Month: August 2020

Totally predictable and ultimately stupid, the Pentecostal P M plans a gas-led recovery from the pandemic, just as Nev Power, his hand-picked chair of his personally-created National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, advised. The Commission is stacked with resource-industry heavies and their plan will make achieving our Paris targets impossible. Perhaps the plan is based on the premise that the Rapture is imminent and climate change is immaterial. Like I said, stupid!https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-prepares-a-gas-plan-to-boost-economy-out-of-the-pandemic-20200807-p55jop.html

Scientist says the risk is too great to proceed with Santos’s CSG project. Bureaucrat says there are uncertainties about the geology and hydrogeology, but these could be managed with robust monitoring and regulation. ” … the project does not trigger the precautionary principle”, he said. I say “This is how death by a thousand cuts occurs.”https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-08/scientist-says-risks-too-high-for-coal-seam-gas-in-narrabri/12530152

It’s a fine line we walk on the climate response and just now we’re stumbling. Doom is no fun and sunny optimism isn’t realistic. We need to understand the issue and options and be prepared to, in the words of the legendary John Kennedy, DO SOMETHING!https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/06/global-climate-crisis-doom-optimism-emergency

I’ve gone off-list for a glimpse into a bleak future as described in this New York Times article. But have we the time and the wit to avoid it?https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/climate/overlapping-disasters-heat.html

If a conference you’re attending has Nicky Ison as a speaker, go and listen. She makes uncommonly good sense. Here’s her prescription for the post-COVID19 recovery of the manufacturing that we need.https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6863212/the-silver-lining-that-could-recharge-australias-manufacturing/?cs=14246

‘ .. the worst performing part of the ASX has been the fossil fuel sector’ ..We’d prefer that it was the science that drives divestment and the move away from fossil fuels but hey, if it’s economics that does it for now, we should take it.https://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/unisuper-dumps-coal-assets-as-sector-turns-its-back-on-fossil-fuels-20200803-p55hzd.html

It is important to keep up the pressure on Adani. The longer this mine preparation takes, the more likely it is that the potential funders wake up to the damage that the project represents, that the political context changes and that the social licence to proceed is revoked.https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/03/adani-second-major-korean-brokerage-withdraws-financial-backing-for-miners-coal-projects

It is important to keep up the pressure on Adani. The longer this mine preparation takes, the more likely it is that the potential funders wake up to the damage that the project represents, that the political context changes and that the social licence to proceed is revoked.https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/03/adani-second-major-korean-brokerage-withdraws-financial-backing-for-miners-coal-projects

Time for a little levity. This can represent both levity and accuracy.

All of this was predicted even as there was dithering over whether or not the public purse would bail out private owners, putting in sea-walls and channeling Canute with beach …