da Scriffles

Bio sequestration is a productive, "sustainable" solution to reduce our carbon footprint - an experienced mining & finance industry player told the Women in Technology BioTech Forum this week over breakfast at Brisbane's PriceWaterhouseCoopers office overlooking the river.

As the audience of scientific and business folk tucked into fruit salad and poached eggs on toast, the guest speaker introduced them to a humble bacteria an alien born on Planet Earth that doesn't like "organic" food. 

Mine bugs don't need oxygen or light - they eat toxic chemicals. They feed upon stuff such as CO2.

Maree Klemm,  who has 35 years experience in the finance and mining industries, explained her belief that nothing - not even CO2 - should be considered "waste". Instead it should be seen as the input for another process, part of the system.

It was biotechnology that allowed the mining industry (in 1947) to start leeching or extracting metals from low-grade ore by speeding up the reproduction rates of "Mine Bugs".

This process allows mining companies to extract a few grams of gold from tons of low-grade ore.

Now it's being tested at Tarong Power Station as a means to grow "sustainable" oil - they will feed the bugs CO2 emissions from the stacks to grow algae.

Mine Bugs require a "radical eco-system". The nutrients this bacteria needs to survive are inorganic compounds.

So the perfect test facility for the "Bio Carbon Capture and Storage (bio CCS) Synthesiser is one of Australia's three largest power stations.

The Tarong trial, which is about to start, takes research out of James Cook University and puts it into the real world to grow algae that feeds off the CO2 emissions produces useful by-products: oil used in plastics, jet fuel and fertilisers. The algae can also be used for stock feed. The bio mass can also be used as fuel for power generation. It will grow in a buffer zone around the station.

Here's a comparison table for land use by crop:

0.24ha algae produces 100,000 tonnes of oil.

715ha corn produces the same amount of oil.

100ha canola ....................

20ha Palm Oil ....................................

The cost of the trial? $3.5m. Full-scale project would cost $300m consuming 1.4m tonnes of CO2 to produce 700,000 tones of algae, 250 tonnes of oil and 450 tonnes of algae meal.

Compare this to geo-sequestration - or carbon sinks - which costs $5B to set up and $2.2B to operate.

When I visited San Francisco's Exploratorium I bought this postcard showing psychologist's EG Boring's little intelligence test. 

I think the climate change debate is a reincarnation of the postcard.

Do you see a young or old woman or both?

Tim Flannery and the rest of the Climate Commission appointed by the Federal Government in February held it's first community meeting in Geelong on Friday.

Listen to an ABC podcast 

I watched it on the ABC. They responded to the fears of the average Australian from how a carbon tax will affect petrol prices and groceries to whether jobs will be lost in the most energy intensive industries such as aluminum smelters. This unfortunately was broadcast on the ABC on a Friday night after 8.30pm while the Tony Abbott in the climate skeptics crowd speech was all over every media outlet for the past few days.

So here's how I think it must look to the average Aussie who bothered with last week's debate at all: 

• Petrol prices would go up $2-$3 a tank (depending on the size of the tank) with the introduction of a recommened $20-$30/tonne price on carbon.
• Jobs at Alcoa would be saved if (as is part of every plan under consideration) the aluminum industry gets some form of compensation - because it's actually doing something about reducing its energy consumption already and is already internationally competitive in this area.
• There is no global warming debate in the scientific community. Why? Because the existence and cause of Global Warming is accepted as fact by 98 percent of the scientific community.
• "UNCERTAINTY" is the reason investors are not investing in clean energy which means it will take even longer to bring the price of clean energy down.
• Scientists are annoyed and frustrated by the "political" debate around climate change and went back to their test tubes, exploration ships and the like to do the work rather than argue with people who don't have their facts straight.

PS: If television's morning programs really want to do a public service then perhaps they should do a segment every morning with a scientist!

Translation for international readers of da Scriffles: 

The GoGo Bird: Prime Minister Julia Gillard - leader of a minority government in a hung parliament - is captive to the Greens (hence green shoes).

The Poll Dancer: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott & his team of fat cats are worried about the cost of living for ordinary Australians and the fact that Julia Gillard lied before the election when she said her government would never introduce a carbon tax. Now that she needs the support of The Greens to remain in government she's changed her mind. 

Some species of plants which existed when Australia was part of  Gondwanaland still live here - and it is the only place in the world you find them. 

If the mists stop rolling in off the ocean and hitting the highlands then the biodiversity of the Daintree will diminish because the forest will change.

