…
I’ve been saying the Australian commitment of a 28% reduction by 2030 was an economic suicide pact. Terry McCrann’s got numbers on just how suicidal it is:
The so-called NEG or National Energy Guarantee is dammed upfront by the total irreconcilability of its three aims: to ensure both affordable and reliable electricity (and, indirectly, gas) and meeting our commitments under the Fake Paris Accord to cut emissions of carbon dioxide by 26-28 per cent by 2030.
This, not exactly incidentally, means we have to cut emissions per capita by closer to an economy-killing and individual-impoverishing 50 per cent, and do so, in barely a dozen years, thanks to our crazy-stupid “build another Canberra ever year” high immigration, for want of a better word, policy.
What were our negotiators thinking?
Nobody mention immigration. Australia has the fastest growing population in the West. China wants to use “per capita” calculations for obvious reasons. Australia doesn’t even want to talk “per capita”.
We cut our emissions per capita by 28% from 1990 – 2013, but that was done by stopping land clearing and by confiscating land from farmers, stealing their right to use their property, and jailing them if they cleared without grovelling for permission. Somehow we are supposed to do another 50% cut in half the time? Not only are there no easy gains left, but we’re so far past the easy cuts stage we’ve shredded the spirit of the constitution. That was fun, let’s do double?
The all-critical three words that damn the supposed conclusion that we will get cheaper power at the end of it all are these: compared to “business as usual”.
McCann has a great analogy. To paraphrase: we’re on the Titanic, we’re aiming for the iceberg. That’s business as usual — steaming right ahead. Turnbull wants to get the lifeboats ready so we kill less people. McCrann says: why not steer the shop away from it and lose no lives at all, nor the ship (of state)?
Donald Trump is shining a beacon on the berg, on the terrible deal. He’s lit a neon billboard saying “This Way Out”. Turnbull’s too busy getting life-jackets.
But it’s all a bit academic as McCrann also says: By Christmas there may not be a Turnbull government.
Totally OT, Jo, but I’d have thought you’d have been all over this.
https://www.thegwpf.com/james-cook-univer%C2%ADsity-slapdown-of-great-barrier-reef-science-critic-heads-to-court/
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And while we’re totally OT . . . . . I thought this was one that Jo might find deserved some attention too . . . .
https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/20/nasa-can-pinpoint-glaciers-that-might-flood-coastal-cities/
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So, which part of Archimedes Principal don’t they understand?
72
Just Thinkin’ November 25, 2017 at 10:21 am
Not only do the Clowns not understand such; they refuse to even consider the concept of displacement of mass, within a gravitational field! Removing a floating object (lifting); displaces less of the more dense incompressible fluid H2O, resulting in the measurable “weight” of the ship (displacement). Such lifting however still displaces the deferential volume of much less dense compressible fluid ‘atmosphere’. Being compressible within Earth’s gravitational field means that the displacement ‘volume’ is gravitationally translated to space that has no mass. This is what Archimedes demonstrated in 271 BC. Proving that Earth’s atmosphere, though massive exhibits not even a bit of self weight. “weight” is but a measurement value of mass that is only expressed through process of lifting! Lifting Earth’s atmosphere at any location near Earth’s surface, lifts no mass whatsoever. No possible ATMOSPHERIC WEIGHT, anywhere, independent of its mass . Earth’s atmosphere complete with airborne water, bugs, bees, birds, pterodactyls, and aircraft can express no gravitational potential energy! How can what the academic Climate Clowns spout ever be claimed as “SCIENCE” when so unbelievably WRONG?
All the best!-will-
30
Kevin, Joseph,
There’s just so much stupidity out there, what’s another couple?
I can’t for the life of me see how Jo’s site can cover it all.
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“GeoNet has issued a low-level volcano warning for Mt Ruapehu, which is emitting high levels of carbon dioxide.” Say what!? High levels of ‘pollution’ from a natural, non-anthropogenic source? Unprecedented! Can we tax it? Can we sell it CC credits? Shall we call it silly names and shut it down for good? Hasn’t this volcano heard of the Paris Agreement and all that consensus thingy stuff? UN-believable…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/environment/344697/high-gas-readings-at-mt-ruapehu
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Greg if it’s not moving we have to regulate it .
20
Quoted from Ronald Reagan; 40th American President.
.
Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:
.
If it moves, tax it.
.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
60
The way to save the world is so blindingly obvious. Force people to immigrate from developed countries to underdeveloped countries. Inviting people to immigrate to Australia is the exact opposite of what should be done yet for some reason (political ideology) people on the left want rich people to be less rich (to save the world) and for poor people to be more rich (to feel good)
Logic and facts totally escape these people, but boy do they feel morally superior.
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Ask the French how that is going……
90
And directly related to that , quite a few French Jews are emigrating to Israel, as its rapidly becoming not safe for them in France…..
110
What a sad commentary that is about the so-called egalitarian French culture.
But then we should never forget that Vichy France collaborated with the National Socialist Workers’ Party to round-up and transport French Jews to the German extermination camps during the second World War.
The socialists are at it again. Is it in their DNA?
70
I just want to be clear, I am not anti-immigration at all, I am anti-stupid.
50
All Australians and everyone else in the world needs to do is start deep fat frying all their food and we’ll cool the planet due to the cloud formation that results. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42081892
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Hopefully, the Turnbull reign will be over soon but unless a genuine sceptic takes over Australia as we know it is stuffed. The current political choice is we either drown in 3 meters of water rather than 100 meters of water, either way economically we are just as dead.
230
The media these days pushes there own agendas.
The mass media and in particular the ABC have been taken over by the green extremists.
People are now brainwashed by the propaganda of the lobbyists.
The medias business model is to make the news, not report it.
The general public has “Accepted” reporting on scientific statements as being factual.
We vote in politicians who reflect current popular thinking.
What goes down as public debate on science is purely a reflection of whoevers propaganda is mostly believed.
The media won’t change its position until we have a major economic disaster.
Once we destroy the economy of Australia by our failed energy policy, immigration policy, etc they will blame everyone but themselves.
Unfortunately in a demoracy as we now have it, stupid and economically and scientifically illiterate people will vote in anybody who promises more social welfare and makes them feel good about a crusade to “save” the world “sometime in the far distant future”.
I can’t predict the outcome but it won’t be good.
60
Down our way, the farmers bring in Asians to pick peas etc, as Australians aren’t interested in such hard labour. However, Australians may well have to get used to this, as that may be the only sort of work left in Australia as we head towards an agrarian lifestyle of the 1500s.
310
Ha! The genX, Y and now, noughty took the Hawke line big time. Unless you are going to give my uni trained graduate in social skills of the smaller scaled skink a corporate/ middle level.managers job on 95k+ a year…Im not getting out of bed and would rather live on the dole than do manual labour!
80
My own very small owner-operator business involves very hard physical work, and I enjoy it. Mind you, I’m of late 1950’s vintage, so grew up with the concept of working for what you want, even if you have to expend large amounts of sweat to do so. Anyone who thinks the world owes them a living and that the world should deliver it right now is thieving my personal oxygen. They can get off their arses and do what I’ve done all my life – work for their living and fend for themselves.
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The US has been there for quite a while now. I have an acquaintance from Mexico, a construction supervisor these days for a major engineering firm. He and I discussed the difficulty in finding field crew who were both willing to work, and knew which end of a shovel to push into the dirt. The problem he though, and I tend to agree, isn’t so much the “over-educated” nature of modern kids, but their urban. apartment-centered upbringing. Off the pavement and outside a park, they really are clueless. Many of their compatriots headed for college at the urging of everyone who “wanted better” for them and are now in the situation of working off serious debt from school. They can’t afford a low paying job.
20
There is a direct correlation between a nation’s energy consumption and standard of living. CO2 production is a proxy for energy consumption and so as CO2 and therefore energy consumption goes down, so does our standard of living.
At what point does this become treason?
320
If I were ruler of Australia, every electorate that voted for the Greens would immediately be placed on energy rations for the duration. They would be made to learn and experience what Green life really means. And as they are so virtuous, their sacrifice would allow others to live their life as they saw fit.
In fact, every Greens voter would have their property placed on energy rations, cars confiscated, all electricity dependent devices confiscated and then they could live the dream (while saving the planet).
311
You’d reduce emissions by 28% if you could do that .
140
I would do the same except I would include all Labor electorates as well.
70
Not in SA? There the CO2 has hardly moved in the last 10 years yet living standards are declining. Highest unemployment in Australia and the two highest ranking welfare areas in Australia.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/the-15-hardstruggle-postcodes-where-welfare-in-exceeds-income-tax-out/news-story/afa22fffd0f2a4a15216d4040974c39e
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David, David. Treason is so pre-post-modern. It is based on a dreadful old concept called nations or perhaps empires but now we all live on one planet. So those of us who are responsible for ruining the climate with our carbon pollution must understand that our sacrifices are necessary to restore a perfect climate for all living things.
If we can save just one lizard from mental dimming it will all be worth it.
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Extreme Hiatus:
Well, it is obviously too late to save the Greens from mental dimming.
60
Immigration wouldn’t be so bad if we were bringing in educated, potentially productive people with similar cultural values but we seem ro be focusing on importing the world’s most uneducated, unassimiliable and violent people who will be life-long drains on the economy, specifically working people.
270
The last report I sighted claimed that ten years after resettlement here many “refugees” remain welfare dependent, 9 out of 10.
220
Federal welfare cost to budget is close to 40 per cent of total spending and then add the state/territory welfare budget expenses including public housing.
