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octave

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Posts posted by octave

  1. SHANGHAI (REUTERS) - China's total planned coal-fired power projects now stand at 226.2 gigawatts (GW), the highest in the world and more than twice the amount of new capacity on the books in India, according to data published by environmental groups on Thursday (Sept 19).

     

    The projects approved by China amount to nearly 40 per cent of the world's total planned coal-fired power plants, according to the Global Coal Exit List database run by German environmental organisation Urgewald and 30 other partner organisations.

     

     

     

    China has not stepped away from low carbon energy and continues to develop renewables.  It will be interesting to see if all of the power stations go ahead.   There are many reasons that the Chinese people may not accept more pollution than they already endure.    These future power stations will have to stack up against increasingly efficient and clean technologies.  In a purely economic sense, any investment power stations  (of any kind) must be able to ensure a return for investors over its payback period. 

     

    “Beijing said on Tuesday, in a position paper ahead of the UN meeting, that it would remain on ‘the clean energy and low-carbon development path’, but stopped short of setting new targets,” Reuters says. “China has cut the share of coal in its total energy mix from more than 68% in 2012 to 59% by the end of last year, but overall consumption has continued to increase,” with 1,020 GW of installed capacity as of late July.

     

    https://theenergymix.com/2019/09/22/china-plans-226-gw-of-new-coal-plants/

     

    Compared to our 16% renewable power China has done quite well.

     

    Power generation from renewable energy sources reached 1,870 TWh in 2018, an increase of 170 TWh and making up 26.7 percent of the country’s total. Hydro contributed 1,200 TWh (up 3.2 percent), wind – 366 TWh (up 20 percent), PV – 177.5 TWh (up 50 percent) and biomass – 90.6 TWh (up 14 percent). 

     

    https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/2019/03/06/chinas-renewable-energy-installed-capacity-grew-12-percent-across-all-sources-in-2018/#gref

     

    Peter you started out by saying the science is rubbish then you questioned the motives of the scientists suggesting that it was some kind of plot to bring down capitalism (although it is never explained why)  and now you have moved on to  subtly suggest that what we do is irrelevant so lets just keep burning fossil fuels.

     

    Because an extremely large country is only making slow progress but yet is still trying does not mean we should abandon the move away from the older methods of generating power.  

     

     

     

  2. The things that were being asked for were these

     

    1. No new coal, oil and gas projects,

     

    2. 100% renewable energy generation and exports by 2030.

     

    3. Fund a just transition and job creation for all fossil-fuel workers and communities.

     

    Seems pretty reasonable to me, I did not hear anything about to complete dismantling of the modern world  as the "alarmists" claim.

     

     

  3. No I don't Octave. I was commenting on the only options I could see possible if what the previous poster said about the capitalist/socialist thing was true. I don't personally believe it's true.

     

    As you say " Equating emission controls with some sort of socialist plot seems pretty whacky to me. ". It seems pretty wacky to me as well. Is it possible you might have misinterpreted the context of my post?

     

    Sorry quoted the wrong the post !

     

     

  4. Has it not occurred to you that the Australian Youth Coal Coalition is a plant by the anti- coal movement? It seems obvious.

     

    Really drifting into conspiracy territory there.   Let's say that was true, it is just as disturbing how quickly this story was spread and how many people wanted to believe it was true. 

     

    No doubt there's politics involved. If it was primarily about capitalism versus socialism, I can only see two aspects to that. One is that emission control measures push us further toward a socialist economy and lifestyle.

     

     

     

    So do you really believe this? 

     

    Equating emission controls with some sort of socialist plot seems pretty whacky to me.

     

    I live on part time work and my investments, I certainly have no wish to tear down the economy.

     

      So was Joseph Fourier a rampant socialist? How about Tyndall or Arrhenius?   Are  CSIRO koolaide drinking socialists?   How about the board of BHP?  Bom secret plan to introduce socialism. Sorry that just sounds lame. Of course there are some who may have this goal but this does not change the physics.

