Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Friday 7 September 2018
The new Australian Minister for Energy & Liberal MP for Hume Angus Taylor has "thought hard" about climate change for over 30 years.....
Excerpt form House of Representatives Hansard, 24 September 2014:
Mr
TAYLOR (Hume) (15:44): It is a great pleasure to speak on this matter
of public importance because I have had a deep concern about climate change for
over 30 years. I have watched the snowline rise south of here, and it is
something that I have thought hard about for over 30 years. That has meant that
I have come to the conclusion that there are three things that taking climate
change seriously really means. The first is effective and consistent policies
that actually contain global atmospheric concentrations. Secondly, that you
bring the Australian people along with you. Thirdly, you protect the Australian
economy so that we can pay for all of this. Let me tell you what I believe it
does not mean. It does not mean throwing lots of money at the problem for the
sake of it. It does not mean passing encyclopedias of legislation. It does not
mean putting endless programs in place. It does not mean establishing a cavalry
of so-called independent advisers and advisory boards. It does not mean turning
up at lots of global meetings.
Thursday 6 September 2018
The world is running out of patience with Australia: Europe warns Morrison Government
Europe has strongly signalled that the Morrison Coalition Government needs to stop pretending it has a national climate change policy and keep the pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions made under the November 2016 U.N. Paris Agreement which the Australian Government ratified and, on the government's part contained such a pitifully weak commitment to a 2030 abatement target i.e. emissions reduced by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels.
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
31 August 2018:
The Coalition's internal
climate war risks damaging the economy after Europe declared it would reject a
$15 billion trade deal with Australia unless the Morrison government keeps its
pledge to cut pollution under the Paris accord.
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison this week reset his government’s course on energy policy, declaring a
focus on lowering electricity bills and increasing reliability, while
relegating efforts to cut dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.
He has reaffirmed his
government’s commitment to the Paris accord despite persistent calls by
conservative Coalition MPs, led by Tony Abbott, to quit the agreement.
However there is deep
uncertainty over how Australia will meet the Paris goal of reducing Australia’s
carbon emissions by 26 per cent by 2030 given the government does not have
a national strategy to meet the target.
The policy ructions did
not go unnoticed at a meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on
International Trade in Brussels, where the EU’s chief negotiator on the deal,
Helena König, faced angry questions from the floor over Australia’s commitment
to climate action.
Australia and the EU
will in November enter a second round of negotiations over the deal that would
end restrictions on Australian exports and collectively
add $15 billion to both economies.
In a video of this
week's proceedings, Ms König told the committee that “it’s the [European]
Commission’s position ... that we are talking about respect and full
implementation of the Paris agreement [as part of the trade deal]”.
“No doubt we will see
what comes out in the text [of the deal agreement] but that I expect to be the
minimum in the text, for sure.”
Her assertion is a clear
signal that any failure by Australia to meet its international climate
obligations would have serious economic consequences.
Ms König fired off the
warning after a question by Klaus Buchner, a German Greens member of the
Parliament who said “the intention of the new Australian regime to withdraw
from the Paris Agreement unsettles not only Australians”.
“Australia is by far the
biggest exporter of coal in the world ... what will the commission do when
Australia does indeed withdraw from the Paris agreement? Is this a red line for
us in these discussions or do we just accept it?
“I believe as the
largest trading block in the world we have a responsibility to go beyond pure
profits.”
Monday 3 September 2018
Are you listening Prime Minister Morrison? This message is for you as well
Saturday 1 September 2018
Quote of the Week
“This
country would throw itself in the sea if it wasn't already girt by it.” [Freelance journalist Andrew Stafford’s 17
August 2018 tweeted
response to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s removal of a climate
change target from the National Energy Guarantee,
"sitting on the lap of the
member for Warringah [Abbott] like a really scary wooden puppet come to life.
With the hand of the member for Warringah up his... back. Like Chucky." [Labor MP for Sydney & Deputy Leader of
the Opposition Tanya Plibersek on the subject of Liberal MP for Dickson Peter Dutton, Twitter,
21 August 2018]
Friday 31 August 2018
A reminder that the world has known about the negative effects on the atmosphere of burning coal for over 100 years
Live Science, 14 August 2018:
A newspaper clip
published Aug. 14, 1912, predicts that coal consumption would produce enough
carbon dioxide to warm the climate.
