Adventure Ausrama Blog

There is always conflict between industry and the natural ecosystem. With the arrival of extraction and even mass agriculture comes pollution detrimental to the flora and fauna. This is no different in Aboriginal regions as in urbanized cities. Dean Mathews is a Yawuru Aboriginal and Project Officer for the Nyamba Buru Yawuru Aboriginal Corporation. He monitors the impact on groundwater by agriculture and mining. He has made a video. It is significant that the location he tested did not have any visible industry there, so it would be expected that the water was still pure. Test the water adjacent to mining activity and the results would be quite different. Much has been made of Aboriginal cooperation with industry - too much for my liking. One has the feeling that local Aboriginal have been duped. The mining industry employs people whose sole motivation is to change public opinion to accept the "job-creating" mining companies. The problem is of course that f...

It is proposed that natural gas be used instead of coal for electric power generation. The national climate summit put a deadline of 2012 for this to happen with the dirtiest power station, Hazlewood. Environment Victoria took up the challenge saying that natural gas with renewable energy resources could reduce Hazlewood's pollution by 14.4 million tonnes to just 1.8. Wind generation would gradually replace natural gas. The claim is exceedingly optimistic. Too much faith is placed in wind generation despite the fact that electricity production by this means has peaked in northern Europe and it still does not make a profit.  Beyond Zero Emissions is even more optimistic. Its plan aims to end Hazlewood's use of coal by 2013.  Failure to reduce emissions means it could be closed. The future looks good for natural gas production with gas being obtained from coal seams and 20 gas power plants being planned. Natural gas is not really clean though. Indeed, leakage of methane ga...

Natural disasters on this planet cause human pain and suffering. This includes financial loss from destroyed properties. The science in forecasting such events is still developing. Tornadoes are very unpredictable. Hurricanes move slower; yet the amount of damage is still an unknown quantity. The whole history of the US has included repeated "attacks" by hurricanes and tornadoes. Tracking of these events began in 1873 with the first hurricane warning by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Advances were made in understanding flooding from storm surges. This did not prevent the most destructive hurricane of 1900 hitting without warning killing 12,000 citizens. In 1943 a pilot was sent into the eye of a hurricane. This marked the beginning of an intensive period of study into natural weather events. Ultimately, hurricane forecast models were developed. The 1960s saw the first use of satellites. In 1975 the Saffir-Simpson scale rating hurricane strength of one to five was fo...

You would think that birds are happy to live near humans as they can get easy access to food. Unfortunately, this is not the case, particularly for large birds. Sound drives them away. Traffic noise and heavy machinery are the culprits. Larger birds use low-pitched songs to communicate. This is drowned out by engines and clunking machines. Birds and nests were counted near natural gas wells. Compressors on the wells run day and night. The noise is like a reving motorcycle. Thirty species of bird were surveyed. The number of large birds was very low. Small birds have high-pitched songs that can still be heard over rumbling machinery, so their lives are unaffected. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Biology