Yeah, that was precisely the point I was making. It’s no longer politically viable to be an outright climate change denier. First they retreated to suggesting it’s not manmade, but that’s no longer viable either. There are a few different strategies they’ve fallen back on now, including “oh well, it’s too late to do anything now”, “climate change might be good actually?”, and “our country is so small that nothing we do could make any difference compared to America or China”. All nonsense, of course. But “renewables are bad actually. Nuclear is the best.” is one strategy that’s become particularly popular this year.
Some points on Australian politics for context. The three articles I posted focused on Peter Dutton, David Littleproud, and BHP.
Peter Dutton is the current leader of the opposition (think: the minority leader in the House + the non-incumbent presidential candidate all in one, in American terms). He’s a member of the Liberal Party*, which despite the name is actually Australia’s leading conservative party. They’re the Republicans. They’ve had a longstanding opposition to action on climate change, from refusing to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol to running a major campaign to actually revoke the climate-focused legislation we had from 2010–2013 which saw Australia’s only period of decreasing carbon emissions. And Dutton has been high in the ranks since that time period.
David Littleproud is the leader of the National Party. They’re a separate party from the Liberals technically, but in practice they act in lockstep. The two parties have a coalition agreement that has been in effect uninterrupted since 1946, to the point that in most contexts they’re thought of as one party. Littleproud is, effectively, the Vice Presidential candidate as well as second-in-charge of the minority party in the House. The Nationals are even more extreme in their social conservatism than the Liberals, generally speaking.
BHP should, I hope, need no introduction. They’re a massive multinational mining conglomerate, headquartered in Australia. The mining sector wields a lot of political power in Australia. Many mining and other energy-related companies are actually getting more and more into renewables themselves, and even BHP has said renewables need to be part of the mix. But their rhetoric has consistently been that it’s got to be a slow and careful transition so as not to harm their coal mines.
They can’t meet our total energy needs.
I think here you’re trying to get at the notion that renewables are bad for so-called “baseload” power. The thing is, studies suggest that baseload power is actually just not needed. That’s a fact that’s been known for at least a decade now, and which was called out as a “dinosaur” over half a decade ago. People carrying on about baseload power in 2023 are largely ill-informed, probably in no small part because of deliberate misinformation from vested interests.
It’s fundamentally untrue. Renewables can meet our energy needs, if we have the political will to make it so.
* Note to any Australians: I know this is technically not true, but he’s a Queensland LNP member who sits in the Liberal Party room, so it’s close enough without getting too into the weeds for a non-Australian audience.
Okay thank you for raising these points which were not all on my radar. I’ll be looking out for conservative nuclear excitement (haven’t seen much in the US so far). I will also take another skeptical look at baseload, but I might need more convincing on that.
Yeah, that was precisely the point I was making. It’s no longer politically viable to be an outright climate change denier. First they retreated to suggesting it’s not manmade, but that’s no longer viable either. There are a few different strategies they’ve fallen back on now, including “oh well, it’s too late to do anything now”, “climate change might be good actually?”, and “our country is so small that nothing we do could make any difference compared to America or China”. All nonsense, of course. But “renewables are bad actually. Nuclear is the best.” is one strategy that’s become particularly popular this year.
Some points on Australian politics for context. The three articles I posted focused on Peter Dutton, David Littleproud, and BHP.
Peter Dutton is the current leader of the opposition (think: the minority leader in the House + the non-incumbent presidential candidate all in one, in American terms). He’s a member of the Liberal Party*, which despite the name is actually Australia’s leading conservative party. They’re the Republicans. They’ve had a longstanding opposition to action on climate change, from refusing to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol to running a major campaign to actually revoke the climate-focused legislation we had from 2010–2013 which saw Australia’s only period of decreasing carbon emissions. And Dutton has been high in the ranks since that time period.
David Littleproud is the leader of the National Party. They’re a separate party from the Liberals technically, but in practice they act in lockstep. The two parties have a coalition agreement that has been in effect uninterrupted since 1946, to the point that in most contexts they’re thought of as one party. Littleproud is, effectively, the Vice Presidential candidate as well as second-in-charge of the minority party in the House. The Nationals are even more extreme in their social conservatism than the Liberals, generally speaking.
BHP should, I hope, need no introduction. They’re a massive multinational mining conglomerate, headquartered in Australia. The mining sector wields a lot of political power in Australia. Many mining and other energy-related companies are actually getting more and more into renewables themselves, and even BHP has said renewables need to be part of the mix. But their rhetoric has consistently been that it’s got to be a slow and careful transition so as not to harm their coal mines.
I think here you’re trying to get at the notion that renewables are bad for so-called “baseload” power. The thing is, studies suggest that baseload power is actually just not needed. That’s a fact that’s been known for at least a decade now, and which was called out as a “dinosaur” over half a decade ago. People carrying on about baseload power in 2023 are largely ill-informed, probably in no small part because of deliberate misinformation from vested interests.
It’s fundamentally untrue. Renewables can meet our energy needs, if we have the political will to make it so.
* Note to any Australians: I know this is technically not true, but he’s a Queensland LNP member who sits in the Liberal Party room, so it’s close enough without getting too into the weeds for a non-Australian audience.
Okay thank you for raising these points which were not all on my radar. I’ll be looking out for conservative nuclear excitement (haven’t seen much in the US so far). I will also take another skeptical look at baseload, but I might need more convincing on that.
Thanks for saying this. It’s the exact same thing in Denmark, and I just don’t get how people don’t realise this tactic when it’s so fucking blatant.
Oh interesting. Thanks for sharing that detail, because I was beginning to wonder if this tactic might have been unique to conservatives in Australia.