Essay by Eric Worrall
“… There are no words to describe the environmental devastation that these so-called ‘green’ ‘renewable energy’ projects have already wreaked on QLD and will continue to do so …”
Good Afternoon Kilkivan Action Group!
Our wonderful friend from FNQ, Carolyn Emms of Rainforest Reserves Australia, has created a QLD Parliamentary e-Petition calling for a moratorium on all renewable energy projects in QLD.
Please take 30 seconds (seriously, that’s all it takes) to click on the link and sign this very important petition.
Even better, could you please have all your immediate family members sign and then forward it to your extended families and friends. Post it on Facebook, IG, X – wherever you can spread the word. There are no words to describe the environmental devastation that these so-called ‘green’ ‘renewable energy’ projects have already wreaked on QLD and will continue to do so under the current political landscape here in QLD and across the Nation.
https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Work-of-the-Assembly/Petitions/Petition-Details?id=4105
Wishing everyone a wonderful Sunday evening.Warmest (or should I say coldest because it’s bloody freezing in Kilkivan today!) Regards, Katy McCallum Kilkivan Action Group
The petition is available here. The petition is only open to residents of Queensland, Australia.
It is easy to dismiss the value of petitions – why would a powerful politician care what a bunch of anti-renewable campaigners think?
But this year is different. This year is an election year, and the green politicians who currently run Queensland are clinging to power by their fingernails, because of public anger over multiple policy failures. Even a few thousand votes could tip the balance in the upcoming election.
So this year, more than most years, every gust in the political wind will be closely watched by politicians on all sides. More than ever, this year your voice really does count.
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“the green politicians who currently run Queensland are clinging to power by their fingernails, because of public anger over multiple policy failures.”
Is there enough difference between the contenders to matter, or is this like a choice between Torys and Labour in Britain? (Ignorant American here)
There’s a difference between the current Tories and Labour?
The Tories are the ones in power. That’s it.
It’s the so-called Climate crisis and the crazy Net Zero policies that put these two great parties in the same sinking ship along with the Lib Dems, Greens and communists. Apart from that the Tories espouse traditional conservative policies except for Brexit, which was their mistake because they underestimated the anti-EU crowd who wanted more independent policies than the EU socialist agenda. Until the next government throws off the self-inflicted immolation policies related to renewable energy, the country will remain a total economic mess and everyone except the social elites will suffer greatly.
They wear different colour neckties.
I think scarecrow is saying just the opposite, that Tories and Labour are really no choice because they have the same Net Zero policies. Scarecrow is asking if it is the same in Australia.
Thank you!
No, at least with the mainstream parties. The opposition leader’s brainstorm a few months ago was solar grants for rental homes, so people in accommodation they don’t own could push the landlord into going green.
https://dclnp.org.au/2024/03/18/lnp-supercharges-solar-for-renters/#
Having said that it matters to the politicians themselves who is implementing all the wokeness, so they might lay off unpopular policies for a bit if there are enough objections. A few months respite buys time to figure out the next strategy.
That’s true. Getting thrown out of power might put a little fear into them for next time.
How otherwise responsible and reasonable people fail to see the environmental and economic destruction from mineral intensive low energy density wind turbines and solar panels is amazing. Hopefully. those low information voters will agree that small scale modular nuclear will be a superior alternative for their fear of plant food (CO2)
Just about 100 km from Kilkivan, in similar countryside
and in the middle of the Tarong National Park, we have the Tarong Power station:
That’s the alternative.
How often does that powerplant not run because the wind isn’t blowing exactly right and/or the sun isn’t shining exactly enough ?
Eric’s petition is about environmental devastation.
Which is exactly what wind turbines do.
They DESTROY the hinterland and the avian wild life.
Have you got one in your back yard yet ????
If not, you are a cretinous hypocrite. !
Seems to me that Wind and Solar also require Coal in their manufacture
You’re not seriously suggesting the ecological footprint of coal plants and associated infrastructure like transmission lines is comparable to wind and solar farms are you?
