Tuesday, January 31, 2012

No Need to Decarbonize the World Economy


I have been pushing this view for many years explaining that CO2 is NOT a pollutant but is a beneficial component of our atmosphere. Now the Wall Street Journal has published an article (27th Jan 2012) signed by 16 scientists entitled "No Need to Panic About Global Warming" which unveils the bunkum associated with global warming alarmism, which is followed by PM Julia in Australia and by Obama. Maybe this is to help the GOP selection for US Presidential election?

Here is what is said about CO2: (quote from Wall St Journal)
"The fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 is a colorless and odorless gas, exhaled at high concentrations by each of us, and a key component of the biosphere's life cycle. Plants do so much better with more CO2 that greenhouse operators often increase the CO2 concentrations by factors of three or four to get better growth. This is no surprise since plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today. Better plant varieties, chemical fertilizers and agricultural management contributed to the great increase in agricultural yields of the past century, but part of the increase almost certainly came from additional CO2 in the atmosphere."

To read the full Wall St Journal article click here

Sunday, January 29, 2012

New Coal-Fired Power Station for Bangladesh


Bangladesh Government has signed a joint venture agreement with the Indian Government to build a $1.5 billion coal-fired power station to generate 1300 MW of electricity to overcome the chronic power shortages. Present supply comes from aging and inadequate gas-fired stations. Predictably some environmentalists object saying that emissions of SO2 and fly ash will cause untold harm to adjacent forests and mangroves. What they don't say is that in modern power stations these emissions are at a controlled and harmless level and that the CO2 emissions are very beneficial to the biosphere, acting as a free fertilizer for crops and forests. This is the sort of power station we need on the outskirts of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide to prop up our base-load generation of electricity, instead of wasting $billions on useless and costly wind farms.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Geochemistry and Politics

The carbon cycle is part of the study of geochemistry, or chemistry of the Earth. This includes the solid Earth and atmosphere as well as the hydrosphere. How water dissolves other components and its role in shaping the landscape by erosion and transportation (geomorphology). The time factor is very important. What happened 100 million, 10 million or 50,000 years ago may have some bearing on climate or landscape today and in the near future.

I have always had an interest in geochemistry and pursued the subject at University. I graduated with a PhD degree in Geochemistry from the Pennsylvania State University, USA, after majoring in chemistry, geology and economics from Otago and Victoria Universities in New Zealand. The present involvement of the Federal Labor Government into the realms of geochemistry with its "Carbon Tax", I find alarming, to the extent that I started this blog to expose the bunkum they promote. PM Julia and Combet would certainly be failed students of mine, if I had the chance to grade their activities.

Next we have the WATER allocation problem of the Murray Darling Basin. Water, like carbon dioxide, is subject to a lot of political spin. Trade unionists, lawyers and the media seem to be instant experts on water and are determined to impose a "solution" not wanted by the residents of the region. Recently it has been all quiet on the MDBasin front, until the powers that be bring forth their next modified plan. Watch here for further comments on this topic.

All these undesirable Labor/Green Party policies bears support to the famous quotation of English publisher and writer Ernest Benn (1875 - 1954) who said: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy".

Sunday, January 22, 2012

South Australia Economic Growth Slows


Latest Government report puts South Australia at the sixth State rating for economic growth. Tops are States WA, VIC and ACT. Our future growth lies in the mining and defense industries, it says.

Future growth prospects for SA are not good, although the potential is enormous. What is putting on the brakes? I suggest it is the Labor and Green's Party and their faulty and bizarre philosophies that act like putting sand in the gear box of a car and expect it to run better.

Woe is Australia! At least our economic enemy is brought into focus! Take notice workers, farmers, MDBasin residents and everyone trying to earn an honest buck.

I am all for the expansion of BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam copper/uranium mine which is located in the SA outback. Do people realize that this will be (is already) the largest uranium mine in the WORLD? And yet in Australia we (ALP,Greens) do not accept nuclear power stations as part of our base load electricity production. Even Argentina, a country of comparable population, has three nuclear power stations.

It will take a decade to recover from ex-Premier Mike Rann's ill-founded idea of pursuing renewable energy, regardless of cost, which is reflected in our power bills, and is totally unnecessary.

SA needs a NEW ENERGY POLICY. Our future in the short term lies in coal and more exploration for deposits is required .. take notice Mines & Energy Department. Long term we must establish South Australia as the leader in nuclear technology and power production. Our universities must teach nuclear technology so that we have the personnel to operate future nuclear power stations, most of which will be located in outback regions.

The idea that major future growth of SA depends on the defense industry is problematical. Do we want more faulty and costly Collins class submarines? I don't think so. If we need a couple of OPERATIONAL submarines let's buy/lease them from the US, UK or Japan who are trimming down their fleet. Tell me ONE useful thing our Collins submarine(s) have done in the past 20 years. We would have been better to build a few Egyptian-type pyramids, which would last for a thousand years and be a great tourist asset. Forget submarines and let's build less complicated vessels needed by the defense forces. Enough stirring for one very hot day in Adelaide ca 37 degrees (& the windmills are not turning). Hasta manana, Allano

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Knowledge is Power

STOP the CARBON TAX. Defeat PM Julia's ratbag Labor/Green UnGovernment ASAP, before June 2012. Knowledge is POWER. I have been upgrading my CARBON CYCLE blog by listing in the RHS column the best books on the subject, starting with Prof Plimer's "Heaven & Earth". Some books you may not have heard of and are available from Amazon. Look for the fine print Kindle edition usually priced under $10 which are available for immediate download.

