They got across!

On Sunday morning I denied myself my usual sleep-in to join the multitudes at the Curran St carpark, in the shadow of that famous piece of infrastructure: the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The crowd of thousands included families, young activist types, lycra-clad middle-aged men and just about every other kind of person you can think of. And there were road bikes, mountain bikes, choppers, unicycles, skateboards, scooters and wheelchairs. They were all there with one purpose in mind: to get across. getacross is an organisation of individuals who think it's stupid that cyclists and pedestrians are unable to cross the iconic Harbour Bridge. These sustainable forms of transport are currently unavailable to many thousands of people who make the daily commute to the city from the North Shore. Apparently 78% of Aucklanders are in favour of being able to walk or cycle across the Bridge. But the NZ Transport Agency doesn't want a bar of it. So, the people at getacross thought, 'why not show the Transport Agency just how many people's preferences they're denying?'

Although the getacross people had been organising the demonstration for ages, even that morning they still weren't sure if the Transport Agency would let the people cross. The Harbour Bridge is part of the motorway, so it's actually illegal for pedestrians and cyclists to go on it. But getacross had requested special permission to access the Bridge to mark the 50th anniversary of its construction. After hyping up the crowd with speeches from councillors, politicians and activists, they herded us all over to the on-ramp to ask the head of the Transport Agency, Wayne McDonald, to let us onto the Bridge. Apparently he said no, but that was lost in the excited crowd's enthusiastic chanting. Then all of a sudden the police barrier parted and people streamed onto the Bridge. It wasn't until I saw the TV coverage last night that I realised that permission had never been given, and some poor motorists were held up at the bottom of the Bridge for over an hour. 

The media coverage was surprising. There was talk of "an unruly crowd storming the Bridge". From my position amongst the throng, a more accurate description would be "a cross-section of New Zealand society trying to get in touch with their environment, and, more importantly, trying to get the people with the power to change things to listen to their point of view". Apparently the action hasn't changed the Transport Agency's position on pedestrian and cycle access to the Bridge one bit. Whether that holds true long term remains to be seen. But, what the gathering achieved straight away was to make a huge proportion of New Zealanders aware of what getacross and other organisations are trying to achieve. That in itself seems like a success to me.

Laptops: out with the old; in with the new

When I started Uni, my parents bought me a laptop as a gift for graduating from high school. It was fabulous, it has served me well, but it was six years old this February. That's pretty much geriatric in laptop years. It was showing its age. It took about ten minutes to start up, couldn't go more than five minutes without being plugged in to the power supply, and using multiple programs at once was often a bit too much for it to handle. A couple of months ago I accepted it was retirement time for my faithful assistant and bought myself a new 13 inch Apple Macbook. It's beautiful and it works like a dream. It also stacks up pretty well in the environmentally friendly stakes. The LED backlit display is very energy efficient, a lot of the components are recyclable, and they have eliminated many of the toxins that are commonly used in manufacturing laptops.

Ever since I got my new Macbook, my old laptop has sat neglected in a corner of my room. I didn't think it was worth trying to sell on Trademe, because new computers are so cheap these days, but I thought it would be nice if someone else could get some benefit out of it. So I decided to list it with DonateNZ. The DonateNZ concept is fabulous. Donors can list items that they think someone else out there might want, and recipients (who have to meet certain criteria) can browse the donations on offer or post their wishes. It was very quick and easy to list my laptop, and it was snapped up by a school the same evening. They were very grateful, and I even received a "warm fuzzy" from them in my email the next day. The good feeling I got from donating my old laptop far outweighed the benefit of the measly amount of cash I might have made if I'd managed to sell it. There are plenty more wishes waiting to be fulfilled - can you help?

(Green) power to the people

Image by nkzs

Have you ever really thought about where your electricity comes from?  In New Zealand, electricity is generated from a variety of sources: coal, gas, geothermal energy, hydro dams, wind…  You probably know that hydro dams and wind power contribute less to global warming than creating electricity by burning coal or gas.  But most, if not all, of the power companies in New Zealand provide you with electricity derived from several different sources, and it can be difficult to find out how green the electricity you use in your home really is (or isn’t).  You can get an idea by using Greenpeace’s Clean Energy Guide.  It can tell you the which electricity company you should use, depending on where in New Zealand you live, to minimise your contribution to climate change. 

