Please forward to your ex employer the ABC. When I hear they cost the Australian taxpayer $1 billion a year I laugh. They will end up costing us $1 trillion and our enviable living standard in short time … at the very least be substantially responsible. They have pounded the case for ‘net zero’ ever since it became a ‘thing’ to a point in which politicians are too afraid to do back their own convictions.
We sell our coal to China cheaper than we should because we don’t use it. They build ‘ghost cities’ and ‘roads to nowhere’ because of it. Result more carbon emissions not less. We export or uranium but we can’t use it… as if we’re living on another planet!
And, when you forward this to the ABC pls add a subscription to ‘Doomberg’ … I’ll even pay for it.
I agree. The elephant in the room of human progress is access to cheap energy that, when not used directly to create warmth or power engines, can be converted to electricity that can be conveyed by wire to drive motors that drive transportation and magnify the creativity of man.
The test of the utility of a source of energy is whether it will be employed in the absence of a subsidy from the public purse.
As for the climate, there is such diversity. We have lots of choice.
As for the so called average climate, our ability to measure the change in the temperature of the air at ground level accurately and comprehensively remains in doubt.
The change that we see from day to night, from winter to summer and from year to year exceeds by far the degree of change that, if our measurement were indeed to be correct has occurred over the period of a hundred years.
The back radiation argument is falsified by the unequal rates of warming and cooling of the two hemispheres over time. The atmosphere is well mixed.
The 'chicken little' alarmists should be disregarded.
Trillions have been spent worldwide to get more expensive power but unfortunately, high-powered analysis of the costs of different technologies is meaningless to people in the street.
There has to be a simpler way to get the punters involved in the energy debate. One possibility is to explain that nocturnal wind droughts, that is nights with little or no wind, break the continuity of power supply to the grid.
Another option is to encourage people to engage in “gridwatching,” checking the local grid's dashboard at breakfast and dinnertime to see if there is sufficient wind and solar energy available to have a hot meal.
Great writing and solid points. I particularly like the closing point that we burn more wood now than in 1800 - that is eye opening!
One minor point… fire is natural in Australia and has been a regular feature of the landscape since before any hominids left Africa. Lighting starts bushfires in the tropics every year and similarly, but less frequently, in the more moderate regions.
Wow, what an incredible chronicle from our very own Historian and Philosopher. This is pure treasure. It reminds me of another pure fact: There are only two possible forms of reliable and renewable energy, one is produced by fossil fuels, and the other by nuclear energy. Both are readily stockpiled, to assure uninterrupted power generation and delivery.
Neither require any other fancy and costly equipment to compensate for their inherent failures, most notably related to the inevitably assured and periodical loss of solar, wind, waves or rainwater over indeterminate periods (and all of which also require the ‘real’ pure energy sources for their manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance and replacement).
Yes, the ultimate truth: There is NO energy transition, and never can be! Thank you Chris, your insights are pure gold - cut by a diamond.
Fire indeed to fuel our power hungry society that simply needs to be managed by adoption of a sound, sensible Energy Policy that, (in the absence of empirical evidence proving the case against CO2 - there isn’t any), is:
Market driven, technology agnostic, no anti- competitive subsidies, clearly defined QOS (+99.98% availability per AEMO specs), industry commits their best price per GWh’s via auction xx months in advance together with substantial $penalties for failure to meet mandatory QOS obligations.
Environmental Bond required to recover/recycle aged wind turbine blades and/or aged EoL solar-PVs as is already commonplace with restoration of land following fossil fuel mining.
Please forward to your ex employer the ABC. When I hear they cost the Australian taxpayer $1 billion a year I laugh. They will end up costing us $1 trillion and our enviable living standard in short time … at the very least be substantially responsible. They have pounded the case for ‘net zero’ ever since it became a ‘thing’ to a point in which politicians are too afraid to do back their own convictions.