160
The real irony is that these freeloaders are doing so much damage to our economy that within another decade or two, the welfare system they came here to sponge off will collapse, & they will be back to struggling for a living.
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Hasbeen, I don’t agree with your conclusion.
The greatest damage to this Nation’s economy has been done by the Rudd, Gillard, Rudd socialist government from 2007 to 2015. They took the Nation from a position of no net National debt and a budget surplus and ran up a $500 billion Federal debt and an ongoing deficit of circa $35 billion per annum.
Malcolm Turnbull has continued with Labor’s disastrous spending policies so that the National debt is now around the $600 billion mark and the deficit is around $37 billion per annum and growing.
On top of that Turnbull and his socialist liberals have continued with the destructive environmental policies that are driving Australian business enterprises to the wall or overseas, and the Australian worker into unemployment. It not the fault of the recent immigrants that Turnbull is a dill who has continued with the socialist Labor goons’ immigration policies.
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What did Rudd and co spend the 500 bn on?
20
A home insulation program (pink bats) with comcommitant deaths of installers due to bad practice and rip-offs all over the place, solar hot water rebates, new but unnecessary buildings in schools, (Building the Education Revolution-7,500 primary schools funded for libraries or a multipurpose halls or classrooms), a $950.00 one-off cash to every Australian taxpayer spend on anything at all – imported electrical goods and laptops mainly, roads (black spot rectification), railway boom gates, regional roads, community sports infrastructure, “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme”, building 20 thousand additional units of social housing, National Broadband Network, first home buyers incentive, and tax breaks for small and general business to name just some of the drunken sailors’ spending.
In fact Labor under Rudd, Gillard, Rudd didn’t care what the tax-payers’ money was spent on. They just spent in their usual uncoordinated, ill-disciplined and reckless way.
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Sam, that’s very true. But how many understand that 1. This tearaway debt is deliberate ALP/Greens policy, and 2. It was Clive Palmer’s PUP, acting on Al Gore’s call, which prevented the Abbott government from abolishing the RET and cutting the reckless spending.
Public debt must be funded by private capital. Public debt is future private capital, taken out of private management. The primary objective of the ALP and Greens is the abolition of private management, no matter what the cost.
40
Too right Ted.
The subversives and the manipulators know what they’re doing.
(BTW: given the look of my post in response to StephenP I hereby make a commitment to never post on a Saturday night after a dinner party! While the facts are correct I’m sure glad I wasn’t driving) 🙂
00
There are two separate problems, immigration of non integrating cultures and over immigration which is what Jo article is about. Australia has the highest immigration rate in the OECD. It is effectively a ponzi scheme to prop up the economic growth rate and so politicians can avoid the harder task which is to lift national productivity (GDP per Capita) and to undertake tax and economic reform. Immigration is lazy policy.
Importing uneducated, unassailable and violent people is a problem. But actual immigration into Australia is dominated by skilled immigrants who then sponsor family members. You can also add tens of thousands of full fee paying students from places like Singapore or Hong Kong who effectively subsidise our Universities.
The problem is all these immigrants are not generating more taxes than they consume or else Australia would not have an enormous infrastructure deficit built up over the last 30 years.
30
Graph showing correlation between energy use and GDP.
https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-f4cf5685cd6289ceb28cb4aa71770bfd-c
Why don’t politicians know such basic things?
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I don’t have a subscription. I’m wondering, does Terry include the Victorian euthanasia legislation in his calculations? It will help cut our emissions.
81
The Left / Greens believe in depopulation (at least of educated Western people) so euthanasia will certainly help.
121
But not in Australia they don’t. Witness the Greens’ extremists views on bringing even more migrants to Australia.
Illegal immigrants who pay people smugglers are the bread and butter of the Greens.
The two positions are incompatible but they are so stupid that they do not see it.
Who can explain that?
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Fifty percent renewables in 12 years. . .
It’s a death wish for Australia.
Regards GeoffW
220
Relax drivers, Tesla now offer an EV that has a legal towing capacity of 2 tonnes with 600 Nm of torque available from the electric motors.
Just A$165,000 and it’s yours, just be prepared for east coastal strip travelling with a caravan when the charging network is completed Melbourne to Cairns, half an hour to recharge 80 per cent of battery pack capacity and therefore 80 per cent of the full charge estimated towing range of 300 Kms, and no serious hill climbing.
Apparently an EV enthusiast in SA is already on the road with caravan from time to time.
Maybe he is responsible for the blackouts?
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I’m really relaxed Dennis. I intend to stick with my diesel Volvo until, if and when it can’t be properly serviced any more. By then I might not be driving anyway!
80
The fastest way to achieve their goals is for those who propose reductions to immediately start living a spartan lifestyle – no fossil fuel electricity, organic food, no motorized transportation, 300 square feet per person living space, no air travel, no AC etc. Their system would be abandoned in a few months. Put your money where your mouth is – hypocrites. You guys really need a Trump, and we need to get rid of Trudeau asap.
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Bringing C02 down below 200ppm and you’re killing plants and eco-systems,
bringing energy down by 28%/2030 and you’re killing a country’s productivity
and ability to feed its people.
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I did a rough calculation, but in submarines its safe to go almost up to 20,000 ppm
Bet their pot plants grow well…..
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8,000 ppm CO2 in subs is the number frequently cited as a point to stay under. Not saying your 20,000 is incorrect, but other things get in the air in a closed space. Cleaning the air is a good idea.
60
In a normal office, CO2 is around 800 parts per million even with air-conditioning.
20
Correct. 2 Million for the global population is thought to be an adequate population.
Or a sustainable population. (Got to use the correct vocabulary.)
The women will be the worst off.
30
Sounds like this is just Australia’s latest “us too” ambit claim in the game of “we’re greener than you are – just don’t look at the actual results”?
110
Jo, I can offer a good guess. They were thinking,
Of course there’s the very real possibility that they were not thinking at all. 🙁
230
Not quite, Roy. They have voluntarily and deliberately given up on the ability to think, at all!
80
Poorly researched mantra Jo – out of bulldust central – fact check. Land clearing in Queensland has hardly stopped. Land confiscated – what rot. How many jailed? The mainland clearing state is Queensland followed by NSW. Most of Qld clearing is allowed under law i.e legal – permitted. 5-10% isn’t. I suppose you’d like a free for all to bowl over endangered ecosystems? Let’s convert every last skerrick of lowland rainforest to sugar cane perhaps? I suppose you’ll be telling me the ag sector is on its knees and there will be no food in Woolies soon. You’ve never had it so good.
130
Land clearing was severely regulated in NSW and QLD until recently as a matter of fact there was a death of an enforcement officer not that long ago caused by a farmer who blew a gasket for not being able to clear his land .
As for Victoriastan if you are on an acre or less its carte blanch but over you need to beg and grovel .
161
I think it’s you that needs to do some research a quick search shows Campbell Newman did relax some laws in Qld and as for victroriastan here’s a short version of our overly generous laws .
By focusing narrowly on potential impacts to just rare or threatened species, 91% of Victoria ends up in lowest Location Risk A category (shown in light blue on the map below), with clearing permitted as a right as long as it is less than 1 hectare and offsets are provided (Figure 1).
So 91% can be cleared as long as it’s less than a hectare and you have to offset that by planting a hectare ?
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Australia’s native vegetation has increased over the last two decades…how is that so? Land clearing, CO2 stimulation or are you just talking out of your arse, pillock???
Australia also has a lot of protected areas…you know, national parks, reserves and the like. Equates to over 10% of the land mass. A good thing? I think not! They are badly managed, allowing for the infestation of exotic weeds and feral animals.
I can not think of one green policy that will have a positive outcome for our native flora and fauna. Pretty sad really.
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Freehold land is NOT THE GOVERNMENT’S TO REGULATE it belongs to the landowner if the government wants to place caveats over land OWNED BY SOMEONE ELSE then they need to compensate indefinitely the landowners for the capacity/rights they remove or buy the land so they OWN IT. If someone wants to build a gas well on it or the government wants a say over some of it – then pay my RENT so you can borrow it.
This is effectively what the constitution provides – BUT your precious green watermelons see government as the right to trample over any right to tell people how they should live their lives (apparently as simple vegan serfs) without limit. Frankly I resent that intrusion on my freedom. In Australia it was never so, so most of this sort of nanny state bulldust is typical communistic state bullying and it’s just the red interior of the watermelons spurting out under high pressures.
Jo has NOT said that all land should be exploited just that if it is FREEHOLD land owned by someone other than the crown, the government can’t dictate how the owner uses it, unless that use affects a neighbouring property. Governments are only allowed to regulate common area under the constitution (and its precedents). I happen to agree, if it’s not the government’s land then get off, butt out, and go get a warrant.
PS If I need to clear my land – I will clear it, don’t care what the guvmunt want
Sorry about the rant, the nanny state gets my goat.
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Hey Piilick at least we stopped logging on the Great Barrier Reef .
81
bobl
Unfortunately they don’t have to compensate in Qld and NSW – it isn’t in the constitutions of either. Commonwealth does.
20
Nobody owns land. Nobody can own land. It’s the surface of this planet, which has not been created by any human being. What a landowner owns is a legal fiction called a Title which describes (through the land having been surveyed) the land to which the title refers.
All a title grants is exclusive use to the land it describes, where the title holder can exclude all other people. The use of the land is still controlled by government through various town and country planning Acts. They have been around since the first government was formed. They can be modified at the whim of government. If you ignore their provisions, it’s your problem. Very quickly.
