The Earth is our Grandma

by: Unenergy

Fri May 14, 2010 at 15:58:52 PM EST

I'd like to start off by saying thank you to all the brothers and sisters that've come here today representing this cause.

I've been asked by Mr. Ittok and the Tribal Council to speak to you and the members of the press about the injustice that's been brought against us by some government officials and big business.

Documenting Oilpocalypse, Oil leaks and Wikileaks

by: Unenergy

Fri Apr 30, 2010 at 22:55:03 PM EST

Gulf fisheries are some of the most productive in the world. In 2008 according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the commercial fish and shellfish harvest from the five U.S. Gulf states was estimated to be 1.3 billion pounds valued at $661 million. The Gulf also contains four of the top seven fishing ports in the nation by weight. The Gulf of Mexico has eight of the top twenty fishing ports in the nation by dollar value.

From one of DailyKos knowledgeable posters, Fishgrease

The heavier components don't mix... but they sink which is the really really really bad news. The lighter stuff evaporates off, leaving asphaltines and tars and paraffins. Saltwater can water-wet that stuff and it sinks. Kill a wetlands for a thousand years.
Destroy a commercial fishery forever (crabs, clams).

Those Fish Belong to ME

by: Unenergy

Fri Apr 23, 2010 at 16:04:13 PM EST

Utilities, of course, were regulated monopolies that avoided competition and the free enterprise system, but Vennard wrapped them in the American flag while he attacked his public power opponents as socialists.
"And who'd want to leave a socialistic U.S.A. to his kids?

A pioneer in polling and public relations, Vennard hired George Gallup to discover phrases and images that would spur Americans to feel positively about private utilities and negatively about public power.
"Investor owned' rather than 'privately owned; and disliked 'government owned' rather than 'public power'.

Punk'd or Monck'd?

by: Unenergy

Fri Apr 16, 2010 at 18:36:31 PM EST

There is a common misconception, spread throughout the media, that Climate Skeptics have been intentionally ignored by the mainstream media in order to create the impression in the reader or viewers mind, that what they have to say is being supressed.

Our natural instinct once this framing became the conventional wisdom, was to see overcompensation within the media to 'give them equal air time', and for many individuals to become somewhat outraged, believing that something was being hidden from them.

The net result, many of these individuals became convinced of a conspiracy, hence increased malleability to accept on face value the statements of the well groomed media personalities which burst onto the scene just prior to Copenhagen with the pretense they were 'whistleblowers' and there was a concerted effort to keep them quiet.

However, things are not quite as they seem....

Arctic Ice Melt could cost 24 trillion by 2050

by: Unenergy

Sat Feb 06, 2010 at 21:51:59 PM EST

Arctic ice melting could cost global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from $US2.4 trillion ($2.8 billion) to $US24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea levels, floods and heat waves, according to a report released on Friday.

The research project involved more than 370 scientists from 27 countries who collectively spent 15 months, starting in June 2007, aboard a research vessel above the Arctic Circle. It marked the first time a ship has stayed mobile in Canada's high Arctic for an entire winter.

E-Solar

by: Unenergy

Wed Jan 06, 2010 at 07:28:00 AM EST

An Aussie Visiting America - A futurist for a week

by: Unenergy

Wed Dec 30, 2009 at 00:00:00 AM EST

Disruptive Solar technologies

by: Unenergy

Fri Dec 18, 2009 at 09:57:48 AM EST

Yesterday I wrote of a technology called concentrated photovoltaics, which if all goes well, may bring the retail cost of solar panels down from at present, $4.31 per watt, to 30c per watt.

Moore's Law for Solar - 30c watt in years to come

The technology I discussed was the concentration of the sun, using fresnel lens or mirrors like in a telescope, being able to reduce the area of active semi conductor material down to 1000th of that of Silicon to produce equivalent electricity.

Today I'd like to look at Silicon solar cells and what happens if we concentrate sunlight onto them.

Moore's Law for Solar - 30c watt in years to come

by: Unenergy

Wed Dec 16, 2009 at 12:54:36 PM EST

"We have an economy where we steal the future, sell it in the present and call it GDP (Gross Domestic Product)" Paul Hawken

The United States as of 2007, had approximately 1,087 Gigawatts of electricity generating capacity.

China had around 624 Gigawatts of Electricity Generation capacity.

Australia has approximately 48 Gigawatts of generating capacity.

India has 147 Gigawatts of electricity generation capacity.

Overcoming Apathy in Australia - Project Omelas

by: Unenergy

Sat Dec 05, 2009 at 11:09:24 AM EST

2006-07 Australian bushfire season
The 2006-07 Australian bushfire season was one of the most extensive bushfire seasons in Australia's history. Victoria experienced the longest continuously burning bushfire complex in Australia's history, with fires in the Victorian Alps and Gippsland burning over 1 million hectares of land over the course of 69 days.

