Brian demonstrated other models he has built during his retirement – with still others on display in beautifully crafted wooden cabinets in his shed. Our teacher John at times mentions Brian’s models in class, so it was wonderful to be able to visit, inspect and be informed about them. Brian and Margaret are certainly 'early adopters' of renewable energy, with solar panels long present on the roof of their home and Brian’s inspirational modelling of alternative methods of producing renewable energy. Thank you for introducing us to your forward thinking models, Brian.
After reading and discussing articles of current interest, in early April the Towards a Sustainable Future class left W4 for a much anticipated field trip to Brian Howard’s home. Following morning tea with scones (thanks Margaret) we headed out to the backyard shed to inspect three models built by Brian which demonstrate the principles of solar thermal energy production. It wasn’t long before Brian’s impressive models were generating steam via small engines powered by solar thermal energy. Brian demonstrated other models he has built during his retirement – with still others on display in beautifully crafted wooden cabinets in his shed. Our teacher John at times mentions Brian’s models in class, so it was wonderful to be able to visit, inspect and be informed about them. Brian and Margaret are certainly 'early adopters' of renewable energy, with solar panels long present on the roof of their home and Brian’s inspirational modelling of alternative methods of producing renewable energy. Thank you for introducing us to your forward thinking models, Brian. There is never a dull moment or slow news day for this class. Some headlines for this month’s reading included ‘The Angry Summer’; ‘Snowy Hydro surge – Turnbull’s plan for $2b expansion’; ‘SA’s state-first plan overturns a decade of power play’; ‘Energy costs eclipse carbon-price levels – Action urged over surge in power prices’; ‘Tesla says its batteries could fix Australia’s energy problems in just 100 days’ and more.
We continue to look out for positive case studies, this month reading about Samso, an island in Denmark which is carbon neutral and runs on renewable energy, with power and profits flowing back into the community Next month we are heading to Brian Howard’s after our coffee break to see a model built by Brian which demonstrates three different ways of generating power from the sun. A letter to the editor of the Age by Rory McGuire, Pyrmont, NSW was considered by the TSF group not long after a much publicised parliamentary session last year. It intrigued class member and retired CSIRO scientist Frank Dunin, who considers that McGuire even underestimated the benefits silicon and modern solar panels could produce. Chemistry lesson for Scott Morrison Treasurer Scott Morrison's display of a lump of coal in Parliament last week could have benefited from more details. Assuming it weighed one kilogram, he could have explained that when burnt in a power station, it would produce two to 2.5 kilowatt hours of electricity, about 2.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide and up to seven grams each of sulphur dioxide and various oxides of nitrogen. It would also produce about 50 grams of fly ash and a few micrograms of heavy metals, including mercury, and some radioactive materials. Alternatively, if Mr Morrison had displayed one kilo of silicon, he could have explained that it could make about two square metres of solar panels and, at 20 per cent efficiency, with an average five hours of full sun a day, after two days they would have made more electricity than his piece of coal. Then he could have pointed out that modern solar panels are guaranteed for up to 30 years, by which time they would have generated about 2000 kWh of electricity, or about 1000 times as much as his coal lump. Rory McGuire Pyrmont, NSW Here's Frank's response, which he agreed could be published on the website:
'This letter to the editor by Rory McGuire understates the case for solar panels on two counts, assuming his calculations are predicated on solar radiation inputs to Sydney's Observatory Hill with an average daily input of 16.5 MJ/ m2 ( 4.6 kWh). His statement that 2 m2 of solar panels will produce 2.5 kWh from 2 days with full sun for 5 hours is based on the principle of the lowest common denominator.. 2 days each with 5 hours of full sun applies for winter conditions in June/July whereas average daily solar input for any other season will suffice in exceeding a daily power generation of 2.5 kWh. Long term power generation from the panels over 30 years amounts to 20,000 kWh based on Sydney's average daily input of solar radiation and hence this is equivalent to 10000 times as much as a lump of coal, I suspect a typographical error has crept into the calculation of the superior performance of solar generators over coal. My overview is still to to congratulate Mr McGuire on a telling chemistry lesson, even if conservative estimates apply. Frank Dunin March 3rd, 2017' Thank you, Frank, for considering this matter further 10 years ago this month John Avery gave notice of a new class ‘Future Energy’ which then class member and our current convenor John Lloyd two years or so later convened as ‘Towards a Sustainable Future’. Our archivist Corrie found this in the February 2007 Newsletter … “Future Energy: … a meeting of prospective participants is called for Thursday March 19th to commence planning the content of this challenging subject. Contact John Avery on 5762 1818 to discuss your ideas.”
