Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
The drought is also increasing demand for water tanks from farmers. They are not being used to collect rainwater, but to hold water being trucked in to properties across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. Ross Hendy from Tankworld in north-west Victoria says around 250 tanks are being sold each week, and there Continue Reading →
The northeast of South Australia may be gripped by drought but artist and adventurer Jack Absalom has seen conditions much worse – and he has the paintings to prove it, reported The Advertiser (30/9/2006, p.46).
Canvas shows it was drier than dry: Absalom, 79, in his first week of painting back in 1972 captured on canvas the dire conditions on Outback Mulyungarie Station. “That’s drought … that was the worst it ever was here,” the Broken Hill-based artist said. “I lived it and I know that it has not been worse than that.”
No feed, no water in ’72: His paintings of the same region in 1997 and again this year show an abundance of green ground cover in comparison with the 1972 painting. “If it’s a bloody drought in the true sense, then, in my book, you’ve got nothing,” Absalom said. “You’ve got no feed and no water… that’s a drought.
Whole country in trouble: “It’s not that bad right here at the moment, but I know it’s still not that good either. The whole of Australia is in trouble."
The Advertiser, 30/9/2006, p. 46
Source: Erisk Net
Geodynamics, the developer of South Australia’s first hot-rocks energy project, said it would resume drilling in early 2007, reported The Advertiser (29 September 2006 p71). The update coincided with a visit to the test site near Innamincka by Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell.
Third well starting next year: Adrian Williams, the chief executive of Brisbane-based Geodynamics, said the production casing of the second well, Habanero 2, had started and work on the third well, Habanero 3, would start in 2007.
Cost competitive when carbon considered: “We have demonstrated this heat can be extracted to produce energy, and independent analysis has found it can be produced at a cost competitive with coal and natural gas if the cost of carbon is factored in," Dr Williams said.
The Advertiser, 29/9/2006, p. 71
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092906J.shtml
By William Rivers Pitt
I have been told a thousand times at least, in the years I have spent reporting on the astonishing and repugnant abuses, lies and failures of the Bush administration, to watch my back. "Be careful," people always tell me. "These people are capable of anything. Stay off small planes, make sure you aren’t being followed." A running joke between my mother and me is that she has a "safe room" set up for me in her cabin in the woods, in the event I have to flee because of something I wrote or said.
I always laughed and shook my head whenever I heard this stuff. Extreme paranoia wrapped in the tinfoil of conspiracy, I thought. This is still America, and these Bush fools will soon pass into history, I thought. I am a citizen, and the First Amendment hasn’t yet been red-lined, I thought.
Matters are different now.
At the First International Conference on the Clean Development Mechanism, being held in Saudi Arabia, Session Chair Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Former Acting Secretary General of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), expressed pleasure that OPEC countries are taking the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) seriously, particularly Saudi Arabia.
Australia’s first major survey of attitudes to sustainability has found that 84 per cent of property owners, architects and consultants are involved in some form of green development, thanks mostly to the leadership of various levels of government and leading businesses, reported The Australian Financial Review (28 September 2006, p.55).