The atmosphere is to the earth as a layer of varnish is to a desktop globe. It is thin, fragile and essential for preserving the items on the surface.150 years of burning fossil fuel have overloaded the atmosphere to the point where the earth is ill. It now has a fever. Read the detailed article, Soothing Gaia’s Fever for an evocative account of that analogy. The items listed here detail progress on coordinating 6.5 billion people in the most critical project undertaken by humanity.Â
Levy for NSW coastal residents BRIAN ROBINS May 21, 2010 Comments 4 Residents of coastal properties in NSW will be forced to pay special coastal protection levies in threatened areas and other states will certainly watch the results. The legislation would enable owners of threatened properties to take emergency measures to protect their own properties Continue Reading →
Strange and dangerous hydrocarbon offers no room for human error
• In pictures: oil reaches the coast
The deadly explosion caused 3 million gallons of crude oil to pour into the Gulf. Photograph: KPA/Zuma/Rex Features
The vast deepwater methane hydrate deposits of the Gulf of Mexico are an open secret in big energy circles. They represent the most tantalizing new frontier of unconventional energy — a potential source of hydrocarbon fuel thought to be twice as large as all the petroleum deposits ever known.
For the oil and gas industry, the substances are also known to be the primary hazard when drilling for deepwater oil.
Methane hydrates are volatile compounds — natural gas compressed into molecular cages of ice. They are stable in the extreme cold and crushing weight of deepwater, but are extremely dangerous when they build up inside the drill column of a well. If destabilized by heat or a decrease in pressure, methane hydrates can quickly expand to 164 times their volume.
Survivors of the BP rig explosion told interviewers that right before the April 20 blast, workers had decreased the pressure in the drill column and applied heat to set the cement seal around the wellhead. Then a quickly expanding bubble of methane gas shot up the drill column before exploding on the platform on the ocean’s surface.
Almost half the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions have gone missing. Here they are, and here are the amazing implications.
By George Monbiot, published on the Guardian’s website, 5th May 2010
It’s not surprising that neither Labour nor the Tories wanted to run the Guardian’s National Carbon Calculator. Had they done so, they would have had to acknowledge that the figures on which they base their climate change policies are a work of science fiction. The government claims that our total emissions amount to 627 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e). The Tories have never disputed this figure. It’s convenient for both sides to accept this falsehood, and to pretend that the challenge is far smaller than it is.
As the figures pulled together by the calculator team show, the real total (using 2007 figures) should be 950Mt. The government artificially excludes the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the goods we import and the international travel we commission. It’s not hard to see why ministers choose to overlook these figures. If just the outsourced emissions (gases released in producing goods we import) are counted, all the cuts the UK claims to have made since 1990 would be cancelled out – and then some.
From: GetUp! <info@getup.org.au>
Date: Fri, May 21, 2010 at 5:15 PM
Subject: A Friday cartoon
To: nevilleg729@gmail.com
Dear NEVILLE,
This email is a bit different.
No urgent call to arms today: instead, a note of congratulations. GetUp members have been on a roll in recent weeks, creating national headlines and locking in a big victory protecting native forests. Hear about the four ways you’re making an impact. This email is best enjoyed with a cup of tea–here’s hoping it brightens up your Friday afternoon.
1 – The views of GetUp members are creating headlines (and cartoon punchlines)
Every Sunday, Barry Cassidy and the panel on ABC Insiders review the political news of the week – the buzz amongst politicians and journalists in Canberra. Last Sunday they opened with a 10-minute conversation about the results of our monthly surveys of GetUp members which is showing a huge dip in the PM’s approval ratings after his backflips on climate change and refugees. And that was just the beginning: GetUp featured in over three dozen news stories this week alone–see below for a full list. This Bill Leak cartoon from Monday’s edition of The Australian is one favourite:
Labor lets loose its dogs of war
TONY Abbott has made another political blunder, but the knots he tied himself in over honesty, lying and the gospel truth aren’t anywhere near as troublesome as his initial decision to suddenly announce a parental leave scheme funded with a new tax.
The verbal gymnastics and the painful facial grimaces of the Leader of the Opposition on ABC 7.30 Report – as he explained introducing a new tax when he had said he wouldn’t – let slip the political dogs of war.
Labor cabinet ministers who hadn’t fronted a press conference for ages, some of whom have been responsible for monumental blunders, broken promises and backdowns, jostled like lions at feeding time to flay Abbott alive.
Abbott could no longer be trusted, he was lying, he wasn’t prime ministerial material, he couldn’t be believed or trusted.
Julia Gillard, Wayne Swan, Lindsay Tanner, Penny Wong, Peter Garrett, Chris Bowen and Craig Emerson all jumped in to provide comments to back ALP advertising, all targeting Abbott and linking him with the Howard government’s discarded Work Choices.
Iceland could be at the start of a surge in volcanic activity that may produce more eruptions
THE Icelandic eruption that has caused misery for air travellers could be part of a surge in volcanic activity that will affect the whole of Europe for decades, scientists have warned.
They have reconstructed a timeline of 205 eruptions in Iceland, spanning the past 1,100 years, and found that they occur in regular cycles — with the relatively quiet phase that dominated the past five decades now coming to an end.
At least three other big Icelandic volcanoes are building towards an eruption, according to Thor Thordarson, a volcanologist at Edinburgh University.
“The frequency of Icelandic eruptions seems to rise and fall in a cycle lasting around 140 years,” he said. “In the latter part of the 20th century we were in a low period, but now there is evidence that we could be approaching a peak.”