Fair enough. But the Climate change lobby was more powerful then and they wanted to win.
And now? Is it not reasonable?
Better spending the money on moving away from oil as much as possible. No amount of refinery capacity stops countries with oil-based economies being beholden to a handful of middle-eastern despots.
We're trying, but it's expensive. And we have a cost of living crisis going on.
Apparently we import something like 90% of our fuel, most of which comes from Asia, which gets it from the Middle East. So relying on ourselves would seem the obvious solution but again, expensive as our systems are old and outdated.
I would have thought the red centre of Australia was ideal for solar farms, but I am well outside the area of any expertise I have in saying that.
I doubt whether you have any idea about the emptiness of the so-called “red centre” of Oz, or about the increasing hostility in Oz towards “wind farms”.
The fossil fuel industry does like to emphasise, and sometimes spread false information, about the impact of building wind farms and solar energy facilities on native wildlife and forests. Therefore they try to convince natural supporters of renewable energy that fossil fuels are actually better for the environment.
Fair enough. But the Climate change lobby was more powerful then and they wanted to win.
And now? Is it not reasonable?
Better spending the money on moving away from oil as much as possible. No amount of refinery capacity stops countries with oil-based economies being beholden to a handful of middle-eastern despots.
We're trying, but it's expensive. And we have a cost of living crisis going on.
Apparently we import something like 90% of our fuel, most of which comes from Asia, which gets it from the Middle East. So relying on ourselves would seem the obvious solution but again, expensive as our systems are old and outdated.
It's the catch 22 situation I referred to above.
The cost of even one oil shock likely exceeds the cost of transitioning to renewable energy. It just looks big because it's set down as a new budget line rather than an increased price across dozens and dozens of other lines. Australia is the largest global producer of lithium and has huge solar and wind potential and a relatively small population compared to its size. Weaning off fossil fuels is a no-brainer.
I'm all for renewables but even taking into account the opposition of the petro-dollar industry and its supporters on the populist right, there is a way to go before it can become embedded and effective and accepted in the 'public mind.'
Morocco has succeeded in supplying 52% of its energy from renewable sources in a very short time. Previously it was importing virtually all its fuel and energy sources.
I didn't visit Australia's 'red-centre' but would have liked to have done. People tell me it's scarily vast.
Australians tell me they feel 'claustrophobic' over here and I understand that, but equally even from crowded Europe, felt intimidated by the miles and miles of urban sprawl that stretches on and on and on around Melbourne for instance.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to develop sustainable energy resources whether we are here in Europe or over in Australia or anywhere else.
When I visited Madagascar I was shocked by the scale of environmental devastation as people relied heavily on charcoal as a meagre cash-crop.
Trouble is, whilst some 'green' alternatives have been cack-handed or badly thought through and implemented, we can't stick with the status quo. There'll be even more wars over oil and dwindling resources.
Climate-change denial and a degree of anti-environmentalism seems to have become something of a shibboleth on the populist right. It serves the interests of the fat cats and money men.
One of the issues Morocco is finding is that wind and solar farms employ very few people. Fossil fuels currently require a larger workforce. What do you do with miners once the pits close?
Somehow we need creative solutions to make the transition.
It's one thing to knock green energy and those who, however awkwardly, are trying to resolve the issue but I don’t see the populist right coming up with anything constructive instead.
I thought the visit was fine @WhimsicalChristian. Not really exciting, not much to see; but then Australia has less than 60 000 people (estimated), who reside here who were born in Japan, compared to 971 000 from India. So perhaps not so much hoopla around the visit of the Japanese PM. I suspect there are just not the numbers to justify the spectacular that accompanied the visit of Modhi (and I thought it excessive).
I hadn't actually heard much commentary around the visit other than a couple of short clips on the news. I'm actively ignoring much of current affairs because it makes me too sweary. Mostly I'm just looking at headlines on online news sites.
I don't know if Labour are concerned about losing older voters. My oldest relative just turned 80, they did not live through the war as my Dad did as a little boy. None of my family have indicated any animosity towards the current generation of Japanese even though they had an Uncle who died in a POW camp. My Dad was a bit different about the jailers who treated the POWs brutally, he had no time for them. My kids are fairly unaware of all of that.
