#3: Travel
Challenge Time: Ongoing
Effectiveness: HIGH IMPACT: 1.6-4~ tonne CO₂e reduction
Question: Would you like FREE FUEL!? We have the technology!
Benefits: Creative, Physical, Mental, Financial
Result: Win/Win
Imagine saving $14,000 a year on fuel !?!?!?
What would you do $14k?
Australia could potentially generate 700% Renewable Energy and lots of households already have excess energy.
This could also mean FREE FUEL and CHEAPER MAINTENANCE for Australia’s 3 million households with solar if cars went electric - that’s over one quarter of households!
Riding your bike and offsetting your flights can significantly reduce your carbon footprint too.
This looks great - awesome work! Very comprehensive - Dr Blanche Verlie
Wow! Thanks for sharing - Dr Emma Little
This is LOW HANGING FRUIT that is EASY to avoid, reduce or offset! Lots of emissions to reduce in your travel footprint, so this challenge is in two (!) parts…
Part 1: Pedal *Power*…
to get a Strong Body and a Strong Mind
(and a healthier bank account)
Boost your creativity, mental health, physical health and bank balance, just by getting ‘onya bike’ - seriously!
This is high impact emissions reduction - you could save 2.4 tonnes CO₂e per year! That’s 3 times more effective than going vegan!
Sounds cheesy but it’s super EASY!
Melb transport emissions are more than London’s
Hectic. London’s population is nearly double Melbourne’s… which makes per capita figures worse! In fact, according to a 2008 study, per person CO₂e emissions were 3.1 tonnes (t) for a Melburnian and only 1.2t for a Greater Londoner!
Do you really want that sh*t in your lungs???
Probably not.
Do you ever smell/taste toxic fumes when you’re on the road? When you get a whiff and think to yourself, sheesh, that can’t be good. Yeah turns out your intuitions are right, cars are essentially ‘boxes collecting toxic gases’.
It’s probably worth riding more.
Save stacks of $$!
Have you seen how much it is for petrol!?!?!? Emma’s article is from 2019 and she saved $14k then, which is 13.8% of her income - that’s A LOT!
FUEL is FREE when you’re riding a bike! No wonder cycling is booming!
Sooo many health benefits!
Yep, reduce risk of dementia, alzheimers, anxiety, heart disease and stroke.
Strengthen your bones and immune system, help fight off cancers. And…
Give yourself 50% more antibodies, better brain health, and even BOOST CREATIVITY! Check ‘The brain-changing benefits of exercise’ from Wendy Suzuki if you don’t believe me!
For adults, 150–300 min of moderate-intensity, or 75–150 min of vigorous-intensity physical activity, per week, is the recommendation. Similar to riding the bike to and from work or school each day.
The Dutch exercise TWICE as much as you!
And it snows there! Yeah, people from the Netherlands exercise TWICE as much as Australians. Maybe because exercise is second nature with all the riding they do?
Australia is pretty much getting slayed on this chart, coming in 13th. Apparently about half of Australians are obese or overweight. Kinda makes sense.
Regular ‘wimps’ in Finland ride in -14ºC
Ok, starting to run out of excuses not to ride.
Seriously, Oulu is near Santa’s cabin, so it must get crazy cold! More on how cycling has improved Oulu’s society here and here. Finnish F1 Driver Valtteri Bottas is a big fan too and reckons you should take your bike to the shop instead of your V8 - the Finns can’t get enough!
PS they call themselves wimps, not me!
90% of car trips in Vic are under 27kms return! - EASILY rideable
Not that far… SUPER EASY on a bike actually - that’s about 40 mins for a mediocre cyclist. Way more enjoyable than being in traffic. Why not switch to a bike?
Breaking those car trips down further - 25% are under 12km!!! That’s super super achievable on a bike, pretty much all over Australia…
8-10kms on the bike, 5 days a week should get you the recommended amount of physical activity, which covers…
Syd 5kms return
Erko to the coat-hanger and back should get you your 8-10kms physical exercise. Get yourself bike fit.
Maybe shout lunch or a coffee for colleagues/clients if they ride to work/meetings?
EASY.
Melb 5kms return
Northcote Lookout to the Melb Town Hall return should get your 10kms too… a lot of down hill if you need to get to town quickly!
Way faster to bike. ldfkja;sdfAbout a 22mins ride or up to 45-50mins (!) in a car! Beat the traffic - ride your bike!
EASY.
Wodonga 5kms return
If you’re in the border regions, you can probably travel interstate - WTH!
