kgwilson

That was a paper written 8 years ago. Latest scientific research shows the sea level has indeed risen. Physical evidence confirms this. There are numerous reports also. This is googles AI perspective. Tuvalu faces an existential threat from climate change, with rising sea levels expected to submerge much of its low-lying land (average elevation <2 meters) by 2050 and render 95% of the nation uninhabitable by 2100. The sea around Tuvalu is rising at roughly 4-5mm per year, significantly faster than the global average. Saltwater intrusion is contaminating groundwater and crops, forcing the nation to consider adapting through land reclamation or potential digital migration.

Tell the people of Tuvalu that the sea level is not rising or for that matter Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives. The highest point on Tuvalu is only 4.5 metres above sea level and the sea is already invading their lower areas making their gardens die from salination. It is forecast that Tuvalu will be completely uninhabitable by 2100.

I haven't been there for at least 15 years but I've driven past it 2 or 3 times a year for the past 15 years when I am heading for Noosa. I did go there a couple of weeks ago but the only reason was to leave it for NZ via the airport. Populated by the very wealthy with all their flash toys who could not care less for the environment. Very pompous & lacking of any good taste in architectural design. A slum for the wealthy. It was named for the high cost of real estate & rapid development in the late 50s. Used to be the South Coast with Southport, Coolangatta & Burleigh Heads the main centres. It was probably quite nice back then.

If it ever gets built Trump will probably be dead before it is finished

This what the SMH has to say about it, from Stuff NZ that isn't behind a paywall. 91 floors so fewer than Australia 108. Trumps personal insecurity and ego could not allow him not to propose the tallest though. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360942643/new-trump-tower-be-australias-tallest-building-private-beach-club-promised

The problem with sending that video to your uncle who doesn't believe in climate change is that his pea brain is so entrenched he won't believe it and has no understanding of or care for science. Trump is a great example of one of these Uncles.

Changes to the climate have occurred for over 3 billion years. It took this amount of time for the suns energy to enable life forms to create the fossil fuels we use today. We have used at least half of all the known reserves and most of the easily extractable fossil fuel in the last 150 years. So that is about 150 billion years of stored energy gone with all the waste going in to the atmosphere and oceans in only 150 years. Anyone who thinks that has not affected our climate must have rocks in their head.. Also climate variations from ice ages to Antarctica being green to a world too hot for land mammals to survive took thousands of years, some times millions of years. The last 40 years has seen the largest average temperature increase in recorded history and that is not very long. Mini ice ages and heat waves have occurred during human occupation of the planet but that is a measly 1 million years at best. At least 21 human species have existed but we are the only one that has survived for the past 40,000 years, the others wiped out for a number of reasons including the climate. We have to reduce our emissions or risk extinction which if we continue to increase them at the current rate will only be a few hundred years or less. Once we have used all of the fossil fuels available the planet will settle down to do its thing with changes occurring over the next few million years till the sun burns out.

Trumps complete lunacy know no bounds. He has announced that a Hospital ship is on its way to Greenland to care of many people who are sick & not being cared for. Greenlands PM has declined to accept it. What happened was a Danish sailor got sick & was transported 7NM to Nuuck by Seahawk helicopter for treatment. Apart from that nothing. Greenland has a free healthcare system & you have to pay for everything in the US. Also social media posts say that both of the American hospital ships are at a shipyard in Mobile Alabama. When asked for comment the navy referred callers to the White House. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360942171/greenland-says-no-thanks-trumps-curious-us-hospital-boat-plan

Sodium Ion batteries have started to appear in a number of Chinese EVs. Battery cost is around 60-65% less but energy density is considerably lower at this stage of development though those using Sodium Vanadium phosphate have a much improved energy density but higher cost. CATL the worlds largest battery manufacturer is producing them under the Naxtra brand. Their big advantage is high output under harsh conditions from -40 to +70 degrees celsius

My EV has 4 levels or regenerative braking. 1 is a bit like a normal ICE car, 3 is like applying brakes moderately & OPD (one pedal driving) is adaptive based on how you take your foot off the accelerator. Take it of suddenly and it brakes very quickly & slower if you take your foot off slower. I use the brakes occasionally to stop the discs from rusting and becoming pitted. I know of a Tesla that had done nearly 700,000 km & went in for new tyres & they checked the disc pads & found them less that 30% worn.

Modern reverse cycle air conditioners, more correctly called heat pumps are very efficient and most are inverters so they can reduce the power consumption once they get the temperature down (or up in the Winter). I installed a Mitsubishi Electric split system in my last house that cooled most of the house. It produced 7.2 kW of cooling and 8 kW of heat with a maximum current draw on 2.2kW. Once the house was down to about 25 degrees it drew only about 800 watts to maintain the temperature. Our new property came with a similar sized Daikin split system which is a bit older and not as efficient as the Mitsubishi but still only draws about 1 kW once it gets the house down to temperature. It is academic now though as all the power comes from solar during the day and stored solar in my home battery at night.