Although we try to leave party political discussion to the Politics class, our February participants couldn’t help discussing the current national and international hurly burly of environmental politics, particularly the debate about (supposedly) ‘clean coal’. We reflected, from the perspective of parents, grandparents and great grandparents, whether the world being left to our descendants is a better world than we were left with by our parents, and clearly had concerns. We speculated as to whether the policies of the Federal Coalition government may become increasingly irrelevant as practical initiatives by consumers, non-fossil fuel based businesses, communities, states, regional authorities and local governments come into play. News of such initiatives is escalating, including John’s good news story this month about a new wind turbine with oscillating blades which mimic the figure-8 motion of the wings of a hovering hummingbird. We continue to look out for and monitor such good news stories and will be taking a particular interest in initiatives recommended as part of the new ‘Renewable Energy for Benalla’ project. On a final note - thanks to Judith Borthwick for submitting John’s article and photo of our group to the Ensign recently! W4’s resident greenies and sustainability wise old owls finished off the year very pleased to hear positive news from John about the momentum created out of the ‘Renewable Energy for Benalla’ community forum and the first meeting of the ‘Renewable Energy for Benalla’ working party. We will continue to monitor local developments and good news stories next year while retaining a focus on scientific evidence related to climate change through reading of well researched articles.
At our last class for the year we watched an excellent Catalyst program which asks whether we have entered a new geological era ‘the Anthropocene’ , with evidence of our existence visible millions of years later in the rocks of tomorrow. Concern about the impact of the election of climate denier Donald Trump arose and appears unclear – ‘Given Trump’s record of political flip flopping it remains an open question as to how far he will actually go to undo the diplomatic climate legacy of the Obama administration’ (Robyn Eckersley, Univ of Melb, ‘The Conversation’ Nov 11 2016). We continue to hope for a scientifically informed non-partisan approach to addressing climate change and to reflect on what we are doing ourselves at a personal level, with Gabija recently describing trialling solar devices while camping as a stage in making a transition to a solar powered future. Climate Action Time Warp Tool Trailer for 'Before the Flood' Leonardo De Caprio's film (free version now unavailable online) Towards a Sustainable Future is a ‘readings’ based class in which our facilitator, John Lloyd, presents articles for discussion selected on the basis of sound research on current developments. New member Gabija recently asked the question “What do you do about all the information you read and talk about? How do you put these ideas into action?” While the group agreed it isn’t an activist collective it is clearly made up of individuals concerned about climate change and the environment. Members talked about the practices they follow individually which work towards sustainability, practices including installing solar panels; reducing use of single use plastic; retrofitting homes, and more. Other answers related to sharing or disseminating ideas during conversations with friends and families; writing newsletter reports about the ideas we discuss; and in the case of retired CSIRO scientist Frank Dunin, writing a paper on an area of interest, ‘Fire reduces water harvest from Melbourne’s water supply catchments’ . Most of us are members or on the mailing list of the Benalla Sustainable Future Group (BSFG) and many are members of the Benalla Food Cooperative. Our facilitator, John Lloyd, makes an enormous contribution through his advocacy work as President of BSFG and in generating partnership events such as Sustainable Housing Forums, October’s ‘Benalla’s Renewable Energy Future’ Community Forum and the recent Environmentally Sustainable Business Award.
With only two more sessions to go this year, we are fully aware that while we have been deliberating and discussing issues over the past year, the first nine months of 2016 have been the warmest on record, at an astonishing 0.99°C above average, and 2016 is likely to become the warmest on record globally, for the third year in a row. We wonder what next year will bring. So much of what we hear, and read about climate change these days is political in nature and much of our discussion over the last month has focussed on the politics of climate change issues: renewable energy targets, greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, funding for ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency), clearing of forests, fracking, closing of coal mines, etc. There is much animated discussion about these, and many other, issues. Often we talk about interesting developments that can help reduce our impact on the environment.
At our last meeting our newest member (who has only been with us for three meetings) asked a very interesting question. “What do you do about all the information you read and talk about? How do you put these ideas into action?” This led to some interesting discussion and is probably worth raising again at future meetings. Group members were interested to hear about the judging of the Benalla Business Network’s Environmentally Sustainable Business Award. Benalla Sustainable Future Group was a joint sponsor of the award and our convenor, John Lloyd, was a member of the judging panel which made site visits to the three finalists: Henderson’s, Benalla Health and Benalla Toyota. John provided details of what he had seen on the site visits and the reasons behind Henderson’s winning the Environmentally Sustainable Business Award. It was interesting to hear of the environmental practices of these businesses. At our last meeting mention was also made of the forthcoming community forum on developing a renewable energy future for Benalla to be held at 7:15 pm on Tuesday 18th October at BPACC. More information about the forum can be found on the BSFG website, www.bsfg.org.au . There is a link on the Towards a Sustainable Future page on the U3A website. The Towards a Sustainable Future group continues to consider complex issues often frustratingly presented as ‘binary’ catastrophes, in black or white terms, by tabloid media outlets. Behind what some headlines suggested was an absolute catastrophe when wind/solar energy in South Australia needed to be supplemented by other power sources, was a more complex picture, a picture which became more evident as the COAG energy ministers meeting came closer.
