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Archived material from historical editions of The Generator

  • New island off Greenland

    As the satellite pictures makes clear, Warming Island has been created by a quite undeniable, rapid and enormous physical transformation and is likely to be seen around the world as a potent symbol of the coming effects of climate change.

    But it is only one more example of the disintegration of the Greenland Ice Sheet, that scientists have begun to realise, only very recently, is proceeding far more rapidly than anyone thought.

    The second-largest ice sheet in the world (after Antarctica), if its entire 2.5 million cubic kilometres of ice were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 metres, or more than 23 feet.

    That would inundate most of the world’s coastal cities, including London, swamp vast areas of heavily-populated low-lying land in countries such as Bangladesh, and remove several island countries such as the Maldives from the face of the Earth. However, even a rise one tenth as great would have devastating consequences.

    Sea level rise is already accelerating. Sea levels are going up around the world by about 3.1mm per year – the average for the period 1993-2003. That is itself sharply up from an average of 1.8mm per year over the longer period 1961-2003. Greenland ice now accounts for about 0.5 millimetre of the total. (Much of the rest of the rise is coming from the expansion of the world’s sea water as it warms.)

    Until two or three years ago, it was thought that the break-up of the ice sheet might take 1,000 years or more but a series of studies and alarming observations since 2004 have shown the disintegration is accelerating and, as a consequence, sea level rise may be much quicker than anticipated.

    Earlier computer models, researchers believe, failed to capture properly the way the ice sheet would respond to major warming (over the past 20 years, Greenland’s air temperature has risen by 3C). The 2001 report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was relatively reassuring, suggesting change would be slow.

    But satellite measurements of Greenland’s entire land mass show that the speed at which its glaciers are moving to the sea has increased significantly in the past decade, with some of them moving three times faster than in the mid-1990s.

    Scientists estimate that, in 1996, glaciers deposited about 50 cubic km of ice into the sea. In 2005, it had risen to 150 cubic km of ice.

    A study last year by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology showed that, rather than just melting relatively slowly, the ice sheet is showing all the signs of a mechanical break-up as glaciers slip ever faster into the ocean, aided by the "lubricant" of meltwater forming at their base. As the meltwater seeps down it lubricates the bases of the "outlet" glaciers of the ice sheet, causing them to slip down surrounding valleys towards the sea,

    Another discovery has been the increase in "glacial earthquakes" caused by the sudden movement of enormous blocks of ice within the ice sheet. The annual number of them recorded in Greenland between 1993 and 2002 was between six and 15. In 2003, seismologists recorded 20 glacial earthquakes. In 2004, they monitored 24 and for the first 10 months of 2005 they recorded 32. The seismologists also found the glacial earthquakes occurred mainly during the summer months, indicating the movements were indeed associated with rapidly melting ice – normal "tectonic" earthquakes show no such seasonality. Of the 136 glacial quakes analysed in a report published last year, more than a third occurred during July and August.

    The creation of Warming Island appears to be entirely consistent with the disintegrating ice sheet, coming about when the glacier bridge linking it to the mainland simply disappeared. It was discovered by Mr Schmitt, a 60-year-old explorer from Berkeley, California, who has known Greenland for 40 years, during a trip he led up the remote coastline.

    According to the US Geological Survey: "More islands like this may be discovered if the Greenland Ice Sheet continues to disappear."

    A self-governing dependency of Denmark, Greenland is the largest island in the world but is inhabited by only 56,000 people, mainly Inuit. More than 80 per cent of the land surface is covered by the ice sheet.

  • Wave Power for Scotland

    Naomi Fowler, on the Science Report, ABC Radio National , reports on the launch of the Pelamis, a wave energy converter, which will provide energy for homes on the world’s largest commercial wave farm in Orkney, Scotland.

    A wave farm

    For a fascinating eplanation of how the Pelamis works and to learn just how much electricity can be generated from wave power, listen to the audio or read the transcript .
     

     

    An artists impression of a wave farm

  • Wave Power for Scotland

    Transcript

    Robyn Williams: In all our discussions of energy technologies (you may have seen Four Corners last week) little has been said about wave power. Does it rate? Naomi Fowler reports from Scotland.

