BEYOND PROTEST, THE GREENS!

It is understandable that many people consider The Greens as just a protest party. We protest a lot. There is a lot to protest about! Continued logging of our old growth forests, uranium mining, mining in National Parks, cuts to education funding and attacks on those on low incomes for starters.

However, we are also an alternative party and we offer solutions and answers (not excuses and scapegoats). There are many wonderful ideas and technologies out there.

Allow me to indulge . . .
In the area of transport: lower urban speed limits to encourage cycling - which is a recognition that every road is a bicycle road. Bicycle trailers, bicycle elevators (like a ski lift but for bicycles, on big, steep hills,say Trondheim in Norway). The idea of the urban villages ( http://www.urbanecology.org.au/halifax/outline.html) where people actually live where they work, shop, and play. Ultra clean hybrid electric buses (http://www.designline.co.nz/update.htm) and trucks where the advantages of electricial power systems and diesel engines (even cleaner if 'still in the lab' lithium polymer batteries and alkaline fuel cells are used!) are combined to get the best of both worlds, 'on the street' light rail.

In the area of energy, 1.6MW wind turbines are now available off the shelf, three times bigger than the new ones recently installed in NSW. 5MW machines are on the drawing board. A New Zealand company called Vortec is currently developing a shrouded wind turbine (http://www.vortecenergy.co.nz/) which may reduce the steadily dropping cost of wind power considerably further. Thin film photovoltaics are being developed costing less financially and ecologically. There are also biomass systems which can provide when solar and wind cannot, growing as much as is burnt to maintain zero net carbon emissions. Fuel cells (http://www.ballard.com/) continue to be developed and offer much greater efficiencies in converting energy in fuels to heat and electrical power than engines or turbines. In buildings there are pyramid skylights and other natural lighting devices. The old cathrode ray tube can now be replaced by Liquid Crystal Displays revolutionising TVs and computer monitors. Lighter and less bulkier, they consume much, much less energy - and in an office building, for every 2Kw saved in office equipment, another 1Kw is saved in reduced air conditioning.

In insulation, there are thermally broken framed, vaccum glazed windows (ten times the thermal resistence of normal glazing) and astrofoil insulation.

Two recent, simple but very effective technologies are the solarwall space heater (http://www.solarwall.com/) which has upto 75% efficiency! and the GFX greywater heat exchange (http://oikos.com/gfx/ ) which recovers upto 60% of the heat lost down the drain by simply using a couple of copper pipes. Not so much 'hi tech' but 'green' tech.

Information technology has massive potential in the areas of storage, communications and in some cases, transport.

And not just products but concepts, Greenpower tariffs (Green gas?), feebates - fees on the dirty, unsociable to raise revenue to subsidise the clean and community minded. Negawatts - an idea that markets energy savings as a product. This can be extended . . . negalitres of water, negatimber, negapaper? Resource processing can be 'closed loop' rather than linear. Demand management can reduce both consumption and capacity required, turning our consumer society into a conserver society. 'Seamless' public transport, think ticketing and connections. European style 'car clubs', essentially convenient car hire (as opposed to car ownership). Permaculture to supply organic food sustainably, prevention is better than cure philosophy for health - rather than building more hospitals, educate people on how to avoid needing them in the first place, ie making it convenient, safe and easy to be fit and healthy - this can tie in directly with transport and land use.

In tourism, the slogan 'take only footprints, leave only footprints' is in marked contrast to 'makin tracks' as seen on the back of a 4WD.

Superannuation as a source of funding for treeplanting for timber. If the right trees are planted in the right places, there are additional benefits: reduction in salinity, reduction in erosion, increase wildlife habitat, increase livestock shelter, absorbtion of carbon from the atmosphere. How hard can it be to reemploy loggers of old growth forest as planters of new growth? So much forest has been cleared in the past 200 years that there is plenty of land available for what would really be reafforestation. 'Urban forestry' has the capacity to help clean city air, reduce summer temperatures dramatically and provide fuel for winter heating.

As John Lennon's song, Watching the Wheels goes, 'I see only solutions'!

I am not sure what changes people or their way of thinking. Do you tell them the worst and risk frightening them into inaction? Aaagh, what is the point? Or do you give them hope, tell them all the good things that are happening and risk, again, inaction. Oh good, things are going to be alright.

Things are NOT alright but we can fix them (extinctions and destruction of ancient trees and wilderness not withstanding). How do you tell people this? How do you get it across?

I get Wilderness News from the Wilderness Society, Habitat from the ACF, and the Greenpeace newsletter but more often than not, they remain unread. CADDET (international newsletter on renewable energy and energy efficiency), Australian Cyclist (the only bicycle magazine with any lobby stuff in it) and Solar Progress (Australian & New Zealand Solar Energy Society's mag) get read cover to cover before the next evening. Why is this? I am not about shooting the messenger, (I am a life member of the Wilderness Society) I just do not like the bad new the first lot inevitably have to report. The latter focuses on solutions, reporting the latest innovations and developments. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant the idea or product appears to be, it is positive, a step in the right direction, it is encouraging and I want to know about it.

No GST, no uranium mining, no woodchipping, no privatisation - I totally agree, but the negative word 'no' frontlines. (It has to, it is protesting afterall!)

Worse, much worse, it is reactive, dancing to the tunes of others.

Corporate Optus, of course, goes the other way, yes, yes, yes! Company yesmen? Yes! Nevertheless, it is positive and must work as they are still using it.

Should we, could we be focusing on solutions rather than protest? A solution focused campaign, a vision where we sent the agenda. This is us and these are our solutions, our policies. Say, the Sun Fund and other elements of Bob's fantastic pre election speech last year to the National Press Gallery?

It is tricky, green alternatives are invariably more complex and involved and cannot be summed up by one word or expression, and protesting gets us publicity. Still, there are other environmental and social groups. They can protest but they cannot offer solutions like we can because we ARE a political party. We can have policy and we can get people elected and have a genuine influence in government policy. Elections themselves are an opportunity to get alternative ideas & solutions out there.

Positive, solution focused campaigning. Worth discussing further?