What's the truth?

[Skylarking]

... The other question is, where would you rather live?

[satire]
If predictions are anything to go by, where you live better be remote and up high so sea level rise won't drown you, and you should live in a bunker so monster storms don't blow your house down, and you must have a huge basement in said bunker which you can use for food storage so you can feed your family during the famines (start hording now). Lastely, you may as well have a large munitions cache so you can protect and defend your family when world order collapes.
[/satire]

Seriously, living in a sparsely populated continent will allow local city pollution to dissipate more readily, so we can continue to breath easy in out cities. However, even this will not spare us from problems associated with an increase in global mean temperature causing rainfall shortfalls across our continent and the globe while super storms rain havock causing repeated financial loss.

But as a nation of 25M, even if we produced zero CO2 today, and stopped exporting all our coal, gas, anything that can be burnt, the global impact in terms of reduced global mean temperature rise as a result of our self sacrifice will still be immeasurably small (close enough to zilch as to not mean anything).

As a species, we are at the precipice and unless we change radically, we deserve the rewards of rampant population growth.
in 1800 we had 1 billion people on this blue planet,
in 1927 we had 2 billion people,
in 1960 we had 3 billion people,
in 2011 we had 7 billion people,
in 2019 we have 7.7 billion people,
in 2037 we expect 9 billion people,
in 2055 we expect 10 billion people on our previously blue but now probably brown planet floating in space.

The solution is predicated on pollution and population growth staying in check over the next 50 years. Sadly this is something our governments simply can't cope with as growth on growth is all they understand. In the meantime there are global warming deniers out there take focus away from the pollution problem that needs to be solved, which tradable commodities simply wont do, and population growth never gets a mention.

Nature will resolve it for us eventually

 

[Nitro_X]

1. I've never stated that countries such as China and India don't need to do more in regards to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
It requires a 'global effort', the planets atmosphere is not contained within physical bubbles encasing each individual country.

2. Emissions per-capita is relevant because energy (electricity) requirements are directly related to population and consumption demand.

3. I don't ignore the fact that using a country by country comparison it's clear that China and India produce more greenhouse gas emissions than Australia. I simply stated that using this method of comparison makes it easy to hide Australia's poor effort to reduce our emissions, making it easy to side-step the issue, and pass the buck to other countries as an argument for Australia to ramp up more coal exports (collect the revenue then blame these countries for not curbing their emissions) while at the same time pushing for more coal fired power generation here, which is what the Morrison government wants to do.
The point of the per-capita comparison shows that in Australia, our carbon footprint 'per person' is significantly higher than these countries, and indeed, higher than EU28 and the American powerhouse of economic activity.
If you cannot understand the significance or relevance of this as humanity moves forward and global population continues to rise (including Australia's population) then I can only suggest you open your mind a little more and think a bit harder about the issues facing humanity as a whole...in terms of the environment, consumption, waste, economics AND human health and well-being.

4. Why can't Australia deal with all its own e-waste/plastic? Why do we ship it off-shore for another country to deal with?
Oh, that's right, it makes economic sense, its cheaper and easier and these countries don't have the same environmental standards as we do here, therefore, it no longer becomes our responsibility to be accountable for our own consumption waste and the pollution that it causes.

5. If Morrison and the LNP government were serious, they would actually implement policy for a circular economy, where we deal with our own problems mentioned above, in an innovative way, producing real productive sustainable jobs and industries, lead the way, instead of 'passing the buck' and being lapdogs to America and China.
Maybe it would even inspire other countries, but nah, Morrison's real policy agenda is to tell Australians households to go out shopping and buy more stuff, consume more stuff we don't really need and buy more houses/apartments to prop up our fake economy built upon unsustainable debt.
Australia's energy policy has been a mess for years, no vision, no progressiveness, just push the status-quo.

.

 

[Calaber]

@Numbscull. I hold different views to you, so telling me I need to open my mind is a wasted exercise. I started this post by outlining in brief, processes being implemented in this country by state and federal governments, and private enterprise, to deal with our carbon emissions and pollution. I suspect you believe them to be lies. Ces la vie.

If we as a nation are so irresponsible in having the world's worst per capita emissions, what have YOU done personally to address the problem? I know what I've done. It isn't insignificant and it wasn't cheap but it works. You?

 

[Nitro_X]

@Numbscull. I hold different views to you, so telling me I need to open my mind is a wasted exercise. I started this post by outlining in brief, processes being implemented in this country by state and federal governments, and private enterprise, to deal with our carbon emissions and pollution. I suspect you believe them to be lies. Ces la vie.

If we as a nation are so irresponsible in having the world's worst per capita emissions, what have YOU done personally to address the problem? I know what I've done. It isn't insignificant and it wasn't cheap but it works. You?

Your twisting my words around and making a mockery of your own thread.
Clearly, you're not interested in my views or other's which don't line up with your political views, now you wanna start being condescending and shift the discussion from the national interest/big picture and make it personal...

