[LINK] Renewable energy 'simply WON'T WORK'

[Janet Hawtin]

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/epa-barred-getting-advice-scientists

how is our epa going with fracking?

On 24 November 2014 at 17:45, Janet Hawtin <janet at hawtin.net.au> wrote:

> imho
>
> Things which would be handy in a context where we are trying to adapt to a
> dramatically smaller power consumption, local production, exploration of
> new technologies, reskilling, making diffferent tools.
>
>    - TAFE facilities with actual equipment for new skills doing applied
>    research and experimentation.
>    (Loss of workshop equipment and courses)
>
>    - Open constructive dialogue on what things people are trying eg
>    through the ABC
>    (Cuts to ABC, discourse restricted to personalities, divisive, win
>    lose framing.
>    Focus on lies make people despair of effectiveness of democracy and
>    possibly want a mechanism for removing a politician which could be used to
>    make it hard for anyone to do anything constructive?)
>
>    - Financial shift to new technologies
>    (breaking RET, carbon tax)
>
>    - Science
>    no proactive commitment to climate adaptation mitigation science, cuts
>    to CSIRO, cuts to Universities.
>
>    - Good water supply so that local agriculture can feed the community.
>    (If fracking with toxins and radioactive elements poisons the ground
>    water for all livestock and communities what is left? Mining is the only
>    thing possible? That would impact China's agriculture here. Not sure what
>    the mix of goals is there.
>
>    - Feeding ourselves
>    Sale of agriculture assets to China which will want to export food to
>    China which would not reduce our carbon footprint and reduce local food for
>    local communities?
>    Price pressure on local farmers from supermarkets.)
>
>    - Farming without hi carbon inputs and which does not reduce
>    biodiversity
>    (China will use what methods?
>    Changes to GMO free areas in WA, Steve Marsh v GMO)
>
>    - Tasmanias forests
>    (Changes to community's ability to act in defence of natural assets)
>
>    - Pty Ltd and banking
>    Limited liability in a context where coal at the barrier reef and
>    fracking and end of fish
>    shutting down people sending money to family limiting capacity for
>    people to help each other
>
>    - War
>    Is the reason there is such interest in war on islam due to there
>    being alternative ideas about responsibility in banking in islam?
>    Perhaps our local army could be doing constructive adaptive
>    engineering projects?
>    (Army in Iraq spending $600k per shot of USA ammunition, spending
>    billions on USA planes and submarines)
>
>    - Wesfarmers and other retailers of all the things we buy are running
>    the big miles with importing goods.
>    Could they reconfigure to do low energy local production? Does it mean
>    changes in scale and distribution?
>    They could be a part of a change in skills and technology and local
>    production but it would mean a shift in a model which has monolithic
>    momentum using lots of carbon?
>
>    - Ability to make law which helps us reconfigure.
>    (China FTA and USA TPP block govt from acting if it impacts profits)
>
>    - Aboriginal communities in WA
>    (Which cities towns communities do we think *are* sustainable?)
>
>    - Insurance
>    Does PLI represent a monetary barrier or tax on community capacity,
>    volunteer capacity?
>    Can we do better?
>
> Legal, educational, communication, technology natural assets we need to
> adapt to climate issues are being deconstructed.
> Our multicultural commitment to each other and culture, infrastructure for
> being informed skilled and collaborative is being deconstructed.
>
> The government represents money not AU
> It would appear through the above actions that the money is not being
> invested in taking the nation forward constructively
> and in many cases is proactively breaking and removing the country's
> community's tools for change.
> Money is restricted to extraction and militarising.
>
> Fracking is happening in other places so I have to assume that the pattern
> is not special to AU but it is the AU stuff I can see.
>
> We need a plan B? How does that happen?
>
>