Without a doubt, the one thing that Australia leads the world in is being NIMBY, (Not in My Backyard).
We are so virtuous with our solar panels on rooftop and in productive fields, and our wind turbines which many don’t want on, or near, their properties.
We are using clean green energy and we are going to be net zero by 2050 using all-renewables.
What a lovely, feel-good feeling of superiority and care for the environment.
The mining for the requirements of solar panels and also for wind turbines is very dirty.
But of course, if done somewhere else it is not our problem.
Solar panels are made under conditions that should shock Australia, and using fossil fuel energy and they are material intensive (lots of mining to produce the product).
Yet we are told this energy is free.
It is not free – it is very degrading of the environment and to many of the producers.
We are selling as much coal as we can, but of course, it is not combusted here so it is not our problem, not in our backyard.
How incredibly dumb is this?
Australia should realize that CO2 has the same effect on climate, wherever it is produced.
Our net zero, unlikely to ever happen at the present state of technology, will have miniscule effect on global atmospheric CO2 concentration, while the combustion of the coal we sell will have the effect of increasing atmospheric CO2, but not our problem, done somewhere else.
Why then is it, that no-one anywhere is claiming to have an electricity grid solely with renewables and we think we can do it?
It is due to the ignorance and monumental ego of those in charge who know nothing about electricity generation, except that they want to get votes out of it.
Australia is facing not only ongoing inflation but a serious downgrade of our standard of living unless we use reliable and affordable energy.
Permanent cost-of-living issues mean lower standard of living.
Our all-renewables net zero will do nothing at all, except make us poorer.
The world’s atmosphere is common to all, it does not change at national boundaries.
It is the height of stupidity to ignore this.
This little bit of science is very understandable, except to those who have a burning ideological fire or those who profit from it financially or politically.
An inconvenient truth to them and a future ongoing burden to the taxpayer.
Email, Feb 7
Charles Hemmings, Woy Woy
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