40
Go for it Pollock. Follow my links. It’s the ABS and the Australian Greenhouse Office you’re ranting about.
Research? Lol. I’m married to the man who built the software that uses Landsat data to monitor the carbon accounts across the whole continent using a 25m2 grid during this whole period. He testified in the Peter Spencer case in the Federal Court. Few people know more about our carbon accounts, land use, or the land the Australian government took control of (without compensation) from farmers.
Peter Spencer lost 80% of his farm. He was still paying the mortgage on land he could no longer use due to new legislation.
Does it matter how many people are in jail for felling trees on their own land — land bought before any native vegetation acts were passed? One man is an outrage. Maxwell Szulc got a 15 month sentence for creating a firebreak in scrubby regrowth on a farm he’s owned for decades.
What is the Australian constitution worth? Not much.
221
One things for sure Pollock knows nothing about farming .
41
Well I have gone it and you’ve ducked it. Sounds like single digits. I thought it was a plague. Facts are so annoying in the way of good yarn. You might also ponder freehold vs leasehold. Fullcam – LOL full of assumptions – how many northern hemisphere parameters vs Australian? ABS – hahahaha. There are actually quite a lot of people who know about carbon accounting. You’re not one of them. You need to get out more. Beatup Jo – Just more extremeism from the recently converted. Should be able to drive down the road at 200 km/hr too and own a bazooka.
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“Facts are so annoying in the way of good yarn”
You have NO FACTS to get in the way of your empty rant. FACTS not required.
61
“There are actually quite a lot of people who know about carbon accounting.”
Jo and husband is the first you have ever met.
Your denial and squirming at being shown up is quite hilarious.
Typical, empty, GREENIE SLUSH.
111
You’ve been watching too many WWF ads and you really need to adjust your tinfoil hat I think it’s a bit tight .
As trolls go your not all that good not that any of them are .
How about giving some verifiable facts to back your claims up .
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J Pollock said:
Why?
The only difference between the two is that the entity in possession of a plot of leasehold land is the tenant. The lease agreement usually confers a right of exclusion but does not have to. Nor does a freehold title. The right of exclusion can be modified by an easement.
20
A lease is also for a specified time.
30
The real difference between freehold and leasehold land is that leasehold land is occupied by someone other than the owner. The owner chooses to retain rights over that land.
Governments tend to lose sight of this and allow leaseholders on government land to treat it as if they own it. That works OK until someone remembers why the land wasn’t sold in the first place, or if a conflicting leaseholder demands rights an earlier leaseholder thinks are theirs to withhold.
20
That’s what I said, but I will point out: no one owns land. The entity in legal tenure of a piece of land does not own it, but owns a Title which describes the land concerned.
The only difference between Leasehold and Freehold is that the tenant who has tenure of the leasehold land, is not the the registered possessor of the Title to the property. No one can own land, no one does own land.
There is a legal fiction called A Title. Those are what are bought and sold. Freehold is from fieffer (Old French) meaning to put in legal tenure, It comes down from “in fief” (is a corruption of) which originally meant “to hold in trust from the Crown,” (English) such as a Baron with a Baronial Estate. Even the Barons had to pay the lease to the crown, at least until Magna Carta which was put forward by King John’s debtors …
Freehold land may be described on its title as being held “in Fee Simple.
Allodial Title (absolute ownership) is always reserved to the government and tenure is granted to the title holder who may lease it to a tenant.
A Freehold Title grants (note that word: grants) exclusive legal tenure for an unlimited time, which usually ends with the death of the landholder. Title then goes where the last will and testament indicates if there is one otherwise it reverts to the government. (Escheat.)
The rights of the Title owner are limited by government powers of taxation, compulsory purchase, police power, escheat, and any environmental and town and country planning acts which limit and control use.
All a title really grants is exclusive use which gives the occupant the right to exclude other people.
Leasehold is where the occupier pays an agreed amount to whomever or whatever entity holds the Title for their tenure (tenancy) for a specified period of time. The Lease usually confers the right of exclusive use for the period of the lease while the lease is paid. And that is about the only major difference.
People who think they “own” their land and can do what they like with it are on a short ride to losing it.
00
That’s a pretty id1otic and pathetic comment pollock.
31
Is it not, Annie? Yr might say it’s **llocks
40
Maybe you should learn exactly what the UN has in store for us all,including you.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-2030-agenda-this-month-the-un-launches-a-blueprint-for-a-new-world-order-with-the-help-of-the-pope
00
“Does it matter how many people are in jail for felling trees on their own land — land bought before any native vegetation acts were passed? One man is an outrage. Maxwell Szulc got a 15 month sentence for creating a firebreak in scrubby regrowth on a farm he’s owned for decades.”
Between this kind of insanity, the ‘green energy’ debacle and the percentage of the population already packed into your cities it looks like Australia was/is a ‘leading’ the way to Agenda 21 or whatever the latest version is.
Sad scenario. How did this happen to such a great country???
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Examples abound.
The Sheahans at Reedy Creek in Victoriastan were fined $50,000 for clearing tree of their property to provide a fire break because government agencies had no idea how to manage the bush.
However, after the fires at Reedy Creek in 2009 their house was one of the few in Reedy Creek left standing.
The thieving government refused to make an ex gratia payment to them as compensation for the $50,000 fine.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/fined-for-illegal-clearing-family-now-feel-vindicated-20090212-85bd.html
The Greens are fools who have little understanding about the Australian bush.
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I know the area well used to be very popular but now much of it is national park , can’t actually remember that incident but yes another good case of the bush being run by idiots .
31
Symptomatic
of corrupt
guvuhmint
is when
constitutional
rule of law
is perverted
via fiat and
anything goes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aeQ3DmKU7A
30
Cutting emissions by 50% won’t be a problem as industry moves offshore.
Australia’s high energy costs and declining energy security are damaging the ability of local manufacturers to compete globally, impacting both potential and current manufacturing investments. To ensure continued investment in our
car, steel, aluminium, glass, cement, brick, packaging and chemicals manufacturing industries, along with the value chains supported by those industries, Australia should target industrial electricity prices of $60-$80 a megawatt hour, in line with comparable advanced industrial economies around the world. And we need to free up gas exploration to lower domestic gas prices.130
Australia’s future is as:
1) An expensive but safe tourist destination. We have on display the world’s most stupid mammal, the koala, whose brain is actually smaller than its brain case and is so stupid that if leaves are placed on a flat surface it cannot process the fact that they are food of the same type it picks off trees.
2) An exporter of educational services.
3) An exporter of rocks and gas including coal, natural gas, uranium and thorium for others to make cheap products and cheap electricity with which we buy back in one form or another.
4) The laughing stock of the world and a lesson for others on how to not run an economy or energy policy.
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After an all-too-brief interlude, we’ve reverted to what Australia used to be. In the words of Henry Lawson:
From Australian Engineers (1904)
That’s what we call “progress”. 🙁
[I included the full poem in a blog post of mine some years ago.]
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What has always puzzled me is that the Greens see no connection between their lifestyle and the general economy. The vast majority get the income directly or indirectly from government. They seem to believe there is a neverending supply of money.
Get rid of industry, so you severely effect the companies servicing them. So more unemployment, more government spending.
Then the commercial sector gets hit with double whammy of higher electricity (and other) costs and a downturn in sales. Result more unemployment, more government spending.
And since the governments (Federal and many States) are running deficits and borrowing to spend, very soon they will reach the limit to borrow. Our trade balance does generate much of a surplus.
No more spending money? Slash the dole and social service payments and risk riots? Or cut government spending? Result Greens join the real world, quite unprepared. Couldn’t happen to more deserving people but listen to their wailing WHEN it happens.
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Afternoon G3,
I found this article in the Business section of today’s SMH.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/st-vincents-hospital-calls-in-external-consultants-to-staunch-18-million-blowout-after-touting-on-budget-performance-20171123-gzrqdd.html?btis
It includes a specific mention of the increased cost of electricity, but doesn’t evluate its contribution to the total increase. It’s the first time I’ve seen such an attribution to our health care situation. Would like to think this would cause our politicians to take notice, but I doubt it.
Cheers,
Dave B
70
President Ronald Reagan once said“Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.”
20
“I suppose you’d like a free for all to bowl over endangered ecosystems? Let’s convert every last skerrick of lowland rainforest to sugar cane perhaps? I suppose you’ll be telling me the ag sector is on its knees and there will be no food in Woolies soon.”
There are four suppositions about Jo’s beliefs there. None true in the least.
As for the irrelevant “you’ve never had it so good”…I’ve heard that expression before on other sites. I suppose it means “just shuddup”. As long as we’re supposing so freely, that’s my supposition.
180
I know of a property owner that had 20 gumtrees small to medium in size growing on an angle over his boundary fence , after one came down and damaged the fence he cut the others down .
He was fined $1000 per tree and forced to plant 4 trees for every one he cut down .
71
I would just go to jail, if I want to clear stuff then I’ll clear it – It’s not their land, if you want a say, pay rent.
60
Here in Qld one of the conditions of land ownership is the “provision of a secure boundary fence. Clearing 4 metres outside the fence was considered routine management. Then in the “enlightenment of recently” you were restricted to clearing no more than 1.5 metres outside your boundary on a road side. This doesn’t do a lot for secure fencing when the standing timber on the road side is up to 20 metres tall and past its use by date. As one wit said when told “Where do I get half a bulldozer?”
Currently it is back to 3 metres with a permit. Depending on the result of today’s election who knows what it will be next week.
70
Your negotiators are protecting their own investment and Alex Turnbull’s uncanny luck.
