Cheap Coal for Sure (CCS)

The New South Wales state government is about to privatise NSW’s electricity generation and the retail electricity market. Former Executive Director of The Australia Institute Clive Hamilton, investigated the problems of future emissions trading schemes for investors in NSW’s coal fired generators [1]. I read his report as WA’s state government is experiencing problems two years after privatising our electricity generation. To sweeten the deal for the WA public, electricity prices for small business and households were capped until 2009. I doubt the NSW government will take any notice of what’s happening in WA, but it might help them if they did.

Catching the Bus

I used to drive everywhere, but I’ve been trying to use public transport more and I’m catching the bus to Curtin University every day now. If I don’t get up early enough, the bus from near my house only comes by every hour, so I drive instead. Last year I was often sleeping in and driving more than bussing it. This year I’ve been getting up on time. I have to catch a bus, a train and another bus and it takes an hour compared to half an hour driving my car in peak hour traffic. Not having to worry about traffic is much more relaxing and I read to pass the time.

Saying Sorry

The word ‘sorry’ holds special meaning in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. In many Aboriginal communities, sorry is an adapted English word used to describe the rituals surrounding death (Sorry Business). Sorry, in these contexts, is also often used to express empathy or sympathy rather than responsibility. [1]

The newly elected government of Australia will apologise to the Stolen Generation on 12 February 2008, during the first sitting of Parliament for the year. The Stolen Generation are

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who were forcibly removed from their families and communities by government, welfare or church authorities as children and placed into institutional care or with non-Indigenous foster families. [1]

These children grew up not knowing their families and the land they were born to. In some cases they have not been able to find where they came from and who they are. Kinship connections and ties to the land are very important to Aboriginal people [2] and the consequences of this disconnection were, and still are, devastating for the children, their parents and Indigenous communities [1].

Kyoto ratified

Australia’s newly elected government has ratified the Kyoto Protocol [1], as the next stage is discussed in Bali, where the United Nations Climate Change Conference opened yesterday. [2]

Australia will now enjoy full participation in negotiations for a post-Kyoto treaty to fight global warming. [3]

ACF has previously said ratification will:

1. strengthen Australia’s ability to urge China and the US to commit to reducing greenhouse pollution.
2. give Australian businesses access to the Kyoto Protocol’s emissions trading mechanisms, worth an estimated $3.8 billion per year for Australia.
3. give Australia voting rights at the crucial meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol at Bali in December. [4]

Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said,

the federal government would do everything in its power to help Australia meet its Kyoto obligations, including setting a target to reduce emissions by 60 per cent on 2000 levels by 2050. It also would establish a national emissions trading scheme by 2010 and set a 20 per cent target for renewable energy by 2020. [5]

Government tall tales

Australia is holding a federal election on 24 November 2007. In the past I haven’t voted, but I live in the marginal seat of Stirling and my uncle told me that if I didn’t vote I would be solely responsible for the Howard government staying in power. Perhaps I’ll have to change my anarchistic ways. To help me decide, Verdurous has collected some green score-cards.

But in the meantime, when I signed up to Who on Earth Cares a template for a letter to my local MP was generated. I sent this to my MP, Michael Keenan. I’ve been receiving numerous generic letters from candidates courting my vote and the week after I sent my letter, I received such a missive from Keenan. I wasn’t impressed that he sent me a generic letter telling me why he was so great, with not one mention of climate change. This week I received a letter which specifically addressed my questions. The previous letter had been sent to everyone in my electorate.

It was a good thing I was sitting down when I read the letter, because after reading the second sentence,

The Coalition Government has been acting for over a decade on climate change

I almost fainted from the shock of such a blatant lie. I must live in a parallel universe to that inhabited by the aforementioned Coalition Government.

