Global crowded population, Climate change and Energy rise

The UN declared that the global population reached the milestone of seven billion by Monday 31^st October 2011. This will impact greatly on the countries around the world to provide for the needs of the overly crowded population. With the world's population more than doubling over the last half century, basics like food and water are under more strain than ever, say experts, and providing for an additional 2-3 billion people in the next 50 years is a serious worry. Water usage is set to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing nations, while food security remains a challenge with 925 million people going hungry. However, climate change also going to be the biggest challenge with the rising usage and the global need of energy. A crowded population hits 7 billion.


According to Parvinder Singh, head of communications for ActionAid India "The issue of population cannot be seen divorced from the aspect of resource or energy footprint."

In Western Australia, the Government is planning to furthermore increase the energy prices. "For budget planning purposes, the 2011-12 State Budget assumes that residential electricity tariffs will increase by 5 per cent in 2012-13 and by 12 per cent in each of 2013-14 and 2014-15," stated the Energy Minister Peter Collier.

The revelation about the true scale of price increases in the pipeline came as Verve Energy warned of a gas supply crisis. Verve managing director Shirley In't Veld said the company risked a gas shortage crisis when its gas supply agreement with the North West Shelf expired in 2015. "There is the potential for us either having insufficient gas or being out of gas and that's the biggest challenge we're facing at the moment," she said. Therefore, this is actually a great time to go Renewable Energy, which will benefit the environment and also sustain our energy requirement.

More energy prices increases to come

Solar: Act now or pay more later

Australia’s first utility-scale solar PV project near Geraldton in Western Australia is going to be constructed by a US company, a 10MW facility being built with GE and Verve Energy. Head of Australian and Asia Pacific operations for First Solar, Jack Curtis stated that variable of such projects will be needed to help bring down operating, engineering and financing costs.

Solar: Act now or pay more later



In 2010 about 84% of the global population (6.74 billion people) had access to piped water supply through house connections or to an improved water source through other means than house, including standpipes, "water kiosks", protected springs and protected wells. However, about 14% (884 million people) did not have access to an improved water source and had to use unprotected wells or springs, canals, lakes or rivers for their water needs.

A clean water supply, especially so with regard to sewage, is the single most important determinant of public health. Destruction of water supply and/or sewage disposal infrastructure after major catastrophes (earthquakes, floods, war, etc.) poses the immediate threat of severe epidemics of waterborne diseases, several of which can be life-threatening. (Source: Wikipedia)

Sufficient water supply is needed to cover the public demand. The source of the water could be from groundwater (aquifers), surface water (lakes and rivers), conservation and the sea through desalination. However the water has to go through several types of processes before it can be consumed without affecting our health, while it also could be reused for landscaping, irrigation or industrial use. In accordance to this, data maintenance of water treatment for a vast number of consumer could require complicated administrative and management accomplishment.

On the 15th of September 2011, GE Energy (NYSE: GE) announced the release of GE’s Smallworld*Water Office software solution, a suite of data models, applications and integration products designed to help water supply and drainage utilities meet their current and future spatial asset management needs.(Source: http://www.cisionwire.com/general-electric-news/r/ge-energy-launches-new-smallworld--water-office-software-solution-for-water-supply-and-drainage-netw,c7956)

CSG Protest makes it to Canberra.

The major parties' bipartisan support for the coal seam gas (CSG) mining industry will be put to the test in federal parliament this week when bills are introduced to increase the rights of land owners and protect water quality.

CGS-Co2 tax protests arrives in Canberra

Western Power fat cats lose bonuses, but gain wages

Barnett canned employee bonus' only to bundled it into their wages and super instead. All whilst WA families struggle to keep up with 57% increases to their power bills.

Western Power fat cats lose bonuses, but gain wages!

Japan's energy policy in disarray.

The meltdown at the Fukushima power plant has shattered the public's confidence in the safety of the country's nuclear fleet. Scandals over the government's cozy relationship with the power industry have exacerbated the concern. Japan sacked three officials over the scandals, but it was unclear if this was enough to help repair public confidence in Tokyo's ability to govern the industry.

Japan's energy policy in disarray

Feeding Tariff in Western Australia

The WA Sustainable Energy Association has called on the new Gillard Government to work with the Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) to develop a nationally consistent gross feed-in tariff (FiT) for renewable energy.

National solar power solutions provider Energy Matters is running a petition at FeedInTariff.com.au calling for a national gross feed in tariff program for solar power that has collected over 20,000 signatures so far. The interim results of the petition were tabled in Parliament by Senator Milne in June 2009.
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=1050

WA’s solar power scheme set to draw to a close in weeks!

WA’s solar power scheme set to draw to a close in weeks! The net feed-in tariff scheme, under which households are paid for electricity from rooftop solar panels that is fed into the grid, will soon hit a Government-imposed capacity cap.

