Renewables the medicine our regional towns deserve http://www.examiner.com.au/story/4606820/renewables-the-medicine-our-regional-towns-deserve/?cs=9723 Apr 2017 Renewable energy is the doctor’s prescription for better health. The world needs to move away from electricity generated from coal and gas. It’s polluting our air and producing greenhouse gases causing global warming.
The federal government’s State of the Environment report estimates 3000 deaths are caused by urban air pollution in Australia each year – more than the national road toll. Based on the sources of pollution in urban areas, up to half of these deaths can be attributed to the burning of coal. This means every wind farm or solar installation – whether it be on your roof or large scale the size of a small town – is saving lives.
Thousands suffer heart and lung diseases from this air pollution at great cost to health services. Yes, coal is cheap but only because it’s subsidised by the health costs paid by thousands of our fellow Australians.
Doctors for the Environment Australia seeks to bring health benefits of renewable solar and wind energy to many rural and regional communities. In Port Augusta, South Australia we helped the community close a coal power station that caused lung cancer and asthma. A solar thermal plant is now foreshadowed. Across Australia, communities benefit from solar plants with local jobs, energy security and income. Barcaldine, in central west Queensland, has just installed the state’s largest solar plant, which according the mayor Rob Chandler has “brought a lot of dollars into the community.”
The best thing about this medicine is there are no negative side effects. Anxieties have arisen over wind farms, but no medical or scientific organisation here or overseas has identified any cause or harm. The prescription of renewable energy will help bring health and stability to rural communities. Demand treatment!
Dr David Shearman is secretary of Doctors for the Environment Australia and former professor of medicine at the University of Adelaide.
April 24, 2017
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A Reality You Can’t Dig Yourself Out Of – Adani’s Coal Mine Is A Dud, New Matilda, By Ian McAuley on April 21, 2017 In a world where coal has no future, the proposed Adani mine should not be given serious consideration. Even if climate change were not a pressing problem, and even if thermal coal prices were to rise and stay high, the project would bring little benefit to Australia, writes Ian McAuley.
Dear reader, I’m asking you to imagine the unimaginable.
Imagine that Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin is economically viable.
Imagine that there is an assured market for coal over the life of the mine – the next 40 to 60 years. Thermal coal prices will recover and stay high. That’s because developments in solar, wind and other renewable technologies will grind to a halt. There will be no further improvements in battery technologies. In spite of worsening damage from extreme weather events and the collapse of some of the world’s agricultural regions, governments will follow Trump’s lead and abandon efforts to address global climate change.
OK, it’s hard to put yourself into the mindset of Barnaby Joyce, Mathias Cormann or Matthew Canavan, and it’s even harder to suspend disbelief as some of the more intelligent members of the Coalition Government have done, but have a go for five minutes.
The trouble is that the Carmichael mine would still bring no worthwhile economic benefits to Australia, and would certainly not justify a $900 million concessional loan from Joyce’s National Party Slush Fund (aka “The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility”).
There would be some new jobs, but not many……..
Unless the executives of Adani have been on the same recreational substances as Joyce, Cormann, Canavan and Trump, they would surely know that thermal coal has no future……..
Even if Adani could forestall import bans and crowd out renewable developments, however, on a world scale that would not support coal prices, as other countries turn away from coal, leaving plenty of spare capacity. In a world of low demand and therefore low prices for coal, it would be easy for Adani to “renegotiate” royalty payments to the Queensland government. That is, to threaten to close the show down unless the government reduces or abolishes its royalties, leaving nothing for Australia except for a huge hole in the ground, damaged aquifers, an insult to the land’s traditional custodians, the carcass of abandoned mine equipment, a railroad to nowhere, and a ruined national reputation as a responsible global citizen.
Economists taking a long-term view of this project see it as a dud. But when we’re dealing with two governments, one federal the other state, clinging on to office without parliamentary majorities and desperate to pull off a big project, economic responsibility is easily sacrificed. https://newmatilda.com/2017/04/21/a-reality-you-cant-dig-yourself-out-of-adanis-coal-mine-is-a-dud/
April 22, 2017
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,REneweconomy, By Sophie Vorrath on 19 April 2017 As the Turnbull government continues its push for new coal power generation in Australia, renowned US scientist and renewable energy advocate Amory Lovins has described the current coal power development pipeline as “pre-stranded assets” and compared attempts to revive the flagging industry to “defibrillating a corpse.”
“Attempting to revive coal or nuclear is like defibrillating a corpse: it will jump but it won’t revive,” Lovins said in an interview with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “The economic fundamentals are bleak.”………
“A portfolio of variable renewables, properly designed and run, probably requires less storage and backup than utilities have already bought and installed to manage the intermittency of their big thermal units,” Lovins told BNEF.
