Back To School the green way!

It’s that time of the year again - a brand new start of the school year for students and their parents!­ Take this opportunity to introduce some new practices into your daily life that can be more environmentally friendly. You may even be able to save costs by switching to more effective and green alternatives for the start of the new school year!

Green Transportation

Reducing your carbon footprint and making healthy choices

To really make a difference and reduce your impact on the environment, beginning this fall, do your best to reduce the amount you drive your kids to and from school. One popular way is to enroll your children into a bus program. School buses reduce a great amount of emissions, especially if it’s a newer bus that is up to date with the current emission-reducing standards. There’s also the possibility of carpool – either one of your neighbours can start carpooling kids from your neighbourhood or you can start your own carpool. 

If your school does not offer a bus program, or if you just live nearby, get your children to ride their bike or walk to school! A co-op walk team can help keep your kids safe by having groups walk together and alternating parent escorts if needed. 

Eco Supplies

Taking inventory and reusing what you can

Before deciding to go out and buy brand new school supplies for your children, take some time to look at what you’re currently have and see if anything can be reused. Why buy new pens and pencils when the old ones are still usable?  No need to buy a new notebook just because a few pages have been used in one from last year, or buying a new pencil case because the old one is out of style. Making smart, economical decisions can go a long way in saving your money and reducing production and waste emissions that comes from purchasing new supplies.

If your children get hungry or thirsty, its better that they reach for a reusable water bottle and plastic container instead of a disposable plastic water bottle and plastic ziplock bag. Either plastic or aluminum, reusable water bottles make for a much better alternative. Visit Good Housekeeping to read the list of some of the best water bottles around. Also, make sure that any water bottle purchased for reuse is BPA-free (Bisphenol A). There are also alternatives to plastic containers, such as SnackTAXI, who offer reusable food sacks. One “snack-sack” can reduce the use of about 1000 plastic bags over its lifetime.

Buying new eco-friendly school supplies

When you have looked over what you have and you’ve decided that you still need some more school supplies, try to lean towards the greener alternative. Many major retailers are carrying recycled and renewable school supplies such as recycled notebooks, paper and binders, and biodegradable pencils. Paper Mate is offering biodegradable pencils that are offered at many major retailers, such as Staples. There is also Ecojot, who offer notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, and more made entirely from post-consumer waste. When looking for a new backpack, look for an environmentally as well as child friendly backpack, one that’s made from recycled material and is padded to prevent back pain. You can check out The Ultimate Green Store or Ecocentric Bags for an idea on some cool backpacks being offered.

Most of the money spent on supplies will be towards new clothes that children are always in need of. If your kids don’t mind, wearing hand-me-down clothing from friends and family or thrift stores can be one of the ways to save money and reduce your emissions. If your children are style-conscious, there are many popular brands like Adidas, Levi’s and H&M that offer clothes made from more eco-friendly material.

The most important thing to consider is that your children must understand and be educated on the importance of the environment and that even the little things can go a long way in sustaining our planet.

Little Steps

Go with what you know

Going green doesnt always have to mean big changes, sticking to some basic principals can make a big difference in little ways! REDUCE, REUSE, & RECYCLE every way you can. 

For more suggestions on going green with kids visit some of our other articles:

Easy ways to get your kids thinking about the environment early

28 Ways To Build A Green Lifestyle

Green Resources: Digital Textbooks

Or check out the following links for more resources:

Meadford Independent, “Green Tips for Back to School”

Tree Hugger, “How to Go Green: Back to School”
Huffington Post, “Green your Back-to-School Routine”

SnackTAXI

Ecouterre, “Levi’s, H&M, Adidas Debut Apparel Made With Eco-Friendly “Better Cotton””

Paper Mate, “Biodegrable Products”

Good Housekeeping, “Reusable water bottle reviews”

The Ultimate Green Store

Ecocentric Bags

Ecojot

{ Read More }

Harnessing the power of our oceans

Im not entirely sure if the Australian Governments "Clean Energy Future" venture got some inspiration from this blog - nor am I sure if it will last the year out - however its nice to see a post on ocean energy on their web site - Give us a wave – harnessing the power of our oceans.

As construction begins on a ground-breaking wave energy project in Perth, a report has been released which emphasises the huge untapped energy potential lying off Australia’s coastlines.

According to the Marine Nation 2025 report, released this week, Australia’s oceans could produce billions of dollars’ worth of clean energy in the form of electricity generated by wave power. The report says an initial assessment has identified world-class wave energy resources along the western and southern coastline, and valuable tidal energy resources in the North West of Australia.

Marine Nation 2025 was prepared by the Federal Government’s Oceans Policy Science Advisory Group and highlights the enormous potential of Australia’s oceans, as well as the challenges and opportunities involved with managing our vast maritime resources.

The report comes on the eve of the commencement of the Perth Wave Energy Project, which is due to begin next month. Located at Garden Island, near Perth, the project will start delivering green energy to the grid in 2014. The project will be Australia’s first commercial wave energy project connected to the electricity grid. An associated wave-powered desalination plant will be a world first.

A CSIRO study released last year revealed that ocean waves have the potential to power a city the size of Melbourne by 2050. CSIRO’s Ocean renewable energy: 2015-2050 report said Australia’s ocean waves could supply about 10 per cent of Australia’s electricity by the middle of this century.

{ Read More }

Electric vehicle dreams the charge ahead

The weekend SMH had a prominent (and long) article on electric vehicles - Electric dreams: the charge ahead.

A social researcher, Mark McCrindle, of McCrindle Research, says his studies have shown while most people are concerned about the environment, they are not prepared to pay more to make a difference.

A recent survey found 96 per cent of respondents believed people have played some part in climate change but only 28 per cent directly intend to cut their carbon emissions.

Thats a view backed up by Evan Thornley, the chief executive officer of BetterPlace Australia, who is trying to orchestrate a network of recharging points. He believes the electric car revolution is unstoppable but not for environmental concerns.