    Naomi Fowler: What you can hear is the huge bright-orange Pelamis or sea snake wave energy capture device being towed out to sea. It looks like four carriages of a locomotive train without the windows, floating on the sea surface. This is what the excitement’s all about, this is the new technology that will be providing electricity for Scottish homes on the world’s largest commercial wave farm in Orkney.

    Max Carcas: In the past many people had approached it from an academic perspective of trying to design something which mathematically might capture 100% of the energy in a metre width of wave, but that’s actually the wrong place to start.

    Naomi Fowler: Max Carcas of Ocean Power Delivery explains how their Pelamis wave machine works.

    Max Carcas: The most important thing for a wave energy converter is to be survivable with the conditions that are out there at sea. You can have average wave conditions being there 99% of the time, but 1% of the year you get extreme waves, storm waves. As a concept, really what you want to be able to do is capture the average energy that’s there most of the time whilst being almost invisible to the very large forces that are contained in storm waves, and that’s really the reason our machine looks the way it does. It presents a minimal cross-sectional area pointing into the waves, which gives it excellent load-shedding capability in those extreme waves whilst being very closely coupled to the average energy, the buoyancy versus weight forces that are there for most of the year.

    What happens is the machine is moored at its nose and it self-references, it will automatically point into the predominant swell. What happens is the waves travel down the length of this machine, so if you can imagine each of these train carriages moving both up and down and side to side, that occurs around hinged joints, and that movement is resisted by hydraulic rams, which you can think of a little bit like big bicycle pumps which pump high-pressure hydraulic fluid through hydraulic motors which turn generators. That’s essentially how the machine works.

    Naomi Fowler: Estimates on the untapped potential of wave power are pretty exciting. Each metre of Scottish coastline is believed to have enough wave energy reaching it to power 100 homes. If less than 0.1% of the total energy contained within the world’s oceans and seas was harnessed, it could supply the planet’s entire energy needs, exceeding the world’s demand for electrical power by a factor of five. Not only that, the World Energy Council reckons that globally wave energy is a 730 billion market. It ticks all the boxes in terms of energy security, price stability, thousands of jobs, and of course it’s key in tackling climate change.

    Jason Ormiston: If you wanted to invest in renewables in Scotland, Scotland appears to be getting its act together and perhaps would be a good place to do business.

    Naomi Fowler: Jason Ormiston of the Scottish Renewables Forum.

    Jason Ormiston: On the flipside there are barriers to the development of that potential. There needs to be investment in the planning systems so that they work more efficiently, there needs to be greater consistency in decision making, there need to be determinations quicker. If we really want to tap the potential, we need to be giving a long-term market signal, and that comes through the planning system. If they don’t get that right then the renewables project in Scotland will stall.

    Reporter: To a remote moor they came, small in number but determined in their opposition. These protesters want a rethink on plans to route electricity pylons through this remote hillside.

    Protester 1: It’s simply desecration as far as we’re concerned. And it smacks of the usual things; it’s the cheapest and easiest way to do it, what does it matter about…

    Protester 2: I might have to look to moving and this is just almost too much to bear.

    Protester 3: We’re dreading it. We’ve been fearing this for a few years now. It’s going to be horrendous…

    Naomi Fowler: Problem is, wild and windy places are often remote areas of outstanding natural beauty. Pylons need to be built or existing routes enlarged to carry the electricity produced by these renewable energy projects hundreds of miles to the towns and cities that can use it. There are protests, legal battles and public enquires that can take years. Member of the Scottish parliament Christine May believes now is the time for politicians to get tough.

    Christine May: If we are to be really serious about developing our capacity for marine energy then we have to look at strengthening the grid, and that may mean some unpleasant decisions for people living in some of the more remote areas. I do think it’s essential for us as politicians to have the courage of our convictions in the way that the post-war expansion of the electricity grid was dealt with by government identifying it as a national necessity and taking the powers to make sure that that was dealt with and provided, because it is essential in order to meet our environmental targets.

    Naomi Fowler: Scotland hasn’t just thrown cash at marine power projects, it’s also legislated. This month the Marine Supply Obligation will force energy companies to provide a percentage of their electricity from wave or tidal power. Scottish members of parliament really are keen to keep this youthful wave power industry in Scotland and not to miss the boat again as many feel they did with wind power, now well established in other European countries that some think were more farsighted. Max Carcas again, of Ocean Power Delivery.

