Earth Hour is on again – tonight 28th March at 8.30pm. The event asks people and businesses to turn off lights and appliances for one hour. It ran for the first time in Sydney only a few years ago. Since then the idea has been picked up by many other major cities around the world.

But looking beyond all the hype, how useful is it really in helping to tackle the problem of climate change?

Last year I spoke with Andy Ridley, Executive Director of Earth Hour, to put him on the spot. Listen to the interview with Andy Ridley.

Check out their website. There’s heaps more information there – www.earthhour.org.

]]> http://theenvironmentshow.com/2009/03/earth-hour-is-it-a-waste-of-time/feed 1 http://theenvironmentshow.com/2009/02/emissions-trading-what-the http://theenvironmentshow.com/2009/02/emissions-trading-what-the#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:55:19 +0000 Phil Stubbs http://theenvironmentshow.com/?p=1026

Just at the time Australia is launching into an emissions trading scheme, the EU one appears to be faltering. Eek. In this post we’ve collected links to articles and videos on the European scheme and the political stoush that’s happening here in Oz. (We predict it’s only a matter of time before the Opposition here cotton on to the European failings.) And of course there’s the question of – what the hell is an emssions trading scheme anyway? Plenty of people wouldn’t have the foggiest. We explain here at the end. Click on.

It’s all set to hot up due to the timelines the Australian Government has set itself – to introduce the scheme by mid-2010. The Climate Minister Penny Wong should be unveiling the new legislation next month or so. And in a strange twist, the Greens have sided with the Conservatives to force a Senate Inquiry. So we’re bound to see more of this in the news. And more time lost. Plus, to complicate things, at the end of the year we have the big meeting in Copenhagen where the nations of the world come together to hammer out a post-Kyoto agreement.

Related articles:
The collapsing carbon market in Europe is making mega-pollution dirt cheap (The Guardian)
Emissions Trading scheme explained by Ross Gittins (Herald)
Our collection of news stories on carbon emissions & emissions trading

Video:
The EU’s emissions trading scheme
How carbon trading could solve global warming

Audio:
Here’s an old podcast interview we did with Matt Dever from Emit Brokers explaining how carbon trading works.

Photo:
Coal power plant photo courtesy of Wigwam Jones on flickr.

Here’s a Christmas present. Check out the trailer to this interesting documentary about Christmas Lights (and why people do it.)

Video:
Christmas Lights documentary trailer. The film is on the ABC tonight at 10pm.

Related story:
Our recent post Christmas Month v. Earth Hour has more on the energy irony of it all.

Merry Christmas. See you in the new year.

Audio:
Have a listen to our Christmas lights podcast. In it we hear from people with ‘over-the-top’ Christmas lights on their houses to find out why they’ve done it.

It seems pretty obvious the root of our environmental problems comes back to one key thing – consumption. And there’s one time of year when it really hits you in the face – Christmas.

Mostly I’ve stayed clear of the shopping centres myself, but one thing you can’t avoid is Christmas lights. Every year there seem to be more houses getting into it. And every year they seem to be more over-the-top.

It got me thinking – how does this stack up against Earth Hour? If Earth Hour is meant to be a symbol people do care about the planet – by switching their lights off for an hour, what does that make the whole month of December? A time when not only do people festoon their houses with Christmas lights, consumption is well and truly king.

Television:
The film clip in our podcast is from the documentary ‘Christmas Lights’. It premiers Wednesday 24 2008, 8.05pm on ABC2 and Thursday 25 December 2008, 10.05pm on ABC1.

Video:
Click this link for more over-the-top Christmas lights video – this house is brilliantly synchronised to music. But wait there’s more … ‘OTT’ video. (This house got the same idea.)

And don’t forget not long til the official Energy Wasting Day! (1st April.)

More photos and where to see more Christmas lights:
Click these links for more photos and locations of houses with over-the-top lights in Sydney – from our learned colleagues at The Telegraph and 2GB.

Archie and my big Christmas lights adventure was to Matraville. The shot below is a house complete with Sydney landmarks in Franklin Street. Nearby Barwon Cresent is a mind explosion (for kids) of lights on every house. You should also check out – Hodge Street, Hurstville.

I’m sure there’s plenty more near you.

Merry global warmed Christmas.

Snow is looking increasingly unlikely for Sydney.

This last photo and the first (feature) photo courtesy of Screen Australia.

A new documentary called ‘The Future Makers’ shows how the answers to our environmental problems are there in nature itself. It includes renewable energy innovations in solar, wave and geothermal. And discusses the application of biomimicry.

Video:
You can view here the The Future Makers documentary trailer.

(If you’re a YouTube fan you can find it on The Environment Show’s YouTube channel. It’s also on The Environment Show’s Current TV Channel.)

Television:
The documentary airs on the Discovery Channel on Boxing Day 26th December.

