Antipodeans Hot Under the Collar on Climate Crisis #1

It may be winter down in the Antipodes, but things are sure warming up. Australia, for one, is set to have a governmental inquiry into whether the country should go down the nuclear power route. A ‘robust debate’ they like to call it. The ‘independent’ chairperson heading the review is a(n impartial) nuclear physicist, who resigned as a board member from our key nuclear research facility to take up the post. At least we should take some solace that the government says it recognises climate crisis is a real issue and something needs to be done. Of course that doesn’t include signing up to Kyoto, no siree. Nor does it mean increasing the Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets (MRET). Inertia that is worrying proponents of the fledgling wind, and once robust solar industry. The MRET is due to remain at a mere 2% of energy being sourced from renewables by 2010. And the Victorian State government can’t understand what all the fuss is about. They carried out their own nuclear review recently, and concluded that nuclear would be twice the price of coal-based energy, aside from the issue of waste disposal. But the media noise over nuclear and global warming has seen snippets of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ screen on national TV (and to give equal time, even those scary ‘Carbon Dioxide - we call it Life’ adverts as well!) And just today our old pals with the Hot Rock idea were back in the news, saying, “Hey, wattabout us, we can do energy without toxic waste or security probs.” May the robustness continue.

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