Category: Archive

Tanks a cheaper solution

admin /27 April, 2007

EXPENSIVE water infrastructure would not be needed in southeast Queensland for at least a decade if extra rainwater tanks were rolled out.

A new study has found controversial projects such as the Traveston Dam and desalination plants could be put on hold by rolling out rainwater tanks to 5 per cent of households each year in conjunction with other water saving measures.

The findings – to be released today by the Australian Conservation Foundation – will increase pressure on the State Government to rethink the controversial 180,000-megalitre dam.

A Senate inquiry will hold its first hearings into the $1.7 billion project in Gympie tomorrow and Brisbane on Wednesday.

The Government is bracing for a backlash from dam opponents, who argue it will destroy valuable farming land and sensitive ecological habitats.

About 78 per cent, or 900,000 homes in southeast Queensland, are suitable for rainwater tanks, which cost between $2500 and $3500 to install.

Tanks with a capacity over 3000 litres qualify for a $500 rebate from Brisbane City Council. Those over 5000 litres qualify for a $750 rebate. Up to $1000 is also available from the State Government.

Rolling out rainwater tanks to 5 per cent of southeast Queensland households each year would cost between $140 million and $200 million. 

This compares with the dam’s $1.7 billion price tag and $3 billion to build a desalination plant north of Brisbane.

The study – undertaken by respected financial consultants Marsden Jacob Associates – found rainwater tanks were more than five times as energy-efficient as desalination plants.

"The majority of existing dwellings, particularly in SEQ, are detached houses, making them suitable in theory for rainwater tanks," the report said.

But emergency water projects such as the $1.7 billion Western Corridor Recycled Water Pipeline would still be required.

"It is unlikely that rainwater tanks could be installed in time, or provide sufficient security, to offset emergency water sources such as the SEQ Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme," the report said.

"However, rainwate r tanks can act to free up existing water supplies, and may therefore defer the need for future water sources required to cater for growth."

Nationally, rainwater tanks are installed in 17 per cent of households.

The report said it would take up to 15 years to roll out tanks to every available household in the region.

More than 27,000 tanks have already been installed in Brisbane since City Hall introduced its rebate scheme in 2002.

No bees? Not just strange, but scary

admin /27 April, 2007

by Dave Lindorff

Where are the bees?

As an unwilling and disgruntled suburbanite, I take great pride in my dandelion crop. Over the decade that I have owned my 2.3-acre lot in Maple Glen, just north of Philadelphia, I have watched as the dandelion population in my lawn has grown year on year.

One reason I’ve enjoyed the display is that I know these bright-yellow-flowered plants, which bloom early and continue blooming well into fall, are popular with honeybees. Given all the problems the bees have been having with insecticides, destruction of natural habitat, and the like, I’m happy to give them some help.

I remember that when I was a kid growing up in rural Connecticut, getting stung by a honeybee was almost a weekly occurrence that went along with going barefoot in the lawn. (My parents liked dandelions, too.)

Today, though, you could walk all day barefoot around my yard and never get stung. There’s not a honeybee to be seen.

I walked two miles recently around the neighborhood, past plenty of dandelions, including through a feral field full of them, and didn’t see a single bee. Not one. This is particularly strange because in the first warm days of spring, the hives are usually out in full force trying to replenish supplies after a long winter and in anticipation of a big period of egg-laying and hatching of larvae.

And it’s not just dandelions.

Behind my house is a wild cherry tree. A few days ago, it was in full bloom. Ordinarily, this would be an occasion for a true bee fiesta. The tree at this time in prior years was virtually a cloud of buzzing insects, all zipping from flower to flower.

This year, there was not a bee to be seen on the entire tree.

This is beyond strange. It’s downright scary.

When you consider that perhaps half the plants in nature depend upon pollinators like bees to reproduce, you have to wonder what a future without bees holds – not just for the animals that live on those plants, but for human beings.

And it’s not just honeybees that are missing. Honeybees, after all, are immigrants from Europe, and the Americas survived quite nicely without them before their arrival with the colonists. But the native bees – ground bees and bumblebees, for example – are gone, too. The only bees I’ve seen since the spring began are wood bees – large, clumsy-looking, bumblebee-like creatures that bore neat circular holes into the wood of the house and lay their eggs in solitary nests. Thank heavens for them, or there wouldn’t be a bee on my property.

But even several hundred wood bees can hardly compensate for the total absence of other pollinators.

What’s happening here?

There are a lot of possible culprits: climate change, ubiquitous microwave radiation, overuse of herbicides and pesticides, stress, and lowered immunity to fungal, viral, bacterial and mite infections, or perhaps a combination of all of the above.

My feeling, though, is one of dark foreboding.

When something as basic as bees vanishes from the scene as quickly as this, you know we’re in Big Trouble.

