As we go from talkfest to talkfest we are putting more and more pollution into the atmosphere. We have seen a number of examples where democratically elected Governments have reversed previous policies to cater for various election positions. Generally these are populist decisions which satisfy election success but do nothing to reduce the emission reality. Collectively all over the world we have to stop polluting. We have to stop using fossil fuel for our energy needs and replace it with clean sources of energy.
This process requires tough decisions and I fear that democratically elected Governments will not be able to make these. It will be a case of “to little, to late”, and the warming will go on unabated. Planting trees is often provided as the “feel good” panacea that masks the real issues. Whilst we burn fossil fuel for energy or transport energy we will continue the place our planet in a stressful worsening reality which will exhibit in ever increasing warming.
Australia is in a somewhat rare position, we are an island nation and cannot logically plug into a neighbours grid to get us through peak periods of electricity demand. We have to do it ourselves. There has been recent research that may point the way for us to go with renewables satisfying the demands of baseload and peak requirements. Renewables have a chequered history, in Germany PV (Photovoltaics) were once trumpeted as providing 50% of domestic requirement Well, it was true for one afternoon and what was not mentioned was that at 6.00pm on a winter evening as peak requirements soared they produced zero. Ironically in Europe there are new Coal-Fired plants being built.
A study from University of Melbourne has nominated a ten year window to completely take Australia from fossil fuel electrical generation to renewables with all baseload needs met. This uses already available technology in a mix that covers CST (Concentrated Solar Thermal) with storage and Biomass burning capacity, PV, Wind and other sources. Seems that we should be looking closely at this and other proposals. If we can generate electricity from renewables we can then take a position on Hydrogen or Boron as a possible solution to fossil fuel for transport energy.
Sadly I fear that these types of circuit breakers will not see the light of day in our political reality. We are a country that waxes and wanes depending on which way the political wind will keep our elected politicians in power and we don’t seem to have the capacity to bring a consensus on technological issues to the fore.
If we extrapolate this through all the other democracies of the world and overlay it with the great mass of self-interest then we can see how the status-quo is being maintained and how “Neroism” (he, who fiddled whilst the burning went on) is the dominant international malaise.
Oh! don’t look for a solution from the Senate after July 1st. Suspect too much self interest in that direction also…
Where do you stand on climate change? What are your thoughts about the issue? Tell us in the comments below…
