Interesting stuff

Blowin's picture
Blowin started the topic in Friday, 21 Jun 2019 at 8:01am

Have it cunts

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GuySmiley Tuesday, 31 Dec 2019 at 11:31am

From Batemans Bay to Eden now shut off except for one minor road via Bombala but now is not the time to talk about the fires or climate says Scotty from Hawaiian Marketing.

Of course to talk about it would be perilously close to admitting there is a problem, something the government can’t do.

EDIT: princes highway closed b/w NSW-VIC boarder and Bairnsdale with towns like Mallacotta under direct threat.

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philosurphizing... Tuesday, 31 Dec 2019 at 11:23am

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-31/nsw-south-coast-fires-rfs-emergen...
Scroll down and there is a view of the smoke from the beach.....very eerie.

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Distracted Tuesday, 31 Dec 2019 at 12:33pm

Footage of people sheltering on the beach at Mallacoota and Bermagui is frightening . Going to be a terrible day.

Craig's picture
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Craig Tuesday, 31 Dec 2019 at 1:01pm

Harrowing images and video, sad day.

simba's picture
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simba Tuesday, 31 Dec 2019 at 1:25pm

fuk gotta feel for em and the animals that will perish .......yes sad days alright.

I focus's picture
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I focus Tuesday, 31 Dec 2019 at 6:17pm

Yeah heart goes out to all involved, nightmare scenarios, seems to be no end.

Blowin's picture
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Blowin Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 1:14am

Apparently last year a total of 250,000 hectares got burned in Australia. This year there has been over 3.5 million hectares burnt .

This is the only view of the Great Dividing Range flying into Sydney just before Christmas

Hold strong those who are getting flogged. Thinking of the Sussex crew who literally had it at their homes this arvo when the water tank ran dry and only one tanker on site . Give it heaps T and K.

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simba Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 6:39am

What this country needs right now is a REAL leader to emerge because at the moment i cant see one............Scott Morrison where are you ?.......anyone ? crickets.... Fuk!!

Craig's picture
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Craig Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 9:00am

Absolutely frightening..

simba's picture
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simba Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 9:10am

Geez gotta wonder why you would bother risking your life in those conditions...also they need a better way to do the fire blanket thingo......hats off to them though...how quick does the fire move....scary stuff.

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freeride76 Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 9:13am

fuk that shitt. feel really bad for that bloke who died with a pregnant wife.

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zenagain Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 9:14am

fark man, that is frightening.

all the best to you guys down there, stay safe and don't forget those less fortunate than you.

all the best for 2020 and beyond Craig, don't lose that spirit of adventure you have.

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goofyfoot Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 10:19am

Fucken hell Craig how terrifying. They seem pretty calm about it too. Jesus Christ

truebluebasher's picture
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truebluebasher Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 6:16pm

Crew salute demon seed on highway to hell & back...not for us mere mortals!
Just the start of hellfire pass...Flashpoints +Turnaround to face worse again.
Trapped in burnt out trucks & still crews made it out alive but none can believe how!

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vascectomy-blot... Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 5:54pm

course now's not the time to talk about climate change while the poor bastards fighting the fires are fucken dying and living through a literal hell on earth. And I'm sure all you sharp minds well versed in Guru Jo, Sri Jennifer and Pastor Bolt will know all the reasons why this is greenie motivated pseudoscience written to get the heat off the Greens and all their dastardly power that's stopping back burning (despite their lack of power and their decades long, fully documented policies supporting and advocating for back burning).

But for those less informed than blowin and undodreaming, here's a nicely written explanation as to why increases in these kinds of extreme fire conditions have been a part of the climate change predictions for years... Highlighting all the climate events we've got going on (SAM, IOD and the tropospheric warming event) and why they're worse for fire seasons and why that is all expected to increase with climate change.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/australias-angry-summe...

Read that fucken shit and learn why scientists are saying, this is what we've been trying to warn you about, and get your head out of your arses believing the bullshit from the IPA and Murdoch. The amount of times I've read this stuff totally misreported in their publications is mind boggling. They just make shit up and they just straight out lie to their readers.

