Alan Finkel, Powering Up

- This book is so damn good. It answers all your questions. It’s not shouty in any way. It's fair, fact-based and sensible. Former Australian Chief Scientist Alan Finkel refuses to descend into political anger or denunciation. 

- It reads like a textbook at times - cluttered with metallurgical and scientific detail - but it's well worth persevering with. If the detail escapes you his arguments are crystal clear as is his prose. 

- The necessary transition from the Industrial Age to the new Electric Age, including the materials needed, is Finkel's central focus. He provides heaps of data on the market shares of supplier countries. Australia is regularly near the top.

- He emphasises the need for ethical and socially responsible mining operations, including respect for indigenous communities and care for the environment. He's not against fossil fuel mining operations altogether, but makes it quite clear that the market will phase them out quite quickly when renewables inevitably become the major source of electricity. Their costs are getting lower and lower. 

- Solar, wind, nuclear and gas are explored in detail. Nuclear and natural gas options are in decline globally as they simply can't compete with renewables. Hydropower is also unattractive as its huge infrastructure is massively disruptive to communities on so many levels. Natural gas also has a diminishing role. The obvious fact is that solar and wind are doing the job. 

- There is plenty of detail on electric vehicles and their batteries, and what choices are becoming increasingly available for cheaper and premium cars. The range can vary enormously. What became obvious to me is that the next ten or fifteen years will be a revolutionary time on our roads. Who would want to keep a petrol car when there will be very few petrol stations left. 

- Finkel delves deep into the policy settings governments will have to contend with: carbon taxes; emissions trading schemes; renewable subsidies. He also digs deep into Biden's huge Inflation Reduction Act in the US (which has really little to do with inflation and a lot to do with climate change). And what other countries are doing, including Australia, India and China.‘When it comes to zero- emissions electricity, China leads the world by a long margin’.

- He doesn't shy away from addressing the contentious issue of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). He believes it has a crucial role to play but there are critical distinctions that must be made. He fully endorses direct air capture and storage, massively subsidised by governments. And there is a huge difference between carbon credits (good) and carbon offsets (bad). 

- He does not support shutting down coal-fired generation immediately as 60% of Australia’s electricity generation still comes from coal. He argues for an orderly transition. ‘We must make coal-fired electricity obsolete by rapidly replacing it with clean, firm, cheap and abundant alternatives’. The marketplace will certainly do the job.

- The opportunities for Australia in this transition are huge, despite intense global competition. We have challenges however that must be met. Our regulatory approval process, for instance, needs to be greatly speeded up. It must facilitate commercial investment not impede it, as it currently too often does. 

-‘As the world shifts from the Industrial Age to the Electric Age, Australia will build on its three superpowers - renewable energy, decarbonised products and energy transition materials - to become the world’s electrostate superhero’.

- Finkel has pulled off a must read here. Mainly because he confronts our challenges and remains decidedly hopeful. 

Anna McGahan, Immaculate

- This Vogel Award winning novel is a deliriously wacky read and I loved it. It's also a serious and savage critique of Christian evangelists and their primitive beliefs and ugly behaviours. 

- The formal structure of the book is intriguing. Times, perspectives and interactions are all brought vividly to life via text messages and emails, and the line between fantasy and reality is porous. The story ranges over twenty-two years and is set in the lively inner suburbs of Brisbane. 

- Lucas, a pastor, and his ex-wife Frances have split up, and their toddler daughter Neve is terminally ill with liver cancer. Frances narrates this tragic drama via her diary, The Gospel According to Frances, in chapters and verses as the book proceeds. Lucas is a pastor at the Eternal Fire Pentecostal Church, but Frances, formerly a committed member, has seen through its bullshit and abandoned it. 

- A young 16 year old girl, Mary, seeks help from Frances because ‘An angel told me I’d get pregnant. Two weeks later I did’. She tells her story via an old testament-style diary The Book of Mary, and announces her 'immaculate conception'.

- Other characters enrich the story - sex workers, theatre actors, colourful queers - and Frances is attracted to them as life-affirming beings. Her ex-husband, of course, is appalled.  

- McGahan explores large themes which give the novel a real and satisfying intellectual depth, principally the tensions between religious belief and science, and emotional immaturity and adult realities. The Church holds a service to heal Neve: ‘We’re here to pray the cancer OUT of Neve’s body’. Frances of course objects.

- There is an element of fantasy in the novel which at times I found hard to fathom. Frances initially rejects helping Mary for example and takes her to New Farm Park where 'streeties' hang out. It's infested with druggies and abusers. All of a sudden we're buried in a dreamlike setting, hosted by the 'Innkeepers'. It's some Mad Hatter’s dinner party, a real feast in 'the garden of unearthly delights’. Frances feels 'confronted by supernatural portals in the darkest moments of my life’. 

- Tragically a murder occurs in the park and the police get involved. We're back to reality. A streetie was attacked and died of blunt force trauma to the head. A crime drama develops from here, and Frances is implicated. She approved an organ donation from the victim which coincidentally helps Neve. The favourable circumstances for mother and daughter are turned into engineered ones by the police. 

- I enjoyed this novel immensely. It's superbly written, thought provoking, and very insightful. Frances is an inspiring character who will stay with me, and I will come back and re-read her sermons and speeches to the church congregation frequently.