How green is my household?

Light pollution

Hi, it’s Bruce again after an 8-week break travelling around Oz by bus and train, visiting national parks. On that trip, I was disappointed by the lack of evidence that anyone is taking global warming seriously. I wrote the following as a possible letter to the editor, but never sent it.

It’s 2am; the Inlander glides into Julia Creek, a dot on the map in western Queensland. Big-bellied men greet big-bottomed women, whisking them away in dusty 4wd’s. Silence returns to the dozing town, nothing moves, dogs sleep.

But the town’s lights blaze on regardless, scores of them, orange streetlamps, white floodlights and assorted shop lights, warding off the relentless darkness, keeping the bogyman at bay, wasting energy.   

It’s the same when the Greyhound bus pulls into WA’s Carnarvon in the wee small hours, and later when the Indian Pacific makes a brief night stop in Parkes in western NSW.

But it’s not just in these three country towns — it happens nightly across the country, in every village and town, suburb and city, millions of lights turning night into day, vapourising the blackness.

But why?

Most of us are happily tucked up in bed by midnight, have no need of this light show outside, yet miles of deserted roads, unused footpaths and closed shops are floodlit till dawn.

Think of the cost to the planet of this wasted energy in terms of greenhouse emissions, and to governments and businesses in terms of budgets.

What would happen if half these high-wattage lights were turned off at midnight? Would anyone notice? Would anyone care? Probably not, yet huge environmental and financial gains would be made if they were.

And wouldn’t it be nice to see the stars again?

Unusual gift!

Thought I'd focus on waste today, as a friend has recently offered us an unusual gift ― the gel crystals from her baby's otherwise biodegradeable nappies. Apparently the used nappies are going into the worm farm where they are breaking down beautifully, except for the crystals, which the worms can't degrade. Similar crystals are sold for adding to the soil to retain moisture, so the suggestion was that we use the nappy crystals in our orchard.

We have yet to make a decision on this kind offer, but it got me thinking about reducing, reusing and recycling. As part of our efforts to become carbon neutral, we're trying to cut down on the amount of rubbish we produce. Our food waste goes to the dogs, chooks or worms; any paper or card goes to the garden (as does paper and card from my workmates); bottles, cans and jars go into Canberra's recycling system; which just leaves plastic packaging. Even so, the large rubbish bin that we put packaging into seems to fill up remarkably quickly. So, one of our new resolutions is not to generate more than one bin load per month.

I guess that being able to provide a home for other people's waste will put us in credit, and on that basis we should certainly accept the gel offer ― I look forward to receiving the first consignment.