Sequestration

The Cold Equations

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It’s All Right Ma, I’m Only Dyin’

Busting the myth of carbon capture

Last November the Rudd Government announced a $100 million Global Institute grant to speed up the development of carbon capture and storage technology, bringing its spending commitment to $150 million on this project.
But while energy policymakers worldwide agree carbon dioxide emissions need to be reduced drastically to prevent catastrophic climate change, some experts question the effectiveness of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to help with this problem. They also question whether it will be safe.
Phil Freedman of the Australian Conservation Foundation is among those calling for Australia to cut emissions by at least 30 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. Freedman said he was open-minded about CCS, but that it was up to the coal industry, not the taxpayer, to prove that it works and is safe.
Greens Senator Catherine Milne said that, like storage of nuclear waste, the process posed an unknown danger to future generations, with the possibility that carbon storage reservoirs could eventually leak.
“CO2 reservoirs will need to be monitored into the far future,” Senator Milne said.
CO2 is toxic. Concentrations of 5 per cent are harmful to animals and people, causing dizziness and heart disease: the air normally contains less than 0.004 per cent.
The biggest source of CO2 emissions in Australia are coal-fired power stations. Australia has 24 major power stations that supply 80 per cent of our electricity, and burn more than 250,000 tonnes of coal daily. Burning a tonne of coal creates 1.5 tonnes of CO2, so every day an enormous volume is ejected into the atmosphere – 20 million cubic metres of gas, which has to be compressed into 200 megalitres of liquid, or about the capacity of 100 Olympic pools. 365 days a year. So far, the techniques for separating CO2 from the exhaust gas have only been tested in very small-scale pilot projects.
After capture and compression, the CO2 would be transferred to a storage area. Shipping the waste by rail or sea will be expensive as liquid CO2 needs to be stored in heavy pressure vessels. In some places CO2 pipelines may be suitable, but they are a largly unproven technology and need massive investment of capital and manpower.
There are concerns that an accident while transporting the waste could have serious consequences. Also there are few suitable sequestration sites in NSW, which is by far the biggest electricity generating state.
At the storage site the waste is forced through piping to an underground depth of 1 kilometre where it is apparantly expected to stay for ever as a stable liquid.
And it won’t be cheap; according to Dr Peter Cook of CO2/CRC, a carbon storage start-up company financed by Rudd’s federal money, the extra cost of capturing CO2 from a power station may range between $30 and $45 per MWh (megawatt hour) generated. This could effectively double generation costs, which are now at $35 per MWh.
Dr Mark Diesendorf, of the Centre for Energy Research and Policy Analysis at the University of NSW, says solar and wind technologies are the solution.
He said we have an ideal environment for solar electricity generation, which is safe and low-impact technology. Research worldwide is focusing on increasing energy yields per square metre, and costs are expected to fall rapidly once production plants come online. “We should be investing in solar. It is a reliable, non-polluting energy source,” Dr Diesendorf said. “Despite an excellent pre-election policy statement on renewable energy, there has been no investment in renewable energy research and development by this government.” he explained.

Minister Snubs Light Rail Again

Transport Minister John Watkins met with representatives of the public transport advocacy group EcoTransit on August 15 to discuss a proposal to extend the Sydney light rail system.

The Minister later said in a statement about the meeting that Eco Transit had presented a “number of interesting ideas to extend light rail services throughout Sydney”.

“I know many inner-west residents want the Dulwich Hill – Rozelle line to be integrated into Sydney’s public transport network because Balmain MP Verity Firth, Marrickville MP Carmel Tebbutt and Canterbury MP Linda Burney regularly discuss the community’s concerns with me,” Mr Watkins said. ”However as it is a freight corridor I will have to investigate whether it can be be excised from the Metropolitan Freight Network and retained in RailCorp’s control. “

EcoTransit’s Leah Mason, who met with the minister, said this was typical because transport planning was done in several different government departments, and the RTA and branches within RailCorp had conflicting claims on resources.

“The government definitely seems to have an ideological problem with light rail. There have been many studies done in the last decade, most showing its feasibility but the only project that has been built is the Central to Lilyfield section,” Mason said. “And this is going great – passenger patronage has doubled over the last year and the Metro company is very keen to extend the line to Dulwich Hill. I think the problem is with a government and a bureaucracy whose planning is done by people who don’t get out enough.”

