TIME TO GET ON WITH THE JOB
Instead of waffling about a date for net zero emissions, Australia should just get on with the job of making it happen.
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Here's three ideas:
One: Allow nuclear power by first amending our constitution then some states will soon instal the plants at plenty of suitable sites, using Australian uranium.
Two: Encourage electrolysis of water (powered by solar farms) to make hydrogen (compressed or liquid?) for sale, or used as a fuel to make electricity.
Three: Make greater use of hydro (the ultimate renewable energy source). Here are some ideas for NSW. Queensland and Victoria could follow:
- NSW has 34 dams; 20 of them lack powerhouses. So retrofit generators to those 20, either at the dams or along the pipelines.
- Begin a 10-year plan to instal hydro on all the big rivers running to the ocean. For each river find the 10 best sites for dams upstream, wholly within national parks and state forests.
- In year one, build a dam with a powerhouse at one site of each big river. A 10 per cent reduction of flow will hardly be noticed.
- In year three, a second dam for each river, and years three to 10, likewise.
- The result? A lot of quality A/C electricity from long-life, low maintenance plants.
- For dams like Wyangla, sending water both for irrigation and town water; install powerhouses that can cope with varying releases for irrigation within each day to match power demands, each like a mini pumped hydro idea.
Bert Adams, Wagga
POINTING OUT 'FAULTY LOGIC'
Graham Parton argues that "emissions from our exports" should count towards Australia's own total of emissions ("Large part of the problem", July 21). Thus, for instance, if we export coal to China then when it is burnt, according to Mr Parton, it should count towards Australia's emissions output. That's a great example the simple fallacy of double counting. Emissions from the burnt coal in question must surely be part of China's total but can't be used twice to add to the tallies of both countries.
Using such faulty logic would mean that If I grew five apples and you bought and ate all five then that makes a total of 10 apples.
That's the dodgy data-crunching and computer-modelling that is a "large part of the problem" of so much of the guff spouted by climate alarmists. It remains true that at a measly 1.4 per cent of the world's total CO2 count, Australia could cease all coal exports tomorrow and it would not make a pinprick of improvement to global climate.
On the contrary, it would mean that countries denied access to the relatively clean Australian coal would source their energy needs from states selling an inferior, much more polluting, product. What a charming consequence of Greens logic!
Robert T Walker, Wagga
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NO RESPECT FOR 'BUZZWORD'
The 2021 Australia Day slogan 'let's reflect, respect and celebrate', Wagga Wagga City Council's 2021 We Do Respect campaign and this weekend's Wagga Respect Sports Weekend indicate a fondness for a particular noun. Until this overused buzzword is clearly defined and legislated, it's just another attempt by an increasingly secular society to replace the morals and ethics once imparted by religious institutions.
Christopher Kanck, Lake Albert
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