Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Opinion

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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Temperatures of Void Space and Microstates: A Note from Nasif S. Nahle

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Introduction

The general belief on the conditions of the deep space, beyond the terrestrial exosphere, is about a completely empty place without temperature.

However, highly accurate measurements made by satellites, like the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) [2], have corroborated that the deep space has a temperature and, additionally, that it is not an absolutely empty space.

WMAP has revealed a deep space temperature of 2.7251 K and a density of 1 particle/cm^3 (density based on protons in the outer space) [3].

The theoretical temperature was confirmed by WMAP measurements. The theoretical basis related to the temperature of the deep space is given by the correlation between the temperature and the kinetic energy of the particle. On this case, the root mean square (rms) speed vrms of protons in deep space is 260 m/s.

The purpose of this essay is to know the amount of energy emitted by the Earth towards the outer space and the concept of microstates.

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Garnaut’s Second Update, Sceptics are the White Swans: A Note from David Stockwell and Cohenite

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THE Australian government relies on various science experts to argue its case in favour of anthropogenic global warming [AGW]; people like Will Steffen, David Karoly and the ubiquitous Tim Flannery supply the scientific credentials for the government’s belief in AGW.

The economic gravitas to the government’s proposed economics measures to solve AGW are provided by their go-to man, Professor Ross Garnaut. Garnaut does come with some impressive economic academic credentials from ANU and the University of Melbourne. Garnaut also has considerable experience in private industry and is chairman of Lihir Gold, the New Guinea based gold-mining company.

In 2008 former PM Rudd engaged Garnaut to prepare an Interim Report to support the then Rudd government’s intention to introduce an ETS to solve AGW. With Rudd no longer PM, the current government under PM Gillard has commissioned Garnaut to provide updates to his 2008 Interim Report to justify the Gillard government’s intention to introduce a carbon tax to solve AGW; make of that what you will.

This article looks at Garnaut’s second update [there is a link to a critique of Garnaut’s first update below]. Garnaut’s second update looks at the science supporting AGW. This science shows warming over the recent period. That much can be agreed with, but just about everything else Garnaut’s science says, how much warming and particularly what has caused that warming, is problematic and subject to strong contrary scientific evidence. So, when Garnaut boasts in the press “I was right about climate change” that is a hollow boast.

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