Post of the Day
Does more renewable energy mean higher prices?
David Leitch
The cost to decarbonise the electricity system is lower than the cost of replacing the existing power system like for like. Think about it: that is a gift.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/does-more-renewable-energy-mean-higher-prices-10310/
Today’s Celebration
Mohammed VI’s Birthday – Morocco
Day of Arafat – Islam
Eid al-Adha – Islam
Cupcake Day – http://www.rspcacupcakeday.com.au/
|
Whether it’s doughnuts, brownies, flapjacks or traditional cupcakes you’re enjoying, your delicious treats will be helping us rescue, rehabilitate and rehome creatures in need all over the country.
|
Poet’s Day – https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/poets-day/
 |
[Every August 21st] Poetry… We hear the term bandied about all the time, and there isn’t a one of us that avoided writing some in our younger days. Whether that…
|
|
More about Aug 21 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_21
Climate Change
We were warned about climate change in 1912
Report from Waitemata & Kaipara Gazette August 14 1912
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/we-were-warned-about-climate-change-in-1912-/
Global warming is making oceans so acidic, they may reach the pH they were 14 million years ago
Catastrophic damage to marine life can no longer be averted.
High temperatures and air pollution may increase risk of mental illness, suicide
Climate change will only exacerbate the problem in the coming decades, according to several recent studies.
https://therevelator.org/climate-pollution-mental-illness/
Here’s what’s driving America’s fights over climate change
Amy Harder
America’s hot summer is fueling wildfires — and a fierce debate over climate change, the single most polarized policy in the U.S.
National
Malcolm Turnbull to face party-room reckoning after energy U-turn
Tuesday’s meeting is expected to be dominated by the PM’s attempts to head off a full-blown leadership crisis
“I am not afraid to say the c-word, coal, coal, coal”- Nationals deputy
Nationals celebrate ditching of emissions targets from NEG and a push for new dispatchable generation: “Coal, coal, coal,” says the deputy leader.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/i-am-not-afraid-to-say-the-c-word-coal-coal-coal-nationals-deputy-44223/
Business condemns Turnbull’s shift on emissions and ‘extreme intervention’
Super funds and business lobby groups criticise ‘ad hoc’ changes for destroying certainty
“Money runs away from uncertainty”: Geoff Cousins talks NEG
Businessman and former Australian Conservation Foundation president Geoff Cousins says Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to walk away from a legislated emissions target is a “low point” for Coalition policy.
Woolworths profit jumps, but supermarket warns bag ban is now hurting sales
Woolworths posts a 12.5 per cent rise in profit for the 2018 financial year and ups its dividend, but warns the recent plastic bag ban is hurting sales after rival Coles backflipped.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-20/woolworths-profit-jumps-pays-special-dividend/10138970
Turnbull just showed what happens when ‘ideology and idiocy take charge of energy policy’
Erwin Jackson
The PM had seemed to recognise that you can’t have an energy policy without a plan to cut emissions. No longer.
Canberra’s deranged circus of wreckers are now writing our future
Katharine Murphy
Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to give in to his rightwing enemies is disastrous for him – but also for the whole country.
Politicians must set aside blinkered ideologies in the climate endgame
David Spratt and Ian Dunlop
The rapidly disintegrating ‘agreement’ to the Neg yet again sees the Coalition refusing to face up to the threat of climate change.
Turnbull pulls down global shutters [$]
Chanticleer
Australian business is entering new and dangerous territory when the federal government holds out the prospect of breaking up companies that act against achieving favourable consumer energy prices.
Welcome to climate war without end
Craig Emerson
Business leaders calling for an end to the climate wars should direct their energies to the conservative faction of the Liberal Party, but even that is likely to be futile.
https://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/welcome-to-climate-war-without-end-20180820-h147np
Turnbull capitulates, leaving band of rebels to ransack future climate policy
Tony Wright
It is not the public humiliation so much, even if Malcolm Turnbull will have those words of his from 2009 – “I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am” – forever repeated to him.
With or without Turnbull, voters will punish Coalition for NEG disarray
Canberra Times editorial
Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership now seems beyond saving.
Dropping NEG is Malcolm Turnbull’s moral failure
SMH editorial
Malcolm Turnbull embraces inaction and a Soviet command economy.
Lamentable power play not in the public interest
Age editorial
The main message of 21st-century Australian politics is strife is worsened, not quashed, by parties dumping sitting prime ministers.
PM loses leadership guarantee [$]
Australian editorial
Coalition energy policy is stripped and the PM is laid bare.
Politics makes things bewilderingly complicated
Telegraph editorial
To convert a simple thing into something bewilderingly complicated, just add politics. Power generation is a case in point. For most of the 20th century, Australian electricity generation was a straightforward affair.
The too hard basket: a short history of Australia’s aborted climate policies
Marc Hudson
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has abandoned the emissions-reduction component of his signature energy policy, in the latest chapter of a brutal decade-long saga for Australian climate policy.
PM can’t unscramble a NEG [$]
Paul Kelly
The conservative minority has destroyed Turnbull’s energy policy and made deep inroads into destroying his prime ministership.
How not to set energy policy [$]
Judith Sloan
It’s official — the national energy guarantee is dead.
ALP blind to renewable cost [$]
Graham Lloyd
The federal opposition has been pushing the case that more renewables means lower electricity prices.
Carbon tax a step too far [$]
David Uren
The Coalition’s climate policy has been driven by a need to lower carbon emissions without appearing to put a price on them
How to move energy policy models beyond bias and vested interests
Shirin Malekpour and Enayat A. Moallemi
Modelling should be a chance to test your assumptions, not just confirm them.
https://theconversation.com/how-to-move-energy-policy-models-beyond-bias-and-vested-interests-101819
Death by tailpipe emissions: What number is acceptable?
