Cold winter in Melbourne?? Haha, what are you, 10 years old? This winter has been a bit colder than we have seen over the last few years, at least that's the impression I get, and I know, I ride a pushbike to work every day. But it isn't even close to a normal winter in the 1970s or 1980s. Regular frost on the windscreen, a white covering on parks, these things just aren't as common as they used to be.
As for the suggestion of nuclear power, give me a break. Absolutely insane idea, words cannot convey how stupid this is. If the world ramps up nuclear power now we get maybe 50 years of power, more likely a lot less. It comes with 250,000 years of toxic radioactive waste for which there is no safe solution to store this stuff for that long. Think about it, if the ancient Egyptians had nuclear power and had stored the waste in the pyramids we would still be less than 10% through the half life of the toxic radioactive waste produced. There is no safe way to store the waste from nuclear power generation for the required period of time for it to become safe, for a non-renewable power source this just makes no sense.
In Australia, of all countries, with a sparse population, with plenty of land, with abundant sunshine and wind onshore and offshore, it is a no-brainer to go for solar and wind. Add in some tidal power, hydro storage, solar collecting power stations (they work overnight) and we should be ramping up the renewables and exporting power to our nearest neighbours.
DS
As for the suggestion of nuclear power, give me a break. Absolutely insane idea, words cannot convey how stupid this is. If the world ramps up nuclear power now we get maybe 50 years of power, more likely a lot less. It comes with 250,000 years of toxic radioactive waste for which there is no safe solution to store this stuff for that long. Think about it, if the ancient Egyptians had nuclear power and had stored the waste in the pyramids we would still be less than 10% through the half life of the toxic radioactive waste produced. There is no safe way to store the waste from nuclear power generation for the required period of time for it to become safe, for a non-renewable power source this just makes no sense.
In Australia, of all countries, with a sparse population, with plenty of land, with abundant sunshine and wind onshore and offshore, it is a no-brainer to go for solar and wind. Add in some tidal power, hydro storage, solar collecting power stations (they work overnight) and we should be ramping up the renewables and exporting power to our nearest neighbours.
DS