The fundamental reason for that is simple, Thornley says. The cost of batteries is coming down and the cost of petrol is going up. That creates a pretty fundamental inevitability of driving moving from petrol to electric.

It is a massive business opportunity … youve got $30 billion worth of petrol being sold to customers that hate the product. They love their car, they hate their petrol.

BetterPlace has announced plans to begin a national network of charging points in Canberra next year, followed by a targeted introduction in Sydney and Melbourne in 2013, covering the other capitals in 2014 and a highway network in 2015.

Other companies including ChargePoint Australia are also looking to create a recharging network to cater for the growing EV fleet.

In addition to a public network - set up within car parks - companies will offer EV drivers in-house recharging points. Their systems will be able to take advantage of off-peak charging and even feed power back into the grid at peak times, giving EV drivers another financial benefit.

That potential financial boost will be helpful to consumers and car companies because the federal government has shown little interest in encouraging motorists into electric cars - despite propping up the local manufacturers with millions in funding.

While it is pushing ahead with its planned carbon tax the government has dropped the Green Car Innovation Fund and the proposed cash-for-clunkers scheme.

This is in contrast to other nations, where governments are offering a variety of incentives to get motorists to ditch petrol power for electric cars. Tax credits to reduce the purchase price, allowing EV drivers to use transit lanes, special EV parking spaces and free public charging infrastructure have all been used to make EVs more appealing to new car buyers. The European Union has even floated the idea of banning all petrol and diesel cars from city centres by 2050.

A spokeswoman for Senator Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, acknowledged the incentives by other countries but questioned the true environmental value of electric cars.

Electric vehicles are often referred to as a zero emissions technology, the uptake of which would reduce carbon emissions, the spokeswoman says. However, potential emissions reductions in Australia need to be viewed with caution because the carbon emissions intensity of Australias electricity production is significantly higher than the world average. Thus a subsidy for electric vehicles in Australia may have limited benefits in terms of reducing emissions.

The Greens deputy leader, Senator Christine Milne, wants to see the government do more to get electric cars onto roads before we fall behind the rest of the world.

Government also has a major role to play in driving renewable energy to support the best possible electric cars and facilitate their roll-out to the broadest possible market as fast as possible, Milne says. China has set an aggressive goal for expanding its electric car market and Australia is once again at risk of falling way behind.

Milne also criticised the governments on-going support of the local manufacturing industry at the expense of electric vehicles.

The limited amount of financial support the government has offered has been targeted at local manufacturing jobs. It has invested less than $10 million on electric vehicle projects while handing over hundreds of millions to Holden, Ford and Toyota under the Green Car Innovation Fund for petrol-powered cars.

Investment in truly innovative car manufacturing in Australia would also see a shift towards electric cars, instead of paying companies to make slightly less inefficient six-cylinder petrol cars, she says.

One car company executive revealed that during a meeting with the government it indicated it was only interested in supporting an electric car if it was made locally. Such a scenario seems some way off, even though Holden admits its new production line in South Australia has been future-proofed to build electric cars.

Before it becomes viable for a manufacturer to build an electric vehicle locally there needs to be more consumer demand, and that may not come for at least another decade. Thats when todays tech-savvy youth of Generations Y and Z become major players in the new car market.

While baby boomers and Gen X might hesitate to move away from traditional petrol and diesel-powered vehicles, the younger generations are hungry to embrace technology.

Over the next decade theyll be the ones getting their licences and reaching the stage in life where they buy a new car, McCrindle says. So this is the emerging market. This is a generation of early adopters of new technology. They want the latest technology and that extends to cars.

{ Read More }

Stellar Birth in the Galactic Wilderness

Stellar Birth in the Galactic Wilderness (4/16/08)

A new image from NASAs Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows baby stars sprouting in the backwoods of a galaxy -- a relatively desolate region of space more than 100,000 light-years from the galaxys bustling center.

The striking image, a composite of ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and radio data from the National Science Foundations Very Large Array in New Mexico, shows the Southern Pinwheel galaxy, also known simply as M83.

In the new view, the main spiral, or stellar, disk of M83 looks like a pink and blue pinwheel, while its outer arms appear to flap away from the galaxy like giant red streamers. It is within these so-called extended galaxy arms that, to the surprise of astronomers, new stars are forming.

M83 – click for 800×800 image

More: here

{ Read More }

Flaring The Ultimate Gas Guzzler

Next100 has a post on the unnatural practice of natural gas flaring - The Ultimate Gas Guzzler.

If you wanted to help curb global warming by slashing emissions of 400 million tons of CO2 annually, you could:

* take 77 million automobiles off the road, or
* eliminate the wasteful practice of venting and “flaring” (burning) of billions of cubic meters of unused natural gas from production wells.

Much as Id like to choose Plan A on some days as a solution to my morning commute hassles, I have to admit that Plan B sounds more practical. In fact, it sounds like a no-brainer. After all, why hurt the environment by wasting a resource that could instead make money by putting it to productive use?

The staggering waste of gas—and consequent economic opportunity for conservation—was highlighted this week in a study released by GE called Flare Gas Reduction: Recent Global Trends and Policy Considerations. It concludes that with existing technology, some $20 billion in gas could be reclaimed to generate electric power and “yield billions of dollars per year in increased global economic output.”

One of the biggest offenders is the Russian Federation, which flares up to 50 billion cubic feet of natural gas annually due to underinvestment in gas processing and power generation technology.

Runners up include Nigeria, which wastes 15 billion cubic feet per year, and other countries in West Africa, which together burn off some 10 billion cubic feet. Fortunately, Nigeria plans major investments to capture and turn its flared gas into a valuable asset.

Wasteful flaring takes place even in the United States. In North Dakota, for example, roughly a quarter of all gas produced from oil wells is simply burned off.

{ Read More }

The internet v the world part 1 gatekeepers lose control as we connect

Crikeys Bernard Keane has some thoughts on the challenge to gatekeeping institutions posed by the internet - The internet v the world part 1: gatekeepers lose control as we connect .

Here are some scenes from the internet in the last decade of the twentieth century and the first of the 21st, in no particular order.