Robert Dean
There are many sections of industry and the public that can see the benefits of electric transportation; unfortunately we have a small group of politicians that believe otherwise.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/death-by-tailpipe-emissions-what-number-is-acceptable-84802/
Here’s what a population policy for Australia could look like
Liz Allen
Many people think a population policy is about control – like the one-child policy in China, for instance. But modern population policies are about population-well-being.
http://theconversation.com/heres-what-a-population-policy-for-australia-could-look-like-101458
Does more renewable energy mean higher prices?
David Leitch
The cost to decarbonise the electricity system is lower than the cost of replacing the existing power system like for like. Think about it: that is a gift.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/does-more-renewable-energy-mean-higher-prices-10310/
Victoria
How to build a house you can recycle
An engineer who has had a love of “junk” from a young age builds a house that is recyclable, to ensure there will be no waste from it in the future.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-20/how-to-build-a-house-you-can-recycle/10133882
‘We are bloody short’: Victorian farmers battling through ‘green drought’
Eastern Victorian farmland may look relatively lush, but the paddocks are bare and the cattle are hungry, prompting farmers to plead with governments not to ignore them.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-20/east-gippsland-farmers-battle-green-drought/10139312
As battle for power heats up, Victoria Labor pledges more for solar
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews follows billion-dollar commitment to rooftop solar panels with pledge of discounted solar hot water systems.
‘They’re dreaming’: Guy pours cold water on Labor’s solar heating plan
“I’ve had solar at home for about two years and anybody who says that having solar at home is going to drop their bills by about $1000 a year, I think they’re dreaming,” Mr Guy said.
New South Wales
NSW Government directs $72m to homes and businesses to reduce energy costs
The NSW Government is taking $72 million from its Climate Change Fund to help some businesses and low-income renters reduce their energy costs, but an environmental group says the state is “buying water pistols” to douse a fire.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-20/nsw-government-plan-reduce-energy-costs/10139686
‘Another day, another delay’: More train issues hit Sydney
Delays, cancellations, blank screens and crowded platforms have confronted commuters during Monday’s commute.
Liddell back in the frame [$]
The government’s backflip on energy policy has put AGL Energy’s Liddell coal-fired power station back in the spotlight.
Major water-saving fix axed as drought reached crisis point [$]
A crucial program that helped households stop leaks and save water was quietly axed just as the state’s widespread drought reached crisis levels. The Tele can reveal the WaterFix program ceased taking household appointments on July 31 after operating for almost two decades.
Queensland
Fire ban extended across south-east Queensland
The ban has been extended across several local government areas until Wednesday midnight.
South Australia
Stress tests to decide tram extension start date
The problem-plagued North Tce tram line will undergo key stress testing this week as the State Government considers a new starting date.
Draft Great Artesian Basin strategic management plan 2018
Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee
This draft plan provides a framework to guide the actions of governments, traditional owners, water users and other interests in their endeavour to achieve economic, environmental, cultural and social outcomes for the Great Artesian Basin and its users.
Northern Territory
How to cool a hot, hot city
As the sauna-like heat of the build-up approaches Darwin, one of Australia’s top architects says the answer to a cooler city could be right before our eyes.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-20/top-architect-alec-tzannes-cooling-hot-darwin-city/10132378
NT sandalwood scheme loses major project status [$]
An Iindian sandalwood scheme which attracted the attention of Australian regulators has had its major project status in the Territory withdrawn
Western Australia
Perth’s biggest-ever development could go 100 per cent plastic-free
“Some say we’d be crazy for doing this … I say, are we crazy for not doing it?”
WA anger over national power plans
Private WA power companies have accused the architect of the Federal Government’s signature energy policy of high handedness after she appeared to dismiss local concerns as “silly”. https://thewest.com.au/business/energy/wa-anger-over-national-power-plans-ng-b88928959z
When dust ends in death: How asbestos devastated Wittenoom
These two toddlers used to play in the asbestos of Wittenoom. They couldn’t make it to yesterday’s memorial – mesothelioma took them years ago
Sustainability
Five things to know about Trump’s new coal power plan
The Trump administration is expected on Tuesday to roll out its alternative to a capstone Obama-era coal pollution rule, which critics fear will significantly weaken efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
How hydrogen could shake up Canada’s energy sector
It’s not all talk as fuel cell vehicles hit the road and facilities begin producing hydrogen.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/hydrogen-toyota-atco-enbridge-1.4788068
The modern automobile must die
If we want to solve climate change, there’s no other option.
https://newrepublic.com/article/150689/modern-automobile-must-die
Nature Conservation
Malaysia seizes rhino horns
Malaysia’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks has seized suspected rhino horns weighing around 116 kilograms at Kuala Lumpur airport.
Near 2 million acres on fire in the United States
The west coast of the United States is shrouded in smoke from the 110 large fires (this does not include smaller fires within each complex of fires) that have erupted across the region during this fire season.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/nsfc-ntm082018.php
Patagonia is building parks. Pay attention
The Chilean government and Kristine Tompkins are doing something extraordinary down in Patagonia—setting aside millions of acres for stunning new national parks. And they aren’t done yet.
https://www.outsideonline.com/2335166/patagonia-building-parks
Lessons learned from centuries of indigenous forest management
In an interview with Yale Environment 360, botanist Charles M. Peters discusses how, in an era of runaway destruction of tropical forests, the centuries-old ecological understanding of indigenous woodland residents can help point the way to the restoration of damaged rainforests.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/lessons-learned-from-centuries-of-indigenous-forest-management
‘Assisted migration’ could help plants survive climate change
Human intervention, mimicking the movement of a species, is already happening in the West.