We found ourselves confused by the binary position being taken by the Federal government on reducing the funding for ARENA as part of its Omnibus package, at a time when it has changed its own emphasis on renewable energy, including Turnbull and Hunt ordering a CSIRO U-turn. And we watched bemusedly on Q & A as a new climate denier Senator proclaims that there is no evidence of human induced climate change. Evidence continues to grow increasing our concern about the impact of climate change. We always keep an eye out for positive developments–most recently the suggestion that renewable jet fuel is potentially growing on Australia’s iconic gum trees; the development of solar panel recycling; and news of an iconic building tower in Melbourne which has undergone a decade long transformation to reduce electricity use by 40 percent. Locally the interest in sustainable building of new homes and retrofitting of existing homes is evident in the high rate of attendance at recent Sustainable Building forums held by Benalla Sustainable Future Group and Benalla Rural City; the interest in BSFG and Sun Real’s Environmentally Sustainable Building Award soon to be presented by Benalla Business Network; and the chance to visit sustainably built housing in North East Victoria, including a Solar Skillion Sleepout in Benalla, on Sustainable House Day on September 11. Improving the energy performance of our homes takes on new meaning in winter. Many Victorian homes are considered to be little more than ‘glorified tents’ in terms of thermal performance, with the average energy star rating for existing houses in Victoria at 2-3 stars well below the requirement for new houses of 6 stars. We read an article listing 22 actions we can take to improve our home’s energy performance even if we haven’t taken the step of installing solar panels on our roofs, then heard about BSFG’s upcoming Sustainable Building Forum titled ‘Retrofitting existing homes for energy efficiency and thermal comfort’. It’s being held at BPACC on Saturday 13th August from 1.00 to 4.30 pm.
We also considered visions for the future, listening to a thought provoking Ockham's Razor program, 'Citizen Utilities - the future of Solar', which built upon our ongoing interest in the potential of shared precincts for solar generation for Benalla, then discussing the 'Sustainable Energy' component of Benalla's draft Community Plan. There was agreement that the plan would benefit from more specific statements relating to environmentally sustainable buildings/building development, perhaps something like 'Benalla will be a model city in locally produced renewable energy; shared precinct renewable energy production and distribution; sustainable building design and development; electrically powered bus and fast train transport and in renewable energy based electricity charging facilities for motor vehicles'. We welcomed new member Gabija Arnold in July. It was interesting to read a report by Investment group convenor Margaret Jenkins titled ‘Clean Energy and the Share Market’ on their web page. On a final note, did you make any changes—however small-- in your use of single use plastics during Plastic Free July? Which strategies related to living in a sustainable future do you follow? We suspect that many U3A members, with parents who experienced the depression if we did not experience it ourselves, learnt lots of strategies to reduce our energy use as we grew up. ‘Turn the lights off’ was a common refrain in most households. Many of us wore hand me downs and remember learning how to darn our own socks and returning milk bottles to earn pocket money. However we became used to plastics in the second half of the 20th century and began to accept plastic bags to load our groceries into our cars rather than take our baskets & shopping jeeps.
The impact of single use plastics on our environment is becoming a major concern. France is currently making the transition to being single use plastic bag free. A number of our states and local council areas have decided to become plastic bag free and an action group of Benalla Sustainable Future Group is advocating for a plastic bag free Benalla. ‘Plastic Free July’, a campaign which began in Western Australia and has begun to spread worldwide, encourages us to think about and set challenges in relation to our use of single use plastic bags and bottles. In terms of ‘acting locally’, W4 performs rather well, with up to 30 china mugs being used six or more times a week and very rare use of plastic cups. Towards a Sustainable Future class members typically bring their books to class in calico bags or baskets. However there is still room for all of us to set challenges individually, as U3A member Jenny Geer is doing during ‘Plastic Free July’, and to support reduction in the use of single use plastic throughout the year. Why not see the website: www.plasticfreejuly.org With the elections coming up members of our group are busy monitoring how the major parties and local candidates are responding in terms of recognition of ‘human induced’ climate change and sustainability issues.