Interestingly, Lovins is currently advising the Indian government on its strategy for 100 per cent vehicle electrification by 2030, which he says is exploring not just electrification pathways but an integrated transformation of mobility services.
“It encompasses everything from urban planning through to manufacturing of electric vehicles – two-, three-, and four-wheelers – to the smart grid integration of electric vehicle charging and the accompanying regulatory and business model changes,” he said.
“It will also take advantage of India’s mastery of the infotech sector. Integrating these innovations is a high priority for India’s government under Prime Minster Narendra Modi.”
Australia’s Prime Minister, also a self-proclaimed fan of innovation, visited India – and Modi – just last week, but drew criticism from various quarters back home for courting coal magnate, Gautam Adani, during his three-day stay…….
Lovins argues that the mine will wind up a stranded asset, as countries like India shift away from coal power to cheaper, and smarter, technology and resources. http://reneweconomy.com.au/backing-new-coal-power-like-defibrillating-corpse-90543/
April 21, 2017
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Boomer Wondering If You Can Negatively Gear A Nuclear Bomb Shelter http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/2017/04/18/boomer-wondering-if-you-can-negatively-gear-nuclear-bomb-shelter SBS, By The Backburner 18 APR 2017 With the world seemingly being dragged increasingly closer to nuclear war, 59 year old Craig Richardson of Toorak is currently considering his ability to negatively gear an investment nuclear bomb shelter in Melbourne’s inner suburbs.
Mr Richardson told The Backburner he and wife Margaret are mulling over expanding their property portfolio, taking advantage of low interest rates along with the current political climate and the tensions between the US and North Korea.
“I saw on the news that North Korea has been conducting missile tests, and I turned to Margaret and said, Margaret, this could be a fantastic opportunity for us,” Mr Richardson explained.
“We don’t suppose a bomb shelter will attract a huge amount of rental income, so ideally we’d like to negatively gear the property. But we think it would be a superb investment in the long run, given the fact we all may be headed for imminent annihilation.”
“This is precisely how you get a leg up in the property market – seeing an opportunity and seizing it instead of complaining. The pessimistic youth of today might see nuclear war as a negative. Well, not myself and Margaret. The glass is always half full for us.”
April 19, 2017
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If the world in 2077 is still burning as much coal as we are today, and the financial model of the Adani assumes it will, Australia as we know it – our wheatbelts, our reefs, our cities, and our lifestyles – will cease to exist.
We are about to choose Adani or Australia.
The argument against Adani achieves that rare distinction of finding purchase among all parts of society: patriots and cosmopolitans, environmentalists and economists, parochialists and internationalists, the job-hungry regions and the growth-hungry cities. We must all stop this affront to our nation. We must choose Australia.
Adani is not just another coalmine, it is a turning point for the nation https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/17/adani-is-not-just-another-coalmine-it-is-a-turning-point-for-the-nation Hamish McKenzie
If the government approves this monstrous mine it will be committing environmental treason against every Australian who values our farmers, our coasts, our bush and our way of life. In an almost unbroken line from Monkey Mia, down across the Bight and then all the way up the other side to Mackay, the Australian coast is etched in various shades of brown. This is the historical precipitation map. Annual rainfall has dropped, it shows, across this enormous stretch of coastline, by as much as 100 millilitres since 1951.
In another map, concentric rings of increasingly angry red emanate from the centre of the continent. This one shows that, assuming we keep going as we are, the temperature in our country will increase by as much as 5C by the end of the century. Eight, if we’re unlucky.
This, by the way, is not the marketing material of some lefty environmental organisation. This is the product of thousands of the world’s top climate scientists, using some of the most sophisticated computer models ever built, to generate projections so fine-grained they simulate even the amount of moisture in every parcel of soil on the planet, and in the poles, the thickness of every chunk of sea ice.
These models give a glimpse of the Australia we are creating. Continue reading →
April 19, 2017
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‘The accounts appear to post tweets with very specific talking points.’ https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/adani-mine-army?utm_term=.guzRkVay8g~ Mark Di Stefano BuzzFeed News Political Editor, Australia 17 April 2017: “Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull met with Indian mining boss Gautam Adani
last week over the future of a controversial coal project on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef.
“The Adani mining company is seeking a $900 million loan from Australian taxpayers for the project,
which would see the development of the biggest coal mine in Australia.
“There’s been intense opposition from environmental groups, who claim the Carmichael coal mine would increase global greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.
