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Airdate: Ten Bucks a Litre

Dick Smith will present another documentary on ABC1 next week, this time looking at our diminishing energy resources.

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2013-07-24_0125Dick Smith will present another documentary on ABC1 next week, this time looking at our diminishing energy resources in the attention-grabbing titled Ten Bucks a Litre.

Energy prices have doubled in the past five years and will double again in the next five. And now the battle to control energy supplies, and the consequences of burning it, are affecting things on a global scale.

As one of the world’s highest per capita energy users and biggest exporters of fossil fuels, Australia is bound to be deeply affected by the changes coming down the energy pipeline. How will we cope? Where will it all end? What are Australia’s options?

These are the questions that self-professed fossil fuel addict Dick Smith sets out to explore in this documentary. Hostage to no vested interests, Dick brings his signature brand of common sense to the issue and along the way he explodes a few myths, upsets a few politicians and surprises us with his conclusions about the decisions Australia should take.

In many ways Australia is blessed with an abundance of cheap energy. But most of it comes from underground as dirty fossil fuels, and the pressure is on to find new ways of powering our world. As he travels around the nation, Dick reveals the massive scale of our investment in coal and gas projects raises the serious question of what we will do if the world finally decides that burning huge amounts of coal, gas and oil is no longer acceptable.

But as Dick discovers on his journey, there is no perfect solution. Each alternative energy source, such as wind and solar, has its limitations and we have to be realistic about how difficult – and expensive – it will be to replace cheap fossil energy. He comes to the controversial assessment that by refusing to consider nuclear energy, Australia is delaying its transition to a clean energy future.
“We need to talk about energy,” says Dick. “It’s no use just complaining about prices if we are not making the right decisions now about the future. There are no easy answers.”

Thursday 1 Aug, 8.30pm ABC1

4 Responses

  1. Dalmanic, I’m with you. Dick is nothing but a shameless populist who’ll say anything to get his head in the media again. Why should we care what he thinks? I would’ve thought ABC learnt a lesson from his nutty & all-over-the-place doco, ‘Dick Smith’s Population Puzzle.’ It was rightly smashed by some experts in the Q&A tie-in program that followed.

    I’ll be watching this for the laughs.

  2. Dick didn’t get the elephant in the room (overpopulation) until his daughter pointed it out for him.
    So I hope she’s helping him with this program!

  3. Dick always talks sense. Overpopulation, imported food, etc.
    He’s dead right. ABC should follow this with the doco “Who Killed the Electric Car?”.
    Nuclear and solar will be the only way in the future – other than bicycles and candles.

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