Category: Carbon Debate

THE EXTINCTION OF THE EXTINCTION REBELLION

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Environment, Government, Population

Let me say loudly and clearly that I am hugely switched off by the Extinction Rebellion, but I am switched on about Greta Thunberg and about the fact that Citizens Referendums are a much better alternative than marching.

Thunberg made an impact at the United Nations a few weeks ago with her speech that harshly chastised world leaders for putting the future of the world at risk by being grossly negligent about Climate Change.

But, despite receiving massive support from school students of her age world wide, very little has been achieved even though they tried to march in an orderly and respectful fashion.

Indeed, the main publicity was generated by grossly unfair personal criticism of Thunberg’s character and motives. Apparently, it is a big social error to be both young and female. Continue reading “THE EXTINCTION OF THE EXTINCTION REBELLION” →

Climate Trumped

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Environment, Government, Population4 Comments

Everything that Donald Trump does is a combination of good and bad and both are always out on the extremes.

His decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Change Accord is a typical example of classic Trump.

He deservedly won praise for carrying out an election promise. He said many times during his election campaign that he would scrap the Paris Accord and he did. It is a pity that more politicians don’t follow his example and carry out their promises.

He also gave the climate change fanatics a good kick in the head, which they richly deserve. Their vicious attacks on anyone who disagrees with, or reacts calmly to, their predictions of doom are an absolute insult to the intelligence of those of us who are moderates in search of practical solutions.

At time same time, Trump showed utter irresponsibility.

Whether or not climate change is occurring, the undeniable fact is that 7.5 billion human beings are polluting our planet every hour of every day and we have to do something sensible about it, despite Trump’s ridiculous denial of human impact.

In addition, his call for ‘America First’ is selfish, misguided, disastrous and doomed to failure as he gives up American leadership in the world and allows China to step into the vacuum.

But Trump is not the only one to blame for the situation the world now finds itself in. Continue reading “Climate Trumped” →

Rating Malcolm

On By Everald ComptonIn Ageing, Carbon Debate, Government, History, Infrastructure Rail, Air, Sea, Infrastructure Water12 Comments

Australia has had 29 Prime Ministers – some excellent, a few worthy of special mention, many mediocre, some shockers.

I thought that I would rate them while enjoying a wee dram of superb single malt scotch whisky – Lagavulin from the Isle of Islay – as it expands my mind to a splendid level of generosity.

The result is that I rank Malcolm Turnbull at No 19, ahead of Abbott, Rudd and McMahon who shared the wooden spoon.

My reasoning is simple. He has the capacity to become a great PM, but he is a long way short of realising his potential. Continue reading “Rating Malcolm” →

2016 – Turnbull year of destiny

On By Everald ComptonIn Australian Republican Movement, Carbon Debate, Community and Values, Elections, Environment, Government, Mining and Resources, Seniors8 Comments

My holiday reading included a very readable book called Born to Rule, an unauthorised biography of Malcolm Turnbull by veteran journalist Paddy Manning. I enjoyed it immensely.

Paddy makes it clear he is not a Turnbull fan, but he treats the Prime Minister in as unbiased a manner as is possible in politics and journalism. However, it is interesting that, in the end, he acknowledges that Turnbull has what it takes to be a great leader of the nation if he conquers a few idiosyncrasies. Continue reading “2016 – Turnbull year of destiny” →

The Remains of a Year of Tumult

On By Everald ComptonIn Ageing, Australian Republican Movement, Carbon Debate, Community and Values, Elections, Environment, Everald Posts 2015, Government, History9 Comments

I have been around for 84 years, none of them ever boring, but 2015 has been a corker.

Happily, the two most incompetent political leaders of my era were removed from power – Tony Abbott in Canberra and Campbell Newman in Brisbane. Continue reading “The Remains of a Year of Tumult” →

THE CLIMATE GUYS HIT PARIS

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Community and Values, Environment, Government, Population3 Comments

I am a committed environmentalist, actually a conservative Green, but I am convinced that Climate Change Conferences are a colossal waste of time and money, as was proved by the ridiculous disaster of Copenhagen a few short years ago. Continue reading “THE CLIMATE GUYS HIT PARIS” →

TONY ABBOTT AND THE LONG SEARCH FOR YESTERDAY

On By Everald ComptonIn Ageing, Australian Republican Movement, Carbon Debate, Environment, Government, History3 Comments

Whenever our nation is in crisis we yearn for the good old days when threats like this did not happen. Whenever we avoid a crisis we say it is because we honoured old traditions that were certain to keep us safe. Of course, as we all know, there has never been any such things as good old days, nor could we revive them even if there were. We just enjoy a bit of nostalgia here and there. Continue reading “TONY ABBOTT AND THE LONG SEARCH FOR YESTERDAY” →

THE POPE AND THE ENVIRONMENT – HAS FRANCIS CROSSED THE LINE

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Community and Values, Environment, Everald Posts 2015, Population4 Comments

Pope Francis has issued an encyclical on the Environment called Laudato Si in which he firmly and clearly outlines his views on global warming, climate change and pollution, while linking them with poverty, employment, economics, science and religion. Continue reading “THE POPE AND THE ENVIRONMENT – HAS FRANCIS CROSSED THE LINE” →

The Search for Clean Coal

On By Everald ComptonIn Business and Enterprise, Carbon Debate, Community and Values, Environment, Everald@Large Newsletter 2013, Government, Mining and Resources, Nuclear

The coal industry is at a crisis point worldwide, and any fallout from its decline will impact heavily on the Australian economy.

