Climate Change
https://au.news.yahoo.com/innocent-detail-in-pictures-of-aussie-suburb-r...
Neighbouring streets:
Bulli Road, Toongabie: lots of big trees, 29.3 degrees
Favell Road, Toongabbie, no trees, 50.1 degrees.
urban heat island is real
Several years ago I met a researcher from the Uni of QLD a few years back that had done some research showing a positive correlation between RE values and tree coverage.
Win/Win.
Why aren't we doing it? Great question. Ask your local MP.
Absolutely agree. Leafy suburbs are joy. I particularly favour the big deciduous ones, as less fire risk compared to eucalypts, less liable to conflagrate your house, and when they lose their leaves in winter that actually gives back nutrition into the soil, rather than send leaching acidic oils through it. Allow north facing winter sunlight into built structures. You want a native deciduous? Deciduous beech! Such a beautiful tree.
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2016/...
For all year cover, bunya pines, red cedar. Live in the cold with some water nearby: huon pine, celery top pine. Live on a mountain lake in Tassie? King Billy pine (what a tree) - there are some gem Aussie trees: all hail Gondwana!
all good in principle velocityjohnno, but you might be waiting several lifetimes for those tassie species to give you any shade. And best not to place a Bunya near your house - those basketball sized cones would do a good job on your roof, or your head... Red cedar, yes, but plenty of other better-formed native species options out there. But yes, green infrastructure is the go
Big houses + small blocks = no room for trees. Much easier to clear the lot when building etc. When we bought the first thing I did was plant; WA flowering gums, hakeas, coastal banksias etc. Over 20 years down the track we are finally getting some shade. It’s a long term investment.
yeah, well done and I hear you clearly blackers, but definitely worth it. What's that saying - 'the best time to plant a tree was yesterday, the next best is today'. and 'the right tree in the right place for the right reason'. I lament the loss of the big old habitat trees (typically eucs) throughout suburbia/urban areas/new developments. I know, they are also not really conducive to nearby houses, but they are a massive loss and may never be replaced in many areas. I dont know the answer, it's just sad
It is sad. It is even worse when it is done purely for the sake of the $. Our council has a significant tree register, supposedly meaning these trees are untouchable. Yet a large Norfolk pine quite rare here and also used as a sight guide for pilots using the regional airport in the vicinity was cut down on Christmas day despite being on the register. Just so they could shoe-horn 4 double-story townhouses onto a 16 x 50 m block.
I have a real love/hate relationship with Norfolk Pines. There are two huge ones in town, which when lined up with a dip in the ranges shows me I'm lined up correctly at my fave spot 1.5km offshore.
On the other hand, our neighbours have a big one that sits right in our view, and it stands out like a sore thumb in the landscape, as it's obviously not an NZ native.
Our suburbs and houses are very inefficient and need to be improved. I especially have issues with black roofs in congested new developments. There was a legislation attempt to ban black roofs in NSW (or something like that) that unfortunately failed I believe (does anyone else have more info on this). There is a fantastic article I read a while back on urban heat in Western Sydney. They measured temperatures in kids' playgrounds and they were extreme, to say the least.
Most of the energy is lost on heating/cooling, if we could control this with better materials and tree coverage even inflation wouldn't such a big issue.
And this paragraph nails it, even though I can't see this implemented in Australia.
“What we could do right now to stop creating more hot suburbs,” says Sebastian, “is to build heat-smart density and build upwards. Apartment buildings of five to fifteen storeys arranged in clusters that shade each other, no more free-standing homes. This clustered housing supports two or three thousand people, and then around that you leave the space open: parklands, lakes, recreational facilities, picnicking areas where community can actually happen.”
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/urban-heat-island-effect-western-sydney/
Been tried before by town planners in those big apartment towers of the 1960s - became social decay by 1990s. Seems like more concrete to fix a concrete problem? How about just better trees in existing locations + time to see benefits?
Dad was of the generation of town planners that built those towers, I got to survey what the result was.
