RECENT ESSAYS / ARTICLES
- All
- 2022 Federal Election
- Andrew Wilkie
- Angus Taylor
- Barnaby Joyce
- bio fertiliser
- bio-mass
- BIODIVERSITY
- Bruce Maynard
- CARBON
- carbon capture
- carbon capture and storage
- carbon credits
- carbon dioxide
- carbon offsetting
- carbon sequestration
- carbon storage
- cattle emissions
- charcoal
- climate change
- climate policy
- coalition government
- COP26
- election
- emissions reduction
- fish emulsion fertiliser
- Glencore
- global warming
- Gorgon Gas Field
- Great Artesian Basin
- Helen Haines
- hydrology
- John Howard
- Keith Pitt
- Matt Canavan
- mining royalties
- NITROGEN
- NKP
- no kill cropping
- Norway
- Penny Ackery
- phosphorous
- Politicians
- politics
- politics & climate change
- potassium
- regen
- REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
- regenerative farming
- renewable energy
- Rockflat Essays
- rockflatblog
- Scott Morrison
- soil sponge
- Walter Jehne
- Zali Steggall
- zero emissions
CLIMATE CHANGE – DEMOCRACY’S DILEMMA
Reading Time: 18 mins 3rd July 2024
Author: Robert Watson
Are democratic institutions strong enough and brave enough to achieve meaningful emissions reductions and alleviate global warming?
Perhaps it’s time to turn to ancient Greece to find solutions to the developing climate change predicament ...
This essay discusses the difficulties democracies have in dealing with climate change and suggests a "Utopian" solution!
A WIN FOR US ALL- EXCEPT GLENCORE
Reading Time: 6 mins 1st June 2024
Author: Robert Watson
A WIN FOR US ALL - EXCEPT GLENCORE
The climate and Australia had a win this week. A proposal by the Glencore mining group to store liquified carbon dioxide (CO2) derived from a planned, but unproven, carbon capture process into subsurface sandstone beneath the Great Artesian Basin was rejected by the Queensland Government.
GLENCORE AND THE GREAT ARTESIAN BASIN
Reading Time: 11 mins 7th May 2024
Author: Robert Watson
GLENCORE AND THE GREAT ARTESIAN BASIN
Despite unified and diverse opposition, Glencore, one of the world's largest miners is proposing to capture carbon dioxide from it's Moonie gas field, liquifying the waste and transporting it almost 200km to deposit in the largest artesian water body in the world, the Great Artesian Basin covering 22% of the Australian continent.
CARBON CAPTURE & STORAGE – an expensive exercise in greenwashing
Reading Time: 20 mins 26th January 2024
Author: Robert Watson
CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE - an expensive exercise in greenwashing
The effects of climate change and global warming are now being felt world wide. Respectable science is unanimous in acknowledging climate change, recognising that anthropogenic climate change – that caused by human impact – has quickly escalated the natural climate cycles that have occurred throughout Earth’s history.
COP28 all but failed to reach it's stated goals, settling for the lowest common denominator to pacify the growing fossil fuel lobby attending COP. The same board rooms of fossil fuel miners around the world have managed to elicit strong support for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology as a means of reducing CO2. CCS has not been successfully utilised as a major carbon reduction technology anywhere in the world despite billions of dollars being spent ...
DECARBONISING AUSTRALIA
Reading Time: 34 mins 5th July 2023
Author: Robert Watson
DECARBONISING AUSTRALIA
With the widespread use of carbon credits, expensive and unproven technologies, as well as new coal mine approvals, Australia is making the difficult job of reaching net zero by 2050 almost impossible.
Since May 2022 there have been three significant matters that will largely determine Australia’s direction on climate policy in the next few years. The first was the defeat of the Coalition government by the Anthony Albanese led Labor Party. The second matter was the reform to the Safeguard Mechanism by the new Labor government early in 2023, and the third and related matter was the Chubb Review into the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCUs) scheme.
CLIMATE – A NEW GOVERNMENT, THE MINERS & RENEWABLES
Reading Time: 9 mins 23rd September 2022
Author: Robert Watson
CLIMATE - A NEW GOVERNMENT, THE MINERS & RENEWABLES
A big factor helping the Labor Party win government in May last year was their advocacy for improved policies to help relieve global warming and climate change in general. There were of course other reasons people voted for a change, including the establishment of an effective federal integrity commission, gender wage equality, fairer wages for low-paid workers, and, because they weren’t the Morrison government!
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already served more than 10% of the electoral term, and from a rapid start, things might already be starting to ‘slow down’. There is more ‘political speak’ lately and less direct answers to difficult questions.
1.5oC … GOING, GOING, GONE!
1.5oC … GOING, GOING, GONE!
Reading Time: 12 mins 22nd April 2022
Author: Robert Watson
1.5°C ... GOING, GOING, GONE!
The Paris Agreement is a landmark international accord that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts. The agreement aims to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2°C above preindustrial levels while pursuing the means to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Source: IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
On current evidence, one could reasonably believe that Earth has possibly reached, or is very close to reaching the critical +1.5°C temperature increase over pre-industrial temperature levels.
THE POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Reading Time: 8 mins 21st February 2022
Author: Robert Watson
THE POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The expense and difficulty in reaching a sustainable level of global temperature before 2050 was made more difficult by the inaction and neglect of the Morrison government and particularly the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor.
At the same time many industries were independently moving away from fossil fuel generated power Morrison, Taylor, Joyce, Pitt and many other conservative politicians were encouraging and promoting fossil fuel companies while almost completely ignoring renewables and the necessary infrastructure for transition ...
