Climate change: What can you do to help halt global warming and when will you do it?

Forums › Off topic › Climate change: What can you do to help halt global warming and when will you do it?

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#2386454 7-Jan-2020 09:56

Right up there with noted climatologist Russel Crowe’s message at the Golden Globes. But I guess he has at least pretended to be a scientist (be it a mathematician) in a movie. I can understand his passion, as he is in Oz trying to protect life and property.

Nice that the Hollywood elite also expressed the heartfelt concerns for the people of Australia, after flying in on their private jets to chow down on their plant based meal with flowers flown in from Italy and South America sitting in front of them.

No mention of the people of Indonesia, where floods have killed more and made more homeless, than the toll so far in Australia. But I guess they are brown skinned and haven’t produced as many English speaking movie stars. But then they may have to mention Indonesia’s oil and gas production for the sake of balance. At least none of the floods were the result of arson.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

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#2386459 7-Jan-2020 10:10

I read that these fires have emitted 2/3 of the annual Australia transport CO2 equivalent. In 3 months.

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#2386502 7-Jan-2020 10:52

noddy76:

Taxing poor people into the ground doesn't make it easier for them to be able to afford a new shiny $40k car.. Adding 30c/ltr or whatever punishment you have in mind isn't going to get the 15yo Falcon and Mazda Bongo van driving masses of South Auckland into a shiny EV.

Agreed. Interesting, we are just changing a 15 year old Nissan. 2 year old, one owner, low km Suzuki Vitara 1.6l, rated at 6.0l/100km.

Would have liked a hybrid or EV but no where near our budget. And borrowing too much for a shiny new car doesn't make sense to us.

My main transport for short commute to work is an ebike. The larger family car sits in the shed as much as possible.

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#2386505 7-Jan-2020 10:57

kotuku4:

noddy76:

Taxing poor people into the ground doesn't make it easier for them to be able to afford a new shiny $40k car.. Adding 30c/ltr or whatever punishment you have in mind isn't going to get the 15yo Falcon and Mazda Bongo van driving masses of South Auckland into a shiny EV.

Agreed. Interesting, we are just changing a 15 year old Nissan. 2 year old, one owner, low km Suzuki Vitara 1.6l, rated at 6.0l/100km.

Would have liked a hybrid or EV but no where near our budget. And borrowing too much for a shiny new car doesn't make sense to us.

My main transport for short commute to work is an ebike. The larger family car sits in the shed as much as possible.

No idea where shiny new car came from. Its about lower emissions not shiny new EV's. An emissions tax would probably benefit your upgrade = lower emissions, or at leats make it near neutral if it was introduced now

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#2386544 7-Jan-2020 12:13

tdgeek:

No idea where shiny new car came from. Its about lower emissions not shiny new EV's. An emissions tax would probably benefit your upgrade = lower emissions, or at leats make it near neutral if it was introduced now

Not having a go at people having a shiny new car, just saying it's not for us. I'm all for lower emissions and household carbon footprint. My desire is to add solar storage battery and change to EV when the tech and economics work.

Have a modest sized house, upgraded insulation, double glazed, solar PV, hot water diverter, solar shed charges ebike, electric mower, electric tools. Garden, fruit trees, compost, recycle. Kids bike to school.

I get it, but lots of people don't, and get mad if they think they will pay more to buy and run larger vehicles, that they think they need. For example the criticism of the road user charges (RUC) exemption for light electric vehicles (EVs), to 2021.

We could do more! A strong government could do more.

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#2386546 7-Jan-2020 12:19

I think we all just need new underwear aka everyone (including captivity animals incl farms), wears undies made of air purifying materials.

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#2386547 7-Jan-2020 12:21

kotuku4:

tdgeek:

No idea where shiny new car came from. Its about lower emissions not shiny new EV's. An emissions tax would probably benefit your upgrade = lower emissions, or at leats make it near neutral if it was introduced now

Not having a go at people having a shiny new car, just saying it's not for us. I'm all for lower emissions and household carbon footprint. My desire is to add solar storage battery and change to EV when the tech and economics work.

Have a modest sized house, upgraded insulation, double glazed, solar PV, hot water diverter, solar shed charges ebike, electric mower, electric tools. Garden, fruit trees, compost, recycle. Kids bike to school.

I get it, but lots of people don't, and get mad if they think they will pay more to buy and run larger vehicles, that they think they need. For example the criticism of the road user charges (RUC) exemption for light electric vehicles (EVs), to 2021.

We could do more! A strong government could do more.

Ok, a few here are into new shiny EV's but the main issue is any reductions matters. Shiny new EV's will be a very small footprint overall anyway

How do you find the solar? I cant make it work, although I cant actually get it due to our intricate roof design. My mate has 48k worth incl Powerwall2 but that was a bad investment

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#2386594 7-Jan-2020 12:39

Solar works well for my family, on my roof, in my location. It's not for everyone.

I installed 4.9kw March 2013. Change in buy back rates means, that exporting is not a great idea. Overall we export more than imported annually.

We still get power bills, due to the fixed and lines charges. Last was almost zero, and mid winter around $200. I'm budgeting $50 per month average (total energy use, all electric).

So if buying today, the economics would not be great, perhaps 3kw install. Could you install panels off the roof, solar tracking array would be nice. Perhaps there is not room, trees or obstructions that make it difficult. Panels can be split into separate arrays, or individual inverters used?

New panels are so much more efficient, more kw per panel and more power generated in poor light.

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#2386612 7-Jan-2020 12:57

kotuku4:

Solar works well for my family, on my roof, in my location. It's not for everyone.

I installed 4.9kw March 2013. Change in buy back rates means, that exporting is not a great idea. Overall we export more than imported annually.

