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The value of Australian mountain rainforests, in terms of supplying
water via cloud stripping, has been estimated at $120 million a year.
However, if rising temperatures lift the cloud base 100 metres for
every one degree, as suggested by an international study, cloud forests
will be less able to harvest water directly from the clouds and North
Queensland’s water budget will be affected, according to The Australian, (16/11/2005, p. 17)

North Queensland towns rely on rainforest streams: Many towns
such as Port Douglas and Cairns rely on rainforest streams, not dams,
for their water supply. Peter Hairsine, principal research scientist at
CSIRO’s Land and Water Hairsine said a 40 per cent drop in run-off
would have serious consequences, especially in the dry season when,
despite the lack of rain, the mountains still produce water.

Fisheries and hydro power also affected: Hydro power and
fisheries, which rely on flushing flows through estuaries to move
juvenile fish into the ocean, could also feel the loss if the clouds
miss the mountains, Hairsine said. The value of ecotourism in the
mountains which earns $400 million a year, 10 times what logging
earned, may also be affected.

The Age, 16/11/2005, p. 17

Source: http://www.erisk.net

According to Neil James, Executive director of Australia Defence
Association, Federal Labor MP Daryl Melham (“Anti-terrorism measures
call for more opposition”, Opinion, October 31) thoroughly sinks his
own argument in his first sentence, (The Australian Financial Review, 8 November 2005, p. 65).

These are not ‘peacetime’ measures: “While our strategic and
domestic security circumstances are perhaps not ‘wartime’ in the
traditional sense, they are certainly not ‘peacetime’ either. Under
international law, armed conflict is a material fact by its sense only,
irrespective of national interpretations or individual opinions (even
MPs’),” James wrote.

Undisputably under attack from Islamist terrorism: “And don’t
raise the hoary old myth about needing to declare a war. No country has
legally ‘declared war’ since the United Nations Charter came into force
in 1945. Australians are indisputably under attack from Islamist
terrorism. Only the degree, nature and duration of the attack, and our
responses to them, are open to question.

Terrorists have ‘declared’ war: “The terrorists may also be
criminals under Australian and international law but this conflict is
more than just a law and order problem – not least because the other
side considers it a war even if some naive Aussies think otherwise.

As a country, we’re at war: “Finally, our troops are deployed in
at least two war zones overseas (Iraq and Afghanistan). As a country
we, not just them, are at war, even if some Australians choose to
ignore this. To try to discuss national security measures without
acknowledging or understanding such basic facts is simply irresponsible
as well as uninformed. To do so consciously is even worse,” James added.

The Australian Financial Review, 8/11/2005, p. 65

`Real Oil Crisis’ on ABC TV

What would happen if the world were to start running out of oil?
Conventional wisdom says we’ve got 30 years, but there’s a growing fear
amongst petroleum experts it’s happening much sooner than we thought –
that we are hitting the beginning of the end of oil now. So how soon
will the oil run out, and can we stop our economy collapsing when it
does? How prepared are we for the real oil crisis?

Thursday, 24 November 2005

8:00pm

ABC TV

The
European Union Emission Trading Scheme launched earlier this year has
led to the emergence of carbon trading as a truly global commodity
market. Estimated to be worth as much as $10 billion next year the
trading of carbon credits is driven by the Kyoto Protocol. As the US
and Australia have not signed the protocol, they miss out nationally
on this trade but emissions trading is already underway in certain
U.S. states on exchanges such as the Chicago Climate Exchange.

http://www.utilipoint.com/download.asp?File=/rci/wsimages/kwi_emissions_wp_nov05.pdf

ydro Tasmania today commented on a call by the Greens’ Tim Morris for
an independent study into cloud seeding. In a Hydro Tasmania media
release (8 November 2005), Executive General Manager Roger Gill said
cloud seeding was an important measure to assist in the sustainability
of Tasmania’s power system, which relied on water resources to provide
electricity to Tasmanian homes and industry.

Calls for study with council: Mr Gill said Hydro Tasmania had
endeavoured for two years to initiate an independent study into the
impacts of cloud seeding in collaboration with the West Coast Council.
“We have invited Council on several occasions to suggest the scope of
the study,” Mr Gill said. “If the study is to have any credibility, it
must have the full support of both parties.”

Accuracy attested to: Mr Gill said cloud seeding was studied on
an experimental basis for 30 years before being introduced
operationally 10 years ago. The accuracy of Hydro Tasmania’s cloud
seeding program was attested to in a study commissioned by Hydro
Tasmania, the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association and the
Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment three years ago
and undertaken by Dr Mike Pook of the Cooperative Research Centre.

Snowy keen on cloud seeding: Other jurisdictions are
enthusiastic about cloud seeding, including Snowy Mountains
Hydro-Electric Authority, which has had a 25 percent increase in
snowfall in its first season of cloud seeding.

20MW extra a year: Hydro Tasmania also rejected the Greens’
suggestion of possible environmental impacts from using silver iodide
in the process. “The cloud seeding program delivers on average 20 MW of
additional energy each year into our power system, which equates to
enough electricity for 12,000 households,” he said.

8 years of below average rainfall: “After eight years of below
average rainfall into our water storages, this is a very valuable
contribution to our capacity to meeting Tasmania’s power demands. We
have targeted our main water storages at Great Lake and Lake Gordon
which are currently at a lower level than the same time last year.” Mr
Gill said the cloud seeding program normally ran from April to
November.

Reference: Hydro Tasmania, 8 November 2005.

Erisk Net, 10/11/2005