Res Publica

Black Tile Affair

The northern approach to Bundaberg takes my Dash 8 flight over a couple of new blocks which have been subdivided for housing - low set, tile roofed, concrete boxes for the most part. It's not my preferred housing style but what I find particularly stupid in this day and age and even more so in hot sunny Bundaberg  is the preponderance of people opting for black tile roof coverings. Yes it looks very modern and trendy but from an environmental standpoint it's just plain dumb.

When we reroofed our place a couple of years ago we deliberately went with silver coloured Zincalume from the Colorbond range because of the high roof albedo and energy saving consequences. So, while many of us are doing our own little bit to reduce global warming these black tile wallies are maximising their roof space temperature, increasing their cooling costs and heating up the atmosphere.

Piglets

The other night I ended up driving halfway across the Tablelands to pick up a piece of equipment for work from one of our other offices. Typically it wasn't what we actually wanted but, hey, what's four hours driving and the best part of one evening for anyway ?

On my way back 'home', the dirt road which I was on was in quite good nick so I was making good progress and going quite a bit faster than the usual pace which that particular piece of gravel/washout gutter/creek crossing typically allows. I was doing a good 80 ks when I spied a beast on the road ahead and naturally throttled back (having collected a large cow on the front of the car many years ago I'm still a wee bit cautious). As I got closer I realised it was a couple of medium sized pigs with about six piglets in tow. Cute was the word, the piglets were only about the size of a domestic cat, all black and hairy. Very cute - in a pig kind of way. Here was my big chance to strike a blow in return for the ecological destruction that these feral beasts do to the environment. Foot down and a nudge on the steering wheel and I could have got most of them.

So what did I do ? Slowed down and let them get off the road. Very sooky I know but that's me. Compassion 101 Passed. Environment 101 Failed. That was my ethical dilemma for the week - what would you have done ?

Time for a Bagging

Have you bought any of those reusable calico bags they're flogging at the supermarket yet ?  Planet Ark's campaign to do away with disposable plastic bags is slowly gaining momentum and several towns have now joined in, following the lead set by Tasmania's Coles Bay. In a giant environmental leap forward for the family we started buying some of these calico bags a few months back and now have about half a dozen. The obvious place to keep them is in the car and that's become a problem in itself because that's where they've generally stayed while we went and stocked up on a fresh supply of plastic ones at the supermarket.

On our last trip I actually remembered to grab a couple off the back seat before we went shopping. The young lady on the till then merrily proceeded to put the shopping into plastic bags while I stood there with them in my back pocket. Thankfully The Handbrake interrupted my check-out reverie and we did finally end up using them. In another couple of months time we may actually get this idea to work but it's hard to break with tradition.