Posted on Thu, Apr. 26, 2007

GM contributes to bee death

admin /27 April, 2007

Are GM Crops Killing Bees?

By Gunther Latsch

A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous.

Is the mysterous decimation of bee populations in the US and Germany a result of GM crops? Walter Haefeker is a man who is used to painting grim scenarios. He sits on the board of directors of the German Beekeepers Association (DBIB) and is vice president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association. And because griping is part of a lobbyist’s trade, it is practically his professional duty to warn that “the very existence of beekeeping is at stake.”

Mitsui sells Aussie oil and gas assests

admin /27 April, 2007

Perth’s Arc Energy winning bidder for the oil and gas assets sold off by Japan’s Mitsui; pays $US14.03 per boe of reserves According to Jamie Freed in The Sydney Morning Herald (26/04/07, p. 23), Perth company ARC Energy has emerged as the winning bidder for the Australian oil and gas assets sold off by Japan’s Continue Reading →

2003 alpine fires reduced Murray River inflows by 20pc

admin /27 April, 2007

Federal- Victoria water tension were evidence as Senator Hon. Eric Abetz, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation, Manager of Government Business in the Senate said on 20 April 2007 that with predicted dry summers and an increasing water shortage there were compelling environmental reasons – as well as social – to act on bushfire mitigation. He said while it was still too early to gauge the impact of this year’s fires on water, it was estimated that the 2003 Victorian/NSW alpine fires resulted in reduced inflows into the Murray River by up to 20 percent.

Fires make half of Australia’s emissions: "This summer’s fires emitted at least 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – equal to around half of Australia’s annual transport emissions.

Onus on states to reduce bushfires: "At a time when rainfall in the catchments is at historic lows, this emphasises how important it is for the state and territory governments to act to limit to reduce the risk of bushfires to limit the impact on water resources." The Minister congratulated Tasmania and Western Australia for their proactive bushfire mitigation strategies.

The full text of the motion, the States failed to agree to, follows.

Recommendations:

1. That Council:

a) Noted the presentation from the Victorian Minister for Water, Environment and Climate Change outlining the scale of recent bushfires in Victoria;

b) Noted that similar large scale fires were experienced in Tasmania and New South Wales, and devastating fires also took place in Western and South Australia this summer;

c) Congratulated volunteer and professional fire-fighters for their work in minimising damage by these fires to both life and property, in difficult conditions;

d) Noted the environmental consequences of these fires, including:

i) impact on forests ecosystems;

ii) impact on threatened species;

iii) greenhouse gas emissions – this summer’s fires emitted at least 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (equal to around half of Australia’s annual transport emissions);

iv) water quality and water availability – while it was still too early to gauge the impact of this year’s fires on water, it was estimated that the 2003 Victorian/NSW alpine fires resulted in reduced inflows into the Murray River by up to 20 percent, and;

v) Soil erosion;

e) Noted that the social and economic impact on regional communities and local industries such as the forest industry, tourism, and agriculture were also severe;

f) Noted that the number of "extreme" bushfire risk days and the risk of fires escalating were predicted to increase in the future;

g) Noted that at least five recent inquiries: the ACT Coroner’s Inquiry; The Canberra Firestorms in 2003; the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) National Inquiry on Bushfire Mitigation and Management 2004; The House of Representative Select Committee Inquiry (Nairn Report) A Nation Charred: Inquiry into the Recent Australian Bushfires 2003; the Victorian Auditor-General’s Report 2003; and the Select Committee of the NSW Legislative Assembly on the 2001-02 Bushfires had all recommended further bushfire mitigation measures be undertaken;

h) Agreed that more effective fire mitigation strategies need to be developed and implemented for all regions of Australia, to reduce the risk of bushfires escalating. This should include (but not be limited to) consideration of:

a. detailed, scientifically based, regionally specific, hazard reduction burning programmes across all land tenures, forest types and land uses;

b. an integrated network of fire access trails, containment lines and water, points across all land tenures, including in plantation developments, State forests, National Parks and conservation reserves;

c. regionally specific risk management planning for the interface between human settlements and all forest types on all land tenures; and

d. public accounting of the annual cost of bushfires; and of the extent of bushfire mitigation activities undertaken in preparation for a bushfire season, in reference to the regional strategy.

Ethanol from Carbon Monoxide breakthrough

admin /26 April, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 — A New Zealand company said Monday that it had secured financing from an investor in Silicon Valley to produce ethanol from an untapped source — carbon monoxide gas.

The company, LanzaTech, based in Auckland, said it had developed a fermentation process in which bacteria consume carbon monoxide and produce ethanol. Ethanol can be used as an alternative fuel or an octane-boosting, pollution-reducing additive to gasoline.

Sean Simpson, LanzaTech’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, said the company would use the $3.5 million investment from the venture firm, Khosla Ventures, to establish a pilot plant and perform the engineering work to prepare for commercial-scale ethanol production.