OT(sort of): Carbon Emissions While Caching

[The Spindoctors]

Nay and I watched the film a few weeks ago and the next day we signed up to Green Fleet. I drive small diesel car (VW Golf), which I love not just for being a great car, but VERY fuel efficient. On the freeway I get 4.5l/100km and city about 6l/100km. That's around 900km per 50l tank.

Living in an apartment makes planting trees a little difficult, but I'm certainly keen on reducing my carbon footprint.

This is worth checking out http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/GreenhouseCal ... efault.asp

As EcoTeam suggest, anything is better than nothing. Our government and industry will only change based on our demands. Remember it's a consumer driven world we live in.

[AussieRAVer]

2) Switch to accredited Green Power and encourage others to do so.

Where do you get your power from when:

The wind is not blowing, The sun is not shining, There is no water in the dams because the government is releasing the water to "Save" a river to please some minority group.....

Green energy is not reliable for every day use........ If there were no BASE LOAD COAL electricity generators we would have no meaningful supply....

If EVERYONE changed to green power tomorrow - where are the power retailers going to buy the electricty from???

The only method that we are going to get BASE LOAD greenish power is NUKE POWER

[Cached]

We've changed to green power now - the contract is signed.

Now we're plumbing the house to run off rain water so as not to need mains water all of the time.

[ArgusTuft]

Does any one know of any research or statistics that show what the break even point for the various types of alternate energy?
How long does does a (e.g.) windmill have to operate before it replaces the energy used to design it, manufacture it, transport it, erect it?
How long/far does a deisel powered car have to run before it recoups the energy used to design, manufacture, build, transport it?
The same goes for all types of "alternate" energy production. It's all very good claiming that our present methods of electricity production is eco-naughty but what are the VIABLE alternatives and what would be their impact on nature?

[The Spindoctors]

Argus

These are very good questions. My work (CSIRO) as an internal email list, which has been very active in the past two months on this topic. As you would expect, it has a lot of great debate and analysis - pity we can't share it outside (that's another story).

I'll trawl through it during the week and see what links to published reports and websites exist. I recall a number of good ones.

What I have noticed in the past fortnight is a definite shift in thinking among industry and government. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, this is what is needed before we see significant change. There stillis a long way to go and although Kyoto wouldn't solve our problems, the act of ratifying it (by our government) would be hugely significant as it would leave the US in the cold.

From my perspective, we must make an effort to do what we can to reduce our impact on a personal level. In 50 years time, we should be able to look into our children's or grand children's eyes and tell them with honesty that we did what we could. I know that sounds emotive, but it is a pretty serious situation.

If you want a preview of where Australia is heading, here is a CSIRO report on future temperature and rainfall: http://www.dar.csiro.au/impacts/future.html

[Rabbitto]

I'm more concerned about my methane output whilst caching...
.

<p>Ahhhh. This explains the origin of your avatar

[Geof]

The only method that we are going to get BASE LOAD greenish power is NUKE POWER

Theres a darn big NUKE out there and we'v been revolving around it for a good few years. It supplyed the power to make the trees to make the coal. It makes the wind blow. It makes the rivers flow. What dosn't it power? Turn it off and .......

We just need to learn how to use it properly, not over use it and learn to share. We'r still learning.......

[Cached]

Here's a little something to make a donation to greenfleet from Telstra's pocket.

Seems sensis is running a promotion to support Greening Australia.

Every time you search from their homepage, they donate enough $ to plant trees to remove Co2.

Obviously it's an attempt to get us used to using sensis rather than google but, it won't hurt me for a while and every little thing makes a difference.

What's the idea?

Each time you search at the www.sensis.com.au homepage youÂ’ll help remove 100 grams of CO2 from our atmosphere.

This equals the emissions from:

Watching a television for 18 hours

Running your refrigerator for 12 hours

Operating a clothes dryer for 3 hours

Click here for more information

How does it work?

1. You go to the www.sensis.com.au homepage to search the net.
2. For a limited time, we donate money for each search conducted at www.sensis.com.au to Greening Australia.
3. They plant trees which remove CO2 from our air.

You can find out more about how this works at www.greeningaustralia.org.au or http://www.searchforcleanerair.org/moreInfo.html for more detailed information about the tree planting activity.

[Cached]

http://larvatusprodeo.net/2006/11/13/th ... en-facade/

Another way of reducing CO2 emissions...

[Geof]

Every time you search from their homepage, they donate enough $ to plant trees to remove Co2.

Enough to offset the carbon emmisions from power used by their servers?

Is the internet and teleconferancing etc etc greener than travel given all those servers going 24/7

[Cached]

Well, considering their servers would be running anyway, surely it's better than nothing.

Is the internet and teleconferancing etc etc greener than travel given all those servers going 24/7

And, yep I reckon it still is - especially if they are purchasing 'greener' power.

[Mr Router]

I'm more concerned about my methane output whilst caching...
.

Less beans

[The Spindoctors]

This was mentioned by one of my colleagues on the internal work email list. I've edited out bits, so he/she is not identifable.

[quote]http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/ will let you compare greenhouse and overall pollution (including, I think, particulates) for running similar vehicles with LPG, diesel and petrol engines (all as factory options, not after-market for LPG), at least for recent models. It also has info on the performance of hybrids.

It doesnÂ’t have the information in exactly the form you want, but “advanced searchÂâ€

[EcoTeam]

2) Switch to accredited Green Power and encourage others to do so.

Where do you get your power from when:

The wind is not blowing, The sun is not shining, There is no water in the dams because the government is releasing the water to "Save" a river to please some minority group.....

Green energy is not reliable for every day use........ If there were no BASE LOAD COAL electricity generators we would have no meaningful supply....

If EVERYONE changed to green power tomorrow - where are the power retailers going to buy the electricty from???

The only method that we are going to get BASE LOAD greenish power is NUKE POWER

The first step is always REDUCTION in usage.

The second step is then clean renewable energy, and there is currently a massive potential capacity available. The sun is practically guaranteed, they build wind farms were the wind is pretty much constant, waves keep coming as long as the moon keeps revolving around us, landfills keep letting off gas all year round, water keeps flowing (ok, maybe not in Australia much!), and geothermal heat keeps coming. There is a fair bit of overlap.

The third step is to figure out how to supply any remaining base requirement. If you do step 1 and 2 then your base requirment drops dramatically at the very least, and that's good for everyone.

If you just stick your head in the sand and say Nuclear is the answer, then the world is not heading in the right direction.

Save energy first, switch to renewable if it's available, and THEN talk about base energy.

EcoDave