In South Australia, Victoria and NSW we are concerned about the needless proliferation of wind farms which causes our power bills to continually increase. Our pollies should read the "The Wind Farm Scam" by John Etherington.
To battle! Allano

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

South Australia's New Energy Policy


South Australia Energy Policy
New Premier Jay Weatherill of SA's Labor Government is reconsidering the regulations regarding location of wind farms, following complaints from the proletariat. A 2 km free zone from domestic dwellings is being considered, like that in Victoria.

This is typical Labor Party pussy-footing around the whole energy problem for South Australia, and indeed the nation. NO more licenses should be granted for wind farms and the existing ones, which supply a dribble of electricity usually when not needed, should be phased out ASAP, eventually to be demolished for scrap metal. Then the dreaded icon of the Greens will be no more. Our power bills will be capped if not reduced.

The energy future for South Australia lies with coal-fired power stations with nuclear power coming in ASAP once the ALP State and Federal Governments have been voted out of office. Natural gas we have plenty but it is a pity to burn it in power stations when there are so many other more important uses for it. We need to modernize the Port Augusta coal power station and build another coal-fire power station possibly using coal shipped in from the eastern states.

Of course, the SA Mines Department should upgrade and assist coal exploration within the state. The energy future for South Australia looks rosy only if the Labor/Green's stifling influence is eradicated.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Semantic Vandalism

Destroying the meaning of words

The Labor/Greens are experts at spin and distorting the English Language so that the meaning of words becomes blurred. The latest example is the word "reform" which means "to make better or improve"
.
In the Labor lingo of PM Julia, now reform can reliably taken to mean "stuff up". Other examples are the double banger "gay marriage", "carbon" and "carbon pollution", "global warming", "climate change", "healthy river" and now everything has to be REFORMED, including the tax system, pokies and so on, it seems, to infinity. Why don't the Federal pollies just stuff off and leave Australia the way it used to be, that is, happy and prosperous?

Of course it all shows the wisdom of the English publisher and writer Ernest Benn (1875 - 1954) who said "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy". God help Australia.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Where to South Australia?


This January has seen the retirement from SA politics of former Labor Premier Mike Rann. I wish him a happy and productive retirement. Now we have a chance of repairing the damage his Labor Government has done once the State Liberal Party wins the next election. But what has to be done?

Mike Rann is a devoted Greenie and his aim was to make South Australia the leading state for the use of renewable energy, which includes solar, wind and geothermal "hot rocks" technologies. It all sounds wonderful but the idea has proven to be misguided and a great waste of tax payer's (your) money. Our beautiful landscape has been visually polluted by uneconomic wind farms. Subsidized solar panels have cost the Government a fortune and drilling into hot rocks has predictably been a costly subsidized failure, and not needed.

Personally, I would prefer South Australia to be a leader for the nuclear power industry with this technology taught in Adelaide universities. The expanded BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam copper/ uranium mine would be an ideal site for a nuclear power plant. Australia should specialize in application of modular small nuclear power plants to provide electricity for outback mining regions located far away from coal deposits or gas pipelines.

Other disastrous Labor inspired projects are the building of an unwanted and un-needed desalination plant costing ca $2 billion which is unfinished. It is supposed to be run with power from windmills!! Best put it in mothballs, or dismantle it and sell to some Arab country that really has a use for it. This whole idea of supposed lack of water is tied up with the SA mismanagement of water, in particular, that of the Lower Lakes region which is wrongly included as part of the Murray Darling Basin. You can rely on the Greens to stuff up the Australian economy with their contracted and bizarre view of the world. More on this later. Allano

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution is to reactivate and update my blogs, including this one to do with the Carbon Cycle and all things about CO2, and Government policy to do with carbon in all its forms.

I have given it a rest for a year, for various reasons, but now see the need to take up the battle again in order to achieve sensible Federal Policy, which is possible only from a Liberal-National Coalition Government.

What needs to be done is pretty obvious. Firstly, this mad pursuit, regardless of cost, of renewable energy, both solar, wind and geothermal, must STOP (ie No Government subsidies). There is no need for it since we have coal & gas reserves to last hundreds of years. The idea of avoiding "carbon pollution" is just a bunkum concept dreamed up by the fanatical Greens. So the Renewable Energy Target (RET) bill for achieving 5% renewable energy by 2020 must be negated which is easily done by changing the target date from 2020 to the year 2200.

Concurrently, the tax on "carbon emissions" or CO2 liberated by industry must be revoked for reason it being based on complete nonsense. The harmful effect it would have on the Australian economy is enormous and too frightening to contemplate. This would just be the beginning of the huge task a Coalition Government will have of unravelling the stupid laws and regulations imposed by the present Labor/Green/Independent unGovernment of PM Julia. Let's get to work. Cheers, Allano