    Max Carcas: Where we are is kind of where wind was 25, 30 years ago. The global market for wind turbines is worth about 15 billion per annum and employs many tens of thousands of people in the manufacture of wind turbines. Certain countries took the lead to establish markets for these technologies, countries such as Denmark, Germany and Spain, and indeed those are the countries that are really reaping the rewards today in terms of jobs, exports and industry. The global potential for wave energy, estimated by the World Energy Council, is an electricity generation market of about 2,000 terawatt hours per annum. To put that in relevant terms it’s broadly equivalent to the existing nuclear or hydro electricity markets. If that displaces conventional generation that’s potentially 1.5 to 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum, which dwarfs many, many times over our individual country’s renewables targets. So it’s a big environmental prize in moving forward on this as well.

    Naomi Fowler: Moving forward Scotland certainly is, and what happens here in terms of development could help address not just the UK’s carbon emissions but the world’s, if they can reconcile local rights and concerns with national needs. This is Naomi Fowler in Edinburgh, Scotland for The Science Show.

    Guests

    Max Carcas
    Business Development Director Ocean Power Delivery Edinburgh Scotland
    http://www.oceanpd.com/default.html

    Jason Ormiston
    Chief Executive Scottish Renewables
    http://www.scottishrenewables.com/default.aspx

    Christine May
    Candidate for Central Fife Scottish Parliament Elections 2007
    http://www.christinemay.org.uk/

    Naomi Fowler
    http://naomifowler.org/

    Presenter

    Robyn Williams

  • Biofuels behind deforestation surge

    Oil from African palm trees is considered to be one of the best and cheapest
    sources of biodiesel and energy companies are investing billions into
    acquiring or developing oil-palm plantations in developing countries. Vast
    tracts of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries
    have been cleared to grow oil palms.

    Oil palm has become the world’s number one fruit crop, well ahead of
    bananas.

    Biodiesel offers many environmental benefits over diesel from petroleum,
    including reductions in air pollutants, but the enormous global thirst means
    millions more hectares could be converted into monocultures of oil palm.

    Getting accurate numbers on how much forest is being lost is very difficult.

    The FAO’s State of the World’s Forests 2007 released last week reports that
    globally, net forest loss is 20,000 hectares per day — equivalent to an
    area twice the size of Paris. However, that number includes plantation
    forests, which masks the actual extent of tropical deforestation, about
    40,000 hectares (ha) per day, says Matti Palo, a forest economics expert who
    is affiliated with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education
    Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica.

    "The half a million ha per year deforestation of Mexico is covered by the
    increase of forests in the U.S., for example," Palo told IPS.

    National governments provide all the statistics, and countries like Canada
    do not produce anything reliable, he said. Canada has claimed no net change
    in its forests for 15 years despite being the largest producer of pulp and
    paper.

    "Canada has a moral responsibility to tell the rest of the world what kind
    of changes have taken place there," he said.

    Plantation forests are nothing like natural or native forests. More akin to
    a field of maize, plantation forests are hostile environments to nearly
    every animal, bird and even insects. Such forests have been shown to have a
    negative impact on the water cycle because non-native, fast-growing trees
    use high volumes of water. Pesticides are also commonly used to suppress
    competing growth from other plants and to prevent disease outbreaks, also
    impacting water quality.

    Plantation forests also offer very few employment opportunities, resulting
    in a net loss of jobs.

    "Plantation forests are a tremendous disaster for biodiversity and local
    people," Lovera said.

    Even if farmland or savanna are only used for oil palm or other plantations,
    it often forces the local people off the land and into nearby forests,
    including national parks, which they clear to grow crops, pasture animals
    and collect firewood. That has been the pattern with pulp and timber
    plantation forests in much of the world, says Lovera.

    Ethanol is other major biofuel, which is made from maize, sugar cane or
    other crops. As prices for biofuels climb, more land is cleared to grow the
    crops. U.S. farmers are switching from soy to maize to meet the ethanol
    demand. That is having a knock on effect of pushing up soy prices, which is
    driving the conversion of the Amazon rainforest into soy, she says.