In his statement, Watkins said that although this line seemed under-utilised at present, it might be needed as a possible rail haulage route to remove spoil from excavation works for the $12 billion North-West Metro. “Also the future of the rail corridor can’t be decided until the results of the $30 million West Metro Feasibility Study are in,” he said.

But Greens MP Lee Rhiannon believes light rail has few friends within the NSW government. “Former Roads Minister Carl Scully dubbed it ‘a pipe dream’ and Transport Minister John Watkins is on record as saying ‘it’s a bad answer for Sydney’. But higher oil prices are here to stay. Light rail is a far better investment for the future than roads,” she said.

In a statement last month Ms Rhiannon said the government had defeated by one vote a move to allow the release of documents that would reveal details of major road plans for Sydney. The Greens have been trying for a long time to get information on the planning of the M5 East, the Cross City Tunnel and the Lane Cove Tunnel.

“The community has not been informed by the government about any of the new plans that may concern them. Turning around the RTA once it’s committed to a road proposal is like trying to turn around a massive tanker without tugs,” Ms Rhiannon said. “Given the failure of recent large scale road projects the public is right to ask to know more. Documents should be made public so the community can decide whether Sydney’s motorway plans make sense.”

CO2 geo-sequestration – is it realistic?

Here is a mental picture for you;

You know those trains that you see in Hunter valley when on the high road to Queensland – long trains of graded coal going to the giant power-stations that supply most of the electricity in NSW?

Flash forward a few years;

But what’s this coming the other way! even longer trains carrying compressed CO2 cylinders – because liquid CO2 has a lower density than coal, and burning 1 tonne of coal yields 1.5 tonne CO2, a 50% increase in weight.

CO2 is technically difficult to extract from the fast, super-hot flue gas in the cooling stack – CO2 represents only 15% of the total exhaust volume from the process, the rest being super-hot N2, superheated steam and some noxious products caused by the combustion.

Assuming this extraction becomes possible the sequestered CO2 has to be compressed and transferred to high pressure cylinders, loaded onto transport, and taken somewhere suitable. The CO2 then needs to be forced deep into the ground by high pressure pumps into theoretically impermeable strata where it will hopefully remain until it is geologically fixed or goes through the subduction meatgrinder. Both are very long processes.

Even if all this is achivable, suppose that the cost of disposal of all effluent streams becomes as much as or more than the cost of getting the coal out of the ground and getting it to the power station – there won’t be many normal businesses in the coal industry able to adjust to this or prevent the collapse of the industry and the huge increase in price of consumer and business energy as it’s costs are passed downstream.

So why was there $50 million in the fed budget to research ‘clean coal’? They could better spend the money on solar research and solar water heating and environmental building design.

My biggest concern with this fake ticket item is that it will stall any other research, as the Profs, Boffins and Mandarins are sucked off into the long Australian waste of time.

There have been signicant improvements in theoretically attainable yield from solar energy, with new, high yield technologies in the development stage overseas. Why arent we involved in this? Partly because the feds have wasted fifty million dollars to suck up to the coal industry, some people say.

And last time we looked at the ABS figures, we had Australia exporting a big percentage of the world’s traded coal in anthracite and other high-carbon grades, mostly used in smelting and other activities where C02 is effectively unrecoverable. Compare this with the domestic production of far smaller amounts of CO2 for generating local electricity.

Which activity by Australia will achieve the greatest cut in world greenhouse gas emission – reducing exports of coal, or geosequestration of local waste CO2?

Footnote From The Economist, July 24

In a report on July 4th that Mr Rudd commissioned, Ross Garnaut, an eminent economist, called for a tougher approach than the prime minister appears to be taking. Without a lower-carbon economy, Mr Garnaut said, the Great Barrier Reef and other Australian “heartlands” would change “beyond recognition”.

Yet Australia’s dependence on coal and other mineral exports makes the government wary. Thanks to demand from Asia, coal exports are expected to grow by one-third over the next five years. Critics accuse Australia of double standards: curbing emissions at home, yet exporting carbon fuel to less strict countries.

