21 comments on The Bullroarer - Tuesday 15 July 2008
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
| Show without comments | PDF version
21 comments on The Bullroarer - Tuesday 15 July 2008
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
| Show without comments | PDF version
User login
Contact
- anz at theoildrum dot com
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
GAIA Host Collective
Kiashu, I would like to see our smelter to sell it's share of the power station (probably at a loss if carbon emissions are targeted) and invest in renewables.
WHEN they are up and running you can proceed to start hitting them with carbon taxes as an incentive to completely phase them in. Do it before that and you will likely f**k things up.
Until I see some concrete proof to the contrary, I will have to assume that many renewable sources will not employ near as many people to run them. Efficient? Certainly, but you need to replace the jobs lost from the coal-fired generators. I visited a wind farm down your way, near Port Fairy. It was impressive but I did not see a single person working there - they were scarcely required. As far as I'm aware, no generator had previously existed there. So it hadn't replaced a fossil-fuel generator and knocked off a bunch of jobs like the closure of the power station here would.
So these things must be done slowly.
Hi Lefty,
While my own views tend to line up much more closely with those of Kiashu, I can offer you some specific reassurances about Gladstone.
If you read the summary of the Green Paper, (http://www.climatechange.gov.au/greenpaper/report/index.html), you'll see that Rudd will be bending over backwards to protect the export-competing industries of Gladstone. You shouldn't listen to scare campaigns to the contrary, they're just negotiating ploys from the companies - and they've worked!
For those with more Greenish opinions, Rudd's CPRS is already sounding like a very watered-down regime. On the plus side, it provides a National example to other countries and establishes the trading infrastructure to merge with future more effective global schemes. However, until such global schemes arise (and we're probably talking decades) I don't see the good citizens of Gladstone having anything to fear from carbon trading.
A bigger priority for you to focus on is how to help your family and friends cope with the near-term Peak Oil crisis in transport fuels and possible economic depression. (The keys are get out of debt, plant some veggies, buy a bike, and stay on good terms with your employer!) After that, why not stand for Gladstone Council and get all the local work-for-the-dole types slaving away on some dikes for all your infrastructure below 6 metres... just in case Global Warming doesn't work out as benignly as the Labor Party thinks!
;-)