Ockham's Razor and Slime

A while ago I came across the transcript of Robyn Williams’ 2005 interview with Dr Geoffrey Chia. Robyn Williams presents a science program Ockham’s Razor on ABC’s Radio National in Australia. When I was a kid my dad listened to this and I got to know the term Ockham’s Razor. Throughout my childhood I never knew what it meant (I doubt there’s many children that do, perhaps Einstein when he was a little one). It was only a couple of years ago that I came to a vague understanding of what it meant, thanks to a friend who I’d always thought was pretty brainless – good thing I kept that opinion to myself. It was when I decided to call this blog Ockham’s Razor that I found out its exact meaning. It must have been the radio show that led to my liking of the words Ockham’s Razor. And I still don’t know why it’s a razor and not Ockham’s Idea/Theory/etc.

Enough of reminiscing. Dr Geoffrey Chia talked about renewable fuels that are greenhouse gas neutral. The first part of the interview is Science versus Pseudoscience, Truth versus Lies and the second part is There’s no fuel like an old fuel.

Another Political Event Couldn’t…

…achieve anything useful.

Over the weekend of 8-9 September I was in Sydney for my cousin’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, but I won’t bore you with that. That weekend also happened to be when the 2007 APEC meeting was held in Sydney and the powers that be of Sydney were in lock down mode. The government and police were just a little bit paranoid about their visiting celebrities and there was just a smidgeon of security overkill.

Rock Enrol

Having to decide between Tweedledum and Tweedledee – that’s not a choice – that’s a threat…We can’t keep jumping from election to election, voting for one moron because we’re terrified that there’s something worse
– The Edible Ballot Society

In Australia, it’s compulsory to vote. You get fined if you don’t. My brother told me that if you’re fined, you can provide pretty much any excuse and the fine will be waived. He told me this after I paid a fine, so I’m not sure how true that is.

I don’t believe voting should be compulsory and since I stupidly enrolled to vote when I was 17 and hadn’t formed my views on the world, I’ve refused to take part in a system where the participants change from year to year, but the ideology never does. When an election was held I would go along to get my name crossed off, then put the empty ballot papers in the box – I was exercising my right not to vote. In doing this I discovered it’s not compulsory to vote. It’s compulsory to be on the electoral roll and on the day of an election, get your name crossed off.

Why aren’t there Big Solar Projects in Australia?

Businesses developing renewable and energy efficient technologies search in vain for a sympathetic ear in Canberra. (p.66)

Matt from The Coffee House asked,

Are there not any big solar building projects going on in Oz?

My original answer to Matt was,

The University of NSW and Australian National University are internationally recognised in solar technology development, but research ideas are often commercialised overseas because the venture capital can’t be found in Australia. eg. UNSW’s recent $1.7m licensing agreement with Taiwanese solar cell manufacturer E-Ton Solar Tech Co. Ltd.

I also thought Australia’s government is not very helpful because our Mandatory Renewable Energy Target is set at 9,500GWh by 2010. This target will only increase Australia’s renewable energy market by about 1-2 percent. I didn’t think, Why is this so?

Coal and its Consequences

Clive Hamilton, the executive director of The Australia Institute, and George Monbiot, journalist and environmentalist, have been writing back and forth about the ideas presented in Monbiot’s book Heat. This started with Hamilton’s review of Heat in the New Left Review.

Hamilton has most recently written,

I was taken aback at Monbiot’s endorsement of carbon capture and storage because, in my part of the world, CCS has been advocated not as a means of reducing carbon emissions but as a means of not reducing carbon emissions. In other words, CCS is the excuse du jour for delaying action; having given up attempting to deny the science, the coal lobby and its political supporters have directed attention and funding to CCS. Even its advocates concede that CCS could not make a significant difference to global emissions for 15 or 20 years, yet political supporters of CCS have used it as a reason to withdraw support for the existing technologies that can cut emissions sharply now. A time may come when we must embrace CCS as part of an emergency response, but as long as it is used to avoid rapid adoption of energy efficiency, renewables and natural gas we should avoid giving uncritical endorsement to the coal industry’s get-out-of-jail-free card.