Archive for the 'Water' Category

Power and water

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 1 month ago
in Climate change, Economics, Energy, Federal Elections and Water
. 29 Comments

Yesterday morning on Insiders, Bob Brown pointed out that neither Howard or Rudd mentioned the drought in the debate last Sunday. That may be so, but Labor has put it back on the agenda with the promise of a $1 Billion National Urban Water and Desalination Plan”. The plan, in a nutshell, is a 10% tax credit on private sector capital investment in approved new water projects - for every dollar of capital invested in the project, whomever is responsible gets 10 cents knocked off their corporate tax bill. State government-owned water corporations - who don’t pay tax - would receive a cash grant of 10% of the capital cost.

Meanwhile, on the global warming front, Labor has announced some new plans to combat climate change, of which the headline was solar panels in every school, while the Liberals have interrupted their confusion over Kyoto to announce some extra grant money for renewables research.

Particularly with Labor’s plans, it seems that there is an inverse correlation between the quality of the policy and the amount of media attention it gets, if you look into the policy detail. Continue reading ‘Power and water’

Costa skeptical?

Published
by
Phil
1 year, 5 months ago
in Climate change, Economics, Environment, Politics and Water
. 41 Comments

A little rain falls and this happens.

The Hon. Duncan Gay: There was snow at Crookwell yesterday. It will all be flowing into the catchment.
The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA: That is what I love about these people. When the drought was at its worst, I kept saying, “It will rain”. But the Greens and idiots like Tim Flannery said, “It will never rain.”
The Hon. Melinda Pavey: He is the Australian of the Year.
The Hon. MICHAEL COSTA: You made him Australian of the Year, not me! Well it has started to rain and it seems as though it is going to rain forever. These people do not understand climate cycles. When it comes to the climate they are alarmists and cannot see beyond the end of their noses. They create division, panic and fear so that they can rustle up a few naïve people to vote for them at election time. Climates change. If there is one constant about climates, it is that they change. I do not mean that they are changing now; but they have changed over history. We will continue to see climates change, and rain cycles will vary from drought, to normality, to heavy rainfall incidents. That is the reality of the world and that is what we have to plan for. We do not plan on a day-to-day basis, as the Greens do. It is easy for them to make unaffordable promises and to come up with an economic model that could apply only in cloud-cuckoo-land. It is easy for the Greens to make policies that no-one need fear will be implemented. But that does not stop them putting up ridiculous propositions every question time. The Government’s policy is clear. We have a range of alternatives to secure our water supply, including capturing water for our dam system, recycling and, now, desalination.

I like an open mind. I’m happy to know the minister accepts that climate changes and continues to plan for a water poor future.

Victorian water plan - why go with two projects?

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 5 months ago
in Climate change, Economics, Policy, Politics and Water
. 14 Comments

There are several bullets that can potentially be bitten in the process of making sure that the supply and demand for urban water meet, and none of them are particularly pleasant for state governments. But the particular bullets that have been bitten have varied somewhat from state to state. In a nutshell, the bullets are:

  • the perceived ickiness of drinking water that’s been through other people’s digestive systems - in a nutshell, the pooh factor.
  • the energy usage, and potential brine disposal problems of desalination
  • the screams from the farming sector if water is taken from river systems currently exploited for irrigation, particularly the Murray-Darling
  • whatever technological fix is adopted, the cost of water will go up, and the best way to recover that cost is user-pays (with possible compensation for low-income earners)

Continue reading ‘Victorian water plan - why go with two projects?’

The history of Goyder’s line

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 6 months ago
in Australiana, Climate change, Culture, History and Water
. 24 Comments

With climate such an intensely discussed topic today, a fascinating Hindsight audio documentary about Goyder’s line.

George Goyder was the Surveyor-General of South Australia from 1861 until 1893. While he was involved in many things, Goyder is most famous for his analysis of the patterns of the South Australian climate, deriving a boundary within which the rains were reliable enough for wheat growing, while beyond they were too low and, equally importantly, not predictable enough.

Despite this, a sequence of good seasons in the 1870s saw his work ignored and wheat growers head out into the farthest northern regions of South Australia. Needless to say, the good seasons came to an end and whole communities were abandoned, leaving the desert regions of South Australia to the graziers and miners. The documentary discusses the religious aspects to the farmers’ optimism - the idea that “rain follows the plough” as a reward for effort seems to have been a popular one.

Foolhardy optimism about the Australian climate, in the face of the best scientific advice of the time, doesn’t exactly seem to be a new phenomenon.

Can I hire Max Whisson’s PR manager?

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 6 months ago
in Media, Science and Water
. 13 Comments

For somebody whose invention still hasn’t been demonstrated to work, Max Whisson has gotten a heck of a lot of free publicity. First his old mate Phillip Adams gives him a plug in his column in the Oz. That’s fine. Now, there’s an episode of Australian Story devoted to him. Continue reading ‘Can I hire Max Whisson’s PR manager?’

