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  • Queensland delivers world’s most expensive water

    More waste-water necessary: A Water Commission spokesperson said the cost of Western Corridor recycled water should be assessed on a whole-of-life basis rather than simply on initial output levels, which would be expected to pick up once the drought broke and restrictions were eased. However, without additional sources of waste-water, there would barely be enough water to supply South East Queensland’s power stations, let alone provide extra potable water for two million residents.

    Grey water could be used: National water officials were not aware of more expensive water anywhere in the world. The Queensland Water Commission had been searching without success for viable waste-water sources for the past six months — yet had turned a blind eye to one of the most obvious. Tens of millions of litres of grey water diverted into gardens and yards each day could be sent down the drain for recycling. It said the Government had been fooling residents when it masked a pipeline cost blowout with the announcement it would have a capacity of 300 million litres a day. The so-called increase in capacity meant nothing in the absence of increased water.

    Dams about to fall 20 per cent below capacity: SEQ dams were on track to fall below 20 per cent of capacity next month without further heavy rain.

    The Courier Mail, 16/10/2007, p. 4

  • Kansas rejects Coal Plant on Global Warming grounds

    In the past, air permits, which are required before construction of combustion facilities, have been denied over emissions such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury. But Roderick L. Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said yesterday that "it would be irresponsible to ignore emerging information about the contribution of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health if we do nothing."

    The Kansas agency’s decision caps a controversy over a proposal by Sunflower Electric Power, a rural electrical cooperative, to build a pair of big, 700-megawatt, coal-fired plants in Holcomb, a town in the western part of the state, at a cost of about $3.6 billion. One unit would have supplied power to parts of Kansas; the other, to be owned by another rural co-op, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, would have provided electricity to fast-growing eastern Colorado.

    Together the plants would have produced 11 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, nearly as much as a group of eight Northeastern states hope to save by 2020 through a mandatory cap-and-trade program they plan to impose. The attorneys general from those states had written a letter opposing the permit.

    The proposed Holcomb plants had become the center of a political dispute in Kansas, inflaming traditional tensions between the eastern and western parts of the state, dividing labor unions and posing a test for the energy policies of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who is head of the Democratic Governors Association and is believed to harbor aspirations for federal office.

    Kansas, long a conservative Republican stronghold, is not generally considered to be on the leading edge of environmental causes. The GOP leadership in both the state Senate and House of Representatives endorsed the project. Although the regional United Steelworkers union opposed the plant, the state AFL-CIO supported it.

    "Now the Sebelius administration rockets to the forefront of the states [working] to solve the global warming crisis," said Bruce Nilles, a Sierra Club lawyer.

    Like many governors, Sebelius has been promoting the expanded use of renewable energy, especially wind. In her state of the state address this year, she said: "The question of where we get our energy is . . . no longer just an economic issue, nor solely an issue of national security. Quite simply, we have a moral obligation to be good stewards of this state."

    But she said she was leaving the air permit decision on the Holcomb plants to Bremby, her close political ally.

    Tri-State and Sunflower spokesmen sharply criticized the decision and said they were examining their legal options. Bremby’s decision "has no basis in law or regulation," said Steve Miller, a Sunflower spokesman. "We still believe fiercely that this is the right project, that this is the right thing to do for customers and that the secretary has made a horrible error."

    Miller said that Sebelius had pledged not to oppose the plants but that her position was clear after her "moral steward" remark. "That implies that we’re not moral stewards of the land, which we don’t appreciate one bit," he said.

  • PM told to get moving on emissions trading

    One of Australia’s most prominent energy experts says the economy will suffer serious damage unless an emissions trading scheme is rapidly introduced.

    Ian Dunlop is a former chairman of the Australian Coal Association and the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is the head of a CSIRO research centre.

    Mr Dunlop has accused the Prime Minister John Howard of a lack of leadership on climate change.

    He says the technology is available to make change and the extent of the problem is being downplayed.

    "We’ve been very good at managing the sort of incremental improvement of a resource-based economy, where every year we tweak it a little bit," he said.

    "We put in WorkChoices, we do things like that, we make it slightly better, but that’s management.

    "What we need now is leadership that really focuses on the big issue, which is climate change, and how we’re going to address that."

  • Ethanol plant shelved for lack of support

    The development of a $120 million ethanol plant in Condobolin, in central western New South Wales, has been shelved.

    The proponent, Agri Energy Limited, has announced a restructure and will not be going ahead with any of its development plans in Australia.

    Instead, the company say it has decided to invest offshore.

    The announcement, made through the Australian Stock Exchange, says the uncertainty of grain supply and lack of local support for alternative fuels drove the decision.

    Company chief executive officer Wayne Turner has declined to comment on the restructure.

    Approval for the plant at Condobolin had been expected to be announced by the NSW Department of Planning within weeks.

    Lachlan Shire Council general manager George Cowan says the decision will devastate the local community and council.

