Pacific Spirit Marine Institute

Global Warming, Solar Powered Super Tankers.

Monday, October 15, 2007

In Tasmania, where only 2.3% of the population of Australia are living, they receive 12% of the national annual rainfall. There are those that think it would make sense to move some of that rainfall to where it is really needed.

On the surface it makes sense to collect the abundant rain water and move it to regions where fresh drinking water is in ever shortening supplies. But, these days every story of quick fixes, work-around, and bright ideas for the future is usually followed by several cautionary tales of how or why these ideas turned out to be bad ideas.

Hopefully this won’t turn out to be the case for Tasmania where by all accounts it looks like they are taking a green proactive approach to global warming and climate change. Tasmania even has a Climate Change Team located in their Strategic Policy Division. Their prediction is that rainfall my likely increase on the western and droughts will continue to worsen on the eastern side.

A large portion of Tasmania’s energy comes from renewable sources, and nearly 40% of Tasmania has been set aside as ‘conservation’ reserves. 90% of their electricity is from hydro-electricity and wind. Tasmania seems to be on the right track, trying to anticipate and lessen the impact of global warming on their region.

There has been a proposal made to use supertankers for water, and ferry the water to the eastern side of the Country. Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland.

The majority of rainfall on the western side of Tasmania runs into swollen rivers and is pushed into the sea essentially wasting the fresh water. Of course we may find out 50 years down the road that all the fresh water that empties into the sea in fact was serving some sort of vital purpose. For now though how this water may be transported is the really interesting thing about this proposal.

A company called Solar Sailor has made one of the proposals the government is considering. Solar Sailor proposes the water be transported using their solar sail and hybrid marine power vessels suited for the task. These vessels have higher fuel savings, unlimited range and can have zero emissions.

Solar Sailor has received a 2007 Laureate Intel Environment Environment Award as part of the Annual Tech Museum Awards, Technology Benefiting Humanity.

Without a crystal ball it is difficult to predict our future as it relates to innovation being good for the environment in the long term. We’ve certainly done a tremendous amount of damage before anyone even started asking, “is this a good move for the future of the planet?” Now that these questions have started to be asked in earnest the answer is the same, at this point it is difficult to predict.

Now to the credit of mankind, we are at least asking.

Labels: Climate Change, Global Warming, Solar Sailor, Supertanker, Tasmania, accident at sea, drought