admin /31 March, 2010
Henry lashes nation’s ‘disgraceful’ record on water
MARK METHERELL AND KIRSTY NEEDHAM
March 29, 2010
AUSTRALIA’S record on water management has been a disgrace, the secretary of the Treasury, Ken Henry, has declared in a scathing critique of the nation’s environmental bungles.
Dr Henry said people refused to learn from the loss of scores of species, water resources and hardwood forests, ”reflecting our hard-wired susceptibility to making irrational … judgments”.
”Water management on this driest inhabited continent on Earth has been a disgrace,” Dr Henry told a forum staged by the Weereewa Festival based at Lake George near Canberra. He is the festival’s patron.
This was even though water had been the subject of extensive research and debate. ”It is on everybody’s radar.”
His comments came as the Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said a referendum on a federal takeover of the Murray-Darling Basin, pledged by the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, might not be needed.
Senator Joyce, now the Opposition’s spokesman on water, infrastructure and regional development, said that if agreement could be reached, ”then we don’t need a referendum”.
admin /30 March, 2010
Posted on March 23, 2010
Why Solar Works Where It Snows
I’ve been hearing objections for years against solar energy in the Northeast.
- It’s too expensive.
- It’s not reliable.
- No one will be around to support it.
- We get too much snow- it doesn’t work in the winter.
These objections come on the heels of bad experiences many homeowners had under the Carter years when solar domestic hot water systems were installed at a breakneck pace by companies of varying degrees of reputability, with even more varying degrees of workmanship and integrity. These homeowners instilled the distrust and malaise to their children, who grew up in homes with these sometimes completely broken systems. Many of these homeowners were completely abandoned and in the dark after the installation was complete, with no idea if their system was working or not. It was the Wild, Wild West days of solar.
admin /26 March, 2010
Human waste could be fertiliser and power source Ecologist 24th March, 2010 Many of the substances that make wastewater a pollutant can also be useful as fertilisers for agriculture and in generating gases for small power stations, says report The world’s two billion tons of wastewater could supply much of the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium Continue Reading →
admin /25 March, 2010
March 22, 2010
Offshore Awakening: US Investment Flows to Offshore Wind
by Elisa Wood, Correspondent
London, UK [Renewable Energy World Magazine]
Offshore wind energy isn’t cheap. In fact, it can cost twice as much as land-based wind power. Yet, several state and provincial governments vied in 2009 to attract North America’s first offshore wind farm – as well as its second, third, fourth and on.
Oddly, many of these states are in the Northeast of the US, where political leaders are wary of raising energy costs. Consumers there pay among the highest electricity rates in the nation, and policymakers are on the lookout for ways to lower costs.
So what does offshore wind offer that makes these price-conscious shoppers suddenly willing to ignore the price?
‘Offshore has great wind capacity factors, it blows at the right times, and the transmission challenge is not difficult’, says Edward Krapels, director of Anbaric Holding and developer of subsea transmission projects. ‘Offshore just makes a lot of sense’.
admin /23 March, 2010
The Tories are fickle and nuclear is too big to fail
Nuclear power is where Tory energy policy falls down: confused, incoherent and lacking in credibility
Dungeness nuclear power station. The Tories’ energy policy is confused. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Launching the Tories’ energy policy in July 2006, David Cameron, gave a convincing and well-reasoned argument explaining why nuclear power must be a “last resort”. Later that year he described Labour’s enthusiasm for nuclear power as “irresponsible”. As Cameron rightly pointed out: “The problems of nuclear waste haven’t been dealt with. They have got to be dealt with in order to make any new investment possible.”
The “Peak Oil” concept — that the world’s petroleum-production rate will soon reach its maximum and commence an inevitable decline, with negative economic consequences — has been around in scientifically articulated form at least since 1998; long enough to see it confirmed in significant ways.