Hard questions about climate action

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has confirmed we are going to pass 1.5C of global warming and called for “redoubled efforts” to stay within 1.8C.

This term our group is looking at some of the 'hard questions' around climate action: do we need ‘degrowth’ (reducing production and consumption)? In particular, should we reduce climate damaging activities, like flying and eating meat?

We are grateful to the facilitator of the Merri-bek U3A Social Issues Learning Circle (SILC) for starting this discussion and sharing his ideas with us. We are now working on a paper that will look at some of these questions and we hope to discuss them in more detail in one of our later meetings this term.

When the paper is finished we should be able to publish it here and share with others, including the SILC and other Merri-bek U3A members. It should be a fascinating and challenging ongoing discussion.

Cool new stuff

Cool roofs

Heatwaves and ‘urban heat islands’ are major concerns, especially for older people. Airconditioning can help, but moves heat to surrounding areas. 'Cool roofs' that could make surroundings as well as buildings cooler are therefore of great interest.

One of our members found an article of interest in The Economist (unfortunately paywalled but can be accessed by subscribers). The Guardian also has a free to access article .

The cool roofs use heat reflecting paints, which not only prevent heat from entering the house, but also help to keep the surroundings cooler. It is estimated they may reduce temperatures in urban areas by up to 2C.

In Melbourne, there are still issues to consider, as our peak energy demand is now in winter. Therefore reflecting heat may not be such a priority from the point of view of savings to an individual householder. However, as global warming continues and our cities get denser and more prone to urban heat island effects, it will be increasingly important not just for individual savings but for community health and wellbeing.

The City of Melbourne has an interesting project about use of roof space, including support for cool roofs and green roofs (note this information appears to date from 2024-25 so may not include the latest developments in cool roofs).

Solar building materials and balcony solar

The idea that everyday building materials could be adapted to produce solar energy is an emerging topic of interest. 

In this respect it was interesting to see some of the new research at the Melbourne Energy Institute Symposium recently, including the poster below, which discusses how a coating could be applied to windows to collect light that could be used to generate solar power.

As the poster says, it could be particularly relevant for high-rise buildings, which have limited roof space but a lot of windows.

Picture of poster displayed at Melbourne Energy Institute Symposium, explaining how coating applied to windows could collect light for generating solar energy.

Another development of interest is 'balcony solar' - solar panels that can be clipped on to balconies, which again would be particularly relevant in high-rise buildings. They would also be of interest for renters, since they could own the panels and could take them with them if they need to move.

Balcony solar is now used in Europe and UK, and is being currently considered for use in Australia. We would need new regulations and standards for its use, but there appears to be no reason this could not be done. Watch this space (and for a similar topic, 'plug-in batteries', which we will try to look at later).

Data centres and AI - Need to Know

With increasing use of AI (artificial intelligence) huge growth in data centres is predicted. Data centres are major users of energy and water, as well as producing noise and light. Many people are objecting and calling for a moratorium on new data centres and extensions of existing ones.

Our U3A group will hold a forum on this topic on Monday 16th November, led by Dr Sarah Webber from Melbourne University.

Other members of Merri-bek U3A are welcome to come, as it is an emerging issue we need to know about, especially with an election coming up soon.

If you would like to come you can can enrol in the group via the Merri-bek U3A website. We have vacancies and it is OK to enrol just for this meeting if you wish. You can also contact me (Val, tutor) or other members of the group about coming as a visitor.

Search engines push us to use AI -
but what are the costs?

Some background information about data centres is available here from the Climate Council.

There has also been widespread publicity about residents successfully objecting to the extension of a data centre in Footscray.

As well the climate and energy implications outlined by the Climate Council, there are also social and environmental implications. Data centres are often large industrial buildings, which emit constant ambient noise and light, including at night. There are also concerns about dust, air pollution and loss of home value.

We are now in the election period in Victoria and we may wish to ask what our state government is proposing to do about data centres, as well as about federal government proposals.

With the increasing use of AI, data centres are predicted to grow enormously. The two topics are connected and it is important to think critically about AI as well. AI is being heavily promoted but we need to recognise not only the risks from AI use, but also that a lot of money has been invested in its development, and there are huge vested interests trying to promote it to us.

All these topics will be open for discussion on Monday and this post will be updated with further information following the forum.