Bev Lee
There was a lot to read and talk about in March, with member contributions playing a key role. Fe raised the issue of the harmful effects of fast fashion, much of which is made from plastics, and toxic textile dyes, particularly textile dye water pollution, on the environment. Fe’s resources included the ‘Plastic Soup’ website’s ‘Plastic Fashion’. Also on the theme of waste, Bev brought along the latest edition of the ‘Businesses and Organisations offering Recycling Deposit Points’ flier produced by the BSFG WasteWise Benalla team, the team offering a range of recycling options to us in the servery area of the kitchen. Here’s a photograph of the latest ‘gathering point’ they’ve created to help us all to recycle thoughtfully! Bev Lee "As we hear so much that is negative on the sustainability front I though we could have a look at what we've got to be cheerful about. Hannah Ritchie, from the World in Data organisation in the UK has recently published a book that attempts to put our current 'troubles' in perspective - and it seems there are many reasons to be cheerful.
In addition to suggestions sent out as email attachments, these articles are worth reading The Conversation 6 Feb 24 – Earth temperature may have risen more than 1.5C Link The Conversation 6 Feb 26 – Category 6 cyclones? Link The Conversation – Sea-based permaculture Link I look forward to discussions about human achievements across numerous fields. John Welcome to a new year with the Benalla U3A Sustainability group. Our first meeting is scheduled for this Friday 2 February but due to a bad cold I will cancel this session. A bad start, I know, but better that than me giving you my cold (at least it's not COVID!) So, our next session will be on 16 February commencing at 10:00 am. Sorry for any inconvenience. In the meantime, here's a photo of our joint excursion with the Stock and Land group in early December to to visit Alistair Cumming's innovative venture developing a method of milling the leaves from a very specific species of eucalypt to extract substances to be used in the pharmaceutical industry. I've emailed links to some articles that you may find interesting to read before our 16 February class, including: The Conversation 10 Jan 24 – 2022 Antarctic heatwave Link The Conversation 11 Jan 24 – Heat affecting storms and floods Link The Hans Rosling video below provides a hint as to what I'll be talking about at our next session. John Lane
November - Murray-Darling Basin Plan and an interview with Greg Combet, head of new Net Zero Agency27/11/2023
The sustainability group met twice in November. At our first session John made a presentation about the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. This is due to expire in mid 2024 but is going to fall short of its water saving targets. These were established in the early this century to try claw back water for the environment. Diversions, mainly for irrigation, had stretched river and floodplain health to the point of environmental collapse. Getting water back from consumptive use for environmental purposes, and the manner of delivering 'environmental' flows, has been controversial for over two decades. Legislation to extend the plan for a further three years, which includes reinstating water buy-backs as a means of getting more water available for the environment, has caused enormous ructions amongst the competing forces. In fact the Victorian Government has pulled out of the inter-governmental agreement. The legislation is currently being reviewed by a Senate committee.