Eccles says “tough-love double standards”

Govt blocks release of secret motorway plans for Sydney

A recent press release by the NSW Greens:

Thursday, 19 June 2008
The government today blocked a move by Greens MP and roads spokesperson Lee Rhiannon to force the release of documents that spell out its major road plans for Sydney, including the M4 East, the F6 corridor, Port Botany, the widening of the M4 and its tolling regime and other new road projects across the Inner West.

The government won the vote by one joined by the Shooters Party and Fred Nile, with the Opposition voting with the Greens.

“Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal is keen to avoid scrutiny of his motorway plans but it’s important that they are available to the public before they become concrete,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“Minister Roozendaal said climate change and peak oil did not make it urgent to release the plans.

“Past call for papers by the Greens on the M5 East, the Cross City Tunnel and the Lane Cove Tunnel have embarrassed the government, so it has opted to pull down the shutters.

“Climate change and peak oil make it imperative that we debate the value of the government’s plans for Sydney’s road network, but blocking access to these papers has left the community in the dark.

“Allowing the public to scrutinise traffic modelling, maps, discussion papers and costings is key to enabling proper debate on whether motorways should proceed.

“The Inner West community has been waiting in limbo for the full detail on plans for the M4 East, the Marrickville Truck Tunnel and an Inner West Motorway.

“Premier Iemma breaks public transport promises freely, but road announcements are rarely abandoned even if they defy common sense. Turning around the RTA once it’s committed to a road proposal is like trying to turn around a massive tanker without tugs.

“The community must be given information to empower it to debate whether money should flow to energy efficient public transport or roads. Local residents should not be kept in the dark about where the RTA plans to site motorways, tunnels and emission stacks.

“Given the past poor performance of tunnel projects, and the growing recognition that motorways can face financial difficulties, the public must be able to have its say.

“Key documents must be released so the community can discuss whether Sydney’s motorway plans make economic, social or environmental sense,” Ms Rhiannon said.

For more information: 9230 3551, 0427 861 568.

Barrick’s Ulcer

West Wyalong, 24 March. Mine Wall Catastrophe

A 100 m high underground wall containing more than 40000 tonnes of orebody collapsed in a spectacular explosion at the Barrick Mine at Lake Cowal, central NSW a week ago. The pit wall collapse caused no death or injury, so Barrick did not need to inform the public.

It was announced by a spokesman for the traditional owners, the Wiradjuri Nation, Neville Williams, who stated “ It is hard to bear the pain of the destruction of our sacred site. Barrick has ignored our demands to protect cultural objects and the ecological significance of the lake.” Concerns have been raised about the stability of the mine and the safety and welfare of the mine workers. This 5 sq km hole in the ground looks like an ulcer on the edge of the perennially dry bed of Lake Cowal.

The size of the mine and its encroachment into the lake can be seen clearly in Google Earth (36.64S ,174.40E). It began operations in 2006 after ten years of controversy, state government indecision and possible corruption, and staunch opposition from the Wiradjuri.

In 2004, Barrick Gold, supported by 20 police forcibly evicted the protest camp which had occupied land next to Lake Cowal for the previous 2 years. The raid was deliberately timed to take place when the camp was practically empty. Five people were arrested, and the camp was packed and dumped 3 km away. Williams said this raid revealed the level of police co-operation with the mining company. Every year the protests result in the harassment and arrests of participants, and reveal the sturdy relationship between the NSW police and Barrack Gold. Wiradjuri cultural items and places have been damaged or destroyed including thousands of stone artifacts, ancient ceremonial areas, marked trees, and traditional camp and tool-making sites. Barrick has reportedly collected more than 10,000 artifacts from the mine area, but has refused to release details.

The lake is also regarded as sacred for the Wiradjuri Nation because, as explained by Williams, a huge Aboriginal massacre occurred there in the late 1800s. “Martial law was enforced on my people, by mountain settlers, when killing Aboriginals wasn’t murder,” he said.

