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Comment by trissylegs | Hacker News Reader

Australia's economy is pretty dependent on Coal, Aluminum and Gas. Two of these a hopefully going away soon but the Government is so In bed with mining and they throw more money at elections than every other sector put together that nothing will done about it until it collapses.

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Do you understand what you're actually wishing for when you cheer on the destruction of a large percentage of the economy? What comes after will not be so comfortable.

The thing that gets me is not when people advocate for economically shooting themselves in the foot on principal, it's fine to have principals and stick to them even when it hurts you. What does infuriates me is that most of these people then apply a double standard for the other tribe and call them stupid when they advocate for sticking to their principals even when it hurts them.

I suspect the OP is wishing for Coal and Gas to go away soon in the hope it can spare the world from the upcoming catastrophe that is climate change.

What is stupid, with Europe and the USA both planning a tax on carbon, in just a few decades the OP's wish will most likely come true, yet Australia keeps wishing for a different future.

OP's way of life has been made possible by cheap energy. Wishing it away before renewables are able to provide baseload power in an advanced economy (and the storage problem is, at best, decades away from being solved) is unwise.

Australia has the most abundant uranium reserves in the world. We have exactly 1 nuclear reactor we don't use for making power (yet is actually regionally vital for supplying medical isotopes to hospitals in SE-asia as well).

Every side of politics has acted like complete cowards on this issue, with the Liberals the worst offenders - they pay it lip service every election then do nothing while handing out cash to the coal miners.

Agree 100%. Nuclear power will likely never happen in Australia now though, too many Karens terrified of it.

If Australia and the rest of the world continues to rely on coal as it's main source of baseload power then I suspect we are all doomed.

No amount of economic wealth is going to help once the environment has been damaged beyond repair.

South Australia has been doing pretty well with a renewables-backed grid.

There was a smear campaign in 2016 regarding a state-wide blackout, caused by severe weather affecting the distribution & transmission infrastructure. [see #1] The incumbant political party used this as an opportunity to blame the renewable generators (and state government, from the "opposite side" of politics). [see #2]

The same severe weather event would have affected any power generator.

[1] https://www.aer.gov.au/wholesale-markets/compliance-reportin... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_South_Australian_blackout...

that wealth enable chronism, it could be better long term for the australian people (or most resource-based countries) if it dissipated tomorrow

More and more Australians are putting environmental issues ahead of economic, and are aware that this will make things less comfortable in the short term. Making personal sacrifices for the greater good is generally considered a positive trait in civil society. Many are hopeful that things will be better in the long term, and are hopeful an alternative source of income can be found before the inevitable collapse happens.

A forward-thinking government would be incentivising a diverse economy, subsidised by the windfall from the currently profitable industries.

Instead, the incumbant governments just subsidise the inumbant industries; or rather, the existing "winners". (E.g. subsidising Murdoch media, mining companies, all pulling in millions/billions in profit.)

Australia has one of the lowest rankings in terms of economic complexity [see #1]. Until the government can subsidise emerging markets, there's no reason for businesses to take risks - the low population can't support it.

Propping up existing industries will eventually be a failing strategy. When Australia's "luck" (exploitable resources) runs out, "what comes after will not be so comfortable". But there's still time to steer away from that discomfort. (Unlike the imminent ecology collapse...)

[1] https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/astralias-low-economic-co...

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