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Climate change aside, much more can be done toward the greening of most cities. I for one would be happy if our open space was in fact ... green. Most efforts toward greening in Adelaide in the last decade seem to involve planting dead native grasses and mallee scrub, all a known fire hazard and completely unsuited to an urban environment. I can't decide if it is just laziness, or polilical correctness gone mad.

claybro wrote:Climate change aside, much more can be done toward the greening of most cities. I for one would be happy if our open space was in fact ... green. Most efforts toward greening in Adelaide in the last decade seem to involve planting dead native grasses and mallee scrub, all a known fire hazard and completely unsuited to an urban environment. I can't decide if it is just laziness, or polilical correctness gone mad.

wtf does political correctness have to do with it?

I think it's council bean counters trying to appear to be water wise by planting climate appropriate plants, but the real reason is they don't want to spend money on maintenance and watering.

It's like those signs small mall operators put up in front of their escalators saying that the escalators will be turned off outside of shopping hours, please use the stairs / lift elsewhere, and "thank you for helping us help the environment" when the real reason is they are trying to scrimp pennies on the power bill.

monotonehell wrote:

claybro wrote:Climate change aside, much more can be done toward the greening of most cities. I for one would be happy if our open space was in fact ... green. Most efforts toward greening in Adelaide in the last decade seem to involve planting dead native grasses and mallee scrub, all a known fire hazard and completely unsuited to an urban environment. I can't decide if it is just laziness, or polilical correctness gone mad.

wtf does political correctness have to do with it?

I think it's council bean counters trying to appear to be water wise by planting climate appropriate plants, but the real reason is they don't want to spend money on maintenance and watering.

It's like those signs small mall operators put up in front of their escalators saying that the escalators will be turned off outside of shopping hours, please use the stairs / lift elsewhere, and "thank you for helping us help the environment" when the real reason is they are trying to scrimp pennies on the power bill.

And hotels requesting you to be environmentally conscious by re-using your towels...

Unfortunately the flight you took to your holiday destination probably emitted more pollution into the atmosphere for a whole life's worth of hotel towel washing

monotonehell wrote:

claybro wrote:Climate change aside, much more can be done toward the greening of most cities. I for one would be happy if our open space was in fact ... green. Most efforts toward greening in Adelaide in the last decade seem to involve planting dead native grasses and mallee scrub, all a known fire hazard and completely unsuited to an urban environment. I can't decide if it is just laziness, or polilical correctness gone mad.

wtf does political correctness have to do with it?

I think it's council bean counters trying to appear to be water wise by planting climate appropriate plants, but the real reason is they don't want to spend money on maintenance and watering.

It's like those signs small mall operators put up in front of their escalators saying that the escalators will be turned off outside of shopping hours, please use the stairs / lift elsewhere, and "thank you for helping us help the environment" when the real reason is they are trying to scrimp pennies on the power bill.

Sorry, should have clarified. It is the APPEARANCE of being politically correct whilst the main motivation is saving money as you say. Climate change is being used by all sorts of organisations as an excuse to charge extra, or reduce services in just about every area of operation now.

claybro wrote:

monotonehell wrote:

claybro wrote:Climate change aside, much more can be done toward the greening of most cities. I for one would be happy if our open space was in fact ... green. Most efforts toward greening in Adelaide in the last decade seem to involve planting dead native grasses and mallee scrub, all a known fire hazard and completely unsuited to an urban environment. I can't decide if it is just laziness, or polilical correctness gone mad.

wtf does political correctness have to do with it?

I think it's council bean counters trying to appear to be water wise by planting climate appropriate plants, but the real reason is they don't want to spend money on maintenance and watering.

It's like those signs small mall operators put up in front of their escalators saying that the escalators will be turned off outside of shopping hours, please use the stairs / lift elsewhere, and "thank you for helping us help the environment" when the real reason is they are trying to scrimp pennies on the power bill.

Sorry, should have clarified. It is the APPEARANCE of being politically correct whilst the main motivation is saving money as you say. Climate change is being used by all sorts of organisations as an excuse to charge extra, or reduce services in just about every area of operation now.

Righto, I see. I think that might qualify as 'green washing' ?
...
Actually the Wikipedia page has a picture of a hotel laundry card like realstretts noted above.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing

monotonehell wrote:

claybro wrote:Climate change aside, much more can be done toward the greening of most cities. I for one would be happy if our open space was in fact ... green. Most efforts toward greening in Adelaide in the last decade seem to involve planting dead native grasses and mallee scrub, all a known fire hazard and completely unsuited to an urban environment. I can't decide if it is just laziness, or polilical correctness gone mad.

wtf does political correctness have to do with it?

I think it's council bean counters trying to appear to be water wise by planting climate appropriate plants, but the real reason is they don't want to spend money on maintenance and watering.

It's like those signs small mall operators put up in front of their escalators saying that the escalators will be turned off outside of shopping hours, please use the stairs / lift elsewhere, and "thank you for helping us help the environment" when the real reason is they are trying to scrimp pennies on the power bill.

I think Claybro has a point about political correctness. I recall reading somewhere that the current philosophy, guiding design principles of the public realm dictates that we embrace "native" and "indigenous" concepts. Hence, the rejection of foreign plants in favour of native varieties. This in turn makes parts of the city look like scrubland.

