We need 700 times as much lithium as we are currently mining to electrify global transport

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Mining professor Simon Michaux has done a mammoth study on electrifying the global transport sector. He worked out how many cars, trucks, ships there were and how far they travel. Since most are still ICE(internal combustion engines)  vehicles he figured a great many things from there. Among his calculations were:
Continue reading “We need 700 times as much lithium as we are currently mining to electrify global transport”

Climate catastrophe or inevitable after COP26?

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Train in flood

Often during the last twenty years, climate activists have had high hopes that humanity will avert a climate catastrophe. Continue reading “Climate catastrophe or inevitable after COP26?”

Renewables – can we ever get there – when energy and climate clash

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Hydrolakes in Aotearoa/New Zealand have had many years of low rainfall, but it is now happening more frequently. In dry years we revert to coal generation, making the transition to renewables harder.

When New Zealand hydroelectric power stations ran low last summer, we beefed up electricity generation with another coal fired unit in Huntly. Environmentalists were shocked. How was New Zealand going to meet its climate targets now?
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Government, you are going to have to make me reduce my emissions

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailOK here is my mea culpa on climate action. I am guilty.

Yes, even though I have read a lot about climate change and the urgency of effective action and have been duly alarmed,  even though I am active in climate groups, even though I submitted to the Climate Commission, I still lapse. Continue reading “Government, you are going to have to make me reduce my emissions”

Why are TEQs better than Fee and Dividend or Cap and Trade?

FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailI am a recent convert to Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) invented by the late David Fleming in UK in 1996 for effective climate action. See Continue reading “Why are TEQs better than Fee and Dividend or Cap and Trade?”

Sustainability and Money

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Sustainability and money Deirdre Kent Nov 2020

A few months ago I gave this presentation to a climate change group. Hope you enjoy it. Well it’s not actually enjoyable to know that energy use and economic growth are so closely linked. As Naomi Klein said “The economy is at war with the climate”. We are going to need all our collective intelligence to downshift without chaos. Can we manage an energy descent without it being haphazard and dangerous socially? Continue reading “Sustainability and Money”