As shown, just the coal mine footprint is enormous. And yes, they have transmission lines too, as you can see in the image.
At least it provides the dispatchable power needed to back up the intermittent wind/solar. A curious onlooker might ask ‘why do we need wind/solar at all?’
“why do we need wind/solar at all?’”
Short answer…
WE DON’T !
Transmission lines that actually carry electricity 100% of the time, and supply electricity 24/7 to Brisbane.
And of course Nick forgets to mention the massive rehabilitation being carried out.
Meandu Mine gets tick of approval for the largest area of native vegetation rehabilitation in Queensland – Stanwell
Those wind turbine foundations, and probably the wind turbines themselves will be just left there as they die after a short, erratic, unreliable life. But the avian life will be gone… and Nick will not care.
Nick,
Did it occur to you that the power station commenced construction in 1979 and commenced operation in 1984.
The national park was created in 1995.
Clearly the power station didn’t damage the region enough to void the creation of a national park.
The damage is very obvious.
YEs, avian wildlife is suffering badly from wind turbines.
But you, being a rabid greenie.. don’t give a damn !!
Environmental damage as a result of grid renewable build – ok, environmental damage as a result of coal – not ok.- The logic of the green mind.
But Wind and Solar both still require the Coal Mine to exist
and copper mine and lithium mines and iron ore mines, & blast & arc furnaces for steel, & milling & large industrial fabrication processes & graphite & plastics & carbon fibre & various compounded materials & glass & silicon & semiconductors & polymers & aluminum & silver in a never-ending process of manufacture due to the limitations on renewable machines………and millions of square kilometers of planet to build it all on, and it doesn’t work.
Nick being disingenuous again. Tarong takes up about 15 km² and produces about 1.6GW. In the same area, you could get a couple of wind turbines that produce maybe 100MW. To get the equivalent capacity in wind, assuming ideal placement of every turbine, your need something like 400km². That’s 400 square kilometres of roads, transmission cables, support infrastructure,and concrete foundations, and permanently destroy habitat.
This is just for nameplate capacity; actual equivalent output would require double at the very least.
They call this “saving the planet”.
Nick is ALWAYS disingenuous..
Always a hypocrite.
“Nick being disingenuous again. Tarong takes up about 15 km² and produces about 1.6GW. In the same area, you could get a couple of wind turbines that produce maybe 100MW.”
Here again is a picture of the coal mine
And here, on the same scale, is the 453 MW Cooper’s Gap wind farm, not far away. There are many turbines within that area, and their footprint is barely visible on the map.
Come on Nick-the-hypocrite.
Turn off your access to Victoria’s coal fired power.. and exist ONLY on wind and solar.
You know you would never do that.
“453 MW Cooper’s Gap wind farm, not far away.”
That is nameplate.. talk about disingenuous..
More like an average of less than 1/4 of that.. and often NONE AT ALL.
You have just proven that you would need somewhere near 15 times the area to produce the same amount of electricity “on average”… and still provide far less for half the time.
Not to mention that the mine has been there for 40+ years, providing solid reliable electricity all that time., something those wind turbines will never be able to do.
Talk about a monumental own goal !!
Where are all the trees in the bottom image? Or is it a naturally bleak landscape??
Type Coopers Gap windfarm into google Earth, you get this
Ease out a bit you get a typical outback hilly area where large birds love to hunt small prey.
Current electricity supply mix in Qld..
COAL 76%.. Gas 14%, hydro 3%
wind only 7% (pretty high, it is often less than 3-4%)
We don’t live on a map. We live mostly around ground level. From there, the wind turbines on the ridges are very intrusively visible and an eyesore.
We don’t live on a map
Exactly what I was going to say
Wind turbines intrude on the environment, as shown on the top image here. But here is an image of the mine at Tarong, covering an area similar to a large wind farm. The turbines intrude on the environment; the coal mine obliterates it.
