Play Nice Politics #3 - Covideo killed the radio star

[1970crow]

There is more to it. There are issues with maintaining synchronisation, and with connecting all of the power sources to the grid (noting that many renewable generators are in remote areas). Addition of these renewable sources is happening in a very ad-hoc manner, not planned and coordinated.

The network was designed to distribute power from a small number of large generators. It is struggling to cope with the demands of having thousands of smaller generators, putting wildly varying amounts of power into the network.

The Federal Government has vacated the field, failing to provide proper planning and coordination, which is why there are so many issues arising from the introduction of bulk renewable energy.

On SM-G930F using BigFooty.com mobile app

I’m not referring to the issues with the grid. What I’m asking is if we’re near to world best at transitioning to renewable power per capita, how is it that we’re so poor overall when it comes to emission reduction?

 

[1970crow]

"I lost my home in the South Coast bushfires. Here's what I'd like to say to the PM"

I lost my home in the South Coast bushfires. Here's what I'd say to the PM

Since New Year's Day, climate change has suddenly become very personal for me.

www.canberratimes.com.au

blah, blah. If she was so cognisant on climate change then she should have understood the risk of living in a fire prone area. It’s not like these are our first bushfires, they’ve been scouring the countryside for centuries. Nothing the PM, or in actuality, the government, could have done that would have had any effect on this season’s fires. These people are stupid and are cashing in on their grief. Get your insurance in order, have your plan to save what’s irreplaceable and be prepared to leave. It’s been like that for decades. * me, humans are despicable creatures, that campaigner one of the worst.

 

[Vader]

I’m not referring to the issues with the grid. What I’m asking is if we’re near to world best at transitioning to renewable power per capita, how is it that we’re so poor overall when it comes to emission reduction?

We're poor overall because we still generate roughly 60% of our power from coal, which is one of the worst greenhouse gas sources. We're also one of the slowest at transitioning from petrol & diesel cars to electric - once again, the Govt has no plan to facilitate this transition. We also have one of the world's largest cattle herds, which results in high methane emissions. And then there are all of the LPG gas plants, which are now coming online.

Yes, we're generating increasing amounts of energy from renewable sources, but we still have a long way to go.

Our total greenhouse gas emissions have barely changed since the COALition took power in 2013. They decreased marginally in 2019, largely due to the effects of the drought & Qld floods, which reduced the cattle methane emissions. 2019 was the first year since the COALition took power that our total emissions have decreased.

 

[LiquidCrow]

Climate change denial is evil, says Mary Robinson

Climate change denial is evil, says Mary Robinson

Exclusive: chair of Elders group also says fossil fuel firms have lost their social licence

www.theguardian.com

The denial of climate change is not just ignorant, but “malign and evil”, according to Mary Robinson, because it denies the human rights of the most vulnerable people on the planet.

 

[1970crow]

We're poor overall because we still generate roughly 60% of our power from coal, which is one of the worst greenhouse gas sources. We're also one of the slowest at transitioning from petrol & diesel cars to electric - once again, the Govt has no plan to facilitate this transition. We also have one of the world's largest cattle herds, which results in high methane emissions. And then there are all of the LPG gas plants, which are now coming online.

Yes, we're generating increasing amounts of energy from renewable sources, but we still have a long way to go.

Our total greenhouse gas emissions have barely changed since the COALition took power in 2013. They decreased marginally in 2019, largely due to the effects of the drought & Qld floods, which reduced the cattle methane emissions. 2019 was the first year since the COALition took power that our total emissions have decreased.

Our cattle form part of the international food bowl, surely they’re exempt. Nuclear power a definite priority now that we have a largely national grid, that’ll stop coal dead in its tracks. Why should govt transition to electric, you can buy an electric car if you care. Have you?

 

[LiquidCrow]

ScoMo finally gets his handshake

 

[LiquidCrow]

I'm in qld atm and everyone is outraged that a Chinese owned company has won the contract.

Then you read the details and it's Lion dairy who they're referring to and they only got 3% of the contract! No mention of the French company.

Lion also produces XXXX, Hahn, West end, farmers union, pura etc. Everyone still buys it. It's ridiculous when you think about the uproar.

The owner of Maleny Dairy is Ross Hopper - remember reading something about them getting in bed with Pauline Hanson regarding not getting their milk halal-certified. If he's the same as the guy mentioned in the article below it's understandable why his company would get overlooked.

No Cookies | The Courier Mail

No Cookies

www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au

 

[kirky]

Look at them numbers and weep comrade Cap.

Just proves how dumb a large number of Australians are.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Is our issue with the "grid" partly due to our vast distances and relatively low population density compared to, for instance, European countries?

 

[kirky]

What area of their budget do you suggest they cut to finance it, it's easy to say their priorities are wrong but all Governments of whatever creed have to operate inside budgetary constraints?

How about the Federal Government reduce the fossil fuel subsidies of $29b per year for starters? It isn’t hard to do, you just have to have balls to do it. Would think SmoCo’s are the size of a pea!

 

[StonesThrow]

Is our issue with the "grid" partly due to our vast distances and relatively low population density compared to, for instance, European countries?

