via bigyahu.com
Great Little Post by the Big Yahu.
Another big bend over by NSW. Time to end this short termism.
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
October 28, 2010
July 20, 2010
Arguments from Global Warming Skeptics and what the science really says
Skeptic Arguments and What the Science Says
Here is a summary of what the science says on each skeptic argument. You can also view the arguments sorted by taxonomy or a print-friendly version.
July 12, 2010
The heat is on for change: coal | The Australian
Each step of the coal life cycle -- mining, transportation, washing, combustion and disposing of post-combustion wastes -- affects human health. In Australia, research is lacking but there is no reason to believe similar effects are not occurring in coal communities here. To deny it would be akin to holding smoking causes lung cancer in the US but doesn't in Australia.
The health burden of coal in Australia is estimated conservatively at $2.6 billion a year. There are also economic losses due to land pollution and degradation and the open mining of good agricultural land in the face of the projected world food crisis.
David Shearman is emeritus professor of medicine, a practising physician and honorary secretary of Doctors for the Environment Australia.
June 04, 2010
John Abraham's reply to Christopher Monckton - pls RT #climate #deniers
via stthomas.edu
Friday night viewing. Can we please RT this!
March 23, 2010
Volvo, an example of Australia being behind in the reduction of Emissions
My Dad recently bought a Volvo C30 with DRIVe technology. I'm not going to evangelise it's features here, but if you go to the Irish Volvo Site and click through the DRIVe part of the website, you can see the details.
Now, I'm not saying I'm going to buy a Volvo, and the C30 wouldn't meet my needs, so I checked to see how far I could go on one tank of fue in an S80, and noted it knows where I am, so I was told I could drive to Adelaide and Rockhampton on one tank.
Wow! Thought I, thats nearly 1200kms!
So I went to the Australian site and immediately spotted some subtle differences.
Can you tell?
How about you check the engine options on the S80 in the Australian Site with the Irish one.
So Volvo, or whoever own you now - simple question, at what point are you going to bring cars - already available worldwide - with this interesting, emission and fuel reduction technology to Australia?
February 10, 2010
The case for climate action must be remade from the ground upwards | Ian Katz The Guardian
Those who want action on climate change will meanwhile have to accept a more incremental approach. Mead describes the effort to secure a global deal as "like asking a jellyfish to climb a flight of stairs; you can poke and prod all you want, you can cajole and you can threaten. But you are asking for something that you just can't get". Even the head of an NGO who has argued passionately for a binding, comprehensive deal tells me: "Maybe you've got to unpick the uber-deal and work out which bits are possible to do now, and build confidence."
Finally, anyone who cares about this issue must fight to keep it alive.
via guardian.co.uk
We still believe in the agreed science. However, the greyness at the edges, the scare stories must stop - as I've written before.
January 12, 2010
Baby Steps for 2010
You may be aware that I made a Commitment for 2010 which involves performing some baby steps towards reducing our impact on the Environment.
The first update for 2010 concentrates on Electricity use. Electricity is the big bugbear in Australia for the environment movement what with the over-reliance on Coal - not to mention the NSW governments ridiculous plans to build yet another coal plant rather than investing in something a bit more forward thinking.
In any case, here is the first update, including some concrete targets for 2010
The first update for 2010 concentrates on Electricity use. Electricity is the big bugbear in Australia for the environment movement what with the over-reliance on Coal - not to mention the NSW governments ridiculous plans to build yet another coal plant rather than investing in something a bit more forward thinking.
In any case, here is the first update, including some concrete targets for 2010
December 02, 2009
Margot O'Neill on ABC.net.au:
"While Mr Rudd has excoriated global warming sceptics in the Opposition and backed the need to urgently reduce global carbon emissions, Federal and state governments are spending more than $10 billion on port and rail infrastructure in a bid to double Australia's coal exports by 2030.Puts Penny Wong, Kevin Rudd and the Media's obsession with Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals implosion on the ETS in sharp Focus doesn't it?