REVERSING GLOBAL WARMING AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL
REVERSING GLOBAL WARMING AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL
Reading Time: 14 mins 4th February 2022
Author: Robert Watson
REVERSING GLOBAL WARMING AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL
How to employ regenerative farming techniques in your own garden.
Many of the techniques and principals that apply to regenerative farming/agriculture can be employed on a much smaller scale for suburban gardens and small acreages. In fact, many of the methods you probably already use are basically the same as used on a more “industrial scale on large acreages.
For example, one of the most utilised regenerative farming practices is crop and grazing rotation. Crop rotation is the practice of planting different crops sequentially on the same plot of land to improve soil health, optimize nutrients in the soil, and combat pest and weed pressure ...
BRUCE MAYNARD – NO KILL CROPPING
Reading Time: 4 mins 22nd January 2022
Author: Robert Watson
BRUCE MAYNARD - NO KILL CROPPING
2 VIDEOS. The first, an interview with Bruce Maynard- the inventor of No Kill Cropping who describes the principles and processes involved. This revolutionary technique changes the assumptions of crop growing that have been conducted over the last 7000 years.
The second video shows how the Maynard family have integrated a huge suite of farming methods on the one property.
YOUR CLIMATE DOLLARS IN A SUSPECT MARKETPLACE
Reading Time: 6 mins 7th January 2022
Author: Robert Watson
YOUR CLIMATE DOLLARS IN A SUSPECT MARKETPLACE
In the past couple of years there has been a major upsurge of interest and concern with Australia’s policies on climate and the attitude of the government towards climate change.
The Emissions Reduction Fund, the uptake of carbon credits to offset pollution and substantially under-governed, voluntary schemes are moving emissions rather than reducing emissions ...
HYDROLOGY, THE SOIL SPONGE & GLOBAL COOLING
Reading Time: 10 mins 6th December 2021
Author: Robert Watson
HYDROLOGY, THE SOIL SPONGE & GLOBAL COOLING
Walter Jehne is one of a number of respected and influential scientists advocating the study of the earth’s hydrology so with a greater understanding we can assist the earth, or nature if you like, to cool the place down.
The hydrology of earth is complicated and extremely varied from region to region, unlike CO₂, hydrology cannot be easily modelled nor easily explained ...
RECENT POSTS
COMMUNITY CLIMATE EXERCISE
If you’re concerned about climate change and committed to positive action to [CLICK TO READ MORE]
Mastodon
ROCKFLAT is now on Social Media platform MASTODON, INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK - [CLICK TO READ MORE]
TAYLOR FAILURE
This very self-explanatory graph (thanks to Graham Readfearn, The Guardian) is [CLICK TO READ MORE]
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION ISSUES IN THE COMMUNITY IS [CLICK TO READ MORE]
Morrison’s trickery and deception is clever, but we know him now!
Does Morrison even understand hydrogen technology as a renewable energy source? [CLICK TO READ MORE]
POLLIES VOTING & ATTENDANCE RECORDS
Would you like to know how your sitting Federal politician votes in [CLICK TO READ MORE]
AUSTRALIANS ARE BEING SHORTCHANGED BY GREEDY MINERS
A "Gas-fired robbery" report has been released by the Australia Institute revealing [CLICK TO READ MORE]
A RARE GOOD NEWS ITEM!
This feelgood video of a flash mob performing dance to songs [CLICK TO READ MORE]
INTEGRITY … WHAT INTEGRITY?
The long awaited introduction of legislation for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission [CLICK TO READ MORE]
CLIMATE 200 GAINING MOMENTUM
The Guardian (26/11/21) has reported that former Australian Democrats leader Meg Lees [CLICK TO READ MORE]
A GOOD NEWS STORY! BRIDLED NAILTAIL WALLABIES BACK FROM THE BRINK
In 2008, there were just 65 bridled nailtail wallabies at the Taunton [CLICK TO READ MORE]
ADVERSARIES DINING
A lorikeet sharing with a king parrot - this is unusual! [CLICK TO READ MORE]
VOTE ONE PENNY ACKERY 2022
A battle looms for the Federal seat of Hume in the forthcoming [CLICK TO READ MORE]
STRAIGHT FROM THE TRUMP 101 CLASS
It becomes tedious when the same bloke is in the news [CLICK TO READ MORE]
PANTS ON FIRE!
From Michelle Gratten ABC Online News 12-Nov-21 ... Sean Kelly, columnist and [CLICK TO READ MORE]
MORRISON’S SUPPORT OF UNORTHODOX ABC ENQUIRY IS A MISTAKE!
Morrison has backed a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s handling of complaints. [CLICK TO READ MORE]
THE INEVITABLE DEMISE OF COAL
The value of Australia’s coal exports in 2019 was approximately $69 billion. [CLICK TO READ MORE]
EV vs CCS – THE UNFORTUNATE CHOICES OF MORRISON & TAYLOR
It’s a poor reflection on the knowledge that Scott Morrison has on [CLICK TO READ MORE]
THIS RECALCITRANT COALITION GOVERNMENT IS AT IT AGAIN
Lobbying UNESCO in an attempt to remove any reference to 1.5C [CLICK TO READ MORE]
THE ARREST OF GLOBAL WARMING – CARBON CAPTURE IS NOT ENOUGH!
Carbon capture and storage and carbon sequestration are often confused, and [CLICK TO READ MORE]
WORLD CLIMATE RANKINGS – FAILURE & DISGRACE FOR AUSTRALIA
The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) has been published [CLICK TO READ MORE]
YOUR LOCAL MEMBER SERVES YOU, NOT THEIR PARTY
Most of us become dissatisfied with the behaviour and decisions of our [CLICK TO READ MORE]