Barack Obama has stated that his goal is to gradually shut-down every coal fired power station in the USA, and Green lobby groups worldwide are calling for the picketing of all new coal mines anywhere on the planet. Warren Buffett has said that decline of coal mining is gradual, but permanent.

Gas, more so than nuclear, is being promoted as the ideal alternate to totally replace coal and, to add to the problem, coal prices are steadily dropping to the point where it soon will become uneconomic to dig it up. Then, there is the issue of the relationship between miners and farmers, which is at a low ebb and becoming even more militant on both sides.

All of this uncertainty has led to a tightening of the equity and debt markets for coal mines, with junior miners not having strong enough balance sheets to back their development capital requirements. This leads us to a dismal looking future for coal — so the industry is now slowly and reluctantly seeking ways to turn its fortunes around. Continue reading “The Search for Clean Coal” →

Carbon – A debate without end.

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Community and Values, Environment, Everald@Large Newsletter 2013, Government, Technology

In his Budget Reply speech last month, Tony Abbott resoundingly confirmed his previously-stated intention to immediately repeal the Carbon Tax if he is elected Prime Minister in September. This means that the nation as a whole now needs to consider the consequences of such an action, and prepare for its impact on business and on the lives of those who hold deep convictions about the environment, as well as those who believe that human activity is not the cause of the problem. Continue reading “Carbon – A debate without end.” →

The Political Turbulence of Climate Change

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Environment, Everald@Large Newsletter 2013, Join the Debate

The abnormal weather patterns that have caused havoc on every continent over the past year have revived concerns about global warming and climate change. Having listened for years to passionate speeches about these subjects from scientists and politicians on both sides of the bitter debate, I don’t believe any of them.

However, I am aware that in the millions of years that this planet has existed, there has never before been 7.5 billion people living on it, and we know that every person pollutes the world in some small way every day. We should be concerned about this, particularly as in the decade in which I was born, there were only two billion inhabitants who could impact on the environment.

Therefore, it is prudent that we should take some positive action to progressively clean up the planet.

What the best plan could be is beyond my skills, but as Don Bradman said: “When in doubt, always play forward”. Scrapping the carbon tax would cause us to play backwards.

If Tony Abbott runs on that platform, he will lose the election. Most voters will regard it as an act of irresponsibility. But, as he has already changed his mind twice on this subject, who knows what might happen.

The war over power prices.

On By Everald ComptonIn Business and Enterprise, Carbon Debate, Everald@Large Newsletter 2012, Government, Join the Debate, Nuclear, Technology

The “war” over power prices reached a crescendo last month with the Prime Minister and Premiers blaming one another for the excessively high power prices from which we currently suffer.

However, we should all stop playing the blame game for a moment and agree that it is long overdue for us to acknowledge that price rises have little to do with the carbon tax, because our power stations are antiquated, inefficient, environmentally unfriendly and poorly managed. We need to spend billions replacing them with the world’s finest technology, including our first nuclear power plant.

We are just about carboned out.

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Everald@Large Newsletter 2011, Government

Well, the carbon tax is now a reality. So, what does it mean to the average punter who has absorbed as much hot air about carbon as he or she can take.

First of all, most Australians don’t understand this new tax, as it has never been rationally explained to any of us. Continue reading “We are just about carboned out.” →

Carbon Chatter everywhere and not a Drop of Commonsense

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Everald@Large Newsletter 2011, Government

The feature article in the April Edition of Everald@Large was called Howards Way, and it recommended that Gillard and Abbott should get together to implement the Emission’s Trading System that John Howard took to the 2007 Election as a policy that he said he would implement if re-elected.

This was a logical suggestion to make, as Abbott voted in favour of it when it came before the Howard Cabinet, and that was a sensible vote on his part as it was a more moderate scheme than Rudd and Wong almost got through the Parliament. The reaction from readers was fascinating. The bigots at both extremes of the debate sent me quite vicious emails. Continue reading “Carbon Chatter everywhere and not a Drop of Commonsense” →

It’s time to take another look at Howard’s Way

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Everald@Large Newsletter 2011, Government

The vicious and polarising screaming match that currently represents the national debate on Carbon Tax is a profound disgrace, and must stop immediately. If it continues, it will turn Australia into a violent society.

Clearly, it’s time for everyone to give way from their fundamentalist positions at the extremes of the debate and find common ground from which Australia can act to progressively remove pollution from our continent in all of its forms. Continue reading “It’s time to take another look at Howard’s Way” →

Clean Coal – The Greatest Moral Challenge of our Time

On By Everald ComptonIn Carbon Debate, Everald@Large Newsletter 2011, Mining and Resources

Bob Brown has said that coal companies should pay the costs of all flood damage because the use of coal is (supposedly) the basic cause of climate change, and is specifically responsible for the violent rains that have hit eastern Australia.

As leader of a major political party, The Greens, Bob should be more responsible in his public statements as, in the 2010 Federal Election, he repeatedly assured voters that the Greens have left the lunatic fringe and joined the mainstream of our political landscape where you have to accept responsibility for your policies and actions. Continue reading “Clean Coal – The Greatest Moral Challenge of our Time” →