“Take Babcock & Brown, which having disintegrated in 2009, became Infigen.”. “Alex Turnbull managed to buy in when Infigen shares were a measly $0.20, just before his Dad signed Australia up to the Paris Climate Change agreement, after which they rocketed to $1.20.” “On 22 April 2016, Alex’s dad, Australia’s PM, Malcolm Turnbull sent his then Environment Minister, young Gregory Hunt off to Paris to sign the climate change agreement.”
The Citizenry of AU ought rightly teach them a lesson at the ballot box.
True Justice implies making the powerful, powerless, and the ill gotten rich, demonstrably poor.
See:
https://stopthesethings.com/2017/03/13/born-lucky-stars-align-perfectly-for-pms-son-with-mammoth-bet-on-wind-power-outfit-infigen/
https://stopthesethings.com/2017/10/18/time-to-tear-up-australias-economic-suicide-note-renewable-energy-target-must-go-now/
140
“To disarm the people is the most effective way to enslave them.” – George Mason.Little Johnny Howard made sure of that at the behest of the UN.
10
Wow. Its just like the lizards. Mental dimming even impacts reptiles in suits.
80
Yup. I predict riots in this country…..
Rope sales will boom…..
31
Were I massively cynical, I’d suppose Turnbull & Co. fully intend to maximize their profits and leave the Citizens of Australia impoverished for their own benefit, selling out their investments just prior to the political and economic collapse of the taxpayer subsidized wind/solar folly. They profited going in, and likely intend to profit on the way out. Follow the money. You can’t fix stupid, nor prove malfeasance in a court of law, but you may damn well vote them out of office. Surely AU can produce smarter and more honest leaders than they have at present.
A change of leadership is being tried in the States as well, but the entrenched swamp people are fighting back with everything they’ve got. Power is not relinquished by simply asking them to do so. When the people have had enough idiocy, they’ll exercise their voting rights. The question is how long it will take and how much it will cost before sanity prevails.
230
It is absolutely infuriating. Since the Federal Government introduced the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000, it has taken over the energy business. No one can survive the so called RET, a deceitful renaming of the Act. Prior to this time, the Federal government had no say in the resources industry, exclusively a State domain. Even the Snowy scheme was a joint NSW/Vic joint venture.
So the current position where Malcolm Turnbull tells us what he is going to to about electricity is the greatest takeover since Federation. Of course by the time he pleases all his friends, we the people come last. Anti Coal, Anti Dam, Anti manufacturing, anti farming, anti hydro (unless you can use an old dam), anti Gas (Unless for friends overseas), the country needs a wake up call. Malcolm will retire. He does not campaign.
It’s not rocket surgery. The problem, the whole problem is the RET. Even the Electricity companies are giving up on coal as there is so much more pain the country will endure, so much more money to make in building windmills. Why? International obligations (cough, cough). Paris Accord (cough). Truckloads of cash for building and operating useless windmills.
Bankers and overseas interests telling us we should just stop work and serve coffees while they strip the country. All supported by the scion of the Labor Party, Malcolm Turnbull, whose mother’s uncle was head of the British Labor party. George Lansbury, the one who said Hitler was a humble Christian who had no designs on Europe. George fought rearmament and would have destroyed the UK. Will someone get some sense and put Tony Abbott back?
250
Youre assuming it isnt deliberate…..
100
Not really but pure self interest is easily the greatest motivator. Man made Global Warming just makes so many people rich and debilitates and undermines Western democracies.
WW2 focussed the world on survival, growth, quality of life. The West is now susceptible to every mad carpetbagger, from Pacauri to Gore to Merkel. The utterly undemocratic institutions including the UN, EU, IMF have no interest in quality of life, except for themselves. 10,000 EU bureaucrats earn more than the British PM. These pan government organizations paid for the removal of Abbott, to enable the Paris Accord. We were warned by Monckton.
212
I subscribe to the guided history view of things, that is, stuff doesnt generally just happen in isolation, coincidentalky leading to the UN trying to gut national sovereignty on a global scale. I think if it happens once or twice its conincidence, but not like it us now, using climate change as an artificial crisis.
We have huge problems on this planet- ” gender equality” and other odious PC nonsense is attempting to gut religious rights and allow the leftie ratbag groups interfere in every aspect of family life, our rights are being systematically removed, govts are spying citizens wholesale, what is inherently right and proper is under attack by PC lunatics with the compassion of a nhilistic dog on heat
I dont by any stretch of the imagination believe this hasnt been formulated as a highly coordinated attack on families, society and in particular , Christianity, as a take down of the west and its Godly values, by Godless communists.
When our PM smiles, its like watching a snake in a suit, he is supposed to be a right winger, but is a socialist and happy to preside over Australias demise while speaking soft words as were all held down abd unspeakable things done to us.
At some point, thus country will either collapse, or fight back and rout the globalists at the ballot box, reject PC and allow religious freedom again.
Am i wrong?
130
Turnbull is solid Labor. He has never been a conservative, just a rich inheritor banker. Too rich for his friends, he bought his way into the Liberal party. What Prime Minister donates? $1.75Million to secure his own election? Is that even legal? Was it a gift?
Like Gillard, he does not believe in the military, refuses to attend military functions and follows every Green dream from a Very Fast Train, to pumping water uphill. It’s not the only thing he is paying to push up hill.
Smart operator? No, just an only child who inherited. Anyone can make money as a banker, head of Goldmann Sachs.
130
A heavy dose of nihilism has been applied to societies thought processes partly through PC and the continual erosion of basic moralities that our culture was founded on.
To achieve the objective of a social and ultimately classless society the obstacles of self awareness must be abolished to the objective of people being so confused of right and wrong that the only accepted solution is from those that removed all possibility of choice.
60
“…..the objective of people being so confused of right and wrong that the only accepted solution is from those that removed all possibility of choice.”
Yes, but trauma also plays a significant part. In such a state, its a form of trauma based mind control – create a dislocation so extreme that in such a heightened emotional state, logic switches off. In such a state , a suggestion can be inserted, and once the mind returns to normal, the suggestion becomes part of the mental lanscape…..
If you think of whats laws have been passed after things like 9/11 and the Bali Bomb when the population have been basically “dazed and confused”, there is no way they could have done it without the trauma trigger……
Think about it….
10
It does remind me of the time when Winston Churchill was made Prime Minister in May 1940. Britain had lost at Dunkirk and there was only one voice which had consistently and correctly called out Hitler’s ambitions. Only one man in Australia has called Climate Change Crap, socialism masquerading as environmentalism. Do we have to have the country in ruins before someone sees what the Labor party, bankers, overseas interests are doing to Australia?
The fascinating opinion pieces in the last days of Turnbull’s Greens is how no commentator recommends Abbott. He is the one man in politics everyone fears, especially Paul Kelly, Nikka Savva, Peter Van Onselen. Anyone but Abbott. He would walk out of Paris, remove the RET and bring Hanson and Bernadi into the fold. The farce in South Australia would stop overnight. What a relief. We might even get a real Foreign Minister who thought the US President was real, not just to be ‘endured’.
271
Abbott could start not like Turnbull by passing laws to contradict previous laws, but by removing the lot. That should be easy. The RET is the world’s highest carbon tax x10.
So we are paying the world’s highest price for electricity but Hazelwood closed as unprofitable?
Turnbull said it was a ‘private matter’ and offered no opinion. He would have to be joking. Now he wants to force Hazelwood to stay open? No, he just wants the appearance of caring.
Remove all the energy laws, the ‘peak bodies’, the endless QANGOes running electricity. Let the world’s highest price drive demand and watch the price plummet and old power stations open. That is why Weatherill had to blow them up.
211
Rocket surgery? Works for me.
40
We don’t have nuclear. We don’t have hydro. (We only have one low set of mountains).
However we have massive coal reserves, like Germany.
Can we please have the world’s cheapest electricity? Again?
Can the government forcing the poorest people to pay all their cash to electricity companies?
Can our politicians start caring about the people and not themselves?
Can we even have politicians who show some respect for the law? (the one page form was not complex, even for a lawyer)
Repeal the RET. Get out of Paris. Align with the US. What other allies did we have 70 years ago?
230
And stop pretending it is all about Climate Change.
220
Unfortunately our european allies 70 years ago have habitually followed the I’ll fated path of socialist politics to the end of their culture but to the delight of Globalist’s.
The USA, Hungary, Poland and a few others are the only nations exhibiting independent self survival, cut off the access to national GDP theft from unelected tyrants and reducate citizens of how they achieved current technological levels would be a good start.
90
Exactly, TedF.
For me there is no discussion of domestic politics without discussion of the immediate modernisation and extension of our coal resources. For me there is no gender, no race, no political philosophy and no party to be discussed. Just coal and right now.
Our coal is our wealth, our coal is our thrift, our coal is our peace. And I reckon wealth, thrift and peace make up a pretty good philosophy, even if you are a lampshade who wants to marry an eggbeater of the same sex but your relatives don’t approve of its colour (or so Emma Alberici says).
30
Tonight’s result in Queensland will be very interesting. If One Nation gets a good showing and particularly balance of power, politics will change overnight!
We may even get a new coal fired power station. One Nation are looking to collapsing the RET scheme in QLD. It can be done using the prohibition of the Federal government taxing the states in the constitution. The RET itself isn’t strictly a TAX but the penalty payment if you don’t buy certificates IS. QLD power generation IS state owned so if the state doesn’t buy certificates and then refuses to pay the penalty under the constitutional exemption then the RET is TOAST.