After the 2004 Corroborree and closing of the camp, Barrick began felling scarred trees. “Some of those trees marked the graves of our ancestors” said Williams. He also said the excavation at the open-cut gold mine was drilling into the spirits of the Wiradjuri ancestors. “If I smashed my way into a cathedral, tipped the alter over, pushed the priest out of the way and grabbed the bible and tore a heap of chapters out I would be arrested,” Williams pointed out. “The Government and the mining company have absolutely no regard for our culture or beliefs”

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_of_Indigenous_Australians:

1830s – 1840s Wiradjuri Wars: Clashes between European settlers and Wiradjuri were very violent, particularly around the Murrumbidgee. The loss of fishing grounds and significant sites and the killing of Aboriginal people was retaliated through attacks with spears on cattle and stockmen. In the 1850s there were still corroborees around Mudgee but there were fewer clashes. Known cermeony continued at the Murrumbidgee into the 1890s. European settlement had taken hold and the Aboriginal population was in temporary decline.

Posted by Eccles

Picture courtesy Google Earth

Attached: Blog Posted April 29th, 2004 by Anonymous submitted by raj contact: menken@uymail.com

April 28 – 10 a.m. Barrick Gold, supported by over 20 police with 8 vehicles forcibly evict the protest camp which has occupied land next to Lake Cowal in Central NSW for nearly 2 years now. Under 24 hour surveillance from security and police, the raid was deliberately timed to take place when no Aboriginal elders, environmental lawyers and a minimum number of protesters would be in camp. The 5 inhabitants were arrested and removed under an obscure section of a 103 year old law relating to fence lines. They will fight the charges in nearby West Wyalong on May 27th. Ongoing decelopment by Barrick, originally financed by Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, makes a mockery of Native Title claims brought by the Mooka and Kalara families, currently before Federal Court. So too, Barrick’s unabated removal and destruction of sacred artefacts. This latest step has made the level of police co-operation with the mining company even more transparent. ‘I feel that the police acted illegally,’ fumes Wiradjuri elder Neville ‘Chappy’ Williams, ‘it’s still Crown land. Whoever ordered the raid jumped the gun. This is ongoing genocide of my people. We are still being denied our religious freedom.’ It s hard to believe that eight years ago Premier Carr vowed to stop the Lake Cowal project. Construction now threatens over 170 species of waterbird and endangers migratory flocks from Europe, Japan and China that will surely mistake cyanide leach pits for natural water bodies, yet both his government and the State Opposition have slipped uncomplainingly into bed with the foreign-owned gold giant. Most disturbing is Barrick s plan to dig a 350 metre deep pit (equal to the height of Ayers Rock) extending into the lake using cyanide to extract gold. ‘The open pit mine using cyanide heat leach methods is an act of continuing genocide against the Wiradjuri people and living culture,’ said activist Janaya Anderson. Construction is expected to commence in earnest within the next month. From Friday April 9 to Monday April 12 “the sacred heartland of the Wiradjuri Nation” played host to a diverse group gathered from all over Eastern Australia, Asia, Europe, America, and the Middle East to appreciate the land’s unique beauty and discuss plans to save it. On Sunday April 11 a peace walk carried burning embers from the Sacred Fire to the gates of the Barrick compound. Buildings were smoked for peace and understanding, while protesters dancing to drum, didjeridoo and activist beats in a corroboree that called out for the land and its people to be respected. Within 10 minutes of walkers reaching the gates, six police vehicles arrived and ignored comments that they were the ones trespassing. After discussing methods for alerting the wider community to the damage caused by Barrick – the cyanide threat to Adelaide’s drinking water, the imminent total destruction of a unique wetlands ecosystem in a land of drought – the group set May 20 as the Lake Cowal National Day of Action. Despite a sustained media gag it s hoped that community protest will create wider awareness about the issue. Since the Corroborree, Barrick have begun felling scarred trees. ‘Some of these trees mark the graves of our ancestors,’ said one concerned activist for Aboriginal sovereignty. Monitoring activity until the Federal Court hands down its decision will be more difficult now that the camp has been forced 3 km down the road from where the Sacred Fire once burned. Protesters have vowed to protect Lake Cowal and will fight till the bitter end. ‘We can t trust the mining company or the police,’ says Wiradjuri Elder Neville ‘Chappy’ Williams. ‘But I m asserting my sovereign right to protect the land.’ Uncle ‘Chappy’ extends an invitation to anybody interested in joining the protest camp. For further information check www.rainforestinfo.org.au or call the camp on 0415 218 131.

