Royce Kurmelovs
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roycerk2.bsky.social
Royce Kurmelovs
@roycerk2.bsky.social
Journalist. Author of The Death of Holden (2016), Just Money (2020) and others.

Buy Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship with Big Oil (2024) now: https://www.slickthebook.com.au/

For more me: https://www.roycekurmelovs.com/

Get me on Signal: RoyceK.11
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Slick has been given a reprint --now with a fancy sticker on the cover. If you want to understand Why We Are Like This on climate change, or read about things like that one time the oil and gas industry spied on the son of a prime minister, and you haven't picked up a copy, now's your chance!
I could say more but this is basically running hype without any real space given to countervailing voices.
February 10, 2026 at 10:12 AM
Things to consider: a) a global gas glut is emerging and will render projects unviable and b) a combination of batteries and renewables will increasingly crush demand, further weighing on the future of the industry.
February 10, 2026 at 10:10 AM
'Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dale Last said the area had "serious potential to revitalise a domestic oil production industry".'
February 10, 2026 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Hi friends! I’m starting a newsletter to share updates on my writing. I’ll send out occasional emails with some of my recent articles and updates on the book I’m working on which is about climate change, religion and something called rapture anxiety.
You can sign up here lyndal-rowlands.beehiiv.com
Home | Revelations by Lyndal Rowlands
An occasional newsletter sharing my latest journalism and other writing on climate change and rapture anxiety.
lyndal-rowlands.beehiiv.com
February 10, 2026 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Look I am not a fan of this arrangement but isn't their head of state King Charles www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
February 10, 2026 at 9:24 AM
Do it. Get out of the Nazi bar.
February 10, 2026 at 7:32 AM
Can I just say, I'm really loving Ghost. It is such a good platform. Anyone still using Substack should consider moving across. It is pay to play, and it's a different way of working, but the functionality is great and it's so much nicer to use.
February 10, 2026 at 7:06 AM
That's really interesting. I think a coalition between the Coalition and One Nation that gives Barnaby Joyce responsibility for policing and Malcolm Roberts total control over climate policy is a potential scenario. I broadly share your diagnosis but I do think Au has some diffs to UK.
February 10, 2026 at 6:04 AM
Not sure there are many lessons, frankly. I also think Australia is headed for an Aoteraroa scenario where a group of right wing parties cobble together a minimum viable coalition to form government with 51%, then let rip knowing it's essentially one and done.
February 10, 2026 at 4:41 AM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
A reminder that Australia has already run the playbook that Aotearoa is going through right now and we should be taking what lessons we can from them #nzpol
It's more head canon on my part; basically what the US is doing now is what happened here after the election of Tony Abbott. Cuts to the public service, foreign aid and social services, attacks on climate action and the manufacture of uncertainty to freeze renewable investment, refugee policy...
February 10, 2026 at 4:04 AM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Crisis? What crisis?

Govt's own docs prove that there was no "swarm" of FOI requests that required Australians' FOI rights to be restricted.

No wonder govt delayed 150 days before releasing.

@skyelark.bsky.social on @thepointau.bsky.social live blog: live.thepoint.com.au/2026/02/the-...
February 10, 2026 at 1:57 AM
The Australianification of American politics continues at pace.
February 10, 2026 at 12:51 AM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
BYD sold 5,001 vehicles in Australia in January, a staggering 641% increase year-over-year, while Tesla managed just 501, leaving the American automaker in 24th place as Chinese brands continue their takeover of the Australian EV market.

#BYD #Tesla

/1
BYD outsells Tesla 10-to-1 in Australia as Chinese EVs dominate January sales
BYD sold 5,001 vehicles in Australia in January, a staggering 641% increase year-over-year, while Tesla managed just 501, leaving the...
electrek.co
February 9, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Just so we’re clear:

Protesting a genocide and the invite of a man credibly accused of war crimes = unacceptable violence

Police beating and detaining said protestors = justified violence
February 9, 2026 at 11:08 PM
Some thoughts on "social cohesion" up at the newsletter.
Raising Hell
From the desk of Royce Kurmelovs
www.raisinghell.media
February 9, 2026 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Fearing that educated judges might rule on climate cases, Republican Attorneys General successfully bullied the The Federal Judicial Center (the education & research arm of the federal court system) into removing a chapter summarizing climate science from their scientific judicial reference manual.
February 9, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Nordhaus labels ~3 °C warming “optimal” because it costs only ~2–3% of global GDP, roughly the size of the entire African economy!

The implication is stark: #climate damages on the scale of wiping out Africa can be treated as an acceptable cost of continued fossil fuel use. 🧵
February 9, 2026 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Extraordinary footage. Police pulling off people engaged in peaceful prayer.
February 9, 2026 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Guardian Australia reporter Jordyn Beazley filmed this video not long ago of police moving towards protesters down Elizabeth Street in the Sydney CBD following the rally at Town Hall.
February 9, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
2/ State capture is a type of systematic corruption whereby narrow interest groups take control of institutions & processes through which public policy is made, directing public policy away from public interest & instead shaping it to serve their own interests.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
State capture and development: a conceptual framework
This article argues that the concept of state capture helps to structure our understanding of patterns of grand corruption seen around the world in varied contexts, and increasingly even in countries once regarded as secure democracies. This article ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
February 9, 2026 at 8:20 AM
This man befriended a Thai Princess and there is an email where someone points out to Epstein that her Foundation had access to one million children ("the one million children is a massive pool to tap into"). You don't have to look hard, you just need to look:

Anyway, read the story here:
What Happened the day Bjorn Lomborg Met Jeffrey Epstein
The Danish political scientist and climate crisis denier sought a meeting with Epstein in the hope of securing funding.
drilled.media
February 8, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Even in researching the story for @drilledmedia.bsky.social about an ill-fated meeting between Epstein and Bjorn Lomborg, I found emails between Epstein and another man whose job it appears to have been to procure girls for Epstein where they seem to be discussing sex trafficking.
Last week the far right started peddling a narrative that the outrage over Epstein is a moral panic. Today, like clockwork, a more polite version of that narrative appears in the Atlantic.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
February 8, 2026 at 11:01 PM
FWIW: he is not in the files beyond mentions in Epstein's regular media diet which appears to automatically land in his inbox. There is, however, a copy of the Wikipedia entry for Scott Morrison which has certain facts carefully underlined and highlighted by someone.
February 8, 2026 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march draws dozens - techcrunch.com/2026/02/08/s...
San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march draws dozens | TechCrunch
A march supporting California’s billionaires didn’t exactly draw a huge crowd on Saturday.
techcrunch.com
February 8, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Turns out wind power white ants the business case of French nuclear in the same way it is eating the lunch of coal-fired generation in Australia.
France has ended up in a strange position after using some €250bn of tax-payer money to build a fleet of nuclear power stations. Wind and solar power is merrily entering the French power market at prices nuclear production can't match, resulting in huge surpluses of power.

1/
Électricité : un rapport confidentiel d’EDF anticipe une explosion des coûts et des risques
« Le Point » s’est procuré le rapport interne d’EDF sur les conséquences de la modulation de son parc nucléaire pour faire place aux renouvelables. Un document explosif, alors que le gouvernement s’ap...
www.lepoint.fr
February 8, 2026 at 9:11 PM