Climate Change in Australia (Part 1)

No - it has not been essentially solved.

Your ‘solutions’ are ridiculous.
No cars, no farms, no concrete and no timber.

You probably haven’t noticed as you are most likely one of these wealthy white boys I have been referring to, but a number of working people and businesses barely get by. Putting an extra overhead on them is potentially disastrous. But who cares about the bogans right.

Votes for the Liberal party?

Without a good scare campaign people might realise they don’t actually have any policies that will improve their lives.

It has been solved, thats why there are plans that can be implemented. Plans are drawn up to implement solutions.

Didn’t say no cars
Didn’t say no concrete, I mentioned it as a large emission source. Given its current usage its not going to be replaced any time soon.
Didn’t say no Farms. If people complaining about a few extra dollars on a bill. Cant imagine it would be ever palatable to say no more beef.
Didn’t say no timber, I said stop deforestation its not the same thing.

If I earn more than you, I’d say its directly in line with our respective levels of comprehension.

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That’s funny, don’t recall anyone saying there would be no cars, concrete farms or timber.

Also, did you see the article above about the rising costs of coal? You don’t want you’re beloved battlers to suffer under this for eternity do you?

On the concrete topic specifically:
Watch Grand Designs - plenty of episodes where houses have been built specifically without concrete due to it’s high environmental impact, utilised alternate products and found them to be very economically viable. That viability would only increase should use of the products proliferate.

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Don’t bother. There are no tech solutions to any of this according to Trip. We’ve just got to go on for the rest of time using fossil fuels, internal combustion engines and deforesting.

Haha - Have you seen those houses. They all cost a million plus to build.

And why are coal costs rising, genius?

Well, I was talking about the concrete specifically, the replacement product was comparable in price. Concrete is concrete, regardless of whether you are building a 100 storey high-rise or pouring a foundation for your garden shed. The gold-plated taps and carbon fibre bathtubs have nothing to do with the price of concrete.

So cheaper than the median price of a house in Sydney :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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To ‘build’ - does not include land value.

Them and certain financial backers of the mineral council. Although, if they’re even starting to jump ship from the opposition to changing anything then the LNP are going to look pretty silly when they turn around and absolutely no one is there to back them up. Except a few their brainwashed idiots they wouldn’t give the time of day anyway.

An article in Vox of 8 March - Clean Energy is now as big as pharmaceutical manufacturing in the US - illustrates when business gets ahead of partisan politics.
According to that article clean energy is worth $200 billion in revenue and supports 3.3 million jobs in the US.
www.vox.com

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Don’t tell me it’s farking windmills again!

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And we’ll be sitting on our hands for at least a couple more years until someone gets into power who can provide investor confidence.

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Almost spat my loose leaf chai latte all over the chia pudding on the table propped up by boxes of bonsoy at my local LGBT friendly, Lebanese owned cafe when I saw that a trait of leftists is to tell others what to think.

Mirror, much?!?

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Yes. Now, have some coal with that organic mixed greens and quinoa because that’s what’s good for you dammit!

Oh, and no they don’t - plenty of houses have been built at cheap prices - cheapest was $150k or so.

Oh, hello. Another article on this from the big online mobs. Boils down to letting energy companies do as they please. Experts warning governments about it for 8 years.

The ‘absurdity’ of Australia facing a gas shortage
MARCH 9, 20172:32PM

Australians are being warned gas supplies could fall short.