Very scenic route across the Wonga Wetlands too. #Naycha.
With your new found Regulartarian Diet and bike fitness you’re going to be in great shape… and when you look good, you feel good - ‘look good, feel good, play good!’ my old friend DQ always says!
Hobart 5kms return
You can pretty much ride anywhere you want in Hobart too!
Mens Sana Incorpore Sano (a sound mind in a sound body) is an old Roman saying which emphasises that physical exercise is essential for mental and psychological well-being - do your brain a favour!
Call in (as opposed to call out) those that ride their bikes,
EASY!
Types of transport
Breaking it down, most emissions come from light vehicles, ie cars. Which is kinda weird cause we already have the technology (and FREE FUEL) for electric vehicles (EVs)… we’re just not using it. Hmmm…
In the latest update, transport accounts for 18.1% of Australia’s CO₂e emissions. Light vehicles (mostly cars) are about 10% of Australia’s total emissions.
For context, rail transports about half of Australia’s freight, but produces only 4% of transport emissions.
So, which short trips can you use a bike for?
When and where in your week can you make some time to buy a bike (or repair the one you’ve got!)?
Don’t be taken for a ride -
use your pedal *powers*
Plenty of 2nd hand bikes at…
Bicycle Recyclers Australia
Second Chance Cycles (Melb)
The Bike Shed (Melb)
Alchemy (Melb)
Revolve ReCYCLING (Syd/Gadigal)
Movement Systems (Perth)
99 Bikes (Bris, Gold & Sunshine Coasts)
Bike Exchange
Gumtree
Marketplace
…and maybe your parent’s back shed!?
With all the money you’ll save on petrol, a bike should pay for itself in no time!
Part 2: My next car will be a cheap and clean electric
Buying a *brand new* fossil fuel polluting car from now on could be a disaster for not only the planet, but your bank account as well.
It’s worth holding off to buy an electric!
OK, sometimes you need a car
Living car free is best, though if you need a car, an electric vehicle (EV) is definitely next best.
Yes, manufacturing an EV produces emissions, though it ONLY TAKES 21,725km for a Tesla to be safer for the environment than a Corolla. If you’re trying to get to 8,008,135kms… well, you do the maths… that’s a lot of clean driving that Mother Nature would be very grateful for. Maybe an EV conversion is a happy compromise for exisiting cars?
Switch your rideshare over to the green option
Takes two seconds. Same price, without the toxic petrol fumes.
Gives drivers the prompt to go green for their next car purchase.
Another set-and-forget easy win.
Would you like FREE FUEL!?
Imagine if the Australian government had the same EV policies as Norway, and 3 million Aussie homes were now getting FREE FUEL FROM THEIR SOLAR!
Melbourne’s JET Charge is about to introduce a bi-directional charger so your car can charge your home! 55% of Australians indicated they would use solar to power their car.
Would you like CHEAPER MAINTENANCE?
EVs (technically BEV, Battery Electric Vehicle) are cheaper by the *mile* - no pardons for the pun.
This technology already exists! Other countries like Iceland and Sweden are also reaping the benefits.
Australia is *miles* behind… maybe drop your State and federal MPs a line to ask how we can get some some Norwegian EV policies?
A *Brand New* fossil fuel polluting car could be the worst investment of your life
Cars lose value, quickly! Here’s the full ATO equation
2024 - predicted as the year that EVs will have price parity (upfront purchase cost) with fossil fuel cars. With cheaper charging and maintenance costs, EVs are way cheaper.
2030 - a bunch of countries will stop selling petrol cars.
10-15 years is kinda how long cars last - which means fossil fuel cars sold from 2020 on probably won’t see a full life, and therefore will lose value much faster. Don’t get stitched up!
Australians love EVs
Have you driven an EV? It’s quite an experience. Go do it. Experience the thrill. Maybe you can get a gauge from the Miners in Teslas page in the meantime. They love them.
In fact, four out of five Australians want electric vehicles, and most are happy to pay more. 56% are considering an EV for their next car.
There’s even talk that the old Ford and Holden factories could be brought back to life as EV hubs - jobs back for locals! It’s a $46 Billion market, and growing… rapidly!
Cars are bad, but flights are CRAZY BAD
~1.7t: New York-London return (from which the data on the left is based) has more emissions than it takes to build a car!!!
~.35t: Syd-Melb return - that’s 9,245,392 passengers (3rd busiest in world) / 54,102 flights (2nd busiest in world)
~.36t: Syd-Bris return (18th busiest)
~.53t: Melb-Bris (34th busiest)
~3.8t: Syd-LA return
~5.6t: Melb-London return
Flights could be most of your footprint - eeep!