The ending of Solar Panel feed-in tariff

Hidden costs of the Coal Seam Gas Mining

Water and air pollution, water shortages, permanent degradation of productive agricultural land and loss of livelihood and landscape, all have mental health consequences for communities living in a gas field. The CSG process can divide previously close-knit rural communities, increasing tension and disharmony, impact on local economies, and threaten other industries such as tourism. Climate change is also an important health issue over the CSG, and the carbon footprint of CSG over coal is said to be lower. Does this override other considerations such as viable drinking water or degradation of agricultural land?

Hidden cost of CSG rush

Looking through Nuclear History as a source of Renewable Energy

Japan's government state that Fukushima is on track with efforts to take control of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant but warned that the final clean-up will still be many years away.

U.S. nuclear safety regulator wants a quick and sweeping overhaul of the rules governing the nuclear power. A U.S. task force examining Fukushima, the worst nuclear accident in 25 years, recommended long-term changes for the NRC's regulations

Energy is a key condition of a nation's development. Economic growth of a nation and their industrial progress is highly dependant on adequate supply of energy. We are no longer able to rely on fossil fuels, so we really need to open our eyes and find a new source of renewable energy as renewable energy is becoming the key to addressing the energy crisis that we are certain to face in the future.

Some Countries in the world; such as Japan and US; use Nuclear Power to ensure that they can meet the high energy demands of their country.  The fuel can be recycled so it can supply energy for thousands of years. However the Nuclear reactors also have high levels of radiation which could threaten the safety of human life if anything goes wrong; as seen in Japan earlier this year after they experienced a devastating earthquake and Tsunami.

There are two types of radiation that occur when there is a radiation leak. The first one is direct radiation, for example radiation that occurs when the active radiation is transmitted on the skin directly. The second is from indirect radiation. This occurs later on and is caused by contaminated food and drink that has been contaminated by water, air or other means.

The United States owned 110 nuclear reactors plants or 25.4% of the total reactor plants around the world.  According to Greenpeace at www.nuclearfiles.org , The US would shut down 103 of their Nuclear Reactors before they melt down. The reason is that the 103 operating nuclear reactors in the U.S. have always posed the risk of a catastrophic accident that could cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. The American public has, over time, become inured to this risk. After the tragedy of September 11th, Greenpeace felt that it was important to re-examine the consequences of a nuclear accident. Germany also plans to close down 19 of their nuclear reactors. The first Closure was conducted in 2002, and the last nuclear power plant is planned to be closed down in 2021. Similarly Sweden also shut down all of their nuclear power plants, 12 in total, the closures started as far back as1995.

Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace activist, declared that both consciously and sub-consciously humans are destroying the world in order to survive.  People really do need to start to change their views, habits and technologies associated with energy. Today we rely heavily on non-renewable energy such as oil, gas and coal. On the other hand 40% of the world’s CO2 emissions are from coal power plants. Renewable energy is absolutely necessary for the world’s future. However looking at the incident that happened in Fukushima or Chernobyl, maybe  safer forms of Renewable energy need to be considered such as  Wind, Solar and  Wave Energy.

A Hymn to the Planet and Humanity

Witness our changing environment from an entirely new vantage point, in our 200,000 years on Earth

Humanity has hopelessly upsets Mother Nature's delicate balance, some experts says we have less than 10 years to change our patterns of consumption and reverse the trends before the damage is irreversible. We are at the risk of losing the only place that we call "HOME".

The Book of Home (Home: a hyme to the planet and humanity)
The book encapture interesting facts about what is happening recently to our environment and help us to understand the complex problem that occured raised from various aspects such as; environmental, political, and sociological. From poverty to pollution, coal to carbon dioxide, the book is full of "ALARMING" facts that will inspire people to act.

The Dawn Rise Of Renewable Energy Business

The Government aims to cut emissions by five per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. They have instituted a set mark of carbon price at $23 a tonne and that will rise by five per cent a year before moving to a competitive market price in three years.

The Premier Colin Barnett has said WA would be hit hard by the tax and some of Australia's manufacturing industry businesses will close down if they do not become more energy efficient.

Senator Evans says he expects to see a competitive rise in investment in renewable energy caused by the impact of Carbon price, as there is an enormous untapped potential in solar , wind and wave energy available in Australia. On top of that, The Federal Government plans to source 20 per cent of  it’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

The last two or three years have been a very uncertain time for renewable energy in Australia, however with the scheme of $10 billion for green power over the next five years, it will give confidence and certainty for Renewable energy businesses in wave, wind and solar to expand and grow as the country is embracing a lower carbon economy.

Electricity companies warned not to gouge

The State’s Treasury modelling shows an average household will be slugged an extra $115 next year for power when the carbon tax comes in. Energy companies are being warned not to falsely attribute price rises to the carbon price package.

http://www.renewablelogic.com.au/news-article.php?nid=76

Australia Unveils Carbon Tax Scheme

Australia Unveils Carbon Tax Scheme by NTDTV