* The internet versus music and movies. The digitisation of audio-visual content and higher internet bandwidth enables mass downloading of music, movies and television programming entirely outside the legal copyright system. In Australia, much of it is driven by the FTA television networks’ refusal to screen foreign programs for many months after they’ve screened in the US. The response of copyright owners and media companies is to prosecute individuals, websites or companies that download illegally, or facilitate downloading, and convince governments to impose new, often draconian, copyright laws. Their efforts are futile. About 25% of global internet traffic is estimated to be file sharing, nearly all of it illegal.

* The internet versus lawyers. Lawyers in jurisdictions across the world become increasingly concerned about jurors using the internet to find out about cases. Judges take to threatening jurors with contempt of court if they breach agreements about using the internet. In 2008, a Victorian judge demands the suppression of an episode of Underbelly. As soon as the banned episode is broadcast elsewhere, it is available online and downloaded thousands of times. In 2009, a judge orders Australian websites to take over 1500 articles offline about an individual on the basis that they will prejudice a trial jury. The material remains easily accessible even after removal by the sites in question.

* The internet versus gambling opponents. Moral panic over gambling and pressure from casinos prompts the Australian Government to ban online gambling in 2001. According to the Productivity Commission, the ban fails to prevent continued growth in online gambling at rates similar to other countries. The ban ensures Australians’ money goes to poorly-regulated foreign sites and not safer local sites and Australian taxpayers.

* The internet versus government secrecy. The website Cryptome began publishing classified and confidential government information in 1996. Similar sites like Cartome, Eyeball Series and Cryptome CN also offer other types of information governments want suppressed. Cryptome’s founders claim FBI harassment, the site has its server capacity removed and companies like PayPal refuse to enable contributions to the site. But as WikiLeaks will demonstrate, the harassment appears to have no noticeable impact on the release of material.

* The internet versus transnationals. In October 2009, the transnational energy company Trafigura, which has successfully used the UK courts to suppress reporting of evidence it released toxic waste in Cote dIvoire, obtains a "superinjunction" against the Guardian on the same issue. But "Trafigura" becomes a trending topic on Twitter, and a number of websites and WikiLeaks publish material on the case. The company abandons its attempts to suppress efforts to expose it.

* The internet versus journalists. Some Australian p olitical journalists, angry at criticism of their coverage of the 2010 election, lash out at "parasites", "free riders" and "armchair critics" online. "Just let the professionals do their job" demands one on Twitter. But the editor of The Australian goes further. Angry that online critics are routinely deriding the paper’s partisanship and anti-science stance on climate change, he threatens to sue an academic over tweets made about a presentation at a journalism conference -- though not the presenter herself, a former journalist at his own paper -- and boasts about bringing his lawyers into the matter. His Media Editor then threatens to report another academic to police over a Twitter comment. The result is extensive coverage of the original presentation here and overseas.

* The internet versus the Australian Government. In response to WikiLeaks releasing US diplomatic cables, the Australian Prime Minister labels the act "illegal" and her Attorney-General talks about measures to prevent the release of national security material in the media. He writes to mainstream media editors with the goal of developing a protocol to do so. Later, Australian police advise that WikiLeaks has not broken any Australian laws, and the Prime Minister is forced to carefully parse her claim about illegality.

* The internet versus Big Retail. Australia’s major retailers, used to earning oligopoly profits, are unhappy Australians are using the internet to shop online at overseas sites. They demand the Government take "decisive action" in the form of higher taxes to deter consumers and protect their profits.

The common theme across these examples is that the gatekeepers and the privileged intermediaries of late twentieth century Western economies -- politicians, lawyers, the mainstream media, large corporations -- are threatened by the connectedness that the internet enables.

Humans are, to nick a phrase from David Attenborough, compulsive communicators. The urge to converse, debate, joke, fight, trade, play and form relationships with each other is hard-wired into us. And the internet dramatically expands the community within which we can do that, from one constrained by geography to one only constrained by technology.

And it directly undermines the power of those who want to regulate that interaction, or profit from it. Governments that want to police it. The media that profits by connecting us. The corporations that rely on consumers knowing less than they do. The courts that regard jurors as easily-swayed fools who need to be treated like mushrooms. All now confront interconnectedness on a scale far greater than ever seen before, with far fewer opportunities to regulate or exploit it.

But the gatekeepers and intermediaries are unwilling to let their power go easily, even as it slips away from them. And they reflexively resort to litigation, regulation and prohibition to maintain their power.

{ Read More }

The top Australian cleantech predictions for 2012

Giles Parkinson has left The Climate Spectator to start a new site called REneweconomy. One of the first posts has a range of comments from leaders of Australian cleantech companies - The top Australian cleantech predictions for 2012.

It is clear that 2012 will be a critical year for cleantech in Australia. Costs for many technologies are falling rapidly, but critical decisions will be made about renewable energy targets and support mechanisms.

The carbon price will finally be introduced, the shape and purpose of the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation will be decided, reviews will be held into the Renewable Energy Target and many of the regulatory issues surrounding the energy industry, and on solar tariffs, tough decisions may be taken on programs such as Solar Flagships, and more funding will start to flow into cleantech R&D. And, of course, there will be the final version of energy White Paper.

We asked the heads of Australia’s cleantech companies and industry groups what they predicted for the year. This is what they said:

Lane Crockett, general manager, Pacific Hydro

“For the Chinese, 2012 is the year of the dragon, but for Australia 2012 must be the year we move on renewable energy. After a number of years of policy uncertainty driven by constant adjustments to the LRET and a protracted carbon price debate we should start to see some confidence return to the market as these important reforms are hopefully now well and truly bedded down. Critically, 2012 sees compliance obligations of energy retailers under the LRET scheme start to escalate substantially.

