Why climate change is an irrelevance, economic growth is a myth and sustainability is forty years too late

As someone who has been exploring the world’s most isolated wilderness regions for nearly half a century, I have some insight into the state of the planet and the human race’s current environmental befuddlement. I’ve watched the condition of the earth plummet before my eyes within my own lifespan, to the extent that I no longer recognize it as the beautiful, diverse supporter of all life it once was.

The detritus of humanity.

So let me start by addressing a few key points of confusion that seem to affect both keen activists and head-in-the-sand deniers in equal measure:

Climate change is not the biggest threat to the world’s environment – we are. The world’s rivers and seas aren’t choked with floating piles of rubbish, toxic chemicals and plastic waste because of climate change. They’re that way because we have 7.7 billion people crammed onto a planet that’s dying under the pressure of our greedy, selfish abuse. Two decades from now, the earth’s oceans are on target to contain more plastic in them (by weight) than fish. Climate change didn’t do that. Way too many people did that.

Climate change hasn’t covered the world with concrete or replaced healthy ecosystems with canal estates and shopping malls – we and our ever-increasing numbers are the culprit. Climate change is only one of many symptoms of an out-of-control disease – human overpopulation. The irreversible environmental damage stemming from having too many people on a finite planet is already painfully evident. Our bloated population is diminishing our children’s futures in ways that have very little to do with the planet’s temperature.

I keep hearing people say “Humans have always found a way to solve difficult problems, so don’t worry – it’ll all work itself out”. Alas, the problem the earth faces now is one it has never dealt with before – a plague of nearly 8 billion humans. It can’t cope anymore.

Read the story from Global Comment by Kevin Casey - “Why climate change is an irrelevance, economic growth is a myth and sustainability is forty years too late.”

GE to build the world’s largest offshore wind turbines

GE plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind turbines, which are so tall they would dominate Melbourne's skyline.

The offshore wind turbines are nearly 300 metres tall.

The wind towers will stand 260 metres tall, almost the same height as the Sydney Tower or 120 Collins Street in Melbourne and well above the world’s current largest wind turbines at 247m. The blades alone are 107 metres long.

Known as the Haliade-X, the 12-megawatt turbines can generate up to 67 gigawatts of power annually, enough to run up to 16,000 homes. Australia consumed 180,750-gigawatt hours of electricity in 2016-17, the equivalent of 2700 of these turbines. The world’s current largest wind turbine capacity is only 9 megawatts.

Read Cole Latimer’s story from The Age - “GE to build the world’s largest offshore wind turbines.”

Electrify Everything & Save The Planet!

Have you ever wondered why so many of the items we use on a daily basis are switching away from fossil fuel power to electricity? About 80% of the world’s GHG emissions are a direct or indirect result of extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Electricity offers a more efficient, lower-cost, and sustainable energy alternative to fossil fuel power.

Yes, we need to electrify everything.

Consumer energy technologies fall into two basic types: those that run on electricity (anything that plugs in or has a battery) and those that directly combust fuels like oil, gasoline, natural gas, or biomass. Let’s zoom in specifically on vehicles to understand the importance of electrification.

The gas-powered internal combustion engine is intrinsically inefficient. Less than a quarter of the energy consumed is used to drive the vehicle — the balance is rejected as waste heat. The preferable scenario is to choose electricity to drive our vehicles of all sizes and capacities. If that were the case, more than 90% of the energy devoted to our personal transportation would be deployed usefully. Let’s translate that in a different way. We could provide the driving potential of a gallon of gasoline by substituting as few as 8 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity.

Read the story by Carolyn Fortuna on CleanTechnica - “Electrify Everything & Save The Planet!”

Losing the wilderness: a 10th has gone since 1992 – and gone for good

The world’s last great wildernesses are shrinking at an alarming rate. In the past two decades, 10% of the earth’s wilderness has been lost due to human pressure, a mapping study by the University of Queensland has found.

University of Queensland study shows since 1992, 3m sq km of wilderness have been lost.

Over the course of human history, there has been a major degradation of 52% of the earth’s ecosystems, while the remaining 48% is being increasingly eroded. Since 1992, when the United Nations signed up to the Rio convention on biological diversity, three million square kilometres of wilderness have been lost.

Read The Guardian story by Susan Cherney - “Losing the wilderness: a 10th has gone since 1992 – and gone for good.”