News shaping the natural resource world
Justice Litle - Thu 19 Oct, 2006
...Scientists have found a way to study the relationship between carbon dioxide levels and climate shifts as far back as 800,000 years. The novel method for doing so involves extracting air bubbles trapped in ancient Antarctic ice cores. Over the long (very, very long) term, pockets of air habitually accumulate in piles of frozen snowflakes...
Thanks to a natural gas project that’s gone horribly wrong, 10 square miles of a heavily populated Indonesian island have been covered in hot, stinking mud. As many as 10,000 residents of eastern Java were forced to flee. Factories, homes and highways have all been buried.
The mud pours forth from a 2-mile deep exploration well, forming a large, grey, bubbling lake 20 feet deep in places and nearly 140 degrees at the centre. Indonesian villagers are up in arms regarding the government’s inept response. Angry accusations of incompetence and corruption have been hurled at Aburizal Bakrie, the government minister in charge of disaster response, and a wealthy investor in the project.
The disaster is another not-so-subtle reminder from Mother Nature: Man does not have as much control over the environment as he might think.
News shaping the natural resource world: From Fertilizer to Fuel
Most farming irrigation systems run on diesel engines. The fruit and vegetables your family enjoys were probably not just transported by diesel power; they were likely watered with diesel power also. This could soon change.
An Iowa company called Hydrogen Engine Center, specializing in alternative fuel engines, has gone into partnership with Sawtelle & Rosprim, a California irrigation pump manufacturer. Together, they plan to introduce the first-ever ammonia-powered irrigation system. Anhydrous ammonia, or NH3, is rich in hydrogen and carbon free; because farmers have long used it for fertilizer, regulations, pipelines and distribution centres for ammonia are already in place.
The technology would be especially attractive to California farmers, who are under pressure to comply with increasingly strict emissions rules. A successful test over the 2007 growing season could lead to commercial sales in 2008.
News shaping the natural resource world: Climatologists Tap Ancient Ice
Scientists have found a way to study the relationship between carbon dioxide levels and climate shifts as far back as 800,000 years. The novel method for doing so involves extracting air bubbles trapped in ancient Antarctic ice cores. Over the long (very, very long) term, pockets of air habitually accumulate in piles of frozen snowflakes.
Because it’s Antarctica, these piles never thaw — they harden into ice, instead. Over time, the layers of trapped air in this ancient ice serve as a sort of time capsule. Concentrations of CO2, methane and hydrogen isotopes in the layers give an indication of past temperature shifts.
News from the core is disconcerting: Over the past two decades of fossil fuel use, acceleration of CO2 parts per million has matched what nature took a thousand years to do.
News shaping the natural resource world: DOE Has Too Much Time on Its Hands
The American Department of Energy is apparently concerned about a Planet of the Apes-type scenario, in which generations thousands of years hence have completely lost touch with the 21st century.
The "Waste Isolation Pilot Plant," or WIPP for short, is a sci-fi posterity project dedicated to warning future busybodies away from a huge cache of radioactive material buried in the New Mexico desert.
Among other goofy measures, WIPP scientists plan to erect monolithic, Egyptian pyramid-type warning structures. (The best way to stay on message for thousands of years, WIPP asserts, is to carve that message in stone.)
WIPP researchers are also busy testing out pictograms and warning symbols on various non-English speaking subjects, for fear that existing languages will be completely and irrevocably lost. If we somehow revert to hunter-gatherer societies, future diggers might be grateful for all this.
News shaping the natural resource world: Sorry, We Need the Money for Pyramids
When is a technology mature? For US entrepreneurs focused on hydropower and geothermal energy, this is not a trivial question. The Department of Energy has decided to zero out research funding in both areas, making a request that Congress let it drop the axe.
The justification is that these technologies are no longer in need of support, which has energy advocates shaking their heads. Geothermal power, for example, currently generates less than 1% of America’s electricity; though geothermal has vast untapped potential, serious development has barely begun.
The DOE hopes to save or divert a miniscule $24 million a year by killing off this research; ironically, it is happy to spend more than that on pyramids. (The WIPP program detailed above is expected to cost $1 billion over the next 30 years, or approximately $33 million per year.)
Regards,
Justice Litle
for the Daily Reckoning
