Eight years ago, on this day, August 1st, 2016,
New minister Josh Frydenberg backs transition to renewables, despite campaign blaming them for price spikes
Slezak, M. 2016. How the campaign against South Australian wind farms backfired. Guardian Australia, 1 August.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 404ppm. As of 2024 it is 4xxppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context is that South Australia had been edging ahead in the amount of renewable energy in its electricity system because Premier Mike Rann had found a way whereby he made it extremely easy for already profitable (thanks to federal schemes) wind farms to get planning approval in the north of the state.
And this success was making the culture warriors agitated (though to be fair, Australian culture warriors are always finding something to be agitated about). But sometimes their agitation gets a bit much and they start scoring own goals; and so it came to pass.
What we learned is that culture warriors going to warrior.
What happened next is that the South Australian energy transition continued at pace. There was Elon Musk’s big battery and all the rest of it. It’s still unfolding, and you can read about it at places like reneweconomy.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
August 1, 1980 – Wall Street Journal does excellent #climate reporting
August 1, 2015 – World Coal Association tries to say coal is lifting people out of poverty.