100
Sadly you overestimate the independence of cognitive thought of the average voter, even faced with a proven track record of labor failures in Victoria people still voted the Andrews (please kill yourself) government in, I sincerely hope Queenslanders can show the way out of oblivion.
60
Unfortunately Yonnie, it’s not looking good for common sense. The result is still uncertain, but it’s hard to credit there are so many people out there who would still vote for those who would kill off the last remaining industries here and condemn us to 50% ruinables in some ridiculously short time frame. I’m long past thinking the politicians are stupid and don’t’ understand what they’re doing. There’s no longer any excuse, it’s so obvious that it can’t work and will only destroy the economy that is has to be deliberate, they have to be hell-bent on doing exactly that.
A little example of the calibre of resident here in the lovely Sunny State, I voted late this afternoon, there were very few others about, and almost nobody manning the HTV booths out front. Someone for the local Mad as a Hatter Katter candidate tried to give me a card. It was amusing but also disappointing to see the astonishment on his face when I replied that I knew how I was going to vote, thank you. I had to reassure him that there are some out here who do take notice, do research the candidates, the supposed policies (for what they’re worth), and vote accordingly. I’ve rarely seen such a stunned expression.
40
Looks like Palacechook is back in, did hear of GetUp activists making a show at voting stations, from the Cat,
‘I voted in the Queensland state election at the Bywong St. Toowong polling station this morning. I was gobsmacked to see, along with the various official Party reps, a manned and bannered GetUp booth with a person handing out leaflets. Is this allowed under the Queensland Electoral Act? GetUp is not a registered political party, they are a murkily-funded activist group that touts for the Left. AFAIK they are not fielding any candidates in the Queensland election. I’ll be contacting my local member on Monday to ask the same questions.’
This smacks of the Vic 2014 state election where UFU members posed as CFA volunteers among other public sector
30
continued:
Unions strongly pushing ALP HTV cards, from Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters
Enquiry into Campaign Activities in the Vicinity of Polling Places (PDF)
In the months prior to election day, the Monbulk electorate received heavy attention
from members and staff of 4 public sector unions – the United Firefighters Union (UFU),
the Ambulance Employees Association (AEA), the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF)
and the Australian Education Union (AEU). This involved a range of activities, including
letterboxing, mailouts, shopping centre visits, mobile billboards and doorknocking. The
high level of activity was unusual, sometimes quite aggressive, but, in my opinion,
neither overly controversial nor illegal
I personally experienced this when voting in Ballarat and confronted both the Head electrol officer and the “volunteers” as to the legality and morality of the behaviour, I was very lucky to have a level headed wife with me that day.
30
I voted last weekend(I am away at the moment)and had a similar experience at Noosa.The only people who smiled when I said I didn’t need instructions on how to vote,was a One Nation volunteer.I hope they do well.
30
Just a refresher on the RET
LGCs $85 perh megawatt hr.
Hazelwood
Figure 6 Scope 1 emission intensity values: Brown coal
Hazelwood. 1.40tonnes CO2/MHhr so $61 a tonne carbon tax at wholesale,
Pelican point, gas.
Figure 7 Scope 1 emission intensity values: Gas-fired CCGT/cogeneration
0.40 CO2/MWhr so $200 a tonne carbon tax on gas at wholesale.
At retail, make this $122 a tonne carbon tax on coal, $400 a tonne carbon tax on natural gas at wholesale.
This is NOT for the coal or gas or the electricity. This is cash you have to pay for the right to buy this forbidden electricity and this cash does not go to the government although they administer the extortion.
Repeal the RET, the world’s highest Carbon tax x10. Utterly hidden in your electricity bills. Making strangers rich to save the planet from Climate Change.
[Email Coming TdeF – Jo]
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TdeF thanks for your ongoing effort in explaining this. I think the explanation needs to be made into a graphical meme which can be widely posted on social media.
81
Finger puppets made from the death certificates of a thousand frozen pensioners wouldn’t be subtle enough for the politically blind.
Personal suffering on a biblical scale may help them see.
60
David, it is not complex. A diagram?
Carbon Tax on coal $122 a tonne. Carbon tax on natural gas $400.
What’s so complex?
Again get the cost of 1 MWhr in Carbon tax, $85.
To produce this 1.40tonnes of brown coal. So a Carbon Certificate is $61 for a tonne of brown coal.
Natural Gas is dramatic. 0.4 tonnes to produce 1Mwhr, so a Gas Carbon certificate is $200 a tonne.
That is what you electricity supplier has to pay the windmill and solar cartels. You pay more.
Your electricity supplier passes it on. Double. It is not shown on your bill. It is not tax deductible.
It does not go to the government. It goes to people you do not know who use your money to build windmills and charge you again for your own free energy.
What on earth would I show on a diagram? $3Bn a year leaving the country. Another $3Bn in local profits. All for carbon taxes?
50
Please note no politician will explain it in this way. They talk about reducing ‘subdies’ when governments pay nothing. They talk about increasing targets, when targets cost nothing, just talk.
The real engine for destruction of our coal based power station system is the world’s biggest carbon tax. Coal is free to us, but we are paying billions to strangers so they can charge us for our own ‘free’ wind and solar. Now who’s the mug in this? Us?
Besides, you can see the effect. Critical electricity systems. The world’s highest energy prices. Perfectly functional coal plants being shut down and blown up for no reason which makes sense. All a great mystery to our politicians. Sure.
The unions are crowing, as they warned about ‘privatization’. The politicians are pleasing the Greens. The bankers are just laundering the cash and overseas windmills and solar manufacturers cannot get enough Green either. The big energy companies are raking in the 100% markups on something they can pay in arrears. Meanwhile Australia Inc is going out of business but hey, we can all work for the public service?
Never forget. It’s all about the Climate and saving China and Polar Bears and CO2.
50
subsidies
20
TdeF, try explaining it this way.
Government legislation requires retailers to meet a renewable energy target that is growing from about 15% of electricity generation this year to 23.5% in 2020. That means that in 2020 33,500 gigawatt hours must be produced from renewable energy sources – hydro, solar, wind. And for each MWh produced the generators are given an LGC (large generation certificate) that they sell to retailers so the retailers can prove to the regulator that they are buying their share of renewables. Those LGCs sell for about $85/MWh. That means that over and above the wholesale price that is currently about $95/MWhr, renewable producers get an extra $85/MWh. That equates to an extra $2,847 million dollars on our electricity bills in 2020 compared to $1,817 million this year.
In our bills that equals 2 cents/KWh, but it will be increased by higher network costs to cope with variable and distributed supply sources, and a retail margin. And costs are further increased by the unreliability of wind/solar, requiring duplication of supplies. For example, Dr Finkel reported the cost of solar as $91/MWh without backup but $172/MWhr with 12 hours backup. Similarly, wind was costed as $92/MWh without backup. Supercritical coal was costed at $75/MWh. In the good old days before Hazelwood was closed, wholesale electricity was selling for $46/MWh.
That’s the “tax”. Not clear how you convert that to a tax on carbon – the target simply ensures that coal/gas become a progressively smaller part of our generation mix. Even if the price of LGCs was zero, implying a surplus availability of renewables, more coal stations would be forced to close because wind/solar have priority under the RET.
[Email coming your way, thanks for this useful analysis. 🙂 Jo]
00
The costs relative to the benefits are crucial here. Even for those who believe in global catastrophism, the mitigation costs will be far more than the benefits. There are two major reasons why Australia’s policy will fail – demand-side and supply-side.
On the demand-side, at least 80% of the global population live in countries which have not signed an agreement that obliges them to reduce their emissions and have shown no inclination to do so. These developing countries accounted for 100% of emissions growth between 1990 and 2012. As a result, no matter how much the OECD countries reduce their emissions, global emissions are not going to reduce at anything close to the rates UNFCCC activists desire. The huge gap between actual mitigation impacts and desired is huge and will not be closed.
On the supply-side, proven reserves of oil, gas and coal contain about three times the 1000GtCO2e of emissions that UNIPCC claim that would cause dangerous warming. Unproven reserves are at least eight times that level. The supplies to be cut off are widely dispersed, across the Middle East, North America, Russia, Venezuela, China, Europe, India and other countries. Try to persuade those countries dependent on fossil fuels for most government revenues to abandon most of their proven reserves and any future finds. Data is here.
Politicians are willing to sacrifice Australia’s future so that they can receive praise for seeming to be doing something about climate change.
80
Is anyone else unable to access “The Australian” at the moment? I haven’t been able to get it since sometime yesterday.
Is it just me or is something going on?
30
No problem in accessing The Australian today Gnome. If using their App, I presume you know that there has been a significant upgrade recently, which I’m sure has had a lot to do with the increase in comments.
40
Graeme #4:
My impression has been that the trolls have been mobilised to try and crush debate as they like to do. Unfortunately for them they are in a tiny minority despite frantic posting. Incidentally, have you thought of dropping the #4 tag (just for The Australian comments)? I see that Peter (the one who makes up figures) gets a bit hot under the collar because he cannot grasp that there are at least 3 commenting as “Graeme”.
30
Australia needs to get its negotiators on message. They should be arguing on the basis of emissions per square foot!
70
If you halve the emissions “per capita” you would get an approximation for emissions per foot unless there was an unusual number of one legged persons making up the “capita”.
61
ABC forgets their “renewables” agenda for a political moment:
23 Nov: ABC: Malcolm Turnbull dined with wealthy Chinese donor days after company gave $40k to Queensland LNP
Exclusive by political reporters Henry Belot and Matthew Doran
The businessman, Liu Xiaodong, is one of three directors of Gold Coast-based company Australian Energy Windfarm (AEW), which describes itself as “China’s responsible wind power supplier”.
