Climate Tasmania

A Tasmanian take on the thorniest global issue since the dinosaurs. Based on Peter Boyer’s newspaper column in the Hobart Mercury.

At last peak oil goes mainstream. Now what?

The world’s oil establishment has at last acknowledged the reality of peak oil. Now we have to work out what to do about it, and it won’t be easy. [24 May 2011 | Peter Boyer]
How are we travelling? Well, not far ahead — perhaps within a couple of years — and in the absence of [...]

The hangover that comes from too much fizz

Too much carbon in our atmosphere has a serious impact on life in our oceans. That alone, quite part from global warming, justifies strong action to cut emissions [10 May 2011 | Peter Boyer]
It’s un-Australian not to enjoy a bit of fizz in our beverage of choice. The bubbles that emerge from our beer, wine [...]

Energy conservation: the only game in town

Paper given at Climate Action Hobart forum, “Tasmania’s Energy Future” [Peter Boyer | 30 March 2011]
Half a century ago, a seminar about Tasmania’s energy future would have been a pretty predictable affair. Eric Reece [Premier through the 1960s], Alan Knight [long-serving head of Tasmania’s Hydro-Electric Commission] or one of any number of white-shirted functionaries, most [...]