    He says the council had worked hard to make Condobolin an attractive location for the company to develop its new plant.

    "Council supported it strongly. We have in fact discounted, quite substantially, contributions to infrastructure to try and attract the development to this council, versus some other sites that were talked about in NSW," he said.

    "It was well supported and would be, should it be reinvigorated."

  • The Solar Farmer

    The irrigation works with a central pivot. These plots look like large green circles from the sky. But roads in the prairies create a checkerboard. The result is four unfarmed corners on each checker, which provide amazing space for harvesting the sun in another way: with solar panels.

    Kunugi, as well as five other farmers, recently each had a 10 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic (PV) solar system installed on their property. In the summer months, most of the energy generated from these systems will go to the farmers pivot irrigation and in the winter, it will go to the pool of electricity in the grid.

    Jack Gilleland is another one of these farmers. He pays $8,000 a year to power his irrigation system and will see that number cut in half with his PV system. "The best part is I’ll save money by producing my own green power from the sun," he says.

    The project will save the farmers money for three main reasons. The first one is a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture managed by the local Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D). The second is a $4.50 buy down per watt from Xcel Energy, the local utility. The last part of the equation is a federal tax credit of up to 30% of the upfront costs for a business such as a farm.

    But money will only make a project work with the right people. The main driver was Jim Mietz from the San Luis Valley RC&D. While others talked about the possibility of such a project, Mietz went ahead and initiated it. He also received help from Ravi Malhotra who works with iCAST, a non-profit that partners with communities to bring appropriate technology to the people who need it.

    iCAST helped with the project design, development of the bid and managed the proposals to eventually pick the best bid, which ended up being Direct Water and Power Corporation. The company is installing the PV systems at the six farms, one of which includes Paul Newbenefit’s.

    Newbenefit is excited about the experience he, and the other farmers, will gain noting, "if we can learn something from it and encourage the solar industry, we’ll be happy… we are at a fantastic place for solar and we will [all] benefit."

    American producers like Kunugi, Gilleland and Newbenefit are joining the renewable energy revolution. The fact is they have good access to renewable resources like solar or wind energy. It’s usually just a question of ironing out the details and that’s where organizations like iCAST come in.

    This all leads to greater energy autonomy where we work with the forces of nature, farming the sun that just comes back every morning. As Kunugi says, "I just wish I could have gotten into it in a bigger way."

    Raphael Shay is the Outreach Coordinator at iCAST, where he bridges iCAST’s projects with the people who need them most. iCAST is a Denver, Colorado based organization that facilitates appropriate technology, business, and infrastructure development projects.

  • Factory Farms poison our diets

    Conditions inside animal factory farms

    To understand the conditions present in these factory farms, you must first examine what the animals in these factory farms are eating. The factory farmer has redefined what constitutes animal feed in a ‘bottom line’ effort to save money. They seem to care little about the health or the happiness of the animal, and instead treat it like a product. The low quality standards placed on animal feed by these "farmers" prove that little consideration is being taken towards the animal or the consumer.

    For example, some of the "ingredients" commonly used in animal factory feed include: (think hard about this list the next time you order a hamburger…)

    • Excessive grains — Abnormally high amounts can make the animals sick, especially natural grass eaters like cattle. Their bodies are not designed to handle a corn-rich diet; as a result, these animals can form liver abscesses and excessively acidic digestive systems.

    • Plastics — For the many animals whose digestive systems still need roughage to move food through, these factories have turned to the use of plastic pellets instead of plant-based roughage to compensate for a lack of natural fiber in the feed.

    • Meat from members of the same species — The factory farming industry is turning farm animals into cannibals. Scientific research has linked this practice to the spread of both mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) and avian bird flu.

    • Manure and animal waste — This can include cattle manure, swine waste, and poultry waste. It can also contain wood, sand, rocks, dirt, sawdust and other non-food substances.

    • Animal byproducts — This is often categorized as "animal protein products" and may appear as rendered feathers, hair, skin, hooves, blood, internal organs, intestines, beaks and bones. These may also include dead horses, euthanized cats and dogs, and road kill.

    • Drugs and chemicals (including dangerous antibiotics) — Drugs are frequently implemented in order to fight disease, control parasites and reduce animals’ stress from overcrowded living conditions. However, the antimicrobials used on some poultry promote the accumulation of arsenic inside their bodies. This is a highly carcinogenic chemical that can then contaminate the water supply near the farm, or emerge in the meat later eaten by consumers.

    In fact, an estimated 13.5 million pounds of antibiotics are used on factory farm animals every year in the U.S. These antibiotics are grossly overused and are especially dangerous because they aid in the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria — an urgent health problem that costs the American taxpayers billions of dollars every year.

    Factories of despair

    Factory farm animals endure great suffering through the entire process of being housed, fed, transported and slaughtered. Approximately 95% of factory-raised animals are subject to deplorable conditions such as overcrowding, hunger, thirst and sometimes-fatal weather extremes. Many times, they are kept conscious or even skinned alive during the process of slaughtering.