“This will help to soak up any remaining oversupply of renewable energy certificates and should signal a strong surge in contracting activity. If liable parties are tardy and don’t prepare sufficiently for future escalating obligations they may find themselves paying substantially more for certificates than they were anticipating and rue the lost opportunity to lock in long-term low cost compliance. Underlying this opportunity is the combination of excess wind turbine manufacturing capacity and a strong Australian dollar leading to some of the lowest cost turbines for some time. Hopefully 2012 will be a year to remember for all the right reasons.”

Evan Thornley, CEO Better Place

“2012 is the year of the electric car. It’s the year we’ll look back on and say: that’s when the transformation started – the biggest and most profound transformation to transport in over a century. Every major car-maker in the world has electric models either in production or in development. The auto industry has recognised it. Capital markets have recognised it. Governments have recognised it. Here in Australia, electric cars will arrive on our shores in mass volumes for the first time in the second half of the year. This means people can finally exercise a choice to drive something faster, quieter, cheaper and greener.”

Miles George, CEO, Infigen Energy

In the Australian renewable energy sphere I expect:

· the effectiveness of the large scale renewable energy target scheme will be significantly enhanced as residual surplus small scheme RECs are absorbed, and the scheduled review of the scheme confirms a stable future regulatory regime for the large scale renewable energy industry

· political partisanship on climate change response will diminish, and carbon emissions pricing will become much more widely accepted.

· wind and solar PV technologies will continue to significantly improve their cost competitiveness with burning fossil fuels, whilst other renewable energy technologies will struggle to keep up with the pace

· carbon capture and storage technology will increasingly be recognised as a pipe dream ...

Jack Curtis, head of Australia and Asia-Pacific, First Solar

‘2012 will mark the year that Australia’s first utility-scale solar project becomes a reality – with the Greenough River Solar Farm to be fully operational mid-year. In the second half of last year, the Federal Government’s ‘Clean Energy Future’ package was released, and with it the possibility of two new independent bodies: the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). This year will be critical as it relates to the establishment of their respective mandates and their ability to support new project development in 2012.

“The Gillard Government has suggested that the CEFC could be functioning by mid-year. Both of these bodies will be vital to encouraging the next level of renewable adoption in Australia. Their ability to operate autonomously in concert with the private sector is also essential. If implemented effectively, our view is that the CEFC should alleviate the medium-term commercial viability gap that exists for emerging renewable technologies. Most importantly, the CEFC needs to facilitate and encourage private sector participation and adoption of new technologies.

“We had some positive movement from state governments last year, especially the ACT, with the announcement of a ‘reverse auction’ tariff program being established for large-scale solar. Outside the ACT, we also expect to see more utility-scale solar PV projects in development throughout Australia, with Western Australia being a key location given its strong macro drivers for solar. First Solar’s goal is to be the most bankable execution mechanism for utility-scale solar projects in Australia with a focus on driving the adoption of solar more broadly and a significant reduction in the cost of delivering solar electricity.”

Michael Ottaviano, CEO, Carnegie Wave Energy

My predictions for 2012 ….

· Solar pv will continue towards retail parity price driven by cheap Chinese manufacturing dominance,

· Wind turbine manufacturing will move in the same way to emerging market sand with the same result – costs also approaching pricing parity (although, unlike solar, at the wholesale level) and the slow decline of western turbine manufacturers (only investment in innovation and development of proprietary technology will be effective against China’s cheap cost of labour and capital),

· Billions of Euros will be committed in the EU offshore wind market – France will be the latest country to announce multi-GW projects

· The start of the Australian carbon price and resilience of domestic economy leads to renewed local interest in cleantech focused on carbon sequestering technologies such as Pacific Pyrolysis

· A shake out in marine energy as a few well capitalized and advanced developers deliver first commercial scale projects alongside major EU industrial partners including Carnegie who will commence construction of its first multi MW CETO project, ...

{ Read More }

The Hubbert hurdle revisiting the Fermi Paradox

Ugo at Cassandras Legacy has a post theorising about a possible link between peak fossil fuels and the Fermi paradox - The Hubbert hurdle: revisiting the Fermi Paradox.

When I started reading astronomy books, in the 1960s, nobody knew if there existed planets around other stars and the common view was that they were very rare. Of course, that contrasted with the main theme of the science fiction of the time, of which I was also an avid reader. The idea that planetary systems were common in the galaxy was much more fascinating than the "official" one but, at that time, it seemed to be pure fantasy. But it turns out that science fiction was absolutely right, at least on this point. We are discovering hundreds of planets orbiting around stars and the latest news are that one sun-class star out of three may have an earth-like planet in the habitable zone. Fantastic!

The measurements that are telling us of extra-solar planets cannot tell us anything about extra-solar civilizations, another typical theme of science fiction. But, if earth-like planets are common in the galaxy, then organic, carbon based life should common as well. And if life is common, intelligent life cannot be that rare. And if intelligent life is not rare, then there must exist alien civilizations out there. With 100 billion stars in our galaxy, we may think that also on this point science fiction might have been right. Could the galaxy be populated with alien civilizations?

Here, however, we have a well known problem called the "Fermi Paradox". If all those civilizations exist, then could they develop interstellar travel? And, in this case, if there are so many of them, why arent they here? Of course, for all we known the speed of light remains an impassable barrier. But, even at speeds slower than light, nothing physical prevents a spaceship from crossing the galaxy from end to end in a million year or even less. Since our galaxy is more than 10 billion years old, intelligent aliens would have had plenty of time to explore and colonize every star in the galaxy, jumping from one to another. But we dont see aliens around and thats the paradox. The consequence seems to be that we are alone as sentient beings in the galaxy, perhaps in the whole universe. So, we seem to be back to some old models of the solar system that told us that we are exceptional. Once, we were told that we are exceptional because planets are rare, now it may be because civilizations are rare. But why?

{ Read More }

Hubbles View of the R136 Star Forming Region

Hubble's Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region

The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus.

Many of the diamond-like icy blue stars are among the most massive stars known. Several of them are over 100 times more massive than our Sun. These hefty stars are destined to pop off, like a string of firecrackers, as supernovas in a few million years.

