Month: August 2021

After $4 billion directed to CCS, what is there to show? Current projects (dozens is the claim) are putting into storage 40 Megatonnes when somewhere between 350 and 1200 Gigatonnes is needed. Yet Mark McCallum, CEO of Low Emissions Technology Australia which is funded by the coal industry, claims that “the challenges for CCS had been overcome”. He would say that, wouldn’t he, but saying it doesn’t make it so.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-21/taxpayer-bill-for-carbon-capture-and-storage-hits-4-billion/100375854

We’ve been fed the line that the market is nimble in its self-interest and is best placed to deliver with the utmost efficiency. BHP might be getting out of thermal …

Dedicated advocates are in place for too few of Australia’s waterways. The Port Phillip Baykeeper, Werribee Riverkeeper and Snowy Estuarykeeper need more colleagues. To see what is possible, look at …

Here’s a bit levity with the gloom that is about. Check The Guardian’s Bird of the Year and cast your vote. I reckon the galah, as a representation of the Australian electorate, is an early contender.https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2021/aug/19/australian-bird-of-the-year-2021-nominate-your-favourite-for-the-shortlist

The ACCC report says more about the gas producers directing supply to where they can get the best prices (now who’d have thought that?) than it says about the gas-led recovery. Mirage News is lightly editing a government press release again. Drop the ‘news’ and leave the source as a ‘mirage’.https://www.miragenews.com/accc-report-underlines-importance-of-gas-fired-614639/

It’s almost always the case that the social and environmental challenges the community faces have a political dimension and it requires political advocacy to bring about the needed responses. The continuing attempts by the LNP to nobble the community sector in its advocacy for resolution of these challenges have to be resisted.https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2021/08/charity-sector-faces-new-advocacy-threat/And for some brilliant commentary on political leadership, check Ronni Salt’s thread ‘Speechless’ athttps://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1426470846760030214.html

“… we were not born to live in such a heat” says a Sicilian pharmacist of their record European temperature of 45 degrees centigrade. With our global emissions trajectory, we’d better start getting used to it.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/world/europe/sicily-record-high-temperature-119-degrees.html

Climate change is still a political issue and a factional issue for the conservatives rather than an issue for science. It needs to be the election issue.https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/net-zero-by-2050-why-liberal-party-moderates-believe-they-ve-won-20210813-p58ima.html

Things are indeed at a low ebb when scientists have to leak their own report before elected ‘representatives’ water it down to suit their political needs. When there is no …

There mightn’t be much point eyeing Tasmania as our climate refuge, given the increasingly inevitable heat and droughts. Who wants to live beside a mine dump? With the performance of Three ‘S’ Sussan in her portfolio, when might we hope for a Minister FOR the Environment, d’ya reckon? This too is something to think about when voting.https://www.examiner.com.au/story/7383339/sussan-ley-makes-her-call-on-emergency-tarkine-heritage-listing/?cs=95