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Old King Coal
Sigh! I have said it before and said it often, Clean Coal is an Oxymoron! It is a contradiction in terms. By its very nature, the burning of coal produces huge volumes of carbon dioxide. It doesn't matter what fancy additions and modern day engineering fine tuning you add to the equation, the result is the same -- huge volumes of carbon dioxide will be spewed forth from coal fired power stations, now and forever more amen! Am I using loaded language? You bet. Am I being inflammatory in my choice of terms and in the way I am framing my argument? Yesirree dammit, I am! The reason is simple. These arguments and the equations that go with them have already been put and nobody is taking the situation serious enough. The time to act is now. We should initiate change that will result in energy generation coming from sources other than coal and nuclear sources.
I have laid out some of my preferred options elsewhere on this website. Meantime back to coal. First off, I do recognise that an immediate transition to other energy sources ain't going to happen over night. Other strategies need to be in place. Infrastructures need to be put in place and more importantly other power sources need to be made financially and operationally viable. It takes time, planning, experimentation, testing and finally roll-out and implementation. All accepted and given.
My objection is this short sighted focus on Clean Coal and the sequestering of CO2 waste gas. First off the sequestering of CO2 ain't practical. It's costly as a concept. It can't be made to work is a way that makes sense and frankly my dear, it's damned right dangerous as an engineering concept. Let's take it as a given that the engineers finally put together a plant where they capture the off-gas from a power station. They cool it and pipe it underground in a compressed form. Now CO2 is a funny substance. It doesn't like to exist as a liquid. You've heard the term, dry ice? Well children, that is CO2 in solid form. It does exist in a transition state when going from solid to gas, but that is usually from combining with water vapour in the earth's atmosphere.
So we get this huge cave and pipe the CO2 in under pressure. What happens? Well initially there won't be much pressure and the CO2 will change to a gas and start looking for a way out. But let's be optimistic - a dangerous supposition perhaps but still - let's suppose that the planners get it right and we end up with huge cave complexes filled with solid CO2. What happens then? Well for one thing it depends on how pure the CO2 is. Call me a cynic, but I would bet that any gas-off from a power station will have a nice little poisonous cocktail which would be piped along with the CO2 into these depths of the Plutonic underground.
Now let me paint a picture of some of the disasters that could and in some cases, are almost certain to happen. First off, Australia is in one sense the lucky country in terms of tectonic stability. We don't get much in the way of earthquakes or volcanic activity. Let us picture an increasing volume of CO2 based sludge growing underground. This sludge would combine with water under pressure and have the potential to be a nice little lubricant. Now some scientists would take out their notebooks and calculators and look at the engineering and say that I was scare mongering. To them I would say, in the first twenty five years or so you could be right. But look at what happens after that. If CO2 is sequestered undergound, not just here but all over the world and the demand for this kind of technology begins to grow - then what happens? Particularly what happens in parts of the world where the earth is a little less stable? One thing is for sure, I would not be taking up residence anywhere within 200 miles of the San Andreas fault. Come to think of it, make that 2,000 miles.
Then there is the matter of how much in the way of poisonous pollutants will leach into the aquifers in the near vicinity of the CO2 storage. I could go on and talk about the engineering problems of actually capturing the waste gases and storing them in a way which is safe and economically viable. Believe me, it hasn't happened yet. In fact so far, most of the discoveries have been negative. So where do we go from here? I know there are a lot of people going around pulling their hair out screaming: But we need Coal! We have too much invested in it.
My primary agreement is with the argument that we should continue with coal as an energy source in the short term. However I would also argue that any coal burning plant be made responsible for their carbon (dioxide) footprint in two ways. Firstly they should change the design of their coal burning so that the waste gases are cooled and reticulated through large forest/plantation areas around the power plants. Have you ever take a close look at a power station. The damn things are full of coal, slag waste and huge concrete silos. More importantly the gases given off by the furnaces are passed up huge chimneys into the atmosphere. If the CO2 is allowed to escape into the atmosphere while hot then it will be blown away and dissipated into the atmosphere. If the gases are passed over cooling pipes and then collected in storage areas in stages where they become lowered in temperature, they can then be passed into valleys below the power station where they can be absorbed by trees and other vegetation.
The secondary focus of the power industry should be on transition. Coal should not be subsidised and supported, not even if it goes in the direction where it is more carbon neutral. Why? Because by its very nature, the burning of coal will always result in CO2 emission.
As a choice of power supply, coal should be taxed to help implement the transition to new technology. Some economists may see this as being unfair, something like paying for the bullet for your own execution. In a sense there is truth is this, but it is the sort of equation that makes sense.
It gives us the outcome we are looking for, escape from a coal based power industry to a supply of power which does not impact negatively on the environment. This isn't just something we need. We need it as soon as possible. We have to start moving in that direction and we have to start moving now!
