dickie, isn't 'masses' rather unfashionable? i prefer 'people'. the reason we are ruled by second rate solicitors is because the people are, alas, treated as brainless 'masses', even by their friends. but it's not genetic,i hope. ozzies can be led to feel they can direct their nation's destiny,with discussion and example.

or maybe not. just as people raised in a wheelchair would have withered legs, people raised in parliamentary societies seem to have withered political imagination. they simply can not imagine participating in formation of policy because they have never done it.

leaving the management of society in the hands of alpha males, on the other hand, seems to have led us to the brink of ecological disaster. the structure of society prevents decisions being made for the good of the majority because that is what it was meant to do.

so the choice is educate people who for the most part think they know enough already, or watch large chunks of the human race die in mass famines and/or the warfare that arises from resource exhaustion.

the real problem is not energy, the real problem is getting the human race to adjust it's numbers to available resources. the adjustment will happen, the only variable is how much pain will be involved.

Demos

I am unconcerned that you view the word "masses" as "unfashionable." That is how many politicians view the people of this nation.

One can not expect a sustainable environment when bankers, commercial property developers, lawyers etc are given control of the the environment portfolios.

These ministers often have vested interests or totally lack any background in chemistry - an essential requirement to buffer the spin that industry aligned senior bureaucrats feed to their ministers when a catastrophe occurs, a result of those bureaucrats' failure to regulate a pollutant industry.

Of course, one could forgive a minister's naivety if they endeavoured to understand, by conducting their own minimum research, the measurements of toxic emissions from industrial stacks - they don't!

For example if I advised you that one small company's stack emissions revealed a measurement of 0.2ng/m3 PCDD's, would you understand? I doubt it, nor do the ministers. Nor do many of the bureaucrats - no do they care!

Though I do recall a minister, with a background in chemistry, instructing her department to enforce the capping of excessive toxic emissions from a pollutant company, in an effort to protect a community from the release of hazardous hydrocarbons. The department ignored her determinations.

The current parliamentary enquiry into the catastrophic lead pollution in Esperance WA, gives some optimism that the department of environment, in its shameful neglect of the people in that state, will be called to account. The committee investigating this pollution includes 2 doctors who,hopefully, will not be misled by the crap this department usually feeds to the "masses."

Unfortunately, the majority of the people find all this quite tedious or they naively believe these departments and their ministers are protecting them and their environment. That could not be further from the truth. Your suggestion of "discussion and example" to get real about hydrocarbon pollution has to date, had little effect on the people's apathy, revealed by their reluctance to demand a cleaner environment in this "clever" country.

In essence, we need to insist that our own backyard is cleaned first, before picking on anyone else!

The cost of building hot rock geothermal power sources is estimated by geodynamics to be $2.6M per megawatt installed capacity including connection to the grid. This will generate 8,760,000 kwh per year in clean emission free energy. This is a capital cost of .34 cents per kwh per year. The running cost is estimated at 1 cent per kwh.

It is estimated that each Australian on average consumes a total of 70,000kwhs per year for all purposes. The capital cost to generate this amount of emission free geothermal energy with existing technologies is about 23,800. If we invested $1,000 each for 23.8 years then we would have an emission free energy industry in Australia.

Why are we only setting targets of 50 and 60%? Why not increase the amount of investment to $1,500 and do 100% in 15 years. We are going to have to invest this and more to replace and add to our existing energy infrastructure. It is a matter of redirecting investment and we should not wait for Carbon Trading to force this to happen but look at other market driven ways to direct investment.

One simple way is to ban any new investment in fossil burning energy plants and let the market decide which is the most efficient non polluting way to both generate and save energy but there are other less draconian ways to achieve the desired result.

Geothermal is the way to go for base load power here in Oz, NOT nuclear as our current government seems so intent on.

“Clean” coal (CCS) will play a part but it can not be put in place now.

We must also supplement our energy supplies with solar, wind, tidal, etc.

We should also improve our energy efficiencies, especially the big users (and emitters).

Governments should stop subsidising the major contributors to GHG emissions, e.g. aluminium smelters.

Blah, blah …

There is one major problem, our government is subservient to the fossil fuel and nuclear lobby – so it is not that simple.

We expect our business and political leaders to do the right thing. Unfortunately, WE have to drive their policies; WE have to hold them accountable.

If we don’t, we’re screwed.

It seems to me that it will be known before nuclear power can get
started that geothermal & solar thermal can or cannot provide base power.
Once it is known that the alternatives can do the job then nuclear
will not be financially viable anyway.

The big problem is liquid fuels and they have limited time anyway.
Oil & gas products should be kept for plastics and fertilisers.

Which gets us back to transport energy.
Build & Electrify the the long distance rail system and reopen closed
branch lines. Suburban light & heavy rail will need significant investment.
Do it while we still have the energy to construct the
new regime of infrastructure.
The long distance trucking industry is finished anyway so it is mainly local
truck transport and personal transport for those journies other than
commuting to work that will be served by electric cars.
There is no absolute certainty about the time of peak oil.
However, there are indications that it has already happened.
Even if it is another 15 years away we need to get cracking now.