“When Adani met with Turnbull last week, the mining boss tweeted this picture [on original] which showed the men with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. https://twitter.com/gautam_adani/status/851435206292652033/photo/1
“But when the replies to the tweet started rolling in, it was clear that several were pushing a very specific talking point. … “
April 19, 2017
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http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/4593409/labor-resists-pressure-for-900-million-adani-coal-mine-loan/?cs=7~ Fergus Hunter
12 April 2017:
“Labor has rejected government claims the Adani Carmichael coal mine project in central Queensland deserves a $900 million concessional loan funded by taxpayers, saying the project should stand or fall “on its own two feet”. … “
April 14, 2017
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Campaign to #StopAdani ramps up https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/campaign-stopadani-ramps~ Alex Bainbridge
8 April 2017:
“Thousands of people turned out to packed out and sold out #StopAdani roadshow meetings
in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne between March 28-31.
The enthusiastic response is a tangible demonstration that the Adani Carmichael coalmine project can be defeated.
“Other actions since then demonstrate the ongoing dynamism of this people-power movement.
These include a vibrant picket outside a speech by Adani’s Australian chief at the Brisbane Hilton on March 31 and an occupation of Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad’s office on April 4.
More actions are planned. … “https://www.facebook.com/stopadani/
#StopAdani Roadshow Kicks Off to Stop Australia’s Largest Coal Mine
https://350.org.au/press-release/stopadani-roadshow-kicks-off-to-stop-australias-largest-coal-mine/
April 10, 2017
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This Guy Ruined A Fancy Banking Dinner To Protest Australia’s Largest Coal Mine
‘A protester managed to interrupt Westpac’s black tie birthday party by chaining himself to the venue.’ https://www.buzzfeed.com/robstott/this-guy-ruined-a-fancy-banking-dinner-to-protest?utm_term=.xxjrnM7p4q~ Rob Stott rob.stott@buzzfeed.com‘, 9 April 2017:
‘Australia’s high flying chief executives and politicians sat down at Westpac’s black tie,
200th birthday gala dinner on Saturday night, expecting a normal evening for the rich and powerful.’
“Instead guests including federal treasurer Scott Morrison, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, former Westpac chief Gail Kelly and former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh were greeted by a throng of protesters outside the event at Carriageworks in Redfern, angrily denouncing Westpac for not distancing itself from the proposed Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee basin.
“One of the protesters, 41-year-old Shaun Murray from Newtown, was able to climb some scaffolding and chain himself to the building, interrupting the dinner for 90 minutes. … ”
“NSW police confirmed to BuzzFeed News that a 41-year-old man was charged with entering closed lands. He was granted bail and will appear at Downing Centre Local Court on May 8.”
April 10, 2017
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Syria gas attack: US considers action against Assad, Turnbull in talks with Defence Chief, ABC News 7 Apr 17 “………Attack ‘cries out for strong response’: Turnbull
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the chemical attack as a shocking war crime, but he would not confirm if Australia would join any retaliatory military campaign.
He told Melbourne radio station 3AW he was in close touch with the United States on the issue.”We have condemned this attack utterly, it cries out for a strong response,” he said.
“The American assessment, which is shared by America and her allies is that this was an action by government forces, by Assad government forces.
“Russia obviously is the principal foreign sponsor of the Assad regime.”Mr Turnbull added that Russia had not acted appropriately in response to the attack.
He stopped short of committing Australian forces to any specific military campaign in response, saying there were already dedicated resources in Syria.
“I’ve spoken only a little while ago with the [Australian] defence minister and the chief of the Defence Force,” he added.”We are already involved in Syria in terms of making airstrikes as part of the anti-Daesh coalition, the anti-ISIL coalition.
“I don’t want to speculate any further on that.”……… http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-07/syrian-govt-sets-terms-for-any-inquiry-into-gas-attack/8424108
April 8, 2017
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You Might Think You’ve Never Heard Of The Wallarah 2 Coal Mine, But You Have, New Matilda, By Rod Campbell on April 5, 2017 The more things change, like heads of government, the more they stay the same. Rod Campbell explains.
Today, the New South Wales Planning and Assessment Commission will conduct a hearing about the hugely controversial Wallarah 2 coal mine near Wyong. Ringing any bells? It should.
Remember Barry O’Farrell? The NSW premier who resigned after a scandal linked to a bottle of wine?
Barry’s gone now, but Wallarah was tied up in a lot of his problems, and has proven much harder to get rid of.
The Wallarah 2 coal project is near Wyong on the Central Coast of NSW. It’s been around as a proposal since the mid 1990s. For a while BHP Billiton owned part of it but sold because, according to locals, they realised it was technically and politically risky to mine around the drinking water catchments and aquifers of the Central Coast.
That was also the reason O’Farrell, as opposition leader, promised to stop the mine, famously wearing a “Water not Coal” t-shirt on a trip to the area.
O’Farrell broke that promise once he came to office as premier. Why? We will probably never know for sure, but it has been suggested that lobbying was involved. Nick Di Girolamo, the lobbyist who sent the premier the infamous bottle of wine, also worked for Wallarah 2’s owners, Kores which is owned by the Korean government.
