Alchemy is scientifically dead, but many have a perverse, and costly belief in its power

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose practitioners have, from antiquity, claimed it to be the precursor to profound powers.

Science has repeatedly illustrated the fallacy of those ancient beliefs, but the pressures of climate change appear to have renewed human hope surrounding the idea that lead can be changed into gold.

Coal is among the villains when it comes to corrupting the delicate balance of earth’s atmosphere and yet here in Australia we have spent endless amounts of public money over decades in what can be shown to be a pointless exercise in making “coal-clean”.

Today on the ABC’s Background Briefing, replayed from its original broadcast in July this year, listeners heard in “The search for the clean coal holy grail” was little more that ancient alchemy at work.

In the story Paddy Manning tracks the quest for the clean coal Holy Grail and investigates the men getting unspeakably rich from the search

Manning explains that the Abbott government is tying the success of its Direct Action policy to a clean coal technology that is still in the very early stages of development.

Manning’s story illustrates, quite clearly, that work on the technology has actually been happening for decades, it has cost the people of Australia millions of dollars, made a handful of people frightfully rich and as is always the case, wherever there is money, there is endless intrigue.