Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for March 2007

Europe Follows Australia on Light Bulbs

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“European homes, offices and streets will have to use energy-efficient lighting by the end of the decade, EU leaders decided on Friday.

“The decision to order a massive switchover that will affect the lives of all the European Union’s 490 million citizens came at a summit of the 27-nation bloc as part of an ambitious green energy policy to fight climate change.

“We are very impressed by the Australian [decision to ban incandescent light bulbs]* and before we came to the summit, we had already been in touch with them and looking at the issue. We support this scheme and hope to take it on, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said. (From Reuters via Woody)

In response to the decision, the question was asked across Europe: How many EU leaders does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: 27.

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* Read comment on the Australian decision to ban incandescent light bulbs here: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/001899.html

Conservative Australian Senator Calls for Rethink on GM Crops

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A couple of years ago I spoke at a breakfast in Queanbeyan, near Canberra, on GM food crops. I explained the benefits of the technology from an environmental perspective.

At the time, bans on the commercial production of GM food crops had just been introduced in most Australian states following campaigning by Greenpeace against GM canola.

Yes, it’s now illegal to grow GM crops in most parts of Australia, with GM cotton exempt on the basis it is grown primarily for fibre – not food.

Senator Bill Heffernan was in the audience when I spoke at that breakfast and he continually interjected, in particular, he claimed that GM technology was unproven and that GM canola would become a weed.

So, I was a little surprised to see the headline in today’s The Age newspaper: ‘Heffernan calls for a rethink on GM crops’.

It seems the Senator, himself, has had a rethink as part of his push for agricultural development in northern Australia and is now enthusiastic about GM food crops.

In the article, The Senator suggests some southern farmers would be prepared to move north and that our attitude to GM needs to change if “the water-drenched Top End” is to be developed as the nation’s “food bowl”.

But, agricultural development in the north doesn’t need southern farmers or the Senator and his federal government committees.

It needs less, not more, government interference and in particular:

1. A lifting of the bans on GM food crops in Western Australia,
2. A lifting of the ban on cotton growing in the Northern Territory (yes, it is illegal to grow any sort of cotton in the Northern Territory), and
3. Queensland legislation, in particular the Wild Rivers Act and Vegetation Management Act, needs to be changed so there is potential for some land development and some water infrastructure development in north Queensland.

There is always more information on breaking GM news at David Tribe’s blog at http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/.

Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund & Ralph Barraclough

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There has been much discussion at this blog about bushfires (click here and scroll down).

There were terrible bushfires in north eastern Victoria last December and then last week I posted some photographs of Ralph Barraclough’s shed during a recent flash flood at Licola, in north eastern Victoria.

The blog post (Licola Flood: A Note from Ralph Barraclough) included comment from Ralph that the country is just so burnt there is nothing to slow the water from getting into streams.

Following the post, there were was some sympathy for Ralph with comment that this scenario is being played out right across the mountains, while others suggested that Ralph should not have build in a floodway.

An occasional reader of this blog, John Cribbes, visited Ralph last week.

When he emailed me that he was driving up to Licola to find out how Ralph was I asked he passed on my best regards.

John has since sent me a long email including the following comments:

“Ralph is pleased and touched to receive your messages of good will.

“He will get something from the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund (GERF). The maximum he can receive is $3,500 depending upon the amount they have got to distribute.

“If friends of Ralph were to combine a lump sum and send it to GERF asking for it to go to Ralph they will issue tax deductible receipts to the individual donors. But, however, much we raise, they will not give Ralph any more than $3,500.

“The river, all the way down to Lake Glenmaggie is the colour and consistency of tomato soup. The rivers in East Gippsland are so badly coloured and loaded with sediment, East Gippsland Water are having to use alternative water resources and have put East Gippsland on Stage 3 water restrictions despite their good rains in recent months.

“It gives me no pleasure to say ‘I told you so’ but I did. Now, our Government will turn this around and make it look as though there had been no mismanagement, that it was an Act of God and here the Government is spending the tax payers funds so wisely.

“In regards to Ralph, please ask those who will assist to send a cheque or money order made out to GERF or Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund and to post it to me [John Cribbes] at P.O. Box 1462, Sale Victoria 3853, Australia.

“At the end of March this year I will take all cheques/money orders to GERF with a list of donors and their addresses and they will issue tax deductible receipts which will be sent direct to the donors.

“I would be pleased if you would use some of my email for your blog.

“I am very pleased that the Victorian Government has agreed to an Inquiry into our recent bushfires. I encourage you and yours to email Premier Thwaites commending his full and open support for the Inquiry. [end of quote]

If after reading this blog post you would like to comment on the Licola floods, bushfires, building in floodways, climate change etcetera then please post your comment here: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/001911.html

If you would like to send a word of encouragement to Ralph and/or let John Cribbes know there is a cheque in the mail, then please leave a comment below.

Rick Ness Could Not Eat 77 Cans of Tuna

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I had lunch last week with Rick Ness, President Director of Newmont Mining in Indonesia, and his son Eric. They were in Australia very briefly and took time to visit us at the IPA when I was in Melbourne.

