Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Opinion

Safe Portable Nuclear – Almost

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Nuclear Module“The future of nuclear energy could lie in plants that can be factory built, shipped to a site, and operated 30 years without refuelling…

“It has become commonplace to say that we are at the beginning of a global revitalization of the nuclear energy enterprise. The scope and timing of this “nuclear renaissance,” however, remain somewhat uncertain. What is known is that in countries around the globe, including the United States, significant numbers of new nuclear energy projects are under way or in various stages of planning, and this activity represents a departure from that of recent decades…

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What to Take Bushwalking?

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duffy bushwalk 051 blogA 19 year-old British tourist who went for a walk in rugged terrain not far from where I live in the Blue Mountains ended up lost for 12 days.

He claims to have survived the freezing conditions by sleeping in a log and eating leaves and seed.

His story has resulted in lots of advice in mainstream media articles about how to survive in the bush with some experts commenting that he should have taken his mobile phone, four litres of water, eaten insects rather than plants, worn a beanie and the list goes on. But I’m yet to read a story that explains the value of a compass.

I regularly bushwalk in the area and always take my compass, tucked in my camera bag. I’ve been temporarily lost before, not in the Jamieson Valley, but regularly when I did field work in the riverine forests of south west Madagascar. Without reference to a compass it is difficult to maintain a direction in forested areas.

Media reports explain that the 17 year-old Australian bushwalker who died in the same region a few years ago didn’t have a map. But I haven’t been able to determine from these same reports whether or not he had a compass. It would seem to me that a map, without a compass, would be of limited use.  [Read more…] about What to Take Bushwalking?

Solar Cycle Link to Global Climate: Now Something Official

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Darwin Part 1 Oct 05 049 blogTHERE is nothing new about claims of a link between solar cycles and global climate.  But now there is research which has been peer-reviewed and published somewhere reputable. Also, the work was by scientists at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.  According to yesterday’s press release it shows that maximum solar activity and its aftermath have impacts on Earth that resemble La Niña and El Niño events in the tropical Pacific Ocean.  This is what they say:

“THE research may pave the way toward predictions of temperature and precipitation patterns at certain times during the approximately 11-year solar cycle.

“These results are striking in that they point to a scientifically feasible series of events that link the 11-year solar cycle with ENSO, the tropical Pacific phenomenon that so strongly influences climate variability around the world,” says Jay Fein, program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences. “The next step is to confirm or dispute these intriguing model results with observational data analyses and targeted new observations.”

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Saving Australia’s Forests for Carbon: Valid Science or Green Activism?

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Tasmania May 05 008 blogA RECENT Australian Government study of 115 key industries found that only the forestry sector was net carbon-positive. Yet, a major Wilderness Society campaign is advocating the closure of Australian timber industries to help mitigate climate change.

Their campaign revolves around research by scientists from the Australian National University Fenner School of Environment and Society who have found that large amounts of carbon reside in some Australian “old growth” forests. Environmental activists have shoe-horned this finding into their over-arching 40-year campaign to completely evict timber production from all Australian forests. Their rationale is that a total absence of timber harvesting will allow all forests to become “old growth” which will store maximum amounts of carbon.

This raises several important issues. First, closing a carbon-positive industry that is based on a renewable resource is hardly likely to reduce carbon emissions. Second, the capability of most forests to attain “old growth” is reliant on fire, irrespective of timber harvesting. And third, there is concern about the integrity of the Wilderness Society’s campaign and the key participatory role of several ANU scientists.

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Sorting Priorities

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“Right now the only certain way to save lives is by calling off this misguided war on climate change. If and when climate change promises to claim more casualties than poverty and starvation, the world will begin heeding their calls. If, however, these climate-change casualties don’t materialize, there would have been no need to act in the first place. Either way, the world has far more immediate and scarier problems than climate change to address right now.” Shikha Dalmia, Forbes, 15 July 2009