MEDICUS May 2022

Purchase any new Mitsubishi vehicle and you’ll receive * : • National Fleet Discount • Diamond Advantage • Mitsubishi Motors Business Advantage Talk to your local Mitsubishi dealer today and quote BP 2500008 to receive your exclusive AMA (WA) member offer. *Not applicable to deals already negotiated. An exclusive offer for AMA (WA) Members V I S I T Y O U R L O C A L M I T S U B I S H I D E A L E R | B U YA M I T S U B I S H I . C OM . A U | 1 3 0 0 9 1 1 8 5 0 M AY 2 0 2 2 M E D I C U S 45 O N T H E S H E L F part, these involve an inability to bring people along with the process, instead imposing conditions. In particular, communities that don’t see themselves as benefiting from new power sources are very likely to be hostile and find reasons to resist its passage. This is borne out in Joshi’s account of the circumstances in which people living near giant wind turbines have attributed a range of illnesses, collectively known as wind turbine syndrome, to their presence. What becomes evident in this description of events is that without the right parameters, many people will find endless reasons to oppose new technologies. Joshi, who now lives in Norway, uses European examples to show how more cooperative and granular introductions of renewable energy can turn communities towards their use rather than away from them. It’s clear that renewable energy is now here to stay. This is particularly evident when considering the renewable energy target, another piece of legislation that has been weaponised and cannibalised in recent years. This target was reduced by the Coalition from Labor’s 41,00 gigawatt hours to 33,000 gigawatt hours, and still derided as a target that would not be remotely reached. However, even with a hostile environment and a low level of federal incentives to renewable energy, both targets are likely to be exceeded within the next year. This is simply because the cost of renewable energy continues to fall, making these power sources more than competitive with fossil fuels, which are now fighting for their fossilised lives. Avoiding having ourselves, and especially our children and their offspring star in one endless disaster movie has made keeping within a 1.5C global warming threshold above pre- industrial levels absolutely imperative. Joshi clearly and informatively shows how we can change the ending, or create the screenplay for a whole new movie, with non-polluting renewables at its core. We just need to find a way to bring everyone along to the premiere. Windfall: Unlocking a fossil- fuel free future Ketan Joshi NewSouth Publishing, 2020 RRP: $29.99 The AMA (WA) welcomes the new members who joined during April 2022. NewMembers Bjarke Boisen Sean David O'Dea Eva Hartigan Tracey Tran Lam Alexandra Pattillo Raghav Syal Cindy Chan Stanton Smith-Cazaly Vincenzo Carmelo Mondello Radika Udayangani Karunarathne Sally Clare Simpson Matthew Morgan Ranjit Kunchur Kendy Desiree Ong Theodora Li Michelle Johnston Tom Bo Sing Lee Cameron Rowick Adam Paul Crossley Brandon Lau Mahesh Kandanarachchi Jiuan Jiuan Ting Leenika Wijeratne John Woodall Gertrude Rudo Mutika Alice Johnson Tracey Tran Lam