Australia’s fires have pumped out more emissions than 100 nations combined

The wildfires raging along Australia’s eastern coast have already pumped around 400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further fueling the climate change that’s already intensifying the nation’s fires.

That’s more than the total combined annual emissions of the 116 lowest-emitting countries, and nine times the amount produced during California’s record-setting 2018 fire season. It also adds up to about three-quarters of Australia’s otherwise flattening greenhouse-gas emissions in 2019.

And yet, 400 million tons isn’t an unprecedented amount nationwide at this point of the year in Australia, where summer bush fires are common, the fire season has been growing longer, and the number of days of “very high fire danger” is increasing.

Read the story from MIT Technology Review - “Australia’s fires have pumped out more emissions than 100 nations combined.”

What happens to small towns whose water becomes big business for bottled brands?

Groundwater being pumped from a highland aquifer, only to be whisked away in tankers and sold in little plastic bottles by a multinational corporation – it’s a difficult concept for a small farming town to swallow.

The more the market is willing to pay, the harder it is to regulate water use.

Just ask the residents of Stanley, Victoria, whose four-year court battle to stop a farmer bottling local groundwater for Japanese beverage giant Asahi ended in failure last month. They were left with a A$90,000 bill for legal costs.

Locals have clashed with the bottled water industry in many parts of the world, including the United States and Canada, and perhaps most famously in the French spa town of Vittel, where residents have accused Nestlé of selling so much of their water to the rest of the world that they barely have enough left for themselves.

Read the report from The Conversation - “What happens to small towns whose water becomes big business for bottled brands?”

South Australia’s Iron Duchess mine could be given new life as 90MW pumped hydro plant

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has today announced its support of a feasibility study to assess the potential to turn a mothballed mine in South Australia into a 90MW pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plant.

Mothballed mine to become pumped hydro energy storage plant.

On behalf of the Australian Government, ARENA is committing $500,000 to GFG Alliance to begin the first phase of establishing the technical and commercial feasibility of bringing a disused mine site in the South Middleback Ranges, near Whyalla, back to life as a potential PHES power plant.

The $1.7 million project will investigate if the existing mine pit of “Iron Duchess North” could be utilised as a lower reservoir for a PHES plant creating an estimated capacity of 90 MW and 390 MWh of storage.

Pumped hydro works by pumping water uphill between two connected reservoirs when electricity is cheap and abundant, and running water downhill to power turbines when electricity is needed.

Read the ARENA story - “South Australia’s Iron Duchess mine could be given new life as 90MW pumped hydro plant.”