Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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What Percentage of Air is Human Sourced C02?

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In Australia, the public is not in favour of a proposed carbon tax, but the mainstream media, particularly the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, keep pushing the proposal along with the idea we face inevitable catastrophic climate change unless we change our ways.    The host of one commercial radio station, Alan Jones, has been putting the alternative perspective and is now being reprimanded…  interestingly on the science.   

Activist group, GetUp, claim Alan Jones is wrong to have broadcast that only 0.001 per cent of the carbon dioxide in the air if from human sources and claims the correct figure is 28 percent.  I thought the official figure was something like 3 per cent. 

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Fears Over Fukushima Radiation Overblown: Lawrence Solomon

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“The immense suffering that the Japanese are enduring in the aftermath of their earthquake and tsunami is now compounded by torment over radiation releases from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

“While the torment is understandable, based on the reported amounts of radiation released, it is uncalled for. The evidence from Japan’s populace — inadvertent guinea pigs in the largest radiation experiment ever, in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 — indicates that fears over radiation can be overblown.

“Those who survived the immediate atomic blasts but were near Ground Zero died at a high rate from excess exposure to radiation. The tens of thousands more distant from Ground Zero, and who received lower exposures to radiation, did not die in droves. To the contrary, and surprisingly, they outlived their counterparts in the general population who received no exposure to radiation from the blasts.

Read more here:  http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/03/21/lawrence-solomon-reactor-victims-will-benefit-studies-show/

by Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post, Tuesday, 22 March 2011

No Carbon Tax: A Note from ComeonAustralia.com

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“In Australia…  The campaign against the Carbon Tax and the Prime Minister’s broken promise is gaining momentum.  Our petition is collecting thousands of signatures and comments. But we need many, many more, so please tell as many people as you can to sign.  

Two recent polls show that a clear majority of Australians oppose this tax, but the Government is ignoring you.

That means we need to redouble our efforts to show that the government is operating on a broken promise and in clear defiance of the Australian people.

The Prime Minister should take this tax to an election to seek a mandate (or otherwise let the Australian people defeat it at the ballot box).

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Australia to Become ‘Saudi Arabia’ of Biorefining: Media Release

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Norwegian Bio-refining specialist, ENEnergy, has announced that it has identified an ideal Australian location for an ethanol bio-refinery which could be producing the equivalent of 7500 barrels of fuel per day within 4 years.

The site, located in Western Australia’s West Canning Basin, is just one of many massive areas of land across Australia’s northern regions that ENEnergy has identified as well-suited for large-scale bio-refining projects that can turn low value crops into valuable fuel and livestock feed.

If all of these areas were ramped into full production for bio-refining, it could generate exports or import replacements worth $AU410 billion per year to become Australia’s largest industry.

It could also make Australia’s entire coal-fired energy sector carbon-neutral and make the country the first carbon negative economy in the world.
ENEnergy is currently in discussions with potential investors to secure funding to complete the pre-construction and finance feasibility phase for the West Canning project prior to seeking full-development financing.

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What to Listen to, Read, and Action This Week

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Consider this an open thread.  Let other readers of this blog know what you are watching, listening to, and reading, this week by way of a comment.

I was pleased to receive the March 2011 newsletter, Climate4You, with meteorological information from Ole Humlum* just yesterday.   It seems global warming continues to stall. 😉

The document is available at
http://www.climate4you.com/Text/Climate4you_February_2011.pdf

All temperatures are shown in degrees Celsius.

Previous issues of the newsletter, diagrams and supplementary material are available on http://www.climate4you.com/

***********
* Ole Humlum, Professor of Physical Geography  Department of Physical Geography, Institute of Geosciences  University of Oslo, Box 1042 Blindern

Tsunami Not Earthquake Wrecked Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

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ACCORDING to US nuclear expert, Mark Mervine, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant withstood the earthquake but the tsunami destroyed its backup power which is necessary for cooling the reactor.   The situation is critical.    Furthermore, there are another five reactors at that site that were in commercial operation.

Following is an extract from an interview recorded by Mr Mervine’s daughter, Eveyln.   

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