Greed, Gold and Cyanide

The case against seven Lake Cowal protesters was dismissed in the West Wyalong Magistrates Court on January 31. They had been charged with trespassing on Barrick mining property. Although no damage was done the case was found against them and they were released without penalty. I spoke to one member of the protest group, Elanor Gilbert, in Condoblin. “Even though the mine has been open now for two years, we still have our annual protest. We’re all here in this house” she laughed. “Some of us are getting pretty old, and a couple of people are in wheel chairs, but we’re going to keep at them. They’ve taken our land” she said.

Lake Cowal, 350 kilometres west of Sydney, is the second largest lake in NSW when full. Cypress pine, mallee and ironbark trees dot the edges. The lake and nearby wetlands are home to red and grey kangaroos, echidnas, goannas, possums, bats and mallee fowl. Listed in the Directory of Important Wetlands and the Register of the National Estate, it is also home of the Wiradjuri Nation, the place of their underground dreaming track, and the site of the Lake Cowal Barrick Gold Mine.

For the last eight years protesters from around the country have joined Wiradjuri people in an annual battle with business and government to prevent the establishment of the gold mine on the edge of the lake. This unfortunately did not stop the mine from starting production in 2006. Condoblin and West Wyalong residents have supported the mine believing it will bring work and income to the area.

Conflicting native title claims still in court have enabled the developers to reach an agreement with one group from the Wiradjuri Nation to allow the mine on tribal land. The other group, the Mooka Traditional Owners Council of the Wiradjuri Nation regards this agreement as invalid.

Neville Williams of the Mooka Traditional Owners confirmed that despite repeated FOI requests, Barrick has not made details of its agreement public. “We couldnt get a copy of the agreement they made with the other fellows from them, even after we appealed to the High Court”, he said.

Their Native Title claim is proceeding, with a hearing set for February 18 in Sydney. This is likely to have ramifications for the mine.

The Barrick Company gold mine is an open-cut mine 8 km in diameter, jutting across the lake bed. The gold is extracted at a rate of one ounce of gold per tonne using a cyanide solution and costs $300 an ounce to extract. As the price for gold on the spot market is currently more than $900 an ounce, it is a highly profitable enterprise. Twenty percent of the gold is used in the electronic industry and the rest is used for jewellery. No gold mine of this type has ever avoided leaking cyanide wastewater into the ecosystem, and there have been major disasters in the past few years, most recently in PNG and Hungary.

Another critical issue is the 17 megalitres of water used daily by the mine. The water is being pumped up from an underground borefield; there are concerns this may lower the water table permanently. And that cyanide they use is shipped from Gladstone on a railway line that goes through bush and wilderness areas and crosses several rivers …

For more information go to http://www.savelakecowal.org/intro.html.

The Wrap on Wrudd

The post-election euphoria still lingers. The old man was having a laugh (or rather a spitoolly cackle), and he suggested (predictably) the old Chinese curse: ‘May you live in interesting times’
Well, the Australian Parliament was shaken up in a box and thrown all over the floor. The ABC election night coverage was almost the best TV all year, and the final Chasers on Wednesday were viciously magnificent. Howard has retreated in ignominy, and Mr Rudd has scored one of the the biggest mandates for change ever seen in Australian politics.

The new Prime Minister aspires to a presidential style, demonstrated by the marginalizing of factions in the choosing of Cabinet, the appointment of Ms Wong in a full ministerial role for climate change and water. He brings an almost Lutheran discipline to parliament. The appointment of Peter Garrett as environment Minister (without climate change and water) but with arts and heritage means he will be occupied usefully on the side. The extraordinary appointment of Julia Gillard to a new portfolio encompassing a ‘from childhood education to adult work place participation’ is a bold move. From pre-school to University, then on to become part of the engine of the economy, as either a worker or engineer or owner or designer, it really is a holistic portfolio.
The only problem flagged by some observers is that the Deputy PM has roles beside the ministerial – she has to be a celebrity (in a political sense), and sometimes she will have to take the ‘rudder’ of the ship of state from Mr Rudd. These are very public roles and very important, but they could distract from full attention to the portfolio.

