Clear the Air eMagazine October 27, 2009

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Clear the Air eMagazine October 20, 2009

Check out the latest eMagazine from Clear the Air, featuring news on green articles from around the world.

As well as viewing it page by page, you can also:

Download it as a PDF

Download it for your Amazon Kindle/Sony ebook

Simon TurnerFollow me…

Join our Fan Page

How To Avoid Wasting Food – Before It Goes Off in Your Fridge!

Here’s some tips on how to avoid wasting food:

Vegetables

1.              Make left over mashed potato into patty shapes and cook them in butter for a quick “hash brown”.

2.              Trimmed ends of from onions, carrots, celery, capsicums can be kept in the freezer and when a reasonable amount is stored, place in a pot with water and make a vegetable soup or stock.

3.              If only using part of an onion or capsicum, chop up the remainder and store in the freezer and use next time you need diced onion or capsicum.

4.              Left over roasted vegetables can be turned into a soup buy adding stock and blending. Or alternatively add to a pan of butter and fry and just prior to the browning completed, add an egg – bubble and squeak – yum.

5.              When preparing pumpkin or squash, do not throw the seeds out. Rinse them and roast in the oven.

6.              Celery leaves can be added to soups, stews, casserole and meatloaf – great flavour boost.

7.              If tomatoes are just about to turn bad, dry them in the oven and store them in a little olive oil in the fridge.

8.              Vegetables such as peas, beans, corn, carrots, broccoli, sprouts, cauliflower and spinach can be blanched in hot water and placed in the freezer.

9.              Zucchini about to go off? Make zucchini bread or muffins and store in the freezer.

Fruit

1.     1. Berries, bananas, melons and mangoes make great smoothies in the fruit is about to go off.

2.     2. Fruit kebabs are a great treat for kids – fresh or barbecued.

3.     3. Too many apples – make an apple sauce or apple butter.

4.     4. Most fruit can be made into a fruit crumble. Assemble and bake it or prepare it, freeze it prior to baking.

Breads and Grains

1.              Make croutons for Caesar Salad from left over bread. Store in air tight container.

2.              Bread crumbs are best made with stale bread.

3.              Keep broken past in a container and add to a rice and vegetable bake.

4.              Left over rice can be added to oatmeal for breakfast.

5.              If the kids don’t like to the crusts on their sandwiches, save the crusts and turn into bread crumbs.

Meats

1.     Don’t throw out chicken, beef, lamb or pork bones. Boil them and make stock which can be frozen.

Dairy

1.     1. Lots of little bits of cheese and me added into a macaroni and cheese dish.

2.     2. If eggs have been kept a while, freeze them by beating the eggs and pour into an ice cream tray.

3.     3. Too much milk and unable to drink it – freeze it.

Herbs

1.     1. Chop herbs and place in an ice cube tray with a little water. To be used in cooking, not to be used in a salad.

2.     2. Herbs can be frozen. Some will turn black, however the flavour is the same.

3.     3. Make pesto with left over basil.

4.     4.  Dry herbs by hanging them by their stems in a cool dry location. When dry, remove from stems and store in airtight containers.

Don’t Waste Anything

1.              Left over coffee in the pot? Freeze it in ice cube trays. Cubes can be used for iced coffee or to cool down too-hot coffee. You can do the same with leftover tea.

2.              Left over wine? Use it to de-glaze pans to add flavour to whatever you are cooking.

3.              Left over stock or broth can be placed in ice cube trays and frozen.

4.              Left over tomato paste can be placed in ice cube trays and frozen.

5.              With a little bit of honey in the bottom of the jar add a squeeze of lemon juice and swish it around. Lemon juice will loosen the honey and it will make a great cup of tea.

Not only will these tips help reduce you food waste, there is a big saving in food bills.

Extracts from Planet Green

Water Conversation in Australia

A few facts

- Australia is the driest inhabited continent.

- Australia use more than 23 buckets of water around their homes every day.

- Mulching around plants helps prevent water loss through evaporation.

- Downpipe diverters take water from your house roof for use in gardens.

- Pool covers can reduce water loss saving on the need to top up water levels.

There are in excess of 160 water-saving products and services that carry the Smart WaterMark label.

Look for the Smart Approved WaterMark – it is Australia’s labeling program from products and services that help reduce outdoor water use. Products carrying the logo – from rainwater harvesting, irrigation and greywater systems to garden items, pool covers and waterless car washes, are independently proven to save water, helping you make an informed choice when purchasing products and services.

Who Cares About Our Water?

Findings from the third annual NewsPoll survey, commissioned by the Smart Approved WaterMark found:

1.              the number of capital city residents who believe the water situation is extremely serious has dropped by 17 percentage points – from 44% to 27% in the past two years.

2.              Participants that consider the water situation to be either very or extremely serious also declined from 84% to 69%.

3.              The overall trend highlights the need to remind people that just because it rains people should not stop thinking about saving water.

4.              73% of people in 2008 thought water restrictions are about right, compared with 54% in 2006.

5.              The survey showed that people still consider technology to be the most effective mechanism to reduce water use followed by rebates, education, restrictions and finally, pricing.