I’m currently signed up with Mercury in central Auckland and was disappointed to see that it fell on the red part of the Clean Energy Guide’s thermometer rather than the green.  Switching to a greener electricity provider seems to me like a low-effort way to reduce my carbon footprint.  But switching to the company that is the greenest on Greenpeace’s Clean Energy Guide is not the only option.  Powershop’s TV ad campaign really caught me.  The funky graphics and revolutionary slogan (“power to the people” – oh yes please!) have had me hanging out to find out more.  So today I took the plunge and signed up.  First I was able to check out how much Powershop could save me from what I currently pay.  Saving $100 per year alone probably wouldn’t have been enough to convince me to switch, but the well-packaged green power options hooked me.  The Green Power Company offers to offset the electricity you use with carbon credits, Tree Power will plant a tree for every 30 units of power you use, and Flower Power is just plain cute. In the end I opted for Tree Power, because I like the thought of contributing to an actual physical action that will benefit the local community in which it takes place. Now lets hope that I can keep track of my flat’s power usage well enough to avoid leaving my poor flatmates in the dark on a cold winter night. 

350

Today I was inspired by Bill McKibben, founder of the global 350 movement. He gave a free public talk in Auckland about 350 and how New Zealanders can get behind it. The 350 movement aims to put pressure on governments to set carbon emission targets that will reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million (ppm). There is growing scientific consensus that 350 ppm is the "magic number" that we need to reach to avoid catastrophe. Currently the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at 387 ppm and rising. Scary stuff! The good news is we have a window of opportunity to avoid catastrophic and irreversible damage to the Earth, so long as we act quickly and dramatically. Unfortunately all of us switching to environmentally friendly lightbulbs won't cut it. We need to think big.

The 350 movement has deemed October 24 2009 as the day to show the governments of the world that we want them to take big steps to bring their carbon emissions down so that we can reach 350 as soon as possible. After Bill had shared anecdotes like how he and some friends mobilised 1000 people in the US State of Vermont to march for five days to their state government buildings and convince all of the state government candidates to pledge to fight for strict carbon emissions targets if they were elected, I was convinced to sign myself up to help organise activities for October 24th. You can too at www.350.org.nz (or www.350.org if you live outside New Zealand). You can also see 350's funky animation showing the causes of climate change and what we can do to fight back. Bill's talk was recorded and will be put up on the website. It's inspiring - you should check it out.

My flash of inspiration

One workday lunchtime I was downtown to run an errand. While I was there, I found myself drawn towards stores by the fashionable, pretty things in them.  My pulse sped up as I thought about what I would wear them with, and where I would wear them to. But before I actually bought anything, I was struck by another feeling: guilt. If I bought these fashionable, pretty things that I didn't really need, I knew I would feel guilty afterwards. I know that I shouldn't buy things I don't really need. I should buy second hand when possible. But sometimes it's hard to live according to my feelings, beliefs and views on sustainable living as a twenty-something city-living "young professional" with a disposable income. When all my friends and colleagues are keeping up with the latest fashions, will I become a pariah if I don't do the same? Aren't I expected to keep up appearances if I expect people to take me seriously in my profession? Won't I miss out on the "good life" if I follow sustainable living practices? Am I the only one who struggles to reconcile my feelings, beliefs and views on sustainable living with the reality of living as an urbanite with a disposable income? Surely not, and that's what inspired me to start this blog.

In an ideal world we would ignore what society or other people expect of us and live in accordance with our beliefs, right? But in reality, this can be hard. We are constantly bombarded with messages that buying new things will make us happy, and that we need new things to get ahead, or even to keep up with the pace of modern society. I don't want to remove myself completely from consumer influences and live on the smell of a (bio-)oily rag. I want to wear nice clothes, I want to have nice things, I want to travel. I want to make the most of what life has to offer, but at the same time minimise my impact on the Earth. And I want to connect with others who live with the same challenge as me of reconciling the "good life" with living sustainability. I hope that together we can work out how to achieve the right balance.