And if you don't like my tone you can get fucked because this shit makes me angry and if now's not the time to be angry then it never will be.

And if you want to argue about what to do about it and you jump to, but China, India and USA should do something first, then you can get fucked too cos I'm not interested in hearing That shit anymore . The Chinese, the Indians and even the seppoes, they're all saying exactly the same thing. No ones doing fucken anything because everyone thinks someone else should do the work first.

And look where that's getting us you fuck heads.

Read the blog post and learn something.

indo-dreaming's picture
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indo-dreaming Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 8:00pm

vascectomy-blot. instead of abusive style post.

How about you suggest what should be done and how?..but it has to be realistic and not send us into a full blown recession.

Love to hear the solution?...Maybe make it a five point plan. (maybe if i can be bothered i will try to do the same myself)

Break it down into the main areas of emissions, Energy, industry, transport, agriculture

Id also like to know how much of that 1.3% we can reduce and then if we did how much difference it would actually make?.

Anyway as it is pretty much every country around the world is doing something, the real problem is population growth and the growing demand from developing countries especially the fast growing middle class that have a strong appetite for energy, goods, meat etc.

Even in Australia our very high immigration rate 1.7% of population (USA and UK 0.6%) is a factor in pulling against any reductions in emissions, because it obviously creates more demand in every area of emissions.

In regard to what we are doing, our main area of emissions are energy and Australia per capita has the highest uptake of solar in the world already 2.4 million of about 9 million households, per capita Australia's uptake rate of renewables in the last few years has been two to three times faster than any other country.

The reality is though solar and wind are very unreliable and will only ever be part of the solution, but not the whole solution, as ive banged on a few times of late Howard proposed the other half of the solution back in 2006 in Nuclear but it didn't happen because knobs like you oppose it, is now we are stuck with coal for base load, with the only real alternative being a mix of batteries for grid stabilisation and gas for base load energy.

IMHO sooner or latter all you people into this shit thinking the world is going to end or something are going to have to start looking at yourself and your carbon footprint instead of expecting magical solutions from governments, personally im sick of my Green voting friends whinging on social media about government inaction in between their post of overseas surf trips or interstate surf trips, even worse when coupled with charter boat holidays, its almost as bad as people like Bono and Richard branson being all green and critical of others and then jetting around in the private jets. https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-wake-up-to-the-devastating-impac...

BTW. Saw this today never heard his view on the issue, was kind of interesting

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AndyM Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 8:12pm

Sounds like you're singing from the LNP songsheet Indo.

“When the Matt Canavans and the Angus Taylors (Coalition ministers) say we need energy 24/7, what they are really saying is we need nuclear and coal,” international energy analyst Tim Buckley tells michaelwest.com.au.

“But that baseload argument is totally flawed and outdated, we don’t need nuclear or coal anymore because we have really cheap solar.”

Buckley is the Australia and South Asia director of energy finance studies at global think-tank the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. He is also a former investment fund manager and before that spent 16 years at Citigroup where he was the national head of equities research — so he is no soft-headed wishful thinker.

Buckley says the central flaw in the Coalition’s argument is that it fails to comprehend how “deeply destructive” solar now is to the entire fossil fuel model. Once your infrastructure is up and running, it costs next to nothing to pump out more electricity — sunlight’s free.

“Cheap solar is parasitic, it destroys the competition because it has zero marginal cost,” Buckley says.

The long-standing argument that grid reliability depends on coal and gas, because of the intermittent nature of solar and wind, is a now a nonsense, Buckley says.

Pumped-hydroelectricity, and to a lesser extent battery and other technologies, provide the storage and on-demand energy needed for grid reliability. Pumped-hydro involves pumping water uphill and holding it there until it’s required.

When energy is needed by the grid, some of the water is released, turning turbines and creating electricity. The water is pumped up the hill at times of low energy demand, using cheap electricity such as solar.

