Somehow I’m not surprised that Australians have come out, on one measure, as the among the world’s worst polluters:
The survey of 50,000 power stations worldwide shows the two biggest producers of CO2 in Australia are in NSW – the Bayswater station at Muswellbrook and Eraring near Lake Macquarie, which each produce 18.325 million tonnes of CO2 a year.
Their level of CO2 to power output is comparable to many of the power stations in China often criticised for being dirty plants.
The survey shows Australians each produce more than 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions for every person just through generating power, compared to nine tonnes for each American and two tonnes for each Chinese.
I’m quite often asked, particularly by taxi drivers, in tones of astonishment, why I would move from Australia to Britain? They are reflecting in general terms the fact that Australia has, since I left a dozen or so years ago, had an almost uninterrupted period of economic growth and materialist expansion.
Well, with the drought stretching on and on, and signs that the El Nino effect is growing in severity with climate change, it is clear that there is at least some form of rough justice in the world – and no there’s no way I’d choose to live in the extremely materialistic culture that has developed, and is reflected in these figures.
About