{"id":292450,"date":"2023-12-23T19:24:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T18:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292450"},"modified":"2023-12-23T19:24:11","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T18:24:11","slug":"former-greens-leader-bob-brown-says-wind-industry-and-renewables-are-profiteering-off-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292450","title":{"rendered":"Former Greens Leader Bob Brown says wind industry and renewables are profiteering off climate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bob Brown\u2019s\u00a0Foundation<\/strong>\u00a0protests at the\u00a0Robbins Island Wind Farm<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every day the Greens sound more like Skeptics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the wheel turns and the Greens start to realize their bedfellows might be the environmental wreckers and industrial profiteers that they thought they were working against. Finally there is a point where the price of \u201cclimate action\u201d can be too damn high. And somehow, the ends does not always<\/em> justify the means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make no mistake, Bob Brown was the<\/em> face of the Greens in Australia for decades. He was in politics for 30 years, and Leader of the Australian Greens. He was Mr Green himself on the Australian scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years ago he surprised a few people when he spoke out against the idea of putting the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere<\/a> on remote Robbins Island off NorthWest Tasmania because it would spoil the view and kill birds \u2014 something climate skeptics have been saying for years<\/a> and about nearly every industrial wind park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he\u2019s going further and saying the \u201cfree for all\u201d with wind farms must stop. He\u2019s even using the ugly term \u201cprofiteers\u201d to describe the Tasmanian government setting up a 200% Renewable Energy Target to soak up carbon penance money out of the mainland. Of course, wind power is still essential (how could he say anything else?) but some of these wind farms \u2014 a small number \u2014 will do more damage to the environment than they will prevent. The wind farm developers are \u201cnot doing it in the service of the planet\u201d you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This all very well, but ten years too late. When skeptics were predicting exactly this outcome \u2014 that Green policies would wreck the environment, where were the Greens? They weren\u2019t saying \u201clet\u2019s listen to the climate deniers\u201d \u2014 or climate deniers are people too you know<\/em>. All their talk of  building communities was the Gucci fashion show of hipster vegans who would just as soon demonize half the population as have a coffee with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who needs maths?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As usual, the Greens biggest failure \u2014 and they condemn birds and\u00a0whales<\/a>\u00a0with it every day \u2014 is that they can not do maths. They want to micromanage a bit of a wind farm here and a bit there \u2014 without doing the sums. To meet their own \u201cclimate targets\u201d Australia needs to install 40 wind turbines every month, and 22 thousand solar panels every day. Where will they go? Where exactly will those gigawatts fit among the gum trees, and the ten thousand kilometers of high voltage lines too?\u00a0 That\u2019s\u00a0eighty million kilometers of transmission lines around the globe<\/a>. How many trees, bats, birds and koala\u2019s will they kill?<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Bob Brown protests at the Adani coal mine at Parliament House. By\u00a0Andrew Meares, Flickr<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That Robbins Island mega windfarm \u2014 by the way \u2014 now has approval,\u00a0but it has to turn off five months of the year<\/a>, so it doesn\u2019t hurt too many orange-bellied parrots.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wind Farm \u201cFree for All\u201d must stop, says Bob Brown<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Denholm, The Australian<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veteran conservationist Bob Brown has turned on sections of the wind industry, accusing some developers of \u201cprofiteering\u201d from climate change and not caring about the planet, while warning the wind rush risks accelerating extinctions.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Senator Bob Brown<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

He was concerned the Tasmanian government\u2019s pursuit of a 200 per cent renewable energy target \u2013 to allow surplus power to be exported to the mainland \u2013 was driven by \u201cprofiteering\u201d under the guise of climate action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bob Brown Foundation continues to fight the 100-turbine wind farm proposed for Robbins Island by ACEN Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe real driving reason for that (200 per cent renewables target) is profiteering by people like ACEN, moving into a lucrative new market which is being forced by the exigencies of climate change,\u201d Dr Brown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Brown is also opposed to the windfarm being built to the west of Cairns in the Daintree National Park, a project he calls \u201cappalling\u201d. In that he is correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the wisdom of  <\/strong>The Bob Brown Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the press release<\/a> \u2014 the Greens have a vision that we can save the world just by turning off a few appliances at home:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is part of humanity\u2019s deliberated destruction of the natural world which sustains all life,\u201d Bob Brown said today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of turning off wasted electricity,<\/strong> we will wreck another surviving stronghold of natural wildlife diversity in Australia. It is now up to the Albanese government and national environment minister Tanya Plibersek to protect the cornucopia of nature which Robbins Island holds. They should at least back the Tasmanian EPA position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we keep the 1.5C global safety limit under control just with a few more windfarms and turning off the standby light on the stereo?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally, the wheel turns and the Greens start to realize their bedfellows might be the environmental wreckers and industrial profiteers that they thought they were working against. Finally there is a point where the price of \u201cclimate action\u201d can be too damn high. And somehow, the ends does not\u00a0always\u00a0justify the means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":292459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691825605,691819809,691825604,691821582,691825606],"class_list":{"0":"post-292450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-bob-brown","9":"tag-climate-targets","10":"tag-former-greens-leader","11":"tag-green-policies","12":"tag-industrial-profiteers","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0a55f4812aa6877211eb8240bdfe763aa.jpeg?fit=1279%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1e4W","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":260723,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=260723","url_meta":{"origin":292450,"position":0},"title":"Renewables Zealots Love Spearing Wind Turbines in Your Backyard \u2013 But Not Their\u00a0Own","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Rank hypocrisy comes in all shapes and sizes, but the kind that attends the renewable energy zealot is an altogether different species.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australian wind power\"","block_context":{"text":"Australian wind power","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australian-wind-power"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0thumbnail-5b9aa87dbd20b1b9295088afbe52b892-2048x1439-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C843&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0thumbnail-5b9aa87dbd20b1b9295088afbe52b892-2048x1439-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C843&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0thumbnail-5b9aa87dbd20b1b9295088afbe52b892-2048x1439-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C843&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0thumbnail-5b9aa87dbd20b1b9295088afbe52b892-2048x1439-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C843&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0thumbnail-5b9aa87dbd20b1b9295088afbe52b892-2048x1439-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C843&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":337601,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337601","url_meta":{"origin":292450,"position":1},"title":"Nuclear Consultant Goes Nuclear (Adam Brown for the record)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"26\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cFunny thing. The climate alarmists\u2019 favorite energies\u2013wind and solar\u2013have ruined the margins of nuclear to cause premature retirements and a lack of private funding for new construction. So the fossil-fuel haters in the nuclear camp find themselves victimized by the climate crusade. It sure is hard being \u2018nuclear green\u2019.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate Alarmists\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Alarmists","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-alarmists"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0wp7004665.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0wp7004665.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0wp7004665.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0wp7004665.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0wp7004665.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":277648,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=277648","url_meta":{"origin":292450,"position":2},"title":"Not So Bright Spark: Grand Renewable Energy \u2018Battery\u2019 Plan Runs\u00a0Flat","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Hubris drives the so-called wind and solar \u2018transition\u2019, which now depends upon the myth of giant batteries compensating for the vagaries of the weather and sunset. 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