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  • Earth system science: From heresy to orthodoxy

    Earth system science: From heresy to orthodoxy





    Earth system science is shorthand for the recognition that El Niño, climate change and the calamitous 2004 tsunami are all very complex events. El Niño is a natural cyclic blister of hot water in the Pacific that ruins the anchovy harvest off the coast of Peru. It also disturbs weather patterns to trigger floods on the western coasts of the Americas, stoke droughts and forest fires in Indonesia, and blight harvests in Africa. Human complicity in dangerous climate change is now well-established.


    The Boxing Day tsunami that killed 250,000 people in the Indian Ocean began with an arbitrary, unpredictable event – a submarine earthquake – but it claimed so many victims because natural mangrove forests and coral reefs that might have absorbed some of the shock had been destroyed, to make way for ports, tourist resorts and fish farms. That much is obvious, but earth system science goes deeper. It is based on recognition that, collectively, the planet’s living creatures – microbes, plants, nematodes, arthropods and vertebrates – both exploit and unconsciously manipulate oceans, atmosphere and rocks in ways that have kept conditions hospitable to life for more than three billion years.


     


    Air is a mix of oxygen and nitrogen, continuously replenished by green growth, and maintained at steady levels. Carbon dioxide released by volcanoes is absorbed by plants and consumed by animals and ultimately turned back into chalk or coal or other stone, in an intricate cycle that sustains all life. Last year Carnegie Institution scientists calculated that two-thirds of the 4,300 known minerals in the Earth’s crust had been fashioned or catalysed directly or indirectly by living things. Earth is not habitable because divine providence or freak conditions furnish the ideal home; it is habitable because life maintains the air-conditioning system, regulates the thermostat and keeps the water running. It is a shock to be reminded that this idea of the biosphere as a responsive organism that regulates its own environment is new, and just 20 years ago was hotly contested within science.


    The British scientist James Lovelock proposed what is now the Gaia theory in the 1970s, and defended it against derision from evolutionary biologists throughout the 1980s. Gaia, the ancient Greek earth goddess, provided a focus for a new way of exploring the planet. It made Lovelock – still active in science, and 90 yesterday – a hero not just to the public but also to his fellow scientists. The Gaia theory has gone from heresy to near-orthodoxy in less than four decades and now informs a series of international research programmes. Not bad going, but the exploration has barely begun.

  • Greenpeace threatens E.ON with legal action over nuclear reactors.

    Greenpeace threatens E.ON with legal action over nuclear reactors


    • Move triggered by reports of preparatory bore holes
    • EO.N claims work is to ‘make sure the ground is suitable’


     





    Greenpeace is threatening to take legal action against E.ON and other nuclear power companies for rushing ahead with plans to build new reactors before they have got the proper consents.


    The move has been triggered by reports that preparatory bore holes for new reactors will start to be drilled for E.ON on 3 August at Oldbury in Gloucestershire. EDF is said to be considering similar work.


    A Greenpeace spokesman said its lawyers were reviewing a situation which made a mockery of a whole raft of hurdles that were meant to be overcome before the government starts official licensing in 2013.


     


    The environmental campaigning group said there has not yet been a final national policy statement on nuclear, an official “justification” process for building more stations as needed by law, or an assessment of reactor designs by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII).


    The green group has sent a letter to the government telling it to put a brake on E.ON. “Greenpeace is concerned to ensure that any decision to carry out preparatory work does not affect or pre-judge the regulatory or democratic process. Alternatively, the government should ensure that no work goes ahead unless and until it has been formally permitted, including through any decision on justification,” says John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, in the letter to Miliband.


    “The justification process, involves (among other things) weighing the economic disbenefit against any benefit from a new nuclear practice. The problems inherent in permitting building to go ahead without first carrying out the justification process are clear from the experience of the (troubled) Sellafield Mox plant,” he adds.


    The Mox fuel reprocessing facility cost £500m to build and a further £100m to commission but has been plagued with problems and produced only a fraction of the fuel promised. Mox was built before the formal justification process was undertaken and the government decided that it should go ahead anyway because the construction costs had already been “sunk.”


    Greenpeace has already successfully challenged in the courts a “sham” public consultation process by the government, which has been forced to repeat the exercise. The Guardian recently revealed that the head of the NII had proposed giving a waiver to some parts of the design assessment and coming back to them later in a bid to speed up the introduction of new nuclear.