Definitely. Some of the most productive renewable areas are also a long way from the grid as well. Still, relatively, we have some of the best sites available for solar and wind.

The tyranny of distance has always plagued Australia, but we've still ended up being one of the richest countries in the world.

 

[1970crow]

Is our issue with the "grid" partly due to our vast distances and relatively low population density compared to, for instance, European countries?

Possibly, but I think it’s also old in places. There’s probably better tech that alleviates the distance/consumer issue, but that issue probably makes it an overly expensive upgrade. Surely we should know this though. There should be a few $million thrown at some engineers, accountants, constructors etc to get together to fully identify and cost what is required to upgrade the network to handle the ebbs and flows of 100% renewable energy. And do the same for swapping out current fossil powered for small nuclear while retaining existing or planned renewable input. Get the numbers out there so we know what’s required and what it will cost.

 

[Vader]

Our cattle form part of the international food bowl, surely they’re exempt.

Agriculture, primarily cattle, is responsible for roughly 12% of Australia's emissions. They are definitely not exempt, and nor should they be. What matters is the sheer volume of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere, regardless of their source. We have to account for, and ultimately eliminate (by one means or another) all of them.

Nuclear power a definite priority now that we have a largely national grid, that’ll stop coal dead in its tracks.

There are a whole host of reasons why Nuclear power is not seen as the answer. Firstly, it's expensive - both to build and operate; it's just not price competitive with renewables. Secondly, there is a distinct lack of nuclear engineers in Australia (for obvious reason). Thirdly, there's the political aspect - nobody wants to have a nuclear reactor built in their backyard.

Why should govt transition to electric, you can buy an electric car if you care. Have you?

The Government should be leading and coordinating Australia's transition to electric vehicles. Instead, they're busy ridiculing the ALP's policy (pre-election), and doing SFA to fix the problems themselves.

No, I don't drive an electric car. They weren't available when I bought my current car, and I still have concerns about their cost, range, recharge times, and lack of recharge infrastructure. That said, I expect that my next car will be either a hybrid or electric.

 

[1970crow]

How about the Federal Government reduce the fossil fuel subsidies of $29b per year for starters? It isn’t hard to do, you just have to have balls to do it. Would think SmoCo’s are the size of a pea!

One way or another, the population will wear that. Remove it and our electricity rates will adjust accordingly. You could probably argue that the result of those subsidies is that the taxpayer is supporting reduced power prices for the community at large. What’s the actual mechanism for these subsidies and who gets them?

 

[Vader]

Is our issue with the "grid" partly due to our vast distances and relatively low population density compared to, for instance, European countries?

That's part of the problem.

A lot of the renewable projects are in relatively remote areas, and the distribution network in those areas just wasn't designed to have large volumes of power input in those segments of the network.

There are also issues with synchronisation, maintaining a constant 240v 50Hz supply. This isn't a problem with a small number of large generators, but it's a huge problem when you have thousands of small generators (i.e. rooftop solar) pumping power into the grid. Maintaining synchronisation is one of the biggest benefits provided by the Tesla battery.

 

[1970crow]

Agriculture, primarily cattle, is responsible for roughly 12% of Australia's emissions. They are definitely not exempt, and nor should they be. What matters is the sheer volume of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere, regardless of their source. We have to account for, and ultimately eliminate (by one means or another) all of them.

There are a whole host of reasons why Nuclear power is not seen as the answer. Firstly, it's expensive - both to build and operate; it's just not price competitive with renewables. Secondly, there is a distinct lack of nuclear engineers in Australia (for obvious reason). Thirdly, there's the political aspect - nobody wants to have a nuclear reactor built in their backyard.

The Government should be leading and coordinating Australia's transition to electric vehicles. Instead, they're busy ridiculing the ALP's policy (pre-election), and doing SFA to fix the problems themselves.

No, I don't drive an electric car. They weren't available when I bought my current car, and I still have concerns about their cost, range, recharge times, and lack of recharge infrastructure. That said, I expect that my next car will be either a hybrid or electric.

Don’t know how to do that form of quoting on iPad.

1. Surely you’re not suggesting the globe go without meat products, or is it just cattle? Go and speak to India about cattle, at least we use ours to feed people.

2. But it’s all but emission free, so we need to look into and know the costs involved. The politics don’t matter, they can go where existing coal burners are. Compulsory acquisition of land where required. Quick google on the economics fills the results with groups who have skin the generation game or are anti-nuclear on environmental grounds to start with. Needs to independently researched. Screw the NIMBYs, it’s the planet we’re talking about.

3. What was Labor’s policy, I can’t recall? I recall the aspiration, but not how they’d implement it. I presume it would be subsidies or tariffs on non electric/hybrid. Not sure what else the Feds can do. I don’t mind the idea of interest free and long term loans for businesses to install charging stations, so the infrastructure can get up and running, assisting people to make the decision to go that way.

It almost always comes down to money and convenience. Not many are actually prepared to sacrifice either or both.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Basically, eucalypts can survive an intense fire when few other species can; and since they can survive fire they can afford to encourage fire because it will eliminate competition from other species.