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indo-dreaming Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 8:43pm

Pumped hydro is 100% proven tech, but hello where are we going to get all this water from? and you do understand you need the right geographic locations so always going to be limited.

And then you need to get it passed and like normal no one wants dams or anything in their backyard.

It's another part of the puzzle but just another small one, BTW it also has an energy loss factor.

Battery tech will obviously improve in time, but its still pretty limited hundreds of millions has already been spent in SA on batteries and they can still only get 8 minutes now of back up electricity, that said the batteries are more for grid stability which is also a big problem with solar and wind.

Good read on batteries here:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611683/the-25-trillion-reason-we-cant...

BTW. This is interesting list of proposed projects quite a few pumped hydro in there and lots of wind and solar and biomass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proposed_power_stations_in_Australia

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AndyM Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 8:43pm

Did you have a read of the article? Did you have a look at the big map with the proposals?


They may be only proposals but the point is, the LNP business model is a dinosaur, it's going, gone.

In any case, nuclear is at the very bottom of people's lists.

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Fliplid Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 8:50pm

Bill Gates has been looking at this problem for a number of years and has put money into a company aimed at developing nuclear power using depleted uranium from existing power plants. These plants are of a different design to the plants in use.

A small scale demo plant was to be constructed in China by 2022. Then Trump brought in trade tariffs which made the whole deal uneconomical. So after all the development and expense that has already gone into the project, it has been mothballed for the time being.

The link is for a speech called 'Innovating to zero' Bill Gates gave in 2010 about this idea.

&feature=emb_logo

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AndyM Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 8:58pm

Indo, on the Wiki link, one of the pumped hydro proposals is near Port Pirie and one is near Port Augusta.

So when you say "hello where are we going to get all this water from? and you do understand you need the right geographic locations so always going to be limited," you might be off track.

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indo-dreaming Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 9:54pm

Either way, as you can see it is happening the picture that some paint of us doing nothing is just not true.

@Fliplid
I have watched that before but im watching it again now, i think i came across it linked from Dick Smith he has a lot of interesting things to say about population and effects on global warming, water and cost of renewables and Nuclear

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I focus Wednesday, 1 Jan 2020 at 11:40pm

ID if you dont like a dam in your back yard trying selling the idea people should have a nuclear power station in their back yard..........never going to happen.

Thats before you get to enrichment, Australia has no facility or tech then you have to find some ones back yard to do it in.......2nd never going to happen

Its massively expensive unless you build a bomb or two then it become viable.......3rd never going to happen.......unless China becomes a real military threat.

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truebluebasher Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 3:30am

Somalian Pirates raided 100's of Ships only to bury Nuke cargo on own Coast.
Playing the bad guys to cover up for nice Super Power Euro Nuke Mobsters.
Then big Tsunami washed EU's toxic waste 50km in land & killed everybody. Oops!

Now 400 plants return to dumping Nuke waste back in the Ocean as before killings.
No Nuke Mobsters ever gave a fucking shit about people or oceans...

Fukushima toxic waves rebounded off Antarctica back to Yellow Cake Island (Us!)
Now Japan hold world to ransom...we'll just kill you all slowly...we promise!

Countries that are getting rid of Nuclear because they know it's pure evil...
Japan, Germany, Switzerland,Belgium,Spain,California in phase out.
Joining Nuke free Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Austria,Latvia,Malta, Oz, NZ,

Only corrupt Dictatorships want Nuclear...
Why! Because these dictatorships can also just dump their toxic filth in the ocean...
Just like Qld Govt & SEQ Airports do with PFAS every recent year after year
Oz century old Nuke drums toured OZ 50x over...be Heritage Listed or some shit?

Here's yer new nuke thingy! Just dump it over there mate...we'll sort it on Monday!

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simba Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 7:42am

Geez been watching the latest news reports on the fires down south and the glaring thing that stands out is how un prepared the authorties were for this event and how theres NO leadership ......they still havent got water or any food in some places...? what the fuk........Disasters make or break a government depending on how they respond and this morrison gov has failed big time.......

