Comments on climate code red: Australian coal’s expansion plans make a mockery o...

How is this going to be possible in 4 or so years?...

2012-01-13T07:50:09.972+11:00

How is this going to be possible in 4 or so years? CCS in particular is a pipe dream, since it is only being used on a very small scale and has not been demonstrated to sequester CO2 for long periods.

I earlier posted a comment about the fact that the...

2012-01-13T07:46:19.623+11:00

I earlier posted a comment about the fact that the article mentions 6 tonnes and the graph shows over 20 tonnes but my confusion was that the 6 tonnes refers to tonnes of CARBON whereas the 20+ figure is tonnes of CARBON DIOXIDE. Mea culpa.

Doug mentions Australia's climate credentials,...

2012-01-10T13:28:57.709+11:00

Doug mentions Australia's climate credentials, which are not looking very good but what about Australia's Human Rights credentials?
As I see it plans by Australian governments to expand coal exports amount to no less than plans to raise the Earth's temperature by several degrees.
It has been made abundantly clear that a rise of more than 2 degrees a a global average translates into the disappearance of the low lying island countries and more frighteningly temperature rises of the order of 6 degrees in much of Africa.
In Africa this will amount to Genocide over a vast area which will dwarf the scale of the Nazi genocide of Gypsies and Jews.
The solution I suggest is to lay a charge of conspiring to commit genocide at the International Criminal Court www.ictj.org/international against the relevant Australian Commonwealth and State ministers and company CEOs.

Your comment policy seems to reject comments on id...

2012-01-06T15:45:39.359+11:00

Your comment policy seems to reject comments on ideological grounds: obstructing discussion of any solutions regardless of merit that differ from your personal preference.

David I agree completely with what you are saying....

2012-01-03T09:50:07.429+11:00

David
I agree completely with what you are saying. It dovetails nicely with the interesting debate started by Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth around the question of Australia's climate credentials. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/australian-and-us-coal-exports-and-climate-change/
Revkin contrasted the Government's self-congratulation over its climate tax-ETS against its coal production-export ambitions. He also cites that talk from Guy Pearse. Among the comments Revkin refers to an interesting response from Carl Pope outgoing president of the Sierra Club http://crocodoc.com/oxdbl2R
Pope's analysis of the intricacies of the coal market is fascinating and suggests a slightly different reading of current Australian realities. Pope concludes as follows: "Keeping the next wave of coal plants from being built is thus, I would argue, short-term the most urgent thing. But to have a chance to do that the world needs to understand that we now face an informal OCEC (Organization of Coal Exporting Countries); that the price of coal is inextricably linked to the price of the diesel embedded in it; and that cheap, abundant coal is no longer available, except at the mine mouth. They myth of cheap, abundant coal is our biggest enemy -- not the eagerness of the Australians to fill the market with expensive coal which Asia actually can't afford." I'd be interested in your comment if you have time.

Abbott's pessimism about the carbon tax (emiss...

2012-01-02T21:03:48.465+11:00

Abbott's pessimism about the carbon tax (emission trading) has taken people's focus off the big picture. If you want a reasonable outcome, invent this:

1. Australia earns foreign exchange by exporting coal.
2. Australian farmers grow energy crops that collect CO2 from the atmosphere. (emitted by o/s power stations that burn Australian coal.)
3. The Australian energy industry separates the CO2 from these energy crops, stores it in depleted gas fields, and generates clean energy with the hydrogen that remains.
4. Australia (farmers and energy industry) earn foreign exchange in Carbon Credits -for collecting and storing this CO2- from the o/s power station operators that burn Australian coal.