     

     If the weight of the evidence contradicts the theory then I will happily  abandon it.  The weight of the evidence supports the theory at this point in time. Sure, you can cherry pick articles graphs and study but you have to admit that the evidence against is sparse. 

     

    I am going with the consensus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_consensus_on_climate_change I believe this is rational. 

     

    I doesn't really matter what a few people believe, the changes are happening.  I am not anti miner, in fact like any technological revolution we are going to need minerals such as cobalt, lithium, copper etc.        

     

     

  5. So the first thing on my FB feed  this morning was posted by a friend (now ex friend)  of a park full of rubbish. The Title of this picture claimed it was the disgusting aftermath of the climate march in Sydney.   The crusty old commenters were incandescent with rage. Look at these horrible young people who claim to be concerned about the environment trash Sydney's Hyde park.    Immediately my BS sensor went off. For a start having lived in Sydney in the past  (as the poster also does)  this did not look like Hyde park Sydney.  After quick search I found that this is an old picture  from a different event in a different country and was first posted in april and not at all related to the climate event. It is not hard for an intelligent person to fact check. Pretty disgusting tactics  Apparently propagated by the facebook group The Australian Youth Coal Coalition.   Other versions of this tactic have appeared overseas also.

     

      https://7news.com.au/news/climate-change/the-real-story-behind-viral-photo-of-climate-change-protesters-leaving-rubbish-behind-in-sydneys-hyde-park-c-465028

     

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/protesters-hyde-park-rubbish/

     

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/21/climate-strikes-hoax-photo-accusing-australian-protesters-of-leaving-rubbish-behind-goes-viral

     

    https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/climate-change/the-picture-of-rubbish-left-behind-by-climate-change-protest-exposed-as-fake-news-ng-b881330435z

     

    https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/a-climate-change-photo-that-has-been-shared-more-than-34000-times-has-outraged-facebook-users/news-story/2271ff0fd36fe1be9282b31be1de3977

     

     

  6. I notice that kids are going to start protesting about climate change. Good on them, say I. If they are prepared to make some sacrifices to save the planet, we should support them.

     

    Personally, I would do anything to save the planet as long as it didn't cost me money or stop me doing things I like. I hope the kids are better than me.

     

     I attended the one in Geelong, it was well organised by these intelligent articulate young people.  There were as many if not more older folks there.

     

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  7. The information is coming from the North American Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. WTF? What is a Jet Propulsion laboratory doing in this business, they should be designing rocket motors. Do you believe a spokesman from the Russian space program? Or the Chinese? Why has NASA got this lavishly funded, beautifully presented propaganda site?

     

    I am sure you are aware that NASA does more than build rockets. i am sure you are aware of it's Earth observation   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Observing_System  JPL is a facilty that mangaged for NASA by Caltec.        So you believe NASAs site is a beautifully funded propagander site.  I feel you need to expand and this.  SoUS government (under Trump) is funding this "propaganda. I think it is fair to ask you to what end?  Under Trump I imagine that the surest path to more funding would be to support Trump's position on climate change ie give us another  few billion and we will produce propaganda that supports your case.   

     

    So Peter what other sites are propaganda?    I am guessing CSIRO and Bom as well as Australian Institute of Physics the list is too long to reproduce here.     I guess the geological world may provide you with some support because of course geologists are the natural experts when it comes to the physics of the atmosphere however it seems like most geological bodies accept the science.

     

    I guess you believe BHP are drinkers of Koolaide?  https://www.bhp.com/media-and-insights/reports-and-presentations/2019/07/evolving-our-approach-to-climate-change

     

    Or perhaps Shell?         Shell oil says it will quit a lobbying group that opposes global climate goals

     

    As for Russia and China,  I cannot comment on what an "unnamed spokesman" said without out knowing who they are and what exactly they said.   I do note however that both Russia and China are signatories to the Kyoto agreement and the Paris agreement.

     

    The term drinking the Koolaide infers that you think my positions is a little crazy. I would suggest that it is a lot more difficult to support your position.   Your position is contrary to the majority of the scientific community.

     

    I did go back a read this whole thread and in our interactions I did pose many questions which mostly  you have not addressed.  I have always posted detailed (I am sure many would say tedious) answers to your questions. 