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GuySmiley Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 8:18am

When I installed solar panels (approx: 8 years ago) we also went 100% low power lights and appliances. Our house uses on average over the year less than 4 KwH of power per day. Our panels generate on average generate well over double that.

Anyway my point, this debate it's always about power generation. What about government programs to encourage less power usage beyond the tokenism of LED globes. What about government standards mandating minimum power efficiency standards for household appliances and especially air conditioners. We hear a lot about why the distribution network has been "gold plated" to cope with hot days and air conditioners. Again, of course this is wishful thinking because that would mean interfering in the holy "market" and we would be restricting people's choice etc ... you know more neo-liberal claptrap.

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indo-dreaming Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 8:43am

@ I focus

Sad but true, cost are also related to those aspects and other aspects, Sth Korea has actually shown though that cost can be reduced over time.
https://www.vox.com/2016/2/29/11132930/nuclear-power-costs-us-france-korea

Stand alone solar and wind are actually also super super expensive when you factor in storage, they are only cheap when coupled with other energy sources like gas, coal, hydro.

Actually it is kind of ironic because the focus on solar and wind is and will also ensure coal and gas are used for much longer than needed.

If Australia or the world re-looked at Nuclear as part of the solution to carbon free energy improving tech further to gen 4 or 5 nuclear and brought down construction cost, it would actually be devastating to the coal and gas industry.

@TBB

https://www.statista.com/statistics/513671/number-of-under-construction-...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268154/number-of-planned-nuclear-rea...

Anyway one thing we can all agree on is its not going to happen in Australia, unless they make some break through Fusion, which seems at this stage to be a pipe dream.

indo-dreaming's picture
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indo-dreaming Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 8:54am

@Guy

Um what do you think energy star ratings that must be met on new houses are for?

Isn't the Energy rating program (those sticker things) that help you decide in part government run?

If you want to live in a communist society and have less choice and things forced on you, there is still a few countries you could move too.

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stunet Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 9:29am

"If you want to live in a communist society and have less choice and things forced on you, there is still a few countries you could move too."

OK, Barnaby...

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GuySmiley Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 11:03am

Indo, If you had read my comment carefully you would have understood already I have a very good understanding of the energy rating (stars) system. My point is the government could mandate that below a certain energy efficiency rating level import approvals would not be granted to force consumer behaviour into using less not more power. Consumers are now paying higher power bills because of the required "gold plating" for those hot days when air conditioners are on ... at the end of the day do we want to be a clever country or not.

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vascectomy-blot... Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 11:59am

blah blah blah bullshit. it doesnt matter what a bunch of wankers on the internet think the solution is. we aren't making policy and we dont have the brains or capacity to do it. What we do have is the capacity to vote for a government that will actually take meaningful action beyond the piddly little bits we can do. I turned off the lights when i left the room last night I'm such a climate change warrior!

Tories should stop pretending they give a shit about climate change when they keep voting for the LNP who very clearly do not.

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philosurphizing... Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 12:18pm

Reply to what Simba was sayin.
You would think the army would have several big trucks with large diesel generators on the back so that they could have rocked up to all the petrol stations without power and got everyone moving out of the area.
Seems extraordinary that this did not happen yesterday.

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I focus Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 12:34pm

ID the tech and engineering capability actually exists right now to go pretty close to being total renewable power.
Much is said about the costs but the capital costs are not that much different to nuclear if you take in the complete nuclear fuel cycle the big difference is of course is re-newables get cheaper with time nuclear doesn't.
The other factor is the tech for re-newables is in its infancy so efficiencies will continues to rise.

What is missing is policy direction both for climate change and energy they are both linked hence the mess the energy sector is in particularly on the east coast and why you keep getting false fossil fuel backed arguments about base load etc.

The current Morrision government will be another wasted term in this area

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simba Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 12:35pm

Philo..exactly...and to hear that moron proudlittle dick say he didnt want to go down there cause it was too dangerous and he might get in the way.....wtf......thats his f job....sitting back in brisvegarse on his fat arse...wow such leadership .........army should have been dropping supplies in yesterday.......

