Another take on the insulation debacle

After watching the savaging of Peter Garrett over the home insulation program I was pleased to see Kevin Rudd taking responsibility for part of the problem. We all knew the program had been rushed ahead with several other stimulus packages to cope with the GFC.
I was starting to get confused with all the attacks into thinking the points made by Garrett in his defense were perhaps overstated. However, in todays Financial Review (AFR- page 3) paper I have found a well reasoned article "Insulation fears: more hype than actual fires" by Geoff Winestock which has restored (somewhat) my faith in the ability of media to actually discuss facts rather than emotional hysteria as well as restored some trust in the Minister.

I would be the first to admit that if I had lost a son in an industrial accident, I would be extremely emotional, even hysterical.

However, the AFR article points out "based on data from fire brigades for NSW, Queensland, South Australia and metropolitan Melbourne...has found there were 115 house fires in 2009 attributed to faulty insulation. ...It was only slightly higher than the 75 house fires caused by faulty insulation in 2007... In the meantime about 1.15 million houses have been fitted with insulation, ..compared with an average of about 60,000 installations in 2007" So in terms of fires per installation the risk has fallen dramatically.

It would be extremely interesting to see if the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) or some other proper statistical agency, can confirm these numbers as it does back up Peter Garrett's claim to have introduced training and standards into the industry.
The Financial Review had a number of excellent articles - on page 30 "Flawed model, muddled message" by John Breusch on the problems with selling the Emissions Trading Scheme, and page 21 "Safe as houses" by Andrew Cornell which details why I would not be able to keep up with the housing market on a librarians salary!

So thanks AFR for an informative lunchtime read.

Climate science - vicious attacks and deniers

 I have just finished reading an interesting article by Clive Hamilton on "Bullying , lies and the rise of right wing climate denial" I find it quite interesting when journalists start writing a series of moderately in depth stories such as this. I too have noticed a considerable increase in the stridency and aggressiveness of tactics from climate change deniers. Having attended lectures with David Karoly and other climate change activists I'm not surprised they are receiving vicious emails etc. I too feel that the debate has degenerated into attacking the person and climate change scientists are also able on this regard. However, so far as I have heard, their attacks have been in the nature of semi-humourous pokes at the deniers and often include rebuttal to the science of the anti-climate change deniers.
I will be reading Clive Hamilton's next piece on who is behind the attacks with interest. As a librarian I know that even public places such as library computers are monitored by a variety of mechanisms. So although these vicious, swearing and orchestrated attacks will be difficult to trace, I hope the culprits are caught and prosecuted. Such type of debate is not needed in our society.
Overwhelming internet facilities with avalanches of attacks is not new in Cyberspace as Google recently found out in China. Even innocuous sites such as libraries can succumb to such disgusting tactics. 
I wonder whether politicians will have to develop stronger measures to fight mass email and other lobbying tactics (vicious or not) to find the true feelings and values of a population.

Solar Power and Rebate

Currently I'm awaiting my rebate from the Federal Government under the Solar Homes and Community Plan. While waiting I thought I would check the stats on how many Solar Power systems have been installed. The Dec 2009 stats show some 67,472 sites installed with a total of 78,961,534 Grid connected Watts and 4937279 SAPS Watts (off grid systems). Of interest is the number of sites per state. You can find this information and download the Excel sheets at http://www.environment.gov.au/sustainability/renewable/pv/history.html

 

From another chart you can see the effect the Solar Homes and Communities rebate has had - a hockey stick of explosive growth. It will be interesting to see the effect now that the Governments REC's scheme is well on the way but anecdotally, my Solar Installer say they are still extremely busy.

So I have great sympathy with Peter Garrett and the Insulation Rebate debate, particularly the problem exposed in the installation of Metal Foil, with subsequent deaths of contractors and hazards to home owners of incorrectly installed insulation. The overwhelming fault is with the dodgy, inexperienced installers but I think Minister Garrett did need to act faster to remove the Foil Insulation from being covered by the rebate.

My home was insulated from construction, but there were problems even then. The builders chose to use Fibre Fill instead of the specified Batts and the downlights were not kept separate from the fill, leading to a number of problems. This has now been sorted with products covering the downlights, reflecting the heat back into the house and separating the loose insulation from the hot lights. 

Of course all this happened in the days before rebates and so far no-one has been killed (in  my house at least). But who is responsible?? - the home owner, dodgy contractors, safety inspectors or Ministers making regulations and administering schemes?? 

At least Peter Garrett has his heart in the right place unlike the get rich quick, rip-u off merchants who always jump onto these bandwagons. So fair go - give the Minister a swipe but prosecute the installers!

(BTW:  As I own most of Midnight Oils albums you can see where my bias lies!)

Black Saturday - one year on

Last Sunday was the 1 year anniversary of the devastating bushfires in Victoria. Several memorial services were held and televised along with a number of documentaries (Inside the Firestorm on ABC TV) detailing the timeline of the events occurring that day. I found the ABC documentary compulsive viewing and was interested to note my recollection of events was not the same as the detailed timeline provided.
The major difference was the time I remember hearing that Marysville and Kinglake had been destroyed. I remembered driving down the Eastlink Freeway at 5pm that day listening to very bad news about the fires and subsequently driving through the bush burnt by fire in the previous week . Afterwards we watched the unfolding news events on TV and were aghast at the devastation.The next day I took several photos of the fiery sunset engendered by the smoke generated. And I thought we knew about Marysville and Kinglake destruction earlier than what was mentioned in the documentary. Just shows how malleable memory is.

It is with great relief that we can see the reconstruction of the towns is now starting.  It has taken much longer than anyone would have thought and there is still an enormous amount of work to do. Reconstructing peoples lives and futures will take a lot longer. The stories of courage and resilience are very inspiring.
This week, 1 year after the fires, we are looking forward to storms and rain. The Bureau of Meteorology yesterday warned of flash flooding in Melbourne which happened while the power authorities are dealing with outages in the northern suburbs after Wednesday's storm. Such a city of extremes.

As Dorothea McKellar (1904) so eloquently declaimed: 

"I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, 

Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror- the wide brown land for me!"