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I often wondered what it would be like to live totally free off the main grid.
No more huge power bills and no more worries about power cuts.
Once solar panels are installed all the electricity produced is yours, the excess can be sold back to the main grid [ in australia we can sell our excess electricity back to the power grid].
Water can also be harvested off the roof run off and stored in large water tanks and used on the vegetable garden and in the bathroom shower or to flush the toilet. After filtration it can also be used to drink. It seems insane to use expensive tap water to flush it down the toilet! Collecting rain water is a much easier solution and after the initial outlay for the tanks the water is free.
Living off grid has so many benefits not only financial but you will also help save our dwindling non-sustainable resources like coal, petroleum and gas. Sun and wind are free energy sources and renewable without any pollution created in the process of using them.
Global warming deniers can call us whatever they like, it seems when they run out of real facts the easiest thing to do is revert to school yard bullying tactics and name calling. I would like to send them all to the Pacific island of of Kiribati, Tokelau, Tuvalu, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Let’s find out if they can swim!
Here are some facts:
The ocean rising is a daily reality for the inhabitants of Micronesia; it is affecting their fishing and fresh water supplies as they watch their coastline disappear. This is one place where we can physically see the effects of climate change. It is far too easy for statisticians and climate scientists to argue over climate change sitting at their desks in a nice air conditioned office while climate change is a real and imminent threat to life in the South Pacific.
This is largely ignored by the rest of the world as thousands are fleeing and hoping to relocate to safer lands.
Those islanders do not want to leave the islands their ancestors have lived on for thousands of years, they have no choice, and the seas are rising!
What about the cold winters?
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the last decade [2000 to 2009] appears to be the warmest since record keeping started, here again some will point out that we had one of the coldest and snowiest winters on record.
Cold winters and heavy snow does not negate climate warming, “Snowy winters will happen regardless of climate change” Richard Seager, climate scientist at Lamont-Doherty stated.
According to climatologists this is because of the higher levels of moisture due to larger concentration of co2 in the atmosphere and can happen regardless of the overall climate. .
Human activity is responsible
In 2007 an intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came to the conclusion that human caused greenhouse gas emissions are the primary factor in global temperature rise in the last 60 years.
“After years of preparation for climate talks taking place in Copenhagen through Dec 18,2009, President Obama and other leaders announced that no formal treaty could be produced anytime soon. Instead, the leaders pledged to reach a placeholder accord that would call for reductions in emissions and increased aid to help developing nations adapt to a changing climate and get access to non polluting energy options.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html#
Is Climate change due to human activities? This is something that scientists will argue for a while, the argument will go on I suspect as long as a lot of those same scientists are on the big industries pay roll. It is a sad fact that money and politics is taking the front seat in this debate. All this arguing would be better spent in developing alternatives to our increasing needs for energy from fossil fuels
World population is set to reach 9 billion by 2050, this means there will be more strain on resources, agriculture, clean water etc. The poorer countries may want to catch up with the richer nations and co2 emissions will only increase.
I was recently given a flyer at my local health food store about alkaline water, this flyer went on telling me that the water we get from the tap is not very healthy as it is far too acid for good health! This is a worry as most of us get our drinking water from the tap.
Water is a subject that has come up a lot in discussion, the “rights to clean water”, our use or abuse of water in Western countries and how little the threat of not having plenty of clean water in the very near future is having any impact on the average person.
In Australia, we have had to learn to deal with severe droughts and water restrictions. Has this taught people that water is not an infinite resource? It doesn’t seem to have a lasting impact unfortunately, as soon as the restrictions are lifted I notice people hosing the lawn, the car and generally behaving as though water is once again in unending supply.
We all need H2O to live, but we need it clean and unpolluted, and this is becoming a scarce commodity .
A permaculture guru told me many years ago: “Future wars will not be fought over oil or even land, wars will be fought over fresh water.” Ominous words indeed, just take a look at some of the desert countries and how many disputes and wars there are over water!
Take as an example Israel, Israel has a permanent water shortage, even though it also has one of the best and most innovative water recycling system, there still is not enough for the more extensive agriculture needed. One of the biggest problem is salinization, by drawing too much water the shallow water table is lowered and allows sea water to flow in.
