Stuffthatcounts

Suppose you are trying to shift Australia’s 30 million tonne grain harvest and somebody has decreed that you couldn’t use anything other...

“It’s the economy, stupid” was a phrase coined back in 1992 during a U.S. election campaign. It’s purpose was to keep people focused on...

Climate scientist Matthew England interviewed Naomi Oreskes, who, with Erik Conway, wrote: “Merchants of Doubt; How a handful of...

I posted about decarbonising diesel engines a while back and it’s time for part II: solutions. But “approaches” is definitely a more...

This is the start of a series on hard-to-decarbonise parts of the global economy. The first part will be diesel engines and it will take...

One of the less frequently reported events at COP27 in Egypt was the presentation of a UN report on Corporate Greenwashing. At least I...

I vaguely remember learning about cargo cults at school. Are they still in the curriculum? Perhaps there is so much competition in the...

I imagine the inhabitants of Kimba South Australia would have a little chuckle if the ABC ran a story with the headline: “Murray...

Back in 2009 I wrote a book, CSIRO Perfidy, about the most environmentally destructive diet on the planet … the Commonwealth Scientific...

The global energy market is becoming transfixed by gas. Without adequate gas supplies, people in cold climates will be dying, or very...

Abbreviations: AEMO: Australian Energy Market Operator ESB: Energy Security Board GENCOST: Gencost GSOO: Gas Statement of Opportunities...

[This post is a short holiday from the serious series on nuclear costs.] Over the past decade or so I’ve heard numerous people extol the...

Part III: Is nuclear power really expensive, or just much better? Abbreviations: AEMO: Australian Energy Market Operator CCGT:...

Abbreviations: CCGT: combined-cycle gas turbine, this is the top-of-the-range gas turbine CCS: Carbon Capture and Storage GENCOST:...

[This is Part I in a series of posts on nuclear costs, they are companions to the post on nuclear construction times. Some of it is...

There were some tweeted objections to my build post that I wanted to respond to in more detail than Twitter allows. I won’t name names,...

[Further update: 26th August 2022 ... New York Times reporting the reactors are back on the grid. Wonderful news! Still reporting just 2...

This is the first of two posts, and deals with the speed of building nuclear reactors. The next post will deal with costs. Build speeds...

I don't remember the year, but it was shortly after the 2005 release of Jared Diamond's "Collapse: How societies choose to fail or...

[N.B. Longer article on Grid Capacity, promised last week, has been delayed a little ... but is still coming] I keep seeing news reports...