The trouble is SA has clearly demonstrated what happens when you don't have none weather dependent power generation.

When comparing Australia's power with other countries I wish green groups would be honest and explain how those other countries can generate power with less fossil fuel.

The Greenies are ignoring an inconvenient truth that those countries use Nuke and dams to make up the difference, two thing they are very opposed to. the author appears to be from the USA.
USA.
Coal = 33%
Natural gas = 33%
Nuclear = 20%
Hydropower = 6%
Other renewables = 7%
Biomass = 1.6%
Geothermal = 0.4%
Solar = 0.6%
Wind = 4.7%
Petroleum = 1%
Other gases = <1%

Has the author ever visited or flown over a 'dirty' coal-fired power station? She is probably happy to use the 'clean' electricity from the power points in her castle in the sky. What a load of rubbish.

Germany often called the first renewable energy economy has a little secret since it started switching off its nuke power stations it has been increasing its coal burning to compensate. Since 2011 it's coal fire power output has increased and there are plans to build 27 more coal fired power stations.

Busy readers can save a lot of time via a quick check of Harter's bio: she's a "climate campaigner" at the ACF. No need to waste your time on this pap, then. But as a public service, I make the following points.

It becomes tedious when this sort of tripe contains all of the usual Left cliches: carbon dioxide is "carbon pollution". It is neither carbon, nor pollution: it is an essential trace gas which promotes plant growth. If Harter and the ACF don't know the difference between carbon and carbon dioxide, there's not much hope for them.

"Systematic retirement of coal generators will encourage more investment in clean energy sources..." And if that were to happen, all of Australia would emulate the lunacy of the South Australian government, with blackouts and brownouts a feature of daily life. It's not "investment", by the way, but economic suicide, subsidised with taxpayers' dollars.

Harter says "...scientists expect that the northern region [of the GBR] will take at least 10 to 15 years to regain the lost corals...", when, in fact, the reef has survived for millenia and bleaching has always been part of the cycle, even way back before "global warming" was a fantasy and the crown of thorns starfish was thought to be the culprit.

This year is "set to be the hottest year on record", yawn, yes, again, damn those adjusted surface records, "with global temperatures measuring 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels". Depends on which "pre-industrial levels" you compare it with. The mediaeval warm period, for example? And how valid or significant is the concept of "global temperatures" if it's 35 degrees Celsius in Sydney and minus 35 degrees Celsius in Moscow or New York?

And finally, it's worth noting that atmospheric carbon dioxide increases AFTER temperatures, so it's hard to see a causal relationship anyway.

Catwest. A well constructed and presented response to the essay. However, you are trying to convince someone who believes the world is flat. When scientific evidence (observations) are uselous, there is no way of changeing their myopic view of the world but do, please, keep trying, it is only a matter of time before the planet will prove them as duped. I am hoping that pres. Elect Trump will break the nexus.

Same old same old. The more these idiots are proven wrong, the more hystericical they get; the further they dig their heels in and, the more they lie. The "Reef" is a huge lie: there is nothing wrong with the Great Barrier Reef, which is nowhere near coal. "The end of coal is nigh" sounds just like some nut job announcing the end of the world - 'the end is nigh' - and the end of civilisation could very well be upon us if we listen to these lunatics harping about the dangers of coal. The truth is that coal, short of going nuclear, is the only thing that will ever provide us with cheap, reliable energy. SA's lunatic government blew up our last coal-fired power station, and we will be facing continual blackouts this summer because of it. Our only comfort is COAL power from Victoria, and even there the loony Left seems determined to get rid of coal. The rubbish 'science' has been proved wrong by events, but still the mad bastards screech.