Labor government wastes billions on geosequestration

admin /5 April, 2009

The Labor government announced last week that it will continue to invest billions in burying liquid carbon dioxide underground despite scientific advice that it is impossible to do so safely and effectively. Energy Minister Martin Ferguson opened the bidding for ten areas under the sea off Cape Otway in Western Victoria in which companies can store carbon dioxide. He said the commercial development of geosequestration is an integral part of the government’s strategy to reduce greenhouse emissions while maintaining economic growth through mining coal. Liquid CO2 occupies about five times the space as the coal burned to generate it, resulting in a global requirement to bury 80,000 tonnes of CO2 each minute for ever. The Otway project has stored 30,000 tonnes in 18 months.

MIT predicts at least two degree rise

admin /5 April, 2009

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology predicted a global temperature rise of at two three degrees last week.

no-policy wheel
 (This wheel is spinning…)

An analysis of the likely outcomes of the current political situation and the impact on greenhouse gas emissions and therefore global warming led researchers at the institute to develop two scenarios depicted as roulette wheels labeled the Greenhouse Gamble.

One wheel presents the probability of different temperature rises under a No Policy scenario, the other roulette wheel representing a strong agreement at Copenhagen this year and then follow through by national governments. If agreement is not reached this December, the probability of temperature rise being less than two degrees is zero, if agreement is reached that probability rises to around 30%. A temperature rise of more than two degrees will make most of the world’s major cities uninhabitable, either through sea-level rise, drought or a combination of both.

Toaster testers caught red handed

admin /1 April, 2009

Mullumbimby, Tuesday The Toaster Tester gang was apprehended yesterday with an appliance appropriated from Power and Air Tools. Owner of the kidnapped and abused kitchen-ware, Jane Thomson, told The Generator that the high quality Dualit toaster had been sent for repairs, but when the repair shop changed hands she lost track of the item. “It Continue Reading →

Monbiot burns char cheersquad

admin /29 March, 2009

FireUK columnist George Monbiot has lashed out at a group of scientists promoting biochar as a solution to global warming. As The Generator discussed last week in response to the news story that a New Zealand company is proposing industrial scale biochar plants to assist fossil fuel companies offset their emissions, it is not sustainable to grow forests and turn them into charcoal simply so that we can continue to mine and burn coal. Although the carbon equation may stack up, it is not a viable use of the planet’s resources given the large scale depletion of water, food, soil and energy.
 
Read last week’s news
Here’s Monbiot’s article.

Depleted soils and food additves are killing us

admin /29 March, 2009

Bathurst, NSW doctor Carole Hungerford has told rural newspaper, The Land, that depleted soils and food additives are among the major causes of disease.”Some of us are eating good food grown in bad soils, or good food that is not fresh. More of us are eating bad food that is neither fresh nor grown in good soils,” she said. She quoted cancer statistics that indicate the incidence of aggressive diseases such as cancer have doubled and are affecting younger people than they did forty years ago. “Nature didn’t stuff up, we stuffed up. We’ve started putting chlorine in the drinking water, sulfates in the wine, additives in the food … people don’t know where they are getting their headache from because they are reacting to everything,” she said.

 

Liberals split over biochar

admin /29 March, 2009

A senior advisor to the Liberal party has warned that Turnbull’s announcement about biochar earlier this month is based on wishful thinking. “I’m not sure that all the science is in,” he said. “In order for [biochar] to be economic, you would need to have a carbon price in place.” Biochar advocates point out that the technique has been used in the Amazon basin for over ten thousand years and there are a number of emperical studies carried out in Australian Universities. While a price for carbon would pay farmers for creating charcoal and burying it in the soil, the benefits in terms of soil health and better crop yields would make the process economically viable, even without the incentive of a price for locking away carbon in the form of charcoal.

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