It seems that human beings faced with uncertainty, such as about climate change, have a psychological tendency to wishful thinking; that they are more likely to change views about topics such as climate change when they have personal meaning. Noticing incremental changes as part of daily living –switching on our main heating source later than usual; heavy wool coats and jumpers rarely used; changes in our gardens –can be important first steps in becoming concerned about climate change. Our farming community is particularly involved in monitoring climate on both a daily and an incremental change basis. Scientists who are skeptical about human induced climate change are a very small minority, but they have an impact by increasing uncertainty in the community. The sustainability 'wise old owls' in our class are certainly looking out for informed leadership on this topic. We continue to find the Coalition government response rather mixed and be more optimistic about our State and local government response. Benalla Rural City council has published two important documents related to climate change and is clearly receptive to community feedback. This month our facilitator, John Lloyd, presented a BSFG proposal to council on developing a community energy project for Benalla. This proposal incorporates current thinking on many of the topics we have discussed in class. A copy of John's presentation can be found on our webpage. As a bit of fun, at our last session John introduced us to ‘Jobson Growth’ who has been featuring in The Age letters page recently ...May 6 ‘A few years ago I taught a little boy who wrote that he liked Jim Nastics. I assumed it was a little Greek friend until I found out he liked exercising. Now I want to meet Scott Morrison’s friend Jobson Growth’. ...May 13 ‘when will the libs introduce the wife of Jobson Growth, Laura Norder?’ and May 17 ‘Dr Jobson Growth and his esteemed CSIRO colleagues have been sacrificed on the altar of Ignor Amus....’ It was good to have a laugh together! Another thought provoking month of guided reading and discussion. At times our small group of environmentally wise old owls becomes so despairing of national environmental policy failure the words ‘civil disobedience’ echo throughout W4! John told the story recently of a Romanian grandmother, involved in a protest against coal mining, carrying a sign that said, "You know your government has failed when your grandma starts to riot".
During class we discuss international, national and state based issues, and also explore local developments such as the current community energy project initiative; future sustainable building forums and most recently a proposed trail bike track in the Chesney Vale hills, an area of biodiversity significance. If you are interested in sustainability issues but unable to come to our class, check out links to some of our favoured sites on the Benalla Sustainable Future Group’s website at http://bsfg.org.au/links.html and the regularly updated links on the BSFG twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/BenallaSFG . This month, in addition to considering recent research on climate change science, we shared news of sustainability initiatives by local businesses. Benalla/Mansfield Toyota’s manager spoke to John of his concern about large power bills and consideration of strategies which will lead to independence from the grid such as solar panels and Tesla batteries. Class members reported on the clearly visible commitment to renewables evident in the number of solar panels on the Ellen Frances Hotel in Violet Town; the office buildings of McNulty’s Timber Yard in Sydney Road and the workshop roofs of the engine reconditioning plant, also in Sydney Road. As residents or potential residents of residential settings which demonstrate commitment to renewables, we read of an innovative housing estate being built in Lancefield with built in solar systems & water recycling in all homes.
Plastic waste remains an ongoing concern. We found ourselves reminiscing around the coffee urn about glass soft drink bottles in the ‘pre-plastic’ age. John spoke of an early job delivering ‘Loy’s’ soft drinks; we all remembered returning glass bottles as children to get pocket money, pre ‘Coca cola’ brand names such as ‘Slades’, ‘Marchants’and favourite drinks such as ‘Passiona’. We noted with interest a recent ABC Science report on a bacterium which produces a plastic eating enzyme and could hold the key to safely degrading millions of tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (code ‘1’ ) plastics which end up in waterways or landfill each year. The political will to act on climate change by conservative parties in Australia and the United States is another ongoing concern. John introduced an on-line journal article from ‘The Conversation’ which provided an ‘interesting little history lesson’, describing inconsistent political positions over time in conservative climate policies and citing occasions when John Howard, John Gorton, and Malcolm Fraser pursued more enlightened environmental policies; when Joe Hockey, Greg Hunt and of course Malcolm Turnbull accepted the scientific consensus on climate change; and when the UK’s Margaret Thatcher and US Republicans Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon also pursued more enlightened environmental policies. With elections in the offing our group will be continuing to monitor the ‘political will’ towards a sustainable future by all parties! Our convenor John Lloyd began the year reading part of a thought provoking poem by Drew Dellinger found in Bob Brown’s book, "Optimism - Reflections on a life of action"
It's 3:23 in the morning and I'm awake because my great, great, grandchildren won't let me sleep. My great, great, grandchildren ask me in dreams what did you do while the planet was plundered? what did you do when the earth was unravelling? surely you did something when the seasons started failing as the mammals, reptiles and birds were all dying? did you fill the streets with protest when democracy was stolen? what did you do once you knew? Food for thought at a time of apparent environmental unravelling as fires continue to ravage Tasmanian wilderness forests. John then reviewed ‘The Invention of Nature’, a book about Alexander von Humboldt who is considered responsible for our understanding of nature as an 'organic whole’ and for introducing the concept of ecosystems. We then watched the excellent Catalyst program on battery technology; discussed the Ockham’s Razor program ‘The Zillion Year Home’ and read articles relating to environmental flows in the Broken River Catchment; wetland habitat restoration across the mid-Murray; the ongoing health of the Murray Goulburn Basin; and the increasing devastation of Australia’s coastal seagrasses which absorb carbon dioxide 40 times faster than seagrasses, offsetting carbon emissions by acting as a carbon sink over the long term. Time was spent in our second session getting to know our two new members, Charlie and Bill. Both have a long term interest in environmental matters, Charlie through Landcare and Land for Wildlife; Bill through working in accounting/management roles in the agricultural sector in Northern Queensland. We discussed the role of our group and other local environmental groups such as BSFG, the Benalla Food Cooperative and Winton Wetlands before moving on to our read articles relating to some positive moves and continuing dilemmas in our transition from a dirty coal based economy to a cleaner solar and other renewables based economy. Are you concerned about environmental sustainability and contemplating joining ‘Towards a Sustainable Future’?
