is real and underway. We are confident that most of the warming of the last fifty years is due to human activities and increased greenhouse gases. With the projections of greenhouse gas increases, further climate change is bound to occur this century. We anticipate warmer and dryer conditions in Australia, particularly in NSW, and more extreme events,” he said.

Dr Hennessy believes current energy strategies will cause alarming changes to Australia's climate. “Climate models tell us that in Australia we may see a warming of between half a degree and about two degrees by 2030 and between one and six degrees by 2070. These small average warmings will be associated with very large changes in extreme daily temperatures," he said

“Models tell us in the extremes this would lead to more frequent and intense droughts. At the same time there may be an increase in extreme daily rainfall events.”

Scientific research has revealed that human activities since 1950 have increased Australia's temperature by 0.9 degrees. Increases in rainfall, coupled with the heating of the upper 300 metres of the ocean are already resulting in rising ocean acidity and drastic increases in sea levels. According to computer modelling, sea levels are expected to rise by up to 50 centimetres by 2070.

Massive increases in greenhouse gases have also resulted in a marked decrease in snow cover and an increased risk of fires. "By 2020 with changes in temperature and precipitation there may be a 10-40 per cent reduction in the areas of snow cover and a 10-40 per cent increase in the number of fireban days," he said.

For more information visit the Australian Greenhouse Office.

The global climate system

Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

NSW Gas Abatement Scheme

Governments are slowly beginning to realise that environmental problems need concentrated approaches. The NSW Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme is one of the first of its kind in the world. The scheme was begun on January 1, 2003 with a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (mainly carbon dioxide) that result from the consumption and production of electricity and car use. The scheme mandates that by 2007, electricity retailers in NSW (Integral, Energy Australia etc) reduce their per-capita greenhouse emissions by five per cent over 1990 levels. Though limited in it's scope, the Abatement Scheme is one of the first steps towards creating a sustainable nation.

While the NSW scheme is a large scale corporate initiative, citizens can also play a role. The Daily Telegraph and Easy Being Green are offering free Climate Saver Packs consisting of six free energy saving light globes and a free water saving showerhead to people who apply before the 30th September. The goal of 500,000 homes installing the free packs will mean the equivalent of saving 6 billion litres of water and taking up to 140,000 cars off the streets. To apply for a pack or for more information visit Easy Being Green.

Sustainable Living

One way of tackling the environmental crisis is sustainable living. Sustainable living is both a philosophy and practice. It is a way of meeting the needs of the human race while conserving the limited environmental resources available. The ultimate goal is to strike a balance between man and nature.

Vox pops revealed mixed attitudes.

Alana, a 24 year old student: "I started making the switch two or three years ago. It's a big problem but everyone can do their bit to help. Most of the stuff I buy now doesn't even come in plastic. I eat organic vegies and food and I don't use plastic shopping bags. If you're smart about the way you shop you can even buy biodegradable ones [bags]. I saw An Inconvenient Truth and that's really opened my eyes to what's going on."

Martin, a 30 year old cleaner: "I've got a small vegetable garden and a rainwater tank. It's not much but it's a start. I don't litter, I recycle, what else can you really do? The companies are killing it for us all anyway."

Simon, a 20 year old bartender, showed little concern for the environment: "Am I worried? Not really, no. It's a pretty big world. I mean it's getting f***ed up, that's obvious, but think of all the crap that happened to it before we even started. She'll be right for another million or two."

Kara, a 26 year old student: "I just got a bike! It's a blue retro one and I rode it to the shops for the first time yesterday. How's that for fighting the good fight?"

Dio Pittet of the Alliance Francaise has organised a forum titled "Towards a sustainable city". It is a free event and is open to everyone. It takes place on Wednesday 27th September at 6pm and will feature guest speakers including Senator Kerry Nettle, Greens Senator for NSW.

The address is:
Alliance Francaise de Sydney
257 Clarence Street
Sydney

Smelling the roses (before it's too late)

There's a threat far more insidious than terrorism. There's a threat far more important than rising petrol prices or an increase in interest rates. Though world Governments would have us all believe that these are the biggest concerns we face, this other threat, if left unchecked, will eclipse all that humans throughout history have toiled to create.

The threat is unique.

It is a threat that is set to become a reality if the present course of inaction favoured by the human and corporate psyche continues to reign supreme.

Every human on the planet is responsible for causing the threat. Every human is also able to act to overcome it. The danger is obvious, real and ever-present. It is also able to be defeated.

The threat is of course environmental chaos. In simpler terms, the end of life as we know it.

The victim of this crime is planet Earth. The perpetrator: each and every one of us.

At 4.57 billion years old, planet Earth has obviously been doing something right. Would the forces of nature have given the green light to the relatively recent birth of homo sapiens if they’d known they were almost certainly sounding their death knell? Modern man has signed the future’s death warrant with petrochemicals and the blood of slaughtered species now extinct. A blink in the time-space continuum, the last 250,000 years of mankind’s evolution will seem like nothing more than that ticklish feeling before a sneeze that never actually happens.

It's not news to anyone living in the so-called developed world that human beings have royally screwed up Earth. A heady mix of myth and mistruth has been fed to the world's population by those seeking to continue their power and short-term profits. The time has come to stop sucking on the teat of blissful close-minded ignorance and to seize on a solution before humans are snuffed out like the graceful Rodigues Solitaire.

Welcome

My truth will set you free.