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Blowin Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 12:51pm

The biggest problem facing renewables is that there aren’t as many opportunities for the rent seekers to milk the consumer cattle.

Exactly who benefits from efficient solar roof panels installed directly onto the home except for the homeowner , the environment and the habitability of the planet ......no one !

Now gas and coal.....there’s a couple of industries to revere !

Non renewable so we can price in scarcity and demand ( real or imagined! ) , logistically nightmarish so that there’s ample opportunities to gouge and implicate middleman expenses and a captured market so that the retail sheep can’t exist without the benevolent profiteering of the relative industries.

Tailor made for the Rum Corps 2.0 of the Economic Zone Formerly Known As Australia ( EZFKAA ) !

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GuySmiley Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 1:34pm

agree Blowin, solar/renewables could be the biggest distruption but that doesn't allow the rent seekers a profit.

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truebluebasher Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 1:53pm

[Factcheck] 2017 Nuclear energy investment near halved (Dropping 45%)
2016 power increases...Nuclear 9GW / Wind 55GW / Solar 75GW

indo, not sure which statista graphs show increase in Nukes (Quite the opposite!)
Aside from 3 countries only 30 new plants are commissioned for next 10 years.
Hardly an advert for Nuke industry rather spelling out the the death of it!

As for under construction...again not a good graph for Nuclear ...see here!
Construction delays at 37 of 53...(8 for over a decade) + (3 for over 30 years).
By default 37 or more will be represented on Graph next year and again so forth.

Euro Nukes
2017 #1 Euro Nuke Comp Areva owed $12.3b > Govt bailout them out...
France #1 Nuclear Plant is 7 years behind schedule.(Now 3x over budget = $18b)
2017: France Govt has vowed to cut Nuclear by 20% striving for 50% renewables.

UK ...first Nuke plant in 20 years is a year behind + $3b over budget.
Finland... Nuclear plant is 10 years behind.

China #1 Nukes (Highest on statista chart)
China planned for 58GW Nuke capacity 2020 but failed to get 30GW.
China has not launched a commercial Nuke reactor since 2016
2017 China added a whopping 53GW of Solar Power now #1 in the world!

Japan
Fukushima is calculated to hit $630b
2018 #1 Japan 'Toshiba' sold off to pay off multi $billion debts on US plants.

India
Cutting Nuke capacity from 63,000 MW target to 22,480 by 2031 (by two/thirds)

Russia is left to pick up more contracts & propose more plants.
Less said is that, Russian Uranium Mines peaked in 2015...(Downward Trend)
tbb is no expert but it seems Russia are buying time & riding some luck, no more!

"Nuclear Power has been eclipsed by the Sun and the wind!"
Free fuel renewables are replacing Nukes as preferred worldwide power

28 May 2019 International Energy Agency... "Steep decline in Nuclear Power"
2025: Advanced countries rid 25 % of Nuclear capacity..
2040: Advanced countries rid 66% of Nuclear capacity.

Further read of statista claims most Nuclear Plants are frightfully over 30 years old.
Frightful for the fact that these older plants have a 30 year lifespan.(Wiki)
Even more frightful that several retire early & many more are at risk!
So not 30 years, more like 20-25 years as best case scenario.

By Nuclear physicists own declaration..."Over Half" are sitting time bombs! (True!)
Nuke's own science: Over 50% of Nuclear Plants must be decommissioned (Now!)

Unproven upgrades don't exactly promote Nuclear as safe. (Give it a slap!)
Mostly as wages skyrocket as Plants age...Draw the short straw + lotto (You first!)
Considering most Advanced Nuke nations ban used cars after 5 years! Go figure!
Truly the cost keeps rising as Plant ages...none want to enter a death Trap!

Pending Nuclear apocalypse lays squarely at the feet of evil mad scientists.
Scientific fact is the reason that world is turning it's back on Doomsday Devices.
They can't safely manage there own industry & world is now at more risk than ever.
Ageing Nuclear Plants are a growing threat to our existence...their scientific fact!