     

     

  8. where I live we can raise grass fed beef using the water that falls on the land and what is collected in dams and creeks.

     

    The grass requires water and the cattle require water as opposed to just a crop whether it be beans or wheat or barley or whatever.   Your assertion is that do gooders make statements without knowing the facts  so what I am asking you is what are the facts. Now is your chance to educate us.   You say that you grow beef with water from dams and creeks on your property you are you saying that vegetable growers are unable to do this?   Why?

     

    I would also have much more carbon emissions from the tilling, harvesting and transportation of the crop, plus where would the labour come from.

     

    don't you transport your cattle to the saleyards and are they not then transported to the abattoir? 

     

    It may be a different matter on the Darling Downs, or down South, but land here is not suited to growing crops .

     

     

     

    Obviously certain areas are suited to different types of farming, if crops cant be grow ion the Darling Downs then fine, who is saying they should be?

     

    If the tree huggers have their way cattle would be banned,

     

    I think there may be a little paranoia here, yes there are people who try to convince people to switch their diet to vege but this is surely no more annoying than the bloke on TV who tries to convince me to eat lamb on Australia day but I can deal with that.

     

    The tree huggers wouldn't even let us shoot the wild pigs.

     

    For twenty years I owned and lived on 44 acres on the southern tableands and during that time no one stopped me from arranging for feral pigs to be culled. I am not even sure what mechanism they would use to prevent me from doing that, in fact I had it done because I was compelled to by the Rural Land Protection Board.  Someone may express displeasure because they don't believe in culling pigs but so what?  It is you right and at least when I lived on the land it was my obligation.

     

    Notice do gooders have been elevated to tree huggers.

     

    As soon as name calling is used instead of evidence I usually assume that the evidence may be difficult to come by. Tree hugger or redneck are just stupid stereotypes people use.  

     

     

  9. Where would the money come from? The government is funded by taxes, they take money from us, not the other way around. 

     

    Firstly I don't know enough about this to form an opinion but I understand there are places where this is up and running, Alaska, Finland etc. Not sure whether these systems work or not.  In terms of the tax take, most people  would still work and pay income tax. I think most universal income schemes are a pretty basic amount and I would imagine the majority would still rather earn enough to buy a house and travel etc.  Also  income tax is just one source of taxation, even people who only receive the aged pension ( a form of social wage in that you get it whether you have paid tax or not) are still tax payers by virtue of the fact that they pay gst and  sales tax etc.  As I say I am not too knowledgeable about this idea but I have seen it supported by serious economisits so I think it is fair to assume that the question of taxation is not just a whoops forgot to consider that scenario.

     

     

  10. Here's a debating point in the climate change discussion...

     

    Climate-change opposer are doing more harm to the future lives of our kids than the jailed pedophiles ever did. Therefore climate-change opposition is worse than pedophilia and should be punished accordingly.

     

    One of these things is caused by unawareness  and or wanting to cling to the past (in my view) and the other is caused the direct exploitation of another human whilst knowing the harm caused.

     

    By way of an example buying a consumer product that is made with child labour is bad if you are aware of the origin and method of production.  Most people are unaware or at least try not to think about it.   Yes it has a levell of wrongness about it but human nature being what it is we are able to ignore wrongness that is not right in front of us.   In terms of climate change I do  not think shaming or name calling ever works. I am a strong believer in information and data.    I think people find it hard to accept that anything they do (or I) could be anything less than wonderful.   

     

    Personally I try to do the right things but I am self aware to understand that I still drive my car, fly a plane and travel overseas.  For this reason I think we need to tackle these problems at a society level so that we can maintain a modern comfortable life.  

     

     

  11. By do gooders I was meaning those who push a barrow without knowing what is in it. For example there are a load of people saying we should eat beans rather than beef. I just wonder how eating beans will reduce the methane or other greenhouse gases. To grow beans you have to plant, them water them, harvest and then transport and mill them. To eat beef, you put cattle out on the dry country where I live, they water themselves in water holes or dams, eat the dry cellulose that grows, then you ship them off to an abbatoir. Much less use of fossil fuels and fertilisers, but I suppoe the downside is that it is less labour intensive.