Mr Liu is also the chairman of China-based renewable energy giant Heilongjiang Ainaji Dianli Co Ltd, which owns 100 per cent of AEW and is pursuing major investment opportunities in Queensland…
The donation was declared with the Queensland Electoral Commission on November 15.
The ABC understands Mr Turnbull had not heard of Mr Liu until they met at a dinner four days later in Brisbane.
Questioned about the dinner on Friday, Mr Turnbull said: “I don’t recall having a detailed discussion … his English was very limited…
The company reported the Sunday night dinner on its Mandarin website but deleted it shortly after being contacted by the ABC…
There is no record of AEW having any significant projects in Australia and the business is registered at a suburban house.
Its website is incomplete but says it is planning a solar power plant near Kingaroy in Queensland.
ASIC documents show Mr Liu has a registered address at the Sanctuary Cove golf resort south of Brisbane…
Mr Liu was seated next to the Prime Minister, on his right, at a 12-person dinner in Brisbane.
The ABC has not yet confirmed the identity of the other guests.
It is not clear who invited Mr Liu or who determined the seating arrangement…
The Chinese parent company says its Australian affiliate was established in line with the Chinese Government’s “One Belt One Road” initiative; a trillion-dollar push to dominate trade that has raised concerns within Australia’s intelligence community…
But the company was only registered with ASIC in September 2016. That same month, Mr Liu claims to have led a delegation to Australia to explore energy investment opportunities…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-24/malcolm-turnbull-dined-with-liu-xiaodong-after-$40k-donation-lnp/9187476
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Yes, its a commercial takeover of our energy system.
‘The role of brown coal in Victoria’s energy supply has been bolstered by the sale of the La Trobe Valley’s Loy Yang B station for an estimated $1 billion to Chinese-owned Alinta Energy after six months on the market.’
SMH
30
Hmm. I guess Australia will need some super-duper windmills or ban the use of crypto currencies (unless Turnbull’s (‘former’)employers have already figured out how to corner the market).
“According to Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, as of Monday November 20th, 2017 Bitcoin’s current estimated annual electricity consumption stands at 29.05TWh.
That’s the equivalent of 0.13% of total global electricity consumption. While that may not sound like a lot, it means Bitcoin mining is now using more electricity than 159 individual countries (as you can see from the map below). More than Ireland or Nigeria…
If that growth rate were to continue, and countries did not add any new power generating capacity, Bitcoin mining would:
Be greater than UK electricity consumption by October 2018 (309 TWh)
Be greater than US electricity consumption by July 2019 (3,913 TWh)
Consume all the world’s electricity by February 2020. (21,776 TWh)”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-24/will-bitcoin-mining-consume-all-worlds-current-electricity-production-feb-2020
50
While we keep electing intellectually timid politicians we will bury ourselves deeper into the green slime. I tried unsuccessfully to get Turnbull to wrestle with Nicol’s explanation of the fatal flaws in the AGW argument some years ago. Has anyone challenged him to explain how the Evans’ analysis should be ignored in favour of Gorebabble? As Churchill demonstrated in the lead up to WWII intellectually timid politicians divorce themselves from reality.
140
Meanwhile, in the Australia of the Northern Hemisphere:
Australia sorely needs a Chief Engineer to restore availability, reliability and affordability to Australian electrical power industry, business and private consumers.
100
the future King! ***by Man with a capital “M”?
24 Nov: UK Sun: OUR KIDS FACE ARMAGEDDON Prince Charles warns of ‘Armageddon’ as he surveys Hurricane Maria’s wreckage in Dominica
In the wake Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Dominica, the outspoken Royal tells Sun photographer Arthur Edwards he believes it’s extraordinary people can’t ‘read the tea leaves’ and understand just what mankind is facing
From Arthur Edwards, Royal Photographer in Dominica
For years the Prince of Wales has been warning of the threat posed to the world ***by Man. He remains surprised that some do not believe it is happening…
“Some people seem to think it’s somehow a threat to undermine capitalism if you mention climate change. It isn’t.
“The whole point is to achieve a circular approach which enables us to work with nature. At the moment we are still fighting a battle against nature. You can’t do that.
“The difficulty about all this is that if we don’t do more, rapidly, then there will be ever increasing conflict over scarce resources because of the effects of climate change, drought, everything else…
“We have to remember there are so many people around the world in other parts who are suffering hugely from the accumulating effects of putting all this CO2 into the atmosphere from all kinds of pollution — from coal-fired power stations to cars, and goodness knows what.
“All I have tried to do over the years is, along with others, draw attention to the fact that there is not a convenient series of holes in the atmosphere from which all this stuff can escape.
“So we are heating up everything and the more you warm it up the more you warm the oceans as well.”
Here are the simple ways we can all help, according to Prince CharlesSea temperatures in the Caribbean rose this summer to a record 87.8F (31C). The prince believes this will spark even more hurricanes…
Charles’s campaigning to protect the planet has become even more urgent in recent years after he became a grandfather…
“If we lose the ice caps, particularly in the Arctic — which is increasingly beginning to happen — then you start to create a feedback which means that you can’t actually do anything about it. This is what terrifies me. I don’t understand why people will not recognise it.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4987150/prince-charles-threat-to-the-world/
40
Queen Bessie…please dont abdicate….
70
I’ve always been a Monarchist but with the exception of HM The Queen I’m beginning to wonder.
40
He is the outcome of “royal” inbreeding. Just shows why monarchies have had their day.
20
Want to reduce CO2 emissions?
Dabaa Does
The first of the reactors is due to some online in 2024; 7 years from now.
60
The talk about how the Australian economy might be compromised (in the future) by the
RET has arrived already!! The reserve bank who have done their bit by reducing interest rates
now @ 1.5 percent ( when they didn’t have to) creating a housing bubble that they admit now
If interest rates were to be raised would cause mortgage defaults to rise.The economic impact
of these two things will bring Australia into a recession in short time now.The
joke is “hey consumer spending is down ?? Well I never would have thought that if half of the
family income went to the mortgage and you were afraid of your next energy bill and the possibility that either of the the partners in the the double income mode might lose their job therefore causing discretionary spending to drop like a brick .Who in their right mind could ever have
seen this scenario coming?? What Australia has seen is the disconnect between the voting
public and politicians (labor or liberal) in an age of narcissism and of out doing each other in
Virtue signaling to the world on emissions we have finally arrived at the point where there
is no easy (economic) way back .However for self interested “well off “‘politicians with
overly generous superannuation it’s no problem when they retire and walk away from this economic mess that they alone have created.Mike Reed
120
Michael Reed:
The Republic of Ireland slumped into depression when the Banks went bankrupt lending for housing building when it boomed. No one asked “who would buy all these new houses at those prices?”
Spain went bankrupt when the Regions (equiv. to States) competed to attract Renewable energy SCHEMES and signal their virtue. There were all these puff claims about them being “the way of the future”, “cheaper than conventional generation” and “saving the planet”.
Greece went bankrupt after running a deficit for many years (and lying about the amount) as it funded a Welfare State. The public didn’t object as they scrambled for the pensions and subsidies out of borrowed money. There was also an extraordinary amount of corruption from highest to the lowest. [ the bit I noted was the ex-honest public servant who admitted that his objections disappeared when the German supplier emptied a bag of €860,000 in cash onto his desk].
Australia seems to be trying all three methods at once. The future for Australia is assured, depression and collapse except we won’t be bailed out by the Germans. Will anyone bail us out? I think that the Chinese are interested as a source of raw materials and food (esp. as the Climate cools) and as a political coup against the USA. Sadly our Foreign Minister is a vapid numbskull. Even worse most of her colleagues are even dumber.
40
there are SO MANY people out there who believe in climate change, still; millions of ignorant but otherwise normal Australians
bring on the heatwaves…
30
Climate change is not the big issue , it’s what causes it that starts the argument .
30
Australia faces a nightmare scenario.
This is civilisation-destroying stuff we are talking about.
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Not exactly, if they continue to “build another Canberra ever year” then we’ll get our coal fired powers stations in due course.
Beijing wants to sell us many more renewables before people wake up and a new satellite cities in the bush would be better than jamming them into capital cities.
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value for money? quite funny.
23 Nov: BBC: Worth paying ‘over the odds’ for tidal lagoon – Labour
By David Cornock, BBC Wales Parliamentary correspondent
It would be worth paying “over the odds” to get a £1.3bn tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay built, Labour has said.
Shadow Wales Office Minister Chris Ruane criticised the chancellor’s failure to give the go-ahead to the £1.3bn project in Wednesday’s Budget.
A government commissioned independent review backed the scheme, which needs a subsidy for the electricity produced.
Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said he wanted the project to happen but “on the basis it is value for money”.
Mr Ruane, MP for Vale of Clwyd, said it was a “key project for Wales”.
Asked if Labour would agree to the scheme regardless of cost, Mr Ruane told BBC Wales: “When you look at how much public funding has gone into early energy technologies like nuclear, like wind, like solar – we may have to pay over the odds, but it’s a price worth paying.
“These structures will be built for 125 years and we’ll be able to time our electricity to the minute for 125 years. The Hendry Review reported in January, the government has sat on it and done nothing for 11 months. They had an opportunity to do something today and they didn’t.”…
Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said: “I really hope that it will happen but on the basis that it is value for money. We should never want it to happen if it is not good value for money.”
Mr Cairns defended its absence from the Budget.
