What’s with the UK’s ‘boneheaded’ energy policy?: Medium

climate criminals

"Lobbies and the Military are pushing the UK to favour fracking and nuclear energy over renewables."

“ 'England’s energy policy is very opportunistic, there is no long-term vision,” says Duncan Connors, an economics and energy policy specialist at Durham University. The idea that there is money to be made short-term in shale gas is what underpins government policy, he says. “In the long run, renewables will also bring in a lot of money, but that doesn’t fit into their frame of vision.' ”

climate emergency

"For now, there is still a limit to wind and solar energy: the need to store energy to compensate for uneven weather conditions. Kirby argues that this “isn’t a real problem,” in a few years, there will be batteries powerful enough to store the surplus energy and retransmit it. “The smart thing to do now would be to invest resources into conducting research into making these storage options a reality,” he says. In the UK, Green energy gets twelve times less R&D funding from the government than nuclear power."

Read the complete Medium article. 

Related : Australia’s 2018 environmental scorecard: a dreadful year that demands action: The Conversation

#renewables  #UK   #UnitedKingdom  #shalegas   #methane   #batterystorage   #fracking

Urunga NSW: Very affected by sea level rise.

Unundation of Urunga NSW with 7m sea rise. Click to enlarge.

• We are looking more and more unlikely to prevent global heating.

• Scientists are predicting the melting of the ice covering Greenland  with a subsequent sea level rise of 7m.

• This rise does not factor in sea rise from the melting of Antarctica and other ice.

• Already many properties and infrastructures are likely to flood when a high tide is combined with high local rainfall. What were a hundred year rainfall events are now ten year events.

• The frequency of high rainfall events will increase with global heating and more and more severe hurricanes are predicted because of warmer seas.

• Low coastal areas will also be subjected to severe storm surges.

• Would you buy a property likely to be inundated in twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years? Many wouldn't. Even the perception of possible inundation will greatly affect property values. Insurers are already reluctant to insure many properties that were once only likely to flood every 100 years.

• When certain properties are in less demand their value falls.

• Would you buy a property with a value likely to fall?

•  The view of Urunga above shows areas likely to be inundated by even a 7m sea level rise. Note the flooding of infrastructure and roads. Newry Island has disappeared.

• Property above a 10m rise will become highly sought after and will greatly rise in value. Property able to be accessed by road will increase in value but properties isolated by sea rise will lose value. New, costly road routes above the Bellinger/Kalang Rivers floodplain will be required. Will NSW be able to afford to update all its infrastructure? Water supply will be affected.

Isaac Cordal sculpture depicting politicians discussing global warming

Learn more about how sea rise inundation will affect Australian property.

Click here to go to Coastal Risk Australia site

'Retreat' Is Not An Option As A California Beach Town Plans For Rising Seas: NPR 


#inundation  #sea rise  #searise  #climatecrisis  #climatechange  #ice  #melting ice  #insurancerisk  #floods  #climate catastrophe  #Urunga

What do I say to my daughter when she tells me climate change will end the earth in 12 years time?: Medium

My daughter is funny.

She’s intelligent, caring, stubborn. She knows her own mind and is a delight to be around.

But then I would say that, I’m her mum.

But what do I say to her when she sits me down, looks me in the eye and says, “ What’s the point in further education if the world is going to become uninhabitable in 12 years? Am I not better off going out there now and travelling before it’s all gone?”.

Can you imagine being 16, and knowing that the world is going to change, catastrophically, because the adults have royally fucked it up?

Read the article in Medium 

#human driven mass extinction  #children  #youth  #climate catastrophe  #climate despair

See also: 

Earth at 2° hotter will be horrific. Now here’s what 4° will look like. | David Wallace-Wells

 

Australia’s 2018 environmental scorecard: a dreadful year that demands action: The Conversation

"Temperatures went up again, rainfall declined further, and the destruction of vegetation and ecosystems by drought, fire and land clearing continued. Soil moisture, rivers and wetlands all declined, and vegetation growth was poor.
In short, our environment took a beating in 2018, and that was even before the oppressive heatwaves, bushfires and Darling River fish kills of January 2019."

Dar

Indicators of Australia’s environment in 2018 compared with the previous year. Similar to national economic indicators, they provide a summary but also hide regional variations, complex interactions and long-term context. source: http://www.ausenv.online/2018

"Globally, the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere accelerated again after slowing down in 2017. Global air and ocean temperatures remained high, sea levels increased further, and even the ozone hole grew again, after shrinking during the previous two years."

Read the article 

See also:

Australian Coalition government signs off with a budget tailored for climate denial: Renew Economy

Australian Coalition government signs off with a budget tailored for climate denial: Renew Economy

"The federal Coalition government has delivered its last budget before the May poll, and pretty much finished the way it started in government nearly six years ago: Long term climate and clean energy policies and technologies are ignored, and the focus is on trinkets and handouts.

Don’t worry about climate, or even any other “assets” and themes that have long-term value, such as education and research, seems to be the message. Instead:Look, money! 

And it’s mostly awarded to people who probably don’t need it.

The cynicism is revealed in both the climate and the energy

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg

announcements. In climate, the Coalition appears to have given up all pretence that it is taking its own mediocre policies seriously."

Read Renew Economy article


See also: 

Australia’s plunging wind, solar, storage costs stun fossil fuel industry: Renew Economy

 

 

#australia #climate criminals  #greenwashing  #electric vehicles  #fossil fuel subsidies  #climate action 

Will Bellingen Property Values be affected by a 10m sea rise?

Bellingen with a 10m sea rise. Click to enlarge.

• We are looking more and more unlikely to prevent global heating.

• Scientists are predicting the melting of the ice covering Greenland  with a subsequent sea level rise of 7m.

• This rise does not factor in sea rise from the melting of Antarctica and other ice.

• Already many properties and infrastructures are likely to flood when a high tide is combined with high local rainfall. What were a hundred year rainfall events are now ten year events.

• The frequency of high rainfall events will increase with global heating and more and more severe hurricanes are predicted because of warmer seas.

• Low coastal areas will also be subjected to severe storm surges.

• Would you buy a property likely to be inundated in twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years? Many wouldn't. Even the perception of possible inundation will greatly affect property values. Insurers are already reluctant to insure many properties that were once only likely to flood every 100 years.

• When certain properties are in less demand their value falls.

• Would you buy a property with a value likely to fall?

•  The view of Bellingen above shows areas likely to be inundated by a 10m sea level rise. Note the flooding of infrastructure and roads.

• Property above a 10m rise will become highly sought after and will greatly rise in value. Property able to be accessed by road will increase in value but properties isolated by sea rise will lose value. A much larger bridge will be needed between North and South Bellingen. New, costly road routes above the Bellinger River floodplain will be required. Will NSW be able to afford to update all its infrastructure? Water supply will be affected.

Isaac Cordal sculpture depicting politicians discussing global warming

Learn more about how sea rise inundation will affect Australian property.

Click here to go to Coastal Risk Australia site

'Retreat' Is Not An Option As A California Beach Town Plans For Rising Seas: NPR 


#inundation  #sea rise  #searise  #climatecrisis  #climatechange  #ice  #melting ice  #insurancerisk  #floods  #climate catastrophe 

Florida chooses world’s largest solar + storage project to replace gas plants: Renew Economy

"Florida Power & Light (FPL), the state utility owned by NextEra Energy, plans to build the world’s largest solar plus battery storage project which will boast battery capacity four times larger than anything currently in operation.

The new project is specifically intended to accelerate the retirement and replacement of two 1970s-era natural gas generating units at the company’s neighbouring power plant."

Read the article