Credit: Fairfax Media/CC
BY-NC-SA 3.0 NZ
A note published in a
New Zealand paper 106 years ago today (Aug. 14) predicted the Earth's
temperature would rise because of 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide produced by
coal consumption.
"The effect may be
considerable in a few centuries," the article stated.
The clip was one of
several one-paragraph stories in the "Science Notes and News" section
of The
Rodney and Otamatea Times, published Wednesday, Aug. 14, 1912.
The paragraph seems to
have been originally printed in the March
1912 issue of Popular Mechanics as the caption for an image of a large
coal factory. The image goes with a story titled "Remarkable Weather of
1911: The Effect of the Combustion of Coal on the Climate — What Scientists
Predict for the Future," by Francis Molena. [Photographic
Proof of Climate Change: Time-Lapse Images of Retreating Glaciers]
Labels:
climate change,
history,
science
Tuesday 28 August 2018
If you live in a NSW rural/regional area or an outer metropolitan suburb with thick tree cover.....
Now is the time to make or update your bushfire survival plan.
Because the fires have come early this year and intermittant rainfall is unlikely to ease the threat for long.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/rainfall/ |
Crikey.com.au, 16 August 2018:
NSW has declared its
earliest total fire ban on record, with hundreds of South Coast residents
forced to flee their homes amidst a massive blaze.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that fire crews
battled at least 83 fires across the state, following stronger-than-expected
winds, creating fire bans that beat the previous record by two weeks.
Compounding problems was the fact that, according to The Daily Telegraph ($), two huge water bombers were
not in action because they had not yet arrived from the US ahead of Australia’s
summer season.
Australian
Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales
Fire Weather Warning for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven fire areas.
Issued at 10:37 am EST on Wednesday 15 August 2018.
Weather Situation
New South Wales
Fire Weather Warning for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven fire areas.
Issued at 10:37 am EST on Wednesday 15 August 2018.
Weather Situation
Warm,
dry and windy conditions over southeast NSW today ahead of a cold front,
which will pass to the south of the state overnight.
For the rest of Wednesday 15 August:
Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven
The NSW Rural Fire Service advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station,
www.rfs.nsw.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.
The Rural Fire Service advises that if you are in an area of Severe Fire Danger:
- If you plan to leave finalise your options and leave early on the day
- Only stay if your home is well prepared and you can actively defend it
- Prepare for the emotional, mental and physical impact of defending your
property - if in doubt, leave.
For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au.
No further warnings will be issued for this event, but the situation will
continue to be monitored and further warnings issued if necessary.
which will pass to the south of the state overnight.
For the rest of Wednesday 15 August:
Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven
The NSW Rural Fire Service advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station,
www.rfs.nsw.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.
The Rural Fire Service advises that if you are in an area of Severe Fire Danger:
- If you plan to leave finalise your options and leave early on the day
- Only stay if your home is well prepared and you can actively defend it
- Prepare for the emotional, mental and physical impact of defending your
property - if in doubt, leave.
For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au.
No further warnings will be issued for this event, but the situation will
continue to be monitored and further warnings issued if necessary.
For
up-to-date information for your local area see NSW Rural Fire Service’s Fire Danger
Ratings and Total Fire Bans and Fires Near Me.
The words being uttered by many firefighters “what the hell is going on, it’s winter” footage of the #SaltAshFire as it moved towards the Tanilba Bay Golf Club on Saturday night by Dungog Rural Fire Brigade #NSWRFS pic.twitter.com/Kqw4CETANM— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 20, 2018
Watch&Act: Old Glen Innes Rd Fire Buccarumbi (Clarence Valley) Strengthening winds across the fireground has seen fire activity increase. The fire is moving east towards Old Glen Innes Road. #NSWRFS https://t.co/3eIK7kkUj9 pic.twitter.com/tGL7QIN09i— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 21, 2018
Saturday 25 August 2018
Who do we blame as matters go from bad to worse over the next eight months in Australia?
The country is being crippled by the effects of drought and basic food prices will soon begin to rise, while at the same time wages growth remains stagnant. Cost cutting by successive Coalition federal governments is impacting service delivery on everything from health and welfare through to national broadband connectivity.
