The Green Directory - Australia's Green Business Directory

We keep hearing that we need to reduce our environmental damage but we are not often given practical steps to take and no hype information about what we should eat, what does damage and what can easily be avoided.  There are lots of special interest groups and businesses “greenwashing” themselves.  This article gives some practical help for every day issues.

Food is responsible for 37% of our greenhouse emissions and transport is 10%. The same study suggested that if we reduce our red meat consumption by 150 gm per week it is equivalent to leaving your car off the road.  I had previously heard that transport was 14% but it is certainly a lot less than food and agriculture.  There is a lot of personal choice here.  I seldom eat red meat because I don’t like the taste and I prefer fish and free range poultry but that is personal although both those protein sources are less greenhouse gas emitting.  I am not advocating vegetarianism because it certainly does not suit my metabolism and if we look at our teeth we have evolved to be omnivores or mixed eaters.  We don’t have big canines like cats and dogs, but equally we don’t have herbivorous molars like cows and horses.  Our nearest relatives certainly eat birds and small mammals when they can as well as leaves, fruit and seeds.

A recent report stated that agriculture is responsible for 40% of greenhouse gasses, 70% of total methane and 80% of Nitrogen oxides (NOX) – this comes from biochemical processes in soils.  There are large losses of N from fertilizers – between 15 and 50% of N fertilizer goes missing.  If you use N fertilizer, you need to improve the efficiency of use.   This matters in the garden as well!  What is interesting is that Methane and NOX have a much longer lasting impact than carbon dioxide.  I have seen other reports that lower this figure – it seems to depend on who does the report.

So let’s totally change subject.  One of our favourite pastimes is boating and fishing and we need to think how we power our boats.  Two-stroke engines produce up to 10 times more water pollution than four-stroke.  The cocktail of chemicals outboard motors leave in their wake acidify waterways and deposit long-lasting carcinogens.  Heavy metals can be bound in sediments but as outboard motor emissions lower the pH of the water, heavy metals can be released as the water becomes acidified. The heavy metals in the acid water then become bio available and enter the food chain.  The result is that underwater pollution is up to 1,000 per cent worse with two-stroke engines.

We also need to think about how much we waste

• The US generates 25% of global waste (236 million tonnes of municipal waste) with only 5% of the world population.
• No 2 is Russia
• No 3 is Japan
• No 4 is Germany but because of its large population, 83 million, it generates 1/3 of the waste per head of the US.
• Spain with 45 million people produces the least waste on the list.
• Are we heading down the US lifestyle route?
• How much do we recycle?

Types of Energy

• According to official Eurostat figures, the wind and hydro section of the power market was 13.7% of total power in the EU.
• Nuclear power fell down to 30.6%
• Denmark is the leader in wind power producing 23% of its electricity, Germany 13%, Spain 12% and UK 1%.

What cars should we drive?

Interestingly, the Greens are opposed to the luxury car tax because many of the imported cars from the EU are much more energy efficient.  
Following on from this, an online survey conducted by UMR, Australia's leading research and issues management company, has discovered that over a quarter (28%) of people believe they will be driving a hybrid car in five years' time, and an overwhelming majority (76%) believe that fuel efficient cars should have lower taxes on than on other vehicles.

Most Australians (81%) believe that there will be the same number or more cars on the road in five years' time but, due to climate change and the rising cost of fuel, cars will be depreciating in value far more quickly than they do today.  My comment here is that decent public transport, with seat belts, would be a good idea in the cities but I cannot see how rural people can possibly mange without them, given the distances involved in this country.

Author: Jean Cannon, www.enviroaction.com.au