Both my kids learnt Japanese in school, none of their grandparents commented negatively about it, so I think it's very hard to put a definite cause of the low key nature of things.
I don't know if the current issues around energy have had any impact on the visit and the quiet nature of the event, I am sure it had been planned for a long time, as these things are massive to set up.
There was an interesting article on the website of the Lowy Institute asking: Why would Japan meet with a small country like Australia? I thought the final sentence summed it up beautifully, with Australia's views on China and concerns about the US, meant the PM was pushing on an open door [to visit].
Comments
We're trying, but it's expensive. And we have a cost of living crisis going on.
Apparently we import something like 90% of our fuel, most of which comes from Asia, which gets it from the Middle East. So relying on ourselves would seem the obvious solution but again, expensive as our systems are old and outdated.
It's the catch 22 situation I referred to above.
I doubt whether you have any idea about the emptiness of the so-called “red centre” of Oz, or about the increasing hostility in Oz towards “wind farms”.
The cost of even one oil shock likely exceeds the cost of transitioning to renewable energy. It just looks big because it's set down as a new budget line rather than an increased price across dozens and dozens of other lines. Australia is the largest global producer of lithium and has huge solar and wind potential and a relatively small population compared to its size. Weaning off fossil fuels is a no-brainer.
Good for solar farms, but bad for the length of transmission lines, I think.
Morocco has succeeded in supplying 52% of its energy from renewable sources in a very short time. Previously it was importing virtually all its fuel and energy sources.
I didn't visit Australia's 'red-centre' but would have liked to have done. People tell me it's scarily vast.
Australians tell me they feel 'claustrophobic' over here and I understand that, but equally even from crowded Europe, felt intimidated by the miles and miles of urban sprawl that stretches on and on and on around Melbourne for instance.
That doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to develop sustainable energy resources whether we are here in Europe or over in Australia or anywhere else.
When I visited Madagascar I was shocked by the scale of environmental devastation as people relied heavily on charcoal as a meagre cash-crop.
Trouble is, whilst some 'green' alternatives have been cack-handed or badly thought through and implemented, we can't stick with the status quo. There'll be even more wars over oil and dwindling resources.
Climate-change denial and a degree of anti-environmentalism seems to have become something of a shibboleth on the populist right. It serves the interests of the fat cats and money men.
One of the issues Morocco is finding is that wind and solar farms employ very few people. Fossil fuels currently require a larger workforce. What do you do with miners once the pits close?
Somehow we need creative solutions to make the transition.
It's one thing to knock green energy and those who, however awkwardly, are trying to resolve the issue but I don’t see the populist right coming up with anything constructive instead.
I've heard noises that the government didn't make enough fuss of her. I only heard about the visit yesterday.
Why was it being kept hush hush?
Too close to the memories of Anzac Day? Labour afraid of losing the older votes?
We do need them as allies in the South China see though.
I hadn't actually heard much commentary around the visit other than a couple of short clips on the news. I'm actively ignoring much of current affairs because it makes me too sweary. Mostly I'm just looking at headlines on online news sites.
I don't know if Labour are concerned about losing older voters. My oldest relative just turned 80, they did not live through the war as my Dad did as a little boy. None of my family have indicated any animosity towards the current generation of Japanese even though they had an Uncle who died in a POW camp. My Dad was a bit different about the jailers who treated the POWs brutally, he had no time for them. My kids are fairly unaware of all of that.
Both my kids learnt Japanese in school, none of their grandparents commented negatively about it, so I think it's very hard to put a definite cause of the low key nature of things.
I don't know if the current issues around energy have had any impact on the visit and the quiet nature of the event, I am sure it had been planned for a long time, as these things are massive to set up.
There was an interesting article on the website of the Lowy Institute asking: Why would Japan meet with a small country like Australia? I thought the final sentence summed it up beautifully, with Australia's views on China and concerns about the US, meant the PM was pushing on an open door [to visit].