The appointment of Dr Nelson as leader of the Liberals is pretty typical. I suppose the conservative elements, though in a state of disarray, were still able to influence the members. Julia Bishop will be a feisty sparring partner for Ms Gillard, quite able to turn the knife repeatably without qualms. Dr Nelson has had to admit to past mistakes of judgment and he still suffers from stilted and confusing body language. And then there’s Malcolm, shadow treasurer, power aspirant. Further back there’s Abbot – but he needs steam-cleaning before being rolled into service.

But one last lingering doubt in how wonderful it all is prompts a question for Kev07; How can you be a progressive, social justice advocate, and deal with sciences, economics and the intricacies of world trade, and finance, diplomacy, values of other cultures, and yet still go to the local church on Sunday?
This suggests a lack of real faith in observable scientific deduction, or perhaps a bit of that old psalm “divine feeling of faith in the unprovable”. Further your religion of choice is mixed up with a whole lot of pre-Darwinian mumbo jumbo about the universe, antique, brutal stone age morals, cobbled together with a few middle-eastern fairy stories for children of truly limited significance. If you want to be seen out and about among your citizens of a Sunday, well why not Bingo, or the RSL? Or the footy? Cappucino clubbing? Opening a supermarket?
To get closer to the true divine, how about a few aussie gold-tops for that special weekend at Byron? Perhaps camping by the beach with the sheila and the kids , reading a copy of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” or “Plutarchs Lives” ? The possibilities are endless, but there’s a couple of suggestions for you.
The fact is that organised religion has a squirrel grip on the balls of Australia, and you are not about to fit the the Athletic Protector any time soon.

And Howard’s final words as he faded away on the night? ‘Janette has been the Cement in my life’….

Amen to that.

Cute little Furry Animals:

Cute little Furry Animals: 011207

While we were having a change of government, a few other things were going on. Three of the most interesting were:

Australian state governments approved the use of GM canola seed. Something to do with yields over twice that of normal seed and resistance to insect predators. And yes, Felicity, there are unknown factors about GM crops. I was a bit confused by the anti-GM spokesperson, who said that the oils resulting from these crops were not tested in nutritional situation… they were only analysed in a lab to show they were identical to ‘naturally’ occuring oils. Maybe I misunderstood the significance.
Many people worry about these ‘new’ technologies, and this is an example of fear generated by ignorance (the most common source). No-one is 100% sure that GM is safe (and it certainly has the potential to be dangerous if misused or taken more often than directed). I am concerned, and I’m not really satisfied by the enthusiastic assurances of safety from government sources.
But the fact is that the entire human race is supported by about 300 mm of topsoil. And topsoil isn’t everywhere. Vast areas of land are barren, dry, too high or even just desert, no soil at all. We grow all our crops and all our grazing meadows are on this delicate 300 mm. Until recently the pragmatic technique to increase yield was to saturate the soil with fertiliser, weedkiller, and insecticide. At least with GM crops these crude techniques are less necessary and we still get bigger yields per hectare.
This is still not to say that it is a good thing — but it may be necessary to support the growing population on this planet which still has to almost double before it starts going backwards, based on birth and death statistics at the moment.
If the population doubles, and the water level rises, and the soil gets washed away, what will happen then? A very gloomy prognosis is that our brief period of civilisation might quite suddenly fall to pieces, and a far more dangerous dark age than the last will come to be.

Another interesting development this week is the publication in Nature of a technique to trick normal body cells to become non-differentiated, like embryonic stem cells are. This means that they can be grown from their non-differentiated state into other types of cell such as nerve, muscle, liver, heart, lymphatic, hormonal and so on. The implication is that it will become possible to replace your worn-out organs with cultivated parts grown from your own DNA, and there will be no rejection and antibody problems. (Probably won’t be in time for me or most of the Boomer’s, unfortunately). In the experiments samples of DNA were taken from inside the cheek in one case and from the end of the foreskin in another.

