Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
Christmas Island was divided over plans to extend phosphate excavation.
But the Christmas Island Shire President and union secretary Gordon
Thompson was absolutely backing an extension of phosphate mining that
would mean almost 200 hectares of rainforest was destroyed, along with
up to 1.4 million of the island’s trademark red crabs, reported The Age (10/12/2005, p. 8).
The rationale provided by Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell (The Advertiser,
6/12/05) for Australia’s energy and greenhouse-gas policy directions
was “factually honest but also naive and irresponsible”, according to
Sam Powrie, Chair of the Bicycle Institute of SA, Semaphore, writing to
The Advertiser (9/12/2005, p. 21).
No thought for reduced consumption: “While he rightly points out
that both Australians and citizens of the Third World are reliant on
access to energy, he entirely dismisses the value of reduced energy
consumption and, by implication, all conservation measures in
responding to the greenhouse challenge,” Powrie wrote.
The temperature of your fridge should be between 3-4C. Setting the
temperature control on your fridge lower than 3C is a waste of energy,
said Sandy Canale, General Manager of AGL SA in The Advertiser (13 December 2005, p.21). For every 1C lower, the fridge will cost around 5 per cent more to run.
Honda R&D Americas Inc. has just unveiled the Home Energy Station
III, which provides heat and electricity for houses, as well as fuel
for a hydrogen-powered vehicle, reported The Courier-Mail (7/12/2005, p. 43).
Could this be the beginning
of the end for the traditional filling station? The Home Energy Station
uses natural gas as its base energy source and is designed to work in a
home-based refuelling environment. It creates enough hydrogen to power
a fuel cell vehicle such as the Honda FCX for a day, while providing
electricity for an average-sized household.
Electricity produced from the sun would be used to power the daylight
requirements of Windorah in far southwest Queensland, reported The Courier-Mail (7/12/2005, p. 11).
Its 110 residents currently rely
on diesel-generated power produced by a facility run by Ergon Energy.
But it would trial a solar farm, with the conventional power station
operating only at night, barring cloudy daytime conditions.
How much is a tree worth? Research undertaken in New South Wales a
couple of years ago supplied an answer of sorts. It found that the true
value of a tree such as a mature red cedar, considering only oxygen
output, would be about $120,000 each year, reported The Courier-Mail (9/12/2005, p. 53).