In fact, natural selection has seemingly led to eucalypts actively cultivating fire because they now have very waxy, oily flammable leaves, which they are constantly shedding to accumulate beds of fire-fuelling litter at their base, and peeling bark that flies through the air as lit tapers to start new fires many kilometres ahead. The Blue Mountains west of Sydney are so-named because the oil in the eucalypts along the mountain range is constantly evaporating and creating a blue haze.

Eucalypts are essentially fire-fuelling incinerators that generate so much heat when they catch fire that when one burns its radiant heat evaporates the oils in the neighbouring eucalypts creating a flammable gas which ignites as a fireball, and so the crowns of the trees explode with fire one after the other, triggering a ‘crown fire’—a wave of exploding eucalypt canopies that race through the Australian bush like a tornado.

No wonder they are referred to as ‘gasoline trees’.

That provider of regular fire would seem to be the arrival of Aborigines some 40-60,000 years ago. As Viv Forbes wrote in his recent article in the Australian: ‘Fires lit by Aboriginal men and women created the landscape of Australia. They used fire to create and fertilise fresh new grass for the grazing animals they hunted… Their fires created and maintained grasslands and open forest… Aboriginal fire ‘management’ worked brilliantly. Because of the high frequency of small fires, fire intensity was low and fires could be lit safely even in summer’ (‘Revive ancient skills to better manage bushfires’, 31 Dec., 2019)

 

[Vader]

1. Surely you’re not suggesting the globe go without meat products, or is it just cattle? Go and speak to India about cattle, at least we use ours to feed people.

No. I believe that vegans are complete and utter idiots. However, we need to take agricultural emissions into account.

There is currently research going on into a seaweed. Apparently including this seaweed in cattle feed significantly decreases the amount of methane in their farts. Obviously you can't replace a cow with a windmill, but you can counter-balance it's emissions by planting a tree (or several trees).

Remember, what matters is the total emissions going into the atmosphere. Cow farts add to the total, trees capture carbon and reduce the total. It's the final balance that matters.

2. But it’s all but emission free, so we need to look into and know the costs involved. The politics don’t matter, they can go where existing coal burners are. Compulsory acquisition of land where required. Quick google on the economics fills the results with groups who have skin the generation game or are anti-nuclear on environmental grounds to start with. Needs to independently researched. Screw the NIMBYs, it’s the planet we’re talking about.

I appreciate that it's emission free, but so are hydro-electric plants, windmills, and solar farms - none of which require nuclear engineers, nor do they attract the ire of NIMBYs.

I'm ambivalent towards nuclear power. I appreciate what it can offer, but I'm also cogniscent of the difficulties it presents.

3. What was Labor’s policy, I can’t recall? I recall the aspiration, but not how they’d implement it. I presume it would be subsidies or tariffs on non electric/hybrid. Not sure what else the Feds can do. I don’t mind the idea of interest free and long term loans for businesses to install charging stations, so the infrastructure can get up and running, assisting people to make the decision to go that way.

It almost always comes down to money and convenience. Not many are actually prepared to sacrifice either or both.

I'm not 100% sure what the ALP's policy was either. They had announced a target of 50% of new car sales being electric vehicles by 2030, which was entirely reasonable. The LNP's arguments against it were beyond the realms of stupidity.

My understanding was that they would work towards this by helping to remove some of the obstacles blocking their uptake in Australia - poor recharging infrastructure and high initial cost of ownership. This probably would have entailed things like subsidies to reduce the cost of purchase, and working with the state governments to offer lower registration fees for electric vehicles.

The aim, as you say, would have been to improve both the money & convenience sides of the equation.

 

[Mike Smyth]

What happens when you don't agree with climate change.

 

[Mutineer]

Just proves how dumb a large number of Australians are.

And you're ever so smart esteemed one.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

I’m not referring to the issues with the grid. What I’m asking is if we’re near to world best at transitioning to renewable power per capita, how is it that we’re so poor overall when it comes to emission reduction?

Because we have no real plan...

 

[Mutineer]

Dorothea Mackellar - My Country. [1908]


The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

BOM says more rain on way for Sydney as country creek flows for first time in five years

Water has flowed through a creek in drought-ravaged northern New South Wales for the first time in five years with more heavy rain and thunderstorms expected to hit the state over the weekend. Sydney can expect between 20 and 50 millimetres of rain today and showers on Sunday after the city...

www.weatherzone.com.au

 

[Mutineer]

Interesting article by a biologist..

Australia's bushfires blamed on gum trees by a prominent biologist

Despite being a source of food for iconic native animals, biologist Jeremy Griffith attributed Australia's current bushfire crisis to the widespread tree on Saturday.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Our cattle form part of the international food bowl, surely they’re exempt. Nuclear power a definite priority now that we have a largely national grid, that’ll stop coal dead in its tracks. Why should govt transition to electric, you can buy an electric car if you care. Have you?

Have a look at the electric car options here & compare to say Europe... Then consider why we have very limited choices.

 

[1970crow]

Have a look at the electric car options here & compare to say Europe... Then consider why we have very limited choices.

Isn’t that driven by supply and demand?