Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Australian Labor Government to Fund Desalinated Water

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The Honourable Wayne Swan MP, Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia, delivered the first budget for the new Labor government tonight.

The listed major new iniatives in the environmental area include:

$14 million for the ‘National Urban Water and Desalination Plan’;

$ 108 million for a ‘Solar Australia Program’; and

$ 34.8 million for a national clean coal fund.

In the lead up to the federal election last year, Labor promised $1 billion for the National Urban Water and Desalination Plan to help secure the water supplies of Australia’s major cities with centres of excellence in desalination in Perth and a centre of excellence in water recycling in Brisbane—acknowledging these cities as leaders in these respective fields.

Given the election promise, the allocation for desalination for next year is very modest.

I wrote about Labor’s proposed water policy in the March IPA Review:
http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/publisting_detail.asp?pubid=801

We Live in an Electric Universe (Part 2) by Louis Hissink

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“The boom of thunder and crackle of lightning generally mean one thing: a storm is coming. Curiously, though, the biggest storms of all, hurricanes, are notoriously lacking in lightning. Hurricanes blow, they rain, they flood, but seldom do they crackle,” at least that was how NASA s Patrick Barry and Tony Phillips began an article entitled ‘Electric Hurricanes’ early in 2006. The article then makes reference to three of the most powerful hurricanes of 2005 –Rita, Katrina, and Emily– with comment that they did have lightning, in fact “lots of it”.

A mystery surrounding hurricanes is their actual formation, for while it is generally accepted that a warmer than usual ocean is a pre-requisite, the formation of tropical cyclones is the topic of extensive ongoing research and is still not fully understood.

One of the reasons why cyclone formation remains mysterious could be because we are excluding one of the largest forces in nature from our intellectual armoury – electricity. The general perception is that atmospheric turbulence creates the charge separation that produces lightning and so electrical forces are excluded from any models of weather.

Much the same reasoning is applied to space where charge separation is also not deemed possible. But this attitude should have changed 100 years ago when Kristian Birkeland pointed out that the polar auroras were produced by electrical currents from the Sun, and proceeded to demonstrate that with his famous “Terrella” experiments.

As Hannes Alfven observed in 1948 “Nearly everything we know about the celestial universe has come from applying principles we have learnt in terrestrial physics…Yet there is one great branch of physics that up to now has told us little or nothing about astronomy. That branch is electricity. It is rather astonishing that this phenomenon, which has been so exhaustively studied on earth, has been of so little help in the celestial sphere”.

Alven’s student Anthony Peratt continued research into plasma universe theory and developed Particle in Cell simulation using the Maxwell-Lorentz equations to model plasma behaviour. One type of simulation involved a pair of Birkeland currents in parallel and looking top row left to right, then next row left to right, was able to produce a spiral galaxy formation, (see Figure 1). The accuracy of PIC simulation is shown in its astonishing ability to mimic known galaxy shapes (Figure 2) without using gravity.

Louis_peratt01.jpg

Louis_peratt02.jpg

Put simply, the two parallel Birkeland currents approach and start twisting around each other, imparting a spinning motion. This is the basic design of the Maxwell homopolar motor. Here it is the electric current that is generating the circular motion and suggests that we should be looking for signs of electrical activity in cyclones.

Louis Hissink
Perth

Sustaining the Seas – New Issue of New Journal

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The new issue of The Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development is online at www.ejsd.org.

In this issue, “Sustaining the Seas”:

Measuring the biological sustainability of marine fisheries: property rights, politics, and science: Michael de Alessi shows that there is currently no adequate measurement for biological performance in fisheries. His paper addresses the impact of scientific uncertainty on fisheries management both typically and in New Zealand, critiques current methods for measuring biological sustainability, and proposes measuring the likelihood of sustainability based on the quality of the harvest model.

Sustainability of Fisheries: Rögnvaldur Hannesson shows that stock levels may be affected both by environmental factors, such as the warmth of the oceans, and by catch levels. By considering various instances of fisheries collapse, he provides insights into the factors necessary for creating sustainable fisheries.

The historical development of fisheries in New Zealand with respect to sustainable development principles: Mark T. Gibbs reviews the development history of New Zealand’s fisheries and addresses the question whether an ITQ (individual transferable quota) scheme is a necessary or sufficient condition to achieving sustainable regional fisheries.

Iceland’s ITQ system creates new wealth: Ragnar Arnason analyses the impact of ITQs in Iceland’s fisheries since their introduction in the 1980s. These ITQs, which are freely traded in the market, have become highly valuable. There are indications that this new source of financial capital has induced economic growth in Iceland far beyond the fishery itself.

Books reviews by Wilfred Beckerman, Karol Boudreaux, Bill Durodié, Terence Kealey, Jeremy Rabkin, James M. Sheehan and Philip Stott.

A Note “On the Limits to Knowledge of Future Marine Biodiversity” by Jesse H. Ausubel.

Best Regards,

Caroline Boin
Managing Editor,
Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development
www.ejsd.org

What is Wilderness? (Part 3)

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“An infamous media type said, ‘In essence we’re a conceited naked ape but in our mind we’re a divine legend and we see ourselves as some sort of God that we can walk around the earth deciding who will live and die and what will be destroyed and saved.’ Wilderness has no gods or one almighty. All is equal in life and death and just simply being. The rich tapestry of a wilderness includes the naked ape, but does not sustain those that want to dominate it. It then becomes something else.” Posted by: Travis at May 7, 2008 08:07 AM

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Near Wentworth, Blue Mountains, photo taken April 27, 2008

Victorian Timber Industry to Pay for Water?

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“IN A blow to Victoria’s massive plantation industry, the State Government has moved to make thirsty timber plantations accountable for the water they use.

“Companies such as Timbercorp may face extra costs as Government documents show it is considering making them pay for the water the trees suck up…

Read more here: http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/plan-to-make-timber-industry-pay-for-rain/2008/05/10/1210131335198.html

Best Bear Papers – A Note from Bob Ferguson

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Two of the best papers that go directly to the heart of the issues on the polar bear listing as endangered by the US government are:

Demographic and Ecological Perspectives on the Status of Polar Bears, by Dr Mitchell Taylor and Dr Martha Dowsley, March 2008,
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/demographic_and_ecological_polar_bear_perspectives.html

Taylor and Dowsley are world class.

Polar Bear Population Forecasts: A Public-Policy Forecasting Audit (Working Paper Version 75), by
J. Scott Armstrong, Kesten C. Green, and Willie Soon, April 2008,
http://www.forecastingprinciples.com/Public_Policy/polarbear.html

Armstrong literally wrote the book on forecasting principles.

Robert Ferguson
President, Science and Public Policy Institute