It is possible to save the world from devastation and disaster and make it a better place for the future if and it’s a very big if, there is political leadership on implementing renewable energy strategies and putting some resources into research and development.
That is the message that Dr Mark Diesendorf is trying to get out and he did it very convincingly at a public lecture last night at city hall organised by Climate Action Newcastle.
I’ve got to admit that whilst in my heart of hearts I knew renewables were the way to go I was often put in a position of doubting my gut instincts when the news was bleating ‘Clean coal and nuclear solutions’. I was sceptical and there didn’t seem to be any news about the alternative scenarios.
Dr D put it all into powerpoint perspective though and cleared the clean coal haze that had been swirling around my non nuclear noggin. Below is some of what he had to say.
The first message that we were given was the urgency of the ‘Greenhouse amplification issue’ also known as global warming. There are many things happening on our little planet that when combined are real worldly worries.
For example the ice melting around the poles isn’t just bad for polar bears and penguins it also affects how much heat is soaked up or radiated back into space. White surfaces reflect heat, dark surfaces absorb heat and so melting ice means heat is being retained on earth not bounced back into the great unknown.
And there’s more …the permafrost, frozen ground that use to be frozen ground for a large part of the year, also use to hold greenhouse gases in it. So you guessed it, defrosting not-so-permafrost is now releasing greenhouse gasses.
But wait there’s more…and it’s not a set of steak knives but our lives at stake, because warmer air holds more water and water is a greenhouse gas too. These three things and a few more once they kick in, they can keep amplifying the greenhouse effect, and the signs are already there that it’s starting to happen. So it becomes very important to have targets that everyone can work towards to slow down these well known processes.
The people in the know reckon to have a liveable world we need a long term target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. To get to this target we’ll have to be working towards 30% less greenhouse gases by 2020. To get to this target action has to start now or in the next 6 years at least.
This is where it’s important to understand the problem with the ‘Clean Coal’ conundrum. The technology will not be viable before 2025, so it cannot contribute to the short term target. It is also very expensive to develop and no one knows at this point in time if it’s going to work. Dr D reckons that it should be a big superpower to actually do the R&D to get it up and running not a relatively small economy like Australia.
Other on the ground problems are ’clean coal’ still depends on burning coal and so still contributes land degradation, air and health problems and if it leaks out of its capture cavern all animal life forms in the immediate area suffocate. So if we have to try and save the planet depending on something that isn’t there and may not even work it seems like a pretty risky option.
The other nightly news solution that has been offered is ‘new generation nuclear power’. The facts on that one are it doesn’t exist either. To build a new nuclear power plant it would be of the 1970’s style. It would also be expensive and very slow to build and if reducing greenhouse gases is the aim of the game the process of getting 1kg of uranium out of the ground from low grade oar requires 10tonne of rock to be extracted crushed and mushed, a very diesel and digger intensive process, i.e. lots of greenhouse gas production. So this option doesn’t help with meeting the short term targets either.
But don’t despair because we have the technology to make a difference and it could be rolled out the day after the election if the political will was present. Genuine solutions exist in energy efficiency, renewables and natural gas. It seems so simple you have to wonder why we aren’t doing it, of course the answer is there is no political leadership in fact the renewable energy industry has been cut up, drawn out and dehydrated of funds thanks to Johnny H and his coal compatriots.
Back to the good news…
Energy efficiency is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce greenhouse gasses.
It also involves education and saving money and helps us all to realise how to live in a greenhouse world. Things like pointing your house in the right direction, insulation, efficient appliances and heating can make real in roads in to reducing emissions. If all off peak hot water systems were changed for solar hot water ¼ of the energy demand would be gone. These approaches can help meet the short term greenhouse gas reduction targets, they are doable now.
Renewable Energy options are also ‘now options’.
One of the technologies Dr D is an expert in is wind power. The pooh-pooh people reckon it can’t do ‘base-load’ but Dr D begs to differ. A large scale windfarm, spread over hundreds on km can capture enough wind continuously to provide energy efficiently and if you really want to make it super base load compliant like coal, a gas turbine peak load assister is all that’s needed.
The base-load argument is a bit of a furphy really because most demand for power is in the day time when the sun is a shining and so solar photovoltaic is part of a solution. The exciting news on the horizon though is that solar thermal electricity where the suns rays are used to store heat in water, rocks, graphite or salt is capable of providing the baseload power that the Power People want and this technology will be up and running way before the first clean coal carbon atom is captured or the ninth neutron is annihilated in a nuclear reactor.
Other exciting renewable options that won’t kill if unsuccessful are hot rock geothermal, a process as simple as two holes in the ground. Water in-steam out-turbine turns and it’s a closed system so it’s not water intensive. France and Australia are blazing the hot rock trail.
So after an hour of Dr D I felt a bit better about the future. What became very clear though was that what is driving our political processes is not the people’s will, climate change is an issue to most mere mortals, but the Power & Industry perpetrators who have the government’s ear and chequebooks.
If we are to meet the short term targets government policy has to change within the next two terms, and the sooner the better.
- An integrated public transport system will reduce dependence on cars
- No new coal powered electricity stations should be built, they have a 40 year legacy that we cannot afford to take on.
- Energy ratings should be on all energy consuming appliances, buildings and equipment
- Mandatory renewable energy targets need to be set.
- And research funding needs to be supplied.
It is a sorry state of affairs when there are 3 research centres for coal and not one for renewable energy. Australia has been leading the world in many areas of renewable research only to have their projects and prospects thwarted by a coal crazy government who cuts funding quicker than you can say ‘make it count in this election’.
I’m really glad I went to hear Dr D. What was really inspiring though is what he was saying is what the Greens are campaigning for. I even bought his 2007 book Greenhouse Solution with Sustainable Energy. It’s on the to-do list for after the 24th.
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