The image, taken in ultraviolet, visible, and red light by Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3, spans about 100 light-years. The nebula is close enough to Earth that Hubble can resolve individual stars, giving astronomers important information about the stars birth and evolution.

R136 – click for 979×1000 image

More: here

{ Read More }

The exploding supply of NGLs can this stuff be called oil

John Kingston at "The Barrel" has a post on the growing production of natural gas liquids - The exploding supply of NGLs: can this stuff be called oil?.

If The Oil Drum were still around, the contributors would certainly be talking about a new ESAI study.

The Boston-based consultancy put out a press release today, touting a new report it has produced that says by 2023, NGL production will account for more than one-quarter of the world’s liquids output.

To which the peak oil believers might say: exactly.

One argument often made by the peak oil school is that the rise in liquids output around the world does not eliminate any suggestion that oil production has peaked, because so much of what is coming out of the ground isn’t really oil. Instead, much of it is NGLs, which are far less versatile in what can be produced from them. Specifically, they have virtually no value in making distillates, the oil product most in demand in rising economies.

an increasing supply of natural gas from areas as diverse as the Middle East and Australia is pumping out a lot of NGLs along with that rise, and that’s adding to the percentage of NGLs in the total world liquids pool. You can see it in the price: NWE propane now runs about 60% of the price of Brent, and in 2008, it averaged close to 70%.

The question for the global market is whether innovation can take some way of making what could be a growing surplus of ultra-light petroleum products like NGLs or condensate and figure out a way to help them satisfy other petroleum demand. The rising supplies of these types of ultra-light petroleum feedstocks is great news for the petrochemical industry, particularly in the US, but it does take something off the ebullience of those proclaiming the end of peak oil. All barrels most certainly are not alike.

{ Read More }

The Poincaré conjecture press accounts

Wow. When a mathematics story makes the news, it really makes it big. Sometimes.

Unfortunately, most of the emphasis seems to be on the personality of Grigory Perelman and how, like, weird he is portrayed as being.

One commentator, who calls his blog "Freakonomics" (yeah, I know, same as his book) compares Perelman and the Unabomber: What Do the Unabomber and Grigori Perelman Have In Common? The list is long: both are (or were at some time in their lives) mathematicians, bearded and long-haired, reclusive, and scholars/teachers at -- get this -- U. C. Berkeley.

Jesus. (Speaking of hirsute guys known for decidedly unnormal behavior.) Its stereotype-o-rama. Shouldnt we mention Rasputin as well? I mean, he was also Russian (like Perelman), though not, as far as I know, interested in mathematics.

But lets not dwell on this sort of thing, OK? Now, where was I? Oh, yes, press accounts of the (apparent) solution of the Poincaré conjecture.

It must be said that this isnt exactly news. It came to the attention of the mathematical community in 2003, when Perleman lectured on his results at MIT -- see here. The news even leaked out to the general public in 2004, as in this ABC News/Reuters story.

Of course, its all getting attention now, since just recently others have filled out and prepared for publication most of the necessary details of Perelmans proof, as was noted here (near the end, via Peter Woits blog) two weeks ago. There was also much speculation that, for his work, Perelman would be offered a Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians meeting Tuesday (8/22), and that he would neither accept the award nor even be at the meeting.

The New York Times picked up on this in a story on August 15 by Dennis Overbye. And on Tuesday the speculations proved correct, which is when the news flood really rolled in.

Im not going to dig further into the press accounts in this post. Thats for later, when Ill also try to say a lot more about the Poincaré conjecture itself, which is what really matters. (Ill leave the tabloid stuff about Perelman for others -- watch for the Broadway play next year, and the movie starring Tom Cruise the year after that.)

But for now, I just wanted to provide, for your reading pleasure, some of the other press accounts that showed up in the past 24 hours or so...

• Maths genius declines top prize (BBC News)
  
• Elusive Russian recluse declines top mathematics prize (AFP)
  
• Russian solves historic math problem, shuns prize (AP/CNN)
  
• Russian Refuses Maths Highest Honor (AP/CBS)
  
• Century-Old Brain-Twister Now Solved (AP/CBS)
  
• Not Feeling the Fields (Seed)
  

More to come. Stay tuned.

Tags: mathematics, topology, Poincaré conjecture

{ Read More }

Have helmet laws put the skids on Australia’s bike share schemes

The Age has an article on Australias bicycle helmet laws and how they are impeding share cycle schemes here that have been successful in Europe - Change of tune. I agree with the authors view that helmets should be optional for "utility" bikes but remain mandatory for racing or mountain bikes - having put my helmet to good use during a recent bike race Id say they are worth there weight in gold in those situations.

A few months ago I wrote about my views on helmet use after a friend of mine spent 13 days in intensive care with a head injury after a bike accident. At that time I was slightly sensitive to the topic, but since then Ive changed my sweeping opinion on helmet regulations.



At the tail end of my Tour de France journey I spent some time in Paris and London, exploring the cities using public hire bikes. No planning, no lycra, no clip-in shoes, and no helmet. It was liberating. I put my credit card in and 30 seconds later I was riding.



As a tourist this was an incredible way to get around and see the sights. It was spontaneous, convenient and inexpensive. After experiencing the system for myself (as more than a novelty in my home town), I would love to see the bike hire schemes flourish in Australia. Unfortunately I can’t see it happening.

Advertisement: Story continues below



I’m sure I’ll cop it, but I renege on some of my words back from my Fairfax post. No, I didn’t wear a helmet while riding these bikes in Europe, but I didn’t feel unsafe doing so. (Why do I feel so guilty for saying that?) These bikes are obviously not immune from accidents, but the geometry is much less aggressive than a mountain or road bike, the tyres-width is ample, and the absence of a top tube means that you are very manoeuvrable if you need to get off in a hurry. They are no less safe than walking across the street. Besides, riding safely has much more to do with paying attention to what is happening on the road rather than wearing a helmet.