During negotiations with Syria, Israel allocated 150 million cubic meters of fresh water to the Syrians. Some fear this could turn the Sea of Galilee far too saline. Syria is still hoping to reclaim the Golan Heights and for a return to the pre 1967 border, if this were to occur Israel would be deprived of more than a third of it’s fresh water. [Lecture Presented by Professor Emeritus Dan Zaslavsky]
When Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967, they captured the headwaters of the Jordan and thereby secured for themselves the greatest part of the flow of the Jordan River. Israel took possession the final portion of the Jordan River in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon when the Hasbani and Wazzani Rivers which arise in Lebanon and flow into the Jordan were included as part of their self-declared "security zone" .
I don’t intend to enter too much into the political quagmire of this region, This is just to illustrate that wars are fought over water already and no doubt will keep on being fought, check out the following links for more info on this very subject.
Theft of Water
http://israelwaterblog.org/
What are we doing to our water?
Water is not an infinite source, and the more we disregard our waterways and use them as garbage dumps the more we will suffer the consequences, once water is polluted it is very difficult to make safe for consumption.
Water is not an infinite source, and the more we disregard our waterways and use them as garbage dumps the more we will suffer the consequences, once water is polluted it is very difficult to make safe for consumption.
There does not seem to be any point in worrying about our tap water being too acid, we need to make sure it does not become too acid in the first place! It is URGENT that we become aware on how we foul our most important resource, we will not be able to clean it up overnight and just filtering and adding alkaline elements will not make our water pure. Once dirtied and contaminated it will stay that way for a long time!
Check out this Youtube video and see how our oceans are being used as garbage dumps
 It is not always easy living green, we are so conditioned to be consumers that we have to take some serious steps to be green without the consumerism. I know that it is all well and good to recycle and buy green products, but do we really NEED all the stuff that we seem to accumulate on a nearly daily basis?
The mountains of trash we throw out every year are choking our waterways and landfills; and what about the floating trash islands in the ocean, we are not doing the Earth or ourselves a service by being careless consumers. We do not need to purchase new clothes to stay in fashion just as soon as a new trend emerges. We do not need to update our car on a yearly basis or keep up with the latest gadget. There is no need to wear sacks or be a Luddite about it, we just need to be smarter than the latest advertising campaign that tells us that we cannot live without such or such.
Let’s live being fashion by being just plain stylish, classic clothes with classic cuts always do the job and we will not have to be fashion victims.
Things we can do to avoid excess consumerism:
- Turn off TV, record your favourite programs and replay them without the ads, this way you may only watch what you want without the brain washing of commercial TV
- Have a budget and stick to it.
- Make a list of food you need and plan your weekly menus in advance. You will spend less this way and you will not let food go off.
- Buy a little less than what you think you need and stretch it.
- Only allow yourself one small treat a week.
- Learn to mend clothes and alter them, it is a lot more economical and less wasteful than always buying new. Become familiar with Ebay and snag yourself some amazing bargains.
- Check out garage sales or thrift shops, often you can find new or nearly new at a fraction of the price.
- Don’t buy new books, borrow from your local library or join a book exchange in your area. You could save a few trees this way as well as supporting great institutions like the local library.
- This goes to for the newspapers, read them online or at the library.
- Forget the car, ride on buses or get a bicycle, it is better for your health and fitness. Driving a car in the city is a major stress factor, by taking buses you get to know the city and you can relax.
- Buy your music online, this way you bypass the whole CD production, printing of labels and shipping. You will save a lot of resources.
- The same goes for movies, they are easy enough to purchase online.
Learn to see how you can buy less, when you see this really amazing bargain for yet another pair of boots you should get because they are 50% off Always ask yourself: “Do I absolutely need this item?”, you will find that most of the time you can easily do without..
This worm farming adventure all began because I wanted to make my own garden fertiliser; I figured if the bloke at the local market could sell “worm tea” at an exorbitant price, I could just go ahead and make my own.
I went to my local Bunnings [big hardware and gardening store in Australia] and purchased this itty bitty little worm farm, it seemed so small being flat packed in a cardboard box butas I unpacked and assembled it it grew!
