Energy efficiency, emissions & electric cars

Energy efficiency gets a welcome boost this week with a study showing that this measure alone, if adopted by major businesses in Australia, could on its own account for a 5% national reduction in emissions. Can we put up our hand and say we told you so? Ecosave gets in the picture, as do clean energy electric vehicles in California and Japan. Glaciers are melting more than ever. That’s a fact. And reports by international scientists also confirm that climate change is happening faster than IPCC predictions, while the New Scientist gives us some more reasons to seriously accept the role we humble humans have played in all this. Emissions are a global tradable commodity but not in quite the way we expected, while US Energy Secretary tells us all to get our green technology and clean energy working harder and faster. Can we believe that coal power is going carbon neutral or that geothermal is praying for saintly blessings from above? We do know that the Pacific has become a plastic dumping ground and a clean up is overdue. Lucky last, the Sustainability Showcase gets underway in Queensland.
Ken Hickson