For starters I've worked in the solar PV industry and completed academic studies in the following modules:
Engineering maths
Science
Engineering computing
Thermodynamics 1
Introduction to environmental management
OH&S
Applied electricity 1 & 2
Drawings and diagrams for electrical work
Electrotech systems, materials and access
Welding practice
Sustainability
Greenhouse gas reduction strategies
Energy auditing
ELV wiring practice
Fluid mechanics for renewable energy systems
Electronics for renewable energy systems
Applied electricity 4
Photovoltaic power systems
Stand-alone power systems
Wind energy conversion systems 1
Solar water heating systems 1 & 2
Energy efficient building design
AC & DC machines
Writing & presenting reports
Stand-alone power system Installation
Intro to circuit simulation for renewable energy systems
Perform basic repairs to renewable energy equipment (ELV)
Assemble and disassemble renewable energy systems
Perform functional checks on renewable energy equipment
Provide advice on sustainable energy solutions
Install stand-alone photovoltaic power systems
Diagnose, maintain and repair stand-alone PV power systems
Design stand-alone PV power systems
Commission stand-alone Photovoltaic power systems
Design a solar water heating system
Access and analyse a building for energy efficiency
Design install and maintain small wind energy conversion systems
Plan, evaluate and implement environmental management
Outside of this, I've studied horticulture/permaculture and implemented various composting techniques.
Studied composting toilet systems and grey water recycling (yet to be implemented)

This is ScoMo's energy policy: (I guess he forgot to mention the significant decline in Australia's manufacturing sector, that we import most of the value added consumables we purchase, and Australian households and businesses continue to struggle with rising energy costs)

 

[Nitro_X]

In addition, both labor and the LNP have ramped up immigration to artificially boost economic consumption to create the illusion of productive economic growth. In the last decade the government has had to create around 50% of new jobs in the public sector to bolster the employment numbers and bloat the system with inefficient bureaucratic red tape.
The LNP has allowed the bankers to get away with fraud and corruption to pump up household debt to unsustainable epic levels, all to create the illusion that we have a productive and sustainable economy.

If our economy is so great, why does the RBA need to keep interest rates at historical lows and even continue reducing interest rates possibly to zero, the RBA has also stated they would be willing to go to negative interest rates and implement quantitative easing (like the US, Japan and the EU)....creating money from thin air...to keep asset prices inflated...
...apparently it's because our economy is so strong that it requires artificial stimulus, more debt and monetary manipulation to keep it afloat.

.

 

[Nitro_X]

Just before the last federal election, the environment minister, Melissa Price, was pressured by her own constituents to quickly approve the Adani coal mine, just in case Labor won. She doesn't even have any scientific or environmental qualifications, she's a lawyer.
I wrote to her about her lack of integrity and moral corruption.
She resigned from that ministerial position after the election and is now minister for the defence industry.

 

[greenacc]

Our economy is going shithouse! I agree with that one. Are those TAFE modules you're studying?

 

[Skylarking]

Am I the only one that sees the irony in having such a passionate discussion on a car forum that lauders V8’s, how to tune your drive for those extra kw’s while bypassing pollution laws in the process, hails the virtues of motorsports, etc?

Odd, odd indeed.

 

[Calaber]

I didn't intend to create a one on one over our economic or environmental performance. I'm quite willing to accept that our so called strong economy is a myth. I can recall the time when interest rates were a powerful tool used by the RBA to cool or stimulate the economy. With rates now below 1%, and three reductions in less than 12 months, that effectiveness has clearly been lost. I agree that the banks should have been hit much harder and it appears some senior people within those banks have been treated much too lightly. I also agree that our reliance on exports of minerals and loss of secondary industries are an indictment on our federal governments over many years. So, there are points upon which we agree.

In relation to emissions reduction, I still ask for a practical solution to reducing our reliance on coal. The downsides to wind and solar are recognised so what other alternatives are there? The extensive studies you say you've undertaken should equip you with the knowledge to answer that question at least. I don't claim to know the answer but I do know, from my own experience, just how effective solar power can be during daytime in reducing power costs and contributing to the grid, thereby, in theory, reducing my contribution to the emissions level. I'm not alone, as I said originally, Australia is leading the world by a margin of 3 to 1 from its nearest competitor in the installation of rooftop solar. No doubt, stupidly expensive electricity prices are the principal factor behind this trend.

This debate has become politicised because we clearly come from opposite directions. I don't believe that the LNP has the best policies. In fact, their lack of direction is worrying but I certainly don't think Labor would have stoked the economy with its policies, given the fragile state of our economy at present.

 

[keith reed]

The biggest problem I see with reducing our reliance on coal is that there are people making huge money to see that it doesn't happen. I worked on the construction of a coal fired power station at Kogan Creek. They said that they had a 300 year supply of coal. I also worked on conveyor belts at Blackwater and Middlemount. At Middlemount were told that it cost $13 per tonne to get the coal from out of the ground to the wharf. At the time coal was selling for $300 per tonne. They were making a killing. No idea what it sells for now but these conveyor belts were built for the day when the coal price dropped.

I believe that it is a myth to say that the economy is run by either The LNP or Labor. It is big business that runs the show, if they don't get what the want they will go elsewhere. Their interest is in making money not the interest of the country. Neither party has the balls to take them on and that isn't going to change anytime soon.