It has several layers and the worms start up on the bottom layer and move their way up as they munch through the yummy kitchen waste. My worms weere donated to me by a friend who runs an organic farm/guesthouse, and let me tell you those worms were on steroids, they just went for it and multilied in no time.The whole process can take a while, and I went through a lot of learning about having a worm farm in my garage in the middle of the city.
I have grown much attached to my little wormies, no I don’t yet talk to them but I do reckon they like music!
My first mistake was to accidentally allow some meat to get into the worm farm!
I woke up one morning and went down to my garage in that “just had a cup of tea, wait for brekkie mode” when I saw the ground move, I mean it really moved. My first thought was that’s it, the worms escaped and are coming for me!
I don’t drink booze or partake in any recreational drugs so I looked a little closer, blinked hard and screamed as I stepped in a seething mass of white maggots. I am not kidding; this was for real, wall to wall wriggling white maggots!
I rescued my dog , carried him upstairs [he is a bit old and dopey] and tried to scrape the yucky mess off the bottom of my feet. Had a second cup of tea, breakfast will have to wait.
How was I going to clean up those maggots? Various thoughts went through my head, none of them very charitable towards maggots. Then unfortunately the thought hit me; maggots become flies, I started to have cold sweats, I really don’t like maggots, but flies are even more disgusting.
Maybe I could just burn them out, pour something flammable on them and torch the garage. Dumb thought but satisfying, burning the bastards out!
Aw well, just put on the gum boots and see how I could deal with this problem. I found that by using my garden hose on high, they would just all get swished outside and let them handle the traffic. There was a bit more to it than that, but I got rid of the little suckers.
The problem was with the worm farm, they all just crawled out of there like some seething white mass, and they kept on coming. Another trip to Bunnings, this time to get some lime which I spread all around the worm farm, sprinkled some on top of the lid, some on the compost, and voila, problem sorted!
The moral of the story is Never ever put any meat on your worm farm, especially not on those little farms if you don’t want it to end up a fly farm.
Here we go again, Christmas!
This is the time of year when at every visit to the supermarket you get assaulted with ” Rudolf the reindeer” and ” Jingle bells” at nauseam, it started early September and will go on until Xmas evening, by then I shall be so over it that even getting milk is a chore, I may try earplugs this year. And if this was not cringe worthy enough there is the obscene consumer frenzy building and let’s not forget the ho hoing fat Santas.
I don’t hate Christmas, I just dislike the whole over eating and overindulging business.
Now, if you want to celebrate Christmas be different by having a green Christmas this year. There are so many ways to still have a great time, reduce waste, save the environment and save your money at the same time.
Mountains of garbage are produced every year, just imagine how many greeting cards are sent, how much gift wrapping is torn up and all this just ends up as landfill, very little is recycled.
The most pleasant thing about living a sustainable lifestyle and being green is that not only do you help the environment by consuming a lot less energy and resources, but you also save money.
Reducing our energy consumption is an absolute priority, it only takes a little effort on evey individual’s part and a little re-education. Once we reduce our electricity usage we can see that a lot of the power we use in our home is wasted. The simplest thing to do is to start by switching off all the appliences not in use as well as all lights in rooms that are not occupied. All our TV’s and electrical appliences are on standby, even the ones only used occasionaly, by switching everything off at the socket we could save 5 to 10% of our power bill.
I have started to turn off the hot water heater when i go out of town for more than a day or at least turn it to minimum if you live in an area with frost so as not to damage the system.
There are so many ways to save without any unnecessary hardship, get into the habit of being consumption conscious and you will save a lot.
Here in Queensland we have a government incentive to reduce our water and power use, you will receive a climate smart home service for free if you live in Brisbane or you may have to pay a small fee[$50], they offer for you to save $250 a year . This is performed by an electrician who will install:
- an energy monitor
- energy efficient devices such as energy saving light bulbs
- and an assessment on how further savings could be made and water saving tips
For more info check out The Climate Smart Home Service
These are some of the things you can do right away to help in greening your life and doing your bit to help the planet.
- Reuse and recycle, separate your rubbish and reuse what you can. Plastics, glass and cans as well as paper can all be recycled.Compost, food scraps, green clippings from your garden old paper can all be composted and will produce lovely soil for your garden or pot plants.
