So you think power lines for offshore wind will industrialise a pristine environment? Look around you. Image: ChatGPT By Christopher Eastman-Nagle
A COUPLE of days ago, I was watching a YouTube talk by an ex ABC journalist about how skewed and biased its activist-based coverage was when it came to the subject of people who think they can change sex.
Instead of broadly canvassing the issue and noting all points of view with a view to giving the readers a reasonable chance to assess the issue for themselves, they get the equivalent of “the party line”. And while that might elevate and reinforce the views of the party faithful, it is little better than propaganda designed to manipulate rather than inform readerships.
As it so happened, at the same time I was also reading a local news outlet that was running articles on offshore wind farm transmission proposals, which was doing exactly the same thing as the ABC was doing.
A COUPLE of days ago, I was watching a YouTube talk by an ex ABC journalist about how skewed and biased its activist-based coverage was when it came to the subject of people who think they can change sex.
Instead of broadly canvassing the issue and noting all points of view with a view to giving the readers a reasonable chance to assess the issue for themselves, they get the equivalent of “the party line”. And while that might elevate and reinforce the views of the party faithful, it is little better than propaganda designed to manipulate rather than inform readerships.
As it so happened, at the same time I was also reading a local news outlet that was running articles on offshore wind farm transmission proposals, which was doing exactly the same thing as the ABC was doing.
I combed through the paper’s coverage of the coming power line “threat” to find anything more dastardly than aesthetic distaste for necessary infrastructure to deliver offshore wind power where it is needed “to keep the lights on”.
The sources being quoted were the usual grass roots/astro turf activists who oppose anything to do with wind farms.
All I could find was an underlying attempt to mobilise NIMBY fears in support of a larger anti renewables/pro nuke agenda being run by Australia's immensely powerful fossil fuel lobbies, their Federal Coalition friends and of course, and not least, Lachlan Murdoch, his dad and fellow travellers.
Power lines do not despoil “the pristine” environment by “industrialising” it, because “industrial” farming practice took out all the pristine stuff well over a century ago.
They are ubiquitous industrial infrastructure and most people don't whinge about them because, in their absence, they would not be living in a modern economy.
Almost all our electrical distribution infrastructure is above ground for obvious reasons of cost, which ultimately comes back to the consumer. It is time to get used to it, and the renewables that are going to feed power into it.
The South Australian Coalition government plans to be at 100% net renewables by 2027. Not all “conservatives” (whatever that means these days) are energy obtuse or want to get into the most expensive and slow-to-deploy technology that they can find, as long as it isn't renewable, and keeps us burning more fossil fuels for as long as possible.
When noisy smoke-belching steam trains first came on the scene, there were the same sort of alarmist arguments going on, promoted by the canal lobbies and stuffy Tory gentry who liked things just the way they were.
There is, all too often these days, too little distinction between informative news coverage, ideological beat up and lobbyist based propaganda.
That makes for bad journalism, no matter what the issue is or who is running it.
The sources being quoted were the usual grass roots/astro turf activists who oppose anything to do with wind farms.
All I could find was an underlying attempt to mobilise NIMBY fears in support of a larger anti renewables/pro nuke agenda being run by Australia's immensely powerful fossil fuel lobbies, their Federal Coalition friends and of course, and not least, Lachlan Murdoch, his dad and fellow travellers.
Power lines do not despoil “the pristine” environment by “industrialising” it, because “industrial” farming practice took out all the pristine stuff well over a century ago.
They are ubiquitous industrial infrastructure and most people don't whinge about them because, in their absence, they would not be living in a modern economy.
Almost all our electrical distribution infrastructure is above ground for obvious reasons of cost, which ultimately comes back to the consumer. It is time to get used to it, and the renewables that are going to feed power into it.
The South Australian Coalition government plans to be at 100% net renewables by 2027. Not all “conservatives” (whatever that means these days) are energy obtuse or want to get into the most expensive and slow-to-deploy technology that they can find, as long as it isn't renewable, and keeps us burning more fossil fuels for as long as possible.
When noisy smoke-belching steam trains first came on the scene, there were the same sort of alarmist arguments going on, promoted by the canal lobbies and stuffy Tory gentry who liked things just the way they were.
There is, all too often these days, too little distinction between informative news coverage, ideological beat up and lobbyist based propaganda.
That makes for bad journalism, no matter what the issue is or who is running it.