Canberrans asked to do 'heavy lifting' in battling climate change including give up cooking with gas

Canberrans are being asked to do more of the heavy lifting in combatting climate change — starting with giving up petrol-powered cars and gas-heated homes.

The ACT Government has floated trialling "car-free days" in some town centres.

The ACT Government has unashamedly asked the community to do more to help it reach the ambitious target of net zero carbon emissions by 2045, with transport and natural gas top of the list of targets.

Today, while launching the latest ACT Climate Change Strategy, the Government detailed plans to encourage Canberrans to ditch cars in favour of public transport, including participating in "car-free days", and trading in the gas heater for an electric air-conditioner.

Read the ABC News story by Tom Lowrey - “Canberrans asked to do 'heavy lifting' in battling climate change including give up cooking with gas.”

Climate Change’s Giant Impact on the Economy: 4 Key Issues

By now, it’s clear that climate change poses environmental risks beyond anything seen in the modern age. But we’re only starting to come to grips with the potential economic effects.

Wading through flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey
in Houston in August 2017. “We know we can adapt to slow
 changes,” a Yale economist said. “Rapid changes are the ones
that would be most damaging and painful.”

Using increasingly sophisticated modeling, researchers are calculating how each tenth of a degree of global warming is likely to play out in economic terms. Their projections carry large bands of uncertainty, because of the vagaries of human behavior and the remaining questions about how quickly the planet will respond to the buildup of greenhouse gases.

A government report in November raised the prospect that a warmer planet could mean a big hit to G.D.P. in the coming decades.

Read the story from The New York Times by Neil Irwin - “Climate Change’s Giant Impact on the Economy: 4 Key Issues.”

Healthcare Institutions across U.S. Treating Climate Change as a Top Priority

The Cleveland Clinic started thinking “green” more than a decade ago, as sustainability and energy efficiency were just starting to gain traction in serious conversations about climate change. Since then, the Ohio medical center’s environmentally conscious practices have become part of its culture, with everyone getting involved.

They are recycling, turning off lights and computers, planting trees in the community, and buying Energy Star-certified equipment, from MRI and ultrasound machines to kitchen appliances. They are reducing water usage through low-flow fixtures, cutting waste, and controlling operating room air to ensure it’s clean and fresh during surgery, but not squandered when the OR is empty.

Equally impressive: the facility aims to become carbon neutral within the next ten years. They hope to accomplish this by increasing their renewable energy sources, and expanding all of their existing efficiency and emission-reducing programs.

Read the Nexus Media story by Marlene Cimons - “Healthcare Institutions across U.S. Treating Climate Change as a Top Priority.”