Climate Change Solution Under Our Noses

Our planet’s outermost surface is so important, it bears its name: earth. It’s the foundation of forests, grasslands and other natural habitats and the medium that gives us food, medicine, clothes, fuel, and livelihoods. Unfortunately, our use and misuse of land accounts for a significant proportion of our total annual greenhouse gas emissions, yet it accounts for a paltry amount of climate funding. We cannot prevent the worst effects of climate change without improving the ways we use land.

Every minute, about 27 football pitches’ worth of forests are lost. Their destruction — and that of grasslands, mangroves and other habitats — emits huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, where they heat the planet. At the same time, habitat loss diminishes the earth’s capacity to pull those gases back into the ground.

Read the story from Medium by the leader of WWF’s global Climate and Energy Practice, Manuel Pulgar Vidal -  “Climate Change Solution Under Our Noses.”

Less laundry less often: how to lighten the washday load on the environment

The clothes we wash and wear each week might seem unconnected to the growing plastic pollution crisis in our oceans but a sobering truth is emerging.

 Front-loading washing machines use far less energy and water.

With each wash, synthetic fabrics shed thousands of plastic particles, leading to broad-scale contamination of waterways. Now it appears we’re drinking that plastic, with a study of tap water in various countries finding 83% of samples were contaminated with plastic fibres.

Doing the laundry has other environmental implications, too, from the water and power used to the harmful substances hidden in common detergents. A more natural approach to laundry is crucial for the health of humans and the planet, so consider our practical steps on how to make the switch.

Read The Guardian story - “Less laundry less often: how to lighten the washday load on the environment.”

Hazelwood power station: from modernist icon to greenhouse pariah

The roar of the furnaces, the rattle of the conveyors, and the occasional whoop of a siren marked out both day and night at Hazelwood. The pungent smell of brown coal permeates the air, and the fine particles would work their way into your clothes, hair and shoes.

Noisy no longer, the turbine hall at
Hazelwood is now offline.

On quiet evenings you could hear it all the way over in the nearby town of Churchill, seven kilometres away. That distant hum has been a comforting one as the station produced power in all weathers, day and night, for more than five decades. For many in Churchill and the other coal towns of Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, the noise also represented continuity of employment for more than 450 workers.

Those old certainties are now disappeared. The eight units that make up the 1,600 megawatt power station were progressively decommissioned this week, all now shut off ahead of Hazelwood’s official closure on March 31. While some 250 workers will remain, the distant hum has settled to a whisper.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Professor of History at the Federation University Australia, Erik Eklund - “Hazelwood power station: from modernist icon to greenhouse pariah.”

Jumping on board to be 'green' and 'sustainable', fashionably

Everyone is jumping on board in an attempt to paint themselves as “green” and “sustainable”.

And the latest to squeeze on the green/sustainable wagon is the fashion industry.

The Guardian says in a story headed: “Fashion meets renewable energy – clothes that charge yoursmartphone”, that fashionably clothing using solar, wind and even kinetic energy is able to charge devices, keep us connected and even donate our energy to non-profits is being explored by a number of design houses.

As encouraging as clothes providing you with energy might be, it is simply not enough.

Thoughtful people aware of what is needed to slow or even stop climate change, argue we need to initially cut our emissions by at least eighty per cent, immediately, followed by a quick jump to zero emissions and then an almost immediate move to negative territory.

A few T-shirts, dresses or jackets is simply not going to be enough rather, what we need is a meaningful and immediate change to how we live – a significant social disruption that will see a society-wide move to a decidedly different way of living.