     

    Basicly they are people who believe any sort of bullshit poked out by greenies.

     

    Nev. I never read the Courier Mail, otherwise I agree with you wholeheartedly. Hazlewood always appalled me with its pollution, but so did most other power stations. I did spend over a decade working on those places, building chimneys designed to spread the pollution further away, so that it wasn't so obvious.

     

    I was talking to someone the other day who reckoned Calcap power station, built in the sixties was a very low producer of carbon dioxide, he installed the gear to collect it. Now of courst it is closed and Callide has taken over the pollution.

     

     

     

    I am not convinced that is correct re beans and cattle but of course the  only rational way to know is to examine the hard evidence. I am wondering what information you used to come to these conclusions?  By the way I dont give  a toss what others eat. I am  not in a position until later today to check the facts and figures  but I would be willing  bet a reasonable  sum of money that it takes more water to produce  kg of beef compared to a kg of vegetables. But again evidence and data is the only way to know.

     

     

  12. I suspect that the definition of a do gooder is determined by the beliefs of person making the judgement.  The term is often used as an alternative to a rational fact based critique.   I give a small monthly donation to .a charity that helps educate people in third poor countries and contributes to projects that help provide clean water etc.  Am I one of those nasty "do gooders"?

     

     

  13.  It isnt the intelligent, well reasoned do gooding thats the problem its the mindless, knee jerk do gooding thats the problem

     

    I would agree that "doing good" should be evidence based. All too often people confuse their gut feeling with what the evidence suggests.  It is all too easy to cherry pick evidence that supports what we want to believe.  

     

     

  14. That Tom Lehrer recording must be at least 30 years old. I nearly fell out of my cot when I first heard it. It goes well with poisoning pigeons in the park.

     

     

     

    Even older than that, I think this recording was made in the 60s.  I do tend to judge people on whether or not they have heard of Tom Lehrer. ?    Poisoning  pigeons in the park was my first introduction to Lehrer. 

     

     

  15. Best argument for not believing climate change comes from the green leader today in a statement about the Queenland bushfires.   .   Di Natalie is rapidly becoming another speak before you think expert.   Please, all you greens out there, speak to the people on the land, people who actually know what the situation is and live with its effects before you get on your high horses in your city dwellings, turn off your airconditioning and actually think using facts and real world evidence not rubbish spouted by "experts" with no experience.   There may be a problem but walking off the cliff with everyone else because some "expert"says so turns people into sheep.   Talk to real life people living with the land and climate, not high rise plastic tree huggers...

     

     

     

    Tree huggers like NASA etc.?    That argument is similar to anti vaxxers and anti evolutionists, the experts are making it up.    Bottom line is this If I am unfortunate enough to get cancer I will consult an oncologist.  If 9 of the "experts" give advice that is contradicted by 1 I am going with the 9.    

     

    You dont really provide any evidence you just warn us to not listen to experts (or at least the ones you dont agree with)

     

    Of course it is important to listen to the views of farmers

     

    https://www.farmersforclimateaction.org.au/climate_change_and_agriculture

     

    https://www.futurefarmers.com.au/young-carbon-farmers/carbon-farming/climate-threats-to-australiaa-agriculture

     

    https://www.foreground.com.au/environment/the-farmers-fighting-climate-change/

     

    People talk about climate alarmists but I would like to point out that there are also renewable energy alarmists.  Australia has a very small percentage of its power generated by renewables, there are countries with much more renewable generation. By and large these countries are not economic basket cases.

     

    The fact is that the denial club is quite small and getting smaller.   Whilst governments tend to be bad at this sort of thing private enterprise is surging ahead.    

