Climate
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GRAEME WORBOYS. About Snowy water, catchment restoration, Snowy 2.0 and jobs
The Snowy 2.0 project, if it is to realise its contribution to lowering carbon emissions, should proceed hand in hand with a program of environmental restoration of alpine ecosystems which have not recovered from past and present alpine grazing and which, as a result of global warming, will have less water yield for downstream users, Continue reading »
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AMBER CARVAN. The health impacts of climate change in rural and remote Australia
Without swift action climate change stands to further cement the health deficit experienced in rural and remote populations. Conversely, taking action to build the climate-resilience of rural and remote communities, and the health care services that support them, could lead to a seismic shift in health outcomes for the seven million people living in rural Continue reading »
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An open letter to the Prime Minister on climate and nuclear perils
This open letter was initiated by Dr Andrew Glikson (Earth and Paleo-climate science, ANU School of Anthropology and Archeology) and signed by over 200 Australian scientists, including those in the medical, environmental and physical disciplines, as well as scholars in the humanities. It clearly shows the immense perils we now face due to climate change and Continue reading »
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JULIAN CRIBB. The ‘Coal Toll’ and the moral vacuum.
While the focus of public debate about energy has been on monetary costs, it has almost entirely ignored the larger issue of human life, health and wellbeing. Julian Cribb sets the record straight. Continue reading »
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OISIN SWEENEY. Let’s take the opportunity to put the wellbeing of people at the heart of forest protection.
Any Australian under the age of 30 is unlikely to have heard of Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs). The RFAs, signed in the late 1990s and lasting for 20 years, were designed to facilitate multiple uses of public native forests including timber extraction, nature conservation and recreation. They haven’t worked as planned, and logging now threatens Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. Game changer.
Malcolm Turnbull crows that his National Energy Guarantee is a game changer – and so it is, but that doesn’t mean much. The energy game has been changing for well over the last decade, and in all likelihood will go on changing for the next ten years at least. The point, surely, is not to Continue reading »
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IAN McAULEY. Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee: can it work?
The Commonwealth’s proposed National Energy Guarantee is vague and confusing, and is based on dated engineering and economic ideas. But it may allow an economically responsible government, if we elect one, to reshape it into a set of policies that honour our environmental responsibilities and modernise our energy sector. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. The National Energy Guarantee – what do we make of it?
After a progression of schemes, such as the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), The Carbon Pollution Tax (CPT), Direct Action, including the Renewable Energy Target (RET) as well as dabbling with the Emissions Intensity Scheme (EIS) and the Clean Energy Target (CET) we have now being presented by those proud parents, Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg, Continue reading »
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JOHN QUIGGIN. Jobs bonanza? The Adani project is more like a railway to nowhere
The dispute over the Adani Group’s proposed Carmichael mine and the associated port at Abbot Point has long been cast as a choice between jobs and the environment. Climate change is already well on the way to destroying the Great Barrier Reef, among many other things, and the development of the massive coal reserves of Continue reading »
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KATE CHARLESWORTH and PETER SAINSBURY. The Devastating Health Costs of Coal.
Amid all the debate about energy policy – about security, affordability, and carbon emissions – there is one critical issue that has barely rated a mention: human health. Coal is hazardous to our health; renewables are not. In any discussion about energy, the human health costs of coal and the significant health benefits of switching Continue reading »
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WE ARE ALSO READING AND LISTENING TO …
Pearls and Irritations provides the following links for weekend reading: Continue reading »
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JULIAN CRIBB. Our Parliament: an unqualified failure for the future
Australian politicians have next to no qualifications or skills when it comes to deciding the focal issues of our time. No wonder the decision making of recent years has been so poor. Julian Cribb argues that a continued political bias against science, technology and education risks placing Australia among the also-rans of the 21st Century. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. Achieving Clean Energy
The constant refrain from the Commonwealth of reliable, secure and affordable power appears to dismiss the other objective of clean energy. This is reinforced by the failure to endorse the Clean Energy Target recommendation of the Finkel report. However, clean energy is feasible, affordable and can be made secure and reliable and certainly is good Continue reading »
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HYLDA ROLFE. A Sydney icon is under threat – the creeping commercialisation.
In this blog on 20 September 2017 I (John Menadue) described how ‘the new squatters in our National Parks’ are being given commercial access to our ‘public commons’. In NSW and elsewhere National Parks are being deliberately under funded, resulting in park deterioration which will then be used as the pretext for sale or commercialisation. Continue reading »
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BOB DOUGLAS. How will we change the human story?