Disingenuous again.
Massive rehabilitation already happening….
… after 40+ years of constant 24/7 electricity supply.
How’s that wind turbine installation in your back yard going , hypocrite !
Nick Stokes has no idea about power stations or understanding engineering technology. Where it says Boral Tarong is actually a fly ash collection plant at the Tarong power station. The fly ash is an useful cement extender added directly to concrete mixes. Concrete is the world’s most important building material. Concrete in Qld. contains per m3 about 260 kg of cement and 90 kg of flyash. The cement (in concrete) contains about 35%-60% ground blast furnace slag and 65%-40% of fine ground cement from Portland cement clinker. It is green nonsense that the use of concrete results in large emissions of CO2 (which is a beneficial gas necessary for plant growth). In making the clinker the fuel used is many different waste products such as motor vehicle tyres which no one else can reycle.
I simply point out that the environment has been obliterated. Do you deny it?
“I can’t see it so it isn’t real” isn’t an argument, nick. And you’re lying with those numbers. Cooper’s Gap takes up 120 km² and spreads far, far outside the bounds of the area you claim is the entire thing. There’s about 200MW of nameplate production at most within the area pictured. So, like I said, to produce the same amount of nominal power as the one power station, you’d have to take up and destroy orders of magnitude more habitat. Just because it’s less obvious doesn’t make it less destructive.
Or we could just say it’s outside the environment and continue lying about the destruction these things cause.
Thanks, Archer, you answered the questions I had about the coal plant’s “enormous” foot print verses the footprint of hundreds of windmills.
I’ll take the coal plant every time. Not many birds dying around coal plants.
And Green Plants thrive on the CO2 released from coals utilization
COAL FIRED POWER is the only thing that keeps you able to use the internet and make moronic comments.
It has almost every watt of electricity for most of your MISERABLE and PATHETIC life.
Maybe we should get rid of it !!
Wind and Solar need Coal for Structural Steel Masts and Silicon refinement for PV Chips so …
Wouldn’t THAT coal mime Still be there for Their manufacture?
China
And doesn’t Australia export Coal to China??
every gust in the political wind
Storm Assange is on its way….
With a criminal conviction Assange will never be allowed to leave Australia again, and Australia is rapidly becoming a place where free speech is not protected by law.
Alexander Downer was less than flattering this morning
My views on Assange are mixed.
On one hand we know a lot about dirty secrets which would have remained hidden without Assange. But he also likely did a lot of harm, possibly exposed US spies and informants who were helping to thwart bad actors. I wouldn’t be surprised if good people died after being exposed by Assange.
I think you can redact sensitive information and still be a good journalist, if you are upfront and explain why the information is being redacted.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if good people died after being exposed by Assange.”
I think that is the problem that will be following him around for a long time.
Over time, my views on Julian Assange have hardened. It’s fine to reveal government misdeeds and misinformation that relate to domestic issues. But the outside world contains hostile players with no scruples, and revealing any information that could help those hostile players is criminally stupid – or worse. And if loyal people working genuinely for your country get killed, that is doubly unacceptable. Julian Assange appears to have crossed that line in hubristic pursuit of an ideology.
“We had to destroy the village to save it”. Or in these cases, the environment…including birds, bats, farmland…
Speaking of villages, there’s one called Moyhu in Victoria, Australia that has an idiot posing as a utility scale power supply expert.
Remember, it may take a village to raise an Idiot but it takes a Democrat Machine to elect one to run the Idiocracy
The hills just to the east and south of Moyhu would be a great place for a wind farm.
Catch all those westerly and north westerly breezes. !
Supply Wangaratta, Benalla and destroy all glorious scenery of the wine country.
I expect to see Nick putting for a proposal to the Victorian government.
Any time now… tick, tock…. tick. tock.
Building renewable energy projects is a waste of time, money and resources. Not to mention being really stupid.