Everything Is Energy
I remember dad coming home from work one day when I was quite young, maybe 1970, and declaring coal was "dead".
I initially laughed because we thought he meant coal was a "dense black carbon fossil" so of course "it was dead"
But no, dad was well in front of Big Picture energy trends.
And coal as a sustainable (profitable?) energy source was dead to the geological exploration world as early as then, if not sooner.
As usual, dad quit companies he thought lacked integrity so it was good bye Aussie Rio Tinto, hello Canadian Superior Oil.
After all, the exploration of global energy sources was dad's career for more than 40 years from the late 1940's and he knew his massive open cut coal from deep ocean oil to artesian gas reserves and high yield uranium ore.
The Rock Doctor Dear Old Dad, could sniff out fossilised and fixed energy "reserves" from Mother Earth and the scientific geo-"logical" evidence, but he wasn't trained to look up... and embrace the fluidity and mystery and wonder of The Universal Sun, that hot rocking day star in the sky that is always burning man, for free.
But doesn't earn dinosaur fossil fool companies enough profits.
So the Old Skool Energy Companies came head hunting. Dad always put bread on the table, so he sold himself to the highest bidder and became the fossil's slave...
Fierce debates on energy were regular hot topics in our house, and not due to global warming either.
Some of the "choice discussions" around "That Bastard Uncle Rex"were legend.
Rex Conner was the 1970's Federal Energy Minister who brought down his own ALP government with an illegal overseas loan scam that resulted in the PM, Whitlam being sacked.
Rex was also married to dad's Aunty Grace.
Dad's disdain for Rex's side of politics and nationalised energy policies were legend.
You'd expect him to have his finger well on the pulse if they're paying him The Big Bucks to find new sources of (profitable?) energy.
(Well Der "look up", This emerging greeny son said once too often...and especially after dad brought me back this cool company sponsored solar powered flying mobile from the States in 1975
Why couldn't Union Oil, his then employer, see this Sunny solution ....go figure...)
I preferred to see dad as a "Rock Doctor' not a boring scientist/geologist, as he was always bringing home funky rocks and sharing curious and wonderful stories of their origins.
That time when I was 9, playing bare handed with silica, mercury and yellow cake in the kitchen .... no gloves or masks... mum aghast when she discovered the toxic mess I'd left on the sink.
No more samples of the "dangerous minerals" and their by products were allowed after that.
please don't report him to child services... God rest his soul. It was just a time of knaive curiosity. no harm was done.
Growing up with an oil/gas/coal exploration geologist as a father was always interesting.
Dad knew his energies, sustainable and otherwise. And he knew where to find their ancient source.
That was what he was trained to do.
Explore, and understand the earth science of natural "resources", geology.
He knew the earth was warming due to burning what he helped find.
He used to reassure us every time we drove past Port Kembla Steel Works that the billowing white clouds escaping the blast furnace didn't contain hot house gases.
Unlike Bayswater and Liddel power Stations when we lived near these 2 coal fired electricity plants in the 1980's,
Dad knew even low ash, low sulphur and high yield black coal was "Dead" as a sustainable power source in 1970.(let alone the even worse brown coal still being mined in Victoria!)
Not sure why it's taken so called climate science so long to catch on.
Let alone the earnest, needed and well meaning climate action supporters of latter years.
This issue that effects us all is NOT new, not recent and not an opinion.
Climate change is real.
And burning fossil fuels is ONE source of these damaging changes.
Sorta proud the old man said so in 1970.
And he was an insider who knew his black stuff.
I initially laughed because we thought he meant coal was a "dense black carbon fossil" so of course "it was dead"
But no, dad was well in front of Big Picture energy trends.
And coal as a sustainable (profitable?) energy source was dead to the geological exploration world as early as then, if not sooner.
As usual, dad quit companies he thought lacked integrity so it was good bye Aussie Rio Tinto, hello Canadian Superior Oil.
After all, the exploration of global energy sources was dad's career for more than 40 years from the late 1940's and he knew his massive open cut coal from deep ocean oil to artesian gas reserves and high yield uranium ore.
The Rock Doctor Dear Old Dad, could sniff out fossilised and fixed energy "reserves" from Mother Earth and the scientific geo-"logical" evidence, but he wasn't trained to look up... and embrace the fluidity and mystery and wonder of The Universal Sun, that hot rocking day star in the sky that is always burning man, for free.
But doesn't earn dinosaur fossil fool companies enough profits.
So the Old Skool Energy Companies came head hunting. Dad always put bread on the table, so he sold himself to the highest bidder and became the fossil's slave...
Fierce debates on energy were regular hot topics in our house, and not due to global warming either.
Some of the "choice discussions" around "That Bastard Uncle Rex"were legend.
Rex Conner was the 1970's Federal Energy Minister who brought down his own ALP government with an illegal overseas loan scam that resulted in the PM, Whitlam being sacked.
Rex was also married to dad's Aunty Grace.
Dad's disdain for Rex's side of politics and nationalised energy policies were legend.
You'd expect him to have his finger well on the pulse if they're paying him The Big Bucks to find new sources of (profitable?) energy.
(Well Der "look up", This emerging greeny son said once too often...and especially after dad brought me back this cool company sponsored solar powered flying mobile from the States in 1975
Why couldn't Union Oil, his then employer, see this Sunny solution ....go figure...)
I preferred to see dad as a "Rock Doctor' not a boring scientist/geologist, as he was always bringing home funky rocks and sharing curious and wonderful stories of their origins.
That time when I was 9, playing bare handed with silica, mercury and yellow cake in the kitchen .... no gloves or masks... mum aghast when she discovered the toxic mess I'd left on the sink.
No more samples of the "dangerous minerals" and their by products were allowed after that.
please don't report him to child services... God rest his soul. It was just a time of knaive curiosity. no harm was done.
Growing up with an oil/gas/coal exploration geologist as a father was always interesting.
Dad knew his energies, sustainable and otherwise. And he knew where to find their ancient source.
That was what he was trained to do.
Explore, and understand the earth science of natural "resources", geology.
He knew the earth was warming due to burning what he helped find.
He used to reassure us every time we drove past Port Kembla Steel Works that the billowing white clouds escaping the blast furnace didn't contain hot house gases.
Unlike Bayswater and Liddel power Stations when we lived near these 2 coal fired electricity plants in the 1980's,
Dad knew even low ash, low sulphur and high yield black coal was "Dead" as a sustainable power source in 1970.(let alone the even worse brown coal still being mined in Victoria!)
Not sure why it's taken so called climate science so long to catch on.
Let alone the earnest, needed and well meaning climate action supporters of latter years.
This issue that effects us all is NOT new, not recent and not an opinion.
Climate change is real.
And burning fossil fuels is ONE source of these damaging changes.
Sorta proud the old man said so in 1970.
And he was an insider who knew his black stuff.
“The agony of the earth calls for each of us to defeat the growing alienation and isolation of life in order to become more human and be more present. The issue is not the pretension of “saving the planet,” but rather finding deeper ways of serving the earth.”