Damn dam methane

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 6 months ago
in Climate change, Developing world, Environment, Science and Water
. 3 Comments

Large-scale hydroelectricity has a bad reputation amongst environmentalists despite the fact that there are no obvious greenhouse emissions from it. A primary reason for this is, of course, the flooding of often pristine environments, the massive ecological damage resulting from disturbed river flow, and the disruption of communities that results. But, beyond that, there is the release of methane gas from rotting vegetation that was either submerged by the dam, or washes in with the water inflow and accumulates on the dam bottom. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas, roughly 20 times more powerful than CO2. But methane is also the primary component of natural gas - a perfectly fuel for generating electricity, industrial use, or home heating. That’s why rubbish tips around the world are sprouting small power generators using the methane released from the decomposition of rubbish. But methane dissolved in water at the bottom of a lake isn’t quite as easy to get at. Continue reading ‘Damn dam methane’

What the water report to the PM said

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 7 months ago
in Environment, Policy and Water
. 12 Comments

The full report that prompted the PM’s dramatic announcement about the potential cessation of irrigation in the Murray-Darling is available at the bottom of this ABC News story.

The doomsday scenario outlined by the Prime Minister is not that likely, based on past statistics - as the irrigators have said, much of the water arrives in winter and spring, and even if there are no allocations right at the start of the season there may be some later.

That said, however, in the three weeks or so since the report (and the various other drought updates it was based on), was prepared, it has not rained in the Murray-Darling’s key catchments.

Murray-Darling basin disappears down plughole

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 7 months ago
in Climate change, Environment, Policy, Politics and Water
. 60 Comments

If it doesn’t rain significantly in the next two months, all irrigation in the Murray-Darling basin will cease. Press release from the Prime Minister here.

As the ABC story says, all the fruit trees, grape vines, olive trees, and whatnot being irrigated in the basin will die, reducing production (and incomes) for years to come. I hate to think what the financial and social cost of that will be.

Not to mention what it will likely do to the already-struggling redgum forests and wetlands of the Murray - not helped by farmers illegally letting their cattle loose in the wetlands.

If it does get to the stage of shutting down irrigation completely, expect the screams of the National Party for more dam building to get even louder, with proposals like Big Buffalo. Where the water to fill these dams is supposed to come from is, of course, a mystery…

Raining it isn’t

Published
by
Brian
1 year, 7 months ago
in Climate change and Water
. 26 Comments

It’s dry. In fact in the last 34 days at our place, just 7 km from the Brisbane CBD, we’ve had just one fall of 1.5 mm when it is supposed to rain every second day in March and 11/30 days in April.

Level 5 restrictions came in yesterday, the most important implication being that Big Brother’s steamy showers may be cut, or at least limited to the mandatory four minutes with water-saving showerheads.

Yesterday ABC local radio went to the Queen Street Mall, where they gave away a 5,000 litre tank and rolled out the Queensland Water Commission Chair Elizabeth Nosworthy to answer questions. This is what we learnt of more general interest:

Continue reading ‘Raining it isn’t’

Sort-of clean coal in Victoria

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 8 months ago
in Climate change, Energy, Environment, Government, Howardia, Policy, Politics and Water
. 40 Comments

Before devoting any serious analysis to the announcement of a $700 million “clean coal” power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, it’s nice to see that Peter McGuaran’s grasp of numbers is as strong as ever:

“It will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 per cent, use half as much water as is currently the case and at the same time reduce power costs to consumers by some 30 per cent, all the time securing the future of brown coal as base-load electricity for the state of Victoria,” he said.

This miraculous power plant must produce energy so cheaply that it will pay customers to take it, given the relationship between Victorian baseload wholesale power, and retail electricity costs.
Over the past five years, Victorian wholesale electricity has cost well under 3 cents per kilowatt hour (though it’s been up over 4 this year, mainly because of the drought). Retail, it costs about 14 cents per kilowatt hour. So even if the power was available free from the power station, that’s still not a 30 percent cost cut….
Continue reading ‘Sort-of clean coal in Victoria’

Water worries

Published
by
Brian
1 year, 8 months ago
in Climate change and Water
. 13 Comments

The Queensland Water Commission has just released draft details of Level 5 water restrictions to apply in Southeast Queensland in a month’s time. This will be a first for any major metropolitan area in Australia.

The 2005-2006 summer was the worst ever for runoff into our dams. January this year was 83% worse than last year. The announcement of Level 5 restrictions was greeted by the heavens opening just a weeny bit, with 26mm falling on the Wivenhoe Dam. But the rain gods are teasing us, as they have been all summer. That was enough to supply us with water for just three days.

Not a day goes by without stories in the MSM about the water crisis. We have been told that supplies will be down to 5% by December 2008 if it doesn’t rain significantly, when our water supply will be stabilised by the commissioning of the Tugun desalination plant, the recycling plant and the pipeline grid to tie the whole water infrastructure together. But meanwhile water flow will be trimmed to the Tarong North and Swanbank power stations.

This, we are told, will not mean that the lights go out. It will mean that we have less power to sell interstate. Whether the lights will go out interstate I do not know.

Continue reading ‘Water worries’

Watery technological optimism

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 8 months ago
in Climate change, Environment, Policy and Water
. 12 Comments

Politicians have very selective optimism and pessimism about technology. Both major parties have invested huge faith in “clean coal” technology. Labor thinks nuclear can’t possibly be cost-competitive with clean coal, John Howard (if not his ministers and backbench) seem convinced that it will be. The Greens are big on anything renewable and distributed, and don’t believe anything large, centralized, and operated by multinationals could possibly be environmentally sound. The federal Liberals seem to believe any sales brochure wafted under their nose by an American arms manufacturer. New South Wales Labor, and Victorian politicians across the political spectrum, don’t seem to believe that sewerage can be purified to drinking water standards; or, more to the point, don’t believe that they can convince the punters it’s safe.

And, finally, there’s the Nationals, who believe completely in any technology that doesn’t involve telling their electorates that they’re going to have to get by with less irrigation water.
Continue reading ‘Watery technological optimism’

“Local food” and the environment

Published
by
Robert Merkel
1 year, 9 months ago
in Climate change, Environment, Policy, Trade, Transport and Water
. 49 Comments

Al Gore includes it as one of his top tips for reducing your carbon emissions. The Australian Conservation Foundation calls for it? What is it? Cutting back on “food miles” - or, put simply, eating food grown close to where you live rather than shipped across the oceans.

However, there seems to be a bit of a paucity of hard quantitative analysis on how much difference this actually makes - and I’ve been rather skeptical in the past because bulk freight, particularly shipping, is incredibly fuel-efficient compared to cars.

Courtesy of the British government, we now have some economists on the case on a whole variety of issues relating to the environmental impact of agriculture. Their very large report (note: big PDF file) is too big to consume in the one sitting, but the executive summary is interesting enough on its own. While they can’t reach definite conclusions on many things (for instance, comparing organic to conventional agriculture), one observation they do make is as follows:

Significance of transport in the lifecycle: whilst the data are not clear-cut, what there is suggests the environmental impacts of car-based shopping (and subsequent home-cooking for some foods) are greater than those of transport within the distribution system itself.

So why are “food miles” given so much attention by various environmental groups when they seem to be very much a second-order issue?

Garrett vs Turnbull

Published
by
suz
1 year, 9 months ago
in Climate change, Environment, Media, Politics and Water
. 66 Comments

It was billed as the debate of the century, parliamentary session, month week: Peter Garrett versus Malcolm Turnbull on the 7.30 Report. Both of them had been active in extra parliamentary politics before becoming new boys in parliament, where they have both shot to the top of the environment portfolio (and shadow portfolio.)

So how was it for you?

I can’t give much of an opinion. Sorry, but there are limits to my political junkiness and I reached them last night at about 7.35pm. I watched each of them answer the first question and then turned over to Jamie Oliver on Channel 10. Jamie is much more personable and interesting (from my point of view after a hard day at work).

I can’t find any reviews of the debate in today’s online media (correct me if I’m wrong). I’m interested to know how it went, so help me out.

Plus: here’s the transcript.

Shadow summit

Published
by
Mark
1 year, 10 months ago
in Climate change, Federal Elections, Government, Policy, Politics, State/Territory Elections and Water
. 36 Comments

Richard Farmer has an interesting argument to make in today’s Crikey about Rudd’s climate summit:

There is a danger for Labor Leader Kevin Rudd that his gimmick of having what he is calling a climate change summit will end up being one of those things that seemed to be a good idea at the time.

To put it somewhat crudely, Rudd is at risk of being seen as a smart arse – a politician being too clever by half.

While John Howard is delivering an actual policy to deal with at least part of the country’s water problem through his meeting of state premiers to arrange a federal takeover of the Murray-Darling Basin, Mr Rudd will be engaging in a talk-fest. Actions will surely create a better political outcome than words.

The motivation for Rudd’s summit is understandable enough. He is trying to overcome the advantages that being able to actually do things gives to an incumbent government.

Yet by settling on the need for a discussion to determine a broader strategy than that of Howard, Rudd is being left open to attack on the grounds that it shows how hamstrung a future Federal Labor Government would by the need to appease the eight state and territory governments.

This move highlights two problems with Rudd’s strategy - the first being that his experience in Goss’ Cabinet Office makes him think like someone who is in government. But he’s not. The challenges for an opposition leader are quite different. Although Labor is well ahead in the polls, Rudd has no power, and nothing to offer except promises to enforce agreement. The responses from Premiers to issues like recycled water and Howard’s Murray-Darling bid have been inconsistent. The incentives for Premiers to play to their own electorates at a talkfest like this outweigh those to present a united front with the Federal opposition. There’s a clear risk that the summit could end up displaying disunity - which raises the second problem about which I’ve previously written - there’s almost infinite potential to wedge Rudd and the states.

It’s no doubt one of Rudd’s strengths that he is skilled in, and capable of, broad consultation and thrashing out a policy approach that has wide support among stakeholders. But again, this is a skill of governance, not opposition. In 2001, Howard was able to make some play with the line that Beazley avoided firm commitments and promised inquiries and commissions and reports. It’s a good political line, because voters expect clear and contrasting policy positions from Opposition leaders, not meetings and briefing papers.

Continue reading ‘Shadow summit’