    The only significant law regarding the handling of factory animals is the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Although this law does require that slaughtered animals be rendered insensible to pain before the process begins, it is insufficient due to the actual wording of the law, which does not cover the handling of poultry. In addition, all other treatment of factory animals is condoned by default since it is not covered under the law. While many other industrialized nations have enacted restrictions on cruel factory farming practices, the U.S. lags behind other countries on the issue of animal cruelty. The torture of animals is well tolerated in the United States today. (And why not? The U.S. also tolerates the torture of war prisoners. This "civilized" nation has proven itself to be anything but civilized…)

    According to interviews with slaughterhouse workers included in Gail Eisnitz’s book Slaughterhouse, the end of an animal’s life is a torturous and abusive process. One employee elaborates on the abuse that animals endure by reporting, "On the farm where I work, they drag the live ones who can’t stand up anymore out of the crate. They put a metal snare around her ear or foot and drag her the full length of the building. These animals are just screaming in pain. The slaughtering part doesn’t bother me. It’s the way they’re treated when they’re alive. Dying animals unable to walk are tossed into the ‘downer pile,’ and many suffer agonies until, after one or two days, they are finally killed." Animals such as cows, calves, pigs and chickens are made to live truly horrible lives, however short, while being housed in factory farms."

    The routine torture of dairy cows

    Milking cows are treated like machines; confined from all other animals including their calves, they are made to stand on concrete floors in their own waste. In order to manipulate genetics and produce more milk, farmers pump the cows full of chemicals, hormones and antibiotics, many of which may make their way into the milk we drink and the cheese we eat.

    Just like beef cattle, many of these cows suffer from disease, reproductive problems and lameness due to the stress of the factory setting. They produce milk for about eight or nine years until they are no longer able, at which time they are slaughtered. One of the most frequently cited reasons for having to send a cow to slaughter, however, is mastitis — an excruciating swelling and irritation of the mammary glands caused by bacteria.

    It’s not only the adult animals that are treated cruelly: taken away from their mothers shortly after birth, male calves are most often raised for veal from the day after they are born. For anywhere from three to 18 weeks, they are kept chained by the neck in dark, cramped stalls, unable to move in any direction. They are fed a diet consisting mainly of a milk substitute that promotes rapid weight gain but low enough in iron to cause anemia, thus keeping the flesh pale. Many of them suffer from lameness, pneumonia and diarrhea. White veal consistently has been found to contain residues of carcinogenic growth hormones. (Think twice nice time before you order veal. Consuming this is directly promoting the torture of these mammals.)

    Beef cattle don’t have it much better. Many are sent to live in overcrowded feedlots where they are given an average of 14 square feet to roam after being castrated, dehorned and branded.

    Producing pork with yet more animal torture

    Pregnant pigs, also known as sows, are confined to metal crates that are a mere two feet wide. This constriction renders them unable to satisfy their own basic psychological needs or engage in almost any natural behavior. This causes a great deal of stress and suffering for the animal, many times enabling her to do little more than stand up and lie down. The sow rarely even has the capacity to full extend her limbs or turn around.

    This is a process that the sow must go through until she is unable to have children anymore, in which case she will most likely be slaughtered. These methods are inhumane and cause sows to experience frustration, fear, and physical ailments such as lameness, repetitive bar biting, soreness, head waving, sham chewing and crippling joint disorders.

    "Forced to lie and live in their own urine and excrement, the sows chew frenziedly on bars and chains, as foraging animals will do when denied even straw to eat or sleep on, or else engage in stereotypical nest-building with straw that isn’t there. Everywhere you see tumors, ulcers, cysts, lesions, torn ears — these afflictions never examined by a vet, never even noticed anymore by the largely immigrant labor charged with their care. When the sows leave their iron crates after four months of pregnancy, it is only to be driven and dragged into other crates just as small to give birth," according to Matthew Scully, author of the book Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy. "Then it’s back to the gestation crate for another four months, and so on, for about eight or nine pregnancies, until they expire from the sheer punishment of it, or are culled as too sick and weak to go on."

    And guess what? All this negative energy goes right into the meat that consumers swallow. Once consumed by a human, the energy of that meat is absorbed into that person’s system, making them feel sick, angry or afraid, just like the emotions of the animal from which the flesh was taken. Is it any wonder that meat eaters are the most angry, violent and war-mongering individuals in society today?

    Atrocious conditions for chickens

    Like pigs, chickens grow up in a similar state of disarray, forced to live through nearly intolerable conditions. Approximately six billion "broiler" chickens are produced and sold each year by the factory farmer to sources like supermarkets and fast food chicken restaurants. As many as 60% of supermarket chickens are infected with Salmonella enteritis. Another pathogen that can be spread from chickens to humans is Campylobacter, which can cause infection, illness or death.

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    About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guies, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He’s also a noted pioneer in the email marketing software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates.