Insects dying is a current featured article in Tasmanian Times ( HERE ), it is not the only existential concern.
If you want some hope of a future for your children you will not vote LNP in my opinion in the coming Federal election, or any other conservative group. The LNP will try to push the view they are being responsible in relation to climate change; official emission figures show otherwise.
The main matter that counts from my point of view is – climate change at the next election. If no strong policies are promoted by governments around the world, then ultimately humans and the biosphere are stuffed.
Australia has been a trend setter in the past, except the LNP are ruled by the extreme right and “innovation” is a dirty word. The LNP main policy is to line the pockets of their mates it seems; and blame Labor, blame Labor and blame Labor. The LNP have held government for 5 years, it gets a bit thin to blame Labor.
In relation to climate change the LNP seek to fire up the Oceans and atmosphere through promoting fossil fuels.
Climate change is no longer an academic projection into the future; we are witnessing horrendous events around Earth and in Australia.
Matters of concern that are happening:
. Warming Oceans, probably a more important matter than an unstable atmosphere.
. Insects dying.
. Bats dying through being unable to cope with heat.
. Birds dying.
. Soil fertility being reduced through industrial farming.
. Aquifers and other water resources diminishing.
. Increase in blue green algae.
. Kelp beds being lost.
. Deforestation.
. Biodiversity generally being reduced, above examples being a few of many.
. Sea level rise.
. Instability of ice sheets and glaciers in Antarctica, Greenland.
. Glacial breakdown generally.
. Severe erosion.
. Coral reefs breaking down.
. Permafrost thawing.
. Pingos exhausting methane in the Arctic.
. Wildfires.
. Extreme weather events causing loss of live stock and crops world wide.
To vote for the LNP is downright dangerous, Labor is more inclined to listen, and in the end hopefully act.
The Adani mine must not go ahead, nor extensions to other coal mines.
It will be Labor or the LNP which form the next Federal government. Hopefully a good number of Independents and minor Parties will be elected, and Labor will form government.
Keith Antonysen has been researching climate science since the 1980s, at that time predictions were being promoted that would happen in the future. We are now beginning to witness the predictions forecaste in the past coming true. Denier Agencies have been very successful in promoting pseudo science for many years; it is very clear that many decision makers are fooled by the pseudo science promoted; or, have been bought through large donations. Keith Antonysen believes we must fight against the greed shown by Fossil Fuel Corporations and self serving Politicians for the sake of up coming generations.
phill Parsons
February 15, 2019 at 10:15
Both the old parties are beholden to the coal miners, and you can only expect them to lie, kid you along and adopt green spots until the election is over.
Labor will only listen if voters put a 1 in the Green candidate[s] square.
The Liberals will only listen if they are roundly and soundly defeated, as many liberal voters recognise, and as exemplified by some of them standing as, and supporting, Independents.
There is no arguing with the evidence. The physical and chemical changes in the atmosphere and oceans have brought us into climate chaos with unprecedented events across the world combined with environmental breakdown.
If you have an interest in the future through either your family or your life’s work, or both, then there is no choice but to Vote 1 Green and Change the Climate in Canberra to ensure a future for us all.
Keith Antonysen
February 15, 2019 at 11:08
Phill … The Greens generally obtain about 10% of the vote Nationwide, but they will not be forming government.
A LNP government would be an absolute disaster from a climate change point of view. The comments I have made elsewhere would not have been made prior to the last IPCC Report, a study in relation to Oceans, or other subsequent studies or events.
A comment made elsewhere:
The Greens undoubtedly have by far the best policy on climate change, but they will not be forming government. The IPCC states we have 12 years to get fossil fuel emissions under control, but emissions are still going up. The IPCC is very conservative in the recommendations it makes, so a major tipping point could be reached before 12 years has elapsed. Such a major tipping point could be an ice-free Arctic Ocean. Taking into account the breakdown of Arctic sea ice since 1979, a 10 year (+/–) time frame for an ice free Arctic Ocean is not a radical prediction, though providing radical consequences.
In the past, externalities thrown up by the environment have not been picked up by economists. We are now experiencing the difficulties of not taking into account environmental matters. The wholesale loss of insects, for example, would be a terrible situation as the red flag has been waved. The underlying circumstances for insect loss have been known for a good time.
