Carbon Tax? Yes, we need that!

I hope you enjoyed my terrible rhyming title.
Okay, I always say that I'm going to write all this stuff in my blog and that I'll update more. But I never do. I'M SORRY FOR LYING.

Anyway, I do have lots of things to blog about and I thought while I had the idea I would actually do it instead of just thinking to myself "Hey, I should write a blog about that..." and then never doing it. Lol. 


So this week sometime, we received our Carbon Price booklet.. thing. Geography was one of my favourite subjects at school and in year 11 and 12 we studied Climate Change and Global Warming, so I'm really interested in sustainability and climate change and everything like that so I thought, hey! I'll write a blog about it! - For my non-Australian readers in case you didn't know, Australia has just introduced Carbon Tax to reduce our carbon emissions.
Now, I am a big supporter of Carbon Tax (or pricing or whatever you want to call it.) I mean, if Global Warming isn't real, then who actually cares? We'll still be improving our future and the environment and being more sustainable. 


I've heard a lot of people complaining about how the carbon tax is a horrible idea and "We don't need more tax, I don't have enough money." etc.
You know, I've never really understood people being so against tax anyway. I mean, think of it this way; if you don't pay tax, then the government has no money to do anything. If we never paid tax ever then there would be no roads, no hospitals, no schools. Tax money is what pays for things. It's like saying "Why do I have to pay for this car? I don't have enough money, I just want a car." - That's a bad example, but it's kind of late so I'm a little tired. 


Anyway, I've heard a lot of people complaining about the carbon tax and it baffled me to realise that so many people didn't actually know what the carbon tax was. They just heard the dreaded word "Tax" and freaked the hell out. Settle down everyone, educate yourself on the matter before you have a rage at the government for "taking all your money." 


Australia is the biggest generator of pollution per person of all first world countries. That's right guys. We are throwing more gross out there than The United States, India and China. While it isn't the only cause, it is mostly because we have such terrible sources of electricity generation. That being the burning of coal. Not only that but we are a large exporter of coal and petrol.

There have been many international conferences to try and reach an agreement on reducing carbon emissions and set targets for individual countries to meet. Now I don't mean to be harsh, but Australia has done less than their fair share of reducing. In fact, in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, targets were set for each country to reduce their emissions between 2008 and 2012. The United States agreed to a 7% reduction. European Nations; Germany, the UK and Portugal agreed to a 8% reduction and Japan agreed to a 6% reduction.
Australia negotiated a 7% increase. Our argument was that we export a lot of coal and we're clearing land and stuff. I mean, not to say we were the only country to not negotiate a decrease but really, Australia? Really? Those are horrible excuses.
Japan agreed to a decrease in emissions even though they need to increase their carbon emissions to allow for their population growth.


Australia has now agreed to try and reduce our carbon emissions by 5% compared to 2000 levels by 2020. While that's still not that much, it's a start and I don't know about you but I'm proud we're finally at least trying to do something about being more sustainable as a nation. 


Of course there's always the easy to go to argument that changing our energy to more sustainable kinds will cause a loss of employment. No. No it won't. Employment will simply shift to a different area. Someone has to work at the new places. The real "problem" is that oil companies and any other holders of high carbon emitting energy sources, would lose money changing to more sustainable energy - even more so if they did not change. Yes, heaven forbid we should take money away from those big companies because they're too cheap to change... 


A price on carbon is the most environmentally effective and the cheapest way to cut pollution. That's not just me saying that, that's economists, those guys that know stuff about money and economy and such. I've heard people say that they don't have the money to pay carbon tax. Well, whatayaknow the government thought of that too! It has been mentioned on many occasions and yet somehow heaps of people don't know. The price on carbon isn't just being added on to everything else, it is replacing some other taxing and whatayaknow, it's also being used to do something with! No way!
For example;

• The carbon tax will not affect small businesses, it is only for 'big polluter' companies. 
• The profit from the carbon tax will be used to assist low income  households with the cost of living by at least 20% more than the expected impact of carbon pricing.
• Households will also receive assistance though tax cuts and payment increases.
• 7.5 Million people with an annual income of under $80,000 will receive a tax cut.
• There will be pension increases for well.. pensioners.