Useful links:
The Future Makers film website and news.
Review in G magazine.
Discussion in Sydney Morning Herald article ‘It’s the ultimate hottie’.

It’s estimated governments have collectively found about $5 trillion to rescue banks and galvanize economies. Now the Head of the United Nations Environment Program and the leaders of some European countries are saying the time is right for the world to invest substantially in renewable energy. They’re calling for a “Green New Deal” to tackle our climate, oil and credit crisis together.

Audio:
Listen to our interview with Senator Christine Milne on the Green New Deal.

Leaders of the G20 countries recently met to discuss what can be done about the global financial crisis. Spending our way out of the crisis seems to be a big part of the solution. Already we’ve seen the Australian government promise to spend more than $10 billion to stimulate its economy.

But exactly how will such vast sums of money be spent?

The “Green New Deal” calls for a massive injection of funds to radically change our economies – to make them more sustainable. It’s an idea which draws inspiration from Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” 75 years ago. A plan which helped pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression.

Video:
Van Jones is the author of the bestseller “Green Collar Jobs”. Watch Van Jones spruik the Green New Deal.

Related articles:
Here’s some interesting articles on the Green New Deal:
‘How green technology can spark economic growth’ from Newsweek magazine.
‘A Green New Deal can save the world’s economy’ from The Independent.
‘Climate crisis: Roosevelt revisited’ from the BBC.
‘7 ways to fund a Green New Deal’ from Treehugger.
‘Green New Deal makes sense but unlikely’ – opinion piece from Reuters.

Useful links:
The New Economics Foundation is a leading economic think-tank in the UK and one of the pioneers of the Green New Deal idea. Their page’‘A Green New Deal will tackle the triple crunch of credit, oil and climate’ describes the idea further.
Here also is a link to the Greens website.

More audio:
Thomas Friedman is author of the book ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded: why we need a green revolution and how it can renew America’. Listen to the ‘Living on Earth’ interview with Thomas Friedman.

Hear Bob Brown on developing a new green economy. And there’s a good discussion on the ABC’s ‘Late Night Live’ program on the Green New Deal – which includes Ann Pettifor from the New Economics Foundation and Nick Nuttall, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program.

Photo:
Sparktography, Creative Commons, Flickr

A decade ago Germanys uptake of solar energy was on par with Australia. But thanks to an innovative financial incentive, Germany has surged ahead. So much so, its renewable energy is now a mainstream industry and a leading employer in that country.

Audio: Markus Lambert explains the effect the electricity feed-in tariff has had in Germany.

A key driver of renewables in Germany has been the introduction of an electricity feed-in tariff. The scheme views households and businesses producing renewable energy as mini-power stations and pays them for the power they generate.

Here in Australia, Victoria and South Australia have recently introduced versions of the tariff, and one is about to launch in the ACT. New South Wales is yet to try the scheme, but the State Opposition has vowed to implement one if it’s elected in 2011.

Markus Lambert is a German now working for local renewable energy firm Energy Matters. In this podcast he explains the effect the feed-in tariff has had in Germany.

Useful link: The Energy Matters website explains the difference between a net feed-in tariff and a gross feed-in tariff. And what each of the state governments in Australia are offering. The renewables industry is pushing for a gross feed-in tariff.

At the recent Sydney Film Festival I saw a great new documentary called ‘The Cars That Ate China’. In this podcast the director Stefan Moore discusses the background to the film and we hear a clip with Joe White, China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.

Joe takes us to the Beijing car show and explains how foreign car makers are piling into China to make a killing in the last big score in car manufacturing.

Audio: Listen to The Cars That Ate China interview and movie podcast – part 1, Joe White and the Beijing Car Show.

Link: More about the film on the makers’ website Jumping Dog Productions.

Photo: Commutr, Creative Commons, Flickr

In this interview Fiona Wain, CEO of Environment Business Australia, tells us about the opportunities for business and some of the interesting green business innovations on the go – some we rarely hear about.

And we have these videos from the Garnaut Forum. In fact you can even rate what he has to say. In this video, the good professor lashes out at the sceptics (in his own gentile way):

Here’s what Ross said when asked why Australia should act when other countries aren’t:

And here’s what Professor Garnaut had to say about compensating the coal industry:

Bruce says governments should be informing people and preparing our economies now for peak oil, the inevitable declining rate of oil production.
Listen to the podcast interview with Bruce Robinson (from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil.)

So what is happening with oil?

There’s no doubt the world’s demand for oil is increasing in a big way. What is in contention is the world’s supply.

A growing number of experts are saying we won’t be able to keep up with the world’s insatiable demand. And in fact, we’ve reached a tipping point. The term they’re using is ‘peak oil’.

In this interview, Michael Lardelli from the University of Adelaide sounds the alarm bells. Listen to the interview with Michael Lardelli on peak oil.