Huge new coal mines will have a very adverse effect on the Earth’s carbon budget. If more Greens are elected that would be good. If Liberal “Independents” also are elected that would be fine – provided they support strong action to reduce climate change, and provided Labor gets elected. The need will be for Labor and the cross bench members to be lobbied very hard.
Now when elections are held there are several candidates vying for a seat. A candidate, to gain a seat, needs a healthy first preference vote to remain in the running through the preferential vote counting stage. It is for this reason that I believe Labor needs people to give Labor their first vote. For the LNP to win government would be a disaster from a climate change point of view.
We are witnessing the huge negative effects of privatising the energy market at present. Privatisation has mainly been promoted by the LNP providing a monopoly for international interests. Good economic managers? .. Nah!
By the way, I’m not a paid up member of any political Party.
davies
February 15, 2019 at 10:28
Well, I am shocked! You are not going to vote LNP? But Australia is the renewable energy superstar on the planet!
Hereunder is the ANU Report Summary. It looks to me like you owe the LNP a BIG apology.
ANU Summary:
• Australia is installing renewable energy (solar photo-voltaics and wind) far faster per capita than other countries.
• The Australian deployment rate is 4-5 times faster per capita than the EU, USA, Japan and China.
• Stabilising the electricity grid when it has 50-100% renewable energy is straightforward using off-the-shelf techniques that are already widely used in Australia.
• The electricity sector is on track to deliver Australia’s entire Paris emissions reduction targets five years early, in 2025. This is one of the world’s fastest sustainable rates of emissions reduction.
• Remarkably, the net cost is zero because expensive fossil fuels are being replaced by cheaper renewables.
• Australia is on track for deep and rapid greenhouse emissions reductions through deep, renewable electrification. Much of the world can readily follow the Australian path. Renewable energy offers real hope for a future liveable planet.
Soon that 1 particle per 5,000,000 in the atmosphere, that is there because of human activity in Australia, will be no more!
Crisis averted!
Keith Antonysen
February 15, 2019 at 11:47
Davies … Government official emission records state that emissions are going up. I’m well aware that renewable energy sources are increasing. The problem is that the LNP is not taking into account emissions from transport, for example.
The increase of renewables has occurred despite continual baulking by the LNP.
At International COP Meetings Australia keeps getting very negative awards, and has been since Abbott was PM.
Taking a linear point of view because it fits your beliefs simply doesn’t work as it’s a case of cherry picking.
As stated before, being critical is very easy, so write an article, or at least please provide comments about:
Dry Lightning
Permafrost thawing
Drunken trees
Warming Oceans
You have been challenged a number of times, but the only assumption that can be made so far is that you are unable to write the requested comments.
Wining Pom
February 15, 2019 at 11:52
That seems a weird ANU Report Summary, Davies.
Here’s something the ANU actually do report ..
“Professor Howden said the report showed at current rates of temperature increases, the world will likely reach 1.5 C global warming by around 2040.
“At this point, there are very few practical pathways left that can keep warming to below 1.5 C” Professor Howden said.
“But one of the key messages from this special report is the longer we leave taking action, the faster we’ll have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the more it will cost including through unwanted impacts of climate change.”
Crisis still here.
Christopher Eastman-Nagle
February 15, 2019 at 12:15
The crisis is most certainly not averted.
Modern societies are living wildly beyond their ecological means by any indicator. Climate warming is just one of numerous ecological signals indicating impending disaster.
The next 20-30 years are going to look like a civilisational version of Hogarth’s ‘Rake’ Progress’. And even if we start to behave as if we were in the middle of an emergency right now, the coming period is still going to be pretty tough because we have already set in train processes that cannot be reversed.
The problem with out of control spendthrifts and prodigals is that they very rarely listen to the warnings until it is too late.
Sorry …
Jon Sumby
February 15, 2019 at 17:58
Once again, davies, you ply your cherry picking and obfuscation as if it were the veritable Certain Truth.
The report you refer to has been picked up by the LNP and paraded as showing that the virtuous coal loving Government is doing the ‘Right Thing’.
