There seems to be an ineluctable component of the human psyche that compels us to pursue Nirvana, the ultimate state of human well-being. In the past most major religions had mapped out a way to get there by spiritual paths. Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism had their own formulae about how to access Heaven, Paradise, Nirvana or whatever.
But in the West, in the twenty-first century we have become more secular and more materialistic and the ancient spiritual paths that required belief, self-sacrifice and moral discipline have fallen out of favour.
In the late twentieth century an alternative belief system arose. It was centred on worshipping the Earth. It emerged from the work of the scientist, environmentalist and futurist, James Lovelock. In the absence of credible supernatural deities, Lovelock chose to deify the planet Earth. He proposed the Gaia hypothesis, Gaia being the Greek word for the mythological depiction of the planet Earth.
Out of this movement arose a very emphatic focus on environmentalism. It posited that the Earth was a wonderful, bountiful place with its organic and inorganic systems finely balanced. Paradise on Earth was achievable so long as Mankind did not unduly interfere with that balance.
But late in the Twentieth century environmentalists became concerned that the Earth was heating unduly because of the so-called “greenhouse effect”. They warned that modern industrialised countries were emitting undue amounts of gases that were the by-products of industrial processes into the atmosphere, This resulted inthe atmosphere trapping larger amounts of solar radiation which would inevitably lead to heating of the Earth. This process was dubbed “global warming”.
The more rabid environmentalists (including former Vice President of the USA, Al Gore) responded by creating a Dooms Day cult which postulated rising temperatures would melt the polar ice caps resulting in the catastrophic flooding of low –lying coastal areas What’s more they predicted rising temperatures would turn our arable land to deserts and according to palaeontologist and environmentalist. Tim Flannery reductions in rainfall would ensure our dams would never fill again!
These cataclysmic projections were soon adopted by the left as their climate mantra, and as I have previously described the left’s inexorable takeover of our institutions soon saw this dubious proposition preached in our schools and universities as the gospel truth. This sowed existential fear in the hearts of our young people who were convinced that unless industrial activity was curtailed they were all doomed within decades. Just as in the nineteen sixties, during the “Cold War”, our young people had succumbed to the threat of nuclear annihilation, with even less palpable reasons our youth of more recent times became obsessed with a climate related Armageddon. And out of this morass of half-truths, exaggerations and falsehoods arose a young climate evangelist – Greta Thunberg. Thunberg, without any climate science credentials whatsoever, presumed to lecture the United Nations on the immorality o the Western world in not curtailing its industrial activities. It was confirmation to many of us of the irrelevance of the United Nations where good sense has been subverted by political opportunism!
So under this belief system Nirvana was achieved by the preservation of the Earth’s ecology. The major threats these evangelists proffered were largely related to the consumption of fossil fuels. Accordingly, renewable energy was projected as a technology that would save the Earth. On the other hand the exploration for, the extraction of and the consumption of fossil fuels, principally coal, oil and gas were to be discouraged. Both State and Federal Governments seduced by this apocalyptic propaganda have progressively made it more difficult for Australians to utilise their abundant fossil fuel resources. And adding to this ecological madness, most of the major banks refuse to provide finance for fossil fuel projects.
The High Priest of woke environmentalism is Minister Chris Bowen who has gone to extraordinary lengths to promote renewable energy. Bowen seems to genuinely believe that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy when it clearly is not. Anyone who understands the economics of electricity generation will confirm that this is not the case. Moreover lived experience has shown that with increased renewable generation we have experienced higher electricity prices and less system reliability. In Australia this policy has correlated with an energy disaster. Australia’s rush to renewables has seen not only increasing electricity prices but also has seen manufacturing industry flee Australia whilst the government is seeking to promote Australian manufacturing!
The war in the Middle East has exposed Australia’s energy vulnerability. Despite the government’s costly push to renewable energy Australia still heavily relies on fossil fuels which currently provide something like 90% of Australia’s energy needs. Climate zealots, like Bowen, like to proclaim that we are making great progress towards weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Putting aside electricity generation where Australia continues to rely predominantly on coal and gas, our mining, agricultural and transport industries rely on diesel fuel.
Since the Iran war has caused the Straits of Hormuz to be closed Australia’s liquid fuel supply has been dramatically compromised.. We have had the unedifying spectacle of our Prime Minister who has done everything he can to thwart the production of oil and gas development in Australia now going cap in hand to beg for Asian countries to guarantee our liquid fuel supplies!
But lest you think otherwise let me assert I support renewable energy as a long term strategy. Indeed in my time as CEO of Stanwell Corporation we were some of the earliest protagonists for renewable energy. Contrary to the stance of the climate zealots, we believed that the move to renewable energy was a long term objective. It was my belief that it would take many decades for renewable enrgy to take a dominant place in Australia’s energy system.
In the move to refashion Australia’s electricity generation the first logical step was to increase the amount of gas-fired generation. This would considerably reduce CO2 emissions without compromising energy costs or system security. But the climate zealots with little understanding of energy economics and security of supply issues decided that the use of any fossil fuels was intolerable and opted to promote Net Zero and the proliferation of renewable technologies despite the negative impacts.
As a consequence, we now are faced with escalating energy costs and energy insecurity because of this ill-conceived policy.
Bowen’s Nirvana has become demonstrably unattainable. But more importantly we are all poorer and our industry is under stress because of the ideological misstep.
No doubt this fanciful Paradise is has vanished. We can only hope that a more pragmatic approach to our energy dilemma will provide us with something more useful!