Budget BS

Tonight the Federal Government will hand down its first budget. After all the speculation we will finally learn what cuts, levies, taxes and broken promises the Treasurer will make to fund his "budget emergency"
You can bet he won't keep the Carbon Tax which was actually very effective and delivered money into the Federal coffers as well as encouraging investment in efficiencies (productivity gains) and new technologies (innovation and jobs).
This government has managed to get rid of or try to cut anything that has the words Solar, Renewable, Science and Carbon in it. That's where ideology takes you of course!
Meanwhile I generated 3.5 kWh of my own electricity today with a 1 kW unit.
A few years down the track, when the rest of the world is reaping the current investment boom in these new Energy and Job programs, we'll be still stuck with old system, high carbon emissions and higher costs.
Several ABC Radio National Programs highlighted these issues in the weekend Science Show, Ockham's Razor and Background Briefing.;

1. Australia Playing Catchup With US, Europe and China in Renewable Energy. You can see University of Queensland Solar real-time graphs here.
2. Death Spiral Begins for Australian Electricity will tell your where all your electricity costs go - 50% to poles and wires and very little to the Carbon Tax. Discovered by a NSW Farmer no less.
3. Ockham's Razor " Decarbonizing for Growth" with Michael Molitor gives some big number and big ideas on how to maintain growth for the next 2.5 billion people. I have some criticisms of this talk as little discussion was made about resource constraints, EROI and other factors that come into play moving to this Brave New Renewable World. But I did like Professor Michael Molitor's discussion on GDP and GPI: Genuine Progress Indicator.
4. Lastly the Background Briefing "The Price of Power" by Jess Hill

Michael Molitor's comments "Of course, the most efficient means of transferring investment into highly efficient low or zero carbon assets is to launch a carbon tax.  The Australian Government did this in 2011 and some of the roughly AUD$7 billion in annual revenue went to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation"

and 

"Even more controversial, what if reducing carbon emissions represented the only pathway by which global economic growth targets could be met? If this were true, and my research suggests it is, then instead of a race to the bottom where everyone fears reduced economic growth from high carbon costs, we move to a race to the top where reducing carbon emissions becomes the most attractive growth opportunity in history".

So I'll probably throw up my hands and swear while watching the budget thinking of the short sighted politicians and their big business mates who are denying the bleeding obvious, and expecting me to pay for their mistakes!
Thank you ABC for providing intelligent and alternative commentary. I just hope you survive the Budget! 
Sign the Petition : https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/media/save-the-abc--2/protect-our-abc--2

Post holiday musings

Now that I'm back in the real world rather than inhabiting Middle-Earth its time to muse on the climate I found while exploring Hobbit Holes in Hobbiton, Matamata (New Zealand).
I spent 21 days on holidays - only 1 rainy day and 1 cloudy day. The hills throughout the North Island of New Zealand were parched and the stone fruit had ripened a couple of weeks earlier than normal.

View from Bag End, Hobbiton, AKA Alexander Farm, Matamata, New Zealand. The tourist venue has been watered constantly this summer to keep it green.

While I was away, Melbourne sweltered through 15 days of above 30 degrees C weather, also with little rain. The Bureau of Metereology claims its "been the hottest summer yet" a reason why I went south in February to escape the grinding heat. Although floods occurred in Queensland and NSW  "Victoria had its driest summer since 1984-85 and South Australia since 1985-86."

So in this election year, what will the people of Australia decide - a Carbon Tax or "Direct Action"? What will happen to the Greens if the Coalition wins, as the polls plummet for the current Federal Government. Long months of hysteria and politicking to go.

So have a look at the Soil Carbon report by Radio National Background Briefing a couple of days ago.

Given how much we continue to despoil our soil and vegetation with the ever increasing population, industrial farming techniques and climate change, I"m skeptical. 

I've also ordered "Earthmasters" by Clive Hamilton for my library - another book to read and be horrified by - Geo-engineering!

Yes, I have now caught up with restocking and cleaning the house - the "boys" didn't do too badly considering!

Blogging and the death of traditional media

As a librarian I have heard about the coming death of the book for years. Now that the internet is a major means of information dissemination, I have now heard predictions of the disappearance of newspapers and "expert" opinion with the rise of the blog. Radio National discussed this recently in the Philosophers Zone "The epistemology of blogging".
Having just looked up the meaning of epistemology in Wikipedia, I found the discussion rather interesting.

• What is knowledge? Well that is what the philosophers are for. As far as I can see (in a library) knowledge is anything any author has published, mainly non-fiction but that also encompasses fiction (literature).
  
• How is knowledge acquired? Knowledge is largely acquired through experience, reading and requirement. If you ask the year 11 and 12 students at the moment, knowledge is what will get them through their exams (required knowledge).
  
• What do people know? Lots of stuff but each person only knows a fraction of the whole and believes other people are either more knowledgeable or less knowlegeable than themselves, with various emotions surrounding this.
  

So how does blogging effect the acquisition of knowledge?? As far as I can see the blog is like a book. You choose what you want to read and think, respond to that information according to your background, culture and interest. And you do not assimilate or think about the rest.
Not enought time and brainspace to watch TV, Youtube and read the latest book about climate change simultaneously.
So I doubt blogging will change us very much. We will each filter our knowledge through our "rose coloured" tints. The internet is useful in that you can argue anything and find someone to support you very easily.
As wikipdia explains "Belief is a subjective personal basis for individual behavior, while truth is an objective state independent of the individual. On occasion, knowledge and belief can conflict producing "cognitive dissonance".