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February 23, 2008
'Tis festival season time in "solar city" Adelaide. Whilst Kevin Foley, the Treasurer in the Rann Government, was lambasting the critics of his government's vision for the future as being a bunch of bloody whingers, Adelaide was hosting the Solar Cities Congress last week. Along with the Council for the Australian Federation followed by the Clipsal 500 and Fringe Then we have the Adelaide Festival of Arts.
The claim is that South Australia is fast emerging as the Australian leader in renewable energy. With 1.6 million people – or less than eight per cent of Australia’s population overall – South Australia today has almost half of our nation’s wind power and grid-connected solar energy. There is little evidence of this on the ground in terms of energy efficiency, solar power, rolling back cars, making the city more people friendly and providing green shade from the summer heart.
The Rann Government in South Australia is mostly about symbolism re Adelaide being a solar city.
The talks given by the keynote speakers are not online at the Solar City Congress website. So we ciitzens cannot pick up, sift and debate the ideas presented at the Congress. How then do the citizens have a public discussion about Adelaide can become a solar city in reality?
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I wrote about this too, the irony of all the environmentally focused events and the Clipsal in one week. I think of Mike Rann as an impressive statue in the making. He is all about symbolism and the pursuit of his legacy. Nauseating.