Each fortnight our group reads through and discusses at least seven well researched media articles selected by our convenor John Lloyd as adding to the knowledge pie on sustainability and climate charge. In our last class, for example, we discussed articles ‘Climate change sets our hottest October’; ‘Doctors warn of climate risk to children’; ‘Now is the time to put price on carbon world leaders say’; ‘Pacific nation urges Australia to bring forward emissions cuts’; ‘Chief Scientist’s all electric dreams’; ‘Burning question hangs over coal’s future’; ‘Energy – Finkel’s vision ‘long term’, Fossil fuels have role to play still’; ‘Iron, coal prices up in flames: analysts’; ‘Investors told to query fossil fuel forecasts’; finishing up with a longer article ‘As drought looms, the Murray-Darling is in much healthier shape – just don’t get complacent’. Class members particularly enjoy reading about positive developments and discussing local and regional issues. A number of participants have been discussing sustainability related issues in the group for some years, so the accumulated environmental wisdom in the class is at a very well informed level, making for very interesting discussions. For example while reading the article ‘Climate change sets new records’, we discussed accrual of heat varying in different places, with warming greater in northern Australia than in Tasmania; the gulf stream having a huge impact on the Arctic; the buffering effect of oceans differing in different locations, and that heating changes synoptic patterns which change prevailing winds which may change cooling patterns e.g. Perth and west coast summers over recent years. We also watch thought provoking documentaries such as the ABC’s Catalyst program; monitor the monthly Bureau of Meteorology reports shown on Country Wide and have the occasional excursion. Armchair analysts rather than activists, we are however considering taking on a manageable community awareness raising project in 2016 which contributes towards a sustainable future. To quote from our course description – ‘No prior knowledge is required, just a general interest in the issues around climate change and sustainability. With discussion of these topics throughout the year you will find that you become better informed about these issues.’ Weather conditions featured in our discussions this month, including the weather conditions around the Lancefield fires. We continued to track the El Nino event and discussed an excellent article ‘When the Indian Ocean and El Nino join forces things can get hot and dry’ which incorporated the change in the El Nino outlook by the Bureau of Meteorology and a further update. You can check out the most recent BOM outlook at http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/overview/summary.