January 2009
The early 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave was a heat wave that commenced in late January and led to record-breaking prolonged high temperatures in the region. The heat wave is considered one of, if not the most, extreme in the region's history. During the heat wave, 50 separate locations set various records for consecutive, highest daytime and overnight temperatures.

According to a Monash University study of funeral notices, more than 200 people died as a result of the heat wave. A 45% increase in the death rate was noted during the time. A subsequent report by Victoria's chief health officer, Dr John Carnie, put the final figure at 374.

An Aussie Visiting America - Boulder City Solar

by: Unenergy

Thu Dec 03, 2009 at 19:13:23 PM EST

During a trip in August, across the United States, one of the things I had planned was to visit a number of solar installations. Just out from Las Vegas, not far from the airport at Boulder City which flies people to/from The Grand Canyon, there is a substantial solar trough power station. Its output is 65 Megawatts, which using rule of thumb of 1,000 people per MW, can supply enough power for 65,000 homes whilst the sun is shining.

For a city heavily dependent on the Hoover Dam for its power and water, any means to potentially reduce water flow for power generation out of Lake Mead, makes sense. Particularly when you consider the drought and massive drop in water level in the lake since 1999.

It is estimated that by 2012, the lake's surface could fall below the existing pipe that delivers 40 percent of Las Vegas's water.

Solar Technologies - Australia

by: Unenergy

Mon Nov 23, 2009 at 16:23:51 PM EST

Drawing A Line in the Black Sand

by: Unenergy

Wed Nov 18, 2009 at 00:00:00 AM EST

There Will Be Blood is a 2007 American drama film directed, written and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film is loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! (1927). It tells the story of a silver-miner-turned-oil-man on a ruthless quest for wealth during Southern California's oil boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

I'd read a few books, watched a few documentaries and done a ton of internet research not long before this and had been slowly coming to the conclusion that we genuinely had a whole bunch of powerful people who knew that emissions of C02 were endangering the ability of life to survive on our planet. The frightening thing was many of these people were working  hard to make sure we kept burning fossil fuels at ever increasing rates and making sure the transition to cleaner sources of energy never happened.
I didn't really understand why though until I watched this movie and a few pennies dropped.

Australia and asylum seekers

by: Unenergy

Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 12:00:36 PM EST

July 13, 2009
Navy intercepts Sri Lankan asylum seekers
MANY women and children are among more than 70 Sri Lankan asylum seekers now on Christmas Island after they were picked up at sea on Saturday.

A fishing boat carrying the group was spotted by a Customs and Border Protection aircraft about 80 nautical miles from Christmas Island and was intercepted by the navy patrol boat HMAS Armidale.

It has been anticipated that many Sri Lankans would try to reach Australia and other countries after the fierce fighting on their home island in which government forces crushed the Tamil Tigers' insurgency.

Project Omelas - Building a country by building Energy infrastructure

by: Unenergy

Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 14:12:28 PM EST

Of course that employer disbanded when the State of Victoria sold all its electricity assets so this Long Service Leave entitlement went with it.

An Aussie Visiting America - Americas ingenuity

by: Unenergy

Sun Oct 25, 2009 at 21:33:11 PM EST

F.D. Roosevelt
President of the United States
White House
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
     Some recent work by E.Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem
to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. I believe therefore that it is my duty to bring to your attention the following facts and recommendations:

     In the course of the last four months it has been made probable through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America - that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium,by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.

High Country to Appalachia

by: Unenergy

Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 20:47:46 PM EST

"He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosciusko's side,
Where the hills are twice as steep and twice as rough,
Where a horse's hoofs strike firelight from the flint stones every stride,
The man that holds his own is good enough.
And the Snowy River riders on the mountains make their home,
Where the river runs those giant hills between;
I have seen full many horsemen since I first commenced to roam,
But nowhere yet such horsemen have I seen".

"The Man from Snowy River" is based around an area they call the 'High Country', part of Australias Great Dividing Range which is where some of the most magnificent mountains anywhere in Australia can be found. Growing up it was an area I'd often visit for different reasons, leaving me with powerful memories and a love of the outdoors, of wilderness which I'd not trade for anything.

We knew how to profit, not how to protect.

by: Unenergy

Sat Oct 10, 2009 at 08:05:28 AM EST

We knew how to profit, not how to protect.

by: Unenergy

Sat Oct 10, 2009 at 08:01:08 AM EST

An Aussie Visiting America - LA

by: Unenergy

Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 17:45:06 PM EST