    Ministers are in a rush because they know Britain faces an energy crunch after 2015 when many existing nuclear and coal-fired stations will reach the end of their lives or need to be phased out because they do not meet pollution standards. Nuclear companies have said they can get a first new plant up and running by 2017, but only if there are no delays of any kind.


    The moves come amid reports from Canada that the Ontario government has put its nuclear power plants on hold because the only bid from Atomic Energy of Canada, the only “compliant” one received, came in at more than three times more than the province expected to pay.


    The first nuclear reactor built in Western Europe for three decades – in Finland – has also been attracting negative publicity with some politicians saying the cost overruns put a question mark over whether any further plants should be constructed.


    E.ON denied last night that it was jumping the gun. “We will do nothing of a serious nature until the government gives the green light. This is just preparatory seismic work to make sure the ground is suitable. We are not preparing the foundations or anything like that,” said the company spokesman.


    EDF said it was doing various studies at sites such as Hinkley Point in Somerset ahead of putting in a formal planning application next year. “Any permits that are necessary for preparatory work have been obtained,” said a company spokesman.

  • Act now on climate change or pay later: expert.

    Act now on climate change or pay later: expert


    Posted 7 hours 48 minutes ago


    The Climate Change Institute in Canberra has warned that Australia must think beyond the emissions trading scheme, if it wants to have an impact on global warming.


    Climate change experts are meeting at a summit at the Australian National University to discuss Australia’s response to the threat of global warming.


    As the Federal Government and Opposition battle it out over the detail of an ETS, Climate Change Institute director Will Steffen is advising Australians to embrace the renewable energy technologies that are available now, rather than wait for advances in the field.


     


    “What we need to do is start getting the emissions trajectory down as soon as we can, the longer we wait to do this, the more we run the risk, the science says, of crossing some of these tipping elements of triggering some abrupt changes,” he said.


    “Even if we don’t the cost of adapting becomes far greater the longer we wait to cut emissions, so there may be some very promising technologies decades in the future but that’s leaving it rather late.”


    Mr Steffen says an ETS is just one aspect of the approach needed to avert a climate crisis.


    “I think the emissions trading scheme is obviously very important but one of the issues that came out of the meeting in Copenhagen earlier this year, the research meeting, is that you need a number of tools and a number of approaches to get on top of the issue,” he said.


    “The other issue of course that came out quite strongly particularly from the economics community is that the longer we delay on the issue the costlier it’ll actually become.”


    Tags: environment, climate-change, australia, act, canberra-2600

  • Solar small businesses sold out by Rees govt’s failure on traiffs

    Solar small businesses sold out by Rees govt’s failure on tariffs
     
    Media release: 27 July 2009
     
    Greens NSW MP John Kaye spent Monday morning with Peakhurst-based small
    business Australia Wide Solar learning first hand about the impacts of
    the Rees government’s decision to opt for an ineffective ‘net’ feed-in
    tariff.
     
    Dr Kaye, whose visit was part of Pollies for Small Business week, said:
    “The employment opportunities in the solar industry are massive but they
    are being wasted by a state government that cannot see beyond coal-fired
    power stations.
     
    “Australia Wide Solar’s Richard Keetley and Stewart Everitt and their
    team are doing a great job for the region installing panels and helping
    households reduce their carbon footprint.



     
    “Along the way they have created six new, high quality jobs.
     
    “Every small business faces huge challenges, but the solar industry
    lives day to day with the uncertainty of a federal subsidy structure
    that is now in limbo.
     
    “To cap it off, the Rees government caved in to pressure from the coal
    faction in their cabinet and announced a net feed-in tariff that only
    pays a bonus to energy that is put back into the grid.
     
    “International experience shows that the Rees government’s net tariff
    will have almost no impact on boosting businesses like Peakhurst’s
    Australia Wide Solar.
     
    “When the legislation comes to parliament to implement the tariff, the
    Greens will move amendments to turn it into a much more effective gross
    tariff that pays solar-powered households for all the energy they
    produce, rather than just the surplus that is used by the grid.
     
    “Gross feed-in tariffs the most efficient way to boost the take up of
    solar power.
     
    “NSW must move beyond last centuries technology and mindsets if the
    state is to address climate change and create new jobs in the green
    economy.
     