In my view, the biggest possible threat is traffic. To be honest, I can’t say for sure if there was any difference in the space that drivers gave me in Paris and London while riding helmet-less on a hire bike. I don’t have much of a problem in Melbourne with motorists, but more than anything I think that motorists treat varying genres of cyclists differently. A helmet-less rider on a utility bike is much more "human" to drivers than a bunch of us lycra clad warriors racing at 45km/h. It’s sometimes called the Mary Poppins effect.



I cannot see how the bike-hire schemes will succeed in Australia without relaxing our helmet restrictions on these particular bikes. These hire bikes are an excellent idea that are attempting to alleviate transport problems, make our cities more enjoyable to live in, and a making positive social change. We only have one chance at making this work.



I’m not the first person to say this, but a solution to this problem is simple. This class of "utility" or "upright" bike should be exempt from our current helmet laws. I still believe that helmets are beneficial to the type of riding I do 90 per cent of the time, but the use of these hire bikes is at the absolute bottom end of the risk spectrum.

The Conversation also has a look at this topic - Have helmet laws put the skids on Australia’s bike share scheme?.

Public bicycle hire schemes have the potential to generate the well-known health benefits that come with increased exercise.



But while Australia has bravely adopted such schemes, mandatory helmet laws continue to deter would-be cyclists.



Worldwide, more than 135 cities have developed bicycle share schemes to help reduce vehicle congestion and car parking problems, including Paris, London, Hangzhou, Montreal, Mexico City.



Melbourne and Brisbane started similar but smaller schemes last year to encourage bicycle use for short trips.



But unlike other schemes, Australia is the only country to mandate the use of helmets.



Benefits and risks of cycling



In this week’s British Medical Journal, researchers looked at the health risks and benefits of users of the “Bicing” public bicycle sharing scheme in Barcelona, Spain.



The researchers considered the 181,982 resident users of the bike share program and looked at deaths related to physical activity, road traffic incidents and exposure to air pollution.



Overall, they concluded that the additional physical activity from cycling instead of driving played a role in preventing 12 deaths.



They estimated the health benefits of riding a bicycle outweighed the risks of injury by a huge ratio of 77:1 – even if the bike was only ridden for comparatively short journeys.



The main reason for such a large benefit-to-risk ratio is the relatively low injury risk of cycling, despite minimal bicycle helmet use.

{ Read More }

The most secure bike lock in the world

Grist points to an interesting bike lock concept - The most secure bike lock in the world.

{ Read More }

Oslo On The Hunt For Rubbish To Burn

The NYT has a report on the increasing competition to find rubbish to burn in Europe - A City That Turns Garbage Into Energy Copes With a Shortage. Its not exactly the cradle to cradle manufacturing economy that we should be aspiring to but I guess its better than landfill.

This is a city that imports garbage. Some comes from England, some from Ireland. Some is from neighboring Sweden. It even has designs on the American market.

“I’d like to take some from the United States,” said Pal Mikkelsen, in his office at a huge plant on the edge of town that turns garbage into heat and electricity. “Sea transport is cheap.”

Oslo, a recycling-friendly place where roughly half the city and most of its schools are heated by burning garbage — household trash, industrial waste, even toxic and dangerous waste from hospitals and drug arrests — has a problem: it has literally run out of garbage to burn.

The problem is not unique to Oslo, a city of 1.4 million people. Across Northern Europe, where the practice of burning garbage to generate heat and electricity has exploded in recent decades, demand for trash far outstrips supply. “Northern Europe has a huge generating capacity,” said Mr. Mikkelsen, 50, a mechanical engineer who for the last year has been the managing director of Oslo’s waste-to-energy agency.

Yet the fastidious population of Northern Europe produces only about 150 million tons of waste a year, he said, far too little to supply incinerating plants that can handle more than 700 million tons. “And the Swedes continue to build” more plants, he said, a look of exasperation on his face, “as do Austria and Germany.”

Stockholm, to the east, has become such a competitor that it has even managed to persuade some Norwegian municipalities to deliver their waste there. By ship and by truck, countless tons of garbage make their way from regions that have an excess to others that have the capacity to burn it and produce energy.

{ Read More }

The Ring Nebula Calar Alto Astronomical Observatory

The Ring Nebula - Calar Alto Astronomical Observatory

The diversity of colours, shapes, and sizes of planetary nebulae make them fascinating objects. In this photo release Calar Alto presents a rather unique view combining both optical and near-infrared data of the Ring Nebula (M57). ...

Planetary nebulae represent the final stage in the evolution of stars whose masses are smaller than eight times that of the Sun. The approach of the final energy crisis that marks stellar old age transforms the star into a red giant whose stellar winds fill their surroundings with a thin envelope composed mainly from hydrogen gas.

Ring Nebula (M57) – click for 1600×1169 image

More: here, here

{ Read More }

Has The World Reached Economic Peak Oil

The peak oil world seems to have (thankfully) mostly moved from viewing the defining aspect of the peak of oil production as a function of oil in the ground to being a function of the price it takes to produce new oil - David Strahan has a good example of this at his blog - HAS THE WORLD REACHED ECONOMIC PEAK OIL? .

Whisper it. Oil production in the US is increasing. The country where output peaked in 1970 and then shrank by 40 per cent over four decades, has turned some kind of corner. Between 2008 and 2010, production rebounded by 800,000 barrels per day to 7.5 million barrels per day, and analysts forecast more growth to come. Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2017 production in the US could reach almost 11 mb/d, just shy of its all-time high, restoring the country to its former glory as the world’s biggest producer. ...

Indeed, if the world is suddenly awash with oil, somebody forgot to tell the oil market. Oil remains stubbornly above $100 per barrel of Brent crude, the main international benchmark. Most analysts agree this is because supply is struggling to keep pace with demand, despite weakening western economies. But if all this extra oil is coming on-stream, how come?

Part of the reason is down to short-term unforeseen disruptions, such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster in theGulf of Mexico last year which delayed many drilling projects, and the Libyan revolution which cut global supply by almost 1.6 mb/d. The impact of these events should fade in time but there are clearly deeper forces at work. Producing oil is getting harder.