But another article published at the same time points out that the report you rely on is based on some assumption that may not hold; the continuing uptake of renewables at the same rate as in 2018. Policy will have to intervene to, as you write, ‘…deliver Australia’s entire Paris emissions reduction targets five years early, in 2025’, as this will require the shutting down of half or more of Australia’s coal fired generation. That is a big political ask and will require clever and brave policy decisions; something the Liberals have shown to entirely lack as they wave lumps of carefully cleaned and lacquered lumps of coals around in Parliament.
And note, particularly, that 2/3 of Australia’s emissions are not from power generation and that needs to be addressed or the Paris Target will not be met.
Australia is not on track to meet Paris emissions target – not without policy support
9th Feb. 2019
‘But it is a very big assumption that renewables deployment would continue at present rates. And all it is is a straight-line extrapolation from one year’s renewables deployment.
…
Coal exit may happen more quickly than assumed in some recent reports. But how quickly depends on many factors. That deserves analysis, not straight-line extrapolation.
…
Things are not straightforward for exit by coal power plants either. Plant closures are painful, tempting governments to support continued operation for individual plants to postpone the job losses.
And some plant operators may choose to keep plants running even when they don’t make much money, for example in order to postpone site remediation costs. So, a framework or policy mechanism will be needed to facilitate the orderly closure of all these coal plants.
Finally, there’s the not-so-small matter of the rest of the economy. Two thirds of Australia’s national emissions come from sources other than electricity, and they have been rising. Effective measures are needed right through the economy to get to deeper emissions reductions, and to do so cost-effectively.
…
And if renewables keep coming on strongly, then that is a potent reason for taking on a stronger emissions target. That in turn will make it possible to achieve a much stronger reduction than the 26-28% at 2030. And crucially it can set the country on a trajectory towards truly deep emissions reductions.
But it won’t happen all by itself.’
http://energy.anu.edu.au/news-events/australia-not-track-meet-paris-emissions-target-–-not-without-policy-support
Rob Halton
February 15, 2019 at 13:40
Despite all the impending doom and gloom it only took a little bird, the black throated finch that needs protection to derail the massive Adani project.
It looks as if the Queensland government commissioned a review by a University of Melbourne ecologist Brendon Wintle who is already accused of bias over his associations with anti coal activists, saying that the multi billion dollar projects planned to protect the rare bird is inadequate.
Its all back fired for the Qld government , too bad, tough luck, selling out the countries resources to a foreign power.is not always the best of a long term plan as it might be far wiser to utilise the high quality coal here at home at a much lower level of extraction for electricity, energy and smelting operations given there are probably good reasons for Australia to discontinue using Victorian brown coal because of its higher level of pollution.
Mate, always choose the middle ground for whatever is in best interests of Australians. There needs to be wriggle room within the domestic market for the uses of coal as conversion to far more useful fuel. The nation should encourage innovation with an extra layer of research funding to look at coal more closer as a useful resource and not one to be condemned as a pollutant by the anti everything brigade.
Wining Pom
February 15, 2019 at 16:23
‘not one to be condemned as a pollutant’
Does that mean it’s not a pollutant, or that pollutants shouldn’t be condemned?
A lot of people know that it is a pollutant;
‘One of Alabama’s largest coal companies has agreed to pay $775,000 in penalties related to air pollution violations near Birmingham.’
The Associated Press
Posted Feb 13, 2019 at 9:00 PM
Keith Antonysen
February 15, 2019 at 17:26
Rob, there is no middle ground with science. All those factors I’ve listed are happening.
Not that long ago I was reading about puffins, a quite common European bird in danger through extreme weather. Changing seasons are creating concerns about migratory birds. Populations can be cut quite quickly, as has been seen with bats.
Your comment in relation to the black-throated finch is nothing more than a diversion.
When all else fails an attempt is made to trash the reputation of scientists, as you have demonstrated. What about the climate scientists working for fossil fuel corporations in the 1970s whose work indicated that fossil fuels usage damages climate?
There is no middle ground in relation to oceans warming. Some of the extreme hurricane conditions experienced in the US in 2017 were fed by a warm Atlantic Ocean, and a very warm Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
Rob, you didn’t get the message that coal is a very expensive energy source. A message continually being stated overseas. An externality that is hardly considered is the health problems caused, and the environments it ruins. Health was not a dot-point above. It could have been, as epidemiological studies show some nasty and costly factors caused by fossil fuel emissions.