Coal is not the answer. Coal is part of the problem - probably a major part - and we have to start moving away from this choice of power provision now.
King Coal might not be dead, but he is extremely sick. The only problem is that nobody wants to give him the news. Nobody has wanted to believe the messenger. So write it up. Write it large. Tell the world that the land down under has heard the message and is taking action - now!
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Blind man, the youngster shouted. What fool you be. Why old No-Eyes do you carry a lantern, you whose midnight is no lighter than his noonday?
The Blind Man lifted his lamp. It is not as a light for myself that I carry this, Boy, he said. It is to warn off you fools with eyes.
Hansa Proverb.
Me: Excuse me who are you and what are you doing on my computer?
Stranger: Buenos Dios Senior. Hola! Qué tal? My name is Gonzales and I have come to geeve you a message.
Me: A message?
Gonzales: Si Senior. (Smile)
Me: What message? Who is it from and why are you delivering it this way?
Gonzales: It's from a wise man, Senior. It's all the way from Mehico and we do things a leetle differently down there, you know?
Me: Yes I can see that.
Gonzales: Well it's a long way to send a message and we want to be sure it arrives OK, you see?
Me: Yes I see.
(Pregnant pause)
Me: So what is the message?
Gonzales: Ah yes, Senor. But like I said, it's a long way to come. A man could get very thirsty, you know?
Me: I understand. You'd like a drink?
Gonzales: Mucho gracias, Senior. My English, she improves when I have a little Tequila.
Me: I'm sure it does, but will a little white wine do?
Gonzales: Ah well, we give it a try yes?
Me: We give it a try, yes.
(Gonzales takes the drink)
Me: And the message?
Gonzales: Si, Senior -- here is your message.
And so I began to read:
Greetings my young friend
I have a concern which I would share with you. You may remember me from the time when I visited your father many years ago and shared his hospitality. I am writing this letter to share my thinking with you. A wise man once said that the richness of the Earth is for all to share. But surely this is so, only if we are true custodians and return to it at our passing, in a better state than when we were born.
I have studied the ways of the Earth and listened to many of the scientists and great thinkers. They speak of Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases and the growth of New Technology. Everything is spoken in capitals. What is being neglected is the true nature of our Mother Earth - our Gaia. She can be a womb for us to enjoy in comfort and luxury - but not if we abuse her.
The current observers who see what is happening with the melting of the permafrost and the stress that is growing in the web of life are only describing part of the problem. The real challenge is deeper. The problem is not just of warming and heat. The problem is energy. Let me explain.
The Earth is a giant heat exchanger. On the night side heat energy is pumped out into space every time the face of the earth turns away from the sun. From the time of sunrise, the energy from the sun beats down and is absorbed into the atmosphere and on the water and land. The more carbon dioxide there is in the Earth's atmosphere, the more heat is trapped. But it doesn't end there.
Heat energy doesn't just act as an agent of warming and climate change. It changes weather systems. Ocean currents are disturbed. In the atmosphere, weather patterns become more energetic, hence more violent. If you spoke to the American man in the street and told him that the cyclonic fury will grow and that tornado alley will multiply and extend its season, he will curse you for it. If you then say it is something that he has brought upon himself, he will look at you as though you are insane, take out a gun and try to shoot you. Yet this is the truth in this accusation. American's have been told for years that they should pollute less with their cars, their industry and other insane excesses. Now they will reap the whirlwind, literally. But of course it won't stop at the borders of the US and nor should it. The people of every nation have contributed to this disaster.
The reality is that we must do more than cut down our greenhouse gas emissions. We must diminish them until they are nothing. We must not just be carbon (dioxide) neutral, we must begin to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide more and more and return the Earth to a dynamic where its health begins to improve.
Most people, particularly scientists, engineers and politicians will throw their hands up in rejection at even the contemplation of such a concept. They will see this as an impossible idea - impractical, idealistic and impossible to achieve. In fact the opposite is the case. The problem is, that we haven't done it before. We haven't engineered things to happen that way - and so we are blind to what is really possible. For it to happen, the reason for our existence must be oriented towards a better environment - this must be the underpinning of everything we do. How, you may ask, can it be done?
First, we must be more than prescriptive, we must be revolutionary. Forget such concepts as Clean Coal. This an oxymoron - a contradiction in terms. King Coal is a dirty beast and if we have to use him, then we have to compensate. First off if you are going to burn coal for a turbine, don't use old technology. Use the latest innovations. This will make the operation more efficient and less polluting. Then don't contemplate sequestering the carbon dioxide underground. There are a multitude of reasons for this concept to be discarded. The compressed carbon dioxide will combine with water to form a poisonous sludge in the sub-strata of the Earth. It will be wasteful, expensive and inefficient. If we must have coal fired power stations then have the carbon dioxide reticulated to pass through bushes and trees planted close to the power station. Run the gases off into cooling towers or caves and then let it flow down into valleys of trees and bushes or even crops planted for that very purpose. In other words, turn the carbon dioxide into trees and food, make it useful -- not just another waste product.
