BHP Billiton posts first full-year loss, totalling $8.3b, dividend slashed
By business reporter Michael Janda BHP Billiton has posted a statutory net full-year loss of $US6.385 ($8.3 billion) on significant one-off write-downs.
It is the company’s first annual loss since BHP and Billiton merged 15 years ago.
The company was expected to post a $US5.9 billion ($7.7 billion) loss according to the average of 11 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg…..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-16/bhp-billiton-posts-massive-full-year-loss/7748302
Antarctic climate change researcher named ACT’s Scientist of the Year
Man-made islands might be better known as the domain of China or Dubai.
But the ACT’s new Scientist of the Year, biogeographer Dr Ceridwen Fraser, would build her own in the sub-Antarctic; if research money was no object.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/technology/sci-tech/antarctic-climate-change-researcher-named-acts-scientist-of-the-year-20160816-gqtk89.html
World’s biggest offshore wind farm for UK
Second phase of world’s biggest offshore windfarm gets go-ahead, Multibillion-pound Hornsea Project Two, 55 miles off Grimsby coast, would see 300 turbines span an area five times size of Hull, Guardian, Josh Halliday, 16 Aug 16, Plans for the world’s biggest offshore windfarm off the Yorkshire coast are to be expanded to an area five times the size of Hull after being approved by ministers.
The multibillion-pound Hornsea Project Two would see 300 turbines – each taller than the Gherkin – span more than 480 sq km in the North Sea.
Fifty-five miles off the coast of Grimsby, the project by Denmark’s Dong Energy is expected to deliver 1,800MW of low-CO2 electricity to 1.8m UK homes. The development would represent a large boost to the UK’s wind energy industry, with Dong Energy pledging to invest £6bn in the UK and create more than 2,500 jobs……https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/16/hornsea-project-two-windfarm-second-phase-grimsby
Media coverage given to serial climate denying pest Sen. Malcolm Roberts
“Campaign of intimidation” One of the academics on the receiving end of Roberts complaints, John Cook, of the University of Queensland, told DeSmog:
Beneath the public attacks on climate science, scientists are also subject to a more insidious campaign of intimidation, otherwise known as the subterranean war on science. This takes the form of complaints to universities to get scientists fired, complaints to journals to get papers retracted and FOIrequests to pick through scientists’ emails.
Sen. Malcolm Roberts: Climate denier, conspiracy nut and serial pest, Independent Australia DeSmog Blog 15 August 2016 One Nation’s Senator Malcolm Roberts has spent countless hours harassing scientists, researchers and politicians with rantings about climate change conspiracy theories. DeSmogBlog‘s Graham Readfearnreports.
MALCOLM ROBERTS is a former Australian mining consultant who thinks the United Nations is using the “scam” of human-caused climate change as a cover story while it builds an all-powerful world government.
He’s also just been elected as an Australian Senator.
Roberts will sit in Australia’s upper house as a member of the far-right One Nation party that wants to ban Muslim immigration and investigate climate scientists for “fraud and corruption”.
Since his election, Roberts has been given blanket coverage in the Australian media, with high profile interviews on flagship shows on the publicly funded ABC. Continue reading
Olympic Games and the environment
This article looks at Brazil’ s environmental situation, particularly regarding the Amazon forest.
I wonder what concerns will be raised for the next Olympics – 2020 in Tokyo ?
2016 Olympic Games and the environment, Independent Australia 16 August 2016, Dr Anthony Horton questions how much consideration is given to environmental considerations when Olympic Games host cities are selected.
RECENT MEDIA ATTENTION on the parlous state of the environment in the vicinity of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games sites, and Brazil more generally, piqued my interest in researching the extent to which environmental issues are taken into account when deciding which city hosts the Olympic Games.
A report entitled ‘The 2016 Olympic Games: Health, Security, Environmental and Doping Issues’ published by the United States Congressional Research Service on 28 July 2016, highlights the environmental commitments made by the Rio de Janeiro Organising Committee for the 2016 Olympic Games and the assessment process that each city must successfully navigate in order to be awarded the right to host the Games.
This report was quite an eye opener for me and after considering the findings, I can only conclude that environmental concerns must be more heavily weighted in future decisions regarding which city hosts the Olympic Games…….
Based on the Congressional Research Service report and the Council on Foreign Relationsinteractive report, I cannot help but conclude that environmental concerns must be more heavily weighted in future decisions regarding which city hosts the Olympic Games. https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/2016-olympic-games-and-the-environment,9359
Britain’s conservatives find renewables cheaper than coal or nuclear
Unlike Australia, the UK has decided to end coal-fired generation within a decade, and for the last two months the amount of solar production has beaten that of coal production.
Slowly, however, it is dawning on more and more conservative politicians that the smaller, distributed energy is the smartest way forward. Not just because solar, particularly in Australia, offers the cheapest technology, but because in combination with storage and smart technology it can offer an alternative to the centralised, gold-plated networks that account for half of consumer electricity bills.
The recent price surge in gas and the concentration of market power that transferred this cost, and a whole lot more, to wholesale electricity prices, particularly in South Australia, means that distributed energy is becoming an increasingly attractive option, because it also adds to competition.
That puts South Australia at the forefront of how Australia proposes to move forward.
UK Tories wake up to nuclear folly, as wind and solar found to be cheapest http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/uk-tories-wake-up-to-nuclear-folly-as-wind-and-solar-found-to-be-cheapest-92800 By Giles Parkinson on 16 August 2016 The decision by the UK’s Tory government to put a hold on approval for the world’s biggest single energy investment – the Hinkley C nuclear plant – may have less to do with concerns about the potential role of Chinese state companies and more to do with the realisation that new nuclear is a horrendously expensive boondoggle.
The fact that the cost of wind and solar is falling and the cost of nuclear is moving in the opposite direction is of little surprise to anyone involved in the energy markets, even if the nuclear industry and its supporters wish it were not so. But it is news, apparently, to the Tories.
New data uncovered from a previously unheralded National Audit Office report shows that the UK government is now advised that the cost of wind and solar could be around half that of new nuclear by 2025 – between £50-£75/MWh compared to between £80 and £125/MWh for nuclear. Continue reading
Not too0 late for Britain to switch to renewables, abandon nuclear and help the taxpayer
UK green energy sector needs nurturing over nuclear, Guardian, Larry Elliott, 16 Aug 16
Technological advances mean the cost of renewables is coming down, representing far better value for taxpayers’ money Britain’s need for a coherent long-term energy strategy has been woefully neglected by governments of both left and right. One example is the furore over the plan for a new and hugely expensive nuclear power station atHinkley Point. Another is provided by the latest official statistics on the sort of energy the UK uses and where it comes from.
The good news is that Britain is consuming 17% less energy than it was in 1998, and more of what is used is coming from renewable sources. But don’t get too excited. Green energy has increased from 1% of the total to just 9%……
The way forward is obvious. Put energy policy at the heart of the new industrial policy. Technological advances mean the cost of renewables are coming down all the time, and they represent far better value for taxpayers’ money than Hinkley Point C. The government should use tax breaks, procurement and its ability to borrow long-term at historically low interest rates to nurture a new green energy sector. This should have been done years ago, but it is not too late. https://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2016/aug/15/uk-green-energy-sector-needs-nurturing-hinkley-point-nuclear
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 