The federal government is still a policy-free zone with regard to energy and climate change due to toxic infighting between members of the Liberal Party of Australia which, along with its coalition partner the National Party, has an ideological inability to drag itself into the 21st century to face the consequences of ongoing land degradation and water insecurity.
Australia now has a new prime minister, but this situation is unlikely to change as the hard right remains holding the reins of government.
The next federal election is still over eight months away.
So who do we blame for the situation the country finds itself in between now and the election?
Take your pick.......
According to News.com.au this is the list of federal parliamentary members of the Liberal Party of Australia who voted to bring on the leadership
spill of 24 August 2018:
1.
Andrew Hastie
2. Tony
Pasin
3.
Craig Kelly
4.
Michael Sukkar
5.
Kevin Andrews
6. Tony
Abbott
7. Ian
Goodenough
8.
Nicolle Flint
9.
Peter Dutton
10.
Jason Wood
11.
Ross Vasta
12.
Luke Howarth
13.
Rick Wilson
14. Ted
O’Brien
15. Zed
Seselja
16 Greg
Hunt
17
Steven Ciobo
18
Angus Taylor
19 Alan
Tudge
20.
Michael Keenan
21
Andrew Wallace
22
Scott Buchholz
23 Jim
Molan
24
Slade Brockman
25 Dean
Smith
26 Jane
Hume
27
Mitch Fifield
28.
John McVeigh
29.
David Fawcett
30.
Amanda Stoker
31.
Jonathon Duniam
32.
David Bushby
33.
James Paterson
34 Eric
Abetz
35.
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
36.
James McGrath
37.
Mathias Cormann
38.
Michaelia Cash
39.
Karen Andrews
40. Andrew Laming
41 Ben Morton
42. Sussan Ley
43. Warren Entsch
Sadly the Joke of the Decade was on the Australian people
"I will not
lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as
I am." [Liberal
Party leader Malcolm Bligh Turnbull,
October 2009]
Labels:
#TurnbullFAIL,
climate change
Sunday 19 August 2018
The first unintended consequence of Malcolm Turnbull's perverse $487M grant to the small Great Barrier Reef Foundation surfaces
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
15 August 2018:
The Turnbull
government's claim its $444 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation
would spur private donations has been disputed by a leading coral scientist who
says funding for his own venture has dried up in the wake of the cash splash.
Charlie Veron, a marine
biologist dubbed "the godfather of coral" for discovering more than
one-fifth the world's coral species, said US donors to his Corals of the World website
dropped plans to donate $60,000 once they saw "the Australian government
was going to pour a fortune" into reef projects.
"My source of
funding has completely stopped," Dr Veron said.
Dr Veron said his
website, a decade in the making, would be crucial for any future recovery work
on the reef, such as the $100 million reef restoration and adaptation program
that will now be under the foundation's stewardship.
Dr Veron said he met
last week the foundation head, Anna Marsden, who said she "didn't have any
money that could go" to his project despite it needing $200,000, or
one-quarter of 1 per cent of the government's largesse, to survive.
"The whole thing is
just a mystery to me," he said. "It's a drop in the bucket if ever
there was one."....
A
foundation spokeswoman said Dr Veron had been one of "a number of
organisations [that] have expressed an interest" in seeking funds.
"At a recent
meeting, we advised Dr Veron that a process was being established to consider
proposals under the Reef Trust Partnership," she said. "We will
consider proposals for funding once the governance and advisory framework is
established and a process for applications has been approved."
Fairfax Media approached
Josh Frydenberg, the environment and energy minister, for comment.
"Perverse outcomes
are going to be part of a process that wasn't thought through," Tony
Burke, Labor's environment spokesman, said. "The due diligence [into the
Foundation before the grant was made] was a joke."
Mr Burke said it was
possible that less private funding would available for reef projects than
before as a result of "decision making with almost no formal
process".
The foundation
spokeswoman said that the non-profit will continue to make the raising of
private funds "a focus and responsibility, so we can amplify the impact of
the government’s investment".....
Sunday 12 August 2018
Anthropomorphic Global Warming in Australia 2018
Australians have been told repeatedly that global warming leading to climate change is real.