We will need fossil fuels for quite some time but the planet desperately needs to reduce its reliance on these if we are going to survive long term. Trump will be gone in 3 years and hopefully the pragmatists in the US will see that renewables and nuclear energy (though the waste is an issue) are the ONLY way forward. The problem is that it is dis-United with so many MAGA nutters and an education system that does not consider facts that are not American or anything that happens outside of America. Hollywood has distorted facts and American war movies always show how Americans won everything. Most believe WW2 started with Pearl Harbour. The fact that if the battle of Britain had not been won there would have been no place to create an invasion force. The Battle of the Bulge was only successful due to Montgomery sending 30 Corps South to stop the German Armour from crossing the Muse & taking Antwerp. US generals were scathing of British meticulous planning, engineering expertise and total concern at reducing casualties through innovation etc and Bletchley park with cracking the Enigma code has never really been acknowledged as most Americans believe they did it. The Poms just sucked it all up as by 1945 they were bankrupt & needed the US so did not complain. Now Trump has changed everything with his team of ignorant rampant neo colonialists and world dominance through absolute power. Things are changing though with the UK & Europe finally beginning the re-arm & get rid of the US dependence. Putin plays Trump like a chap violin & Xi just watches it all while seeing his dominance continue to expand. China out produces everyone especially in new technology with EVs, robots, machinery, solar and wind power and everything else. It is the worlds new high tech factory and no-one can get close now. Those of us in our 70s & more have seen the best of times. We will all be gone in a few years so hopefully human resourcefulness and decency will eventually prevail.

US debt is around US$38 trillion & most of it is owned internally. About US$8 trillion is owned by foreign countries. Japan, China & UK are the biggest external owners of US debt. When the value of the US$ drops so does the value of the debt. Investors are slowly moving away from the US as a safe investment & this is being reflected to a degree in the loss of value of the US$ as well. Trumps dumb and erratic policies will probably see interest rates rise to try to stem the outflow of investment in the US. He's only been there a year & the rot is setting in already.

Clinton & Obama have weighed in on this describing it as "a moment that will shape history" urging Trump to "reconsider his approach saying “Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them. If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back.” Prominent republicans & some of the original MAGA influencers, the most prominent Being Joe Rogan, have also been critical of Trump, Noem & ICE. Some commentators are likening ICE to the Gestapo in WW2. This has caused Trump to refuse to defend the ICE agent when asked & now say that the administration is "reviewing everything" about the incident. There will be no apology, ICE will get away with a review & a few sackings & the murderers will get off lightly. Trump will blame those he sacks as always though.

Kristy Noem has jumped in to blame the victims in both ICE murders with no evidence and in fact with photographic, video and personal reports from witnesses to the contrary completely ignored. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for Trump & his appointed sycophants that continually lying will eventually catch up on them

This is old news. It was reported over a year ago though it is still relevant. ICE agents appear to be recruited on the basis of Trump loyalty, Nazi philosophy, 100% MAGA deviancy, and thuggery. They are 21st century brown shirts & most won't show their face. If anything is a catalyst for a civil war this mob are at the top of the list.

Most new EVs from China are produced using numerous robots. The Xpeng factory in Guangzhou has 700 robots and produces a car every 76 seconds. They have now introduced humanoid robots to carry out tasks normally done by people like fitting wiring harnesses and fiddly detailed work. The robot is called IRON & they have developed a chip called Turing (after Alan Turing of Enigma code breaking fame) capable of handling 30 billion parameters. The dark (no lighting required) 100% robot car factory is touted to become a reality by 2030 just 4 years from now. Even Tesla say that the model 3 bodies are now 95% robot produced.

The main problem with recycling EV batteries in Australia is that there have not been enough of them to warrant the creation of a recycling plant. This will of course change as more EVs are added to the Australian vehicle fleet. The early recycling plants in the US (there are a number of good You tube videos) have proven that almost all of the critical minerals are recyclable. We just do not have the volume at this stage & that is all lithium based batteries able to be recycled. At this stage old EV batteries are still quite valuable for use as home or commercial energy storage but there are few available & mostly they are from early BMW or Nissan Leaf EVs as well as those recovered from crashed EVs. I imagine the federal and state governments battery subsidies will have the effect of reducing the value of these as well. Once an EV battery gets to about 70% of its original storage capacity, it still has many years of home storage left even though no longer useful in the EV. Add to that the fact that EV batteries are lasting considerably longer than original predictions. I have done just over 35,000km in my 2023 MG4 & battery health is still showing 100% The good thing about all of this is that batteries have a circular life with 96% of materials being recovered during recycling. Compare that to fossil fuels which are used once & then they are gone.

