Home Sustainability
On this page we look at:
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What is sustainability?
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Why be sustainable?
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Climate change and
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Why its a big deal
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Fossil fuels, fossil fuels, fossil fuels! its all anyone can talk about right now..
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What the heck is an extinction crisis?
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What is the issue about the Galilee Basin?
What is sustainability?
Sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Why be sustainable?
We know that many of the world's resources are finite. If we keep depleting the planet of its resources we will simply run out, and in the process kill animals and eventually ourselves, and I haven't even mentioned our changing climate yet.
What Is Climate Change? | United Nations
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.
Examples of greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change include carbon dioxide and methane. These come from using gasoline for driving a car or coal for heating a building, for example. Clearing land and forests can also release carbon dioxide. Landfills for garbage are a major source of methane emissions. Energy, industry, transport, buildings, agriculture and land use are among the main emitters.
Excerpt from the United Nations website
If global temperatures rise by 1.5 degrees we will lose
70-90% of our coral reefs! Including The Great Barrier Reef.
The Great Barrier Reef supports over
60 000 jobs! Is yours one of them? What can we do to protect it? Let me know at the Get in Touch section below!
So what is the big deal?
So this is where things get a bit scary...Sorry, but its what motivated me to create this website in the first place!
But not like in a quick bang, where we all die really fast, like we've been hit by an asteroid. But over a few short years with heatwaves, rampant wildfires, drought, deluge rainfall, catastrophic floods and crop failures.
That's the big one for me. Crop failures!
In my kids lifetime, (they are 25 and 14 now), they will experience a global food shortage if we don't do something right now. This current 10 year period is crucial and we need to do all we can to stop burning fossil fuels and to reduce pollution.
There is no planet B.
We need to listen to them.
Imagine that, no food
our kids starving!
That could be their future, the future we give them because
WE aren't doing enough to take action on climate change!
So what can we do about it?
There are many different ways in which you can take action. A couple I suggest are:
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Use your democratic right to vote for a party who is worried about this as much as you and will take the action needed to save our children's futures. As well as this you can...
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Take action as per our - How you can make a difference page on this website.
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Need help? Not sure where to start? Get in Touch at the section below. I can help you get started.
Why does everyone go on about fossil fuels?
The production, transportation and burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The greenhouse gasses trap heat and act like a blanket around the planet, making fossil fuels the primary contributors to global warming and climate change.
We know that burning coal for electricity is one of the largest producers of carbon emissions.
I think most of us know this by now and are tyring to change by moving to renewable energy.
But I think the concern is (especially after the last IPCC Report) we are not moving fast enough.
Electricity production has the highest % of CO2 Emissions
One good thing about Aussies though we do have one of the biggest uptakes of roof top solar - Well done!!
What is taking so long to move to renewables?
Its an unfortunate fact but Australia is one of the biggest exporters of coal and gas. A crutch that has made us wealthy but to some extent reliant on those industries for jobs.
But it has also made us one of the top five polluters around the world inline with Russia.
But lucky for us we have loads of wind and sunshine and the technology to produce renewable energy for our own electricity consumption and we can export renewable energy overseas. Giving us heaps of job opportunities in this industry!
If we can do this in time, imagine the amount of pollution we can stop from going into the atmosphere...this gives me hope...hope that my kids can have a better future.
What is an extinction crisis?
The scientists describe the extinction crisis as an existential threat to civilisation, along with climate change and pollution, to which it is tied. And they say they have a "moral imperative" to draw attention to the loss of biodiversity, which they say is still rather ignored by most people.
Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history – and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
“The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture,” said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”
WWF's Living Planet Report Says:
This edition of the Living Planet Report confirms the planet is in the midst of a biodiversity and climate crisis, and that we have a last chance to act. This goes beyond conservation. A nature-positive future needs transformative - game changing - shifts in how we produce, how we consume, how we govern, and what we finance. W
Why is this happening?
Here is an ACF petition you can sign asking for laws that actually protect nature. It is good to sign a petition but it would be even better if you can meet with or email your local MP and let them know your concerns!
Implementing sustainable practices will reduce the need to use natural resources which in turn will reduce the need to clear land and destroy animal habitat. However that is only part of the problem.
A recent independent review of Australia's national environment legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act), that is supposed to protect Australia's animals and plants from extinction, was found to be ineffective.
Excerpt from Professor Samuels interim report:
"The EPBC Act is ineffective. It does not enable the Commonwealth to play its role in protecting and conserving environmental matters that are important for the nation. It is not fit to address current or future environmental challenges."
A further example of the Act being ineffective is the campaign against the Toondah Harbour Project, which is in my neighbourhood.
The massive area proposed to be developed is on internationally recognised wetlands, under the Ramsar Treaty, which will destroy the bay and habitat of the critically endangered Eastern Curlew. In my mind when an animal's status is critically endangered, I would think it's habitat would be protected at all costs - but no, there is a possibility the project will get approved and its habitat will be destroyed and we lose the bay forever.
There is a lot more to the storey you can check it out here, ABC Briefing, if your interested!
Toondah Harbour - the bay where you catch the boat over to Stradbroke Island
What is the issue with the Galilee Basin?
Why are there massive grassroots groups like
and Youth Verdict (the kids taking
Clive Palmer's Waratah Coal to court) spending so many years of their lives trying to stop these coal mines from going ahead?
The Galilee Basin, located in Queensland, is one of the world's largest reserves of thermal coal with an estimated untapped store of 27 billion tonnes. The area is 248,000 km2.
If burnt, this will create up to 4.6 billion tonnes of carbon pollution at a time when we desperately need to be reducing greenhouse gases.
As well as Adani's Carmichael mine there are at least six other mines planned for the region.
If all these mines go ahead the Galilee Basin alone could produce over 5% of global carbon emissions by 2030.
The area includes the traditional lands of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, whom to this day are currently still trying to protect their land from being destroyed by mining.