He said: “It isn’t tied to a Budget decision. It is an independent decision that will be taken on the value for money.”…
Labour MP Alan Whitehead said other Budget changes – limits to low carbon levies – looked like “a catastrophic shutdown for most of Britain’s renewables industry”.
He tweeted: “No new levies until at least 2025, and no indication of alternative ways of underwriting. Means no new solar PV, no new onshore wind and no support for tidal.”
But sources close to the Swansea project said the changes did not mean no support for tidal power as there was still an unallocated pot of £557m and a decision to support Swansea would require a very small proportion of this.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-42094504
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And Welsh kindergartens sing
Old MacDonald had a subsidy farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on his subsidy farm he had lots of snouts, E-I-E-I-O
With an oink oink here and an oink oink there
Here an oink oink there an oink oink
Everywhere an oink oink
Old Macdonald had a subsidy farm, E-I-E-I-O
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you don’t really want to know, but:
24 Nov: PublicRadioInternational (PRI): What does a sexy vampire have to do with climate change?
By Stephen Snyder
“It’s definitely a mature readers’ title,” says Gunter. “It’s not for small children.” But, he is quick to add, Dark Fang #1 is all about the vampire back story. “With the second issue,” he says, “it’s propelling much more into the story of her versus oil companies, and versus politicians, and using her powers to basically dominate that situation.”…
Gunter and Shannon say the environmental message will not be lost in all the blood-spattered naked flesh. With Dark Fang, rather, the adult comic style may be helping to get the word out — to new audiences — about the consequences of uncontrolled carbon emissions…
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-11-24/what-does-sexy-vampire-have-do-climate-change
24 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Megan Darby: Climate Weekly: German political crisis creates emissions stalemate
Fresh from hosting UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany is turning inwards. The collapse of coalition negotiations leaves it in government limbo.
It means there is no resolution in sight for the looming “disaster” (the environment ministry’s words) of missing the country’s 2020 emissions target.
A lead Green Party negotiator told Arthur Neslen (LINK) that whatever form the next government takes, it should close a minimum of 7GW coal power capacity…
***The main alternatives are a “grand coalition” with the Social Democratic Party – which is conservative on the coal phase-out due to its impact on workers – or calling another election…
24 Nov: EurActiv: Spain resists coal phase-out
By Aline Robert
The Spanish government is challenging a decision by its main electricity provider to shut down two coal-fired power plants…
The Spanish government has engaged in a strange stand-off over Iberdrola’s plan to phase out coal, announced at climate talks in Bonn last week. The company’s CEO, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, pledged to close Iberdola’s coal power plants, including the two Spanish power stations, in Lada in Asturias and Velilla, in the autonomous community of Castilla y Leon.
The Spanish company’s plan is to become carbon neutral by 2050, with a 50% reduction of its emissions in 2030 compared to 2007, and investments of €85 billion in renewables in total.
However, rather than encourage the country’s biggest electricity provider, the energy ministry drafted a decree on the procedure of closure of energy facilities, which poses new and very restrictive conditions to close an electricity production site: a site cannot be closed if it is profitable, or if its closure is a threat to the security of supply, or if the prices of electricity may climb…
The European Commission, whose climate commissioner is Spanish, does not seem overly concerned about this situation. “The Commission is analysing the draft decree and will react in due course,” a spokesperson told EURACTIV.
Spain’s Energy Minister Álvaro Nadal fears that closing power plants will create power cuts. But the reasons seem more complex.
Asked by EURACTIV, Iberdrola said the pledge to ditch coal remains intact after a meeting with the country’s energy minister on Thursday (23 November).
According to the unions, 200 jobs would be destroyed, but Iberdrola ensured that the jobs lost would be fully offset by reclassifications…
http://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/spain-resists-coal-phase-out/
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24 Nov: Deutsche Welle: Patrick Grosse: German activists lose bid to halt Hambach mine expansion
An environmental group has failed in its legal bid to stop the controversial expansion of Germany’s biggest lignite mine.
Cries of protest erupted in the Cologne Administrative Court on Friday after the judge ruled that development plans for the Hambach open-pit mine did not breach environmental legislation and could go ahead as planned.
Conservation organization BUND, which filed the lawsuit, vowed to appeal the decision…
The 85-square kilometer (52-square mile) Hambach mine is one of the largest open-pit operations in the world.
Each year, the mine produces around 40 million tons of lignite — a brown, low-grade coal considered to be one of the most polluting fossil fuels…
The land encompassing the Hambach forest is legally owned by the RWE group, so theoretically the company can do what it likes with it…
http://www.dw.com/en/german-activists-lose-bid-to-halt-hambach-mine-expansion/a-41517134
22 Nov: CNBC: AP: Climate activist convicted after pipeline protest in Montana
An activist who was trying to call attention to climate change was found guilty of criminal charges on Wednesday for closing a valve last year on a pipeline carrying crude oil from Canada to the United States.
A Montana jury found Leonard Higgins of Portland, Oregon, guilty of criminal mischief and trespassing.
Higgins could face up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine on the felony criminal mischief charge. Trespassing is a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to six months in county jail and a $500 fine.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 2. Court officials initially said Higgins would be sentenced Wednesday.
In a written statement, Higgins said he planned to appeal…
Higgins, 65, a retired technology worker for the state of Oregon, said before the trial he wanted to present a “necessity defense” and argue that his act of civil disobedience was necessary because climate change is an emergency that cannot be ignored.
But District Judge Daniel Boucher (boo-SHAY) said in an April order that testimony on climate change would be irrelevant to the charges. Boucher said he would not allow the trial to be used as a vehicle for political protest.
“I was disappointed and surprised by the verdict, but even more disappointed that I was not allowed a ‘necessity defense,’ and that I wasn’t allowed to talk about climate change as it related to my state of mind,” Higgins said Wednesday.
A Minnesota judge will allow two activists to use the necessity defense when they go on trial on Dec. 11 for a similar protest.
Emily Johnston and Annette Klapstein are charged with felony counts of criminal damage to critical public service facilities and other counts after closing valves on two pipelines in northwestern Minnesota. Both are from the Seattle area.
Michael Foster of Seattle was convicted of criminal mischief, conspiracy to commit criminal mischief and trespass on Oct. 6 after closing the valve on the Keystone pipeline in North Dakota. His judge barred him from using a necessity defense.
Foster could face up to 21 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 18.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/22/the-associated-press-climate-activist-convicted-after-pipeline-protest-in-montana.html
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a must-read from the usually anti-Trump Star:
21 Nov: Toronto Star: Believe it or not, on NAFTA Donald Trump makes sense
But this most unlikely ally of the Canadian left gets no credit.
By Thomas Walkom, National Affairs Columnist
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2017/11/21/believe-it-or-not-on-nafta-donald-trump-makes-sense-walkom.html
plus an earlier piece by Walkom that is well worth reading in full:
5 June: Toronto Star: Thomas Walkom: Donald Trump, Paris and the melodrama of climate change
In practical terms, Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord doesn’t matter. But it is great theatre.
The accord itself is largely aspirational. According to the United Nations, even if all the pact’s signatories — including the U.S. — delivered on their Paris promises, the world would still face catastrophic climate change.
In any case, it is not clear that signatories will deliver on their promises. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, for instance, is still distressingly vague about how it plans to meet its carbon reduction target, a target that Trudeau, when he was in opposition, used to deride as grossly inadequate.
If Canada or any other signatory fails to meet its goal, there will be no penalty. There is no enforcement mechanism in the Paris pact…
Major nations, including Germany, Britain, China and Canada, continue to pledge fealty to Paris. Given the inherent weakness of the accord, that is easy to do…
Big business, including big energy, has belatedly come to realize that climate change provides major commercial opportunities. Chinese firms in particular hope to cash in on what they expect will be a worldwide craving for solar panels.
America’s Tesla wants to save the planet by selling everyone an electric car. Even those who manufacture sandbags benefit from a world in which frequent flooding has become the norm.
To the new corporate giants, like Facebook and Amazon — and even to some of the old ones, like Shell and IBM — Trump’s decision to abandon Paris was definitely uncool. Tesla founder Elon Musk responded to the move by quitting one of Trump’s advisory councils. In effect, he was saying: I can’t afford to be associated with such an old dinosaur.
Still, the old dinosaur is far from toothless…
Trudeau has said that Trump’s decisions won’t affect Canada’s unwavering commitment to fight climate change. In fact, they already have. In April 2016, Trudeau and then U.S. president Barack Obama jointly agreed to impose new restrictions on methane emissions from oil production. After his election, Trump scrapped the U.S. regulations. Under pressure from Canadian producers, Ottawa responded by announcing a three-year delay in its methane plans.
Expect more pressure on government to backtrack as Canadian businesses respond to specific Trumpian climate-change rollbacks that put them at a competitive disadvantage in the U.S. market.
This, however, will take place quietly, in the realm of reality…
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/06/05/donald-trump-paris-and-the-melodrama-of-climate-change-walkom.html
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another must-read:
24 Nov: Breitbart: James Delingpole: Exposed – the Liberal Astroturfers Behind the Global Warming Scare
In order to drain the swamp, President Trump must first destroy the Green Blob.