Mine doesn't. There is no filler cap at all.

I recently installed a new system as when we bought the property it had 8 x 175 watt panels approx 20 years old & the best out put I was getting in the middle of the day in Spring was about 950 watts. Each new panel is rated at 440 watts but are bi-facial so also generate from reflected light from the roof below. I have 20 panels arranged in 7 East facing, 6 North facing & 7 West facing on my Garage & Shed roofs at approximately 15 degrees of tilt. Total theoretical maximum generation 8.8 kW. Also installed is a 10kWh hybrid inverter and an 18.64 kWh battery. Installation was on 24 November 2025. Results to date are astounding. Heat hasn't made much difference as far as I can tell. We have had numerous days in the mid 30s & a few high 30s. The maximum generation has been 10 kW from a theoretical 8.8kW. Documentation states Up to 15% more from the reflected light to the under side of the panel so that is almost what has been achieved. There is considerable skepticism as to bi-facial effectiveness but my system proves it works as specified. Not only that, I haven't used any grid power at all & have had air conditioning on most of the time with everything in the house electric (except the gas BBQ & solar hot water). I have also charged my EV & 80 volt zero turn mower from the system. The total cost was $11,600.00 & I reckon 4-5 years payback. Anyone with a reasonable rooftop solar system should take advantage of the battery subsidies on offer. Our battery has never depleted below 60% overnight so a large battery (more than 15 kWh) is likely to be overkill for most people. The Federal subsidy scheme has been so successful that the $3.2 billion, expected to last till 2030 is half gone already & the scheme is being modified as installers were encouraging huge batteries (up to 50kWh) not up to 15kW that they were expecting. This was due to the subsidy being based on $ per kWh & a big battery could be installed for way less per kWh than a small one. All I am paying now is the daily supply charge. Some retailers are now charging over $2.00 a day for this. If all goes well over the next year I may pull the plug on the grid entirely.

In the beginning Man created God and in his own image created he, him. The rest is embellishment and stories with added prophets to reinforce the dictum, then the multitude of religions grew and were/are enforced by coercive control built in to each from the youngest possible age.

I wouldn't be a politician for the 4 or 5 hundred grand a year they get. Their lives are not their own and they have little time for their families. Taking the family to a sports event when you are the sports minister is OK with me as she has long periods of time away from them. The trip to the UN was an absolute must as Australia is the first in the world to impose a social media ban for under 16s & she championed it and needed to get this across to other nations who are trying to do the same. To me it promotes Australia as being at the forefront of a caring society not at the bottom of the pit like the US where the only thing that matters is the billionaires getting even richer. At their level of importance and the personal sacrifices they have to make plus having to be places at short notice means flying first class is totally justified and what I expect. Like everyone she made the choice to get in to politics but it is unforgiving and brutal. Put any of the armchair warriors who whinge about everything in their position and the tune will change pretty rapidly

The asbestos rumour is indeed a furphy. Turbine blades are made from fibreglass &/or carbon fibre composites like a lot of other modern and highly technical products including many aircraft. Recycling this is quite difficult but they can be ground in to filler for roads and cement products or repurposed for infrastructure as in bridges etc.. The rest of the turbine is fully recyclable containing mostly metals (steel, aluminium, copper) and concrete which can be crushed into aggregate.

There are plenty of solar farms that co-exist with cropping or grazing. Modern panels are translucent to a degree so some light gets through to the ground. Sheep are ideal for use in what is known as Agrivoltaics as they graze under standard height panels, remove the need for mechanical or chemical vegetation control, provide shelter for sheep, reduce the fire risk and actually improve the pasture as well as providing an additional source of income.

I think what we need in a balance mix of large scale renewables (solar/Wind/pumped hydro) large scale battery storage which includes pumped water, rooftop solar and home batteries, Industry solar & batteries, and neighbourhood batteries for local communities with rooftop solar with no battery. All these are happening to a degree but not fast enough. Government incentives for home batteries is getting a massive response from home owners with rooftop solar & this will inevitably reduce stress on the grid as will neighbourhood batteries & Industry batteries. That is not to say the existing grid is satisfactory, it is not, and growing demand means upgrades and maintenance is even more important. Now there are AI data centres planned that have a huge appetite for energy. There has to be some sort of limitation put on some new large energy consumers or we won't have the capacity in the timeframe it takes for the consumers to come on line. New Coal is simply too expensive and too polluting to even consider, though some idiot politicians think it is still OK. Nuclear is way to expensive to build and takes far too long to be a viable option in the medium 10 to 15 year timeframe, plus we have no experience or expertise. So far at just under 2 weeks since my new solar and battery was installed I have only exported power & used zero grid power even while charging my EV, running A/C & normal household stuff. I also have a fault in one string of panels so they are not producing power at all yet. Total on line is 5.7 kW max of solar.