The continent is becomng dryer, record air and ground temperatures are no longer novel, heavy rain events are predicted to become more destructive, mass flora and fauna extinctions are expected and the coastline is beginning to erode faster than at the historical rate.
It's not just happenng in Australia, other continents are also experience climate change and, the one factor most have in common is generations of ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions produced by both households and industries in metropolitan, regional and rural areas.
Everyone bears some responsibility for where the world finds itself......
In the first
quarter of 2018 Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions will be over MT 7.3 CO2-e higher than the national Paris ERT commitment made on our behalf by the Australian Government.
Over one
quarter of Australia’s CO2-e budget for 2013 to 2050 has already been
spent in the last 4.75 years.
AUSTRALIA’S ANNUAL
EMISSIONS, CALENDAR YEAR TO SEPTEMBER 2017*
* This graph includes both published Government NGGI data and Ndevr Environmental projections for Q4/FY2017 and Q1/FY2018
BY SECTOR 2005-2017
~~~~~~~~~~~
World-wide, land
used for non-animal and animal-based agriculture in 2017 was estimated to
produce 24% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.
In Australia agriculture
was responsible for est. 85.03 CO2-eMt or about 16% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2013:
66.3%
from enteric fermentation in ruminant livestock (eructation and flatulence)
15.5%
from agricultural soils
10.8%
from prescribed burning of savannas
3.9%
from manure management
2.4%
from liming and urea application
and
the remainder from rice cultivation and field burning of agricultural residues.
Total
greenhouse gas emissions from world-wide food systems in 2012 contributed between
19% to 29% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. By
2030 the combined greenhouse gas emissions from global food production is
expected to double.
~~~~~~~~~~~
National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting, Australia’s highest 10 greenhouse gas emitters 2016–17
Labels:
business,
climate change,
energy,
environment,
extinction,
farming,
industry,
mining
Wednesday 8 August 2018
Great Barrier Reef Foundation: waiting for the inevitable crash
Mainstream
media reports that Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull (former director Goldman
Sachs), Minister for Environment and Energy & Liberal MP for Kooyong Josh Frydenberg (former director Deutsche
Bank Australia) and Chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation & Member of
the Business Council of Australia John
Schubert (former chair Commonwealth Bank) met on 9 April 2018 to discuss the
allocation of a grant valued at in excess of AU$487.6 million to the
foundation.
It was also
reported that no
officials from the Department of the Environment and Energy were present at
that meeting when the grant offer was made and apparently accepted.
Less than ten weeks later the grant was formally approved
without meeting all relevant provisions in the Commonwealth
Grants Rules and Guidelines 2017.
The Great Barrier Reef
Foundation with a staff of only six full-time employees now has no more
than 6 financial years to spend this large sum, which represents est. 69.66 per cent of funds held in the federal government operated Reef Trust since 2014 and 97.52 per cent of additional funds received by the trust on 29 April 2018.
Leaving the Reef Trust with an unspecified amount to fulfil other commitments over the next six years.
Due to obvious time constraints, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s board and corporate 'advisers' need to have
a detailed financial and project action plan for 2018-19 immediately - if not
sooner.
I suspect that I am not alone in waiting for waste of resources, duplication of effort, poorly targeted projects, lack of verifiable outcomes and other instances of mismanagement to emerge over time, given the
slapdash way this grant was put together.
Australian Government, GrantConnect:
GA ID: GA9190
Agency: Department of the Environment and Energy
Approval Date: 20-Jun-2018
Publish Date: 12-Jul-2018
Category: Natural Resources - Conservation and Protection
Grant Term: 27-Jun-2018 to 30-Jun-2024
Value (AUD): $487,633,300.00 (GST inclusive where applicable)
Ad hoc/One-off: Yes
Aggregate Grant Award: No
PBS Program Name: DoTE 17/18 Program 1.1: Sustainable Management of
Natural Resources and the Environment
Grant Program: Reef Trust
Grant Activity: Reef Trust grant to the Great Barrier Reef
Foundation
Purpose: The project will deliver activities which are consistent
with the purposes of the Reef Trust Special Account Determination to achieve
the Reef Trust Objectives and assist to protect the Great Barrier Reef World
Heritage Area.