Second, cities are pest holes of heat generation. All they are, are concrete bastions of man's stupidity. They are badly designed and lacking in what they need. It isn't just the heat and carbon dioxide generated by cars, it is the heat generated by badly designed air conditioning systems. Small particulate matter or tiny particles which cannot be removed by normal filters, cause most of the health problems in our cities today. But look at the design of the cities for a moment and it is clear why this is the case. Cities are designed for cars, not people. The building do nothing to freshen the air. Can this be changed? Yes of course. But we need to rethink what a building should do. It should cleanse the air or at least contribute to the cleansing. It should lower the temperature inside in summer without huge amounts of power consumption. How? Well for a start, every surface which gets sunlight can be covered with plant life. Make it a lawn of grass. Make it a lattice of flowing plants. Streets should be lined with trees. Trees are the lungs of the Earth. They remove small nasty particles that make us sick. They use heat and light energy for photosynthesis, so they lower the temperature.
We should rethink the design of building to incorporate huge volumes of plant life. In this way the rooms can cooled and oxygenated with much less power and airflow becomes more of an issue than air-conditioning.
In power generation we should look for more deep commitment to so-called renewable energy. It isn't renewable, by the way it just means there are no polluting by-products. These types of energy generation are capable of huge energy generation including base load requirements. The thing is, not to limit our investment to one kind of plant, but to make major investment in both plant and infrastructure of a number of different systems. It is purely an economy of scale. The more you use some systems, the cheaper they become. I would favour solar heat conversion systems for a number of reasons. One thing they do is take heat and covert it into electrical energy. Obviously this means heat energy is being piped elsewhere. Once generators of this kind are build outside capital cities, they will also be able to be built in country areas as the costs reduce. Our focus should be on developing this type of technology. We know it works. Now what is needed is to make it affordable. Once this is achieved they can generate base load energy without any polluting side effects. Once a system is built the only on-going cost is infrastructure support and maintenance. Of course that the actual power generation. There is also the on-going cost of distribution.
One aspect of the new power technology will be the financial competition which will help diversify and strengthen the growth of small operators. One of the problems at the moment is that large oligarchies that run power supply empires, get very set in their ways. If King Coal is threatened they go running to their local member. Look at my investment, they wail. You have to protect my interests, they plead. Rubbish! Let the dollar speak. Let the wildcat operator set up and compete by supplying power to the grid. Farmers may have wind farms. Others may set up their own revolutionary system of steam turbine driven by underground steam. Whatever works can be employed, providing it doesn't add to the problem. But whatever happens forget coal, it is yesterday's solution. It deserves the grave, not subsidy, not sequestation of waste development. Take it to an early end and concentrate on technology which adds to life.
We should look to innovations which can drastically reduce polluting the atmosphere. Hydrogen as a fuel for planes shouldn't be that far away. We probably aren't ready with the technology just yet - but we could be soon. Until we can limit the risk of exploding in mid-air this will not get off the drawing board. When it happens tho' you will have hyper-sonic flights in a fraction of the time to the other side of the world and the only by-product will be water vapour. Our use of power will become more and more innovative and efficient as the cost of power grows. There will be a cost bump as we convert to alternative, non-polluting forms of supply. What is interesting is that then the cost of power will begin to drop. More and more innovation and engineering evolution will lead to cleaner, cheaper power. Once this cycle begins, the power providers will have to compete with innovations and costs saving to gain market share.
Finally, we can look to the Earth for ways to improve our cities and our streets so that we are truly citizens who do not impact negatively by just being here. The tropical rain forests should be protected, enhanced and re-grown. There is nothing more insane than palm oil subsidies to enable destruction of our forests. But closer to home we can add to the cleanliness and make the air cooler and healthier to breathe with more plant life populating our lives.
I turned over the paper. But this was all. For a moment I sat thinking until I noticed my companion restive in his chair.
Me: Thank you, Gonzales.
Gonzales: Bienvenido Es un placer Senior.
Me: Tell me Gonzales, what is your first name?
Gonzales: Gonzales Senior. My first and my last name. I was the only child and my father he was a bit forgetful as well as being fond of our national passtime -- which is siesta (Smile) so mi Madre she tried to make it easy for my father to remember my name.
Me: I see. And are you related to Speedy Gonzales?
Gonzales: He is my cousin, Senior.
Me: And what do they call you?
(Gonzales shuffles feet and smiles self consciously) (Blush)
Gonzales: They call me -- Loco Gonzales.
