James Lovelock has written a letter of objection regarding a wind-farm development in Devon. The final paragraph of his letter reads:

“I am an environmentalist and founder member of the Greens but I bow my head in shame at the thought that our original good intentions should have been so misunderstood and misapplied. We never intended a fundamentalist Green movement that rejected all energy sources other than renewable, nor did we expect the Greens to cast aside our priceless ecological heritage because of their failure to understand that the needs of the Earth are not separable from human needs. We need take care that the spinning windmills do not become like the statues on Easter Island, monuments of a failed civilisation.”

Source: http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2013/1/25/lovelock-recants.html

Creating Bushfire Hazards

A recent report from friends who suffered terrible losses of buildings, fences, pasture and cattle in the Coonabarabran fire commenced with the ominous and oft-repeated message: “a raging fire came out of the National Park straight for us”.

There is only one way to limit fire damage – reduce the fuel available.

Fuel load can be reduced in three ways – by grazing animals, by planned small “cool” fires, or by mechanical reduction with slashers, mulchers or dozers.

Australia’s grassland landscape was created and managed by generations of Aborigines who were masters at using man’s most useful tool – fire. Every explorer from Abel Tasman (1642) and Captain Cook (1770) onwards noted the smoke in the sky and the burnt trees whenever they landed. This burning created the open grassland landscapes that dominated pre-European Australia. Aborigines lit fires continually, mainly to keep their fires sticks alight. Their small patchwork fires caused no permanent damage to the environment and fortuitously created and maintained the healthy grasslands and open forests on which many animals and Aborigines depended.

There have been two major changes to the tree/grass balance since European settlement. In the fertile well-watered coastal strip, large areas of thick scrub and open forest were logged and cleared for timber, farms, towns, roads, schools and the domesticated grasses of suburban lawns. Most of those trees have been displaced by those people who now, in ignorance, are also destroying the grasslands and remaining open forests by locking up land and preventing any form of regrowth control. Having destroyed much of the coastal forests and scrubs, they are now destroying the open forests and grasslands.

Misguided tree lovers and green politicians have locked the gates on ever-increasing areas of land for trees, parks, heritage, wilderness, habitat, weekend retreats, carbon sequestration etc. Never before on this ancient continent has anyone tried to ban land use or limit bushfires on certain land. The short-sighted policy of surrounding their massive land-banks with fences, locked gates, fire bans and exclusion of livestock has created a new alien environment in Australia. They have created tinder boxes where the growth of woody weeds and the accumulation of dead vegetation in eucalypt re-growth create the perfect environment for fierce fires.

Once ignited by lightning, carelessness, or arson, the inevitable fire-storms incinerate the park trees and wildlife, and then invade the unfortunate neighbouring properties. Many of today’s locked-up areas were created to sequester carbon to fulfil Kyoto obligations. Who pays the carbon tax on the carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere by wild fires? The green bureaucracies and politicians are clearly mis-managing their huge land-bank. Aborigines and graziers did a far better job. There should be a moratorium on locking up any more land and a return to sustainable management for existing land holdings.

More, as well as:

• Time to Build Better Infrastructure
• Magic-gas Discovery
• Extreme Weather is Nothing New
• The Blind Worship of Windmills
• The Last Word

Read the full report: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/destructive-green-policies.pdf [PDF, 65 KB]

Keywords: Bushfires, grasslands, parks, floods, infrastructure, carbon dioxide magic, extreme weather, windmill monuments, James Lovelock, CSIROh!, Monckton, politicians on drugs.

“The heating effect of carbon dioxide is minuscule. It is lost in the noise of the climate system. That is why the temperature of the planet today is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago. On top of all that, the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere is dangerously low. All living things would be better off if we had more of it in the atmosphere.”

“In a few short years, Sydney will start having blackouts because nobody will build a new power station while the carbon tax stalks the land.”

“It was 400,000 emails, letters and phone calls which stopped the carbon tax in late 2009. We need to resend those 400,000 emails, letters and phone calls, but this time with a sharp­er edge.”

“Finally, the world has entered a sharp cooling phase. I ex­pect growing conditions to shrink 300 kilometres towards the equator by the end of the decade. There will be a ma­jor reduction in agricultural productiv­ity in the mid-latitudes.”

For David Archibald’s full address to a NO-CARBON-TAX Rally in Sydney recently see: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/archibald-carbon-tax.pdf [PDF, 203 KB]

The first industries of Australia were farming and mining and these two have been the backbone of the nation ever since. Both are threatened by the taxaholics in Canberra.

Shorthorn and Brahman cattle arrived with the first fleet and coal was discovered by convicts at Newcastle in 1791, just three years after the First Fleet arrived. The first Merino sheep arrived in 1797 and coal mining started in 1798. Since then mining and farming have earned the majority of Australia’s income.

Wool and wheat, gold and silver, butter and cheese, copper and lead-zinc, leather and tallow, iron and steel, sugar and wine, coal and hydro-carbons, meat and mutton, aluminium and uranium, timber and fish, nickel and titanium – these comprise Australia’s Magic Pudding.

But the Gillard/Green/Garnaut Carbon Tax Coalition hate our primary industries because they all depend on carbon fuels and produce the carbon dioxide that feeds our crops. Our backbone industries are seen as dreaded “polluters” and treated like noxious weeds and serpents to be removed from the green Garden of Eden.

