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OT: Plebiscite 23-Jun-2011 At 9:02:13 AM evanbb

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On 22/06/2011 maxdacat wrote:
>So a newspaper in China in 2007 points out Australia's higher per capita
>emissions. Hardly a big deal. If we stopped exporting coal and iron ore
>tomorrow and shut down our power stations, China would still be on track
>to massively increase their emissions.
>
>As Kevin Rudd so tastefully put during Copenhagen "those Chinese rat f*ckers
>are trying to rat f*ck us".

Are you being intentionally obtuse or do you actually need this explained to you? I'm assuming your ignorance. Don't take offence because you've given me no reason to assume you are not ignorant.

Australia, the US, and Europe are all advanced economies. Services based, high standards of living, high energy use per capita. We got there, ahead of China and India, by digging up and burning cheap coal. We spent a lot longer doing it than China and so benefited from destroying the atmosphere. It is widely argued that since China ad India are less developed they deserve the chance at cheap electricity to develop to the same point.

China are increasing their emissions, but per capita they are MILES behind us. Everyone is. Australia is currently third in per capita emissions and number one by some distance in stationary energy emissions. We are also the world's largest exporter of coal.

One of the major reasons we emitt so much is aluminium smelting. There are half a dozen smelters in Australia, each one a SIGNIFICANT energy user. The Newcastle Alcoa plant uses 27% of NSW grid energy. Smelters have traditionally been built in countries with the cheapest energy sources; there are smelters in Greenland using hydro, also Brazil I think, and big plans for resource processing using Icelandic geothermal. So the smelters move in and sign direct purchase contracts with generators. It is no accident that Bayswater power station and Alcoa smelter are near each other.

Australia could significantly cut their emissions by abandoning the aluminium smelting sector. If it employs more than 10,000 people I will be very surprised.