     

    BHP  https://www.bhp.com/media-and-insights/news-releases/2019/07/bhp-to-invest-us400m-to-address-climate-change

     

    BP  https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/sustainability/climate-change.html 

     

    https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/sustainability/group-reports/bp-sustainability-report-2018.pdf

     

    BP rolling out EV charging network

     

    https://www.electrive.com/2019/08/15/bp-opens-150kw-chargers-at-uk-service-stations/

     

    I am a bit over debating this.   I am happy to discuss the merrits of the evdence but other than the odd graph not much is actually presented here.    I will take EASA, NASA, CSIRO,  Brithish accademy of science if science, I could go on but the list is too long over the odd retired geologist or meteorologist or Andrew Bolt.

     

    Aas long as we take a measured and science based approach to moving to the next energy age, I do not forsee massive problems.  If the climate science turns out to be wrong then we have just moved to the next phase long before fossil fuels run out. If the deniers are wrong..........

     

    Quote from a Mining Journal -

     

    "The electric revolution and digital transformation are two parallel streams that are coming together. High-capacity batteries and smart communication will rapidly change the way we operate.

     

    "We live at a very interesting time."

     

    History not repeating, perhaps.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    Electricity prices related to installed wind and solar capacity. No politics, just the facts at present.

     

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    Background

     

    The ACCC’s preliminary findings are that, on average across the NEM, a 2015-16 residential bill was $1,524 (excluding GST). This average residential bill was made up of:

     

    • network costs (48 per cent)
       
    • wholesale costs (22 per cent)
       
    • environmental costs (7 per cent)
       
    • retail and other costs (16 per cent)
       
    • retail margins (8 per cent).
       

     

    The ACCC which certainly does not go easy on renewables claiming that rooftop solar should have it's subsidies reduced but none the less finds the environmental costs of electricity in Australia are 7%.   I am assuming you reject these findings, it would be interesting to know where you believe its findings are faulty.  As for your above offerings the first chart  shows a correaltion but only compares some countries and not others.   I note that Australia in 2016 was at 14.5% renewables and th UK was  27.9% in 2016 and yet the per capita price is more in Austraila than in the UK. Norway 97.2% yet fairly low prices. Finland 44.2% and yet cheaper than Australia. New Zealand 83.9% yet does not appear on graph. There are many reasons for differences in cost of electricity. The ACCC goes into this in a lot of detail.

     

    The second graph is a table of electricity costs, it does not give any reasons.  I would suggest that given our sparse population and large land mass direct comparrison may be problematic.

     

    Like it or not new technologies are coming.

     

     

  17. I would agree that it is easy to get info about how to do anything in the handyman line, but I don't see anywhere near as much handyman work being done now, compared to 20 years ago.

     

    The current idea seems to be get rid of something and replace it with new. There is very little repair of existing things.

     

    There are very few owner builders of houses and I know of only one aeroplane being built in this area, whereas ten years ago there were 4 or 5. I seldom see a boat being built in the backyard and 20 years ago there was one in every street. Nowadays everyone is too busy looking at their mobile phone to have time to build anything, even though the information to do so is freely available.

     

    Not partcullary my experience but I guess it is about who you know.   There are extremely vibrant makers" communites online  Also it is my go to place to find out how to repair something.  To the extent that people dont repairs thing is I believe nothing to do with people being less willing but lets face it many appliances are specifically made not to be fixed. 

     

    The kind of people I know are like this fellow, who is my sons business partner.  This is the 3D tank he designed and built, nearly entirely by 3D printing. Oh and he built the 3D printer himself.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO3M_ODuiZU  

     

     

  18. I feel that my General Knowledge, which was pretty good before the year 2000, has increased markedly in the past couple of years since I've had the chance to spend more time researching stuff. I know for sure that I wouldn't have been able to create a family tree back to the 1690's without the internet. On the home front, Youtube taught me how to correctly sharpen a chisel; to create scale scenery; produce realistic painted scale models. Then there is the knowledge I have gained about aircraft hardware, fuels, engine operation and so on. Finally I would never have established the world-wide acquaintanceships that I now enjoy via the 'Net.

     

     

     

    Pre internet we owner built a house ultimately successfully but with many missteps.  Post internet we renovated our house and now we are renotvating our present place. Youtube is a fantastic resource. How the hell do I tile around that corner?  What tool can I use for this job? Why doesent my oven work?

     

     

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