I don’t know if I manage to pull it off, but here is a piece I wrote about Tesla. (At least watch the video, which features Ted Turner as Captain Planet, on a ball-busting crusade to punish the polluters.)

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/volt-heads-can-rev-up-as-ive-test-driven-the-future/

The problem with mainstream online media is that the ranting, abusive deniers are polluting the intelligent conversations. This makes it harder to get the balance right, to both “hype the hope” that Paul and others are speaking, while at the same time unveil the power of the carbon mafia.

I think the value of talking this stuff up is that it can change people’s mindset and help them see the positive side, hence become more accepting, even demanding, of the necessary changes.

But this is all pretty old news, Paul. You should have popped up the road to Climate Camp last year and heard the talk I organised from Better Place, and Garry Glazebrook from UTS on his public transport plan. Two sides of the same coin.

Now I’d like to see our darlin’ Premier indulge in a bit of well-intentioned nepotism while she still has the chance, and slip a big contrract in the direction of her hubby Ben at Better Place. Maybe we can catch up with the ACT, which plans a roll-out starting in a year or two.

It can be sooooo boring (and so depressing) always lifting the bar and saying “this is not good enough”. We all know its a big game and there is along way to go…. a little positivity will go a long way…. You know that just by looking at your kids.

In terms of leading change – lets encourage (and create a positive vision of what we really want)…. not deflate.

Josie McLean – PhD Student, Organisational Sustainability, University of Adelaide

30 new electric car models coming onto the market means little in and of itself. Carmakers are highly adept at marketing clean vehicles which are variously expensive, unavailable to buy in most markets, have a long waiting list, require fuel that is almost impossible to find—or a combination of these things. If hybrid sales to date are any guide, most of the new models alluded to in this piece will sell in very small numbers relative to the total number of cars being sold by the companies concerned. The total quantity of fossil fuel used by their cars will continue rising, as will their overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Without context, other facts mentioned in this piece are similarly problematic. A million Chinese people buying electric cars by 2012 sounds impressive, but let’s keep in mind that China will be adding another 30 million cars running on petrol and diesel over that timeframe.

Warren Buffett investing US$230 million in a Chinese electric car company sounds impressive too, but perhaps not so exciting when you learn that last year Buffett invested over US$34 billion in a US railway company that relies on coal for half its tonnage, carrying around as much coal each year as Australia currently exports. His stake in the Chinese electric vehicle company is no bigger than the US$300 million investment he recently made in Harley Davidson–not a champion of electric vehicles last time I looked.

Aside from the eco-hedonism this article exudes, its other distinguishing feature is the scant mention of government policy. The market is headed in the wrong direction because government policy continues to allow it. Without different policies, there is nothing at all inevitable about any rapid transition to a low carbon economy, and the biggest polluting industries are finding government as pliant as ever when it comes to protecting the status quo.

We needn’t worry ourselves too much with where ‘a transition this dramatic’ will head, because in truth there is no dramatic transition occurring. As Thomas Friedman has written, what we’re watching is not a green revolution, ‘we’re actually having a green party’.

The carbon carnivale drum-beat is irresistible for many, but we must try to avoid cherry picking for the sake of a positive story. We need to maintain a sober gaze on the cumulative impact of where market is actually heading in the absence of policies that force deep emission cuts in a meaningful timeframe. If we’re content to assume that the market will deliver a smarter and cleaner world, and that a rapid and dramatic sunset for the combustion engine in the next few years is inevitable, we are as likely to be as disappointed by what eventuates as we already are by the melting glaciers etc.

Guy Pearse — Research Fellow, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland.

Good to have you back…how was Christmas? Oh and Happy New Year… ;-P

Good ol’ EV’s ey? What I’m worried about is how many pegs and bits of cardboard will be needed to make ‘em sound like a nice throaty V8…you know?….a real car?… ;-P

Butt seriously…well almost….

This is very ‘up’ and dare I say it, bordering on ‘promotional’ for you mate? What did Santa bring you?… :-)

And Shai Aggasi is still alive? I gotta take my hat off to a bloke that is confident to say “I’m the end of oil…” on International Television :-).

I have no doubt that these EV thingies will be wonderful. Just like penicillin and asbestos and ‘mass production’, the ‘Commonwealth’ and ‘the pursuit of happiness’…oh and ‘insulation’ :-P…you remember how they turned out, don’t you? :-P

I don’t think our planet has ever been short on great ideas. I grew up in an education system that took great delight in ensuring that I looked forward to a future of hedonistic opulence, thanks to our superior frontal-lobes, technological prowess (i.e. thumbs), and resulting clinically proven dominion over all things ‘primitive’.

What concerns me is not what we can create, but as some commenters have alluded to above, our ability to deliver.

I cannot ignore the wisdom in such observations as:

“…right now, you have the Government trying to anoint the ‘Green Economy… The Government doesn’t know!…if the Governments could figure out what the new industries were, and could properly fund them and develop them, then Communism would’ve succeeded”

Nor do I have a lot of faith in the still very much alive myth of ‘perfect markets’. I would venture to opine that ‘markets’ are only ‘perfect’ when you’re making more money than you’re spending. (Good ol’ Al had a bit to say along these lines recently in the NY Time – http://nyti.ms/bjwfUn ).

Perhaps I’m just too old and cynical, but the empirical evidence weighs heavily…I’ve seen too many great ideas get pushed aside by stupid ones to believe that ‘common-sense’ has any hand in large scale implementations on this planet. In his ‘TED Talk’ last year, Peter Eigen (ex-World Bank), provides some anecdotes that well illustrate my observation and the magnitude of the challenge – http://bit.ly/dattg2

I recently had a little bit of a rant on my blog about this kind of thing in the context of ‘Sustainability’:

“…I reckon we have every­thing we need. The only thing miss­ing on a large scale is a bit of ‘actual’ good will! You know? Doing ‘the right thing’? Fair­ness? Not rip­ping the guts out of your ‘fel­low man’, just because you can and/or are legally ‘within your rights’? That kinda thing…

Oh! And then there’s all the ‘good’ stuff that the World’s 4 Bil­lion or so good Church, Mosque, ‘Sin­ner­gogue’ (oops! I mean Syn­a­gogue :-P ), and/or Ashram going folk are sup­posed to be aspir­ing to be and do?…INSTEAD OF BICK­ER­ING AND SHOOT­ING EACH OTHER FOR FEAR/REVENGE/ RIGHTEOUSNESS/and/or PROFIT/POWER etc, etc, etc… ‘ad deatheum’!!!…FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!!! AND DON’T TELL ME IT’S GOD’s BLUDDY WILL!!! You’ve heard of ‘FREE WILL’? Yeh! Well that’s what GOD appar­ently gave us…ALL OF US! I reckon that kinda gets God of the ‘hook’ don’t you?…”

Until ‘HOW WE DO BUSINESS’ actually changes for the better, I reckon all the great ideas in the world will remain just that…great ideas. There is nothing ‘sustainable’ about our current business practices and the paradigms underpinning them.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned I remain hopeful….

Cheers

Stephen G

Turlough
http://exchange.telstra.com.au/author/turlough-guerin/