What do we need to do to make it likely that our children and theirs will inherit a flourishing, rather than a collapsing human world? Our politicians must surely be starting to realise that large numbers of Australians are thoroughly fed up with the fact that the wellbeing of all (not just some) humans, and Continue reading »
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OISÍN SWEENEY: Will the Coalition degazette the Murray Valley National Park and cement its anti- environment reputation?
Up to now, Australian Governments of both sides have largely honoured national park declarations made by each other. However, it’s now official National Party policy to degazette the Murray Valley National Park which would be a low point in Australian conservation history. Given the success of The Nationals in dictating NSW environment policy in the Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE The new squatters in our National Parks
The new squatters on public land are being given a leg-up as they were in the 19th Century to seize and occupy public land. By deliberately underfunding National Parks commercial friendly governments are putting commercial interests ahead of the public interest. Continue reading »
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JOHN BENSON. Biodiversity is threatened in New South Wales
The New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) was the first of its type in Australia. Established by a Liberal government, its lyrebird emblem became world-renowned. But the Service is not valued by the present Government and now faces grave uncertainty. Continue reading »
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BRIAN TOOHEY. PM walks with energy dinosaurs
The person known as Malcolm Turnbull who took over as Prime Minister is gone. That’s the one who declared immediately after getting the job that Australians have a wonderfully exciting future provided they recognise “change is our friend, if we are agile and smart enough to take advantage of it”. Continue reading »
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MUNGO MacCALLUM. An energy emergency after ten years!
Malcolm Turnbull assures us that he is concentrating on energy and its three pillars – cost, security and environment. Well, at least the first two; it must be said that the environment has not had much of a look in during the last frenzied week. Continue reading »
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IAN DUNLOP. Hostage to myopic self-interest: climate science is watered down under political scrutiny
Scientific reticence allows politicians to neglect the real dangers we face. But waiting for perfect information means it will be too late to act. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. Australia’s electricity markets policy: The shambles continues.
Over the last week we have been treated to the depressing spectacle of the Prime Minister and his government reacting in a knee jerk, wrong-headed manner to two sensible and useful reports that have been released by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). This highlights the folly of not having a national plan for transitioning Continue reading »
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BRUCE THOM. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and their implications for Australia
Massive losses in Texas, Florida and across the Caribbean in recent days reminds us again of the capacity of tropical cyclones to wreak havoc. Continue reading »
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ALAN KOHLER. Coalition’s retreat back to coal-fired power stations and the loony fog
In 2015 Australia’s businesses made the mistake of thinking the Coalition government was serious about tackling climate change, and solemnly lined up to support it….There won’t be any new coal power stations and the lives of existing ones won’d be extended unless the government bizarrely and unnecessarily pays for it. If that happened,it would bring Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Abbott and Turnbull are the real culprits on the energy policy mess. (repost)
This is a repost of an article that was originally posted on 14 June 2017. I have reposted this in light of current controversy on extending the life of coal fired generators. In his journal, The Constant Investor, Alan Kohler sheeted blame very directly to the Coalition and Malcolm Turnbull. He said Those crises have Continue reading »
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EMMA CARMODY. Murray, Darling, what’s all this 4 Corners fuss about?
This article examines the contents of a recently aired 4 Corners episode, Pumped, which included allegations of water theft, corruption and regulatory capture in the Murray-Darling Basin. Continue reading »
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GILES PARKINSON. Super cheap solar – and why that’s good for Australia’s mining sector
Australia’s most pre-eminent solar researcher, Dr Martin Green, says the cost of solar PV technology will fall substantially in coming years, and while bad for the country’s thermal coal industry it will spell good news for other Australian mineral and materials exports.’ Any loss in thermal coal sales due to strong solar PV uptake will Continue reading »
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MICHAEL LAMBERT. The shambles of Australia’s national electricity policy.
Australia has rich energy resources, both fossil and renewable, and a well considered electricity market design, as evidenced by the National Electricity Market (NEM), so why is our electricity market policy overall in such a shambolic state? Successive national governments have failed to address the core policy issues that are fundamental if the ‘trilemma’ of Continue reading »
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BOB DOUGLAS An algal industry ready to bloom
A high level Roundtable held in Canberra in November 2017 concluded that algal technology can help to protect the Great Barrier Reef and create new jobs and growth for regional areas. Continue reading »
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DAVID KING AND PETER BROOKS. Coal is the new tobacco.
Coal is the new tobacco in terms of the harms it has on our health. No hospital would think of lending its logo to support the marketing of cigarettes or allowing any of its key decision makers to have strong links to cigarette companies. Yet, such an extraordinary situation has arisen around the Mater Hospital Continue reading »