There's more. But basically, the government isn't just going "Oh heyyy, we're going to start putting a price on carbon. Oh, that cost you money? Oh well! =D" So I'm not sure where everybody is getting that from. 

Not to mention they are also promoting the use of more sustainable and renewable energy sources.

With carbon pricing Australia's carbon emissions will reduce by 160 million tonnes per year. The equivalent of taking 45 million cars of the road.
We still need to do more, but this is better than going along with our eyes closed and our hands over our ears. 

So basically, as far as I am concerned this is a step forward in the right direction for us as a nation. It's easy for everyone to just freak out and accuse the government of taking all our money or whatever but really it's not even a little bit like that.
If you're still not convinced, think of it this way. We are making a little sacrifice so that the generations of the future can be better off. Why should we care about the future generations? Well.. do you want to have kids? If you don't, well I don't and I still care so you just go sit over there in the 'I don't care' corner. If you do, do you want your kids to live in a future were energy is sustainable and they are all together better off or do you want them to live in a future were oil prices are so high they can't afford to drive car and there's no renewable energy? I'm going to assume it's the first one. If it's the latter, YOU ARE A HORRIBLE PERSON.

Are you still with me? Cause I'm done now. I mean, I could ramble on about this forever, but I think I've basically made my point.

I hope you enjoyed my entry and I will try and post another one soon!

Until then, have a lovely day.. night.. afternoon... or whatever else in between. :) 

Marathons For Horses? Hell yes, I want to do that!

Wow, I'm so sorry to anyone who actually reads my blog that I have not updated it in a bazillion years. I may or may not.. have forgotten my password and therefore was unable to log in... 

SO, I have been trying to think of something I can rant to you about, that is a decent sized topic, and not something I'll get half way through and realise I have nothing to say. For example, I was going to rant to you about Rebecca Black and how amusing, terrible and embarrassing the whole situation is all at once, but I figure enough people have ranted about her and her terrible song and I don't think I need to add to the giant mass of giant ness.Everyone who has access to the internet has an opinion on Rebecca Black, even if they haven't seen or heard her terrible song/music video. (By the way, if you haven't. Get on that. - Or don't up to you.) 

ANYWAY, What I actually decided I would rant about today, is something that I've been thinking about for a while, kind of off and on. You know, those things you think of every now and then, forget about and continue living your life, until you remember them again and then think about how awesome it would be and then forget about them again and so on an so forth... 

That subject is Endurance Riding! - For those of you who aren't horsey people or affiliated with the horsey industry as obsessively as I am, Endurance riding, is pretty much a marathon on horse back. There are shortish rides and rides that can go on for multiple days. Horses need to be super fit and healthy to do these kinds of rides and so do their riders. 

Now, coming from a family of people who actually ran marathons, like.. not on horse back. I find this interesting.. I enjoy running to an extent but I enjoy horse riding endlessly. This is possibly the perfect Equestrian sport for me! 

I've always thought endurance riding would be pretty cool. But I've never really looked into it that much. I've only ever gotten as far as seeing photos from it, reading a tiny bit about it in horse encyclopaedic and reading about recent competitions in The Australian Arabian Horse News magazine. 

Part of the reason I've never really looked into it that much is because I don't own my own horse, let alone a pure/part bred Arabian that can go for days. 

BUT, yesterday I was looking through one of my issues of Arabain Horse News magazine and I decided that I want to look into this area of Equestrian competition. 

Endurance riding is not as mainstream as some other Equestrian sports such as Eventing, Show Jumping or Dressage. Because of that, it isn't as common knowledge of how to enter or start out in  Endurance riding. But, via a quick Google search, I found the website for the Australian Endurance Riders Association (AERA).  Of course, on their website, there is a special section for people who want to start out in Endurance riding. This section includes information on feeding and training a horse correctly to enter it's first Endurance ride while being equally prepared yourself as a rider. Though the article is not exessively detailed, it does have a Further Information section, which gives you some general information to help you start out your training for endurance riding.

Other things included in the Starting Out section are the history of the AERA and information on Vetting, Strapping and other general information. 

Okay, I don't want to simply be a guide to you people on how to go about starting out in Endurance riding. I'm sure some of you don't even want to start endurance riding! So, now I'm just going to talk to you about Endurance riding in general, and show you how incredibly awesome it is! Are you excited? You should be. 