Well, there are 2 things in play:
1) How do we fix what is already there (existing, established suburbs)?
2) How do we improve the process so what will be built in the future is better quality than today?
Plating trees in the existing suburbs is fine but we need a better plan for the new developments. Concrete is not the problem, it's actually the lack of it that's the problem. We only build slabs out of concrete (many not even that) but the actual house is built out of cheap, poorly insulated materials that take an enormous amount of energy to heat and cool. Basically, we are wasting electricity in this country.
solutions - maybe make passivehause design the standard for new builds. Green roofs and walls. A good example combo of green roof and solar was shown on the ABC Gardening Aus show recently (in Sydney) with good research being done to measure and prove the benefits of this combo approach for temperature, solar power generation, and cleanliness (chemical residues) of any run-off against a control normal solar set-up on a bare roof. Seems a good climate mitigation and aesthetic solution.
and building up has to be the answer - mass timber mylti-level buildings. More building with timber supports good forest management. Going up will be necessary as we cannot keep up the urban sprawl to accommodate an ever increasing population and demand for housing in popular coastal regions. And accompany that urban densification with good urban forest/urban greening schemes.
Without bringing population growth into the discussion, surely all of the above are just bandaid solutions.
Have you seen rammed earth homes Flollo? They are mint. Very thick walls.
Aussie scientists harvest electricity from air:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/electricity-is-in-the-air-as-scientists-...
When I saw the headline I thought they'd quantified and harvested the aether, but in this case it's a bacterium. Amazing potential!
velocityjohnno wrote:Aussie scientists harvest electricity from air:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/electricity-is-in-the-air-as-scientists-...
When I saw the headline I thought they'd quantified and harvested the aether, but in this case it's a bacterium. Amazing potential!
Cool.
velocityjohnno wrote:Aussie scientists harvest electricity from air:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/electricity-is-in-the-air-as-scientists-...
When I saw the headline I thought they'd quantified and harvested the aether, but in this case it's a bacterium. Amazing potential!
Isn't it thought that Nikola Tesla discovered this source of energy years ago, but it has been suppressed for years due to it being 'free.'
Interesting....
velocityjohnno wrote:Have you seen rammed earth homes Flollo? They are mint. Very thick walls.
Yeah, I know about it but didn't see it in practice. It looks quite legit and is definitely something that improves building efficiency.
GreenJam wrote:solutions - maybe make passivehause design the standard for new builds. Green roofs and walls. A good example combo of green roof and solar was shown on the ABC Gardening Aus show recently (in Sydney) with good research being done to measure and prove the benefits of this combo approach for temperature, solar power generation, and cleanliness (chemical residues) of any run-off against a control normal solar set-up on a bare roof. Seems a good climate mitigation and aesthetic solution.
and building up has to be the answer - mass timber mylti-level buildings. More building with timber supports good forest management. Going up will be necessary as we cannot keep up the urban sprawl to accommodate an ever increasing population and demand for housing in popular coastal regions. And accompany that urban densification with good urban forest/urban greening schemes.
Absolutely. I actually have a green roof. My block is on a slope so we did a cut, built the house, and then backfilled from the top. The temperature inside the house is very consistent the whole year round ~20 degrees. I actually don't use air conditioning at all, it's never too hot. My electricity bills in summer are negligible with long days (no need for lights) and no air con required. I spend way more on coffee than I do on electricity. Winter does require heating and I use underfloor electrical which can cost a bit but I programmed it to only work on off-peak/shoulder and it's not too bad.
andy-mac wrote:velocityjohnno wrote:Aussie scientists harvest electricity from air:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/electricity-is-in-the-air-as-scientists-...
When I saw the headline I thought they'd quantified and harvested the aether, but in this case it's a bacterium. Amazing potential!
Isn't it thought that Nikola Tesla discovered this source of energy years ago, but it has been suppressed for years due to it being 'free.'
Interesting....