At our second session we listened to an informative podcast* in which Michelle Grattan interviewed Greg Combet, former Minister for climate change and energy in the Gillard governments. Greg had previously been Secretary of the ACTU and has recently been appointed as chair of the Australian government's new Net Zero Agency which has been charged with helping regional communities transition away from fossil fuel industries. The agency started work in July to help communities like those around Hazelwood in Victoria and Liddel in NSW, already dealing with coal power plant closures. It will work with state, territory and local governments, existing regional bodies, unions, industry, investors and First Nations groups to help former fossil fuel industry workers retrain and access support. There will be a change of day for our next session - it will be at 10 am on Tuesday 5 December at the U3A. The reason for the change is that we are joining with the Stock and Land group to visit an innovative venture that's being progressing in Benalla. Alistair Cumming has developed a method of milling the leaves from a very specific species of eucalypt to extract substances to be used in the pharmaceutical industry. We'll visit his experimental mill located in Benalla and then visit his farm at Lurg where he has a plantation of the species he uses. John Lane *https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-former-climate-minister-greg-combet-on-australias-mission-to-reach-net-zero-217277 The Conversation 9 Nov 23 – Pacific Islands & fossil fuels - Link
The Conversation 9 Nov 23 – Fmr Climate Minister Greg Combet talks to Michelle Grattan Podcast The Conversation 10 Nov 23 - Friday essay: if the world’s systems are ‘already cracking’ due to climate change, is there a post-doom silver lining? Link ABC News 10 Nov 23 - The world has experienced its hottest 12 months on record, and El Niño is set to drive temperatures higher Link The Conversation 14 Nov 23 - Fire is consuming more than ever of the world’s forests, threatening supplies of wood and paper Link The Conversation 13 Nov 23 – Murray-Darling water buybacks won’t be enough if we can’t get water to where it’s needed Link The Conversation 20 Apr 23 - Victoria’s plans for engineered wetlands on the Murray are environmentally dubious. Here’s a better option Link Also Recommended: Wade, G (2023) 'The Health Costs of Wildfires' New Scientist 4 November 2023 p 14 and p 15 'Le Page, M (2023) We Must Hit Net Zero by 2032 to avoid breaching 1.5C limit' New Scientist 4 November 2023 p 8 John Lane Discussion about the Murray-Darling Basin shenanigans featured on November 3. Recommended reading (with links) on this and other topics are listed below, together with articles from a recent New Scientist (these links require a subscription, but you may come across them over time). ABC news online 21 Oct 23 – Effect of dark roofs Link The Conversation 23 Oct 23 – What happens to workers when coal power stations close Link The Conversation 23 Oct 23 – Powerline roll out rage Link The Conversation 23 Oct 23 – Cleaning up old mines Link ABC news 24 Oct 23 – Marshall Islands water supply Link The Conversation 24 Oct 23 – Changes to global climate maps Link The Conversation 27 Oct – Data ‘clouds’ in the sea Link The Conversation 31 Oct – NT Govt approved Beetaloo project Link ABC news 31 Oct – Roof top solar Link ABC news 31 October – Murray-Darling Basin water buy-backs Link Productivity Commission - Interim report (2023) on review of Murray-Darling plan implementation Link The Conversation 1 Nov 23 – Beach erosion causes Link ABC 1 Nov 23 – Bogus carbon credit scheme Link And, from the New Scientist on 14 October 2023 - (subscription required) Sparkes, M 'Should we worry about AI's energy use?' New Scientist 14 October 2023 p11 Hsu, J "The growing carbon footprint of satellite internet" New Scientist 14 October 2023 p14 Dineen, J "The power sector has almost hit peak emissions" New Scientist 14 October 2023 p 18 John Lane The sustainability group in October had one session where we examined what a previous chief scientist of Australia (Alan Finkle) thinks is the recipe for moving Australia to a renewable energy future. This was off the back of a thought-provoking book he published this year. It’s clear we are not moving fast enough to achieve the national targets.
Our second session was dominated by a video that Bev introduced. It was Twiggy Forest addressing world business leaders warning of a little discussed aspect of global warming – lethal humidity. Rising humidity may lead to areas of earth unsustainable for human (and other animal) existence. It was a sobering presentation. (Link: https://youtu.be/kigyFOj7HUw?si=IOUxXSjkFvYNOvQ ) John Lane From John - NS 16 Sept – Prairie Power - Link NS 7 Oct 23 – Can China Turn the world green? - Link The Conversation 16 Oct 23 – A fair energy transition - Link The Conversation 17 Oct 23 – Hammer-head shark aggregations off Perth - Link The Conversation 17 Oct 23 – Cloud brightening to cool the sea (video below) - Link From Bev - 'I follow Peter Sainsbury who writes on the environment for John Menadue's 'Pearls and Irritations' website. In an article 'Environment: Andrew Forrest’s climate message to Biden, Modi and Xi'. (September 10, 2023) suggests... "If you’ve got 24 minutes, I strongly recommend watching Andrew Forrest’s speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference in Perth last week. Until the last seven minutes, it’s not so much what he says about global warming as the fact that Forrest is saying it, and he is clearly addressing himself to the leaders of the world’s most powerful governments, with whom he suggests he has good relations."... "...Forrest opens by discussing the near-impossibility of avoiding warming of at least 1.5oC and that it will happen this decade. He then describes the human consequences, principally the deaths that are already occurring and the millions more that will inevitably occur soon as a result of lethal humidity (‘the next global pandemic’). He is at pains to emphasise that he is a scientist and that what he is saying is backed up by the best science. While Forrest is extremely concerned about the future, he doesn’t think it is too late to avert a complete disaster. He is clear about the cause of the problem and what needs to happen:
Forrest has a very clear message for the governments of the world: ‘You must hold us to account. Business guided by government will either save or destroy this planet. Hold us to account. The power of you. Make us change. That’s all I’m asking you to do. Make us change.’ At our first session in August the Sustainability Group revisited Treasury's new take on measuring how Australia is going; called the Wellbeing budget. This approach is the same as addressing sustainability. The wellbeing budget, as with indicators measuring progress across environmental, social and economic sectors. Only when we achieve sustainability in all three sectors is true sustainability/wellbeing achieved. The wellbeing budget is a first attempt at moving budget measures away from purely the economic elements (usually measured by Gross Domestic product per capita) to establishing measures, targets and policies across the three primary elements mentioned above. This approach still has some way to go in its development but starting down the community wellbeing path is an achievement in itself.
At our second session we had free flowing discussions based on a number of recent articles including one debunking extremist comments that the north Atlantic Gulf Stream (which keeps western Europe warm) will collapse in 2025. Another concerned threats to wildlife which occupy niche habitats in alpine Australia and have nowhere to migrate to in a warming climate and another reporting on a local scheme in the Goulburn Valley to establish a community based solar energy farm and battery. John Lane At the sustainability group sessions in July we covered a wide range of issues. At our first session we focussed on household energy savings tips; mostly common-sense ideas such as using LED lighting, turning down our heating thermostats in winter and turning our cooling thermostats up in summer; don't heat or cool rooms that are not being used; using ceiling fans in summer; shorter showers, and more. Tips can be found here . We also briefly considered Australia's former Chief Scientist's (Ian Finkel) new book setting out what needs to be done to transition to a sustainable energy future - a formidable, but not impossible, task according to him.
Our second session was more of a free-for-all discussion about a range of issues including Australia's waste and recycling problem, particularly for those 'soft' plastics that we used to be able to drop off at supermarkets. We also discussed a number of videos and articles on a wide range of topics from sustainable flying, to Sweden's new battery mega factory - a first for Europe, to the northern hemisphere's summer of climate-related woes, and others. John Lane The Sustainability Group had two free-flowing discussion sessions in June. These are where members raise issues that they would like to discuss or bring items/articles on topics to present. Both sessions covered a wide range of issues with much calling on 'Prof. Google' to explore information around these issues. Peter talked about a recent Environment Institute of ANZ he attended in Sydney where the accounting for nature issue was explored. We also looked at the various proposals for solar farms in the Benalla/Wangaratta area - there seems to be quite a few - some operating, some under construction, some at the planning stage and some abandoned. We listened to a couple of podcasts, including one about an American experiment to use kangaroo poo to change the microbiome of cow stomachs from a cow's usual methane producing microbiome (a very significant GHG) to a Roo's acid (vinegar) producing microbiome - still very much at the experimental stage though. We also learnt how Singapore manages its waste by creating new land. More to come in the second semester! John Lane
Click on the post - or - go directly to this link! https://haveyoursay.benalla.vic.gov.au/climate-and-environment-strategy
At the first Sustainability Group meeting in May we discussed a wide range of items based on news and other media. Neville had found a great video of an 'accidental' bush rehabilitation project which resulted from the illegal dumping of 12,000 tonnes of orange peels in Costa Rica. Informative and amusing.
At our second session we looked at the Australian Government's ongoing development of its community well-being measures which are intended to provide a better way to determine the overall sustainability of our country rather than just relying on the traditional economic or dollar-based measures such as gross domestic product. We also watched a video on the development of geothermal-based electricity generation that can essentially be installed anywhere based on new 'closed-loop' boring technology. A replacement for base-load electricity generators which, in Australia, are reliant on fossil fuels. John Lane At our session on Friday 21 April at 10 am we will take a look at one of the proposed new gas fields; Beetaloo in the NT. With the Government's new 'safeguard' measures in place, any high greenhouse gas emitter will need to reduce their emissions. New projects may find this particularly tough. By coincidence CSIRO has assessed how the Beetaloo project might be able to reach net zero GHG emissions from the start; but it will cost!