Full article: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/value-adding.pdf [PDF, 681 KB]

The Global Warming Policy Foundation has published (May 2011) a detailed report about the shale gas revolution and its likely implications for climate policy.

The report , written by Matt Ridley and with a foreword by Professor Freeman Dyson, finds that shale gas:

• is not only abundant but relatively cheap and therefore promises to take market share from nuclear, coal and renewable energy and to replace oil in some transport and industrial uses, over coming decades.
• will help to keep the price of nitrogen fertiliser low and hence keep food prices down, other things being equal.
• is unlikely to be a major source of pollution or methane emissions, but in contrast promises to reduce pollution and accelerate the decarbonisation of the world economy.

To read the full report see:

http://thegwpf.org/images/stories/gwpf-reports/Shale-Gas_4_May_11.pdf [PDF, 1.6 MB]

Naturally, after causing a boom in demand for gas, and promoting it, greens are now trying to prevent exploration and exploitation of this massive new energy source. And just as naturally they are being supported by competitive energy sources threatened by this gas bonanza – French nuclear, Russian gas, the coal geo-sequestration crowd and the whole wind/solar lobby.

Some of these shales will also produce significant oil. Nick Grealy looks here at the coming impact of oil and gas from “Wet Shale”:

http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm/7415/Shale-Gas-LNG–the-Coming-Impact-of-Wet-Shale

An anti-carbon tax rally will be held on Sunday 15th May, 1pm, at Town Green, Horton Street Port Macquarie.

More here: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/carbon-tax-rally-port-macquarie.pdf [PDF, 852 KB]

The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed there is more justification for a tax on the emissions of steam from a kettle on the stove than a tax on the emissions of carbon dioxide from the gas stove beneath the kettle.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that neither steam nor carbon dioxide is a harmful pollutant, both are essential to life, both are emitted by burning hydrocarbon fuels and both have some effects on weather and climate.

“We expect the government media claque and research mercenaries to parrot the prevailing political propaganda, but surely it’s time for the independent media to start promoting accurate language and real science in the global warming debate.

It’s time to “speak truth to power”.

More: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/a-tax-on-water.pdf [PDF, 416 KB]

From: Dr Guy LeBlanc Smith
To: Professor Flannery, The Australian Climate Commission

I would like to submit the following questions to the Climate Commission Ipswich Public Forum on April 7th:

As a retired Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO with a doctorate in sedimentary geology and ancient environmental reconstructions that show climate has always varied naturally – I would like to know the following:

(1) Why has Professor Garnaut not honoured his first term of reference of his review – to show human causation in climate change – he has not yet differentiated human from natural, why?

(2) By how much will global temperature change if Australian human carbon dioxide generation were to totally cease and how much would that cost us? – this is designed to show a base line calibration.

(3) Will you publish graphs of annual global temperature reduction delivered from the proposed Australian carbon tax amount by years – for example say for the next 100 years?

Thanks in anticipation of a focused and evidence backed response.

From: DCCEE – ClimateCommision Secretariat [mailto:secretariat@climatecommission.gov.au]
Sent: Monday, 18 April 2011 10:12 AM
To: Dr Guy LeBlanc Smith
Cc: DCCEE – ClimateCommision Secretariat
Subject: RE: A comment from Dr Guy LeBlanc Smith [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]Dear Guy

Thank you for your email of 2 April to the Climate Commission. The Climate Commission have asked me to respond on their behalf.The Climate Commission was established by the Australian Government to provide all Australians with an independent and reliable source of information about the science of climate change, the international action being taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the economics of a carbon price. The Commission is independent of Ministerial direction and does not comment on policy or provide policy advice.

You have raised a number of questions relating to the science of climate change. The Commission appreciates your desire to understand the science of climate change. Because the Commission receives a large number of queries about climate change science, many of which are variants on a limited number of topics, it has been decided to post responses to its website (www.climatecommission.gov.au). The Commission is developing these responses and your questions will be addressed on the Commission website in the near future.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to the Commission.

Yours sincerely,
John Higgins
Director
Climate Commission

PDF version: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/waiting-climate-commission.pdf [PDF, 52 KB]

Volcanoes emit huge quantities of the main greenhouse gases – water vapour and carbon dioxide. They also affect wind patterns and put large amounts of other gases like sulphur dioxide and particles of ash, smoke and dust.

All of these have a dramatic effect on the weather events and the biosphere.

For an article on this subject by Wyss Yim of the University of Hong Kong, see: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/yim-volcanoes-water-vapour.pdf [PDF, 418 KB]

Peter Lang
21 May 2011

This paper presents a simple analysis to estimate the amount of CO2 emissions avoided by wind generation and the cost per tonne avoided as wind penetration increases from 0% to 20%. The carbon price implications are discussed.

For wind power to be viable in Australia the price for electricity would need to be about $120/MWh. The current average wholesale price of electricity is about $30/MWhi. So wind energy must be subsidised by about $90/MWh. If we have a carbon price of $25/MWh then the Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) need to reach $65/MWh to make wind viable. (That means the consumer must subsidise wind by $90/MWh, or three times the current wholesale price of electricity.)

The paper concludes that as wind energy penetration increases from 1% to 20% the CO2 avoidance cost increases from $100 to $2,500 per tonne of CO2 production avoided.

Wind energy is a high cost way to avoid CO2 emissions.

For a print-friendly copy of the full article see: http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/lang-wind-and-emissions.pdf [PDF, 49 KB]