Why do we have to buy these new energy efficient globes, which cost 1000% more than the old globes, when no politician has any intention of taking us away from coal sourced power? Not to mention that China is opening a coal fired power station every week, run with brown coal supplied by us.
Every little bit helps, I hear you say.
I would agree, if Australia was doing anything real to tackle the carbon emissions problem, but we are not. An academic recently said, at a sustainability conference, that if we really put all of our efforts into developing solar power, within 20 to 30 years Australia could have all of its power needs, that's 100%, or very close to, met by solar power. If we worked a little less hard, we could probably have 100%, or very close to, of our power needs met by solar in 50 years.
The problem is that Victoria has its power needs met by brown coal, which we have an abundance of. Victoria also earns a lot of income from the sale of brown coal. So the Victorian government isn't going to look at anything other than brown coal any time soon, by their own admission.
Australia is also rich in uranium, which it earns us a lot of money from sales to the rest of the world. So, if we moved from brown coal, presumably we'd probably move to nuclear.
All of which pushes the most obvious solution to the energy problem, solar, further and further away from being a reality. You see, the problem is that governments are still making decisions about energy which are based on economics, budgets, GDP, reputations, and not based on the survival of the environment. Politicians still don't get it.
So, then we have the touted carbon trading scheme, but the problem here is that the said trading scheme, essentially, gives credits to all the biggest polluters, so they can continue to pollute the world, pretty much, as they have been doing. Certainly, in the short term. The problem being Mr Politician, is that we don’t have a short term any longer, unlike you guys. The planet is on the brink, some say it has passed the brink. Whatever the truth is, we don’t have time to play politics with this issue any longer. Rudd has already put the environment on the back burner, with the budget, to save his political skin. And if I remember rightly, green issues were some of the issues that got him elected? He, along with the biggest environmental sell out in the history of the planet, Peter Garrett won’t be getting a second term, I predict.
Essentially, our environmental efforts thus far leads the general public to buying light globes at a 1000% price hike, and little else. And it is kind of self-defeating, as my milk bar only had 100 watt globes, of the old variety, when I went around there today. So, I bought a few, you know, stocked up, where I would have only ever have bought 40 watt globes usually, if they had been available.
It's clear to me, if nobody in power, that solar is the way of the future. So, come on guys, lets get with it.
I, for one, have got rid of my renewable energy supply and have gone with the cheaper option, until the government starts developing solar.