So, I thought I'd outline some of the basic rules of Endurance Riding for you. There is a link on the AERA website, that brings up an index of all National rules of Endurance riding. (So if you don't live in Australia in and you're reading this, the rules in your country may differ from the rules outlined in my blog.) 

There are a lot of rules, so I'll try and sum them up as briefly as I can without losing to much detail. 

Obviously, not only do the AERA rules apply to Endurance riding, but there are also FEI (Federation Equstre Internationale - that's French. So, they're The International Federation of Equestrian) rules and regulations that outline the rules of Endurance Riding in Australia, just like any other Equestrian sport. 

Okay, first of all there are different 'types of rides' in Endurance riding outlined in the Rules and Guidelines of the AERA. Here's a brief description of each of the different types of ride:

• Endurance ride; a competitive horse ride of at least 80 kilometres. Successful riders in each section of the competition receive awards and points. 
• Marathon ride; a competitive ride where 80 kilometres or more are ridden each day over three or more consecutive days. It is conducted as a single event, there are no sections.
• Mini-marathon ride; a non-competitive ride where less than 80 kilometres are ridden each day over three or more consecutive days. It is conducted as a single event.
• Training ride; a non-competitive training ride for both horses and riders over less than 80 kilometres in one day. Some rules are different from those of normal non-training rides.
• Introductory ride; a non-competitive ride over a distance of less than 40 kilometres which provides an introduction for horse and rider into the sport of Endurance riding. Like training rides, there are some rules that apply specifically to introductory rides.

Interestingly, the AERA and FEI do not allow price money to be given in competitive rides in Australia, instead winning riders of each section are awarded trophies. Trophies must not be over the value of $2,500 and if a prize is above that value, it must be approved by the State Management Committee of the AERA.

Obviously, like any other Equestrian event, all horses must pass a strict veterinary inspection, before, during and after competing to ensure they are in an appropriate condition to compete. 

If the ride goes over multiple days, each horse must have a veterinary inspection before and after each day of riding including a  temperature, pulse-rate and respiration check (Commonly known as TPRs). Each horse is monitored for recovery time and their temperature, pulse-rate and respiration must be below the maximum set for the ride by officials . Understandably, such excessive distances of exercise can be strenuous on horses and therefore the veterinary standards are very high in these kinds of competitions.

Because Endurance riding obviously requires a lot of.. well.. endurance. Most riders choose to compete on Arabian bred horses. Either pure-breds, part-breds or sometimes Anglo-Arabians. However, there are no rules against any breed competing in endurance rides.  

There are basic rules for the identification of different riders i.e. novice riders must be identified, so must training riders in training rides. Because stallions are allowed to compete in Endurance rides, they must be identified as well, usually with a blue ribbon in their tail.  

Similar to marathons for people, horses and riders have a time limit in which they have to complete each leg of the ride. Therefore, riders need to pace their horses so they don't get too tired, but also keep them at a speed steady enough to come in under the time. (Similar to Cross Country in Eventing.)

Most riders choose to either walk or trot majority of the way of the ride. In some cases riders have to get off and lead their horses, either to navigate rough terrain or to give their horse a break from carrying them over such long distances. 

Something like horse racing, each rider must 'weigh-in' so they can be organised into a specific division. Either, heavy or light weight. The weight of the rider is taken into account so that time can be allowed accordingly as it is understood that a heavier rider by logic, would mean the horse moves at a slower pace.

There's some information about how points are scored and such. I don't think I really need to tell you about that. All you need to know is that winners and runners up of each sections receive FEI points, that can go towards qualifying for state and national events, like any other FEI recognised Equestrian competitions.

There's some other rules, that are more for officials, and then there is the specific rules for Training and Introductory rides. Most of it is common sense. The requirements to be able to enter a training or introductory ride are based on how many official rides both horse and rider have competed in. Obviously it needs to  be close to none for an introductory ride.

Something I thought was cute and nice, all riders who participate in a training ride receive a certificate of completion. That's a nice little thing to have after your first training ride! ^.^ 

Wow, that felt like I was doing some kind of school project on Endurance riding. - Which.. was actually fun.  If you're still reading after that huge eye-full. Congratulations! 

Now who wants to start endurance riding with me?