I love electricity. I cannot imagine life without it it and I want it in bulk quantities. Things have progressed a bit since Mr. Volta was making frogs legs twitch with piles of metal disks and felt immersed in lemon juice. In those days there were not that many people on the planet and horse power was measured by counting the tails. People didn't need electricity or even know they wanted it. Cooking was done over open fires. Home heating was accomplished in much the same way - or you just put on another woolly. There wasn't any aluminium so you didn't need smelters to make it.
No, we have moved on. The population is increasing and we all need electricity and lots of it. Except apparently in New Zealand. I think the wallies in Wellington realise that the population is increasing, I mean they even run a census that periodically tells them that there are more people living here. But what they are unable to accept is that this increasing number of people want to live in the twenty first century and not be time warped in the past. We now need sodding great fridges in our houses because putting a bit of wet muslin over the meatsafe just doesn't cut it anymore. Heat pumps are here to stay and putting another log on the fire in winter and opening the window in summer doesn't make it in a lot of people's books. But the idiots won't even get their head around that as they won't let you put another log on the fire because it is wrecking the planet. And I'm not going down that well trodden track again except to say 'Bollocks'. There isn't a law against opening windows but lets not give them ideas.
This country needs to produce more electricity and lots of it. But what do we get? Winter is just around the corner, the hydro lakes are low (as if we weren't aware of that months ago) so we must all start saving electricity. Don't leave the TVs on standby, walk upstairs and don't use the lift, take bulbs out of their sockets so you can't turn them on. Same old crap we had last year and the year before and the one before that and before that......... Sod off. I want to use as much bloody electricity as I can afford to pay for and I want truckloads of it. I will work harder so I have more money and I will then buy more and it will be there when I want it. That is what I want, nay expect, from living in a so called developed country in the twenty first century. Electricity prices have gone through the roof and I don't care about that so much as I care about being told that I can't buy as much as I want at a price I chose to pay.
Why are we in this parlous state? Because central government can't or won't plan for infrastructure to keep up with an increasing population that needs to live in a technology dependent world. We are not allowed nuclear power stations, they won't build any more carbon fueled power stations (banned them, they have) and we can't have any more hydro dams because the snails and godwits won't stand for it. People don't like stupid windmills because they cause visual pollution (give me strength) and are noisy. Been to a Formula One motor race? Now that's noisy. And try telling Rio Tinto that they are going to have to run Tiwai on wind power - they'll be off to China before you can say carbon credit.
All the sensible and proven ways of making the electrons go round in bulk numbers have been rejected by the dements that run this country and instead what are they seriously considering? A tidal power station submerged in the entrance to the Kaipara Harbour. Like there are tons of those powering major cities around the world. Technology with a long and proven track record for reliability and efficiency - not. DoC are even filing protests against the Kaipara fairy story to ensure the RMA hearing goes on for longer than the usual twenty seven years.
By which time we'll be back to cooking on open fires and the only radios around will be those clockwork bizzos they send to Africa.
Unless someone has the cahunas to stand up and unilaterally declare (not have committees involving all interested stakeholders and native trees) that we are going to build how ever many power stations we now need plus fifty percent powered by whatever is proven to be the most efficient means currently available (be that coal, oil, nuclear fission or fusion, Browns Gas, goats foreskins - I really don't care) we are doomed to slip further and further back into the preceding centuries at an exponentially increasing speed.
I don't think even Macs can run on fresh air.
No, we have moved on. The population is increasing and we all need electricity and lots of it. Except apparently in New Zealand. I think the wallies in Wellington realise that the population is increasing, I mean they even run a census that periodically tells them that there are more people living here. But what they are unable to accept is that this increasing number of people want to live in the twenty first century and not be time warped in the past. We now need sodding great fridges in our houses because putting a bit of wet muslin over the meatsafe just doesn't cut it anymore. Heat pumps are here to stay and putting another log on the fire in winter and opening the window in summer doesn't make it in a lot of people's books. But the idiots won't even get their head around that as they won't let you put another log on the fire because it is wrecking the planet. And I'm not going down that well trodden track again except to say 'Bollocks'. There isn't a law against opening windows but lets not give them ideas.
This country needs to produce more electricity and lots of it. But what do we get? Winter is just around the corner, the hydro lakes are low (as if we weren't aware of that months ago) so we must all start saving electricity. Don't leave the TVs on standby, walk upstairs and don't use the lift, take bulbs out of their sockets so you can't turn them on. Same old crap we had last year and the year before and the one before that and before that......... Sod off. I want to use as much bloody electricity as I can afford to pay for and I want truckloads of it. I will work harder so I have more money and I will then buy more and it will be there when I want it. That is what I want, nay expect, from living in a so called developed country in the twenty first century. Electricity prices have gone through the roof and I don't care about that so much as I care about being told that I can't buy as much as I want at a price I chose to pay.
Why are we in this parlous state? Because central government can't or won't plan for infrastructure to keep up with an increasing population that needs to live in a technology dependent world. We are not allowed nuclear power stations, they won't build any more carbon fueled power stations (banned them, they have) and we can't have any more hydro dams because the snails and godwits won't stand for it. People don't like stupid windmills because they cause visual pollution (give me strength) and are noisy. Been to a Formula One motor race? Now that's noisy. And try telling Rio Tinto that they are going to have to run Tiwai on wind power - they'll be off to China before you can say carbon credit.
All the sensible and proven ways of making the electrons go round in bulk numbers have been rejected by the dements that run this country and instead what are they seriously considering? A tidal power station submerged in the entrance to the Kaipara Harbour. Like there are tons of those powering major cities around the world. Technology with a long and proven track record for reliability and efficiency - not. DoC are even filing protests against the Kaipara fairy story to ensure the RMA hearing goes on for longer than the usual twenty seven years.
By which time we'll be back to cooking on open fires and the only radios around will be those clockwork bizzos they send to Africa.
Unless someone has the cahunas to stand up and unilaterally declare (not have committees involving all interested stakeholders and native trees) that we are going to build how ever many power stations we now need plus fifty percent powered by whatever is proven to be the most efficient means currently available (be that coal, oil, nuclear fission or fusion, Browns Gas, goats foreskins - I really don't care) we are doomed to slip further and further back into the preceding centuries at an exponentially increasing speed.
I don't think even Macs can run on fresh air.
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