We still get power bills, due to the fixed and lines charges. Last was almost zero, and mid winter around $200. I'm budgeting $50 per month average (total energy use, all electric).

So if buying today, the economics would not be great, perhaps 3kw install. Could you install panels off the roof, solar tracking array would be nice. Perhaps there is not room, trees or obstructions that make it difficult. Panels can be split into separate arrays, or individual inverters used?

New panels are so much more efficient, more kw per panel and more power generated in poor light.

Mates was about 8kW over two installs, plus the Powerwall2. I told him if you can get 5% that's $2500 a year interest its worth to you, yet my annual bill will be less than $2500

Our house is 283 sqm two level, but the roof profiles are intricate. One side largest flat area has the Solar Tubes, leaving enough room for just 1.7kW ($10k quote)

Land is 1/4 acre but with gardens lawns fruit trees etc not really anywhere for a ground array, which I had thought of. While its not worth it, I would extract every kW I could from timeshifting, something my mate doesnt do much at all

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#2386668 7-Jan-2020 13:33

tdgeek:

I read that these fires have emitted 2/3 of the annual Australia transport CO2 equivalent. In 3 months.

Am just back from Oz. There was even an article suggesting the fires should be included in Australia’s net emissions. Well okay, if that is the case then they need to get a credit for all the bushfires prior to 1980, because I’m pretty confident there have been ones at least as large, if not larger, dating back millennia.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

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#2386682 7-Jan-2020 14:02

Dingbatt:

tdgeek:

I read that these fires have emitted 2/3 of the annual Australia transport CO2 equivalent. In 3 months.

Am just back from Oz. There was even an article suggesting the fires should be included in Australia’s net emissions. Well okay, if that is the case then they need to get a credit for all the bushfires prior to 1980, because I’m pretty confident there have been ones at least as large, if not larger, dating back millennia.

Trees are carbon-neutral in the long run. They absorb carbon whilst growing, then release it when they decay after dying. Forest fires are just returning the CO2 back the air earlier.

Wood and paper exporters are on to a good thing; carbon credits for growing trees, and exporting the sequestered carbon for someone else to deal with. Win-win!

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#2386870 7-Jan-2020 16:51

if(climateCrisis){
mobilize();
}

ScientistsSpeakUp at Stanford University is doing a programming project. I'm helping lead it. If you message me I can explain more and see if you're interested in helping out. It involves coding up a platform for providing people information about climate change effects and solutions based on the values of the person, so they are informed about things that affect them and the things the care about. And solutions that well align with their worldview, etc. We have some starting code, we just need more coders to help get us to the beta version that looks nice and works smoothly. We have people helping out all across the globe, but we could use more!

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#2387132 8-Jan-2020 00:43

kotuku4:
noddy76:

Taxing poor people into the ground doesn't make it easier for them to be able to afford a new shiny $40k car.. Adding 30c/ltr or whatever punishment you have in mind isn't going to get the 15yo Falcon and Mazda Bongo van driving masses of South Auckland into a shiny EV.

Agreed. Interesting, we are just changing a 15 year old Nissan. 2 year old, one owner, low km Suzuki Vitara 1.6l, rated at 6.0l/100km.

Would have liked a hybrid or EV but no where near our budget. And borrowing too much for a shiny new car doesn't make sense to us.

My main transport for short commute to work is an ebike. The larger family car sits in the shed as much as possible.

While an EV is the best car you can buy for the environment, if it's out of your budget I think the next best thing is buying a second hand ICE vehicle that has already had an NZ owner (IE, not a new ICE vehicle and not a fresh off the boat import). While you're still generating emissions by driving it, you're not introducing a new ICE vehicle into the fleet nor are you generating any new emissions getting the car to NZ.

Looking to buy a Tesla? Use my referral link and we both get credits

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#2387143 8-Jan-2020 07:12

Why Norway leads the world in electric vehicle adoption

"Norway doesn’t make electric cars cheaper; it makes gas- and diesel-powered cars far more expensive than they are in other countries. Taxation on gas and diesel vehicles turns into incentives for electric vehicles, whether powered via batteries or fuel cells. Collectively these zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) have no value-added tax, which is 25 percent on gas and diesel vehicles. There is no registration tax on used car sales, no annual ownership tax, and no fuel tax. Road tolls are “fully or partially” exempt, ferry fares are “strongly reduced,” bus lanes are mostly open to ZEVs, public parking fees are tossed for ZEVs and there is plenty of free charging for BEVs.

The policy works, and has been working for a long time—since 1990, when the import tax was first abolished for EVs."

And

“There is not agreement on how long [exemptions] can be maintained,” Fridstroem said. “It’s not meant to help EVs for an eternity. It’s an introduction to market.”

The electric vehicle exemptions will not last forever, either, even if all political parties agree on it now. But the success of Norway’s experiment is twofold: It’s made electric cars more affordable, and it’s also made them normal.

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#2387159 8-Jan-2020 08:09

While an EV is the best car you can buy for the environment, if it's out of your budget I think the next best thing is buying a second hand ICE vehicle that has already had an NZ owner (IE, not a new ICE vehicle and not a fresh off the boat import). While you're still generating emissions by driving it, you're not introducing a new ICE vehicle into the fleet nor are you generating any new emissions getting the car to NZ.

Not necessarily. If you buy a $1,000 gas guzzler and leave it parked, use it rarely, OK. If it's a daily driver, like most cars, then buying a hybrid is helping.

Basically if it's a model that's a popular taxi / Uber car, it's going to be reliable, cheap on petrol, and better on the environment than a SUV.

The Prius has stellar reputation for reliability. Replacing the batteries doesn't necessarily rule it out, if you don't use a dealer. It's possible to do it yourself, if you are handy, and have an afternoon.

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