This will be our main topic but there's still plenty of other topics to cover. I've attached links to some articles which you may find of interest in an email sent to class members today. John Lane At our first session in March the Sustainability group looked at the review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The EPBC Act is the federal government's primary legislation for protecting matters of national environmental significance. These range from protected species and vegetation communities and places such as World Heritage Areas (such as Melbourne's Exhibition Building and Kakadu), amongst others. The review, which was completed in 2019, found the legislation was not working. The condition of all the things that are meant to be protected are declining and continue to decline, particularly those matters in the natural environment. The federal government has responded proposing new legislation. This is to be based on a series of principles including, specific standards for matters of National Environmental Significance against which all decisions will be judged, First Nations engagement and participation in decision making, community engagement and consultation, regional planning and environmental offsets. The new legislation will be available for consultation purposes around the middle of 2023.
At our second session, group members raised items of interest to them for the group to consider. Len ran a video and went through other material concerning the problem of carp in our waterways - he was keen to recruit us to the 'carp haters' collective! Other issues discussed included the importance of trees in cooling urban areas and a wacky idea of blowing dust of the moon to provide a 'sunshade' for the earth to limit atmospheric heating. John Lane The Sustainability group kicked off the year on 3 February with a quick review of the issues we covered last year including reminding ourselves of what true sustainability means, being where we achieve sustainability across the three intersecting areas of the economy, society and the environment. We then discussed an article written by Valclav Smil who suggested nine things that would make the world a better place. It was quite a diverse list from a universal vaccine precursor, a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, self cleaning photo-voltaic paint through to a global sunshade.
In our second session on 17 February we had the first of our new look sessions where group members bring along issues or articles and lead discussions about the issues raised. Among the issues discussed was a recent article demonstrating how far we actually have come in reducing carbon dioxide emissions globally and that the dire predictions of climate change of the early 2010s are no longer feasible. Additionally we discussed the review of the Federal government's carbon offsets scheme and the report on it by a former Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, who found that not all was rosy in the offsets garden. The government is currently implementing his recommendations. John Lane Over several sessions during the year, we had discussed alternative systems of measuring 'progress' beyond the dollar focussed gross domestic product (GDP). We looked at examples of measuring 'progress' across all sustainability sectors, environment, society and economics - often referred to as 'community well-being'. In our first session in November, we briefly returned to the community well-being issue as the federal Treasurer had promised community well-being measures in his budget. There wasn't much except a budget statement discussing the concept and a promise that government would release a community well-being framework in 2023.
We spent most of this session looking at projected impacts of climate change with regard to coastal hazards and what some councils have been doing to prepare their communities for the possible long-term impacts. In doing so, we looked at what constitute coastal hazards and how warming sea temperatures and sea level rise will increase these hazards. At our second November session, we took a look at the use of biogas/bioenergy, the processes to produce it (methane) and why, unlike fossil fuel sourced gas (also methane), it is considered a renewable source of energy. The Federal govt released a 'roadmap' in late 2021 to ramp up this industry. While biogas is still methane and therefore produces CO2 and water when burnt, its recognition as renewable energy means it is considered a good transition fuel, compared to fossil fuel gas, and possibly has a long-term future in areas where it is difficult to replace gas/liquid fuel, such as in aviation. John Lane No meeting this week, but I see CSIRO's most recent ECOS magazine features 'resilience'. You might like some/all the articles. You can access the magazine at:
https://www.csiro.au/Newsletters/ECOS/2022-10 John We will be meeting again this coming Friday 4 November at 10:00 am. I propose we briefly return to the community well-being issue to see what was in the budget (briefly because there is not much!).