The role of increasing ocean temperatures appears to be clearly implicated in the upgraded impact of El Nino. There is mounting evidence that higher ocean temperatures are also impacting on world’s coral reefs, more than a third of which face major bleaching, including the Great Barrier Reef. Renewable capacity growth continues with development of two large scale solar projects. The first, in northern Queensland, colocates and combines a large solar project with a large pumped energy hydro storage project. The second, a large utility-scale solar voltaic plant in Broken Hill, will soon join a sister large scale solar plant in Nyngan, with the last of 677,760 solar panels being installed in Broken Hill recently. Signs of shifting values in the finance sector were evident this month, with shareholders concerned about losses and stranded assets pressuring AGL and Origin for faster responses on emissions reduction and superannuation funds pushing resource companies for provision of more detailed reporting on the risks posed by climate change to their business. The news from this sector is mixed, however, with the Investor–State Dispute Settlement provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership threatening to allow large corporations to challenge efforts to tighten environmental laws and regulations at local, state and federal levels. Community energy is of great interest to our group and appears to be developing momentum. Energy storage innovation, particularly the development of batteries, is predicted to drive a revolution in power grids. Home energy integrated solutions are now available; battery storage makes sense to consumers on the current feed in tariff and cheaper batteries are inevitable with economies of scale. We imagined the evolution of cooperative clusters of 10 residences with solar panels feeding into a joint distributed energy scheme - something akin to a water supply cooperative, such as at Hamilton Park. Our sessions are always full of interesting topics which can only be touched on in this report. There is much more to write about – but this will have to do for now! A number of good news stories featured in this month’s session. The Anstow Eureka Prize for Innovative Technology has been awarded to a University of Adelaide team for research which suggests melting salt to store solar power could solve the big challenge of solar power – ie. the mismatch between peak sunlight hours and peak evening electricity use. Infratech’s new ‘solar raft’ technology, comprising solar panels that move with the sun allowing them to soak up more energy, has the added benefit of the cooling impact of water being available for use at higher temperatures when the efficiency of solar panels usually falls. Tim Flannery’s latest book ‘Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for solutions to the climate crisis’ advocates for new ‘third way technologies’ which may absorb greenhouse gases on a large scale such as seaweed farming; carbon negative cement; carbon negative plastic; and other new forms of carbon capture (The Age 15 Aug 2015). According to the CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency ‘It’s difficult to overstate just how quickly things are moving in battery storage space’ and that ‘within months every major solar installer will also offer a storage product’ (The Age, 21 Aug 2015). We hear from a reliable source that our local provider Country Solar is talking of having the Tesla battery available soon. We also read a most informative and optimistic article describing ways in which forward looking policies in ‘Four Surprising Countries’ China, India, Brazil and Mexico, are giving hope for Climate Action (EcoWatch 14/8/2015).
We are continuing to monitor areas of concern. Will the Indian ocean temper the impact of the El Nino which has been predicted would otherwise have a ‘great Godzilla’ impact on Australia? How likely is extreme weather under global warming? Will legislation proposed by the Abbott government to change environment laws to reduce the rights of community groups to challenge development projects pass the senate cross benchers? How can the dominance of coal, particularly Victoria’s brown coal, be reduced in Australia? A country which visiting writer Naomi Klein suggests is like her country Canada, ‘founded on a powerful frontier mentality with an idea of limitless nature that can be endlessly extracted’… “In Canada I can’t tell where the oil industry ends and the government begins and in Australia the same is true when it comes to coal” (Guardian Australia 17 Aug 2015). Looking towards a sustainable future through different lenses, from the ‘personal’ to the ‘local’, ‘state’ ‘national’ ‘regional’ ‘international’, our class always has much to discuss.
Locally we see evidence of positive change. Increasing numbers of our neighbours and fellow U3A students have solar panels on the roofs of their homes and are considering ways in which to ‘retrofit’ to make their homes more energy efficient. Group members recently participated in a council sponsored tour of recycling facilities -- Frank reports holding discussions in his neighbourhood about the latest initiatives afterwards. We are now becoming accustomed to classifying our waste and putting out our red and green bins; then yellow and green bins, on alternate weeks in response to local council recycling initiatives to reduce the amount of landfill. It is pleasing to hear these initiatives are already proving successful in doing so! Benalla Sustainable Future Group recently worked with Benalla Rural City to organise another successful Sustainable Housing Forum at BPACC which a number of U3A members attended. In another initiative, the ‘Rec-less – Less Water, Less Often, More Resilient Open Spaces’ project, which aims to better manage public spaces such as parks, sports grounds and gardens as climate change occurs, Benalla Rural City is asking for community feedback through an online survey available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RS2CWH6. Please consider completing it. We always greet with enthusiasm positive research reports of strategies to address climate change. We can visualise local dairy cows receiving the minute dose of a dietary supplement which suppresses methane production by ruminant animals without suppressing milk production; the adoption of strategies to