Star Wars or Hobbiton: where does Australia stand on nuclear?

The reason for this is two-fold-concern about climate change coupled with the unravelling of the renewable energy industry's pitch that wind and solar can save the day.

There are two strands to climate change thought. One is the Star Wars strand, and the other is the Hobbiton one.

The Star Wars strand contains the techno-optimists who see climate change as being just another challenge in man's irresistible rise to the stars and beyond.

The Hobbiton strand contains the nostalgic romantics, yearning for a simpler, less material, and more natural life.

The latter has so far prevailed, which is not surprising because this is where the majority of deep-green environmentalists are. But the reality, in the shape of mankind's desire to maintain and improve living standards, is colliding with it.

Promises were made that wind and solar were "green, clean, and cheap," but long experience with them shows this trifecta to be a lie.

So-called renewable technologies involve the mining of huge amounts of earth to produce the minerals they need; pose enormous challenges in disposing of the turbines and panels when they are finished; and, as power prices climb inexorably higher, they can no longer claim to be cheap.

The cost challenges are immense.

Wind and solar are intermittent and need to be backed up by storage and also by alternative technologies.

This necessitates a massively enlarged network and capacity that is two or more times what is needed sitting idle most of the time.

Indeed, as I write, there is virtually no usable wind over South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales (NSW).

When I wrote this a quick look at the synoptic chart showed that there was hardly any pressure gradient over these areas to generate wind and that this was forecast to continue for at least another seven days. So far the forecast has been right.