Rick Bolt's Blog Random Musings from a Random Bloke

Like always, I have so much I want to communicate but really struggle to put it into words for a blog.  So lets see how this post pans out.

Last night was the all important “Earth Hour”, where electricity consumers lower their consumption for one hour to highlight ummmm… Well to be honest I’m not entirely sure what its meant to high light any more.

Please don’t get me wrong, our family focus is heavily on the environment (Project 18, The You Crew etc). I have previously worked in the renewable energy industry for many years and the electricity industry prior to that for a lot of years. We use only where possible organic (and I mean real organic) products. We do not have any chemicals in the house. We aim to have a lower then expected carbon footprint then most expect from a large family. But to me Earth Hour is not hitting the mark anymore.

The first year Earth Hour made an impact it raised awareness of our use of fossil fuels and that we need to lower our electricity consumption.. The second year although a lot more participated I questioned whether the impact of what needed to be achieved was actually being lost in the hype of Earth Hour. This for me has continued ever since. Last night as I watched the different time zones move into the Earth Hour via twitter there was quite a deal of discussion about who was going to do what and so on. Then as each time zone entered that time period the tweeting from their died down considerably. Then as expected, as that time zone completed its hour the tweeting increased.

But, it was what was being communicated that leads me to believe the message is not actually getting through. A large number of those tweeting indicated that as soon as the time was up, they returned to their normal habits. Lights on, TV’s on. Computers on etc. Now given earth hour is to show the world we want to change what we do and change where we are heading, why participate and then go straight back to the way things were before the “token” Earth Hour. What does that actually achieve?  We talk, We act (for just 1 hour) then we go back to our cosy lives feeling all warm and fuzzy that we did our bit for the environment.

Well you know what? That 1 hour of lower then normal usage was a complete waste of time for so many. If what Earth Hour represents is not followed through and regularly acted upon then it’s a total waste of time. Hence the reason I call it “token”.

And what many people don’t realise is that it did NOTHING at all to lower power consumption or the use of fossil fuels..

As a majority of Australia’s electricity is generated via large scale slow to react fossil fuel burning power stations, a one hour “dip” in the load can not actually be acted upon. These Power generators can not just stop producing, they take time to wind up and wind down and given the immediate nature of the load dump (lights off) and the load increase (Lights on) all within an hour, these stations still had to produce electricity or be in a state that they could feed the grid immediately. The smaller and quicker reacting Gas (and other) type of generator stations may have gone off line and come back on as needed but the larger generators just kept on pumping. If the generators had in fact lowered their output during Earth Hour, when the hour was up and the immediate increase in load occurred they would not have been able to react quickly enough and load shedding would have had to occur. So the bottom line is that while everybody was thinking they were doing their bit, it was actually a total waste of time in regards to the burning of fossil fuels….. That is unless you continue to follow the principles of Earth Hour EVERY day of your life.

And there lies the answer! Following the principle of Earth Hour not for just one hour a year, but everyday of your life. You should only have that warm fuzzy feeling when you are really reducing your consumption long term.  In reality it’s not a hard thing to do. Turn off and leave off those lights you don’t actually need on, turn off at the wall all equipment and appliances your not using. So many things consume power even when “turned off” or on stand by. Unplug battery and mobile phone charges when not in use, turn your PC or lap top off when not actually using it! All very simple things to achieve and that have long term benefits in lowering electricity consumption.

 What action/s can you add to the list to save electricity on a long term basis?

 Thanks for reading my rant

 Rick..

I am almost certain that Cate will have written or posted something about what this blog post pertains to as I know just how much this impacts on her. I have not had any opportunity to check what Cate may have written prior to post this…………………………

I’m a father to what is now days considered a rather large family. A lot of the time I take having children around as granted because they are always there. Although I am told by Cate to think about the safety of the children a lot more then I do. But being the pig headed male that I am, I tend to hear but not listen.

The past few months have really culminated this morning. Far too many times over the past few months the news bulletins I’m listening to or watching are carrying stories of children missing or being hurt or now all to often being killed. This morning while driving the children to school I was listening to news as I always do, waiting in hope for the story to come up of the 3 year old little boy that went missing from his home in Melbourne’s northern suburbs yesterday afternoon. The story came up and  against all hope the little boy was found deceased by the side of a road 20 or 30 km from where he disappeared.  Tears started to roll down my face from under my sun glasses. I was able to hide this from the kids as they chatted and played.  “This just can’t be!”, not another one. Then another story followed of a 6 yo child that was found drowned in a dam at 12:30 this morning in NSW.  Two more families destroyed, two more little lives gone, for what reason? I don’t know either family but I cried at their loss, what parent wouldn’t?

