Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Electric Cars, Fossil Fuels 17 comments

A THIRD OF HOUSEHOLDS TO OWN ELECTRIC CARS?

By on October 30th, 2018

NOISE REDUCTION AND IMPROVED AIR QUALITY IN OUR CITY

Manningham Council had planned to develop and implement a green electric car program on Doncaster Hill to achieve 15% adoption of green electric vehicles – with the aim to have 1 in 3 households owning an electric car by 2025. It will be our most  efficient way of reducing emissions while improving air quality and reducing traffic noise. But we are a long way from being prepared for the wave of electric cars  that will soon arrive in Australia because we simply don’t have the infrastructure to support them. 

Electricity from Renewables    Click to enlarge

More than one million electric vehicles were sold globally in 2017, mainly due to their cheap running costs and low impact on the environment. The greatest challenge, apart from creating the facilities, is to make them affordable. Currently there are 16 different electric vehicle models currently available for purchase in Australia and most of them are priced upwards of $60,000 — making them out of reach for the average driver.

Automobiles contribute about 30% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity production generates Continue reading A THIRD OF HOUSEHOLDS TO OWN ELECTRIC CARS? →

Climate Change, Global Cooling, Global Warming, Goupthink, Greenhouse Gases, IPCC 21 comments

IPCC REPORTS BASED ON CORRUPT WARMING DATA

By on October 11th, 2018

“FREEZING TROPICAL ISLANDS AND BOILING TOWNS”

The Audit could scarcely have come at a more embarrassing time for the IPCC who have just released its 2018 Summary for Policy Makers claiming that the global warming crisis is more urgent than ever. McLean’s audit strongly suggests that these claims are based on data that simply cannot be trusted. HadCRUT4 is the primary dataset used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to make its dramatic claims about “man-made global warming”, to justify its demands for trillions of dollars to be spent on “combating climate change” and as the basis for the Paris Climate Accord.

This report makes more than 70 findings about areas of concern with the HadCRUT4 temperature dataset. These cover the entire process from the measurement of temperatures to the derivation of HadCRUT4 global average temperature anomalies. They relate to the inclusion of data that is obviously in error, inappropriate procedures, poor data processing and significant assumptions about a range of matters including basing conclusions on very little data. Most of the findings increase the uncertainty in the data and therefore increase the error margin. One however shows that a common but flawed method of data adjustment creates a false warming trend from the adjustments alone. Another finding points out that when stations were closed rather than relocated any distortion in the data remains in the record. Errors are also identified Continue reading IPCC REPORTS BASED ON CORRUPT WARMING DATA →

Cycle Paths, Cycling, Pedestrians, Public Safety, Road Safety, VicRoads 8 comments

PUSH TO ALLOW BIKES ON FOOTPATHS IN VICTORIA

By on September 21st, 2018

Parking in residential streets is blocking bike lanes and forcing cyclists to swerve out into traffic or take the safer option by riding on footpaths. One of several reasons why the cyclist’s lobby want laws changed to allow anyone to ride on footpaths in Victoria and NSW. The two states are the only ones that don’t allow riders on footpaths and cyclists are pushing for a change ahead of the Victorian state election.

Cars Block Cycle Lanes           Click to Enlarge

However, according to the current rules in Victoria it is an offence for anyone over the age of 12 to ride a bicycle on a footpath.

In NSW children can ride on footpaths until they are 16 years old.

The Australian Road Rules allow Councils to create shared bicycle paths and invite all cyclists to ride upon them.

Pedestrians hit by a cyclist on a shared bike path have no claim against the Motor Accidents Authority as they would if they had been hit by a motor-vehicle.

Cyclists are not required to display number-plates or be licensed and are almost impossible to recognise especially when most are wearing helmets and sunglasses.

Manningham Council Continue reading PUSH TO ALLOW BIKES ON FOOTPATHS IN VICTORIA →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Global Warming, IPCC 27 comments

CLIMATE WE EXPECT…WEATHER IS WHAT WE GET!

By on August 28th, 2018

“Core of my heart, my country! Her pitiless blue sky, When, sick at heart, around us, We see the cattle die, But then the grey clouds gather, And we can bless again, The drumming of an army, the steady soaking rain”. Excerpt from the poem My Country by Dorothy Mackellar written in 1904 when she was 19 years old. Many of the record extreme weather events that occurred in this period still stand today.

Murray River Stopped Flowing 1914/15
Click to enlarge

Satellites, the most reliable means of measuring average land and sea temperatures combined, have shown very little global warming in the 38 years since their introduction, nowhere near what the various climate models have been showing.The latest satellite measurements show a 0.32 C above the twentieth century average temperature as of July 2018. Hardly a justification for panic and the closing down of our coal fired power stations. NASA calculated the probability that 2014 was the hottest year on record to be 38 per cent, whilst NOAA’s analysis came in at 48 per cent – both leaving significant wriggle room for other years to take out the top spot. (Eve of Paris conference)

In 1998, NOAA mistakenly announced a global average temperature of 62.45 degrees Fahrenheit (16.91 degrees Celsius!!) Continue reading CLIMATE WE EXPECT…WEATHER IS WHAT WE GET! →

Apartments, Council Rates, Fire Safety Compliance, High Density developments, Lending Authorities 10 comments

OWNERS TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL CLADDING REMOVAL

By on August 15th, 2018

REGULATORS WHO APPROVED BANNED CLADDING WILL WALK SCOT-FREE

Owners will be charged via their rates over a minimum period of ten years, with costs transferred to the new owners if the property is sold. The arrangement will be between owners, lenders and local councils – providing long-term, low-interest loans to pay for building work to rectify the combustible cladding.