    “If the Greens are successful in amending the Rees government’s
    legislation to turn it into an effective gross tariff, then companies
    like this will soon be doubling or trebling in size,’ Dr Kaye said.
     
    For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
     
    Australia Wide Solar: Stewart Everitt 0409229414; Richard Keetley
    0414706717

  • Rudd won’t assist Pacific climate issue

    Rudd won’t assist Pacific climate issue

    Updated: 09:55, Monday July 27, 2009


    The Rudd government has been accused of running incoherent policy by refusing to assist Pacific nations in dealing with the dire consequences of climate change.


    Two reports are scathing about Australia’s attitude towards neighbours who face the dislocation of millions of people by 2050 as global warming causes sea levels to rise.


    Aid organisation Oxfam Australia says Australia and New Zealand need to contribute more money – up to $668 million – to help island nations adapt to climate change.


    And it agrees with The Australia Institute that Australia needs to develop immigration policies which support those Pacific island communities forced from their homes.


     


    The institute was especially critical of Labor’s record since 2007, saying the failure to match pre-election rhetoric and early promises in government had failed to secure a more hopeful outlook for Pacific islanders.


    Adaptation assistance had been inadequate and the government was refusing to discuss climate-induced migration, the think-tank said.


    ‘The Rudd government cannot continue to drag the chain on migration and simultaneously refuse to openly and honestly engage with the Pacific,’ its report said.


    ‘It is an entirely incoherent policy position which cannot be sustained.’


    Oxfam says Pacific communities urgently need support to adapt to the impacts of climate change.


    ‘In a region where half the population (of about eight million) lives within 1.5 kilometres of the sea, few people will be untouched by the consequences of climate change,’ it says in a briefing paper.


    Unless wealthy nations, such as Australia and New Zealand, took urgent action to curb emissions some island nations in the Pacific faced the ‘very real threat of becoming uninhabitable’, it said.


    It said wealthy nations must reduce their carbon emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020, and at least 95 per cent by 2050.


    Australia is committed to reducing its emissions by a minimum five per cent by 2020 and up to 25 per cent if a global agreement can be reached at Copenhagen in December.


    Oxfam wants Australia and New Zealand to address the most urgent adaptation needs of Pacific communities by doubling present funding.


    Both organisations believe Australia needs to engage its Pacific neighbours about displacement of their local communities.


    The institute says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should use a leaders meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns next week to capitalise on a climate change declaration agreed to at last year’s gathering in Niue.


    ‘Concrete action on these issues is imperative, not only for the well being of Pacific communities, but also for the legitimacy of the Australian claim to regional leadership,’ it said.

  • Ethanol fuel

    Ethanol fuel is ethanol (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It can be used as a fuel, mainly as a biofuel alternative to gasoline, and is widely used by flex-fuel light vehicles in Brazil, and as an oxygenate to gasoline in the United States. Together, both countries were responsible for 89 percent of the world’s ethanol fuel production in 2008.[1] Because it is easy to manufacture and process and can be made from very common crops such as sugar cane, potato, manioc and corn, in several countries ethanol fuel is increasingly being blended as gasohol or used as an oxygenate in gasoline. Bioethanol, unlike petroleum, is a renewable resource that can be produced from agricultural feedstocks.


     


    Anhydrous ethanol (ethanol with less than 1% water) can be blended with gasoline in varying quantities up to pure ethanol (E100), and most modern gasoline engines will operate well with mixtures of 10% ethanol (E10).[2] Most cars on the road today in the U.S. can run on blends of up to 10% ethanol,[3] and the use of 10% ethanol gasoline is mandated in some cities.


    Ethanol can be mass-produced by fermentation of sugar or by hydration of ethylene (ethene CH2=CH2) from petroleum and other sources. Current interest in ethanol mainly lies in bio-ethanol, produced from the starch or sugar in a wide variety of crops, but there has been considerable debate about how useful bio-ethanol will be in replacing fossil fuels in vehicles. Concerns relate to the large amount of arable land required for crops,[4] as well as the energy and pollution balance of the whole cycle of ethanol production.[5][6] Recent developments with cellulosic ethanol production and commercialization may allay some of these concerns.[7]


    According to the International Energy Agency, cellulosic ethanol could allow ethanol fuels to play a much bigger role in the future than previously thought.[8] Cellulosic ethanol offers promise as resistant cellulose fibers, a major and universal component in plant cells walls, can be used to generate ethanol.[9][10]