Will wrote:

monotonehell wrote:

claybro wrote:Climate change aside, much more can be done toward the greening of most cities. I for one would be happy if our open space was in fact ... green. Most efforts toward greening in Adelaide in the last decade seem to involve planting dead native grasses and mallee scrub, all a known fire hazard and completely unsuited to an urban environment. I can't decide if it is just laziness, or polilical correctness gone mad.

wtf does political correctness have to do with it?

I think it's council bean counters trying to appear to be water wise by planting climate appropriate plants, but the real reason is they don't want to spend money on maintenance and watering.

It's like those signs small mall operators put up in front of their escalators saying that the escalators will be turned off outside of shopping hours, please use the stairs / lift elsewhere, and "thank you for helping us help the environment" when the real reason is they are trying to scrimp pennies on the power bill.

I think Claybro has a point about political correctness. I recall reading somewhere that the current philosophy, guiding design principles of the public realm dictates that we embrace "native" and "indigenous" concepts. Hence, the rejection of foreign plants in favour of native varieties. This in turn makes parts of the city look like scrubland.

Is that guiding principle actually attributed to being water-wise, pandering to indigenous Australians or both?

Water wise?
They use recycled waste water to water the parklands now. Even out into parts of the suburbs.

If you see a purple hose, or purple tap, or purple plastic "manhole cover" in the parklands, that's recycled waste water.

It shouldn't matter anymore if it's native plants or introduced plants, the water supply is there.
We also have a desal plant just sitting there collecting dust. That thing should have been turned on and supplying metropolitan Adelaide with water, and our reliance on the Murray should have started to be reduced year by year.

What's going to save the Murray? Wasting time on political nonsense like water license buy back schemes and funny new ways to waste tax payers money, or reducing how much water we drain out of the bloody Murray River?

You could give many of the problems our state and country faces to a group of primary school children, and they'd come up with solutions quicker then our politicians who are earning hundreds of thousands of our tax payer dollars each every year to do the same.

rev wrote:You could give many of the problems our state and country faces to a group of primary school children, and they'd come up with solutions quicker then our politicians who are earning hundreds of thousands of our tax payer dollars each every year to do the same.

But would the solutions be politically correct Rev?- After all, political correctness overrides everything in public policy (or lack thereof) now.

rev wrote:We also have a desal plant just sitting there collecting dust. That thing should have been turned on and supplying metropolitan Adelaide with water, and our reliance on the Murray should have started to be reduced year by year.

The desal plant has never been turned off. In fact if they turned off the desal plant the osmosis system would break and require repair. The desal plant is currently running at about 1% capacity. As it does during non-drought periods by design.

But yes, councils seem to be green-washing their penny pinching by not paying to water or maintain selected plantings - indigenous or otherwise.

monotonehell wrote:

rev wrote:We also have a desal plant just sitting there collecting dust. That thing should have been turned on and supplying metropolitan Adelaide with water, and our reliance on the Murray should have started to be reduced year by year.

The desal plant has never been turned off. In fact if they turned off the desal plant the osmosis system would break and require repair. The desal plant is currently running at about 1% capacity. As it does during non-drought periods by design.

But yes, councils seem to be green-washing their penny pinching by not paying to water or maintain selected plantings - indigenous or otherwise.

1% is 1GL. Which is what .5 of a percent of Adelaides water requirements given at full capacity it makes 100GL and supplies half of Adelaides needs. Or is my maths off at 4:30am?
It may as well be off in other words. You know what I meant.

Btw Mono you remind me of the bloke that hosts the late night segment on 5AA from midnight onwards.

rev wrote:

monotonehell wrote:

rev wrote:We also have a desal plant just sitting there collecting dust. That thing should have been turned on and supplying metropolitan Adelaide with water, and our reliance on the Murray should have started to be reduced year by year.

The desal plant has never been turned off. In fact if they turned off the desal plant the osmosis system would break and require repair. The desal plant is currently running at about 1% capacity. As it does during non-drought periods by design.

But yes, councils seem to be green-washing their penny pinching by not paying to water or maintain selected plantings - indigenous or otherwise.

1% is 1GL. Which is what .5 of a percent of Adelaides water requirements given at full capacity it makes 100GL and supplies half of Adelaides needs. Or is my maths off at 4:30am?
It may as well be off in other words. You know what I meant.

My point was it's not collecting dust - it's running, continually costing money. But while the energy cost of pumping Murray water is less than the energy cost of desal AND while the Murray water is there to be pumped; it costs water users less to keep the desal in standby and pump the Murray dry.

Btw Mono you remind me of the bloke that hosts the late night segment on 5AA from midnight onwards.

Seeing how I have no idea who that is I have no idea how to take that.

It wasn't an insult. The guy has answers to almost everything callers bring up, like you do here.

Yes, but the water it is providing into the network is negligible overall. So if it was collecting dust, it wouldn't be a noticeable decrease.

monotonehell wrote:The desal plant is currently running at about 1% capacity.

10% aka 30megalitres/day aka over 5% of metro Adelaide typical requirements.
https://www.sawater.com.au/community-an ... -plant-adp
https://www.sawater.com.au/community-an ... rvoir-data

bits wrote:

monotonehell wrote:The desal plant is currently running at about 1% capacity.

10% aka 30megalitres/day aka over 5% of metro Adelaide typical requirements.
https://www.sawater.com.au/community-an ... -plant-adp
https://www.sawater.com.au/community-an ... rvoir-data

Thanks bits, I had my decimal point in the wrong place!