Alison Jane,

Thanks you. I'd encourage others to read both [papers in full and forward them to their contacts. I believe they are significant contributions. They need to be spread as widely as possible because many people just don't want to consider the prospect that the whole CAGW fear campaign could be based on a false premise.

Hi Peter,

In the economic history of The Next Big Things, it seems that one feature stands out. Looking at the take-up of, and huge capital investments in, canals in Europe (late eighteenth century), railways (1830-1850), building and sealing of roads (1850-1880), electricity production and distribution (1880-1910), telephony (1890-1910), automobiles (1900-1920), etc., the process seemed to have been one of rapid and huge investment, flowering of technology and innovation in that particular area, and levelling-off of investment, before the movement of big capital into the Next Big Thing.

Opportunities for big investment in renewables have been around now for thirty or more years. But expansion of the production of renewable energy seems to have come from government subsidies rather than from private funds. Yet, with more demands than ever being devised which will require massive investments in just such renewables, such as electric cars and the processing of ever more rare earths, that investment seems to be slowing down.

And clearly, many countries, such as India, will never adopt sufficient renewable energy to power all of its needs.

So is the push for investment in renewable energy running out of puff ? Is big capital looking for the Next Big Thing ?

[Nobody mention nuclear.]

Joe

Renewables will never be able to meet much of the world's ever growing energy demand. The costs will always be prohibitive - enormous costs for energy storage and for grids to widely dispersed renewable generators with low capacity factors. The transmission lines cost far more for renewables than for baseload power stations because they have to be much longer and have to be sized to transmit the maximum output of the solar or wind farm, but for only 20-30% of full output on average. So the cost per km of line is 3 to 4 times more than to baseload power stations, as well as three to ten times the length - perhaps more..

The rear guard action by the denial crowd is taking a predictable course isn't it.

Even Andrew Bolt this month abandoned the ship recognising AGW but asserting it will be 'good for us'.

While the author and many commenting here are still either in the denial or the anger phases at least Bolt has moved to the bargaining phase.

And can article authors please provide references when they make statements like; "A 2007 AGW paper defined nine climatic tipping points, namely: Amazon Forest; West Antarctic; East Antarctic; Arctic; Atlantic circulation; boreal forest; coral reefs; Greenland; and permafrost."

No citation usually means there is something within the paper which doesn't align with the article.

DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN. If GOD there be and HEAVEN there ALSO be, then SMITE these braindead dropkicks claiming that CO2 is GOOD FOR US!

ANYBODY with even high school science understands that drastic increases CO2 in the atmosphere are not only TOXIC but are the ROOT CAUSE of climate change. IT FUNDAMENTALLY ALTERS THE CHEMISTRY OF THE MEDIUM.

I and my family; my son and my grandkids; are fed up to the eye teeth with whinging whining old farts with NO F'ing CLUE as to the realities of the science.

THERE IS NO DISSENT IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY. NONE.

ALL....REPEAT ALL... of supposed 'dissenters' have been PROVEN to be either corrupted findings, bad data, lousy methodologies, or just flat out wrong.

LIMITED CO2 increases are beneficial only in SMALL AMOUNTS for very short periods of time.

Seriously people. WHY are you insisting on CONTINUING this idiot conversation?

You either believe the science or you believe Murdoch and Morrison and morons like Trump. I reject the morons. Utterly.

My family are innocent. I'm not EVER going to be sitting around with my thumb up my arse rocking back and forth while braindead corrupt arsewipes destroy the air water and land for everybody still to come.

We are TENANTS on this world.. we hold it in TRUST for our kids and grandkids. This is NOT a toxic dumping ground for idiot arsewipe polluting shitsmears who think that they are able to dump their poisonous filth on my grandkids, just because they're too damned lazy to clean up properly.

Poll released today on cause of bushfires:

Drought 85%
Fuel Loads 75%
State Government Planning 74%
Federal Government Planning 70%
Climate Change 61%