Lifestyle as a cause of climate change

The purpose of this page is to get you to think differently about the lifestyle choices you make and to understand better how they are directly connected to the deterioration of our environment. Many of the suggestions in this page are specifically aimed at those living in Far North Queensland but these suggestions will still trigger ideas for others elsewhere in the world. For example, Ergon Energy may be our electricity company but you can still write to yours to find out about their operating mandate and to what extent they have investigated alternative energies.

Energy consumption is an issue that does have direct relevance to frog conservation: energy consumption is driving climate change which will wipe out amphibians (any many other things) so reducing energy consumption helps frogs.

Many people go tree planting once a year or put their bottles in the recycle bin and think: "I've done my bit - that's all I'm doing". But these good things fade into nothingness when compared to the damage of petrol-guzzling cars and air conditioners being blasted all summer because current housing trends do not consider a tropical climate. It's easy to blame the developer for building the wrong type of house but, if you choose to buy that house, you are perpetuating the problem as well as the builder, the council and the relevant state agencies. The choices you make with your wallet are the farthest reaching of all. If you buy it, they will make it.

While we're talking air conditioners ...

Climate change is going to make a lot of people truly miserable as well as wipe out species of plants and animals. As a wealthy country with a gluttonous taste for all things techno, Australia is a voracious consumer of high-energy products up there with the USA and Japan. We've got our big screen TV's and mobile phones and food processors and broadband access and Ipods and it just goes on and on.

That doesn't include the air conditioner needed in every room because of the housing industry's own agendas (cram those boxes in to maximise sales, cheaper construction, get those annoying trees out of the way). However, if you were given a choice of parting with half of your electrical toys in exchange for a less traumatic future, would you do it? We bet you wouldn't! So if you want to keep all your power-hungry luxuries, you really need to compensate for them at least partially. We are suggesting the following "homework assignment".

Go through your home and count up every electrical item that gets plugged into a powerpoint (don't forget that a computer is not one item - it is a cpu, monitor, speakers, printer, etc. so it is really four items). Don't forget those kitchen gadgets, lamps, alarm clocks, rechargers for phones, power tools in the shed, etc. What is your household's total? Is it as frugal as 20? More like 35? Greater than 50??? (Are you starting to feel like an energy hog yet?)

For each electrical item you have, the assignment is that you should write one letter per year to lobby for change in energy policies and consumption. So 38 appliances would mean 38 letters per year. You can do a couple letters a week or just put aside a weekend every few months. Your school age children can help with some of these.

These letters should go to both government and business. Some sample letters can be:

• To your elected members, ask exactly what measures the government is taking to ratify Kyoto and significantly reduce Greenhouse emissions.
• To the Minister for Local Govt, ask what is being done to force councils to adhere to the tropical humid provisions of AMCORD.
• To the same minister, ask what regs are being brought in to force the housing industry to incorporate energy efficiency, space for shade trees and water conservation.
• To your local council, ask what provisions they have for protection by default of all trees over a certain height and/or trunk diameter.
• Write to the housing builders listed in the phone book (Mac Homes, Dixon Homes, etc.) to ask what kinds of energy efficiency techniques they are using as standard in all houses they build. Also ask if they are aware that house blocks that are too small to accommodate shade trees are not appropriate to the tropics and will they modify their site plans to make their housing appropriate.
• Write to the Premier to ask why the operating mandate for QLD electricity suppliers is based on increasing supply to meet demand instead of requiring greater efficiency so that supply does not increase. Also ask the Premier how QLD government can say it is trying to address Greenhouse emission levels (see the QLD section of the Australian Greenhouse Office website) when it continues to mandate increased supply using coal instead of alternatives.
• Ask Ergon Energy what forms of altnerative electricity production they are investing in and what percentage of their output these alternatives represent.
• Ask the oil suppliers (BP, Shell, etc.) if they have purchased patents on any alternative energy products and if yes, when do they plan to introduce these products to the market.
• Ask each of the car manufacturers if they have a hybrid or fully electric engine planned in the immediate future for any of their car models, when might these models be available in Australia, and will they be priced for the economy market.
• Ask the Prime Minister why he considers a few jobs more important than Australia's ability to continue to produce enough food for this country's growing population and for export (because repeated drought and climate change will make it difficult for farmers to produce food if there is no water for crops and livestock).

Speak with your wallet

Think twice about your purchases when you are out spending money. A house with shade trees will be cooler than one sitting in full sun all day, so avoid buying houses in the new, overly dense subdivisions. If you have the resources to buy a new car, chose one with a hybrid engine (Honda and Toyota have these available now), a hydrogen engine, or the Smart car which uses petrol but is very fuel efficient (Irelands on Mulgrave Road has the two seater Smart car for $19,990 drive away!!!). If you need a second car because both parents need their own, can the second vehicle be a motorcycle/scooter or a very small economy car instead of two petrol-guzzlers in the house?

Discount stores make all kinds of "stuff" available cheap but do you need all that "stuff"? "Stuff" not only uses the resources they are made of but requires a lot of energy to manufacture (read coal fired power stations) and energy to transport (read oil). Then when you throw the stuff out, it gets dumped somewhere in landfill or it has to be burned which in turn causes air pollution.

When you are getting rid of all that "stuff" you decided you didn't really need in the first place, don't throw it out if someone else can use it. Send your magazines, books and craft supplies over to a retirement village or a women's shelter. Various items in good condition can be donated to the Salvation Army or Red Cross. Clothing is always useful for one of those global catastrophes that seems to be happening so keep a box of unwanted clothes in the closet that can be dropped off to a relief agency when the call goes out for goods.

Having the latest and greatest is another problem which exacerbates consumerism. If your tv works fine, why do you need to buy a bigger one? If your briefcase just needs a latch repaired, why not get it repaired instead of throwing it out and buying another one? If you need to buy something, can it be second hand? Secondhand electrical goods can be risky but often you can find many other items in good condition or just needing a cleanup and a new coat of paint.

Some items have packaging that can be reused by the supplier so why not check to see if empty packaging can be reused. Egg cartons are a prime example of this concept - Happy Eggs at Rusty's market wants you to return the cardboard trays to them. Printer cartridges and mobile phones are another. We use a few items as well and these are described in our help page.

There are so many other aspects of daily life which can be rethought and simple adjustments made which will reduce the damage being done to our support system, but this page introduces a few things - especially the big one: energy consumption! The main idea is to get you to think about the things you do and encourage changes. You have the power to influence policy in both government. and business circles by making your concerns known (how would politicians and CEO's know otherwise), and by making choices with your wallet. Remember, if you don't buy it, they won't make it.

If you are looking for actions you can take which will help frogs specifically, visit the other pages in our helping frogs section. Please contact us if you have any questions or household tips you would like to share.

Last edited: Oct. 1st, 2005