Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
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John Quiggin 
Peak coal is near or has arrived! A detailed post from Christine Shearer of Coalswarm (h/t Coalwire) reports that net new capacity in coal generating plant in 2017 was only 4 GW, on a steeply declining trend. A large uptick in China was balanced by closures in the US. As capacity factors are slowly falling too. I infer that on the balance of probability the world is at Peak Coal now. A long way to go, but deserves a celebration.
******.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-peak-coal-is-getting-closer-latest-figures-show
Anecdatum: there are 20GW of new coal plants in India that have failed to find offtake customers. The government has set up a bailout committee.
The defunded Climate Council has put out this drought statement https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CC_MVSA0146-Fact-Sheet-Drought_V2-FA_High-Res_Single-Pages.pdf
Nothing but the facts yet politicians darent mention drought as it brings attention to climate change. The BOM are looking at the possibility of an El Niño event this summer http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/
Denialism is systemic.
“The stories are the same, drought after drought, just the names of stricken farmers change. If the television cameras are really lucky, they’ll focus in close and find tears on a brave farm woman’s face. ”
Michael Pascoe asks some questions about drought relief for farmers….
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/08/04/why-governments-give-farmers-drought-assistance/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sunday%20Best%2020180805
It seems easy to find tears and I cry myself when watching these stories. But why can’t these farmers see the writing on the wall?