climate
Environment: Oil and gas producers underreport methane emissions
How accurately are methane emissions reported and whose estimates can you believe? Who should be the last producers of oil and gas? What are Australia’s commonest birds? How well do you know our Aussie birds? 1 Which of the following are among Australia’s commonest ten birds: Rainbow Lorikeet Red Wattlebird Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Australian White Ibis Continue reading »
‘Worst I have seen’: 75% of Great Barrier Reef suffers coral bleaching
“We are really running out of time. We need to reduce our emissions immediately,” one expert warned. “We cannot expect to save the Great Barrier Reef and be opening new fossil fuel developments.” Marine conservationists warned Thursday that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef may be suffering its worst-ever coral bleaching event amid record ocean heat fuelled Continue reading »
On cognitive dissonance, and courage
I have flashes of climate grief, recognition in photographic bursts: Pakistani cotton farmers walking through knee-deep water trying to salvage a few white puffs of income off blackened plants; precious graves of ancestors being inundated by the sea in Fiji, the Torres Strait Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Samoa, the Marshall Islands; the view of fire-ravaged forests, Continue reading »
The Government must abandon its gas policy
For every thousand tonnes of fossil fuels mined, one person dies. As climate science provides increasing evidence of accelerating warming, we must recognise that gas is our main threat and stop producing it. Gas is 84 times more potent then carbon dioxide. In the next two critical decades there is justifiable concern that climate change Continue reading »
How smart is the government as it sloshes our money about into hydrogen, “critical” minerals and now solar panels?
We are getting used to mega-sized investment announcements from the government – a couple of billion for hydrogen projects, four or maybe six billion for “critical minerals” and now a billion for solar panel manufacturing. Of course, these numbers are small compared to government commitments such as the NDIS or of course AUKUS, but they Continue reading »
Peter Dutton’s nuclear power policy is a ‘suicide note’
Peter Dutton thinks the Coalition is on a winner by promoting nuclear power but unbiased opinion polls find that support for nuclear power in Australia falls short of a majority, that Australians much prefer renewables, and most do not want nuclear reactors built near where they live. A February 26 page-one article in The Australian Continue reading »
Environment: Australia publishes its first climate risk assessment
Australia is conducting its first climate risk assessment and developing an adaptation plan. Not only humans experience heat stress, so do other animals and plants. If you must feed wild birds, listen to the experts’ tips. Assessing Australia’s climate risks The Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) has released the Continue reading »
The guiding criminal lie in economics
A criminal is one who seriously breaks the law. By that measure Albanese, Dutton and most pollies across Australia are criminals together with their supporters. Human laws can be broken and repaired with a gaol term or a fine. Nature’s laws cannot be broken without continuing adverse consequences which cannot be repaired, and which persist Continue reading »
China’s quiet energy revolution: the switch from nuclear to renewable energy
There is now a policy dispute about the roles of nuclear and renewable energy in future Australian low emission energy systems. The experience of China over more than a decade provides compelling evidence on how this debate will be resolved. In December 2011 China’s National Energy Administration announced that China would make nuclear energy the Continue reading »
Portents of a nuclear war on a burning planet
The 24 hours media news cycle clouds the minds of people, perpetrators and hapless victims alike, to the future dimension, whether that of future generations or of the natural world itself. During the 20-21st centuries, as mean global temperature keeps rising toward 4oC, a failed brain neuron or a damaged computer chip can trigger a Continue reading »