6.              All cities have seen an increase in people buying products with associated water rebates.

Sustainability and Energy Saving Globes

The Australian Government has placed an important ban on traditional in candescent globes (or bulbs of course) that are still used in many buildings. A sales ban is expected to commence in November 2009. Once the sales ban is in place, we will no longer be able to purchase traditional pear-shaped incandescent light globes.

  

  Incandescent Light Globes – On The Way Out

An efficient lighting alternative is the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), which uses around one-fifth of the electricity needed to produce the same light and can last up to ten (10) times longer than a traditional pear shaped incandescent light globe. These are the energy saver fluorescent gloves we have all become familiar with in recent years.

According to the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, the “phase-out will deliver considerable savings to the environment and the economy. Across the country, the move to more efficient lighting, such as CFLs, is expected to save around 30 terawatt hours of electricity and 29 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2020. This is equivalent to permanently decommissioning a small coal-fired power station or taking more than 500,000 cars off the road permanently. It is expected to result in savings to the Australian economy of around $380 million per year by 2020 and result in net savings of more than $50 per year for each household that changes all of its incandescent light globes to CFLs.

  

Compact Fluorescent Lamps – Energy Efficient Future

Now is the time to audit your lighting and move to more energy efficient and reliable lighting.

For more information visit here

DID YOU KNOW: Coal Plants Do $62 Billion of Damage a Year to the US Environment

Coal Plants Do $62 Billion of Damage a Year to the US Environment

DID YOU KNOW: Reduce Pizza Box Waste

Australians eat 190,000,000 takeaway pizzas each year, producing a lot of cardboard boxes, headed for the bin. If scraps of cheese and pastry remain in the boxes, don’t throw the box, put it in a compost bin or use it as a cover for a worm farm. Worms will eat and scraps and the box!

Christine Watson

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DID YOU KNOW: The Amount of Carbon Produced by New Clothing

Every dollar spent on new clothing produces approximately six garbage bags full of CO2 emissions.

DID YOU KNOW: CD’s versus Downloads

Did you know:

When you buy music online you cut carbon emissions by 40% to 80% compared with buying CDs.

A Message to Australian’s from Oxfam on Climate Change

Another round of UN climate change talks has just ended in Bangkok – and again we saw a lot of talk and not enough action.

Less than 50 days now remain until the UN climate change meeting in Copenhagen. Here we must get a safe and just global climate agreement. A solution is possible, but the leaders of rich industrialised countries like Australia need to find the political will. This is where you can help.

The Australian Government’s emissions reduction targets are far too low. Taking these targets to Copenhagen will not help to achieve the effective global climate agreement that’s needed.

We need to increase political pressure on our government if they are to improve their target.

What’s our government’s position on climate change?

Current Australian Government policy is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 4-24% below 1990 levels by 2020. The latest science indicates that developed countries, including Australia, must adopt emissions reduction targets of at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, if the world is to have any hope of avoiding dangerous climate change. Historically Australia has released huge amounts of greenhouse gases in to the atmosphere. Today we are still one of the world’s largest per capita greenhouse gas polluters. We have a responsibility to be part of the solution.

While climate change is an international issue, the real pressure on governments to take action comes from their domestic constituency ie. from public opinion, the media, but importantly from the parliamentary opposition. Whether or not the Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) is passed in the Senate, the emissions reduction targets are far too low. The Opposition needs to make this a key message.

Without the Federal Opposition pushing the Australian Government, there is little incentive for the Government to do better. This needs to change.

Take action now

What’s wrong with Australia’s targets?

The Government has said it will go to Copenhagen with a maximum emissions reduction target of 25% below 2000 levels by 2020. What’s wrong with that? A number of things:

• A target of 25% below 2000 levels correlates to about 24% below 1990 levels. This falls well short of the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2007 recommended range for developed countries of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020.
• This 25-40% range was the previous ‘gold standard’ and is now outdated. Even when it was considered to be the range to aim for, it was only expected to give the world a 50/50 chance of keeping warming to 2ºC or less above pre-industrial levels. An increase of 2ºC was previously thought to be the maximum safe limit.
• Since 2007, every indication from science is that things are worse than was previously thought. The latest science indicates we should be aiming to keep warming to below 1.5°C in order to avoid dangerous climate change. That means that the 25-40% reduction range for developed countries is far too low.
• Furthermore, despite all the scientific evidence, the conditions attached to the Government’s 25% target are so stringent that they are unlikely to be met, in which case the maximum target will become a mere 15% below 2000 levels by 2020.

Write to the Federal Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, and Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water, Greg Hunt, showing your support for higher emissions reductions targets and ask them to put pressure on the government to commit to a 40% reduction target (by 2020) before Copenhagen.

Simon Turner

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DID YOU KNOW? Recycling 1 soft drinks can could save enough energy to power a TV for 3 hours

Recycling 1 soft drinks can could save enough #energy to power a TV for 3 hours!

The Sad Truth by Can Ertekin: Stop Global Warming

This video is outstanding, moving and extremely touching.

It’s hard not to take global warming seriously after watching this. We’re not just saving the planet for our own benefit, after all.

Do just a little more today and tomorrow than you did yesterday.

Simon Turner

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GREEN FACT: Up to 5,500 ltrs of water is wasted through a leaking tap per year.

Fact: Up to 5,500 ltrs of water is wasted through a leaking tap per year.

Clear the Air eMagazine October 14 2009

Check out the latest eMagazine for Clear the Air.

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