Then I'd like to take you through the projected impacts of climate change with regard to coastal hazards and what some councils have been doing to prepare their communities for the possible long-term impacts. John PS: you might like the attached articles on extreme weather from a recent New Scientist journal. At the first Sustainability group meeting in October, we heard from Cr Danny Claridge about the upcoming review of Council's environment and climate change adaptation plans. These plans were first prepared around 2013 and Danny suggested they were in need of substantial review. He indicated that staff working on the review would be keen to hear directly from people as the redrafting was proceeding.
At our second meeting we talked about the concept of 'community wellbeing' which has been in the news of late as the Federal Treasurer has mentioned that some principles and measures were to be included in the Australian budget. We noted that Community well-being is essentially the same as the sustainability concept. We looked at the ACT's community well-being framework and how it linked to their budget and noted some other places (NZ, Scotland and Bhutan) had already gone down this path. John Lane Reading: https://www.act.gov.au/wellbeing/explore-overall-wellbeing Next Tuesday, the Federal Government will bring down it's first budget since being elected. The Treasurer has announced that the budget will include some community well-being measures in addition to the using gross domestic product as the measure of our country's 'progress'. We don't know yet what community well-being measures will be included or what funding will be directed at programs to achieve these measures.
Now we have talked generally about this before, but at this session I'd like to pose the question, has the concept of community well-being killed of sustainability as a concept? The following link to an article from The Conversation provides a little background. Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, 21 October at 10:00 am. Regards John https://theconversation.com/wellbeing-its-why-labors-first-budget-will-have-more-rigour-than-any-before-it-187160 Cr Danny Claridge on Benalla Rural City's Climate Change Adaptation Plan & Environment Plan15/10/2022
Cr Danny Claridge met with the group at our session on 7 October 2022 to discuss changes to the Climate Change Adaptation Plan and Environment Plan.
Key points he made were:
A number of other issues were raised in a Q&A session. These included;
John Lane A reminder that we'll have Cr Danny Claridge join us on Friday 7 October to talk about the planned review of Benalla's Climate Change Adaptation and Environment plans.
For your pre-reading, here are the links to the action tables from each plan: Benalla Climate Change Adaptation Plan - Action Table Benalla Environment Plan - Action Table I hope you can find your areas of interest and that you have your questions and comments ready. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Friday. John Lane At our first meeting in September, the Sustainability group looked to the 'stars'. Did you know that the minimum sustainability/energy saving standards for new houses and some renovations in most of Australia is 6 Stars (out of 10). In Victoria this is soon to rise to 7. At the session we had a look at the rules and recommendations for achieving housing sustainability across a number of issues from climate, lot size & orientation, house orientation, passive house design, energy and water use and long-term liveability and adaptability. We also looked at some examples of houses that have achieved 8 and even nearly 10 stars.
At our second session in September, we looked at the Federal Government Emissions Reduction Fund, the current primary policy the government uses to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from various sectors/industries. In particular, we looked at several of the prescribed 'methods' the government allows to achieve GHG abatement (such as increasing soil carbon). At our next session on Friday 7th of October at 10 am, we will have Cr Danny Claridge talking to us about the council's upcoming review of Benalla's Environment and Climate Change Adaptation plans. John Lane At this Friday's session at 10 am we will look at the Federal Government Emissions Reduction Fund, the current primary policy instrument the government uses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from various sectors/industries.
In particular I thought we could have a look at several of the prescribed 'methods' the government allows to achieve GHG abatement (such as increasing soil carbon). If you want to do some preliminary reading I suggest you check out the relevant website (https://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/ERF/About-the-Emissions-Reduction-Fund) Also, as this is the last session before we have Cr Danny Claridge join us to discuss the council's revision of their (our) environment and climate change adaptation plans, I thought we could have a look at the primary targets/actions of the current plans. Here again are the links to these: Climate change adaptation plan: https://www.benalla.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/Council-Documents/Other-Plans-Strategies/Climate-Change-Adaptation-plan#:~:text=How%20does%20the%20adaptation%20action,after%20eight%20years%20(2021). Environment plan: https://www.benalla.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/Council-Documents/Other-Plans-Strategies/Environment-Strategy John |
'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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