Earth Hour 2011

Did you notice anything different or odd last Saturday night around your city or neighbourhood?

26 March 2011 was marked Earth Hour night - in which everyone worldwide is encouraged to turn the lights off for 60 minutes to reduce energy consumption. This event began right here in Down Under! Started in Sydney in 2007 and followed by New Zealand and Fiji - now, it is a global movement taking place in all major cities worldwide in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Many world leaders and prime ministers worldwide believe that Earth Hour is "a huge symbol of global solidarity, an inspiring display of international commitment". Over 4000 cities worldwide participated in Earth Hour including landmarks such as:

Cristo Redentor, Rio de Janeiro

Sydney Opera House, Australia

Petronas Tower, Malaysia

 Big Ben, London

Eiffel Tower, Paris

Sky Tower, Auckland

Social networking sites like Facebook had hugely helped the success of this event! 1.3 billion people took part in Earth Hour last year! and this year 134 countries had signed on to participate. NZ was one of the first countries to switch off the lights from 8.30pm to 9.30pm local time. 

WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) New Zealand campaigner, Lee Barry said "Switching off lights for an hour is a symbolic gesture to show that people are willing to take a stand for the planet. This year we're asking people to go beyond the hour and make a pledge that they can sustain every day in their lives" - this include people considering to drive their car less, taking public transport, cycling or car pooling as the NZ's rate of emissions from transport is unacceptably high !! 

What were the impacts of Earth Hour worldwide? Some of the impacts include:

• Last year, New Zealand power consumed during Earth Hour dropped 2%. In 2009, it dropped 3.5%!
• 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide reduced in Chicago! -  this is the same amount of carbon dioxide as 104 acres of trees produced, and all this saved only within one hour during Earth Hour!
• Energy savings of 170 megawatts in Jakarta, Indonesia
• Over $23,000 and 400,000 kilowatts in Vietnam saved
• 204,000 kilowatts in Dubai

I personally think Earth Hour is a wonderful global event that unites people all over the world to peacefully work together in saving our planet. It is a small but powerful positive step towards achieving sustainable living. 

Do you think it is an effective global movement?

Introducing......... Podcars ?

There have been many, many attempts in cities worldwide to transform their city to become a more sustainable city - whether it is their waste/sewage system, housing development designs, urban city structure to also transportation network. Abu Dhabi has introduced their newly proposed transportation vehicle - Podcars.

Podcars are a form of PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) that function as electric taxis for local residents.

What is it like riding in a Podcar?

You will swipe a smart card through a machine at a station in the city and a welcome message will appear. It could greet you personally "Good morning, where would you like to go today?" and the system could even remember your usual daily path and offer it to you as an option for more convenience. After you select your destination, the system will direct you to your car, e.g. "Your car is arriving in 2 minutes at platform number 1".

Is it a more efficient and sustainable form of public transport?

Podcars wouldn't create any air pollution at all therefore help decrease greenhouse gas emissions to the air, which would also contribute to stop climate change. Lithium-phosphate batteries keep the car going for 60km on only 1.5 hour charge which allow each vehicle to take 40 trips without recharging. Podcars will travel at speeds of approximately 7 meters per second. The efficient little cars could operate 135,000 trips every day, offering people on a more private, comfortable public transportation experience. 

What are the benefits from riding these cars?

• More sustainable form of transport
• They are driver-less! so if you are stuck in traffic, you can sit in comfort and privacy of your car, doing other productive things
• PRT is a 24-hour service - so they run on-peak as well as off-peak hours. More efficient for the city than running empty buses all night
• Improve personal security for local residents - no waiting all night long for a bus to arrive. 

So what's the problem with Podcars?

Very expensive! The extra infrastructures required to successfully operate Podcars around a city are simply too costly for most cities worldwide.

Now, do you think Auckland City could benefit from the use of Podcars?

Personally, I very much dislike the current public transportation offered within the city. Buses are not only too costly for a form of public transport, but they are also very unreliable and inconvenient. I have experienced hours-long wait at the bus stop just to realise that the two buses I have waited will never come and there are NO other alternative form of public transport after midnight to North Shore City from the CBD. Many daily day buses have also not turned up, leaving many local residents frustrated waiting for hours at the bus stop. 

I do believe Podcars could benefit many Auckland residents in saving time and money when compared to using private vehicles. However, this will not be seen any time soon in New Zealand as there is no way we can afford such advanced transportation systems.

Still intrigued? Check this out !!!

What do you think?

Why sustainability ?

Welcome to my blog! 

This blog is part of my study at the University of Auckland pursuing a Bachelor of Planning Degree. One of the outcomes from studying the many aspects of planning is the change in my view and perspective towards the natural environment. We are currently living to kill many species that are becoming extinct and degrade our natural resources that we cannot possibly survive without. New Zealand is not doing so great in living sustainably - research shown that if everyone in the world lived like we do in New Zealand with our lifestyle, we would need more than 3 planets!! 

So, what is sustainability?

One definition is that it refers to the quality of a state or process that allows it to be maintains indefinitely. A more commonly used definition of "sustainable development" as I have learnt from an Environmental Planning paper last year is

"meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future          generations to meet their own needs"

This emphasizes the crucial need of both inter- and intra- generational equity in the planning process.

Enough of the boring intro..so why sustainability? why is it so important to us?

As I was procrastinating in doing uni work and browsing interesting world news on the internet a couple of weeks ago, I came across a powerful and shocking article titled, "Earth 'on brink' of mass extinction". The article suggests that Earth may face an apocalyptic event that could wiped out all species and organisms from the planet, including all of us human beings! Scientists have seen an estimated of at least 80 species of mammals have become extinct within only the past 500 years - this is shockingly unacceptable, in comparison with an average extinction rate for mammals is less than 2 species every million of years! This modern global mass extinction is largely caused by climate change and human activities.

"If currently threatened species - those officially classed as critically endangered - actually went extinct, and that rate of extinction continued, the sixth mass extinction could arrive within as little as three to 22 centuries" - Aaaaaaah !!!

This scary fact should acts as a wake-up call for all of us to stop and think what we are doing, and think of ways to improve our lifestyles on this planet! Decreasing natural resources may lead to conflict and war, changes in climate could displace millions of people and loss of natural ecosystems could result in massive species loss. 

I believe that every single human being in this world can collaboratively work together and contribute to save our planet. Every little positive changes and small actions in our life count! In this blog, we will further discuss at ways to help change our lifestyle and move further towards sustainable living! Contributing your comments and opinion on my posts here will be much appreciated. I want to hear what you have to say!

ps: if you want to read more on the article discussed, go to this link

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/03/02/earth-on-brink-of-mass-extinction-115875-22961707/