reduce the frost risk caused by El Nino events; and the acceptance and spread of new bladeless wind turbines developed by Spanish company Vortex Bladeless (*Developments in renewable energy – can bladeless wind turbines mute opposition? Guardian, June 1, 2015.). At State level, we read that Daniel Andrew’s government is ‘unashamedly pro wind power’, has condemned the instructions by the Abbot government to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to invest in wind projects, and is to announce plans for the renewable energy which will bypass federal government policies. This is particularly significant given that our state is the heaviest producer of ‘dirty’ brown coal sourced electricity. We will have the chance to hear more about directions being taken by the Victorian Government at the Annual General Meeting of the Benalla Sustainable Future Group on August 27 when guest speaker Dr Nicholas Aberle, Safe Climate Campaign Manager for Environment Victoria, will speak about "6 Steps to Climate Leadership: The path to a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous Victoria". It is in considering events at the national level that we spend much time and continue to ‘shake our heads’ in stunned amazement. We read a plethora of research based reports suggesting the need for policy to support renewable energy and the longer term transition to a zero carbon energy environment; yet our Federal Government’s policy responses at the national level remain relatively tentative at best, and at times obfuscatory. With elections coming up in both the USA and Australia and the Paris talks imminent internationally, climate change issues are clearly on the political agenda. Our class discussions in ‘Towards a Sustainable Future’, sustained by well researched articles selected by our facilitator, John Lloyd, will undoubtedly continue to be lively and informative! Class members have been busy over the past month attending a range of sustainability focused community activities including the Swanpool Environmental Film Festival; ‘The Environment, Climate Change and the Paris Talks’ seminar in Euroa and the June meeting of Benalla Sustainable Future Group where guest speaker, Professor Deli Chan, spoke on ‘How Australian agriculture can reduce greenhouse gas emissions – the role of nitrogen fertiliser management’. In class we have continued to read about and discuss issues including the Pope’s plea for action on climate change; the long term trend in global warming, despite speeding up and down between decades; and the recently released Lowy report indicating increased concern of Australians with global warming and greater willingness to bear significant costs of tackling climate change. It was heartening to read of the upcoming climate round table of industry bodies (including the Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia), energy suppliers, climate activists and the welfare lobby. There appears to be a shared concern ‘to set the path for policies that reduce financial risk, encourage investment in low and zero carbon technologies, and help to avoid an increase in global temperature of greater than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels’ (Mark Kenny and Lisa Cox, The Age, 29 June 2015). The highlight of the month was the class excursion to the recycling facilities in our region. Those who attended this Council sponsored activity found it most informative and returned highly recommending it to others. Photos: Frank at Recycling Facility Excursion; Recycling Technology. (Photos:John Lloyd) During our classes we read a range of well written articles based on evidence based research in looking towards a sustainable future. In the past month we read evidence of climate change – with sea temperatures around Australia suggesting 2014 records may be surpassed again this year and next; El-Nino like conditions in the Pacific; and Arctic sea ice the smallest in a northern winter since satellite conditions began in 1979. We read that the warming pause noted by scientists is leaving scientific projections over the longer term virtually unchanged.
We often find ourselves pondering about the capacity of climate contrarians to reject rigorous scientific evidence and worry about the impact this has on those working towards a sustainable future. Making waves recently have been two influential ‘climate contrarians’, Maurice Newman and Bjorn Lomborg, who ‘consistently argue against action on climate change’ (Assoc. Prof Michael Brown, astronomer, Monash University). In our own ‘Country News’ supplement ( 15/4/2015)we read that conjecture by the Coalition’s Agriculture Committee about climate change resulted in the poor hearing received recently by nine climate campaigning farmers from across the country concerned about changes in the timing and severity of frosts. John Pettigrew, from Bunbartha near Shepparton, described their meeting with the Agriculture Committee as their ‘worst reception in Canberra’. Internationally we read (NY Times 28/4/2015) that the upcoming encyclical from Pope Francis relating to climate change is causing concern among conservative think tanks and politicians in the US. Pope Francis has a particular concern that climate change will particularly impact upon people in poverty. We often read and discuss articles describing policy and bureaucratic initiatives and battles relating to sustainability. We monitored the negotiations between the parties as to the size of the Renewable Energy Target. The need for certainty and indeed a more robust renewable energy target than the Abbott Government initially proposed was becoming increasingly evident during the negotiations and also evident in the request by the Victorian government to establish its own renewable energy target. We take a particular interest in positive interventions which promote sustainability such as the planned placing of solar panels over sewerage ponds in Jamestown, SA, which has the added benefit of reducing evaporation, and the construction of a $50 million dollar wind farm northwest of Bendigo, an area with strong winds which can produce energy nearly 90% of the time, to provide cheap electricity to more than 14,000 Canberra homes. We also read a heartening report that the highly polluting brown coal generator at Anglesey attached to Alcoa’s defunct Point Henry aluminum smelter, is to be closed for economic