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.
he owners of one of
Australia's oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power stations—Hazelwood in
Victoria's Latrobe Valley—have been secretly considering plans to reinvent the
plant as a 'clean energy generator' by burning forest waste.
