Tuesday, February 17, 2009

fire and water

Three out of four of Melbourne's reservoirs have had fires in their catchments in the past ten days with two suffering significant damage. That means less water will flow into the dams as new young trees suck up more water than established trees.

Monday, February 16, 2009

water in town

Melbourne typically uses 1 billion litres of water a day. 

The Upper Yarra Reservoir is the second most important source of water for Melbourne after the Thomson Dam, and 2% has been burnt. 

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Hybrid cars v conventional

A hybrid car may be worse for the environment than a conventional car because of the difficulty of recycling the batteries … but and if consumers don't invest in hybrids now the cars will never improve

Paper can be recycled 7 times and plastic more.

carbon footprint - electricity v gas

Every kilowatt hour used generates 1.3 kg of carbon dioxide. Using gas the same amount of energy produces a third of the amount of carbon dioxide.