This is the only logical conclusion to be drawn from a series of data leaks and Freedom of Information (FOI) revelations exposing the relationship between left wing campaigners and the great climate change scam…READ ALL
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/11/24/delingpole-exposed-the-liberal-astroturfers-behind-the-global-warming-scare/
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Joanne,
Has da past (US beeing thankful fo sompthing or another), delayed your (weakned un-everthin)? Hey yous-all in da south with da reverse chrality; Why ya-all down der goin backward? In many more ways than one. MAGA
All the best!-will-
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25 Nov: SMH: Peter Hannam: ‘Some bad actors’: Coal burning found to release possibly toxic nanoparticles
Coal combustion, already one of the main sources of pollution, has also been found to release nano particles of titanium that are potentially harmful to humans and other life forms, researchers say…
It turns out, however, that forms of titanium oxides “are essentially a ubiquitous accessory phase in all coals worldwide”, the researchers said in a paper published in Nature Communications (LINK)…
Lidia Morawska, a leading researcher into nano particles at the Queensland University of Technology, says there is an increasing body of work showing the epidemiological impacts of the ultrafine particles…
James Whelan, a researcher with Environmental Justice Australia, said the research presented “a compelling argument to accelerate Australia’s closure of coal-fired power stations, and to significantly strengthen our emission controls”…
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/some-bad-actors-coal-burning-found-to-release-possibly-toxic-nanoparticles-20171123-gzrjvs.html
grow up, Hannam/Fairfax:
23 Nov: Financial Times: Clean coal is part of the answer to the Paris Agreement
We must not ignore an important energy source but invest in making it cleaner
by Deborah Adams, IEA
(Deborah Adams is Studies Manager at the IEA Clean Coal Centre)
The UK and Italy have made commitments to stop burning coal by 2025; the Netherlands aims for 2030. Few coal power plants are being built in Europe or North America.
But worldwide more than 30 per cent of total energy supplied and 40 per cent of electricity generated is still sourced from coal. In the past 16 years, almost 1.2bn people gained access to electricity; for almost half of them it comes from coal combustion, according to Energy Access Outlook 2017, a new report by the International Energy Agency.
This year, global demand for coal increased. Coal-fired power plants are being built in China, India, Southeast Asia and parts of Africa, home to most of the global population. They are being built because coal is a relatively cheap, readily available, secure and reliable source of power.
A coal-fired power plant is a massive capital investment and will typically operate for 40 years. This means that coal will continue to be a significant part of the energy mix for decades to come…
First, it is important to understand that not all coal-fired power plants are the same. A reasonable sized 800 megawatt subcritical power plant running at 80 per cent capacity could generate 6 terawatt hours of electricity annually and emit 5.39m tonnes of CO2 in the process.
But the same size unit, if a state of the art ultrasupercritical (USC) plant has an efficiency of 43 per cent and emits only 4.35m tonnes of CO2, a reduction in CO2 emissions of almost 20 per cent. Research is ongoing to develop advanced USC plants with an efficiency of 50 per cent, which would emit one-third less CO2 than the original subcritical plant.
If all the existing plants with an average efficiency of 33 per cent were upgraded or replaced with high-efficiency low-emission units operating at an efficiency of 45 per cent, then 2.25bn tonnes of CO2 would be saved each year, which is roughly 19 per cent of the total emissions from the power sector, and more than the current total CO2 emissions of India. In 2016, global emissions from the energy sector were 32.1bn tonnes of CO2…
It is not just at the power plant where emissions can be reduced. Coal quality can be improved in many ways. Drying reduces the moisture content, and increases the efficiency of combustion. There are various processes to remove impurities in the coal so that emissions are reduced.
SOx and NOx emissions are widely controlled. Clean coal technologies can be applied right up the coal chain to reduce the environmental impact. Mine sites can be rehabilitated to restore the landscape and prevailing ecosystems. During mining, efficient machinery and trucks can be used to reduce emissions. During transport, coal dust can be minimised by the use of sprays. Coal can be washed beforehand to improve the quality, and reduce the transport requirement of poor-quality material…
SUEK, Russia’s main exporter of higher-quality thermal coal, for example, has invested in modern high-capacity washing plants and has ash control technologies at all its coal ports…
For now, while renewable supplies are insufficient, and largely intermittent, coal is still needed, for reliability and as back up for renewables. It is said that for every 10MW of renewables, 8MW capacity of back-up is needed, for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine…
https://www.ft.com/content/79394d9e-d07a-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd8c6
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Huh! Who would have thought?
Tony.
40
Tony
O/T. One of the things we weren’t told about the Concorde.
At flat chat it had a thermal efficiency of 43%
Read Stanley Hooker “Not much of an engineer”
10
The article from the Sydney Morning Herald, describing the potentially toxic nature of nanoparticles of
titanium oxide rather surprisingly does not mention that they are components of many suncreams , as UV blocking filters .
I would imagine that in Australia nearly every person, in summer , is dripping quantities of this material which SMH says is present in coal in “traces”.
Their ignorance is surprising given that this quote is easily found in Wiki article on suncreams:
“Nanoparticles of titanium dioxide, an ingredient in some sunscreens, can accumulate in coastal waters and be ingested by marine animals.[71]”-
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Hockenos writes for NYT, progressive left The Nation, and has appeared on ABC’s Lateline. he clearly doesn’t see Merkel as the “climate chancellor”:
13 Nov: ForeignPolicyMag: Germany Is a Coal-Burning, Gas-Guzzling Climate Change Hypocrite
Angela Merkel hasn’t come close to earning her reputation for leadership on climate change.
By Paul Hockenos
(Paul Hockenos is a Berlin-based journalist. His recent book is Berlin Calling: A Story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall and the Birth of the New Berlin)
The latest round of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which runs from Nov. 6 to 17, is loaded with symbolism…
Of all the cities of the industrial world, Bonn was selected not just because it is the seat of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, but also because it is in Germany, the industrial giant that has an international reputation as a pioneer and righteous leader in climate protection…
Germany has fallen badly behind on its pledges to sink its own greenhouse gas pollutants. In fact, Germany’s carbon emissions haven’t declined for nearly a decade and the German Environment Agency calculated that Germany emitted 906 million tons of CO2 in 2016 — the highest in Europe — compared to 902 million in 2015. And 2017’s interim numbers suggest emissions are going to tick up again this year.
Germany is now in serious danger of hitting neither its 2020 nor its 2030 emissions targets, the very benchmarks that it browbeat other nations into adopting at previous climate conferences…
Germany’s hypocrisy is ultimately a failure of its political leadership.
***Merkel’s recent term in office, explained R. Andreas Kraemer of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, was a triumph, he said, for the fossil fuel lobby. Most egregiously, he said, Germany slapped a tax on self-generated solar power that is used in private homes and offices. “The rate of installation of wind and solar power was slowed by government fiat and in violation of market forces,” Kraemer said…
The reason behind Germany’s commitment to coal is not primarily, as the coal lobby claims, to shoulder the burden left by the nuclear reactors coming offline, or to provide backup for the renewables at times when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Experts say that all of the country’s coal plants could be shut down by 2030 — and German industry wouldn’t feel the pinch.
But rather it’s all about the lignite-mining jobs (about 20,000 in total) in the economically hard-hit regions of western Rhineland and eastern Lusatia, which are ***Social Democratic Party of Germany strongholds, and the powerful clout of the mining and energy lobbies, not least Germany’s third-biggest union: IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie…
There are voices in the Social Democratic Party, the Left, and the liberal Free Democratic Party that are for calling off the 2020 target of a 40 percent CO2 reduction in order to protect the coal industry…
The second bugbear is Germany’s transportation sector, which is largely but not exclusively dominated by its storied automobile industry. German car companies long received special treatment by the federal government, ranging from tax benefits and premiums for the disposal of old cars to millions in direct payments for research and development. This is one reason why the transport sector’s carbon footprint has grown continuously since 1990…
German automakers and parts suppliers are the economy’s largest industrial sector, underwriting over 800,000 jobs in Germany. With an annual turnover of $464 billion — around 20 percent of total German industry revenue — most Germans probably condone some degree of government protection for the industry…
Just this week, in fact on the third day of the Bonn conference, information was leaked that scandal-riven Volkswagen as well as Germany’s outgoing foreign minister had lobbied hard for and won last-minute changes to soften the EU’s new CO2 emission standards for conventional cars…
Germany’s shameful record over the last four years is largely attributable to the governing grand coalition: the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats pay plenty of lip service to environmental issues, but when push comes to shove they always battle for the interests of the coal and car industries…
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/11/13/germany-is-a-coal-burning-gas-guzzling-climate-change-hypocrite/
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Is there a case for a Qld north and south state or is it the same nation wide , the city’s are increasingly voting for socialist and green parties and the bush are voting for independent and liberal .
God help Queensland , and I’d say good luck but it’s what you voted for .
31
We don’t need another state, but how about basing the Queensland government in Rockhampton? That would clear out the Greens and half of Labor straight away. They wouldn’t cope with the culture shock.
60
When faced with a county council which was determined to be ‘the greenest county’ I wanted something striking to illustrate how silly that was. I used the fact that the atmosphere cools at a rate of 3 deg per thousand feet. At that time the doomy scenario was for 3 deg warning per doubling. Working out Suffolk’s contribution to warming I pointed out that to offset that we would have to move up eight inches, the height of a small chihuahua. I even commissioned an nice illo of The Chihuahua of Doom.
I wonder how far up the hill Australians would have to move to offset their contribution to global warming — not so much now with climate sensitivity estimates down to below 1.5 deg.
JF
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The shaky isles have a problem with all that stuff coming up from below. But hey – they have a genius new and shiny political team.
Let’s tax these pesky volcanos – Gotta keep up with Paris doncha know
00
I have to take issue with your post headline.
Australians are not offering to so drastically cut CO2 emissions; our feckless politicians are – supposedly but most erroneously on our behalf.
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