The only source of energy that can meet global demand while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions is nuclear power. But our perception of nuclear power is coloured by issues of safety, radiotoxic waste, and…
From the plate to the power station.
Flickr/tomylees
The amount of scrap food thrown away worldwide is staggering. WRAP, a government-funded non-profit set up to encourage recycling and clamp down on waste, reports that in the UK we discard more than 7.2m…
Chapelcross, Scotland: decisions over our future sources of energy won’t wait until the cows come home.
Magnox Sites Ltd
Providing power to the nation is no small task. It requires considerable forward planning, involves huge costs and considerable risks. More risk and cost, in fact, than most energy providers can stomach…
Blackouts remind us what life was like before cheap, readily available electricity – but it’s time to think about the true price of our power.
Candle in the dark image from www.shutterstock.com/Ronen
No lights, no power, no internet – and no easy solutions.
Fumbling around in a middle of a blackout, hoping to find a torch or some spare batteries, I was struck by just how utterly dependent most of…
Be the change you wish to see in the world – it may have more impact than you realise.
Corepics VOF/Shutterstock
We all know that children learn by example. I know if I swear in front of my four year old I’m going to hear that word again soon, probably right in front of my mother-in-law, a school teacher, or a priest…
The big emitters of greenhouse gases – China, India, and Brazil – and other developing countries were not bound by Kyoto emission targets, and the USA refused to sign up to the Protocol.
Bret Arnett
Australia is on track at the end of this year to meet its emission reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol. We’ve also signed up to the new version of Kyoto. But that should not encourage us to believe…
Australia could soon have millions of small electricity generators.
absentmindedprof/Flickr
The 2012 Energy White Paper has much to commend it. In particular, the far greater acknowledgement of the need to shift to clean energy sources is a fundamental shift from previous White Papers.
The emphasis…
Do you value this? The Energy White Paper doesn’t.
Green MPs
Burn it all. That is the plan in Australia’s new Energy White Paper.
Released yesterday by Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson, it talks about responding to climate change while planning the…
Housing stress and energy poverty are compromising the health of low-income Australians.
onecellotheory/Flickr
The well-being of low-income Australian households is being seriously undermined by the increasing cost of housing and electricity. Many such households are suffering from both housing stress and energy…
The Origin Smart portal provides customers with an estimate of future electricity bills.
fudj
Early last week, Origin Energy, Australia’s pre-eminent energy retailer, launched an online energy-use monitoring portal Origin Smart to much fanfare. All good – but what about the the privacy and security…
Sign of things to come: a depleted Lake Hume in 2007, when the big dry still had a couple years to run.
Flickr/Tim J Keegan
Victoria has entered a critical decade in the race to adapt for the stresses of climate change, according to a new report from the Climate Commission.
Following the release of Victorian climate impacts…
Sold to the lowest bidder! The carbon price will not transform Australia’s power supply without further steps to help low-emission technologies into the market.
Flickr/sashafatcat
When it comes to reducing emissions, most serious analysts agree: the market works best, but the market is not enough.
The International Energy Agency, the OECD, leading British climate economist Nicholas…
With Australia’s highest carbon intensity, Victoria’s Hazelwood coal-fired power station is a prime candidate to close down part of its generating capacity.
AAP
Under its Clean Energy Future, the Federal government will negotiate to close 2000 MW of the dirtiest fossil fuel power generating capacity in Australia by 2020.
With the price on carbon now in operation…
Obesity can be seen as a carbon store on our waistlines originally sourced from coal mines and oil wells.
Bobcatnorth/Flickr
OBESE NATION: It’s time to admit it – Australia is becoming an obese nation. This series looks at how this has happened and more importantly, what we can do to stop the obesity epidemic.
Today Anthony…
Embrace the blazing sphere.
AAP/EPA/NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory
John Gardner, US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare joined Lyndon Johnson’s cabinet in 1965 to help create a ‘Great Society’ to end poverty, promote equality, improve education, rejuvenate cities…
With natural gas – like other commodities – it can be necessary for prices to rise in anticipation of increasing demand.
Flickr/jasonwoodhead23
Many are concerned with the price of natural gas. Natural gas is an important part of Australia’s overall energy mix; it represents roughly a quarter of all primary energy sources consumed. And, as we…
Humanity’s control of fire has led to a vastly changed atmosphere.
Jason A Samfield
The evidence for a rapid shift in state of the terrestrial atmosphere-ocean system over the last two centuries (see figure 1) requires a deep time perspective, beyond events of the day. Tracing the original…
There’s no shortage of hype around thorium, but how justified is the excitement?
AzureGrackel
You have probably heard at least a little about thorium. There are certainly advocates out there who strongly believe it could help solve the world’s energy problems.
The idea is that thorium-based nuclear…
Coal’s heyday is coming to a close, but is gas a long-term solution?
Guy Gorek
The past few years have seen the rapid expansion of the coal seam and shale gas industry. Combine this expansion with the recent introduction of a price on carbon here in Australia, and you end up with…
The Federal Government’s draft energy white paper outlines a future where Australia still depends on fossil fuels.
AAP
The release of Australia’s draft energy white paper has outlined a future where Australia continues to be largely dependent on fossil fuels, embraces uranium and expands existing deregulation and privatisation…
Energy production worldwide has become even more reliant on coal.
Joost J Bakker IJmuiden
DURBAN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE: A paper published yesterday shows global industrial emissions of carbon dioxide, overwhelmingly from fossil fuels, jumped by 5.9% from 2009 to 2010. This is a big increase…
It’s hard to predict our future energy needs, but careful modelling can help.
KatB Photography
Models, forecasts, scenario projections … they’re all viewed with a certain degree of scepticism. And, for the most part, rightly so – we’ll never know the future with complete certainty.
But what modelling…
To meet the energy challenge we have to think big.
AAP Image/Snowy Hydro Limited
Today’s carbon navel-gazing by politicians, business leaders and media scribes seems determined to constrain Australia to the stone age of industrial competence, workforce skills and international environmental…
Solar is now a viable industry that should be taken seriously.
AFP Photo/Sakis Mitrolidis
A solar energy revolution is brewing that will put the coal and nuclear industries out of business. Solar is already reaching price parity with coal in many parts of Australia. In contrast to coal and…
The movie Gasland galvanised the public on the dangers of fracking.
Gasland
Fracking. It’s a hotbed of controversy that spans our increasingly energy-hungry globe.
The French have turned their back on it. Permanently. And now the NSW government has temporarily frozen the use…
OPEC president Mohammad Aliabadi believes speculation in futures is inflating oil prices. He is wrong.
AAP
OPEC Conference president Mohammad Aliabadi recently joined a chorus of international observers to blame speculation as the source of ongoing volatility in the global oil market.
Speaking at an OPEC Conference…