    Meanwhile rich countries are starting to plant trees to offset their
    emissions of carbon dioxide, called carbon sequestration. Most of this
    planting is taking place in the South in the form of plantations, which are
    just the latest threat to existing forests.

    "Europe’s carbon credit market could be disastrous," Lovera said.

    The multi-billion-euro European carbon market does not permit the use of
    reforestation projects for carbon credits. But there has been a tremendous
    surge in private companies offering such credits for tree planting projects.
    Very little of this money goes to small land holders, she says.

    Plantation forests also contain much less carbon, notes Palo, citing a
    recent study that showed carbon content of plantation forests in some Asian
    tropical countries was only 45 percent of that in the respective natural
    forests.

    Nor has the world community been able to properly account for the value of
    the enormous volumes of carbon stored in existing forests.

    One recent estimate found that the northern Boreal forest provided 250
    billion dollars a year in ecosystem services such as absorbing carbon
    emissions from the atmosphere and cleaning water.

    The good news is that deforestation, even in remote areas, is easily
    stopped. All it takes is access to some low-cost satellite imagery and
    governments that actually want to slow or halt deforestation.

    Costa Rica has nearly eliminated deforestation by making it illegal to
    convert forest into farmland, says Lovera.

    Paraguay enacted similar laws in 2004, and then regularly checked satellite
    images of its forests, sending forestry officials and police to enforce the
    law where it was being violated.

    "Deforestation has been reduced by 85 percent in less than two years in the
    eastern part of the country," Lovera noted.

    The other part of the solution is to give control over forests to the local
    people. This community or model forest concept has proved to be sustainable
    in many parts of the world. India recently passed a bill returning the bulk
    of its forests back to local communities for management, she said.

    However, economic interests pushing deforestation in countries like Brazil
    and Indonesia are so powerful, there may eventually be little natural forest
    left.

    "Governments are beginning to realize that their natural forests have
    enormous value left standing," Lovera said. "A moratorium or ban on
    deforestation is the only way to stop this."

  • Micro wind turbines for cities


    Lucien Gambarota, the main inventor of the technology, says this is its
    advantage over conventional small wind turbines, which only work about 40
    percent of the time because of low wind speed.

    "We never stop this machine and they never stop because there is always one
    meter per second wind — 365 days, 24 hours a day, they keep working," said
    Gambarota. "They deliver different levels of energy because the wind changes
    but these turbines they keep moving, they keep spinning."

    Gambarota says the small turbines are ideal for crowded cities such as Hong
    Kong because they can be installed on rooftops and balconies.

    Their design is simple: plastic gearwheels, each about 25 centimeters in
    diameter, are linked to one another and turn, moved by the wind. Groups of
    gearwheels can be arranged in an array of shapes and sizes, ranging from
    about two up to thousands of square meters, depending on how much energy is
    needed and how much space is available. The energy generated by the turbines
    is stored in a battery, which then powers electrical appliances.

    The wind turbine is easy to install and comparatively cheap. At the moment,
    a set of 20 gearwheels costs about $25. Gambarota says the price will go
    down once the turbines are being mass-produced, making them a good option
    for consumers who want to cut down on their energy costs.

    "Let’s say if you have good conditions, five, six meters [of wind] per
    second, if you are a family with one kid you need most probably three, four
    square meters of that then you can most probably cover at least 60, 70
    percent of your [energy] needs."

    The technology can also help power bigger buildings. Administrators at Hong
    Kong’s Sea School, a secondary school offering basic seaman training, will
    install the new micro wind-turbines on its roof in April.

    Gambarota says his biggest dream is to see his invention being used in
    developing countries. He says energy generated by micro wind turbines can be
    used to pump water, for example, saving women and girls from having to walk
    for miles to rivers and lakes to fetch it.

  • Unviable drought effected towns targeted for evacuation

    Mayors of Emerald and Kingaroy do not anticipate Kumbia and Willows will need to be evacuated, but acknowledge the situation is serious and required continued state support.

    In Kumbia, "there is no more water. All of the bores have run dry," Kingaroy Mayor Roger Nunn said.

    But in Kumbia, nearly all the residents have rainwater tanks and council is hiring a driller for more bores.

    "If people have to leave Kumbia, I don’t know what’s going to happen in Brisbane," he said.

    The Courier Mail, 26/4/2007, p.11

    Source: Erisk Net