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US-based Grist magazine calls for your vision of the future. A thoughtful article and passionate
debate aims to counter the anti-Green rhetoric dominating the media. Join in the discussion at Grist

Post-combustion CO2 capture: This has the added bonus of taking
off the CO2 in a pure stream for long-term sequestration. “Solar
thermal can also provide a valuable source of low-grade heat to drive
the post-combustion capture of CO2 from existing power stations – which
is an additional opportunity for the technology,” Dr Wibberley adds.

Parabolic troughs most promising: Of the various CST
technologies, parabolic troughs are under the most active development
worldwide and appear to offer the best economics which a carbon price
would make more favourable still.

Intelligent combination of technologies needed: Van Schagen
says: “In the polarized public debate, Australia’s energy challenge is
often depicted as fossil-versus-renewables. In reality, the answer lies
in an intelligent combination of the best technologies and resources to
produce cost-effective energy with next to zero greenhouse and
pollution emissions.”

Aust is uniquely placed: He argues that Australia has sunlight,
coal and gas in vast amounts. “We can combine them to create ideal
energy solutions in ways simply unavailable to most other countries on
earth.”

Reference: CCSD Media Release, February 15, 2005. More information: Mr Frank van Schagen, CEO, CCSD, 07 3871 4400. Frank.vanSchagen@ccsd.biz website: http://www.ccsd.biz Dr Louis Wibberley, CCSD and CSIRO, 02 4960 6050.

Erisk Net, 15/2/2006

Hurt by accusation: “Despite no evidence that any coal industry
representative had attended the alleged meeting with Pearce, no-one
watching could have been left in any doubt that the coal industry was
being accused,” he said.

Investigative journalism slammed: O’Neill also condemned Four
Corners for scandalously touting its program as an investigatory coup
when five minutes of basic investigation would have raised serious
question marks over the credibility of its principle interviewee.

Three rebuttals given: Three facts Four Corners might have
established would have given them pause for thought in building a
program around Pearce’s supposed independence and credibility,
according to O’Neill:

• well known coal industry critic, Clive Hamilton, who appeared on the program, was a supervisor of Dr Pearce’s Ph.D;

• the coal industry association was not one of the seven industry associations mentioned in the Ph.D as case studies; and

• Pearce claims in his own work as a lobbyist to have the skills,
records and access to government of which Four Corners accuses others
and marked as inappropriate.

Links with AEC: Had Four Corners’ “second rate” investigative
team checked Pearce’s background, they would have known that lobbying
firm AEC lists him as their principle Canberra operative, O’Neill
argued. The company’s website boasts of “providing quick access to
political and bureaucratic staff as required. (And) The AEC approach to
lobbying has been to achieve results rather than headlines by working
with government behind the scenes to secure positive outcomes for our
clients.”

Depth of government involvement: It goes on to say that “All of
the projects we undertake for clients are commercial-in-confidence and
they vary a great deal, including among others: changing government
policy, obtaining legislative amendments, securing government funding
support for projects, obtaining environmental and other approvals, and
correcting harmful misconceptions within government. In some cases, AEC
has also accepted contracts from government to directly assist in the
policy making process, or from one level of government to influence
another.”

Nothing but “conspiratorial nonsense”: O’Neill said the ABC
should seriously be considering on what basis a once prestigious
program is so easily hoodwinked into conspiratorial nonsense without
even the most basic rules of journalism now applying.

Reference: The Australian Coal Association. 14 February, 2006. For further information contact: Doug Holden 0431 006 044.

Erisk Net, 15/2/2006

The Australian, 13/2/2006

Source: Erisk – www.erisk.net 

To complement its series on Poverty and the Environment in the USA,
Grist Magazine studies the attitude toward environmental issues in
emerging economies. There are many difficult issues at the heart of
this question, most notably that the underlying principle that we have
to lower our aspirations appears hypocritical to those who aspire to
the standard of living we have enjoyed so wantonly.

Full story on Grist 

Dams, not drought to blame: In recent weeks, the operator of the
two dams, the Uganda Electricity Generating Company, has blamed
disruption of electricity supplies on low lake levels, ostensibly
caused by the 10 to 15 per cent decline in rainfall across the lake’s
catchment area during the past two years. However, it now seems that
the dams themselves are as much to blame as the recent drought. Daniel
Kull, a hydrologist with the UN’s International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction in Nairobi, Kenya, calculates that if the dams had been
operated according to the agreed curve during the past two years, the
drought would have caused only half the water loss actually seen.

Water releases 55pc above allowed limit: Kull estimates that in
the past two years, the Ugandan dams have released water at an average
of almost 1250 cubic metres per second. That is 55 per cent more than
the flow permitted for the relevant water levels. “This dam complex is
pulling the plug on Lake Victoria,” says Frank Muramuzi of Uganda’s
National Association of Professional Environmentalists.

New Scientist, 11/2/2006, p. 12

Source: Erisk – www.erisk.net