Australia is certainly a beacon of light at present.
How would you see it with the smoke?
Is there that much oz can do? Tiny population worldwise just the victims of geography
Well it could start by stopping the mining and export if coal and becoming a leader in renewable energy. Saying China and India are burning coal so thereās fuck all we can do is a bollocks argument.
Apart from the moral imperative, it is sheer economic lunacy what Australia does.
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Is coal / mining the equivalent of the gun lobby in the states?
The governmet isnāt called the COALition for nothing.
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Itās the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot.
China is not just burning coal, they are also the worldās largest producer, by far, and continue to ramp up mining and coal energy plants, not just in China but also in Africa. China produces 3.5 billion tons of coal per year, compared to India and the US at roughly 700 million tons each, and Australia at 500 million tons (80% of Australian coal is exported). If Australia didnāt export coal to China, Japan and India they would buy it elsewhere (Indonesia, Russia, S. Africa). The demand for coal based energy is the issue, and itās not going away for the next 100 years at least with our current energy production trajectory.
The bigger issue is while 40% of worldwide energy production is based on coal, itās 70% in China and 75% in India, two countries whose combined population is approaching 3 billion, and whose energy demands continue rising. A bigger issue again is coal reserves are estimated to last another 115 years, while oil is estimated to last 53 years, and much of oil based transportation usage will be largely replaced before then (except planes). At present there is absolutely zero chance that coal usage will be replaced or even reduced much by clean energy like solar and wind in the next 20 years in high demand countries like China and India. Much more likely is that coal production and burning will continue to rise, just as oil production and usage rose for the last century.
We lost a huge opportunity in the 1990s when 3rd and 4th generation nuclear reactors were developed and ready for production in the US, but the projects were cancelled due to the prevailing anti-nuclear sentiment at the time (Chernobyl, etc). Fourth generation reactors produce almost no radioactive waste as they consume all the fuel. The smart thing to do would be to invest massively in fourth generation nuclear which could replace much of coal energy plants in 20-30 years. The problem is these plants are enormously expensive to build, so it would require massive global investment from public and private sources. Fusion is the longer term answer, but realistically a minimum of 50 years away.
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Not that renewables donāt have a huge part to play. If you take the US, 30% of energy plants today are coal based, while 17% are renewables. It is estimated that in less than a decade 90% of coal plants could be replaced by wind and solar, and at lower costs.
China are better on the environment than oireland
Christ on a fixie
China produces ~30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a % that is rising every year and will rise for at least the next decade.
Ireland produces 0.13% of global greenhouse gas emissions, all of the EU 9%.
Thatās a serious clamping. Smithers hasnāt a notion what heās on about.
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China is doing a wonderful job fighting climate changeā¦ according to China
You truly need your head examined believing anything from those commie liars. Nothing gets published from China unless it is blessed by the Politburo.
The country comparisons are per capita, which is meaningless. The only number that matters is how much GHG are humans pumping into the atmosphere, itās currently at about 46 billion metric tons a year and expected to peak by 2030. China is producing 12.5 billion tons, but they are doing a great job as an academic has calculated (based off a theoretical GDP / capita measure nobody else in the world uses) they will stop increasing emissions at 16 billion tons in 2025 rather than 2030. Even though they are building 300 new coal plants as fast as they can outside China.
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/29/716347646/why-is-china-placing-a-global-bet-on-coal
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Donāt double down.mate
Donāt fall for commie lies, mate.
That was my fear there. Once kids get to secondary, itās almost unfair to move them so you either go before that or hold tough until theyāve finished it
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