Climate Emergnecy Foot & Bike
Protest Parade
2pm Sat Dec 19 Victoria Square
Grab your bike or just your
shoes - Critical Climate is set
to take over the streets again -
Bigger and better than ever!
ZERO CARBON AUSTRALIA STATIONARY ENERGY PLAN
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A ten year roadmap for 100% renewable energy
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Baseload energy supplied by renewable sources
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affordable at $8 per household per week
This exciting report was released this week and has received some good coverage by the media. Matthew Wright, Beyond Zero Emissions with Patrick Hearps of the University of Melbourne are the lead authors
A MUST READ
To read a copy on screen, or order a hard copy, go to
http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org/zero-carbon-australia-2020
For some media reports try these http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/13/2952656.htm
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/pm/201007/20100713-pm-3-grid-plan.mp3
Here is the Forward of the Report.....
"Twenty-eight billion is a big number. Measured in tonnes it is a very heavy load. This figure is the amount of sediment eroded each year from all our mountains and carried by all our rivers to all our seas. And it is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) we pump into the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels globally – enough to cover Australia in a blanket two metres thick. In dollars, it is just a little more than the extra annual investment needed to reconfigure Australia’s stationary energy system to have zero emissions in just 10 years time.
Each year the 28 billion tonnes of CO2 we make induces heating. The oceans are now heating at the phenomenal rate of 300 trillion watts. In frighteningly human terms that is equivalent to detonating five Hiroshima sized A-bombs every second, every day of every year.
To make 28 billion tonnes of CO2 we dig 7 billion tones of coal and suck countless gallons of oil and gas from the ground. In total we already excavate more rock from the Earth than nature does. With peak oil rapidly approaching, if not passed, BP’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe attests to the huge risks entailed in maintaining production.
The rate we consume energy to emit that CO2 is 16 trillion watts. That is already about 1/3 of the energy released by plate tectonics - the process that pushes continents around the globe over geological time making mountains and earthquakes as it goes. On current growth trajectories we are set to surpass this amount of energy by 2060.
Each year we are adding a bit under 1% to the atmospheric CO2 load, enhancing the greenhouse effect by a small fraction of a percent. By trapping just a tiny extra fraction of the incoming solar energy, we are heating not only the atmosphere, but also the oceans and land.
Such numbers give a very real sense that we humans are now operating as a geological change agent. But the scary thing is we have only just begun. Energy use is increasing exponentially, doubling every 34 years so that it will increase by 800% in a century. Curtailing energy growth will not be easy with 2 billion people already in energy poverty and 2 billion more added to the human number by mid century.
So how will we cater for our future energy needs?
One answer stares us in the face. Effectively converting about 0.06% of the solar energy that hits the land would meet the entire global energy demand.
But aren’t there problems with renewable energy? Isn’t it too expensive and unreliable? After all, the wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun doesn’t shine at night.
Currently, advanced solar thermal power with molten salt storage, capable of producing power on demand day or night, is about four times more expensive than the cheapest coal fired power plants. But the cost of new technologies always reduces with large-scale rollout. The 2003 USbased Sargent & Lundy report anticipated solar thermal electricity costs would reach parity with coal fired power once 8.7 GW of capacity was installed – just a bit under Victoria’s stationary energy capacity today.
So far, there has not even been modest stimulus for solar thermal power. The Global Financial Crisis is partly to blame, but political will is the resource in shortest supply. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill may have changed that.
So what if we were to try to build a 100% renewable energy system to power the Australian economy in just 10 years? How could we possibly do that, and what would it cost?
That is the challenge outlined in Australian Sustainable Energy – Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan.
Zero Carbon Australia outlines a coherent and thoroughly researched blueprint showing how 100% renewable energy is achievable using technologies that are commercially available today: wind power and concentrating solar thermal with molten salt storage. It goes through the options, costs
and benefits, confirming that a 10 year transformation of the stationary energy sector is achievable and affordable. This will also add huge stimulus to the new green economy and create jobs.
Zero Carbon Australia demonstrates that both cost and variability can be readily addressed, and exposes as myth the frequent argument that we need coal, gas or nuclear to provide baseload electricity. This is achieved by first smoothing power output across the grid via geographically dispersed production, and secondly providing dispatchable “back up” power from the molten salt storage at solar
thermal power plants. Our nation continent, stretching across climate and time zones, appears ready made for this.
Zero Carbon Australia provides a big vision - Australia as a
renewable energy powerhouse. But 28 billion tonnes of CO2 is a big load, and getting bigger. Therefore a big vision for an alternative energy system is precisely what is needed.
Zero Carbon Australia is an extraordinary and pragmatic roadmap to a new and more sustainable energy system in Australia, and ultimately our region. I recommend it to all who are truly interested in securing Australia’s energy future.
Mike Sandiford
Professor of Geology
Director, Melbourne Energy Institute
University of Melbourne
June 2010"
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Water and Climate Summit
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Reports and copy of presentations will be uploaded here soon.
An investigation of the scientific knowledge of the effect of climate change on water in South Australia, considering both water use and natural water systems like the Murray Darling Basin. _
If world greenhouse emissions keep rising at current rates, temperatures in the Murray-Darling basin late this century will most probably be 5-7C hotter than at present.
How will higher temperatures affect the rivers and lakes? What will people in SE Australia do for water? What will happen to sea levels and the coastal environment?
In this seminar, climate campaigners get together with scientists and water activists to look at the really tough questions of South Australia’s future.
And to make sure the politicians don’t escape - members of environmentally aware parties and movements will discuss strategies for making water and the climate key issues in thus year’s federal elections
T
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"New Rural Industries for Future Climates"
The RIRDC (Rural Industries
Research and Development
Corporation) has just published
/*New Rural Industries for
Future Climates*/ which you can
buy or read as a pdf file at
https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/10-010
An interesting publication well
worth a visit. It actually
assesses the effects of climate
change on 6 regions of
Australia, and has some very
details information and graphs.
The following are two small
quotes.
/"Climate
change has the potential to
substantially alter the mix of
agricultural industries across
many regions of Australia. It
will
threaten the viability of some
existing agricultural industries
and create opportunities for new
rural industries that are better
adapted to future climates. The
importance of this report is
that it brings together climate
projections with an assessment
of
the vulnerability of existing
agricultural industries, and
suggests possible production
opportunities. A number of
opportunities
for new rural industries are
described, the plant traits
necessary for productive crops
in these conditions are
discussed, and new
rural industries options that
fit these requirements are
suggested."
"In conjunction with reduced
irrigation water availability,
increasing water salinity levels
are also likely to impact on
agricultural production systems.
*The mean salinity of water
at Adelaide (sourced from the
lower reaches of the River
Murray) was simulated to
increase from 468 to 672 (EC
units) by 2030 associated with a
3-11% decline in river flow,
and increased further to 5216 EC
by 2070 associated with
60-100% declines in river flows
across the catchments in the
Murray–Darling basin* (Quiggan
et al. 2008)."
/
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Photographs of CLEANSA in the Adelaide Fringe Opening Parade.
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Copenhagen negotiators bicker and filibuster while the biosphere burns
George Monbiot despairs at the chaotic, disastrous denouement of a chaotic and disastrous climate summit, Click here to read