and environmental reasons. The best news this month is undoubtedly the release of Tesla’s new Powerwalk, a compact, wall mounted, rechargeable, lithium-ion battery designed for homes and small businesses. Apparently there was such pent up demand that the storage system has sold out until mid-2016. For our June 19th meeting, the group will be joining in the council sponsored tour of composting and recycling facilities in Shepparton and Wangaratta. It's always interesting to discuss rural, 'bottom up' sustainability initiatives in our class. At a recent sustainability living festival at Woodend, a $100,000 grant was announced for a solar farm at an old timber mill. The income earned from the tenant's electricity payments will be reinvested in more solar panels, creating a perpetual fund for community energy. Also in Central Victoria, Newstead has received a $200,000 grant to become fully powered by renewable energy. Closer to home, Indigo Shire Council, after a community consultation process, voted unanimously to formally adopt a policy totally opposed to the coal seam gas industry. Indigo Councillors spoke of the north east being both a prime site for renewable energy and of prime agricultural land - 'fracking and agriculture don't mix'. Agriculture is the subject of another article based on Melbourne University's recent 'Appetite for Change' study. It seems food production changes are a barometer of climate change. For farm animals, heat stress during heat events is significant. Dairy cows produce less milk, beef cattle are delayed in reaching target weights. Warmer nights mean plants have less time to recover before the next day's growth. Wines, especially merlot and shiraz, grown in our Mediterranean climate areas will be less suitable for growth by 2050. Bananas will continue to feel the impact of cyclones. Potato production could be affected by potato famine like conditions. We also read about a South Gippsland dairy farmer who is encouraging 'her girls' to calve in April and May to mitigate summers that seem much earlier and longer and less conducive to grass growing. Looking through a 'food miles' lens, we discussed a thought provoking article about how the concentration of ownership of food production alongside mind boggling food miles can lead to waste and insecurity in farming communities. Land was also on our agenda in terms of the need for improved strategies to tackle the growing electronic waste stream entering landfill; and the impact of coal seam gas exploration via fracking, seismological changes and earthquakes. Another jam packed month!
Did you know that 2015 is the International Year of the Soil? Many of our U3A members are from agricultural backgrounds or garden lovers so are keenly aware how important the health of our soils is.
Dr Tony Weatherly, a soil scientist at the University of Melbourne, is currently researching into technologies to support large scale food waste as a soil conditioner. He would like us to think about soil as a dynamic, living thing. "Soils have a tipping point, just as our own health does, and beyond a certain point soil can't be repaired or replenished - it's not an unlimited resource. Understanding soil science is more important than ever: our future environmental and economic well being depends on it. we can't keep treating soil like dirt, pun intended" ('Soil, Food and Cities' Voice University of Melbourne 9 March 2015 p 8). Another article University of Melbourne researcher, Professor Deli Chen and his soils group hope to develop a scientific index called a nitrogen footprint to increase consumer awareness of how efficiently the farmer used nitrogen fertilizers when producing their food ('Food, Fertilizer and our nitrogen footprints' Voice University of Melbourne 9 Feb 2015 p 10). The Australian Academy of Science's report 'The science of climate change: questions and answers' was released recently (www.science.org.au/climatechange). We read a thought provoking article relating to this - 'Climate Change is not in doubt, so stop the ostrich act' - by Nobel Laureate and Academy of Science fellow Brian Schmidt (The Age, 16 Feb 2015). Schmidt considers we should not self-diagnose but scould act on expert opinion. Class member Frank wholeheartedly agreed with Schmidt's analogy 'It's much like getting a medical diagnosis from a panel of the country's best doctors' (Schmidt quoted in The Age, 16 Feb 2015). Other topics discussed this month included the evidence of warming of the world's oceans from data collected from 3500 Argo buoys from 2006 - 2013; concerning reports that the government does not consider the Great Barrier reef in danger; cyclones; wave energy;the production of a new type of plum; Innovations in solar technology in which energy from the sun is printed on plastic and research by a Bendigo raised water engineer, Profesor Peter Scales, on an optimal system to recycle wastewater. John reported on the Strathbogie Voices seminar by Dr David Karoly and on George Marshall's presentation in Shepparton which emphasized the importance of relating climate change conversations to the feeling sides of people's brains, to their stories and interests, rather than focusing on 'polar bears', or people will 'do it later'. As you can see, we always have lots to talk about and highly value the work our tutor John Lloyd puts into preparing topics for us to discuss each session. |
'Sustainability'True sustainability is only achieved when our society achieves this in three spheres of our activity: Social, Economic and Environmental. Sustainability in each of these three spheres is far from being achieved. This has become the concern of governments and ordinary people world-wide and has resulted in many questions about the sustainability of our present lifestyle. Meeting Times1st and 3rd Friday
10 am to 12 midday U3A Meeting Room 1 Convenors and contact detailsJohn Lane
0474 936 460 Convenor 2008-2021John Lloyd
Local LinksRenewable Energy Benalla - website
Other LinksEconomists for Equity and the Environment
The Future Economy Population Matters-For A Sustainable Future Strathbogie Voices Seminars on Climate Change in Euroa (YouTube) Frank Dunin's paper 'Fire reduces water harvest from Melbourne's water supply catchments'. Frank Dunin's response 'Chemistry Lesson for Scott Morrison' Archives
April 2024
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