What is going on in this world?  Little people dying by drowning in dams, at the hands of other children and even at the hands of adults… WHY? What has changed in the world that now sees so many children facing such untimely death? Have I had my head in the sand for so long that nothing has actually changed but now suddenly I’m noticing? OR Is it that we are losing more children in this manner more often they we use too and if so, why? And I say “we” as a parent, a parent concerned now for the safety of not only my children but all children.

I can not in any way imagine how the parents of all of these children continue to function with the loss of their children no matter how it occurs. The fear I felt when Charlie went “walkabout” with Jasmine last year was horrific, but he was safe, although given where we lived at the time, the outcome could have been significantly worse. While writing the post I keep having the thought, what has happened where the community helped raise the local children? I know that now days we don’t tend to stay in the same house for long periods, but when a family moves into a community, why isn’t it like when I was growing up? The “new” neighbours would quickly make themselves known and eye would always be watching out for the neighbourhood kids. When this occurred when I was a kid, I’m sure there were nowhere near as many child fatalities?

I am positive that there is nobody other then Cate and Myself watching out for our children…

If you have children, does the neighbourhood help you watch or look out for your children?

Rick

Just a quick update on my Cenerlink office visit post. Thank you for the comments. I have not posted those comments as a number contained words that I didn’t think appropriate on my blog but totally understand the context in which they were made. I would like to make it clear that my post was aimed at the behaviours of the centerlink staff NOT my attempts to look for work. In fact I did state that “Maybe  that can be another post!”. So for those of you enjoying having a go at me for not finding a job, hold those thoughts until I get to that blog post. The one thing I do request is that you have the intestinal fortitude to use your real name and submit a real email address and or web site address. Hiding behind false information and details really defeats the purpose of your comments ( does it not??)

Lets face it, I’m not happy person and I haven’t been for a long time but sometimes I think I have a genuine reason to state that I feel I’m not being treated fairly!

Today was the day I hate the most each fortnight, some of you will have already guessed it. Yep, It’s form lodging day. That’s right, because I can’t find any work (and I don’t need any comments about “ well I’ve never been out of work”) because I am and have been looking for work but obviously failing miserably. Maybe that can be another post!

What I hate the most about this day is the actual visit to the centrelink office. Other then my last visit a fortnight ago which was a bit different to all others, today is the worst day. I hate the standing in line like a sheep with cap in hand feeling like I should be asking “may I have more sir”. This to me is so demoralising. Then to have a person who in all reality is no better then me, in fact who knows I may actually have had more life experience then they have, look down their nose at me, at the way I’m dressed (no I don’t have nice clothes that’s the way life is) that I’m wearing broken prescription glasses that I’m there begging for a hand out while they have the power to look at a screen with all my details that I cant see at the same time and drag out the awkward silence really is plain rubbish.

Wether they mean to do it or not, I feel like I’m being treated like I’m second class? Why do I have to sit there and hold my breath while they made a decision as to wether I’ve filled the form in honestly or not? If you don’t believe me, ring the phone numbers listed or email the address’s I’ve provided. Don’t make me sit there wondering wether I’m going to get my fortnightly hand out or not.

How hard is it to engage me in some conversation? Am I not worthy of your words because I’m on the other side of the screen? If that’s not the case, what could it be? Do they not like their job that much that they just go through the motions begrudgingly? If so, why not leave and let someone who wants to work do the job?

But on the other hand let me point out that my last visit a fortnight ago was very different, on that occasion the gentleman did engage me in conversation, he spun the screen around and let me see what he was doing, showed me what he and I need to complete. We discussed my efforts to find work and even found out that we both worked for the same employer many moons ago and even knew the same people back in Victoria. As bad as I feel having to go and hand in a form for a government hand out, that visit was made bearable and I felt like I was being treated as a person and not a sheep or a number.

So that shows me that they are allowed to communicate in a friendly manner! Why do you think it feels like this? Is this just me or have/do you have the same feeling when dealing with Government agencies?
Thanks again for taking a few moments to have a read.
Rick