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Details: Written by Richard McKie; Parent Category: Economy; Category: Energy; Published: 05 December 2010; Hits: 16035

The following paper was written back in 2007. Since that time the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) struck and oil prices have not risen as projected. But we are now hearing about peak oil again and there have been two programmes on radio and TV in the last fortnight floating the prospect of peak oil again.

At the end of 2006 the documentary film A Crude Awakening warned that peak oil, ‘the point in time when the maximum rate of petroleum production is reached, after which the rate of production enters its terminal decline’, is at hand.

Details: Written by Richard McKie; Parent Category: Economy; Category: Energy; Published: 04 December 2010; Hits: 16002

(Carbon Sequestration)

Carbon Sequestration Source: Wikimedia Commons

At the present state of technological development in NSW we have few (perhaps no) alternatives to burning coal. But there is a fundamental issue with the proposed underground sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) as a means of reducing the impact of coal burning on the atmosphere. This is the same issue that plagues the whole current energy debate. It is the issue of scale.

Disposal of liquid CO₂: underground; below the seabed; in depleted oil or gas reservoirs; or in deep saline aquifers is technically possible and is already practiced in some oil fields to improve oil extraction. But the scale required for meaningful sequestration of coal sourced carbon dioxide is an enormous engineering and environmental challenge of quite a different magnitude.

It is one thing to land a man on the Moon; it is another to relocate the Great Pyramid (of Cheops) there.

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Travel

Japan

In the second week of May 2017 our small group of habitual fellow travellers Craig and Sonia; Wendy and I; took a package introductory tour: Discover Japan 2017 visiting: Narita; Tokyo; Yokohama; Atami; Toyohashi; Kyoto; and Osaka.

Fiction, Recollections & News

The U-2 Incident

In 1960 the Russians shot down an American U-2 spy plane that was overflying and photographing their military bases. The U-2 Incident was big news when I was in High School and I remember it quite clearly.

The Incident forms the background to Bridge of Spies a 2015 movie, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance from a screenplay written by Matt Charman together with Ethan and Joel Coen that centres on these true events.

Spielberg and the Cohen Brothers. Who could miss it?

Opinions and Philosophy

A Carbon Tax for Australia

12 July 2011

It's finally announced, Australia will have a carbon tax of $23 per tonne of CO₂ emitted. This is said to be the highest such tax in the world but it will be limited to 'about 500' of the biggest emitters. The Government says that it can't reveal which these are to the public because commercial privacy laws prevent it from naming them.

Some companies have already 'gone public' and it is clear that prominent among them are the major thermal power generators and perhaps airlines. Some like BlueScope Steel (previously BHP Steel) will be granted a grace period before the tax comes into effect. In this case it is publicly announced that the company has been granted a two year grace period with possible extensions, limited to its core (iron and steelmaking) emissions.