I see that the author of the Moral Case For Fossil Fuels Alex Epstein, and the company that he keeps, namely all of the usual "libertarian" propaganda factories is/are fully paid up subscribers and promoters of the kind of economics and politics pointed to and described in the book Toxic Sludge Is Good For You.

It is also interesting to note that one of his principal influences is the completely amoral "philosopher" Ayn Rand.

Thanks, Nicola. I've been arguing in the same vein for many years. We are very poor at foreseeing the future, it will always surprise us. The best way to prepare for it is to increase our capacity through robust economic growth, based on free markets, enterprise, smaller government and the development of resilience in both individuals and communities. Whatever challenges any further warming might bring - and I'm not at all convinced that the costs will outweigh the benefits, e.g. growing more food from less land and global reforestation which have been occurring during the warming - we'll be more able to deal with it than with current economically damaging policies which will have no impact on warming. And we will have more resources both in the short and long terms to address the many far more pressing issues which currently exist or which emerge.

Do you actually believe that Taswegian, or is it the green/left cover story you are adhering to.

The reason your dams were low was the Labor/Green government had been cashing in on the global warming scam, & flogging lots of your hydro alternate energy across the straight at high prices, to cover some of their drunken sailor spending.

It is poetic justice that the get rich quick scheme turned & bit them in the backside.

Of course it is a pity that those who did not vote to put the fools in government are also paying through the nose for that dreadful governments ratbaggery.

Not much use repairing the Bass Straight link now, with a fool Labor government in Victoria paying their dues for Green preferences by closing down some of their real power plants, think coal even if it is brown, in favour of Mickey Mouse wind power.

Time to build a coal importing port, & build a real power plant. You should make a killing keeping Victoria's lights on, as their wind power does a South Australia on them, & bites their backside. You could do it like China, with Queensland coal. Got to be better than depending on imported diesel.

Alan B,

I understand that you've totally bought the hype around thorium and that mere reality doesn't factor into your calculations. But the reality is that there are no, (repeat NO), commercial thorium reactors around that can be installed now to satisfy your fantasies.

I've shown you this before but since it doesn't fit your memes, you've continually ignored it.

Here is what the gentleman in charge of the Chinese thorium research team (Professor Li) says about the development of a viable commercial thorium reactor:

"We are still in the dark about the physical and chemical nature of thorium in many ways. There are so many problems to deal with but so little time".

The Chinese hope (and its just a hope) to have a demonstration plant running by 2024, if the myriad problems can be resolved.

The head of the Bureau of Major Research and Development Programmes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has also opined:

* that one of the technical difficulties is that the molten salt produces highly corrosive chemicals such as fluoride that could damage the reactor

* that the power plant would also have to operate at extremely high temperatures, raising concerns about safety

* that researchers have limited knowledge of how to use thorium

Since the Chinese are a the forefront of thorium reactor research, I'm guessing they know a little about the subject. But they clearly don't have your extensive YouTube based research to fall back on.

Thorium might work and it might be the go-to technology in a generation or two. But shouting that the only thing holding it back is venal pollies is the most naive of notions.

Of course, Trump is right. It is just the rest of the world that is wrong. European nations such as Denmark, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK are now showing “absolute decoupling” – that is, their fossil fuel use is declining while their economies continue to expand. But clearly there must be a conspiracy about the data - either they are secretly using fossil fuels or their economies are not really growing for Trump is right.
Trump is right because in those countries where there is a decline in the use of fossil fuels it has not been because of anything that the governments have done. Rather housholds and corporations have seen the writing on the wall. They are not anticpating things like a carbon tax they have simply done their homework. The ratio of amount of energy needed to extract fossil fuels to energy created is shifting inexorably to the extraction side. So regardless of climate change alternatives need to be found. But yes Trump is right.

I am just waiting for the first climate denialist to pitch on here saying climate change is a scam because the global temperature hasn't increased since 2015.