10 reasons the proposed Road User Tax is bad policy
Here are the 10 main reasons why the planned Road User Tax is flawed and counterproductive for Australia.
Climate change
SA Industry Climate Change Conference
Very much looking forward to this week’s South Australian Industry Climate Change Conference. Last year’s event was very influential in increasing industry ambition on effective climate action, with an emphasis on practical outcomes. It was very well attended and brilliantly organised. Highly recommended.
Music – Society – Planet
A guide to this website
Music
- Gig guide – My upcoming adventures on stage with my friends in folk music and trad jazz are detailed on my Gig Guide.
- WOMADelaide – This is my favourite weekend of the year, and you’ll find some WOMADelaide stories here.
Society
- Inspirational activists – I’ve been lucky enough to meet and interview some extraordinary people, activists who work tirelessly to be on the right side of history: people who know the inequity of the status quo simply isn’t good enough and must be challenged. You’ll find some activist stories here.
Planet
- Saving the planet – It’s a slightly silly phrase – “saving the planet” – because the planet is quite capable of looking after itself. In fact if humans disappeared off the face of the earth, the planet would doubtless do better without us. But what we urgently need to do is to preserve our fragile life-support systems for the sake of future generations. We have a lot of work to do in both climate activism and practical emissions reduction projects. There are some examples of climate action here.
- Urban Ecology Australia – For a couple decades I’ve been a member of Urban Ecology Australia, an organisation that invented a cohesive theory of ecological cities, defined Ecopolis Development Principles, and then set about building a living example of an inner-urban eco-village: Christie Walk. You’ll find posts about my most recent sustainable living adventures here.
Planet Talks at WOMADelaide 2023
WOMADelaide is best known as a glorious long weekend of music and dance from around the world. But Planet Talks also gives some special opportunities for sharing ideas with some of the world’s most inspiring thought leaders and activists who are working on key global environmental and justice issues.
Big ideas to share
For 2023 much of the focus will be on the First Nations Voice to Parliament, the Race to Netzero, Rights for Nature and Crimes Against Nature.
Read More
From Ecocide to Eden: learning from luminaries
With WOMADelaide 2022 coming up fast, it made me reflect on previous festivals.
Might it be that – in simplistic terms – there are two types of people: those who use their talents to enrich themselves, and those who use their special skills to enrich the lives of others? My experience in media leads me to think so.
I’ve been very fortunate to interview some special people over recent years, people who have dedicated their lives to ensuring they contribute to safeguarding our planet and improving social equity, and have been guests at WOMADelaide as part of the superb Planet Talks series. Here are some of the best.
Read More
A remarkable vision of our future on the planet
It’s finally happened. I’m reading a book that is living up to – and exceeding – the breathless accolades of commendation on the covers. It’s a particular joy for me. In the past, with quite a few books, I read a few chapters, become a little bored, and skip to the final chapter.
But not this one. I’m devouring every one of the 106 chapters over 563 pages.
It feels to me that the author has had so many ideas pent up that they decided to incorporate them all into one magnum opus. It’s fascinating.
Read More
Episode 9 – Battery storage – adding a second Tesla PowerWall
2021 – Battery options modelling
In September 2020 we installed our first battery at Sturt Apartments, Christie Walk. You can read the story of our modelling, battery choices and lessons learned in Episode 7 – Battery storage – Tesla PowerWall 2
Everything had gone to plan with the installation of the battery; performance was as expected. The savings generated by our PV upgrade and the battery were flowing into our Green Fund, enabling us to begin planning for the installation of our second battery.
Our modelling indicated that our 21kW PVs were generating enough power to usefully support up to about 55kWh of battery storage, corresponding to 4 x Tesla PowerWall 2 batteries. In cost-benefit terms, a sweet-spot would be with 2 batteries. In the depths of winter in July – on many days – we’d still generate enough spare power to fully charge the batteries for use after sundown.
Read More
Episode 2 – Doing a carbon inventory
Adventures with an environment-conscious inner-urban community
November 2017
I received an email inviting me to a meeting with the Carbon Neutral Adelaide team. They were scoping out a number of sites for selection as a possible “Carbon Neutral Showcase Site” and Christie Walk was on the list.
This was very exciting.
An important goal at Christie Walk is to act as a sustainability model, to demonstrate what’s possible, and to motivate others to take action. Close cooperation with Carbon Neutral Adelaide would enhance that outreach work.
Read More
Aiming beyond NetZero at Christie Walk
Adventures with an environment-conscious inner-urban community
I’m fortunate to live at Christie Walk in Adelaide. It’s a community of 27 homes and gardens on 2,000m2. It was initiated by Urban Ecology Australia in 1999 as a demonstration project, to promote ecologically-sustainable and community-enhancing urban design and development.
The buildings range from stand-alone straw-bale homes to a 4-level apartment block, all designed for comfortable high-density but low-energy living.
Read More
Eco-city dreaming comes true
The facilitator asked us to do some dream-work. That’s normally not so hard, but there we were, standing in an awkward-shaped T-allotment strewn with bits of broken glass and featuring some derelict out-buildings. The site had previously been a city recycling depot and in a way one of our goals was to continue that recycling heritage. We were asked to dream of what the features would be for our ideal sustainable-living community on the site.
Read More
BrianLoffler 