Not Good News

Climate Scientist James Hansen revises his estimate of ten years to turn around the rate of climate change to ONE year: story here.

Beans, Beans…

“

What am I going to do? Pick them out one by one? Dig out all the topsoil and dump it? Sieve it? Hmmm. Whatever I do they sure aren’t going to melt away.

Hate plastic yet? You can either come and help me dig it out of my garden, or, you could read this: Our oceans are turning into plastic…are we?

And then you could read Envirowoman’s fantastic blog. (It’s where I found that article ;&gt

A Kick Up The Bum

The end of my own post last night was a such cop-out. I knew it when I wrote it. I shouted at myself in my head: “you lazy cow. You don’t have time to sit on your arse! Get out there into the rain!”.

It’s not just about laziness. It’s about despair too. It’s just so bloody hard to keep working when it just seems hopeless.

And then, while I was sitting on my arse reading about other people’s efforts I read the following which reminded me of why it’s so very, very important to change my way of living (and then my family’s way of living, and my community’s way of living…):

“The only hope we have is the notion that the assumptions we make are merely assumptions - that we don’t actually have to live as we do right now. That we don’t have to extract food from the third world, while burning our own dinners in our cars. That we don’t have keep growing - in fact, we can’t. That we can’t reduce our usage by not 50%, but 90 or 95%.

As far as I can tell, there is no better plan than this. Build soil. Plant trees. Grow food. Make Do. Do Without. Give what you can to others. Fix your mistakes. Cut your emissions to the bone, and then cut them some more. And every time it hurts (and it will sometimes), close your eyes and imagine your nieces and nephews or your children or grandchildren or your friend’s beloved children grown to womanhood and manhood in a world where there is food and peace and water. And then imagine them without. And ask yourself “What else don’t I need so I can bring about a decent future.”

Otherwise, when we say we can’t do it, we’re choosing the next generation’s future. The places we love underwater. Wild creatures that live only in zoos. The deaths of more than a billion people from drought and famine - some of them people we love personally, and all of them people we should be capable of caring about.”

Quoted from Sharon at Casaubon’s book.

Some Numbers

I actually have some numbers already. Not too sure about them, but they’re a start.

Using the Energywise fuel economy guide and the numbers I gave Nikki (see the comments on the First Things First post), I worked out that my car’s fuel economy is a staggeringly awful 17.1 litres per 100 km.

I really hope I’ve stuffed up my estimates of both how much petrol I put in it and how far I drive it because using that fuel economy number to calculate how much petrol we used last year gives a really high number of litres used last year.

Remember the rule:

Average American usage is 1892.705892 (let’s say we round up to 1900) Litres PER PERSON, PER YEAR. So this would be 7600 litres for my family of four. A 90 percent reduction would be 190 litres PER PERSON, PER YEAR or a total of 760 litres of petrol for the next 52 weeks.

So where are we right now?

Using an odometer reading taken tonight and my WOF records I worked out that over the last year we drove 9249.6 km which sounds about right to cover the about town trips and two family holidays which involved a lot of driving. That doesn’t sound too bad, right?

Well when I use the figure of 17.1 litres per 100 km to figure out how much petrol was used, look what happens:

9249.6 km divided by 100 then multiplied by 17.1 gives me 15816.816 litres of petrol.

Which simply can’t be right. Not when the average American usage is 7600 litres. Please someone tell me where I stuffed it up. I must have stuffed it up. There is a reason I did a degree in Classical Studies and not Mathematics you know ;>

So now, while I’m reeling from that little revelation I guess all I can do now is start keeping a detailed driving log and try and figure out more accurately what my car’s fuel economy is.

Oh, and of course try not to use more than 14.6 litres of petrol per week for the next year!

By the way, Nikki has already posted her audit in all the categories already!

Ok, So My Car Sucks (Petrol)

how about yours?

Want to make a start on saving petrol? Reduce your CO2 emissions, save the world etc. etc. etc.? I’ve just discovered the Fuel Saver website.

Good news: it’s a NZ made website, so the information is relevant. Bad news: my model of car has a fuel efficiency rating of 1 1/2 stars out of 6.

Bugger. Now I have one more reason to hate the wretched thing.

Still, it doesn’t tell me the what the fuel economy of my car actually is. Thanks to Nikki’s comment on my last post I am not optimistic, but luckily I have found a set of instructions to follow so I can work it out.

