Who's doing them and who's building them, Amelia?

Here in Tassie, there are a few different companies that are owning and operating these facilities.

But one of the more notable ones is a company called Firmus.

So that's actually a Tassie-born company.

Originally, it was actually a Bitcoin mining company.

It obviously earned a bunch of money off that.

And then as the trend kind of shifted and data centers started to boom, it moved into that space.

How much water are they going to use these places? And is it a concern?

But if I'm sitting at home thinking, should I be changing my appliances? And will that make a difference, Amelia?

I think it's a big question and super valid to ponder.

And I think also this news story is really important so that households give themselves a bit of a pat on the back.

But basically, every three months, we get a bit of an update on where our emissions are at.

And what we've just seen is that we've had a drop in emissions.

And a large part of that is to do with households going electric, installing those those batteries, getting EVs, putting solar on the roof.

And I think that that's really important.

How do we keep the trend going, Amelia?

What are some of the things putting pressure on our Tassie-threatened species, Amelia?

I think number one is things like habitat loss.

So species really rely on particular trees or particular ecosystems that they call home.

And when we make those smaller or more fragmented, that means that it's much more difficult for them to survive.

We also know that things like cats and foxes are putting pressure on them as well.

I know foxes are a big one in Tassie where people are like, are they really there? But cats in particular, we know, particularly for bird life, have a really big impact.

And also things like climate change, which is altering the kind of temperatures that these species have to face every day, are putting on the pressure too.

So what can we do to help?

But the question I have is, does Tasmania have enough charges to support the boom?

Big question.

We have seen absolutely insane uptake this year.

So back in January, about one in 12 new cars sold in Australia was an EV.

And then the fuel crisis hit and by June it was a quarter.

And so, you know, it's all very well, obviously, people buying these cars, putting them in their garages, but they need to actually make sure that they can charge them.

So a huge question.

What do we need to know to make it easier when we're charging our EV?

Will El Nino make the fire season even worse?

That's a really good question.

It is possible, yes.

So when we have an El Nino, it's typically linked to reduced rainfall, particularly across eastern and southern Australia.

And we typically see warmer temperatures.

So that means that The fuel that fires used to burn is drying out.

And like you've said, we're seeing that in Tassie.

We need

What can we expect? What's on? Where are we going? So I

think for me and Tassie, there are three kind of top events.

The first one is a bike powered movie that's showing in Hobart.

So it's at the Kickstart Arts Center in Newtown.

And it's literally a cinema powered by a couple of bikes.

So two bikes are going to generate the electricity needed to actually run the projector.

And there's going to be both a kids movie and also an adult movie running.

I've heard that there's something experimental with beer.

So why are they so successful here, Amelia? Why are they the best in the world?

Tassie has a bunch of advantages.

Firstly, we have pretty chilly winters.

So cherry trees really need that period of cold weather over the winter months before they wake up from their kind of dormant or sleepy state.

so that they can produce a good crop.

So just like us, they need a good bit of rest.

We also have pretty cool summers.

How are we going to protect our cherries if they're so famous and fabulous?

So let's get stuck into this week's episode of the award-winning Korea podcast with Adrian Collis, a freelance audio journalist, audio drama producer, and writer, as he explores the intersections of life while being trans plus and a migrant in the north of the UK.

I'm Amelia Pearson.

I'm based in Leeds currently, but I'm planning to move to Bradford soon.

The Bradford Trans Film Collective It was an idea that I kind of got after going to Bradford Queer Film Festival, which is really good.

I think some years I feel like it doesn't have as much representation for what I consider queer.

Migrants like Maya and British citizens like Amelia from the Trans Film Collective need more support.

I think intersectionality is very dangerous.

It's very dangerous to be an intersexual person because you have less protection, but not just less protection, you have less spaces to actually feel included.

But is that the right thing to do or get some recycled stuff?

They definitely can be.

So there are more and more options coming onto the market that are using natural fibres.

So that means items of clothing that's made from stuff that can actually grow back.

We've seen certainly a resurgence of things like hemp coming back into fashion.

And that can mean that, yeah, at the end of their life, they actually break down much more easily.

Cotton is an interesting example because while it's natural, we also know that that uses lots of water.

So what can we do to be sustainable?

Is that why Tassie's so vulnerable?

It is.

So Tassie has almost 5,000 k's of coastline.

I know that the west coast is a little bit isolated, but certainly the rest of our coastline is pretty well inhabited.

And we've seen some really interesting changes in places like Lauderdale.

We've seen the councils have to dump sand so that the beach doesn't just get washed away.

On Rasmus Beach, which is just north of Orford, We've seen more than 100 metres of beach go out to sea over the past 30 or 40 years.

Apart from the obvious, Amelia, where houses are starting to get impacted, why does it really matter?

Oh.

So even though Tassie actually has shorter, sometimes cloudier days than Queensland, particularly during winter, we still obviously get heaps of daylight to generate that solar, and that's actually where a battery can make a massive difference.

So instead of selling that precious solar energy for a few cents during the day back to the grid, we actually store all of that energy, so when we get home in the evenings and turn on our ovens and our washing machines and all those other appliances, we can actually use that energy basically for free.

So what size of battery should we be buying, and how much are they?

So my number one tip is that bigger is not always better.

I think when the Cheaper Home Battery program first came out, a lot of installers were kind of taking advantage of the fact that people just wanted the biggest battery possible, and that was costing people way more money than they really needed to spend.

So for most homes, a 10 to 15 kilowatt-hour system is gonna be sweet.

They cost around $7,000 to $10,000 to buy and install.

What can we do, Amelia?

Oh, it actually sucks to open a electricity bill, and knowing that it's gonna get bigger is, I'd say, uh, even worse.

For me, when I think about cutting my bills down, I'm thinking about what I can do at home, you know, flicking off the power points, making sure I'm not using the dryer for every single item of clothing, making sure my dishwasher's full.

But actually, one of the easiest things that we can do is make sure that we're on the cheapest energy plan for us, and often that's not the one that we locked ourselves into five years ago.

We only have Aurora, right?

No, you actually don't.

So Aurora supplies about 90% of the state, but over the last few years, a bunch of other competitors have come in and are starting to kind of provide that competition and help bring the prices down.

So you've got options like Solstice Energy, First Energy, Energy Locals, Nectar, CoverYou.