What are some cool facts

The atmosphere is really small

If the earth were an apple, the atmosphere would be the skin. Have you ever driven 20km? (12.5ish miles or freedom units). The part of the atmosphere we live in, the troposphere is only 20km or 20,000 metres.

About half the world’s cargo ships are just moving fossil fuels around

That’s right, nearly half of all these puppies are just moving fossil fuels between countries. As we wind down our usage of fossil fuels, we also wind down the ships on the ocean - one less thing to transition to clean energy. The good kind of feedback loop.

Hang on, what about all the people who are employed on those ships? Sounds like we need a just transition.

They’re considering adding a new category to hurricanes

In February 2024 there’s consideration of whether there will need to be an extra category for hurricanes. We did it! Shout out the fossil fuel industry who made this possible.

Australian government used spies to help fossil fuel giant

The Australian government used it’s spy agency ASIS (think CIA) to bug the rooms used by the government of Timor-Leste during negotiations about use of the sea between the two countries. This was to get an upper-hand in the negotiations so Australian companies like Woodside Petroleum could benefit. The government guy who oversaw ASIS eventually became an advisor to Woodside Petroleum.

Did anyone get charged or go to jail? Only the whistleblower who revealed this scandal in 2012, known as Witness K.

Cool country. Read more or even more.

You can see electricity grid data in real-time (Australia)

With decarbonisation and electrification we focus a lot on the electricity grid - 10 years ago only super nerds talked about the grid, now every person seems to have some kind of bad take.

There’s a cool site called OpenNEM allows you to see historical and real-time data of the National Electricity Market (most of Australia, but not all). You can drill down into the states as well.

This shows the breakdown of coal, gas, solar, hydro, wind and other sources. The data also includes charts of emissions volume and intensity. It’s a fantastic resource that is freely available and helps you fact check politicians who complain the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow.

What about other countries electricity grids?

This amazing website shows the real time carbon intensity of the electricity grids around the world.

Queensland government signs royalty payment holiday deal with Adani

In October 2020 (yes when climate change was very much under way and happening) the Queensland government signed a deal with Indian coal-mining company Adani to allow them to defer payment for royalties on a new, massive coal mine. Royalties are the purchase price paid for digging something out of the ground - because it’s owned by all Australians. The holiday means maybe eventually the money will be paid and the Queensland government can use that to fund schools, and hospitals and roads … but the agreement is for an unspecified time. We might not see that money in our lifetime. ABC story and Guardian story

The Adani brand got so toxic in Australia they eventually rebranded to Bravus and started sponsor sports teams to buy some social license.