Once I have some results I’ll work out what we can do about it. My favourite option right now is to move to within walking distance of my parents’ house. Preferably next door…

First Things First..

1. Gasoline.Average American usage is 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR. A 90 percent reduction would be 50 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
* No reduction in emissions for ethanol or biodiesel.
* Public transportation and Waste Veggie Oil Fuel are deemed to get 100 mpg, and should be calculated accordingly.

(Quoted from the rules for the Riot for Austerity 90% Emissions Reduction Project)

1 Gallon = 3.785411784 Litres so 500 gallons = 1892.705892 Litres.
100 mpg = 160.934 4 kilometres per 3.785411784 Litres

But what is the average New Zealand usage? How many litres do we (personally) use at the moment? Is it better or worse than the average? How many kilometres does my car get out of a litre of petrol? Why are we still averaging the same kilometres a week despite several weeks of Car-Free Tuesdays?

I’m really going to focus on this for a while. Mostly because that last point is really bugging me. Despite my personal efforts to not use the car, as far as I can tell we ‘re still driving about the same distance.

So the next step is to answer those tough questions. And if you happen to stumble across any useful stats re the average NZ petrol usage, let me know!

By the way, this is a new, local site about global warming which has a very handy page about other stuff you can do to reduce your personal emissions as well as what you can do after you’ve sorted yourself out.

Focus

Nikki suggested to me that I needed to find something to focus on and this might be it.

If you read the same sites I link to, then you are probably already aware of the Riot for Austerity 90% Emissions Reduction Project (is it too soon to call it a movement?).

I think to make it relevant to me, all the targets would have to be translated into New Zealand averages. It’s a lot to think about.

If you’re intrigued, have a look at the rules.

Then if you’re still keen, maybe we can do it together?

Car-Free Tuesday Update

I have another Car-Free Tuesday under my belt and I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself. Not only did I not use the car yesterday, but I didn’t strangle my elder son as he contrived to make every step an argument.

We did lots yesterday: library, cafe, Capital E playground, Te Papa’s base isolators, Waitangi Park, Te Papa proper, cafe, walk along waterfront and home on the train. I think we actually did too much, but we made it home without too much shouting and we seem to be ok today.

I’m also feeling pretty pleased that the Car-Free Tuesday rule is working the way I hoped. The more we walk, the more we can walk. In fact, last week was largely a car-free week! After Tuesday, Wednesday was an at-home day (also known in my family as a pyjama day), Thursday we walked to the supermarket and Friday we walked to and from Playcentre. Of course, then on Friday night we drove to get takeaways for dinner…

And the garden? Don’t ask.

No, really. Don’t.

Lazy…

“No one would open mines, drill for oil, smelt metals, erect and operate power stations, build factories or smother land with fertilisers, pesticides or weed killers if we did not buy their products.”
From Green living : personal action to save our environment / David Green.

*sigh* I’ve been reading more than I’ve been gardening this week. Mostly The Party’s Over : Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies by Richard Heinberg.

I have to get off my lazy, dithering arse and do something…

Dithering

I can’t decide what to plant in my garden or even where to plant it.

That’s pretty sad, isn’t it?

The latest NZ Gardener magazine says (in its Edible Garden column):

sow now: broad beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, corn salad, lettuce, onions, peas, radish, silver beet, and spinach but only if your soil is warm and well drained.

plant now: seedlings of all the above can be planted out now as well as leeks, brussels sprouts, celery and kohlrabi.

So even though I have a list I still dither. What, where, when? I’m not sure if I want to plant anything in the ground because I want to move to a flat which will get some sun before the Spring Equinox. I want to move soon, but haven’t convinced my husband yet. Maybe pots…but what will do ok in a pot? Where should I put the pot. The sunniest place in the yard has the winter washing line strung up at the moment. And I’d have to buy more compost and such which tend to come in plastic bags I can’t do anything with after I’ve emptied them. I could buy compost in bulk…but where do I store it? How do I keep the cats and children out? And what am I going to plant again? And so on and so on.

My friend John has a plot at the Common Ground communal garden at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay. He doesn’t dither. He digs, he composts, he sows and he harvests. He’s not always sure about what he’s doing, but he tries it anyway. I seem to have lost my enthusiasm for experimentation over the last couple of weeks.

Maybe it’s because I keep reading articles like this one about climate change which is valuable and informative but not very helpful when one is already feeling a bit glum about it all.