Especially if you’re a regular flyer. This freaked Peter Kalmus (a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory) out so much he stopped flying.
Aviation and shipping are two areas we don’t quite have the technology for clean energy en masse just yet (though biomass hopefully isn’t too far off).
Google Flights has an emissions calculator to help you find lower emissions flights.
If you can afford to fly, offset your flight - PLOISE!
If you’ve followed the steps in the "‘I Do What I Can’ Carbon Challenge so far, you will have saved (and made) a bunch of cash, so you should be able to afford a couple of bucks to offset your flight. It’s a tiny percentage of the flight cost.
More and more Australian’s are offsetting, with Syd-Melb route winning this race so far!
Ask your friends, family, business suppliers etc - did you offset your flight? Applaud those that do!
So, when will you reduce your travel footprint?
Who do you know that is thinking of buying a car or booking flights that might be able to use this info?
Don’t be taken for a ride -
let’s get this show on the road!
Ok yes, a bit in this challenge as well, Essentially, challenge yourself to…
1) Ride your bike as much as you can - many mental, physical and financial benefits to be had
2) Boycott buying a *brand new* fossil fuel car, and encourage anyone you know to do the same
3) Offset your flight if you indulge in flying - ask anyone who has got off a flight if they can offset too
This could be another big WIN/WIN for you - EASY DONE!
Global EV uptake
Ok these stats are moving pretty fast - Norway has just hit 90%! (Australia has just trickled to 2% of new car sales - ouch!)… we don’t even make the graph - ooft. ouch. ooft.
Interestingly, these countries also rate highly on the World Happiness Report. Hmmm…
Formula 1’s x4 World Champion Sebastian Vettel says “fossil fuels will die out - hopefully very soon”.
Again, WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY!
More EVs are now built per week now than the entire 2012.
Self driving cars are just around the corner too. Paris has even started turning carparks into mushroom farms!
EVs have been more expensive to date because of the economies of scale… though this is about to rapidly change, as demand for EVs is starting to exceed supply.
Given EVs are cheaper to run once you have one, you definitely don’t want to get stuck with a new fossil fuel car. Especially considering…
The Curse of Oil
Old mate Yuval Noah Harari says ‘oil is a source of riches but it’s also a source of dictatorships‘ - do we want to support dictatorships?
Despite attempts like Nixon’s ‘Project Independence’ governments (including Australia’s) have decided to support an OPEC dominated industry where Russia, The Middle East etc dictate fuel prices.
Australian cars are also highly polluting, high cost
- uh ohhh
Even the fossil fuel cars currently in use in Australia are far more polluting than overseas cars, which also means they’re more expensive to run. More $$ to dictatorships.
Incredibly, cars in Australia are sooo bad that introducing a simple ‘emissions ceiling’ (a limit on how much pollution cars can emit, which 80% of the world already has), would get Australia 40-50% of the way to its 2030 Paris Agreement commitment. These cars would save money for lower income Australians. SUCH AN EASY FIX!
Fossil fuel pollution industries already shutting down/moving on - uh ohhh
Refineries and petrol stations are closing and/or pivoting into things like property. Germany has obliged petrol stations to provide EV Chargers, India is thinking of doing the same)
Australia is paying a lotta money to keep OPEC dictated fossil fuel industries afloat - does this seem crazy? Note: the Reuters article (left bottom) is a few weeks after The Australia Institute article (left top)
Is this a money/power/dictator thing? What is going on here?
EU & US Carbon Trade Tax - uh ohhh
The Europeans seem pretty serious about a ‘Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism’, which essentially will penalise countries that aren’t meeting their emissions reductions. USA is talking about introducing a ‘Carbon Border Tax’ as well.
Australia’s biggest trading partner in 2019 was China (39.1%). The relationship has soured, meaning wine growers and other industries needed to find new places to sell things like wine.
We could fairly easily reduce nearly 10% of our emissions with technology that already exists(!), by putting policy in place to transition Australia to EVs (like Norway has already done!). If this could also help export potential to the EU & US… why don’t we do it?
Australia is 10-12 years behind… ARGHHH!!
That’s according expert Dr Jake Whitehead. Norway’s centre-right government has put in a whole host of policies to encourage EV uptake.
Australian federal and State government policies have been described as a ‘laughing stock (Which Car)’, ‘stalling’ (PwC) and ‘embarrassing’ (Volkswagen). It also risks falling woefully behind’ (NRMA) and ‘urgently need policy drivers’ (Australian Financial Review). Hmmm… very concerning…
Should Australia ban ‘brand new’ petrol pollution cars?