You need to read beyond what the Australian media feeds you.
PLB
February 16, 2019 at 18:28
The Black-throated finch.
Is this what you are complaining about, Robin Charles Halton?
“The Indian mining company also intends to allow cattle to graze on the remaining conservation areas surrounding its Carmichael mine.
Leading ecologists have said Adani’s latest version of the black-throated finch species management plan – which still requires Queensland government approval – amounts to “a plan to manage a cow paddock”.
April Reside, an ecologist and member of the black-throated finch recovery team, told Guardian Australia that Adani’s management plan for the finch “reads like a management plan for cows”.
Adani’s own studies, conducted by consultants GHD in 2014, acknowledged the best finch habitat was where there had been “an absence of grazing”. Reside said the finch had been driven to the verge of extinction and that it survived in areas that had been only lightly grazed”
Source – The Guardian.
While Murdoch’s News-Corpse has run a media campaign of blatant lies, in Adani’s interests, to attack the scientists behind a review assessing the Adani coalmine, to undermine the scientist’s integrity.
News-Corpse makes claims, such as “the endangered black-throated finch faces extinction if the Adani coal mine does not go ahead.”
Citing an anonymous ecologist, and with no evidence provided to support this claim.
The Maggots.
While according to ‘ScienceDirect’, mining is the very thing threatening the future of the species.
From The Australian Conservation Foundation
“The black-throated finch is now found in only 12% of its historical range and Adani’s mine would devastate its best remaining habitat.”
Such a prominently beautiful wee bird. I bloody well hope it brings down Adani’s coalmine, becoming the symbol of closing down ALL coalmines in Australia.
So complain, Robin Charles Halton. But a Question. As you constantly prattle on, coal coal coal, and have mocked the school students’ future hopes of a safe environmental life on this planet, as you have enjoyed throughout your life .. do you have Shares in Coalmines ?
mike seabrook
February 18, 2019 at 01:28
yeh – no oxygen= the canary snuffs it
or similar – plant roses at end of grapevines – the virus kills the roses first, and suggests when to hit the grapevines with sprays.
or the wildlife if not sacrificed – will cause peoples livelihoods, jobs and economic futures and dreams to be blighted/dashed.
Pete Godfrey
February 15, 2019 at 14:51
The only reason that Australia is leading in renewables installations is that people either see it as a way to reduce power bills or that companies see it as a way to make money by installing the infrastructure and sitting back while the sun shines and the wind blows.
The LNP have done everything they can to slow down renewable energy.
They have reduced feed in tariffs for solar power to around 25% of the cost of the power to consumers. So the consumer pays something like 26 cents a kilowatt hour and for their clean power gets around 8 cents a kilowatt hour in return.
There is no way that the government can claim to support renewables, they get far too much of their political donations from mining, energy and chemical companies to actually want change.
Dr Peter Lozo (Adelaide)
February 15, 2019 at 17:46
Keith, thankyou for you many scientifically well informed Articles on Climate Change.
I try to read them but I am preoccupied with other research, including the Susan Neill-Fraser case, and I don’t have time to offer anything just now. I’m letting you know that I am very impressed. Keep up the excellent work! There is at least one non-Tasmanian reading your educational TT Articles on a very important subject of Climate Change.
Regards,
Peter
PLB
February 15, 2019 at 19:15
THIS SHOULD EXCITE – KIM PEART !
“Plans for first Chinese solar power station in space revealed”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/plans-for-first-chinese-solar-power-station-in-space-revealed-20190214-p50xtg.html
No need of Coal here, idiotic Climate Change deniers and trolls,
and I can imagine Kim being very happy with this development, after being mocked for his intelligent suggestions.
PLB
February 16, 2019 at 18:43
What stops it from being smashed by space junk ?
Well Russell, I suppose it would have as much chance of not being hit by the massive amount of space junk as any other of the many satellites and space stations that float around up there in the stars. And then there’s space rock and such, that it’s all quite amazing these man-made objects are not smashed. Yeah, it truly amazes this humble organic ground-dwelling pleasant.
And what stops the laser bream being misdirected ?
Well, that was my first thought after reading the article, as I do not trust China, and view their actions of building up islands in the South China sea as very devious with potential bad intent. As I also view their buying their way into the Pacific Islands, and their China One Road program, as also part of that bad intent. They have, I believe the figures are, 60 million surplus males to females.
