ForumGarden

I try to have a low carbon footprint. My car is

a low emission vehicle, hubby bought me a battery

powered lawnmower, I even use an electric

charcoal starter when I bbq. A couple of years

back, due to winter Spare The Air days, I couldn't

have a fire in the fireplace on Thanksgiving Day or

Christmas Day. The fine for the first offense is $100

and rises pretty dramatically thereafter.

So it really chapped my hide when we had a Spare The

Air Day yesterday (heat/inversion layers all that stuff)

and yet last night there was a half hour long commercial

fireworks display here in town, throwing up untold amounts

of sulfur and particulate matter in the air, but that's okay,

the governor was here and all, important doings and rules

can be ignored.

Right.

Do as I say, not do as I do mentality. It's unfortunate that you can't write "them" a fine!

How the hell can someone be fined for heating themselves in winter? What kind of logic is that?

^ Actually, the people who use fireplace as sole source of

heat are exempted. People who use one just for 'looks'

and have a furnace, etc. are the ones who are fined.

I only ever have a fire a few times a year. Neighbor across

the street burns about a cord and a half (I've seen the

driveway deliveries of the wood!) and again, over all,

is obviously pouring out far more pollutants than ME,

so I think I should get a pass to burn when I want!

I wonder if the politicians get campaign donations from the gas fireplace insert companies.

That's hilarious. At what point did they decide it was household fireplaces causing pollution instead of factories?

Don't tell David Cameron... he'll get Idea's

A couple of years back it was a dry summer and they put out an alert that told people to conserve water. They issued guidelines for watering lawns, washing cars, taking long showers, etc. As usual, the same people that comply with the "spare the air days", did their best to conserve water, while some made no effort to comply.

When things were getting back to normal, after that long summer, they managed to find a way to punish those that complied with their guidelines. They announced that the new water rates would be based on what each house used the previous year. Thus, those that conserved water were now paying a higher rate for water than those who ignored the guidelines.

These folks really should figure out what they are doing and trying to accomplish.

Government asking household consumers to take responsibility for air quality is like a person sitting in an idling car in a parking lot who rolls down the window after fifteen minutes to tell a dude to put out his cigarette.

I think I'm more concerned about people who may have access to wood and find it difficult to pay for Gas and electricity . After the fires we had here a huge clean up was held ...it was open slather for anyone to go and chop their own wood . That's years ago now but we have a choice..... either it burns in a bush fire or it burns in our fireplaces.....either way, same omissions. You don't even need a permit anymore they open the forests up for clearing at certain times of the year and then everyone goes and gets the felled trees. It's a brilliant system. But I do understand that in built up areas there could be a bit of a breathing problem. But as Koan has already stated, built up areas also include industrial areas. So it's a mute point.



As for Water restrictions ........I tend not to have that problem because I'm on tank water so if I misuse it I'm the only one who loses out. And I'd have to drink bore water and that's grosse stuff......(full of good minerals etc, but still grosse) Or have it brought in at $300 a semi load. At the moment we've had nothing but rain and flooding. We still have some restrictions in place in different parts of the state though .

What really gets me though in our country is we're all told to begin planting vege gardens and have chooks etc etc And start living sustainably. But the trend has been to have larger houses on smaller properties so really your pushing a rock up a hill to be able to do this .

So burn all the wood you want . What people don't understand and is lost in the translation of climate change is that we actually need carbon in the air . OUr governments are liars and very bad town planners and i'm afraid after I got word that the apparent 'ozone hole' that was apparently causing all our skin cancers got better and isn't there anymore i gave up listening to all the freaks.

I was outside my Doctors surgery once In the car park having a cigg.... Some woman came outside bristling with her own self Importance and gave me a condescending string of verbal because she was about to bring her child out and didn't want her child Inhaling my smoke as she came out of the door.

That's fair enough I thought, I'm a reasonable person so I moved right away from the door.... she came out with child, climbed Into a 4X4 revving her engine and pumping her exhaust fumes Into what was now the open Doctors surgery door..... The ridiculous part of that was she probably carried on with her day completely unaware of the damage she had done.

yup!! that happened to me I got abused for having all the windows down in my car hand out the window with a cigg in it sitting at traffic lights being abused by a woman two lanes away for having a fag while my kids were in the car. Meanwhile I'm laughing my head off because she's sitting directly behind a big truck spewing out black fumes all over and inside her car with her kids in it. (she also had her windows down ) go figure.