Unsurprisingly, the Government doesn’t like to draw attention to the fact that since the 2022 election:
It has approved four new coal projects.
It has approved the drilling of 116 new coal seam gas wells.
It has sat in court with coal companies and defended its right not to consider the climate impact of opening new fossil fuel projects.
The Government has passed legislation at the request of gas companies specifically designed to expedite their expansion. This is not hyperbole. The transcripts and documents are there in black and white.
The Government has stacked the agencies legislated to oversee and shape Australia’s climate policies — including the Net Zero Authority and the National Reconstruction Fund — with industry interests and surrounded them with a fortress-like bureaucracy, impervious to public scrutiny. It has left a former gas executive in charge of the Climate Change Authority.
The Prime Minister and various ministers have flown to India, Japan, Korea, and (just this month) Vietnam to lock in customers for our gas and coal. The media releases never mention that either. Australia is one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters, and the Government is subsidising, legislating, and using the full weight of our foreign policy to ensure we stay that way. Because Governments are very effective at making very big things happen very quickly when they want to.
The Australian Government has lobbied UNESCO to stop the Great Barrier Reef from being listed as “in danger”. This is as it is in the grip of another mass coral bleaching event.
The Australian Government has refused to end native forest logging. Despite the carbon it would store and the very real risk of extinction to the koala and the swift parrot. It has left the protection of our collapsing ecosystems to the market. It has put far more energy into talking about being ‘nature positive’ than doing anything about it.
The federal Labor government alone still gives over $9 billion in subsidies to fossil fuels. It has committed $1.5 billion to a gas export hub in the Northern Territory. One single gas export hub is getting half of what Australia has committed to global climate finance over five years.
Peter Dutton has realised nobody is falling for his hype about Small Nuclear Reactors, so he's pivoted to large scale nuclear reactors.
The CSIRO has conclusively shown nuclear power is a dead-end technology — not fit for purpose in Australia — we need to accelerate our work with renewable energy such as wind and solar, and build more battery storage.
To make green steel a reality, and decarbonize the steel sector, the U.S. steel industry will need to significantly increase its #renewableenergy capacity. https://buff.ly/3VaAyKU
Big Oil and its allies are attacking the International Energy Agency for forecasting a relatively imminent peak in fossil-fuel demand and the rapid uptake of #renewables
The fossil fuel industry is shooting the messenger, because the message contains the words "stranded assets".
If the banks hear that message, that industry is DONE.
"By analysing global accounting regulations using data on European banks, our team of researchers identified a structural bias in financial models which are required to assess and report risk.
Alarmingly, they tend to judge carbon-intensive assets as less risky than lower carbon ones."
Pedal-electric Hopper may be the German "car" you didn't know you wanted.
.
The rider's pedaling power is augmented by a 250-watt rear hub motor, taking the Hopper up to a top speed of 25 km/h (16 mph). The motor is powered by a removable 30-Ah/48V/1,440-Wh lithium-iron-phosphate battery, which is claimed to be good for a range of approximately 65 km (40 miles) per charge. An optional rooftop solar panel should help boost that figure.
.
In order to minimise maintenance and mechanical complexity, the Hopper utilises an electronic pedal-by-wire system instead of a traditional chain-drive drivetrain.
.
Such systems work by having the rider spin up a generator as they pedal. Doing so converts their mechanical energy into electrical energy, which is fed into the motor. That motor converts the electrical energy back into mechanical energy, which is used to turn the wheel.
New video coming tonight, continuing the history of the Galloway Hydro Scheme.
It will cover the building of Clatteringshaws dam and the Glenlee Tunnel, which was the most expensive and dangerous part of the entire construction.
The last video covered the conditions the workforce endured, during the Great Depression, to construct the scheme, and here's a link to it to catch you up!
Sustainable Infrastructure
May 16th to June 20th 2024
About this course:
Managing land ecologically is a resource-intense activity which requires finding a balance between consumption, ecological impact, and financial solvency. This course will provide practical answers on balancing these often complex and sometimes competing needs. Sustainable Infrastructure centers student understanding on the fundamentals of farm and ranch scale energy systems, material choices, and waste management. We will explore how to design, maintain and manage energy systems, integrate cyclic waste management strategies, and evaluate and find low-impact materials for landed projects.
Hidden Lotus Herbs is getting ready to move to our new #farm site and really ramp up our operations!
For some backstory,
I was the recipient of a fund from @coop to start a worker-owned #cooperative and decided to make it an herbal apothecary!
We've been operational for around six months and are now starting our regenerative agroecological farm and increasing the capacity of our free clinic.
However, the #renewableenergy systems we're building are more expensive than we budgeted for, and we could use some help getting the farm and clinic going financially.
We're really needing help from our community to make all this cool stuff happen!
If you can spare some $, please consider supporting our transition and future. If you can't, please share far and wide!
"#RenewableEnergy accounted for more than 30% of the world’s electricity for the first time last year following a rapid rise in wind and solar power, according to new figures.
The surge in clean electricity is expected to power a 2% decrease in global fossil fuel generation in the year ahead, according to Ember."