So can the Laser be used for bad intent other than Powering Industry, homes and Electric cars as they state ? I don’t know, Russell. Maybe Kim could provide those answers, or Keith. This is outside my field. I excel in other areas.
What’s wrong with terrestrial solar, wind and hydro ?
Nothing at all, Russell. I am a big supporter of. But I would add Hydrogen, made with solar. I understand Sweden is planning a Steel Plant to run on Hydrogen, which never gets a mention by those for or against, when the prattling idiots and trolls that come on here swearing that life depends on more coal, coal, coal as the only life force or all be the end of all. You should be aiming that question at them, not me. I have 5 grandchildren, and view these idiots with contempt and immense dislike as they stupidly prattle on about coal, economic growth, growth, growth and mock the school student’s future. It would not be printable what I would like to lead and do to the fossil fuel barons, their shareholders, political governments, banks and media. But it’s what this planet desperately needs.
But if such a space solar plant development by China was indeed for good intent, along with the other countis mentioned, and if the technology was safe, wouldn’t it be great, as it “could tap the energy of the sun’s rays without interference from the atmosphere, or seasonal and night-time loss of sunlight” and “It could reliably supply energy 99 per cent of the time, at six-times the intensity of solar farms on earth.” Wow, which would add to the terrestrial solar, wind and hydro here on earth. And of course Hydrogen, made with solar.
A lot of Kim’s ideas have fascinated me, as it is not an area I look into, and like I have said, I am just a humble organic ground dwelling pleasant, and reading Kim talk of solar space stations, and Sails as means of space travel, elevators into space (have I got that one right?) all mind blogging to me. And 3D printers constructing power stations in space, wow. A 3D printer. I’m still trying to get my mind around a petrol combustion motor.
I have from a young age enjoyed science fiction/fantasy, comics, books and movies, but whilst not understanding science, I having an open mind on possibilities, as many ideas that were in those 60s comics, well if the idea has been thought of for fantasy, then its only a matter of time as we have seen, before some possibly become a reality.
And now, wow, what an innovated idea. More reason to live a longer healthy life to see. The possibilities it can have for our children’s children’s future, without the life destroying power sources such as coal and nuclear.
Go go Solar, you beauty, whether it comes from space or earth.
Solar, the possibilities!
Keith Antonysen
February 17, 2019 at 10:45
PLB
I didn’t know the answer to your questions so I did a little research.
I gather that the theory of a Chinese solar station in space is for it to be at a height above space debris, and it would maintain an orbit consistent with being over the same spot continuously.
Whether the laser beam could be directed elsewhere, I’ve no idea.
Simon Warriner
February 18, 2019 at 08:17
Space Junk tends to stay in the orbit in which it was deposited, or for its orbit to slowly decay until it burns up in the earth’s atmosphere. The Chinese understand the problem very well, having tested a satellite designed to operate on precisely that premise. Google “the kessler syndrome” for a better understanding of the implications.
The bigger problem with space-based power generation is the losses involved in turning volts and amps into a laser beam, the losses involved in the transmission of that beam back to earth, and the losses involved in turning that beam back into volts and amps.
While not intimately familiar with what those losses might be, I do not imagine they will be insignificant, and I suspect that by the time they, and the additional cost of operating in the very expensive extraterrestrial environment are added up they will be greater than the cost of building solar installations on earth that produce similar amounts of usable energy.
That aside, this entire conversation misses one very critical point. Actually it is the only critical point. Until we put a stop to the notion that everyone can safely have 2 point whatever kids we, as a species, and as a planet are pretty much up shit creek in a barbed wire canoe. The next iteration in global population growth is double the fluster cluck we have now. Anyone who cannot see how that is going to play out needs to go ask any farmer what happens when you leave the livestock in one paddock and don’t castrate the males. In the wild the predators keep things in balance. Humans have no effective predators, and as a result humanity is ruining the environment on which it, and all other living beings depend.
Unless, and until, this simple fact is drummed into everyone’s heads we are on a one way track to a very nasty future. I have started this conversation with the next generation in my acquaintance, I suggest everyone else do likewise. Falling birthrates are all that will turn this around, and they will do it far faster than spending a fortune on exotic engineering solutions.
