Renewable energy is only safe approach
After Malcolm Turnbull was elected prime minister, he urged Australians “to embrace disruption…to be agile, innovative, creative and to take advantage of the volatility in change”.
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Yet on climate-change he continues not to heed his own advice as shown by his recent urgings that AGL extend the life of the obsolete and dirty Liddell power station.
Climate science has always been clear; ‘If we continue to discharge huge volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, globally the atmosphere and oceans will increasingly warm causing extreme weather conditions which include recent hurricanes Irma and Maria, both of severe “ferocity and intensity”.
And closer to home, the Climate Council confirms that Australia has just experienced its hottest winter on record with temperatures up by two degrees Celsius (on average) as a consequence of worsening climate change.
Professor Lesley Hughes of the Climate Council says “We must take meaningful action to strongly reduce Australia’s emissions from fossil fuels, yet our government continues to delay action to reduce emissions and actively supports further development of coal-fired power which is simply nonsensical”.
Australia’s energy crisis did not arise from the uptake of renewable energy but from the lack of planning over many decades by subsequent governments paying little heed to advice from climate scientists and persisting with ad-hoc climate policies with no evidence of “embrace disruption…be innovative”.
Sydney has just experienced its hottest September night on record, September heat records continue to be broken across western New South Wales and severe bushfires are already occurring in both New South Wales and Victoria, yet the government continues to stall on Dr Alan Finkel’s report recommendations.
Renewable energy is the only safe approach for our climate future.
If politicians continue to obstruct and delay progress in innovation and creativity towards that goal and persist with plans to revert to old polluting technology, then the “volatility in change” will inevitably be the sweeping aside of such old-guard politicians to be replaced with “agile, innovative, creative” thinkers who can re-establish a less hostile climate for all future generations.
Ian Cooper, California Gully
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