Howard convenes Lib's Dinosaur Convention to hop onto snazzy 1950's Nuke Fad.
3 x cost blowouts + 30 year delays add infinite compounding tiers of GST.
No box of Asian Parts now entombed by Cradle to Grave Oz build servicing Taxes.

Consider all best scientists walked out several years back...
World's #1 Dumb-arses Oz Libs ...proud owners to be of world's biggest Lemon.
"Sorry! All outta those rods mate...try Mr Wongs Antarctic Nukes.

https://www.worldfinance.com/markets/nuclear-power-continues-its-decline...

PS: News parades the worst Nuke Disasters seldom declare all.
A base count of 18 countries harbour Nuclear 'incidents' some several times over.

Countless serious 'Oz Nuclear accidents' don't even rate..
Recall Clive Palmer Nuke campaign (Claimed 50Years No OZ Nuke safety issues)

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6105391/palmer-nuked-by-fake-luca...

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/whistle-blower-exposes-lucas-height...

https://www.theage.com.au/national/more-accidents-at-lucas-heights-20060...

https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/fourth-accident-at-lucas-...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-01/three-treated-after-safety-breach...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-24/lucas-heights-nuclear-facility-wo...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/12/australia-faces-c...

There you go, just more fucking bullshit from pea brained conservative Dinosaurs!

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Blowin Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 1:54pm

And crew wonder why the government isn’t stampeding to get the nation out of the clutches of the energy companies. It’s as much about the government take as running protection for their business donors.

Whilst the energy companies themselves pay no tax , their many thousands of employees pay shitloads of non-deductible Income tax and so do all the smaller companies which service the periphery of the industry.

Then you’ve got the excise taxes , royalties and GST components of every single transaction in the long chain between source and supply.

This all constitutes a large percentage of government income. How are they going to milk a solar panel on someone’s roof pumping out free power ? Let alone make up for the shortfall of billions of energy derived dollars ?

That would take initiative and thought....not something our politicians are renowned for unless they’re lining their own pockets with the result.

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stunet Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 2:07pm

Reckon it'd be safe to say following SmoKo's presser that he's planning precisely zero changes to Australia's carbon economy.

Been interesting watching all this unfold: the smoke haze that just wont disappear, charred leaves falling from the sky, the way a siren puts you on edge, how the grey areas on the RFS site increase with each visit, and then there are background things such as the 1999 cabinet papers being released where the Howard Govt openly acknowledge climate change while toasting their great deal at Kyoto.

Somehow we went from that to the "greatest moral challenge of our time" that suddenly wasn't, and onwards to Tony "climate change is crap" Abbott who strapped a bomb to the Finkel Report simply because it mentioned renewables and would've put a price on carbon.

We went from a consensus - or very close to one - to all manner of hand-wringing and prevarications posing as pragmatism, and they're getting bolder all the time, like Angus Taylor's "emissions deficit".

SmoKo - the guy who proudly took a lump of coal into parliament - just said he acknowledges climate change is a factor, but he also said we would be staying the course, and something between those two points isn't adding up.

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indo-dreaming Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 2:30pm

@Guy
Okay I guess they could, but you would expect the star system is driving people to buy more efficient systems anyway, if the prices are comparable you would expect people would buy the highest star rating possible, i know for myself i always do.

The bigger problem id expect is the trend in the last 20 years or so to bigger houses but smaller families.

@vascectomy-blo

Okay so you are just another whinger with no solutions, great.

Haven't seen you post here before, but I'm sure you will fit right in.

@truebluebasher

I dont think anyone would argue Nuclear is increasing, the links were just to show that not all countries fit into you crazy generalisation.

You know when it's time to really start worrying about climate change?...when the Greens start pushing for nuclear.

@I focus

I use to think the same, lots of people do, its just not true, unless we get huge advances in storage tech it's not going to happen, we are going to have coal as base load for a long time unless we swap to gas, which is more expensive.

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indo-dreaming Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 2:26pm

@Stunet

So how would you drastically reduce carbon emissions without screwing up the economy?