Journalist Mark Hawthorne from The Age was there and wrote about it the next day with comment that:

“A SMALL group gathered at the Institute of Public Affairs office in Collins Street yesterday to hear the tale of woe of former Newmont executive Richard Ness.

The mining boss is being tried in Indonesia for alleged arsenic and mercury pollution at a mining operation at beautiful Buyat Bay, home of a fishing village and a popular scuba diving spot.

“Government cracks down on polluting miner” made plenty of headlines around the world, but the only problem for green groups and the non-government organisations (NGOs) behind the investigation into the mine is that all the evidence now seems to clear Ness and Newmont of any criminal pollution and, indeed, has revealed a high-level conspiracy to incriminate Ness with falsified evidence…

“Ness’ best advice was to fight fire with fire — especially when tainted evidence was presented by NGOs showing how mercury had “polluted” the food chain. “We went though the data and found they had assumed the average family of two adults and two children under 15 kilograms eats 77 cans of tuna per day,” Ness said.
“I turned up to court and put 77 cans of tuna on the table in front of me. That made my point.” [end of quote]

Eric had visited, and dived, at Buyat Bay just before coming to Australia and describes the experience in a recent blog post:

“It’s actually hard to describe how great the diving is in Buyat, which was one of the first things we did. I’ve been diving since I was about 14 years old and I’ve been fortunate enough to dive in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Thailand, the U.S. and a number of different areas throughout Indonesia and I can unequivocally say that Buyat Bay has the best diving I have ever seen. It’s no surprise that Jerry and the North Sulawesi Tourism Office has recently put out a dive book to promote the area as a dive destination. Read the rest of the blog here:
http://www.richardness.org

You’ve seen Rick on a motor bike, remember this blog post: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/001697.html

Well, here he is underwater:

diving Buyat feb07 RN blog.JPG
Rick Ness diving at Buyat Bay, February 2007

Shell Fast-Tracking Second Generation Biofuels

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In August last year when the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, announced a $1.576 billion funding package over eight-years to promote alternative fuels in particular ethanol I received an email from Ray Wilson with the comment that:

“Ethanol is not a good fuel because a standard petrol engine needs to be extensively modified to use 100% ethanol as it has only half the energy density of petrol.

However, just as one can produce petrol and diesel from coal using the Fischer-Tropsch process, one can use cellulosic (Wood, leaves, grass, grains, etc) matter too to make petrol and diesel by this method. This can be done profitably and the process is well-known…

“The Fischer-Tropsch process is normally used to convert coal to fuels, but it works equally well with cellulosic matter as a feedstock.

So instead of just using the sugar cane juice to make ethanol and discarding the residue, one can convert the entire plant into diesel and petrol and discard very little. Any plant material will do too.

The subsides are available for anyone who wants to proceed with this R&D and the project itself, provided one has the collateral to cover 50% of the Federal loan. I do not have this, so it is very difficult for me to do anything myself. I actually looked into this in some detail recently.

Plant oils are suitable for use as a diesel fuel, but the rest of the plant is discarded as waste. For example, oil-palm nuts are crushed to yield their oil, but the pulp is discarded. Not very efficient.” [end of quote]

Today I received another email from Ray Wilson, this time with comment, “the Germans are using FT [Fischer-Tropsch process] to produce diesel from wood commercially; precisely what I was trying to get going here in Queensland.”

You can read about it at Times Online:

“Ken Fisher, vice-president for strategy at Shell, expects full-scale production on a commercial basis by the middle of the next decade.

“We would like to be the leading provider of second-generation biofuels,” Mr Fisher said. …

All the technologies are based on the Fischer-Tropsch process, invented in Germany in the 1930s to synthesise liquid fuels from coal. The process was initially uneconomic, but was used in Nazi Germany and in South Africa under apartheid when the country lacked access to crude oil.

“The discovery of better catalysts and the rising price of crude is improving the commercial equation…

“Shell has a second BTL [biomass to liquids] investment in Iogen, a Canadian company that this week secured an $80 million (£41 million) grant from the US Government to build a plant in Idaho, which will produce cellulosic ethanol from plant waste and straw. [end of quote]

An Open Letter to Sir Richard Branson from Robert J. Rohatensky

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Dear Sir Richard Branson,

Upon reading the information on the recently announced Virgin Earth Challenge I feel that although I admire the noble effort, I have difficulty with the terms and conditions of the challenge. I believe that if you and the Virgin group of companies were serious regarding improving our planet that you have the resources to make an immediate change in the world energy situation and to lower the risk of climate change.

I believe that we have an initial design for an implementable system that uses indirect solar collection to generate electricity and store thermal energy in an economical, environmentally friendly, scalable, reliable, efficient and location independent manner using common construction materials. This system design is not under limited Intellectual Property protection and a pilot project and further commercial ventures may be initiated under the Virgin brand.

I am challenging you to invest some resources, form an engineering team and take the energytower.org idea and to build some massive bright red convection tower renewable energy systems with the Virgin logo painted on the side.

Sincerely,
Robert J. Rohatensky
Regina, SK Canada
www.energytower.org