Not that it was ever easy. The amount of oil produced by existing fields is always in decline because as oil is extracted, pressure in the reservoir falls and the oil comes out more slowly. As a result, every year the industry must drill new wells capable of supplying around 3 mb/d – or 30 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s production – just to stand still. Satisfying the growth in global demand, at least when the economy is expanding, requires roughly another 1.5 mb/d annually.

Filling these holes gets more difficult as the “easy oil” gets scarcer. Companies are now exploring to the ends of the earth – from the Falklands to the Arctic– and are drilling reservoirs that are deeper, hotter and higher pressure than ever, all of which raise new engineering challenges. That has pushed costs up massively, with effects that have yet to be widely understood.

Offshore, companies are working at ever greater depths. During the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, Petrobras, Brazil’s state oil company, made most of its offshore discoveries beneath about 3 kilometres of sea and rock. In 2007, it found the Lula field, about 7 km down. Drilling Lula needed 4 km more specialist steel pipe at a time when steel prices were soaring because of higher energy costs.

Even onshore, costs are rising. Shale-oil fracking wells typically run horizontally and need four times as much steel as a vertical well. According to analysts at JPMorgan, such inflation is rampant throughout the industry. Exxon’s production investments, for instance, soared from $15 billion per quarter in the 1990s to more than $100 billion in the second quarter of 2008 – while the amount of oil and gas it produced scarcely changed.

Some of the most costly oil comes from the tar sands of Canada, with its vast open-cast mines and energy-intensive production processes. According to investment bank Barclays Capital, new projects here need to earn as much as $90 a barrel just to break even. Saudi Arabia, the only country with meaningful spare production capacity, could have produced oil more cheaply a few years ago, but not now. It has increased public spending following the Arab Spring, and now needs $95 per barrel to balance its budget. These pressures, says Paul Horsnell, director of commodities research at Barclays, mean that oil prices are unlikely to fall below these levels unless the economy collapses. He forecasts $137 per barrel in 2015, and $185 in 2020.

So if there is lots of oil down there but it is much more costly to produce, can we have as much as we want if we are prepared to pay for it? Well, that depends on what you judge to be enough and who you mean by “we”, says Steven Kopits, US managing director of energy consultants Douglas Westwood.

The trouble is, high oil prices don’t just encourage oil companies to innovate, they also damage national economies – although some countries are more resilient than others. A penetrating analysis by Kopits found that historically theUSgoes into recession whenever it spends more than about 4.5 per cent of its GDP on oil. Today, that would equate to $90 a barrel. That level also holds for others in the OECD club of wealthy nations, says Kopits. But the evidence suggests thatChinais willing to pay more; it only cuts back on oil purchases when they account for more than 6 per cent of its GDP, equivalent to about $110 per barrel.

The disparity, says Kopits, arises because Chinese society assigns more value to a barrel of oil. Gaining a barrel can transform the lives of Chinese people – allowing them to travel by car for the first time, for example. In the west, losing a barrel merely means trading in a gas-guzzler for a more fuel efficient model.

But oil is so useful that nobody cuts back voluntarily, meaning prices must rise to excruciating levels to force rich western consumers to economise. The first “peak oil recession” started in 2009, says Kopits. It took oil at $147 a barrel and the deepest recession since the 1930s to prise oil from the grip of consumers in OECD countries. Since early 2008, OECD oil consumption has fallen by 4 mb/d, while non-OECD consumption – mainly inChina– has gained 6 mb/d. Global oil production rose 2 mb/d during that period, so developing countries have consumed all the additional supply plus that given up by industrialised economies. “China is bidding away the OECD oil supply,” says Kopits, “and recessions are the mechanism by which that oil is being transferred from weaker economies to faster growing economies.”

With China embarking on rapid “motorisation” – car sales in China leapfrogged those in the US in 2010 – the outlook is for repeated oil price spikes and recessions. We appear now to be entering the second peak oil recession, says Kopits, and others will follow. For the time being this is a problem for the west, but prices could rise to levels that are unsupportable even for China. On this view, peak oil is as much an economic construct as a geological one.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank are more optimistic, and predict that a final oil price spike to $175 in 2015 will lead to rapid electrification of transport and relieve pressure on the oil supply. But Kopits is doubtful that we can escape so easily. “Buckle up,” he concludes, “we’re in for a bumpy ride.”

{ Read More }

The Fossil Fuel Welfare State

The Atlantic has a look at the massive subsidies doled out to fossil fuel companies and consumers while renewables are starved of funds (Japan being the main exception) - The Fossil Fuel Welfare State.

When we talk about the Great Energy Shift to a shiny green future, keep in mind that there’s plenty of green bankrolling the dirty power past. That point was driven home yesterday by the release of a report detailing the extent governments subsidize fossil fuels.

Global subsides for fossil fuels paid to companies and individuals reached more than half a trillion dollars in 2011, the latest year full data was available, according to an analysis from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a UK-based nonprofit that advocates rolling back such incentives.

In the 11 wealthy nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, ODI estimates subsidies for fossil fuels range from $55 billion to $90 billion annually. In 2011, that figure reached $74 billion, or $112 for every person. No coincidence that the G20 group of nations accounted for 78% of the world’s carbon spew in 2010.

{ Read More }

The Limits to Growth Revisited

Ugo Bardi at Cassandras Legacy has a post on his new book on The Limits To Growth - The Limits to Growth Revisited. You can read the book online here at Springer Link.

In some respects, "The Limits to Growth Revisited" is a rather technical book. It goes in some depth in describing the controversy that flared between critics (mainly economists) and supporters of the system dynamics methods used for the 1972 study "The Limits to Growth" (LTG). But "LTG revisited" is not just a technical book. It also tells the whole story of the LTG study: how it was conceived, what were the political reactions to it, how it was demonized and misunderstood, and what is its relevance - also in its more recent versions of 1992 and 2004 - to the present situation of the world.