Keith Antonysen
February 16, 2019 at 16:19
Greta Thunberg, the young lass who influenced student school strikes worldwide, told her adult audiences at COP24 Poland and Davos exactly what she thought. She stated that the ” … house is on fire” and nobody is doing anything about it.
Referenced here is a short film with her comments, plus views expressed by scientists.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/02/teen-makes-moving-plea-for-climate-action/
Professor Kevin Anderson, in a much longer film, outlines why he believes that the Paris Accord and the IMF meeting in Davos was a sham. He states that 50% of CO2 is created by 10% of the population. While making the comment he shows a squadron of private jets as a backdrop. Kevin Anderson asserts that extreme actions need to happen to stop temperatures escalating to dangerous levels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BZFvc-ZOa8
Dr Neal Curtis argues that it is neo-liberalism which has been used to create wealth for a select few that is at odds with anthropogenic climate change. The major parties in Australia obtain very rare donations.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@future-learning/2019/02/11/438169/climate-change-denial-not-about-the-science?fbclid=IwAR0jSkHdybhJ4iQdrQMK5cTtiRX9J-g8ZVkLYV5kfUZamA5nDLqs1s3kUgI
PLB
February 16, 2019 at 19:04
Greta Thunberg shames our political leaders. They clap at the end of her speech .. then go back to doing nothing.
Greta Thunberg’s picture is framed on my wall.
Good links again Keith, thankyou. Shell take Yale and Youtubes to my FB to share.
Mike Seabrook
February 18, 2019 at 01:18
tassie is fine, though the winter would be better if shorter or a bit warmer
if other people don’t like where they are living they could take action to clean up their own backyards or move to tassie – no jobs ? – no problem the feds keep sending loot down to tassie.
tassie is still under a fed veto to not build hydro-electricity dams and restrictions from chopping down trees before they burn.
est.500,000 cattle have recently drowned which should be good for the climate. (less methane) – tough for some without insurance, though higher beef prices for other cattle producers.
Jon Sumby
February 18, 2019 at 17:10
Mike, no one has the right to their opinions despite what you may have heard. Your opinions here are unfounded, provably incorrect, and silly.
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” – Mark Twain
Rob Halton
February 18, 2019 at 05:11
Despite all of the anti coal Climate Change supporters running wild around the country, Australia would need to take a significant shift in direction if it were to abandon coal exports.
Our school students groups Australia wide, while they protest, they need to look at the broader picture, how do they expect to have the nation finance their future, education, health infrastructure and social needs to be provided by governments in a modern Australia.
What is going to replace coal exports as national income, the Adani project alone gives Qld $1 billion coal royalty windfall, ultimately means a $20 billion investment in Qld, 10,000 jobs and electric power for 50 million people in India who currently cook their food, heat theri homes through burning wood and animal dung.
Developing countries that need more power are continuing to build hundreds of new High Efficiency- Low Emission (HELE} coal fired power stations, Japan is building them as well !
Australian coal means lower emissions than using coal shipped from alternative sources such as Indonesia.
The Premier of Qld is believed to be controlled by a coal hating hipster who in turn has promoted the black throated finch habitat protection as the main obstacle to the Adani development.
In fact if the development is stalled indefinitely in the mean time where is the source of the massive welfare bill for Qld as the State steps deeper into recession also taking into account the drought followed by floods saga that is draining the lively hoods of many locals to the point of financial collapse.
It is said the Adani development could provide up to 10,000 new local jobs, those figures could be inflated never the less it still could be of a major benefit to Qld.
With resources (minerals) metals and petroleum accounting for 72% of Australia’s goods ($248 billion) are we so complacent about our ability to maintain our living standards that we fail to capitalise on the Qld project.
While I respect the students concerns, many will eligible to vote soon once they turn 18, how will they deal with their future, they need to plan now and not vote blind for the Greens who have no workable plan to keep the nation ticking streaks above the poverty line!
Ask the LNP, Labor and the Independents, especially the “new” Climate Change Independents if they have an alternative plan, I would bet that they dont !
max
February 18, 2019 at 09:16
Rob Halton … Everything you say in this article is true as far as I know, but unfortunately it is also spelling the death knell of our world as we know it, and the extinction of my descendants and I presume yours.
