Category: Articles

WAVE POWER

admin /18 June, 2009

Wave Power

Wave power refers to the energy of the ocean surface and the capture of that energy to generate electricity. It can also be used to power desalination plants, or pump water into reservoirs. This is certainly a form of renewable energy, and although often co-mingled, it is distinct from the flux of tidal power and ocean currents.

These energy conversion devices create a system of reacting forces, in which two or more bodies move relative to each other, while at least one body interacts with the waves. The body moved is called the displacer, while the body that reacts to the displacer is called the reactor.

There are many ways that such a system may be configured, including: oscillating water columns, point-absorbers, attenuators, and overtopping devices. There is even biomimicry technology that looks to nature for inspiration.

Other food action projects

admin /8 June, 2009

In the future, we will be working with local councils to get food projects happening on public land, to build resources in community gardens that people can take home to grow food on their own land, and to put staple foods into people’s back yards. We will start work on these projects once we have Continue Reading →

Front Yard Food

admin /8 June, 2009

This is a program to encourate people to help each other grow food. Many older people have gardens they can no longer keep up. Many people do not have enough experience to grow food successfully. By helping each other, we can create abundant food, in the community. To build momentum with this project we are Continue Reading →

Are there limits to population growth in Australia?

admin /4 June, 2009

To many people, the vast continent of Australia seems underpopulated with its current population of seventeen million people. But this image is misleading: much of the continent is inhospitable to humans, and the amount of agricultural land and available water is small compared with the total land area. Moreover, according to the population issues committee of the National Population Council (NPC), “there is a serious mismatch between distributions of available water supply and the population, water supply is subject to high levels of seasonal and year to year variability, the land is severely degraded, the soils thin and vulnerable to depletion” (1992, p. 41). Additionally, many species in Australia have become extinct or are threatened by the expansion of human activities in their habitats.

Effects of overpopulation

admin /29 May, 2009

[edit] Effects of overpopulation

Some problems associated with or exacerbated by human overpopulation:

Inadequate fresh water^[119] for drinking water use as well as sewage treatment and effluent discharge. Some countries, like Saudi Arabia, use energy-expensive desalination to solve the problem of water shortages.^[140]^[141]
Depletion of natural resources, especially fossil fuels^[142]
Increased levels of air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination and noise pollution. Once a country has industrialized and become wealthy, a combination of government regulation and technological innovation causes pollution to decline substantially, even as the population continues to grow.^[143]
Deforestation and loss of ecosystems^[144] that sustain global atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide balance; about eight million hectares of forest are lost each year.^[145]

PAUL EHRLICH AND THE POPULATION BOMB

admin /29 May, 2009

PAUL EHRLICH AND THE POPULATION BOMB, PBS video produced by Canadian biologist Dr. David Suzuki

The idea that we can just keep growing forever on a finite planet is totally imbecilic…. Simon, a professor of junkmail marketing, and his kind, think technology will solve everything…. We can use up the Earth then we can just jump into spaceships and fly somewhere else…. Technology does nothing to solve problems of biodiversity or living space or arable cropland…. Fresh water and arable cropland are finite nonrenewable resources…. We are already far beyond what we can support sustainably…. The provincial view you get from someone living in some wealthy American East Coast city is wildly different from reality. Most of the world is tropical, hungry and poor. Visit the developing world and southern hemisphere and you get a very different view of reality.

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