- Save water, one of the biggest water wastage is in the toilet and the shower. Keep your showers short, see if you can soap and rinse in less than 5 minutes. In the toilet install a dual flush or fill a plastic bottle with water and place it in the cistern. This will reduce the water used by as much as half a gallon per flush.
- Save energy, turn off appliances at the wall when not in use. Reduce the temperature of you hot water if it is electric [counts for gas too], mostly we have the water on so high that we use a huge amount of cold water to cool it down enough! Keep your air conditioner on a little higher on the hot days, try to use fans instead.
- Install a water saving shower head and make sure that no taps are loose.
- Use the cold cycle in your washing machine, soak clothes that are a little more soiled and therefore use less water and power. Put your load on a shorter cycle, and don’t forget to fill the machine as half loads use a lot more energy.
- Avoid plastic shopping bags, instead purchase some canvas reusable ones.
EcoSafe GKL032195-1 2-1/2-Gallon Compostable EcoBio Plastic Bags, 25-Count
- Walk or cycle more, this will save on fuel and will get you healthier.
- Shop locally, food from far away places has to transported, stored and redistributed, it is not helping the local producers, also food that is store for any periods of time may also be irradiated and sprayed against pests. If you buy from local farmers markets or family owned stores you have a better idea on where the food is coming from and how it is grown.
- Buy organic, it is grown without chemicals, meat that is free range and fed organic food is much better in taste and is better for you.
- Use cotton nappies whenever possible.
- Avoid buying water in plastic bottle, get a good water filter and purchase a non plastic water bottle.
- Clean your house without harsh chemicals, use white vinegar, baking soda and water. Many super markets now sell those cleaning cloth that only need water and no chemicals, however I find that methylated spirits diluted at the rate of one cup to 5 cups of water to which I add a few drops of eucalyptus cleans most surfaces including floors.
- Grow your own vegetables in your garden. You do not need acreage, a normal suburban house garden could supply you with enough vegetables to really save a lot on your grocery bills.
- Start a worm farm, they don’t require much space and the worm castings make great fertilizer. Also a great way to have really silent pets! They won’t ennoy the neighbors or tear up your furniture and they will eat your kitchen scraps.
Worm Farm 3 Tray Garden Compost Bin
- Change your light bulbs for energy saving ones, alternatively you could install LCD’s.
- Save on fuel by driving in a gentler way, there is no need for huge acceleration just to get to the lights, by easing up on your accelerator and driving a little below the speed limit you could save as much as 20% to 25% in fuel.
- Consider getting a hybrid car or change your existing car to bio diesel. This alternative fuel can now be obtained quite easily.
- Car pool, find out if some of your co workers or neighbors would be will to share transport, you would save on fuel, car maintenance, parking and you may make a big contribution to reduceing green house gases.
- Make your own preserves and jams, purchase fruit in bulk while it is in season and share with some one else. Often a jar or homemade preserve is a great ice breaker for a new neighbor. You would help the environment by reusing glass jars and by not consuming another shop bought product.
- Dry your clothes naturally,they will smell of sunshine and dryers use a lot of power.
- Whatever you buy, try to buy the best quality you can afford, it will last longer and use less resources. Quality clothes that last beyond a season also tend to look better, this also goes for furniture, shoes, electrical appliances etc. If a product is of high quality it will age nicely unlike the cheaper imported version. Be also aware of the fact that a lot of goods are made in sweatshops overseas.
- Go vegetarian, less resources are needed when on a vegetarian diet. cattle farming uses a huge amount of water and creates a lot of waste.
- Eat more raw food, less cooking = less power used.
- When you build a new house be aware of using green materials and choose plantation timber over rain forest timber. Insulate your home and install grey water systems.
- Make your own electricity by installing solar panels.
- Collect rain water and use it in the toilet and laundry.
*Black* Free Water Rain Barrel Collection 50 gallon
- Install double glazing to minimize heat loss in the winter and keep the house cool in the summer and insulate the roof and walls, thus removing the need for air conditionning or heating.
- Ride a bicycle and help reduce the road congestion.
- Holiday closer to home, every 1000km by plane produces 500kg of carbon dioxide!
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