Anyway, Barry’s gone, Nick’s gone, the wine has probably been drunk, but Kores and the mine proposal are still here.
And why would you go away when the NSW government is prepared to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at the owners of controversial coal proposals, if you just hang around for long enough? They’ve just paid BHP $220 million to not mine in the Liverpool Plains further west.
With the coal boom well and truly over, it is unlikely that Kores would actually spend the $1.5 billion dollars needed to build the Wallarah 2 mine. It’s relatively small, and deep underground in environmentally and politically sensitive country. You can buy an existing coal mine for a fraction of that amount at the moment, with mines changing hands for between $1 and a couple of hundred million, so the Wallarah mine probably isn’t financially viable.
However, the words “unviable” and “mine” are just not words that the NSW Planning Department ever puts together. They have put on display an economic assessment commissioned by Kores which claims the project has net benefits of $774 million, at least $274 million of which would accrue to the NSW community (page 44-46).
A few things in this economic assessment should have been picked up by Planning……….
So to conclude, a hugely controversial mine, linked to the downfall of a premier and opposed by locals, is allowed to resubmit an amended planning application after it was beaten in court by the local Indigenous people. It is reassessed by economists who were found to be “not credible” by the PAC last time, but have once again miraculously found hundreds of millions in benefits.
O’Farrell wasn’t able to keep his promises to the Central Coast. It takes communities made of sterner stuff to take on such a flawed system and the people behind it.
Fortunately, there’s some pretty tough types living on the Central Coast and they’re not going anywhere. https://newmatilda.com/2017/04/05/you-might-think-youve-never-heard-of-the-wallarah-2-coal-mine-but-you-have/
April 7, 2017
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Time is running out to stop Adani’s Carmichael mine http://www.eco-business.com/news/time-is-running-out-to-stop-adanis-carmichael-mine/ ~ Vaidehi Shah @vaidehi_s Eco-Business Saturday 1 April 2017:
“Tell politicians it is no longer okay to stand by a giant coal mine and say “this is good for my electorate”.”
Blair Palese, chief executive officer, 350org Australia
“There are many reasons to oppose the mine, said speakers at the event, which was organised by Stop Adani, a coalition of groups including 350org, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network.
“First, there is the environmental impact of the project. …
“Stranded assets and rights violations
“Danny Kennedy, a clean energy entrepreneur and founder of solar firm Sungevity, added that there is absolutely no economic case for the Adani project, from the perspective of job seekers and investors alike. …
“Amelia Telford, national co-director of the indigenous Seed climate network, said: “We feel the pain of future generations that are inheriting this mess.” ““We cannot stand by and let Adani trample over our land,” she added. … “
April 3, 2017
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Matthew Stevens, 2 Apr 17
BHP Billiton has aggressively opened the formal legal defence of the eight present and former executives and managers charged with qualified homicide in the wake of the Samarco tailings dam disaster. (subscribers only)
http://www.afr.com/business/mining/bhp-billiton-moves-to-terminate-homicide-indictments-20170331-gvb4sz
April 3, 2017
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How do I feel about Joe Hockey’s sycophantic normalisation of Trump? I am reminded of a famous line from a famous play – “I MAY VOMIT”
Ambassador Joe Hockey praises ‘practical’ Trump administration and warns 
against ‘constant criticism’, The Age, Michael Koziol, 31 Mar 17 Australia’s ambassador to the US, former treasurer Joe Hockey, has praised the Trump administration as a “practical” and “credible” force that is finding its feet 70 days into its four-year term, and called for a halt to “constant” criticism of the White House.
In his first major speech to an Australian audience since Donald Trump took office, Mr Hockey said the Republican’s rise reflected a citizenry that felt “impotent” and heralded “the arrival of disruption into the mainstream of American politics”.
He implored critics to give the unorthodox but “practical” administration a fair go, noted many Americans backed the President’s unprecedented attacks on the media, and predicted the failure to repeal Obamacare would not harm Mr Trump.
We need to avoid the temptation to become constant critics of the new US administration because it is not a carbon copy of the previous administrations,” Mr Hockey told The Sydney Institute on Thursday night.
“The new Trump administration is very focused on practical policy outcomes. It is not beholden to ideology or tradition. It is not in the DNA of the administration to procrastinate or give undue deference to process.”
Mr Hockey praised Mr Trump’s “very credible cabinet”, which he said fulfilled an election commitment to “drain the swamp” by selecting fewer appointees with prior government experience.
In what he described as “an obvious break from past practice”, Mr Hockey noted none of Mr Trump’s cabinet members had a doctorate (PhD). Mr Hockey said the President’s hostility to the media, often delivered in late-night or early-morning Twitter bursts, was shared by many Americans. “His war against the media has public support,” Mr Hockey said…….
April 1, 2017
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Antinuclear 