Charis Chang

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THERE are warnings today our gas supply could soon fall short, forcing Aussies to swelter through summer. But an expert says it’s “a total failure” we’re in this position.
The idea of a shortage in Australia — the largest gas exporter in the world — is an “absurdity”, according to energy analyst Bruce Robertson of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
“We are swimming in gas, the idea that we cannot provide for our own population is just a total failure of our energy policy,” Mr Robertson told news.com.au.
The Australian Energy Market Operator on Thursday warned of future power supply shortfalls, which could cause blackouts in South Australia, NSW and Victoria unless gas production is boosted and supplied to electricity generators.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will hold meetings with the chief executives of east coast gas companies soon to address what he’s labelled as an “energy crisis”, laying the blame on state governments for not allowing the development of gas resources.
“We are facing an energy crisis in Australia because of these restrictions on gas,” he said in Sydney on Thursday.
But Mr Robertson disagreed and said the problems Australia was facing were due to companies sitting on gas reserves and not releasing enough of their product.
“There’s plenty of gas around, even on the east coast,” he said.
”Companies are sitting on permits, not developing them and restricting supply so they can make a lot of money.”

It’s created the bizarre situation that sees Australian gas being sold in Japan for a wholesale price that is cheaper than the price it’s available for in Australia.
This is despite the fact it costs an estimated $3.70 a gigajoule more for the gas to be shipped there.
Mr Robertson blamed state and federal governments for failing to develop a proper energy policy in Australia to avoid these problems, despite being warned as far back as 2009 that this could happen.
Part of the problem dates back to the approval of three export terminals in the Queensland port town of Gladstone, which allowed companies on the east coast to ship their gas overseas for the first time.
Mr Robertson said a government report Blueprint for Queensland’s LNG Industry published in August 2009 noted that allowing gas to be converted from coal seam gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export, might not deliver enough gas for domestic use.
It advised the Queensland Government, under the leadership of Labor’s Anna Bligh at the time, to ensure there was enough gas available to met domestic demand. It listed options including holding back production in certain areas to supply Australia’s needs.
“There is a real problem that the availability of gas in the ground may not translate into gas supplied to the domestic market,” the paper stated.
Despite this potential problem being flagged, Mr Robertson said the government took a “cavalier” attitude of pushing forward with the project.
He said any other country that allowed a company to dig up its resources and profit from this, would also have ensured its own domestic supply was covered.
“Australia is unique in its sheer stupidity in allowing companies to exploit our resources and not insist they provide for our domestic market,” he said. “We are uniquely stupid.”
The Santos liquefied natural gas plant in Gladstone, Queensland has enabled companies to ship gas from the east coast of Australia overseas. Picture supplied by Santos
The Santos liquefied natural gas plant in Gladstone, Queensland has enabled companies to ship gas from the east coast of Australia overseas. Picture supplied by SantosSource:Supplied
CAN WE FIX THIS?
Mr Robertson said there needed to be transparency around how much gas could be produced by existing reserves, something that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also noted was lacking in its 2016 report.
The ACCC found gas was being removed from the Australian market and shipped overseas instead, leading to uncertainty about future gas supply on the east coast.
Suppliers had also taken advantage of this uncertainty to increase prices.
Mr Robertson said a global glut of gas, which is predicted to continue until 2030, had added to this because companies were under more pressure to make money domestically.
This is helped by the fact there is little competition in Australia so companies can charge higher prices locally.
“The market on the east coast is controlled by a cartel of producers and is restricting supply to the domestic market to drive up the price, and they’ve been very successful at doing this,” he said.
Mr Robertson said this problem could be solved, but required political will to crackdown on the cartel behaviour and force companies to provide information about how much gas they could actually provide.
“The government has to step in and it has to step in forcefully, to ensure the national interest,” he said.
While there’s much discussion of an energy crisis in Australia at the moment, Mr Robertson said it was going to get a whole lot worse.
“People will get made redundant, people will lose their jobs, there will be blackouts. All these things will happen because the government’s let a cartel run riot,” he said.
“The government has got to act and it’s not and there’s no sign they will. And we’ll bumble on in an energy policy void.”
News.com.au has contacted ExxonMobil and BHP Billiton for comment.

Do you accept that because it’s allowed to be a political issue is the biggest hurdle to addressing it one way to another.

Like hypothetically if an asteroid was careening towards earth and was Going to wipe out two thirds of all species, is that a political issue?