Why In Millionaire Alley, Do Storms Still Wreak Havoc?
I live in a street where many of the houses are nearing a million dollar value. This is not exceptional in today’s Australia. However, I wonder why, if my suburb is worth hundreds of millions of dollars the essential electricity is carried on vulnerable poles and wires? You see, I live in SE Queensland where storms are common place and happen every season. Climate change is making everything worse, of course. Access to power is more important in this modern era than ever before, as everything runs on electricity. The internet is dependent upon it, as are smart phones, and every house and shop are connected up to the online grid to run things. Why in millionaire alley, do storms still wreak havoc?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6dDbYmwCgk
How Come My Billion Dollar Suburb Hasn’t Storm Proof Power?
Why, then, if I am surrounded by millionaires and living in billion dollar suburbs am I privy to storms that bring down power lines and take many days to repair? Why is all this private wealth not ensuring that the power lines are buried beneath the ground for safety? Could it be that the public good is so bereft due to the neoliberal focus on private wealth over the last 40 years or so? All these well off Australians are too busy counting their own pennies. During these storms the food in my disempowered fridge and freezer was rotting. I could not work because my job requires access to the internet and that was cut off. I am not one of the asset rich Aussies whose properties have appreciated so much over recent decades. Where is their investment in the suburb in which they live, in the community infrastructure?
https://www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/33663/planning-resilient-electrical-infrastructure.pdf
Renters Cop It During Storm Black Outs
We renters cop it in the neck during disasters. We still pay rent even if the power is off for days. No discount I am afraid folks, even if our landlords have not been able to provide the basics like access to power. It costs a whole bunch of extra money, during disasters, that the working poor cannot afford. Rented homes become useless without power. It is those living on the bones of their arse who struggle to survive during a crisis. I wonder why these power lines have not been interred below ground after all these years? How about getting the wealthy to pay for it. Essential services stop if the working poor cannot function, we saw that during Covid. The death toll in big cities were mainly people who lived on the street and the poor.
Private wealth is screwing Australians!
Why Are The Power Lines Above Ground & Susceptible To Storms?
Why in millionaire alley, do storms still wreak havoc? Short termism is the disease of those in power, especially on the Right. We see it in their appeal to voters over the cost of power to neglect renewables and stick with coal and gas. It is ideological on the Right, with their fossil fuel masters calling the shots for the Libs and Nats. They could, because of the frequency of damaging electrical storms in SE Queensland, bring in an extra property tax to pay for the interring of power lines underground. A one off to get the job done and think of all the extra jobs this would generate too. It is seen as politically unpopular to ask the wealthy to do anything for their community downunder. Instead, we will likely see these storms and the damage go on for many decades to come. Inaction and the pursuit of culture wars over stuff like transgender kiddies and athletes will continue instead.
I live in a street where many of the houses are nearing a million dollar value. This is not exceptional in today’s Australia. However, I wonder why, if my suburb is worth hundreds of millions of dollars the essential electricity is carried on vulnerable poles and wires? You see, I live in SE Queensland where storms are common place and happen every season.
“The electricity grid is a critical component of modern society, yet it is predominantly vulnerable to natural disasters, cascading failures, and blackouts. The vulnerability assessment aim is to locate the weak points to improve system security and stability. Variations in weather conditions lead to natural disasters. The disruptions are originally local, nevertheless, the outage of a critical component might trigger a domino effect of component failures, ultimately leading to a blackout. The likelihood of such incidents cannot be eradicated however, security measures can be taken to make the power system more resilient.
The security of an electric grid is a widespread concern. In the present eon, as the importance of the electricity grid is increasing day-by-day, it progressively becomes a target of malignant threats. A threat includes but not limited to a potential source of an accident such as overload, transmission line outage, or bus-bar breakage which may give rise to the failure of the power system. The traditional threats in an electric power system can be divided into three categories: accidental threats are situations where data loss or damage occurs because of an insider having no malicious intent; natural threats are caused by environmental or natural phenomenon”
- (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040619020301561) The Extreme Cost Of Living
“What Price Life? Why is everything so expensive? Is the new book by Robert Sudha Hamilton. Putting on his economist hat to do justice to explaining the prevailing headwinds we all face in the current climate. It appears that living is becoming prohibitively expensive and this is not happening by accident. There are sections of our population who are hell bent on stealing your lunch or at least making it too bloody pricey. We are supposed to be living in a democracy but it is actually a 2 speed economy. Many of us are getting left behind, when it comes to the wealth stakes. What can we do about it?”
- (https://www.golfdom.com.au/what-price-life/)
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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