Over blogged, blogged out, no balance in this blogging.
You get to the point where everyone else's words and thoughts
crowd your own. less space for silence in your mind
the incessant knocking of the keys against the board
a
vision deeper than the night
To reach its target under the Protocol from 2008-2012, will have to reduce its ‘business as usual’ greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 34 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent: a 9% decrease on forecast business-as-usual emissions for 2008.
That’s a reduction of 8.5 tonnes of carbon output per person living in NZ.
If we listen to Al Gore then this is immediately possible by making some small, conscious changes to our lifestyle, today and every day in the future…..
Live Earth has been pretty hard to miss this wet and rainy weekend and having once already attempted to work out my personal carbon balance thought I would give it a try using the new Earth Lab Live Impact EPC Personal Carbon calculator.
Your initial ECP score is based upon basic categories related to home, energy, work, commute, travel, and lifestyle, which is then converted to a personal carbon output balance. Below, is a breakdown of the different parts of the ECP:
- -Your Carbon Output
- -Your Lifestyle Habits
- -Your Pledges/Intended Actions
- -Educational/Supportive Opportunities
My Carbon Output was calculated at 21.1 Tonnes of carbon per year
By Simply
- -Pledging to plant a tree (with pleasure!)
- -Promising to catch the Bus four times a week (always amusing, especially when you get four buses stuck in a one way bus tunnel on your way to a meeting which you are already late for)
- -Carpooling at least once a week
- -Using energy efficient lighting in the house – I did this as soon as it was murmured this was going to be made law in NZ
- Recycling , Reusing, Renewing…….
I was able to reduce my Carbon Output to 11.2 Tonnes of carbon per year
These few simple tasks brought about a 50% reduction in my personal carbon output, and as a citizen of sufficiently contributing to our required reduction in carbon output to honor the agreement..
Whether this is an actually achievable reduction and true calculation of what is possible or not – the point still applies. We need to something, and something is better than nothing. Small things are probably all we’ve got. We are pretty much tied to the rat race, and most of us love all things that draw power – BlackBerry’s, browsing the Internet, hot showers, good sounds and that is never going to change. How we power these needs to change...NZ needs more renewable, carbon neutral energy. We need to support companies that are able to produce energy more efficiently. The Energywatch organization has some interesting information which will fill you in more!
Firstly cousin Sarah dropped of a bag of clothes from her Daisy Doll days - so cute seeing all the outfits we had for our dolls - I am sure I had the same outfits for mine so a blast from the past! The second was a fabulous range of knitted goodies from Mum - so funky!! :o) Mackenzie has used the items on her dolls this wet and wintry weekend to come up with the following fabulous ensembles.....
Take torches, warm clothes and steady footwear. To get the full effect it's best to walk in the dark! The winter nights are a good opportunity to see them early - we went at about 7pm.
Enter the Gardens off Glenmore Street and head to the duck pond (Feeding the ducks in the dark is quite amusing too), from the duck pond, head up the path as though you were heading to the children's playground. Instead of taking the path to the play ground, take the right one along the side of the stream, the glow worms are visible around here and down in the stream banks below. Enjoy!
Winter has arrived to Wellington with a blast - cold winds, rains and darkness. The electric blankets are plugged in, the heaters rolled out of the cupboards - all very depressing really!! Mike is looking for a new job at the moment and I am working heaps as the project I am working on finishes in two weeks - oh to have some time off!! We had Mackenzie for Easter so kept her amused with lots of walks, it was Mike's birthday too which was rather uneventful. Mackenzie is now playing cards so we played a lot of Fish and Snap....am going to teach her Texas Hold em' next. This weekend we have been out to Makara for a walk, lots of work, and last night ended up taking Naomi for her first driving less on - in the dark - in the Khandallah New World car park - very amusing - and recorded on Video heere http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3391149636811495214. The garden has had a weed and the drains cleaned - so good to have some time to get odd jobs done! And now for some work.....joy!!
This week has been pretty tragic with the death of an old friend and dear friend Yuko. I have known Yuko since I was about seven years old when she moved to NZ from Japan with her husband Sang. Over the years they had three children whom I looked after in my spare time and eventually every day after school while I was at college. Three years ago she was diagnosed with cancer of the colon, which spread to her liver and then to her lungs. For three years she has has multiple operations, treatments and therapy's. All of them collectively have enabled her to see her oldest children finish school and go onto university. Yumi, her youngest, is still at Wellington Girls and has been so wonderful over the past few weeks. Yuko chose to die at home so for the last week the living room was turned into a hospital room, including a fabulous lazy boy chair that Yumi bought for Yuko in her last few days so she could have some comfort.
The last couple of days, comfort has only been obtained by drugs. It is an awful process to watch someone you love die. The wierd thing is, in the end, it's all you want for them as you know it will end thier pain and suffering, and ease the hardship of those affected. I stayed with Yuko on Sunday night, which was probably the last time she was really lucid, she was still drinking and eating morsels. I hope that euthaniasia becomes a choice soon. Watching someone die of starvation and thirst while thier organs fail makes you realise how important that choice is.
Yuko has been a pretty important figure in my world. Always full of advice and care for me and my choices in life, I will always hear her authoritive voice in my head. In fact she would be the reason Rizification was concieved - she would always ring my flat and ask for Riz, and thus I became. She bought culture and colour into my world as a child, and opened my eyes to a new language, new foods and new people. She bought friendship and conversation in to my world as an adult.. There are so many things to remember, and so many things never to forget. I was very very lucky to have her in my life and I will miss her and love her always.
Well it started it 4am, when Balky got up to fly to Sydney for work, it was raining - it hasn't rained for weeks, and now, it rains, three days before Summerset - how rude!
I had to park the car in the dingiest parking building in Wellington - what is with parking buildings anyways? Why do the stair wells always have to smell of piss - and seriously, whoever used this stair well for the toilet last night had some SERIOUS bladder issues!! And to rub it in, the doors weren't labelled, so I spent an extra few minutes in there trying to work out how to get out.... my only $20 note would not be accepted by the ticket machine - so after aobut 100 tries I readched for the credit card...I left feeling totally violated!!
Trying to juggle two jobs is pretty interesting, and takes a bit of preparation - so, getting to my first meeting this morning and waiting for quater of an hour before realising that the person was not going to show - nice ofthem to let me know!! Lesson learnt - always confirm on the day!! Sigh......a wasted hour of a busy day!
The way back to the office was equally as great - somehow, on rainy days, pedestrian rules no longer apply - no chance of anyone stopping to let me cross the road - green man or not!!
I purchase a drink to help me along the way - glass bottle - great - why is there NO WHERE in Wellinton city I can recycle my recyclables - how backwards is that. Never fear there is always someone worse off - an old island man emptys all the rubbish from his hands onto the foot path when he is standing a meter froma rubbish bin - I swiftly bent down in front of him, picked it up and disposed of it for him!!
Bring on tomorrow!!!