We sell our coal to China cheaper than we should because we don’t use it. They build ‘ghost cities’ and ‘roads to nowhere’ because of it. Result more carbon emissions not less. We export or uranium but we can’t use it… as if we’re living on another planet!
And, when you forward this to the ABC pls add a subscription to ‘Doomberg’ … I’ll even pay for it.
Ps. Doomberg follows you work.
Very poetic.
I agree. The elephant in the room of human progress is access to cheap energy that, when not used directly to create warmth or power engines, can be converted to electricity that can be conveyed by wire to drive motors that drive transportation and magnify the creativity of man.
The test of the utility of a source of energy is whether it will be employed in the absence of a subsidy from the public purse.
As for the climate, there is such diversity. We have lots of choice.
As for the so called average climate, our ability to measure the change in the temperature of the air at ground level accurately and comprehensively remains in doubt.
The change that we see from day to night, from winter to summer and from year to year exceeds by far the degree of change that, if our measurement were indeed to be correct has occurred over the period of a hundred years.
The back radiation argument is falsified by the unequal rates of warming and cooling of the two hemispheres over time. The atmosphere is well mixed.
The 'chicken little' alarmists should be disregarded.
Thanks for that masterly background to the current situation!
Civilization advanced by taking on more efficient and reliable sources of power but lately the West turned to wind and solar.
Schernikau and Smith suggested that this move will not end well.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/wind-and-solar-the-energy-thieves-a0c
It prompted Ruppert Darwall to write The Age of Error: How Energy Policy Went Off Track.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/video/2025/06/18/the_age_of_error_how_energy_policy_went_off_track_1117391.html
Trillions have been spent worldwide to get more expensive power but unfortunately, high-powered analysis of the costs of different technologies is meaningless to people in the street.
There has to be a simpler way to get the punters involved in the energy debate. One possibility is to explain that nocturnal wind droughts, that is nights with little or no wind, break the continuity of power supply to the grid.
Another option is to encourage people to engage in “gridwatching,” checking the local grid's dashboard at breakfast and dinnertime to see if there is sufficient wind and solar energy available to have a hot meal.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/nem-watch/
Great article!
Great writing and solid points. I particularly like the closing point that we burn more wood now than in 1800 - that is eye opening!
One minor point… fire is natural in Australia and has been a regular feature of the landscape since before any hominids left Africa. Lighting starts bushfires in the tropics every year and similarly, but less frequently, in the more moderate regions.
Wow, what an incredible chronicle from our very own Historian and Philosopher. This is pure treasure. It reminds me of another pure fact: There are only two possible forms of reliable and renewable energy, one is produced by fossil fuels, and the other by nuclear energy. Both are readily stockpiled, to assure uninterrupted power generation and delivery.
Neither require any other fancy and costly equipment to compensate for their inherent failures, most notably related to the inevitably assured and periodical loss of solar, wind, waves or rainwater over indeterminate periods (and all of which also require the ‘real’ pure energy sources for their manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance and replacement).
Yes, the ultimate truth: There is NO energy transition, and never can be! Thank you Chris, your insights are pure gold - cut by a diamond.
Beautifully written. But homo ignis is reaching his limits. It's time for homo nuclei.
Australia will have to burn coal or we will cease to be a first world nation, long before nuclear power is on deck.
Nuclear is dandy but coal is quicker.
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/burn-coal-in-australia-or-die-in
And you get plant food when you burn it as well!
Fire indeed to fuel our power hungry society that simply needs to be managed by adoption of a sound, sensible Energy Policy that, (in the absence of empirical evidence proving the case against CO2 - there isn’t any), is:
Market driven, technology agnostic, no anti- competitive subsidies, clearly defined QOS (+99.98% availability per AEMO specs), industry commits their best price per GWh’s via auction xx months in advance together with substantial $penalties for failure to meet mandatory QOS obligations.
Environmental Bond required to recover/recycle aged wind turbine blades and/or aged EoL solar-PVs as is already commonplace with restoration of land following fossil fuel mining.