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Blowin Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 2:27pm

So how do we turn this ship around ?

1/ Designate and build a central hub for tech creation in the same vein as a Silicon Valley . Rent free and tax free incentives for any company which wishes to participate on the provision that a percentage ownership their tech is always retained by the nation.

2/ Renationalisation of the lotteries with all profits directed into grants / funding / subsidies for the new renewable tech hub.

3/ Register of nationally significant industries and materials to reward and advance companies which help position Australia at the forefront of global renewable tech and manufacture such as silica sands , rare earths etc

4/ Poach global talent. Tax free incentives for scientists , researchers and entrepreneurs willing to become involved. Again....percentage ownership of any IP retained by Australia.

What else....?

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GuySmiley Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 2:28pm

Maybe Indo, but the existence of Aldi and huge number $2 shops tells me people shop mostly on price, I still think its mostly woke inner city greenies like me (haha) that buy the most energy/water efficient appliances available at a considerable price premium to the average appliances sold. This idea was openly discussed awhile back but its been put to sleep like many issues around power.

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Blowin Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 2:29pm

Indo - We position ourselves as leaders in the new economy of renewables and green tech.

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stunet Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 2:34pm

@ID,

Given twenty years to ween ourselves off the export hit, I'm sure we would've found a way between a mix of putting a price signal on carbon, early investments in domestic renewable technology (and power to keep it here while license offshore), and an attempt to renationalise parts of the energy sector. Keep in mind this was all postulated BEFORE the great mining boom and the riches that flowed from it.

Blowin's picture
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Blowin Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 2:38pm

Can you imagine an impossible world where Australia had leveraged the stupendous wealth we SHOULDVE amassed from the greatest resources boom in human history into world beating renewables tech superiority ?

I swear , people should be swinging by their necks for some of the shit that’s gone down .

And is still going down.

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stunet Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 3:05pm

Can you imagine a world where Australia is beholden to a media company that pays no tax in Australia, yet operates as a business and political arm of its billionaire owner, leading the way to vote down a carbon pricing scheme and a mining tax, persistently misrepresent climate scientists and their work, and provide boosterism for politicians who think corporate plutocracy is a valid form of government?

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vascectomy-blot... Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 3:05pm

"all manner of hand-wringing and prevarications posing as pragmatism"

This is exactly it. It's all fucken hot air designed to delay as long as possible. And you know how to tell? Because this mob have done precisely nothing proactive to make a change except Abbott pissing money up against a wall in "direct action".

And indo, I posted here for the first time in 2011 or 2012 to take the piss out of blottmouth when he was on his bullshit moral high ground crusade pretending to give a shit about how AI died. Now I'm just taking the piss out of anyone. You keep spitting bullshit about climate change pretending like you give a shit and pretending like you can make a difference with "but how can we possibly do this"....so I figured I'd comment on that. And damn right im a whinger. Im whinging about you and your lot voting for these dickheads that kept us goign down this path.

But really I just wanted to post that link about how this fire season is what climate change looks like. Because arguing about how to prevent a recession because we just can't possibly stop pulling coal out of the ground is noise at the edges while the place fucken burns.

Read that blog, this shit isn't going to stop happening. We'll get a few years reprieve now maybe because there's not gonna be so much fuel left after this, ironically, but don't think it won't come back.

yorkessurfer's picture
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yorkessurfer Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 3:16pm

@blowin your comment:
“people should be swinging by their necks for some of the shit that’s gone down“
reminds me of that old Midnight Oil song ‘If Ned Kelly was King’......

Heavy machinery loud in the outback,
The Dreamtime developers
they make all the sound,
Where will we be when they leave us a quarry?

If Ned Kelly was King,
He’d make those robbers swing,
He’d send them down there,
He’d make them stay,
And we can hope.....

Blowin's picture
Blowin's picture
Blowin Thursday, 2 Jan 2020 at 3:22pm

That’s probably where I subconsciously dragged the term from. The Oils had a huge impact on me ....still do.

Great song and very appropriate