Friday, 11 September 2009

The World's Best Worst

Cricket, swimming, tennis, music, fashion, design. Whatever activity your country can do, Australia can do it better. I wouldn't call it nationalism, but the flexing of our toned competitive muscles.

And so it was really no surprise to read this morning that Australia has the world's highest per capita carbon dioxide emissions from energy use.

Go Aussies, go!

You think your country likes burning coal and filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide? Get in line!

On the CO2 Energy Emissions Index, Canada has come in third, while Australia has overtaken the US - responsible for 19.78 tonnes per head - as the worst per capita emitter.

The risk assessment company who conducted the study found Australia's overwhelmingly coal-based electricity supply meant the average person emitted 20.58 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

20.58 tonnes baby!!

Plastic bags? We love them! Water bottled in plastic and transported in big trucks around the country? Oh yeah! Solar panels and wind turbines? For losers!

A spokeswoman for our Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said:

"As one of the hottest and driest continents on earth, Australia will be among the hardest and fastest-hit by climate change if we don't act now."

But why would we bother to act at all? Global warming and peak oil? bring it on! Environmentalism and eco-consciousness is for sissies.

4 comments:

Sal said...

Stumbled across your blog yesterday, and thought that, hey, you may just be my twin. Well you know, if I wasn't me living in town with two kids......I might like to write something like this. You rock.

We are such enviro-sissies around here, and often feel very un-australian. But I wouldn't change it for anything.
Sal

La Belle Mere said...

Two words.....

The Ashes

But hey, good for you on the CO2 thing!!! Keep up the good work! ;-)

LBM xx

Christie said...

aussies can be so lazy & i really think that we take a lot for granted, the more i travel the more i realise how good we have it...

my husband thinks i am some kind of eco-extremist because i nag him about recycling & want him to drink his water/coffee out of reusable containers

maybe it's a cliche, but since becoming a mother i find myself thinking more about my impact on the environment & the way in which i can lessen it

austrlia should be leading the way when it comes to renewable energy, it's disappointing that so may people seam to be happy with the status quo

Meg said...

Have you heard of the movie No Impact Man?