Writing this book has been a fascinating work. Re-examining the story of LTG opens up a whole new world that urban legends and propaganda had tried to bury under a layer of lies and misinterpretations. We all have heard of the "mistakes" that the authors of LTG, or their sponsors, the Club of Rome, are said to have made. But LTG was not "wrong": nowhere in the 1972 book you find the mistakes that are commonly attributed to it. LTG never predicted catastrophes to occur soon, never estimated that some specific mineral resources should run out by some specific date, it never contained prophecies of doom. In other words, LTG was not, and never was, "Chicken Little with a computer."

What caused the demonization of the study was, in large part, the fact that it was so new and so advanced for its times that it was widely misunderstood, often by its supporters as well as by its detractors. But the misunderstanding was enhanced by a media campaign very similar to the one that has been recently directed against climate science. The trick of these campaigns is always the same: find a single mistake and use it to demonize the whole concept. It doesnt matter that the mistake is real or an invention, it doesnt count whether it is relevant or not. The trick is to repeat the concept of "mistakes" a large number of times and that is enough to confuse the public and cloud the issue. In recent times, the method has been used to demonize climate science with the alleged mistake found in the "hockey stick" temperature reconstruction of past climate. For LTG, the "mistake" was found in a few numbers taken from just one of the many tables of the 1972 book. There was nothing wrong in these numbers, but the concept of the "mistakes of the Club of Rome" went viral and it is still widespread, and perhaps prevalent, whenever the LTG study is mentioned today.

Understanding the real message that LTG sent to us in 1972, and that it is still sending, takes a certain effort. First, you have to free your mind from the layers of legends that have accumulated around it over four decades, but that is not enough. You have to free yourself also from the common attitude that prevents us from understanding how complex systems behave. There is no fixed future for systems such as the worlds economic system, only trends. But these systems still obey physical laws: the limits of natural resources, the finiteness of the world system, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And there are the constants of human behavior: mainly our tendency of preferring immediate satisfaction to a future one, a phenomenon known as "discounting the future."

All together, these factors push the world system to follow a well defined path. We cannot determine exactly what the future will be, but we can produce a "fan" of trajectories that show to us how where the system is heading to. The original 1972 LTG study had already identified the main factors that have been dominating the behavior of the worlds economy. The combined effects of resource depletion and pollution accumulation (seen today mainly in terms of climate change) have been gradually reducing the ability of the industrial system of accumulating capital and of fuelling growth. These factors will, eventually, cause the worlds industrial and agricultural systems to start a decline that could be defined as "collapse" which, later on, involves also the worlds population.

It is not possible to determine exact dates for these events but, still, the insight that this kind of modelling offers to us is amazing. Just think how, already 40 years ago, the LTG study may have anticipated the worldwide financial crisis that occurred in 2008 and also the present debate on whether climate change or "peak resources" is the most important problem that we face. Dynamic modelling is a flexible tool, something that enhances the capability of the human mind to understand the world that surrounds us. The 1972 LTG study was the first to use this tool, but it is not the only possible way. Simpler dynamic models will tend to produce the same final outcome.

If we use this tool, and we use it wisely, we can discover that nothing of the future is written in stone. The future is something that we create every day with our actions. At the same time, we can also discover that the future has a life of its own, that it resents being forced into what we think it should be on the basis of obsolete ideologies. We will have to adapt to the future and that may not be painless but, if we try to understand the future, we may discover that it doesnt need to be our enemy.

{ Read More }

Obama addresses climate energy infrastructure in State of the Union

TreeHugger reports that US President Obama is still talking a reasonably good game when it comes to global warming and clean energy - Obama addresses climate, energy, infrastructure in State of the Union.

President Obama on 3D Printing:

Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns. So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create a network of fifteen of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America. President Obama on Energy Policy:

After years of talking about it, we are finally poised to control our own energy future. We produce more oil at home than we have in 15 years. We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas, and the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar – with tens of thousands of good, American jobs to show for it. We produce more natural gas than ever before – and nearly everyone’s energy bill is lower because of it. And over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen.

On Climate:

But for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Yes, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is, the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods – all are now more frequent and intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science – and act before it’s too late.

The good news is, we can make meaningful progress on this issue while driving strong economic growth. I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.

On Clean Energy:

Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We’ve begun to change that. Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let’s drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we.

{ Read More }

Rare Earths From The Ocean

The SMH reports that Japanese researchers have found large rare earth deposits on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (the plan to perform acid leaching at sea doesn’t sound very environmentally friendly though) - Rare earth deposits used to make iPads found in ocean.

Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said. … The discovery was made by a team led by Kato and including researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

They found the minerals in sea mud extracted from depths of 3500 to 6000 metres below the ocean surface at 78 locations. One-third of the sites yielded rich contents of rare earths and the metal yttrium, Kato said in a telephone interview. The deposits are in international waters in an area stretching east and west of Hawaii, as well as east of Tahiti in French Polynesia, he said.

He estimated rare earths contained in the deposits amounted to 80 to 100 billion tonnes, compared to global reserves currently confirmed by the US Geological Survey of just 110 million tonnes that have been found mainly in China, Russia and other former Soviet countries, and the United States.

The level of uranium and thorium - radioactive ingredients that are usually contained in such deposits that can pose environmental hazards - was found to be one-fifth of those in deposits on land, Kato said.

A chronic shortage of rare earths, vital for making a range of high-technology electronics, magnets and batteries, has encouraged mining projects for them in recent years. China, which accounts for 97 per cent of global rare earth supplies, has been tightening trade in the strategic metals, sparking an explosion in prices.

Japan, which accounts for a third of global demand, has been stung badly, and has been looking to diversify its supply sources, particularly of heavy rare earths such as dysprosium used in magnets.

Kato said the sea mud was especially rich in heavier rare earths such as gadolinium, lutetium, terbium and dysprosium. ...

Extracting the deposits requires pumping up material from the ocean floor. "Sea mud can be brought up to ships and we can extract rare earths right there using simple acid leaching," he said. "Using diluted acid, the process is fast, and within a few hours we can extract 80-90 per cent of rare earths from the mud."

{ Read More }