As you say “Ask the LNP, Labor and the Independents, especially the ‘new’ Climate Change Independents if they have an alternative plan, and I would bet that they don’t”.
Once again you are stating a half truth, but at least they are trying and are aware of it .. something that your hero, Morrison the coal waving buffoon, is not even thinking of. One thing for sure .. his faith in his God will not save our world.
High Efficiency- Low Emission (HELE) coal fired power stations are at best 10% more efficient, and the have to operate at extremely high temperatures at a constant load. They can only do this if the power is going to dedicated users such as Temco or Comalco. In Australia these companies could not use this power unless it was highly subsidised, and it could only be for them as thermal power stations, no matter how efficient, have to be under constant load.
The reason for thermal power stations shutting down in Australia is that they cannot handle the variable loads that the wind farms and solar panels inflict on them.
Keith Antonysen
February 18, 2019 at 09:34
Rob … Snow provides a good resource in showing the danger of mining coal. I have provided two references at:
https://tasmaniantimes.com/2019/02/landmark-australian-ruling-rejects-coal-mine-over-global-warming/
One of the references indicates that snow turns black when it’s contaminated by particulates from coal. The other reference deals with the health impacts of coal mining on miners in Tennessee. The mining and transport of coal is just the beginning of the health costs.
The emissions from coal and other fossil fuels have killed millions of people, or caused serious illnesses. Disease vectors have changed as a result of areas warming.
The last IPCC Report stated that we have twelve years to make radical changes to ward off the worst that climate can provide. To keep pushing fossil fuels we steal the future from young people, and as they know that to be the case they are striking from school on a world wide basis.
If we take Milankovitch cycles into account we should be heading towards an ice age. Cooling, though not to the same extent, should also have been witnessed through the lack of sun spot activity.
A Youtube video titled “Orbits and Ice Ages: History of Climate” features Geologist Dan Britt talking about Milankovitch cycles over 50 million years. He states very clearly that it has been anthropomorphic climate change that has stopped us from going into an ice age.
We have now lost five and a half years to do anything about climate change since the LNP was elected, and we’ll lose three more should the LNP be re-elected.
Creating new coal mines and coal powered stations is an excellent way to kill people.
Keith Antonysen
February 19, 2019 at 14:48
Earlier today I came across Dr Richard Alley being interviewed about the ice cores that he was processing. One aspect was that he commented on a WUWT pseudo science denier forum that had used him as a reference. The suggestion being made was that Dr Alley supported the nonsense put out by WUWT.
The other matter was that the cores he was processing showed that, at times, abrupt climate change had happened. The climate has basically been quite kind while humans have lived on Earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c90nab5i-TQ
Rob Halton
February 21, 2019 at 06:09
Education chiefs have warned that students skipping school to participate in the taxpayer funded Australian Youth Climate Coalition Friday 15th March will marked as absent and will face disciplinary action.
The matter will be regarded as truancy for the students, and professional adult activists seen to be encouraging this sort of behavior can expect the full force of the law.
Keith Antonysen,
February 23, 2019 at 12:38
Rob
It is adults that need educating, as stated by Greta Thunberg, who doesn’t mince her words about politicians or adults generally. Greta Thunberg, is a person who missed school over quite a period when demonstrating alone about climate change, now she can be considered a world leader. She makes more sense than your Prime Minister.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/video/watch-greta-thunbergs-full-address-to-eu-politicians-in-brussels/
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Mike Seabrook
February 23, 2019 at 21:23
should have built tassies gordon-below-franklin hydro dam
and should prioritise it now
max
March 16, 2019 at 11:51
Undoubtably some of these kids just wanted a day off but others, possibly with parents who are also alarmed, can see the writing on the wall.
“Australian agricultural output will have shrunk so severely by the latter half of this century that it will no longer grow enough food to feed its populace, forcing the nation to rely on imports to meet demand.” This is an article that points out the reality of our future but misses the point. If we can no longer meet our food requirements because of climate change, where could we import from?
If we continue to elect idiots that think there is any future for the world’s population with their head in the sand mentality then these kids have every right to strike. What use is an eduction without a future?
PLB
March 16, 2019 at 12:34
Agreed, the Shooting event has given the Media an opening to ignore the Student Protest.