The upland species will disappear from the mountains which were part an ancient reef system before tectonic movement pushed them up leaving only the Great Barrier Reef.

These ancient mountains have been worn down by the millennia.

The possums, frogs and insects which are unable to live in warmer zones would move up the mountain if it went any higher, but it doesn't.

(I'm paraphrasing information from a technical tour of the Daintree hosted by James Cook University's Professor of Geography Steve Turton.)

When you cut open a piece of fruit, you discover something about its intrinsic nature. 

This is an article I wrote for a newsletter sent to financial planners - I'm publishing it here because the comments made in response might be of interest. I'm not identifying the authors of the comments.

You can find on the outside only what you possess on the inside. – Adolfo Montiel Ballesteros

When an armed robber makes up his mind to do whatever it takes to get whatever it is that he needs what motivates him is self-interest - right?

Only a madman would stand in front of a desperate person wielding a gun or a knife and advise him to get in touch with his authentic self - it's the same with trying to tell a junk food addict not to binge on crap -  that's all you folk who load your shopping trollies with soft drinks, chips, biscuits and LCMs <YES LCMs> processed and bottles of unnatural yuk and go into debt to pay your shopping bill.

OKAY. Instead of a carbon tax, let's tax junk food and spend it on renewable energy innovation. Who's the robber now, hey?

Do you like the Barren Von Carben series by my nieces? I thought up the Baron and asked them to create him. I like the way they spell his name: BARREN. I created his oily haired bride. The Barren's Bride.

It's really weird for me at the moment because I've been writing reports of health forums on children's nutrition and diabetes - there's a massive epidemic in our society and no one's taking up arms. The rate of bowel cancer in children is rising. 

Two-thirds of Australians are overweight or obese. People basically aren't eating fruit and vegetables.

Obese children suffer horrible systematic discrimination. The emotional and psychological impact (not to mention the cardio-vascular disease, diabetes and kidney failure) follows them into adulthood - they drop out of school, they can't get jobs, they suffer social discrimination. Read the stats. 

The one good thing Tony Abbott has going for him is that he cycles, he runs, and he surfs - even though he leads a busy life. He's time poor too but he finds time! Perhaps he might get elected if he starts to truly care about something OTHER than being elected.

Here's a suggested Australian Constitution based on our TRUE and HONEST Australian values:  

* The right to live forever! *The right to smokes and booze! *The right to Maccas! *The right take whatever I want and pay nothing - or close to nothing! *To hell with everyone but ME! *The right to hold to self-righteous arrogance and claim it as fact - that is to lie. *The right to whinge about someone else's lies. *The right to kick and spit and punch people for no good reason (Have you listened to the news lately?).

Are these the values we defend our shores with?

THIS is the AUSTRALIAN way of life that refugees aspire to? You can own a Nintendo and eat Maccas at the same time.

Once upon a time, Australian children bragged about being able to walk and chew gum at the same time - and they could!

That's because the energy spent walking was greater than the calorie intake of chewing gum!

I've stopped blogging because I know that I've started ranting over climate change and it's boring. But really people!

You take up arms against future proofing the environment but you do nought to protect your children's health. Throw that extra pack of chips in the trolley, go on! Hello??? Anyone in there??? Honestly! 

A third of Australian children will be obese by 2020 - these are the figures helpless health professionals talk about as they tremble thinking about the future burden on our health system, not to mention our society. Imagine how they feel being unable to turn the Titanic around?

I realized that there are a lot of good people in the health system who feel bad about fighting a losing battle - if only you could hear them.

When is it time to change? It's taken half a century to change people's attitudes to smoking. We do not have half a century here folks.

Continue to swallow those Maccas "family" meals and guzzle your soft drink, instead of water. Is it that difficult to cook fresh family meals? 

Our economy is groaning - the Health economy is bankrupt - that's what waiting lists mean people! There's no money to cover the deficit. It's not a pretty picture if you're on a waiting list.

If you aren't on those waiting lists then you're lucky. Me? I'm not on a waiting list but I do need to lose a few pounds. I don't eat junk food though - not in all my life! When I was kid if we wanted pizza my parents told us to make them - the base, the sauce, cut up the topping and wait for it to cook! Fresh out of the oven. Good honest, authentic food from flour and whole tomatoes and cheese and olives and ...

I wonder what will happen to me these days if I end up in a nursing home unable to take a hot shower so that I can move in the morning... After a month of yoga twice a week, my spine can move again. Ah the splendor of life tied to a desk.

