Hazelwood’s closure should force both federal and state governments to acknowledge the future is here already
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As
the Chicago Cubs finally won the baseball World Series, Twitter was
awash with comments on things that had happened since 1908 – the last
time the Cubs won. For example, since then there had been two world
wars, the beginning and end of the Soviet Union and media had moved from
a time when baseball wasn’t even broadcast on radio to when you could
watch the game in HD on your phone on the other side of the world.
And also, in the time since, the planet has warmed by around 1.5C.
I throw in this little nugget of information because it’s always worth reminding ourselves that while the flotsam and jetsam of daily news and politics flies by, so too are the temperature records.
Nasa recently announced that September was the warmest September on record. There’s nothing too surprising about that – 11 of the past 12 months have been the warmest of each month. Only July did not set a record – it had to be content with being the third-warmest July on record.
The 12 months to September set a new high for the warmest 12-month period recorded (breaking the old record set in August) of 1.04C above the average of the 1951-1980. The same period in 1908 was 0.42C below the average.
So things have changed.
Back in 1908 there was also a US presidential election. There were no debates then but, ironically, the same number of questions on climate change were asked in this year’s debates as back then – zero.
We now have the prospect of a US president who either believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, or at best believes it’s just a hoax perpetrated by some vague group because “it’s a money-making industry”. And yet this hardly rates a mention – lost amid an avalanche of stories about the emails of the other candidate.
Now we could get on a high horse, except Australia doesn’t fare much better. Climate change at least was the topic of one question in the leaders’ debate but it hardly dominated the election. And, like the US, we also have multiple politicians who fall at the first hurdle when it comes to intelligence by professing that climate change is a con.
Mostly here, the topic comes up as the cause of blame – such as renewable energy being cited as the cause for the blackout in South Australia or even again this week with the announcement of the Hazelwood power station closing.
As such, the discussion revolves around the negative aspect of the cost of policies that will reduce carbon emissions. It’s a framing that has the underlying foundation that not pursing policies to reduce carbon emissions is a credible alternative.
It is rather similar to businesses complaining of the cost of introducing domestic violence leave rather than worrying about the horrific fact that there is actually a need for such a type of leave.
As Gay Alcorn noted on Friday – the closure of the Hazelwood power station was inevitable – and yet the sense is that both state and federal governments were caught flat footed.
Unsurprisingly, the first reaction was to focus more on compensation packages for the workers. But there is a lack of any sense of governments accepting this is just the first of such closures and that plans and responses for them should be well in place by now.
As the Climate Council noted this week, Australia’s climate change policy is mired in a valley of uncertainty, where our emissions reductions target for 2030 are based on measures that have been yet to be brought into force.
We don’t have a gibbering fool like Trump for a leader who screams about China and international hoaxes on climate change but Turnbull has long shed the leather jacket persona of his Q&A days when he took pride in his then principled stand on climate change policy.
Now more likely we’ll hear him talk of the great future for coal and rush to blame renewable energy rather than to push it as a solution. No, he’s not the gibbering fool; he is just the appeaser of those fools within his government. And that is no less damaging.
It is not a strategy that can last, because while it might help to keep the issue off the political agenda, and keep his leadership somewhat more safe, the months keep passing and the temperature keeps rising.
Because of its size, age and dirtiness, Hazelwood carries with it greater significance than do other coal-fired power stations. Perhaps its closure – regardless of the reasons for it – will force both federal and state governments to acknowledge that the future is here already.
LinksAnd also, in the time since, the planet has warmed by around 1.5C.
I throw in this little nugget of information because it’s always worth reminding ourselves that while the flotsam and jetsam of daily news and politics flies by, so too are the temperature records.
Nasa recently announced that September was the warmest September on record. There’s nothing too surprising about that – 11 of the past 12 months have been the warmest of each month. Only July did not set a record – it had to be content with being the third-warmest July on record.
The 12 months to September set a new high for the warmest 12-month period recorded (breaking the old record set in August) of 1.04C above the average of the 1951-1980. The same period in 1908 was 0.42C below the average.
So things have changed.
Back in 1908 there was also a US presidential election. There were no debates then but, ironically, the same number of questions on climate change were asked in this year’s debates as back then – zero.
We now have the prospect of a US president who either believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, or at best believes it’s just a hoax perpetrated by some vague group because “it’s a money-making industry”. And yet this hardly rates a mention – lost amid an avalanche of stories about the emails of the other candidate.
Now we could get on a high horse, except Australia doesn’t fare much better. Climate change at least was the topic of one question in the leaders’ debate but it hardly dominated the election. And, like the US, we also have multiple politicians who fall at the first hurdle when it comes to intelligence by professing that climate change is a con.
Mostly here, the topic comes up as the cause of blame – such as renewable energy being cited as the cause for the blackout in South Australia or even again this week with the announcement of the Hazelwood power station closing.
As such, the discussion revolves around the negative aspect of the cost of policies that will reduce carbon emissions. It’s a framing that has the underlying foundation that not pursing policies to reduce carbon emissions is a credible alternative.
It is rather similar to businesses complaining of the cost of introducing domestic violence leave rather than worrying about the horrific fact that there is actually a need for such a type of leave.
As Gay Alcorn noted on Friday – the closure of the Hazelwood power station was inevitable – and yet the sense is that both state and federal governments were caught flat footed.
Unsurprisingly, the first reaction was to focus more on compensation packages for the workers. But there is a lack of any sense of governments accepting this is just the first of such closures and that plans and responses for them should be well in place by now.
As the Climate Council noted this week, Australia’s climate change policy is mired in a valley of uncertainty, where our emissions reductions target for 2030 are based on measures that have been yet to be brought into force.
We don’t have a gibbering fool like Trump for a leader who screams about China and international hoaxes on climate change but Turnbull has long shed the leather jacket persona of his Q&A days when he took pride in his then principled stand on climate change policy.
Now more likely we’ll hear him talk of the great future for coal and rush to blame renewable energy rather than to push it as a solution. No, he’s not the gibbering fool; he is just the appeaser of those fools within his government. And that is no less damaging.
It is not a strategy that can last, because while it might help to keep the issue off the political agenda, and keep his leadership somewhat more safe, the months keep passing and the temperature keeps rising.
Because of its size, age and dirtiness, Hazelwood carries with it greater significance than do other coal-fired power stations. Perhaps its closure – regardless of the reasons for it – will force both federal and state governments to acknowledge that the future is here already.
- The Paris climate agreement is a game-changer – and business risks being left behind
- Hazelwood's closure was inevitable. So where was the transition plan?
- Nicholas Stern: cost of global warming ‘is worse than I feared’
- To deal with climate change we need a new financial system
- What's in store at the Marrakech climate talks – and will Australia still back coal?