But what is also noticeable, is, PM Clownshoes and his greed orientated denier fellow idiot’s have not come out to mock the Student’s this time. Now trying to keep a low profile on the Climate Change issue in the lead up to the Election, now pretending to be caring on the issue, to appeal to the morally dull grandparents who clutch their Franking Credits and Mining Portfolios to there hearts, who will vote for the scum, whilst turning their backs on their grandchild’s future.
Myself, have tuned out of the Shooting event, by turning my radio to FM 96.9 Deloraine, where it can stay for at least a week.
Looks as if the ABC is billing it as the latest cricket match, popcorn and beers and pull a up a chair. No thanks.
But, it was indeed a good day yesterday to share with the concerned Students. Good company..
Christopher Eastman-Nagle
March 16, 2019 at 12:47
The children are entering the fray, as well they might. It is obvious to them that they are screwed.
But they aren’t just screwed by the realities of an Indulgence Capitalism that has over-committed all of us over the last 60 years to an agenda of gross junk overproduction and consumption in the pursuit of absurd fantasies planted by the jewel wasp that is Sales and Marketing Inc, but the equally absurd, obfuscatory and paralysing intra regime deregulatory and privatizing Tweedle Deeist and Tweedle Dumist tribal politics and jostling that goes on between the corporates and their petty bourgeois social administrator opposite numbers….who between them have shredded the possibility of collaboration against a profound existential threat by the animosity and blame shifting of their rivalries and the junk culture, junk ideology and junk architecture of discourse that they have equally corruptly contributed to.
Doug Nichols
March 16, 2019 at 15:36
I’m basically with you, I think, but could we have that second sentence translated please? In English you could probably get it down to one line.
Christopher Eastman-Nagle
March 16, 2019 at 22:45
Doug, I appreciate what you are saying, but if I could say it in one line, I could probably also walk on water.
Actually, one of the reasons it is difficult to read is that it is the most condensed summary you will find anywhere of the conundrum of late modern capitalism and why we are collectively frozen in near paralysis, as a terrible future relentlessly bears down on us.
If you break the sentence down you have two highly interrelated propositions and some sub propositions.
Firstly, we are suffering from the ecological, economic, social and, existential damage of protractedly gross over-production and consumption that has been facilitated by the construction of a fantasy based marketed and selling set of indulgence based psychological drivers, that would accelerate economic activity wildly beyond ordinary needs and wants while progressively shredding the collective infrastructure around it.
See Wikipedia for the Jewel wasp, Its colonization of its prey is an exact replica of the way capitalism now works to control mass populations.
The second part is about the regime politics that hold this system in place, administer it and ensures the maintenance of the status quo, by relentless intra regime in fighting, blame shifting and ideological noise that gives a quite false impression of democratic discourse and freedom, when we are really talking about marketing/PR and disinhibition.
Both the corporate and social libertarian administrators of Indulgence Capitalism administer the larger deregulatory and privatization agendas that have dominated the last 50-60 years, which have weakened and defunded the nation state, compromised its core values, rules based behaviour and its boundaries and done exactly the same to the society inside it. Basically a junk based economy at one end produces a junk culture and system of discourse at the other.
And the way the game is played is designed to make sure that you do not recognize that when the the free market corporate Tweedle Dees and social libertarian Tweedle Dums accuse each other of crimes against the milieu that they are supposed to be stewarding, the are BOTH INFALLIBLY CORRECT! And that guarantees maximum finger pointing, maximum obfuscation and bullshit and maximum paralysis that ensures nothing changes.
One side would rather eat strychnine than admit that the Greens were right about anything because their indulgent deregulatory and privatizing social agendas and the grotesque effects of the policies that arise from those agendas on social governance and discourse, are so offensive and damaging to the common good. The other side would rather swallow cyanide than admit that anything the corporates said was right, because their irresponsible ecological and offensive economic misgovernance is so damaging and obscenely grasping to the point of industrial and environmental cannibalism….which is the inevitable legacy of protracted economically indulgent deregulation and privatization.
Indulgence, deregulation and privatization as drivers of our economic and social systems are a guaranteed way of in the end imploding/collapsing the system, or blowing it to bits…whatever comes first.
I hope that helps Doug…The kids have heaps to look forward.to.