Decarbonising our transport
By David Coleman For Albury to play its part in combatting climate change, supporting clean and green transport throughout the community offers the best ‘bang for buck’ actions Council can take. Everyone’s health and prosperity will improve enormously if we slash the harm transport causes. The transport sector contributes 21% of New South Wales greenhouse …
Generating electricity
By Bruce Key, member of Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health (WATCH) It is common to hear wind turbines described as blots on the landscape. In addition, solar farms are often criticised for taking up large areas of agricultural land, implying that the land is taken out of production. These criticisms have some validity, but to …
Live lightly and save money
By Bruce Key, member of Wodonga Albury Toward Climate Health (WATCH) For some people, the phrase living lightly implies a spartan existence and additional costs. This need not be so. Take for instance the obvious example of solar panels. The payback period is only a few years and thereafter you save money on your electricity …
Why We Don’t Need Electric Cars but Need Less Cars
By James G Sloan Some people think electric cars are a partial answer to climate change. They are not. We need fewer cars not different cars. Air quality is not the only problem. Moving to all-electric cars, to the extent they replace existing petrol cars, is positive but inadequate. Our urban road system will have …
When less is much, much more
By Chris McGorlick These holidays I had the great pleasure of baby-sitting 8 baby quails for a week. Tiny, fluffy and adorable, they would spend their days scrambling over each other, scratching, exploring or huddling together for warmth. Remove one from the group, however, and instantly they would start screeching distress. Clearly, they relied on …
The value of a garden
By David Thurley Every year in late January or early February Albury will experience a number of days where the temperature is in the high 30s or the low 40s and we are challenged to keep ourselves and our pets cool. What do we do? The first thing we do is reach for the switch …
Climate inequality is right here
By Lauren Salathiel While we were all distracted by the Christmas consumption frenzy, Oxfam released staggering figures that showed that the wealthiest five per cent of Australians – around 1.2 million people – generate more carbon emissions each year than the 11 million inhabitants of the Pacific islands. This is climate inequality on a global …
Ditch the car and lighten the impact
By Chris McGorlick
Getting a driver’s license and a car is a rite of passage of sorts in Australia.
I remember getting mine at 18, and finally having the world (as far as a tank of petrol would take me) at my fingertips.
However, increasingly, I’ve come to see my car …
Reading group shines a light on alternatives for living
By Lauren Salathiel
At 7.30pm every second Monday for the past 12 weeks, I’ve turned on my computer to “meet” digitally with a group of Yackandandah friends and neighbours for a reading group with a potentially world-changing difference.
Our group has been one of hundreds, nation-wide, to participate in a reading, discussion …
Free, clean and safe energy, anyone?
By Lauriston Muirhead Coal is mostly carbon (C). When we burn it for energy, the carbon combines with oxygen (O2) in the air and produces carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 is very good at absorbing heat – so more CO2 means more energy from the sun is retained in our atmosphere. This was clearly demonstrated by …
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About Living Lightly …
Living Lightly is a column in the Border Mail newspaper on Wednesdays featuring local stories about sustainable living.
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