The SquizLog

Accountability for Climate Change

A few weeks ago I purchased a bicycle. To my teenage children this caused some mirth. It would seem that the sight of their father, who is approaching 50, on a pushbike provokes much sniggering and laughter.

But I'm used to being bagged by my kids. And the older I get the more it amuses me. Having easy access to riding a bike has given me the obvious benefit of improving my health through a little more exercise. However, the benefits go beyond that.

It always used to bug me when I needed to go to the local shops and I'd take the option of driving. Not only did it seem lazy but I was unnecessarily contributing carbon emissions. Now I can ride my bike to the shops, providing the threefold benefit of getting more exercise, reducing my carbon footprint and giving my kids the opportunity to laugh at me!

Maybe you're thinking that it is a trivial difference to ride a bike rather than drive to the local shops. But to me it's one small way that I'm making a difference. I also predominantly work from home now rather than commuting to Sydney each work day. Each of us alive on this planet is accountable for contributing to global warming in some way. Or, to put it another way, we all have the opportunity to make a difference. It's so easy to think that it's no use taking action because the difference we can make individually is insignificant when compared with governments and large corporations. That's part of the thinking behind the Australian government's reluctance to get fair dinkum about reducing this country's emissions. It's shameful to know that Australia is the world's biggest polluter per capita.

This leads to what I consider to be another important aspect of taking personal responsibility for reversing climate change.

Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is a man-made reality, there are those that are still in denial. I view it as my responsibility to become well-informed about climate change, to challenge those who are sceptical about it and to participate in community action that contributes to reversing climate change. Examples of becoming better informed include making use of web resources, such as those provided by the Pew Center for Global Climate Change that present the facts. For a more in depth reference an invaluable compendium is the recently published second edition of Climate Change: The Science, Impacts and Solutions, by leading Australian climate change researcher Barrie Pittock.

I consider myself fortunate to be able to enjoy the simple activity of riding a bicycle. Each time I do, it serves as a reminder to me to remain vigilant about accepting my responsibility to play my part in responding to the challenge of climate change.

The Sydney Transport Shambles

I'm tired, it's late and my head should be on the pillow by now. But I'll rest easier after I've got this rant off my chest.

Today I was reminded with a jolt why I no longer endure the daily commute from the Central Coast to Sydney. My first appointment was at 10 am in Leichhardt in Sydney's inner west. I could have just travelled by train but, knowing that I also had another appointment in Manly later in the day I decided to drive. Big mistake.

You would think that leaving home at 7:50 am would have given me plenty of time to drive the 77 km to Leichhardt, which, according to Google maps takes just an hour and a quarter. OK, of course I expected it to take longer in peak hour. Anyway, by the time I reached Sydney's upper North Shore I was already thoroughly sick of the traffic jam. I was also conscious of the likely delays once I reached Sydney's inner west.

So I hatched an alternative plan. I'd continue driving as far as Wollstonecraft, catch a train to Central and then a bus along Parramatta Rd to Leichhardt. This worked well until it became clear that the bus wouldn't get me there in time. Taxi to the rescue. I just made it in time. Thankfully this meeting with a new client was a very pleasant interlude. Quite apart from mixing with nice people for an hour and a half, just stopping in one place restored my equilibrium to some extent.

11:30 am and I decided to catch a bus then a train to Circular Quay. Whilst waiting at the bus stop I had plenty of time to check the bus timetables via TripView on my iPhone. Eventually a bus came and, naturally, it was not the bus number that the timetables predicted. Oh, well. I've always thought that Sydney transport timetables are closer to works of fiction than fact.

By the time I'd changed from bus to train at Town Hall and reached Circular Quay it was about nearing 12:30 pm, which fortunately gave me a good connection to the Manly ferry. Now, this was one part of today's travelling in Sydney that I can't complain about. On a supposedly winter's day when the temperature reached 21 degrees Celsius, a ferry ride on the harbour was a delight.

The trip home from Manly was easier than it could have been due to the kind conveyance provided by a mate driving his ex-taxi. He kindly dropped me at Wollstonecraft from where I drove through the start of the afternoon peak hour traffic back to the Central Coast.

Yes, commuting from the Coast to the big smoke of Sydney still sucks. Sydney's chaotic combination of cars, taxis, trains, buses and ferries does not deserve to be described as a "system".

Sham, perhaps. Shambles, certainly.

Back from Crescent Head again

Another year has passed and our family has enjoyed yet another April holiday in the sleepy, beautiful village of Crescent Head. It's such a perfect place to recharge the batteries.

The weather was mixed but despite wet and windy periods this magical pocket of the NSW mid north coast was photogenic when the sun came out!

More photos here.

Bushfires and Climate Change

Have the recent horrific bushfires in Victoria indicated that it is time to take climate change deadly seriously?

John Martyn, May You Never be Forgotten

This evening my wife called me in from the garden to show me this in the Sydney Morning Herald. John Martyn, the wonderful Scottish folk singer and guitarist, dead at the age of 60.

How time passes. John Martyn's lyrical music has always struck a chord with me. I thought it was particularly appropriate that my wife let me know the news of his passing. After all, I clearly remember back to May 1987, when, as my best man and I drove to Green Point, where Lynda and I would be married, we made a special point of playing a tape of John Martyn on the way.

"May You Never" must be one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs ever sung. Simple maybe but hauntingly beautiful nonetheless. "Solid Air" is another of Martyn's earthy songs which seem to evoke the essense of what it is to be human.

John Martyn, may you rest in peace. As long as I breathe and am able to recall anything, I shall not forget you or your music.

Hip Gadgetry meets Diabetes Monitoring

Yesterday I caught up with my endocrinologist for a chat. Partly social because we get on well and he's been helping me manage my diabetes since I was diagnosed nine years ago.

But he did manage, in his disarming way, to get me to rekindle my commitment to monitoring my blood sugar levels. Living with diabetes can be a bugger of a thing. It's not the sort of condition you can take a holiday from. If it's late at night and I feel like crashing, an inner voice says to me, "hang on, you've got to have your injection and supper before you can hit the sack". Bugger! Or I may be on holidays and feel like a break from my normal routine, a chance to totally relax. Again, that voice chimes in, "not so fast buddy! - you know you need to inject four times a day and if you're serious about managing this thing you should be measuring and monitoring your blood sugar levels as well." Bugger, again!

However, as I said, my friendly endocrinologist lead me to conclude that a return to better monitoring would be in my interests.

What has this to do with "hip gadgetry?" To answer this, I need only name two pieces of technology - one hardware, one software. The iPhone and Twitter. To be fair, there's another piece of software that is integral to this story - the web application that is SugarStats. Now, so long as I am in a location where my iPhone has service, I can easily record my blood sugar levels and insulin injections via Twitterific on my iPhone. Because SugarStats exposes sugar and med entries via Twitter, what I enter on my iPhone - provided I enter it in the correct format - ends up in my SugarStats account.

To me this is a wonderful, enabling use of technology. Whereas I've used SugarStats in the past via a web browser, it has always been a bit of a hassle to have to remember to find a computer after taking a reading or injecting. With the iPhone/Twitter/SugarStats interface I think there's more likelihood of me maintaining my efforts to manage my diabetes.