Let us live forever! We crawled out of the ooz and we can crawl back ... are you shocked yet? 

Where exactly is this "authentic" self that the heeby new age body beautiful creepies talk about?

Bullshit is authentic too if you know what you're looking at.

Creepies because all they are doing is pushing their latest product down your throat! You too can be thin if you pay a fortune for my secrets. Agh!

What is enough for an armed robber? $5000 ... $50,000? ... $1000 or just a carton of smokes?

Well, what exactly are you prepared to take up arms for? 

Ralph Waldo Emerson was wrong when he wrote: "Essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf". Because the Industrial Revolution has touched everything.

The 18th Century is coming to a close - a little late - in the 21st century when what we need is another industrial revolution, thanks to peak oil and peak debt and climate change. Revolution of universal design with universal application ... if you want to invest, invest in community, invest in people.

This is the message from today's philosophers who gathered at Berkeley's Ecoliteracy Centre for the Systems Thinking seminar by Fritjof Capra in June.

In one action-packed week in San Francisco, I managed to more than fulfil all three goals for my trip:

• to catch up with family
• to hear Fritjof Capra speak
• to walk in nature.

On the riverboat trip across Lake Tahoe to Emerald Bay, we listened to words of Mark Twain delivered by an actor who impersonated Twain.

"To obtain the air the angels breathe, you must go to Tahoe." _ Mark Twain

My cousin informed me that "They ran a bumper sticker campaign to "Keep Tahoe Blue". Turns out climate change has warmed the waters of one of the world's largest alpine lakes. 

The dramatic landscape and cool, cool basin of blue water was carved by melting glaciers. But less snow falls in winter, more rain falls, the seasons have changed. To me, it seems that angels still breathe the air there but imagine what it must have been like when Emerson and Twain were around? 

My father's cousin took me to see Muir Woods - a massive, old-growth, redwood forest basically in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is as incredible as the Daintree Rainforests of North Queensland. Except instead of ascending into the mountains, you descend along a winding road into the depths of a fairytale forest.

Here's a quick video of Muir Wood:

I'm guessing that the wood may exist due to the cloud forests - the infamous bay mists - just as the Daintree's Uplands are sustained by the cloud forests that blow in from The Great Barrier Reef. If these mists disappear due to seasonal changes (read global warming) these ancient ecosystems will fail due to climate change.

Scientists say Evolution started in places like these. The oldest coastal redwoods in Muir Woods are up to 1200 years old - so they were giants even 200 years ago when Ralph Waldo and Twain marvelled at nature.

Ralph, a philosopher poet who loved nature, could not ever imagine that man could exhaust nature - even though he worried about the consequences of the great Industrial Revolution's inexhaustible drive to make more stuff quicker. This is quite a feat.

 I travelled to San Francisco to hear another philosopher, the physicist-author Fritjof Capra, talk about Systems Thinking at the Ecoliteracy Centre. 

He's writing a new book on Systems Thinking. I've wanted to hear him speak ever since I read his book The Tao of Physics in about 2008 - I came to it late. It was first published in 1975. I managed to ask him to elaborate on how he came to write it.

The physicist took took time out from his academic and scientific research to write this book about how physics is proving Eastern philosophy. People hung on his every word.

Climate skeptics can deny all knowledge and ban climate science from being taught in schools but the truth is that when you teach ecology you are teaching systems thinking and systems connect us to everything in the cosmos - all the way through evolution to the first bubble the popped.

Fritjof Capra, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Ecoliteracy Centre, Aristotle share one trait - they teach that we must learn from nature rather than try to defeat nature.

I bought many books at the Ecoliteracy Centre, like Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things, ©2002, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. 

Many books, such as this one and the one Capra is writing, advocate a new Industrial Revolution. We need to learn to make things better so that there is not so much waste - as in nature.

"If the first Industrial Revolution had a motto, we like to joke, it would be 'If brute force doesn't work, you're not using enough of it'." _ Cradle to Cradle.

If "make it fit" was good enough for industrial solutions in the 18th century then what's wrong with industry of today? Make it fit again, redesign it, make it fit in ways that follow nature's design. Build new industries, build new markets, isn't that what business and industry do? 

See Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation. Berkeley's Ecoliteracy Centre is funded through philanthropy and is designed to the tip-top sustainability ratings in the USA.

"There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it," he says. "I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial." - Sir David Attenborough