Internal Reference ID: 100000001841
Confidentiality - Contract: Yes
Confidentiality Reason(s) -
Contract: Other: Aspects of the
Co-Financing Plan and the Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Plan
Confidentiality - Outputs: No
Grant Recipient Details
Recipient Name: Great Barrier Reef Foundation
Recipient ABN: 82 090 616 443
Grant Recipient Location
Suburb: Brisbane
Town/City: Brisbane
Postcode: 4000
State/Territory: QLD
Country: AUSTRALIA
Grant Delivery Location
State/Territory: QLD
Country: AUSTRALIA
Australian Government, Department of the Environment
and Energy - Marine:
Third
Sector, 7
June 2018:
The Great Barrier Reef
Foundation (GBRF) has confirmed one of its board directors will step down as he
faces criminal charges for cartel conduct.
Stephen Roberts, an
investment banker and GBRF board director, has been charged by the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for allegedly playing a part of a
criminal cartel during a $2.5 billion deal.
ACCC Chairman, Rod Sims,
said: “These serious charges are the result of an ACCC investigation that has
been running for more than two years.”
The charges, which
included other banking chief executives and senior staff, were laid by the
Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and will be determined in court.
Criminal
charges relating to an alleged cartel by Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and the ANZ
have been formally laid in relation to alleged cartel arrangements relating to
trading in ANZ shares following a $2.5 billion institutional share placement in
August 2015.
Tuesday 31 July 2018
A trio of Great Barrier Reef Foundation directors decline to appear before a senate committee inquiry
On 19 June
2018, the Senate referred the 2018-19 Budget measure Great Barrier Reef 2050
Partnership Program to the Environment and Communications
References Committee for inquiry and report on 15 August 2018.
The Great Barrier Reef Foundation made a written submission on 2 July 2018.
Yesterday it sent one of it newest directors (who apparently joined the board in the second half of 2017) and its managing director to give evidence before the inquiry.
However, three directors are seeking to avoid attending this inquiry - John
M Schubert (Chair), Grant
King and Paul
Greenfield.
This unwillingness is likely to be less about scheduling problems and more about close associations with petroleum, gas, mining* and finance industries, the foundation's membership list as well as the identity of donors who gave over $1.4 million to the foundation in 2017.
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
27 July 2018:
Three directors of a
Great Barrier Reef charity entrusted with almost half a billion dollars in
public money have refused to give evidence to a Senate inquiry scrutinising the
controversial deal, raising the prospect they will be forced to appear.
Confidential Senate
committee documents seen by Fairfax Media show that despite being offered five
dates at which to attend the inquiry, the directors of the Great Barrier Reef
Foundation say they are unavailable for questioning, variously citing overseas
travel commitments, medical appointments, board meetings and other unspecified
engagements.
The inquiry was launched
following the Turnbull government’s decision to grant the small,
business-focused charity $443 million to help rescue the reef. The
foundation has previously said it would “fully co-operate” with the probe.
The contentious Great
Barrier Reef Foundation grant is to be spent on projects such as water quality
improvements.
The Senate committee had
specifically requested their attendance. The trio comprises the organisation’s
chair John Schubert and board members Grant King and Paul Greenfield. Mr King
is president of the Business Council of Australia and Dr Greenfield chairs the
foundation’s scientific committee.
The foundation has
advised that managing director Anna Marsden and another director, John Gunn,
will give evidence.
The grant was awarded
without a tender process and the government’s own expert agencies were not
invited to apply.
The foundation plans to
use the grant to leverage additional funds from the private sector.….
Fairfax Media
understands the committee will ask the directors to find suitable dates to give
evidence and advise them that the committee has the power to summon witnesses.
According to the Parliament website, Senate committees rarely need to exercise
such powers as witnesses are “normally very willing to place their views and
the information they possess before the Senate to assist in an understanding of
issues”…..
details of the deal show
the foundation will receive almost $45 million to cover administration costs
incurred by disbursing the funds. Fairfax Media previously
reported the foundation would receive an upfront payment of $22.5
million plus interest. The recently published grant agreement shows the
interest will be capped at $22 million, and any additional interest will be
spent on reef projects.
The agreement also shows
many aspects of the deal will remain confidential, including the strategy used
by the foundation to attract private sector funds.