Me: Ah I see.
Gonzales: And do you have any message for me to give your friend, Senior?
Me: I will write to him, when I have given it some thought.
Gonzales: Bueno. I will tell him.
Me: And that he should always go -- as you say: Vaya con Dios. And I hope he enjoys his place in the sun and that he will stay well.
Gonzales: I will tell him. I will deliver your message.
Me: Thank you Gonzales. Hasta luego!
Gonzales: Until next time Senior. Adios!
An Open Letter to Kevin Rudd, Jenny Macklin, Julia Gillard, Brendon Nelson and Malcom Turnbull
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To the Prime Minister and Other Honorable Members
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Greetings
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Tansstafl is a term invented or stolen by science fiction author, Robert A. Heinlein for his novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Simply stated it is There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. It is a sentiment which is not new. There is however a corollary which is not quite as well known. This is: If Sounds Too Good To Be True, Then It Probably IS!
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Now let's talk housing, low-cost housing for the Aroriginal community. The concept is laudable BUT unless the social engineering and the logistics are not put in place, it won't work. I know whereof I speak. It has been tried before in the Northern Territory. My Dad after he resigned from being Surveyor General for the Territory discussed the situation with me on a number of occasions. He was a bit puzzled by it all. A group of Aborigines had been given virtually new houses fresh off the reservation at peppercorn or non-existent rent. In the main the project failed dismally. The toilets got blocked. In the houses, if they needed wood for fires, they tore up the flooboards and cooked their meals on an open fire. I'm talking extremes here to get the point across.
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The point I am making is that if you have a group of people who have been disadvantaged and downtrodden. If this same people have been told over and over again that they are useless and shiftless and incapable of doing anything for themselves - then cheap, affordabale housing BY ITSELF is not the answer.
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First think it through. The outcome being planned for is to have a growing segment of the Aboriginal community living in houses that they are comfortable with and proud to maintain. How do we get from where we are now, to where this is not just a dream but a work in progress? The first and most important rule is that the main engine of the enterprise should be planned, driven and with labour resourced from the Aboriginal community. From the top down it should be their enterprise. Nothing else makes sense.
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Second: It should be low cost community housing where people can contribute to the building of their own homes. The aim should be to keep the costs to a bare minimum. Use the latest innovation or the oldest technology. Whatever makes sense but include the latest safety measures, green technology and low-maintenance engineering.
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Third: Train and finance team leaders to build homes. Then have those teams train more people. Use materials which are fire-retardant and provide heat insulation. Have water tanks and grey water storage built in. Include solar hot water systems and roofing with solar cells for power. Have wind turbines to add to the power generation.
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Finally involve the Aboriginal artistic community in the architectural design as well as the design of the interiors and outside walls. Have the overall look-feel of the houses reflect the Aboriginal culture and a celebration of a new coming of age where their communities are valued and their people loved and respected for what they are.
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It is time to lift the Aboriginal community to a level where they are truly equal to all others in our land. But we must not try to do this from outside, dictating to them what we believe they should do. We must work with them to give them the power, the resources and pride in themselves to make this happen for themselves. Power to the People. Yes! Power to All People. Yes! But the power for each of them to be able to work their own magic, from within. Oh Yes, please!
Mum and Dad - when young
We were all young once, even our parents. My first memory of being with my Mum and Dad on a holiday was down at Meelup in WA. I don't know if I've got the spelling right but we were camping out. There was a tent, green with mosquito netting and camp stretchers - beds of canvas and wooden cross legged support. Scouting around and securing the camp was my dog, Smudge. Smudge was a Cocker Spaniel very attached to me and as faithful a friend that young boy ever had.
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We need to look at some of the earlier traditions in films and how writers played their part. But first we must explore the barriers of truth and reality with the understanding that neither need have any relationship with the other. There are rules and perceptions by which we live, but whether or not they have any root in what we term reality, is a moot point. We are given to understand that we must live with the consequences of our actions. The question then is: What are those consequences and are they truly represented in the myth that permeates cinema folklore?
Truth is truly a double-edged sword. But there is a harsher reality. We see the same things differently. Your truth is your conception of reality and you are mistaken, for I am the true custodian of truth. How do I know this? Why because it echoes in my soul with absolute conviction – a bone dead certainty
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Most Australian films suffer from a degree of predictability or from unconvincing red herrings in the plot lines. The best films have scripts which engage us and wring us out with emotion. When did you last see an Australian film which generated that sort of feeling in your gut?
So here is the question: If films need teams of people interacting with one another -- collaborating to find a common vision -- what is the best type of team to put together
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RE: John: Just another filmmaker... ]---------------------JUST ANOTHER FILM -- Are you serious!? ------------------------------------------------------Sam wrote:
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