October 26, 2009
55K Homes worth of Standby Power
Florida Power & Light are just about to open a new solar facility in Florida, of all places. Apparently it will generate 42GWh of electricity for the Grid each year and use just 180 acres to do so. It also cost JUST US$152M as opposed to the unknown Billions which will be used to either develop or maintain new coal power around the world in the next few years. Example being the unknown $ costs (not to mention the environmental costs) of 'Bayswater B' at Musswellbrook in the Hunter Valley
According to a report commissioned by the Australian Government in 2000, that would cover the 'Standby' Power usage of about 55,263 households in Australia in 2001. One wonders whether the number associated with 'standby power' from the study above has reduced or grown in the intervening years. While the energy saving properties of devices has no doubt improved in the period, I imagine - given the evidence of mine own house - the prevalence of even bigger TV's always on computers, servers and Cable TV boxes has offset much of that savings.
I appreciate compared to those 'Baseload' power stations, this one is relatively miniscule, but with the only Solar Power Station being developed or planned in NSW being ONLY a 10mWh system, two and a half times smaller than the one just about to open in Florida, I have to ask; are we THAT short of sun here? Wouldn't the equivalent of 10 Solar Plants of this nature, produce the same amount of power as this proposed Coal Plant? And despite the area required (less than a km squared), end up having a lower Environmental Footprint?
Either way, good to see this plant opening, hopefully the NSW and Federal Government will see beyond the shortsightedness of their Union and Industry Paymasters to invest some of those CPRS 'offsets' into energy generation with a future.
Perhaps they should listen to Buck Martinez of the Florida Light and Power for some down to earth logic on the matter;
According to a report commissioned by the Australian Government in 2000, that would cover the 'Standby' Power usage of about 55,263 households in Australia in 2001. One wonders whether the number associated with 'standby power' from the study above has reduced or grown in the intervening years. While the energy saving properties of devices has no doubt improved in the period, I imagine - given the evidence of mine own house - the prevalence of even bigger TV's always on computers, servers and Cable TV boxes has offset much of that savings.
I appreciate compared to those 'Baseload' power stations, this one is relatively miniscule, but with the only Solar Power Station being developed or planned in NSW being ONLY a 10mWh system, two and a half times smaller than the one just about to open in Florida, I have to ask; are we THAT short of sun here? Wouldn't the equivalent of 10 Solar Plants of this nature, produce the same amount of power as this proposed Coal Plant? And despite the area required (less than a km squared), end up having a lower Environmental Footprint?
Either way, good to see this plant opening, hopefully the NSW and Federal Government will see beyond the shortsightedness of their Union and Industry Paymasters to invest some of those CPRS 'offsets' into energy generation with a future.
Perhaps they should listen to Buck Martinez of the Florida Light and Power for some down to earth logic on the matter;
"This is an incredible opportunity to build new industry in the state," he said. "It will put people to work. Solar energy can create tens of thousands of jobs."
October 02, 2009
Taking back the asylum
Blogger Action day is coming up.
So Sick am I of the way the conversation around Climate Change and, dare I say it, Global Warming have been hijacked by the unscientific naysayers, I'm getting involved.
If you are not, you should. Sign up here and start thinking of what you want to write about. Check the tags to see my other posts on the subject both here and over at my old site
Its time to tell the world that people like Andrew Bolt and Pat Michaels are at best obfuscating facts for some sort of personal gain or at worst liars.
Are you In?
So Sick am I of the way the conversation around Climate Change and, dare I say it, Global Warming have been hijacked by the unscientific naysayers, I'm getting involved.
If you are not, you should. Sign up here and start thinking of what you want to write about. Check the tags to see my other posts on the subject both here and over at my old site
Its time to tell the world that people like Andrew Bolt and Pat Michaels are at best obfuscating facts for some sort of personal gain or at worst liars.
Are you In?
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