Flammable Cladding          Click to Enlarge

According to the Cladding Task Force Implementation Team the total cost of cladding removal and rectification of a building will be apportioned to each apartment subject to valuation and in a manner similar to how normal council rates are assessed. The debt will remain with the apartment by way of higher rates until the loan is paid. The task force has identified 380 apartment buildings many of which had the the same product that caused the Lacrosse apartment building to catch fire in 2014 and the recent London fire where at least eighty residents had perished in the inferno. Information on where these buildings Continue reading OWNERS TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL CLADDING REMOVAL →

Councillors, Manningham Council, Recycled Sewer Water, Yarra Valley Water 12 comments

SEWER MINE SITE SUBJECT TO FREEWAY APPROVAL

By on July 29th, 2018

The location of the Sewer Mining Plant in Eram Park, North Box Hill, which is to supply recycled water to the Doncaster Hill high rise apartment scheme, will not be decided until the six lane expansion of the eastern freeway/north east link, adjacent to the proposed site, is approved by the authority. If it is to proceed, there are doubts about its future given the disruption to local area infrastructure at this late stage, it will be the first time such a system and treatment plant has been introduced into an established urban setting, and the project will put Doncaster Hill at the forefront of sustainable water solutions.

Freeway widening adjacent to proposed site and artists impressions below.  click to enlarge

The plan is for water, extracted from the sewer main, to be treated and pumped up to Doncaster Hill, one mile away and seventy metres above Eram Park, via a network of pipes through residential streets and connected to high rise apartments for toilet flushing and laundry use. Continue reading SEWER MINE SITE SUBJECT TO FREEWAY APPROVAL →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Coal Power, Exports, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gases, Imports 11 comments

EMBODIED CARBON IN CHEAP OVERSEAS IMPORTS

By on July 10th, 2018

EMBODIED CARBON IN OUR OVERSEAS COAL EXPORTS

The global agreement – to which Australia is a signatory – states that parties “have the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States”. Which means consumers of imported manufactured goods and exporters of fossil fuels should be held accountable for their roles in the co-production of emissions released at a “distance”.

Coal Fired Power Plants          Click to enlarge

While Australia is honouring its obligation to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions, by the closure of several coal fired power stations and replacing them with expensive and intermittent renewables, it has been offset by its outsourcing of emissions in the purchase of an increasingly high proportion of manufactured products from overseas countries, who, under the Paris accord, have no requirement to reduce emissions, and are using coal fired stations in the manufacture of goods exported to Australia.

According to Greenpeace, Continue reading EMBODIED CARBON IN CHEAP OVERSEAS IMPORTS →

Car parking, Councillors, Manningham Council, Town House Style Development, VCAT 15 comments

BUILT FORM OUT OF NEIGHBOURHOOD CHARACTER

By on June 19th, 2018

COUNCIL BIAS SIDELINES WINBROOK CRESCENT OWNERS

Unit developments have to be well designed, site responsive and must not adversely impact on neighbours, the surrounding environment, streetscape or existing neighbourhood character as per clause 21.05 in the Manningham Strategic Statement  (MSS) of the Manningham Planning Scheme.

Winbrook Crescent High Quality Neighbourhood Character

It seems that the Council have not taken into account a recent VCAT decision where the member Taranto ruled against a development that proposed three storey buildings on a site area of less than the mandatory minimum land size which only permitted two storeys.

“The height prescribed, Continue reading BUILT FORM OUT OF NEIGHBOURHOOD CHARACTER →

Apartments, Car parking, Manningham Council, Traffic Congestion, Transport, VicRoads 12 comments

HILL PROJECTS ON HOLD AS UNIT PRICES DECLINE

By on June 1st, 2018

Oversupply, poor transport, tougher lending conditions and higher mortgage rates, particularly for investor loans, are contributing to the free fall in Doncaster Hill apartment prices. Median property valuations in Melbourne and Sydney are expected to drop by up to $1000 a week this year with additional falls in 2019, Shane Oliver, chief economist of AMP Capital, told the Financial Review.

“UNITS LOOK MUCH MORE VULNERABLE THAN SINGLE DWELLINGS”

Bunnings Store and 258 Apartments Delayed
Click to enlarge

The Bunnings three stage development on Doncaster Hill could be a risky venture for Wesfarmers who have just abandoned its disastrous attempt to expand its Warehouse chain into the United Kingdom and Ireland, and have sold the business for a single British pound after having invested $705 Million.

The Doncaster Road proposal, is to be built in three stages. The first stage, which was to have started early last year, will include the construction of Continue reading HILL PROJECTS ON HOLD AS UNIT PRICES DECLINE →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Global Cooling, Global Warming, Goupthink, IPCC 28 comments

HERD MENTALITY, MOB MENTALITY & GROUPTHINK

By on May 11th, 2018

 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DRIVE FOR CONSENSUS AT ANY COST

“It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints”. Paul MacCrae.

Click to enlarge

The overwhelming need for many individuals to blindly and unquestioningly follow others is commonly known as ‘mob mentality’ , ‘herd mentality’ or ‘Groupthink’.
It is a manifestation of consensus thinking and blind adherence to peer group pressure irrespective of the facts or consequences. Most sensible people who are not financially dependent upon the climate change gravy train are sensible enough to fully realise man cannot control climate and extreme weather. Yet, incredible though it may seem, there still remain some, who are otherwise intelligent, who still believe the claims of reversible Continue reading HERD MENTALITY, MOB MENTALITY & GROUPTHINK →