Greens oceans spokesman
Peter Whish-Wilson criticised the secrecy and questioned the influence
businesses would exert over how the grant was spent.
“How much of it is going
to be used to promote the companies and essentially greenwash some of these
businesses that are key polluters?” he said.
Businesses involved in
the foundation include heavy polluters such as AGL, Peabody Energy, Shell, Rio
Tinto and Qantas.
In a statement, the
department said it accepted that the foundation “does not wish information
about who it might approach or the strategies it might employ in its
fundraising to be made public”.
The administration costs
were “ reasonable given the scale of the grant” and any entity, including a
government agency, would need adequate funds for such purposes, it said.
The department said the
attendance at Senate hearings "is a matter for the foundation".
* The Great Barrier Reef Foundation classes Rio Tinto's RTFM Wakmatha (a Post Panamax bulk carrier on the Weipa to Gladstone run) as the foundation's research vessel in its so-called mission to save the reef.
UPDATE
As of 7.35pm 31 July 2018 the transcript of yesterday's public hearing has not been published.
However, mainstream media is reporting that Ms. Marsden gave evidence that in April 2018 Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull and Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg met privately with the Chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, John Schubert.
At this meeting an unsolicited and unscrutinised offer of over $45 million as a lump sum grant was made to Schubert as chair of the foundation.
This private meeting goes a long way towards explaining Schubert's reluctance to be questioned during this Senate inquiry.
Three former bankers meeting to carve out a large chunk of taxpayer dollars, probably felt comfortable enough to speak freely on a number of subjects.
UPDATE
As of 7.35pm 31 July 2018 the transcript of yesterday's public hearing has not been published.
However, mainstream media is reporting that Ms. Marsden gave evidence that in April 2018 Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull and Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg met privately with the Chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, John Schubert.
At this meeting an unsolicited and unscrutinised offer of over $45 million as a lump sum grant was made to Schubert as chair of the foundation.
This private meeting goes a long way towards explaining Schubert's reluctance to be questioned during this Senate inquiry.
Three former bankers meeting to carve out a large chunk of taxpayer dollars, probably felt comfortable enough to speak freely on a number of subjects.
Monday 16 July 2018
Sea Levels and the NSW Coastine in 2018: Ballina
“A
recent study estimates that the pace of global sea-level rise has nearly
tripled since 1990 (Dangendorf et al. 2017). More than 50% of the Australian
coastline is vulnerable to erosion from rising sea levels….As sea levels
continue to rise, coastal flooding during high sea level events will become
more frequent and more severe (CSIRO and BoM 2015).” [Climate Council, 2018, ICONS
AT RISK: CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENING AUSTRALIAN TOURISM]]
New South
Wales has est. 2,109kms of open coastline and 40 per cent of this is considered vulnerable
to the effects of sea level rise.
Ballina is a
coastal town in the NSW Northern River region. Its CBD is on the banks of the tidal
Richmond River where it empties into the sea.
Sea level
rise is something Ballina has been discussing for many years because for the
Ballina community the evidence is right before residents’ eyes.
This was
Tamar Street in the CBD in January 2018 at high tide.
Tamar Street, Ballina NSW, January 2018. Saltwater intrusion at high tide, Entrance to main bus station on the left.
|
* Photograph via @Captainturtle
Labels:
climate change,
New South Wales,
Northern Rivers,
sea levels
Wednesday 20 June 2018
Over $4 billion of taxpayers money being spent on Snowy 2.0 and they get what?
The Turnbull Coalition Government in
Canberra and the Hodgman Liberal
Government in Tasmania have laboured to produce two new energy schemes - Snowy 2.0
and the "Battery
of the Nation".
These schemes
are being touted as ‘clean energy’ providing stability across the nation’s
power networks, supply into the future and cheaper consumer costs.
One small
problem……
Both are pumped hydro systems which will actually
use more power than they generate as their electricity consumption will be
high.
That is, the
total megawatts of electricity from other sources required to pump the water into
the hydroelectric plant will exceed the megawatts of electricity produced by
the plant.
Not all
the potential electricity produced by the plant is realised, because pumping
water uphill and, the conversions of the potential energy to kinetic energy to
electricity is less than 100% efficient across each stage of the entire process.