The third and most important event of last week was the announcement by a major global health regulatory body that there were serious concerns about the proliferation of nanotechnology. We are not talking about a sci-fi story about Drexler’s nano-goo going beserk and destroying equipment and killing people, but about the unusual surface effects of tiny particles.
Already you can buy titanium dioxide-based block-out which is not opaque white. It is clear and this is because the particles that are mixed into the gunk are 100th of the size of the old particles in the white stuff. the particles have become too small to affect the passage of visible light, but they are still able to block the ultraviolet.
When a bit of anything gets very small, its ratio of surface area to volume increases exponentially. Atomic scale physical effects mostly occur on the surface of materials, and they include attraction, friction and repulsion. At this tiny scale particles can damage cells and cellular material like DNA.
There is a lot of concern. Early uses of nanometre size particles for composites to increase strength (extremely effective), and cosmetic uses like block-out (twice as effective) have been successful. But what happens to these particles when they are released into the environment when the composites and cosmetics degrade in waste depots? Nobody knows. And what happens when they get into the bloodstream through skin absorption, remembering these particles are small enough to slip through the cells and cross the blood brain barrier? It’s likely they are carcinogenic. The world output of nano particle materials has been rising exponentially since about 2000. These new materials will quickly transform materials science as we know it. They are extremely useful, and will be competitively researched by the chemical industry to create profitable products.
There has been practically no research about the effects on people and the environment of nano-sized particles, so I guess there will need to be lots of tests on cute little furry animals to establish risks. What’s new?

Coal – whats all the fuss?

One billion = one thousand million – one trillion = one million million

numbers rounded to nearest billion

All Australian statistics are from the ABS 2006 YearBook

There is a finite amount of the element carbon on our planet and like most elements it is so stable as to be practically indestructable.

An estimated weight of carbon atoms on the planet is 60 trillion tonnes. Of these 750 billion tonnes are in the atmosphere.

It’s that gaseous carbon, in the form of the dioxide that is causing climate change. Its too heavy to escape into space and It’s been building up since the 60’s. Now only the most recalcitrant “anti-climate changers” disagree that this is leading us into potentially chaotic and dangerous climatic change.

There are many causes. Lets look at one of them: Coal. Burnable oily carbon, magic stuff, just lying around to be shoveled into a loader. Second after hydrocarbon fuels as a global C02 source.

The total coal exported by Australia per year is about 300 million tonnes, which is 40% of global trade.

Australian coal exports two years ago were about $A17 billion out of $127 billion total (13.5%). Last year they expanded to $A25 billion. This is something like 16% of Australias overseas income.

An upward trend. Brings plenty of money into the country where the banks distribute it as credit cards.

New coal powered generation plants are being built at an alarming rate world wide due to demand from fast growing developing nations and gluttonous old world countries. The New plants have better pollution control and are more efficient (thus less expensive to run to make greater profit). But sooner or later the CO2 goes into the air. At a steadily advancing rate.

The problem is in the timing. Its urgent! Last Wednesday The UN announced:

THE WHOLE WORLD HAS TO STOP BURNING COAL COMPLETELY WITHIN THE NEXT 15 YRS

What are the options?

If you were a coal importing country you could diversify to solar/wind/nuclear. The example of California tells how it would be, with the political will to look ahead, for importers.

But as the leading collier(coal exporter) on the planet, Australia has a much harder job.

About one in 300 Australians work in the coal industry.

Coalmining is a hazardous employment, hard work, black dusty work and it attracts by far the largest WorkCover premiums.

A real cost estimate of redundancy and retraining would be beyond me. A guess of 30000 per employee = $A1 billion. Is that a lot?

The bigger problem is that in 1995 mining was one quarter of value of Australian exports and by 2005 it had risen to one third. Manufacturing dropped to half of total exports in 2005. It was two thirds of the total in 1995.

Because there is relatively little effort (people + financially) involved the coal trade it is like fertilizer drip feeding for Australia – the money comes rolling in, fuelling consumer spending and pumping everything up, more imports, 4WD’s get bigger, the people get fatter.

It would take a massive effort to get any government even to admit to the degree of difficulty involved. Is there a government that could force this through?

Does anybody have the political will to announce that they are going to dump 30000 Aussie workers and trim about a quarter off our nett global income over the next 10 years?