Yeah, as I understand it you could call it an early prototype that didn't secure additional funding (in modern language). The problem with that technology is the long-distance transmission. It's not impossible but energy losses with that technology would be massive, making the system very inefficient. That is why we distribute energy through shielded cables. A good comparison is the 5G network - good in some areas - nonexistent in others. Unless you literally place towers (small cells help) 'all over the place' its footprint will always have issues. But maybe there is a future in Tesla's technology, there are startups that come out with similar things all the time. Not sure if anyone had success in modern times?
AndyM wrote:Without bringing population growth into the discussion, surely all of the above are just bandaid solutions.
We are talking about building efficiency and not fixing all the world's issues. Even if population numbers stay the same old buildings will fall apart and new ones will be built. The question I am asking is how do we build them in a better way?
velocityjohnno wrote:Have you seen rammed earth homes Flollo? They are mint. Very thick walls.
@VJ. I built a rammed earth weekend cottage on our 10 acres 20 years ago, the best, yep, they are MINT. The entire build all from waste except the concrete i pumped into the raft slab. $70k build cost us $5,900 using recycled everything.AW.
ENERGY NEWS
As of July, nationally, all power costs will increase by 30-33%.
NOW is the time to go to your relevant state government web site and get access to all things renewable with great rebates and freebies.AW
AlfredWallace wrote:ENERGY NEWS
As of July, nationally, all power costs will increase by 30-33%.
Sadly there was probably people who voted for Albo just because he said if Labor got in their electricity bills were going to be reduced by $275 a year by 2025.
Instead based on the average electricity bill of $1,250 a year a 33% increase is $412.50.
So its very realistic to suggest that by 2025 instead of electricity bills reducing by $275 they might increase by double that $550, possibly more.
indo-dreaming wrote:AlfredWallace wrote:ENERGY NEWS
As of July, nationally, all power costs will increase by 30-33%.
Sadly there was probably people who voted for Albo just because he said if Labor got in their electricity bills were going to be reduced by $275 a year by 2025.
Instead based on the average electricity bill of $1,250 a year a 33% increase is $412.50.
So it’s very realistic to suggest that by 2025 instead of electricity bills reducing by $275 they might increase by double that $550, possibly more.
Indo-Dreaming > Hi. How are you?
Yes, fair point, you are probably right.
A better part of our nation is experiencing living difficulties, this energy increase will hit hard, so its even a bigger incentive to source energy from your own or others clean energy production supply, BTW its cost less to run as well. AW
Doing well but very busy.
Im currently doing a new build and designed my whole roof around solar panels, so can fit as many as possible and all face north, looking forward to the day i can reduce my energy bill as much as possible.
indo-dreaming wrote:Doing well but very busy.
Im currently doing a new build and designed my whole roof around solar panels, so can fit as many as possible and all face north, looking forward to the day i can reduce my energy bill as much as possible.
Indo. Good stuff. You have gas or electric water heating ? Nice waves on SC today. First in the water where i surfed, sublime. AW.
Oliver Stone:
April Fools joke Wazza ?
If this is true. Fantastic news. https://t.co/ViREXko6dy
— Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO (@nyunggai) April 2, 2023
following on from North America's huge snow season, Electroverse can't resist in taking a cold dig:
https://electroverse.info/canada-20c-freezing-scandinavia-norwegian-aval...
heaps more snow, colder, for longer.
Climate change blamed for increase in home runs over the last ten years.
"The authors found that for every 1 degree Celsius increase in average global temperature, there could be 95 more home runs across a baseball season. If temperatures were to rise to 4 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century, the research says climate change could account for as much as 10 percent of home runs (but in that scenario, we would also have much bigger environmental problems)."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/07/baseball-h...
Just in case we are forgetting.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/environment/wildfires-rage-in-parts-of-northern...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-14480-8#citeas
"This study observes and detects the emergence of nonlinear and rapidly changing relationships between the higher fire risk weather conditions associated with climate change and the impacts of fire on societies."
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