A bit of discussion here, what are the key points?
EVs…
-are better for the environment after 21,725km
-free fuel and lower maintenance costs
-support new Australian business like JET Charge and Tritium, and could bring jobs back to Ford and Holden factories
-support coal miners switch to new EV friendly minerals
-reduce ~10% of Australia’s emissions
-increase our trade potential, with a cleaner footprint.
-increase energy security
*brand new* petrol pollution cars…
-waste money and resources
~2024 severely drop in value when price parity is reached
-2030 will be redundant when a bunch of countries abandon them
IT’S A STITCH UP!!!
Maybe we should just…
boycott *brand new*
fossil fuel pollution cars?
If Australian governments don’t want to ban fossil fuel cars, why don’t we just boycott them? EASY.
So this is for the folks that are buying shiny *brand new* cars. If you need to buy a *brand new* car, please make it an EV.
Buying 2nd hand fossil fuel cars is basically recycling. The pollution that was emitted making the car is already in the atmosphere contributing to more frequent bushfires and floods.
So, let’s just boycott *brand new* fossil fuel cars - they’re a disaster from economic, health and environmental standpoints! Hold out getting a *brand new* car until you can get an EV - save yourself some money! Do yourself a favour!
Sign The Australia Institute’s Petition…
If you buy 2nd hand cars, we need much better policy so that there are more EVs in the Australian fleet, to better the chances of your next car being an EV… so you get FREE FUEL!
Why is Australian State and federal policy so bad?
I did an assignment called ‘Policy Failure In The Australian Policy Cycle, As Demonstrated By The Morrison Government’s Electric Vehicle Policy’, if you want to go deeper. I used the Morrison government as example, but ALL State and federal governments across the political spectrum have dropped the ball.
Sign the Victorian Labor petition here.
Feeling Nerdy?
Take some of these extra steps to save petrol, or even offset your car emissions…
Fuel-efficient driving techniques (possible 25% CO₂ reduction - big $$ savings) - Government of Canada/Gouvernement du Canada
7 ways drivers can save money and help the environment (reduce CO2 emissions by 5%, save ~$200p.a.)
EV conversions
Tree Creds (travel offsets for arts, event and music industries)
Ecologi (monthly carbon offsets)
TreeProject (returning healthy, sustainable & indigenous ecosystems to the Victorian landscape)
15 trees / (reducing your carbon footprint by planting trees on your behalf)
Go Neutral (car offsetting)
Especially big thanks to Boogie Festival, DQ, Green Music Australia, Harriet Randall, Julie May (Using Renewables), Kylie Flament, Paul Satur, Sam Sachdev and Sophie Wade for their hot tips, suggestions and pearls of wisdom for this challenge, and big shout out to UTAS (of *course*!) for their insights.
References / Bibliography / Further Reading
What some much smarter people have said…
Why pleasure is key to losing weight - Izabela Cardoso & Fernando Teixeira (BBC Reel)
Why the federal government needs to address an emissions ceiling on new cars - Grattan Institute (25min listen)
Towards net zero: how to reduce emission in the transport sector - Grattan Institute (18min listen)
Most Australian households are well-positioned for electric vehicle - Ingrid Burfurd (Grattan Institute)
New Year Solutions: Flights - Jo Fidgen (15min listen)
New Year Solutions: Cars - Jo Fidgen (13min listen)
Iphone Building Tears and Dealing With It + The Environment - Arj Barker (5 mins listen)
Australia’s road to zero transport emissions (November | 2020) - PwC
Fight For Planet A: Our Climate Challenge - Craig Reucassel investigates our transport emissions - ABC (1hr vid)
Automotive Industry - World Economic Forum (LOTS of great reads)
How cities are going carbon neutral - Jessica Brown (BBC Futures)
Electrifying Rideshare: Accelerating towards a green future - Dom Taylor (Über Australia)
Fuel Efficiency Standards Live On After 1973 Oil Embargo - Renee Montagne (NPR) (3min listen)
Carbon Club - Marian Wilkinson (book)
Four ways our cities can cut transport emissions in a hurry: avoid, shift, share and improve - Hussein Dia (The Conversation) (3min)
Stamp duty is an economic drag. Here’s how to move to a better system - Prof Richard Holden (The Conversation) (3 min)
Achieving the 20 minute city for Melbourne: Turning our city upside down - Bus Association of Victoria
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