NT fracking inquiry's key environmental findings questioned by scientists

One of Australia's top legacy mines researchers has questioned the scientific accuracy of some of the Northern Territory fracking inquiry's key environmental findings.

The inquiry panel thinks fracking chemicals will not
 spill near Katherine or in areas with similar geology.

The practice of hydraulic fracturing — in which a mixture of chemicals, water and sand are injected at high pressure into rock to release gas — has been controversial in the NT over the past decade since applications to frack began pouring in.

It was a key election promise of the Labor Government to respond to community concerns by imposing a moratorium while an inquiry was held.

The March deadline for the inquiry's final report is looming, and it has another round of community consultations to hold following last month's release of its draft report.

Read Jane Bardon’s ABC News story - “NT fracking inquiry's key environmental findings questioned by scientists.”

(The purveryors of profit invevitbale question anything, including science, that puts their profit at risk and the same dynamicx is being witnessed in the Northern Territory with those in the pro-fracking camp ignoring, and questioning, any advice that suggests these modern attempts to unlock these hitherto inaccessible gases are noit just qestionsable, but simply wrong.

This, again, is an example of profit, at whatever expense, being put ahead of protection of our country - it's short term gain for a handful of people at the long-term cost for the broader community.

The territory's fracking moratorium should not onhy be maintained, but converted into an ouright ban - Robert McLean)

‘Lost’ Forests May Help Balance Global Carbon Budget

An international team of scientists including from the University of Adelaide have discovered 467 million hectares of previously unreported forest – an area equivalent to 60% of the size of Australia, and increasing current estimates of global forest cover by 10%.

Published today in Science, the scientists say that not only will the new finding help dramatically improve the accuracy of global carbon modelling, it has also revealed the true potential in forest cover of the world’s drylands and may lead to new opportunities for mitigation of climate change through improved conservation and restoration in dryland habitats.

Led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), teams of scientists and students from 15 organisations around the world carried out an innovative new global analysis of the distribution of forests and woodlands across drylands. This class of forest and woodland has previously been difficult to measure globally using satellite imagery or other remote sensing because of the relative low density of trees.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “‘Lost’ Forests May Help Balance Global Carbon Budget.”

Big science says we shouldn't bet the planet at Paris

I

John Collee - we shouldn't
bet the planet at Paris.

've always loved Big Science – the Large Hadron Collider, the Hubble space telescope – but the project that most excites me, and the one that would have the greatest impact on our lives, is the Machine To Predict the Future.

Some people are sceptical of its accuracy, to be sure, but those who trust it have made huge fortunes, and those who bet against it have lost much in the past three or four years.

‘Sceptics will always argue that climate modelling is not 100 per cent accurate but they are missing the point’

A few months ago, at the Cannes Film Festival, I met a group of six guys in their 30s who want to break into the film business. There were whip-smart, mostly educated in Australia, with backgrounds in finance. They wanted to make a blockbuster movie, money no object.

Read John Collee’s comment piece in today’s Melbourne Age - “Betting against climate change not a smart punt.”

Many ignore advice and press-on with personal aims to reduce GHG emissions

Some well-credentialed people in the world of climatology have argued that it matters naught what we do as individuals to mitigate climate change.

They argue, with authority of knowledge and a difficult to argue with accuracy, that the fact that you and me walk instead of driving, recycle and reuse few things and put up some solar panels will be ineffectual.

However, that view has not discouraged some people for acting to do their bit to ease their contribution to our greenhouse gas emissions.

A recent story in the Bendigo Advertiser, that city’s daily newspaper, told of how a Kyneton couple had wanted to build a sustainable house in the country.

The story, headed: “Kyneton house shortlisted for national environment award”, told how Claire Moore and Paul Fogarty had achieved their dream and now lived in a “comfortable and lovely” house.