It seems efficiency loss would run somewhere between 20% to 40%.
Then there
are the environmental effects.
According to Union
of Concerned Scientists:
Hydropower projects can
reduce the flows in rivers downstream if the upstream flows are trapped behind
a reservoir and/or diverted into canals that take the water off stream to a
generation unit. Lowering the flows in a river can alter water temperatures and
degrade habitat for plants and animals. Less water in the river can also reduce
oxygen levels which damage water quality.
Water is typically
stored behind a dam and released through the turbines when power is needed.
This creates artificial flow patterns in the downstream river that may be very
different from the flow patterns a river would naturally experience. For example,
rivers fed mostly by snowmelt may experience much higher flows in the winter
and spring than the summer and fall. Hydropower operations may differ from
these natural flow patterns, which has implications for downstream riparian and
aquatic species. If water levels downstream of a hydropower project
fluctuate wildly because of generation operations, fish could be stranded in
suddenly shallow waters. If operations cause a more static flow schedule
throughout the year than what the river would normally experience, the movement
of sediment along a river section could be disrupted, reducing habitat for
aquatic species. Fewer seasonal flow events could also cause a riparian
corridor to thicken into a less dynamic channel as saplings that would usually
be seasonally thinned by high flows are able to mature.
Dams can also block the
migration of fish that swim upstream to reach spawning grounds.
In addition, large dams
created in heavily forested areas have been known to produce high levels of
methane into the water and air in the period following construction.
The Snowy
Mountains Scheme already contains one power station which includes capacity for
pumped hydro - Tumut 3 Power Station at
Talbingo Dam. It has a maximum 600 MW capacity and reportedly rarely uses its
pumped hydro due to at least 30% efficiency loss. For every 1MWh of
pumping the amount of generation that results is only 0.7 MWh of electricity. Operating
hours when storage full is 40 hours.
The proposed Snowy 2.0 hydro scheme will have a
maximum 2,000 MW capacity and will run an energy deficit as there will
be an est. 24% difference between the amount of energy required to pump the
water in and turn it into electricity and the amount of electricity the scheme actually
produces. Operating hours when storage full is expected to be up to 7.3 days.
Its pumping storage
is expected to have a life time of 40-60 years and for that the Australian taxpayer
is expected to watch at least $4.5$ billion leave general revenue and go towards
its construction.
It will the
eighth power plant constructed within the Snowy Mountain Scheme.
Snowy 2.0 will
be inserted 1km underground somewhere between Talbingo and Tantangra reservoirs.
Rivers which feed the Snowy Mountain Scheme are the Tumbarumba, Tooma, Tumut, Eucumbene,
Snowy, Jindabyne and Goodradigbee - their flows are expected to
decrease over time due to climate change and, it is predicted that median water runoff
into the scheme will be 13% lower within the next 50 years.
The bottom line is that the entire Snowy Mountains scheme (including 2.0) will very likely be water hungry in the lifetime of today's primary school kids and operating on ageing infrastructure. It is also likely that by that time the amount of electricity it can produce will have fallen.
It is a
continuing marvel that the Howard, Abbott and Turnbull governments all only
seriously considered those energy schemes which are at
the higher end of the negative impact scale.
The 2006 Howard Government's Switkowski report into the feasibility of nuclear power generation is a case in point. Now in approaching a large-scale renewable energy project this current federal government again choses one with a long list of potential negatives.
The 2006 Howard Government's Switkowski report into the feasibility of nuclear power generation is a case in point. Now in approaching a large-scale renewable energy project this current federal government again choses one with a long list of potential negatives.
For the life
of me I cannot see why solar, wind and wave power frightens Liberal and
Nationals MPs and senators so much, when overseas experience shows just how
successfully these can be harnessed by national governments that believe in climate change and the need for mitigation measures.
Reference Material
Snowy 2.0 feasibility
study information and reports:
A short summary booklet
on the feasibility study is available, click
here.
To view the publicly
available chapters of the feasibility study, go
to the 2.0 Feasibility Study page here.
The Marsden Jacob
Associates report (an independent expert economic analysis of the changing
energy market) commissioned as part of the Snowy 2.0 feasibility study is
available, click
here.
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