In the Olympics of energy, Australia just won two gold medals. Martin Green at the University of NSW announced his team had cracked a world-beating 40.4 per cent efficiency in solar cells, and a solar racing car designed by the university’s engineering students set a new world record of 107km/h over 500 kilometres. Yet here we are, undisputed world front-runners in solar efficiency, poised to abandon or water down our own target for renewable energy. There’s a global boom in renewable energy coming down, and sun-drenched, wind-rich, tide-girt, hot-rocking, algae-pulsing Australia is doing all it can to miss it. Only scientific literacy in the electorate can reverse the cycle, and help us to choose leaders who truly understand the modern world. Wake up, guys.

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