Tony Abbott, Stephen Harper, David Cameron, John Key – criminals, every one.
During Fiery Heatwaves Australian PM Looks To Stall Thriving Clean Energy Sector
Think Progress,
23
January, 2014
A pattern is emerging in
which Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott chooses to ignore the
prominent signs that climate change is severely impacting Australia
and instead focus on rapidly extracting more fossil fuels from the
ground. In December, his environmental minister, Greg Hunt, approved
a massive coal mine in northeastern Australia that will produce up to
40 million tons of coal a year and emit as much CO2 as a small
European country. Abbott has also denied any link between harmful
bushfires and a changing climate — evidenced by Australia
experiencing its hottest year on record in 2013.
During an especially dry
start to the summer season this year a nasty spate of bushfires broke
out around Sydney. After brushing off the idea that climate change
could have anything to do with it, Abbott said “fire is part of the
Australian experience … it has been since humans were on this
continent.”
Now, amidst another round
of smothering heatwaves and deadly bushfires, Abbott is focusing on a
different element: wind. However, unlike with fires, he’s taking a
more critical eye towards this eternal staple of Australian history.
Last week Abbott floated
revisiting the possibility that wind farms might have a negative
impact on health, suggesting that that National Health and Medical
Research Council hadn’t looked into the subject in a while. The
timing on this seems very odd, considering the NHMRC reviewed the
issue in 2010, and in 2012 started another review, with the results
scheduled for public consultation early this year.
According to the NHMRC
website, possible impacts of wind farms on human health include
audible and inaudible noise, shadow flicker and electromagnetic
radiation.
“There have been no
less than 19 reviews of the evidence on wind farms and health
published since 2002,” Renew Economy reported regarding Abbott’s
recent statements. “All have concluded that while sometimes a
minority of people exposed report adverse health effects from living
near turbines, there is no good evidence that these effects are
directly attributable to the turbines.”
So why is Abbott calling
for this redoubled effort to find negative health impacts associated
with wind farms when it seems like ignoring climate change is the
real danger? The recent weather has been so hot that thousands of
bats are dropping dead from trees and kangaroos are struggling to
stay upright. Even Australia’s native eucalyptus, around as long as
fires have been burning them, are struggling with survival under the
long-term stress of climate change. And it’s not just mother
nature’s creations that are suffering — iPods don’t work under
such conditions either.
Meanwhile, Australia has
one of the lowest costs of wind energy anywhere, with the Bureau of
Resource and Energy Economics recently saying that wind power is now
competitive with fossil fuel plants. In fact, recent studies have
found that Australia could have a 100 percent renewable electricity
grid by 2040 and all the country would have to do is slightly
increase solar and wind power deployment.
The main impediment to
this at the moment would appear to be the Australian government
itself, and Abbott’s anti-climate, anti-clean energy agenda. Abbott
has already invested serious political capital in dismantling
Australia’s internationally leading carbon emissions scheme. In
November he cut the budget for the Australian Renewable Energy
Agency, which funds renewable energy projects and research. Then last
week he announced that the Australian Cleantech Competition would be
renamed the Australian Technologies Competition — so it would
appear even uttering words like climate or clean energy isn’t in
the cards anymore.
Abbott has also recently
indicated that he will likely weaken or scrap the country’s
mandated target for producing 20 percent of energy from renewable
sources by 2020, saying that “lower power prices are the
government’s primary goal.”
A recent report by the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found
that Australia was second among advanced nations in terms of
greenhouse gas emissions intensity per GDP. It also found that of the
34 nations included in the study only Chile, Mexico, Korea and Turkey
increased their emissions more than Australia in the last 23 years.
Australia has been
bestowed with an abundance of coal, gas, wind and sun. In recent
decades the government has invested heavily in extracting and
exporting the fossil fuel elements to fuel economic growth; but with
renewable energy price-competitive, readily available, and climate
friendly, it’s hard to see the argument against transitioning other
than that the vested interests want business-as-usual to continue.
However the harsh reality is that the climate will not continue as
business-as-usual, especially if reduced greenhouse gas emissions
aren’t achieved soon.
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