Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
The idea of sending greenhouse gases to be hidden away where the sun doesn’t shine isn’t exactly a new one. Man has always looked for ways to bury that which is stinky, dangerous, and in some cases illegal. Since man first said, “that stinks, I hope I don’t step in that later” man has been covering up, in the ground or dumping off in the sea, every manner of refuse. Why not the CO2 emissions?
Since 1996 more than a million tons of carbon dioxide have been buried in 9 different locations. Some have have gone to rest under an oil field in the North Sea and under a gas field in Algeria. The latest CO2 grave is in the state of Victoria, Australia.
Geosequestration is one of those 75 cent words, constructed to dazzle. What is geosequestration? It’s carbon capture and storage, referred to as CCS. CO2 resulting from some form of production or another, it doesn’t matter what form, is captured and injected somewhere…where the injector hopes the injected never escapes the injectee, something like what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
Unlike what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, what gets injected into the ground under pressure may not stay in the ground.
In 1989 there was an earthquake in Australia that killed 13 people and created billions of dollars of damage. At the center of this particular earthquake was a major fault resting comfortably below Australia’s Newcastle coalfields.
Many scientists believe “geomechanical pollution” was the culprit behind this earthquake. Millions of tons of coal and millions and millions more tons of water had been removed from the Newcastle coalfield since it had opened in 1801.
There is much speculation that the removal of 200 years worth of soil, coal and water from this field changed the stress on the earth above and below the coalfield.
Geosequestration or sequestering greenhouse gases underground could have a distabilizing effect on the earth as well. But, the first rule of thumb would certainly have to be to pump those gases and store them as far away from a fault as possible so they wouldn’t be released en masse during an earthquake, and to store them as far away from populated areas as would be possible.
No one can agree whether or not manmade changes to the underground landscape have anything to do with causing instability. Common sense would dictate scooping out the inside of anything would change its stability. On the other side of the coin, pumping anything full of a foreign substance is going to cause instability as well. Just see what happens when too much gas is pumped into a balloon, or too much custard is pumped into a doughnut.
Labels: Australia, CO2, Geosequestration, greenhouse gas
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
How can we put all the C02 problems to rest? Give them a proper burial. Australia intends to send 110,231 tons of C02 to a grave 6,500 feet under.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Maybe our eyes have been turned toward the wrong venue for the long anticipated Apocalypse. Maybe the final war will not be fought for what lies under the sand, but for what lies under the ice.
Last month the United States and Canada signed a little publicized “Civil Assistance Plan”. The U.S. and Canada have a long history of working in concert with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) being the most familiar to the public. So why not celebrate this new Civil Assistance Plan?
David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen’s defence reporter, is asking why all the secrecy surrounding this new signed agreement. The agreement was signed without the U.S. Congress or the Canadian Parliament.
Indeed why all the secrecy? The agreement merely allows the military from one nation to support the military forces of the other during a civil emergency. It sounds like a good idea on the face of it. Maybe the agreement has nothing to do with flu pandemics, earthquakes or domestic emergencies.
Peter McKay, Canadian Defence Minister may think I have my tinfoil hat pulled down too tightly over my head but I’m thinking my idea may be as good as the next guys. I’m wondering if this agreement isn’t more about the Arctic Meltdown than anything else.
Scott G. Borgerson, international affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard has written a nearly 6 page small font single spaced article for FOREIGN AFFAIRS, published by the Council on Foreign Relations. The Article’s Title; Arctic Meltdown. The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming.
In his paper Borgerson points out Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled oil company has approximately 113 Trillion cubic feet of gas already under development in the Barents Sea and the calculated oil in the territory claimed by Moscow could be as much as 586 billion barrels of oil. With literally billions more barrels of oil and trillions more of gas in the region it isn’t any wonder that the former Lieutenant Commander thinks the Arctic could descend into armed conflict.
There are 5 Arctic powers already trying to carve up, lay claim and otherwise declare the vast, heretofore, uncovered resources as their own.
The trillions upon trillions of dollars of resources are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As Borgerson also brings forward, millions upon millions of dollars will be saved by the shipping industry as the shortcuts of the Northern Sea Route and the Northwest Passage open up due to global warming. Toss in the incredible financial boon to the mega container ships, now too large to navigate the Panama and Suez Canals, and anyone could imagine where this tale will end.
The ‘Civil Assistance Plan was signed by U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuat commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command and by Lt. General Marc Dumais, commander Canada command. The signing was announced on the Northcom website
Photo: NASA.gov
Labels: Arctic, Global Warming, North Pole, Northwest Passage, civil assistance plan, greenhouse gas, oil
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Is A New Stage Being Set For Apocalypse? Theater in the round, under the Northern Lights, on top of the World.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Association of Evangelicals, National Council of Churches and the Union for Reform Judaism all say Congress should REQUIRE a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
New environmental and climate policies will put additional pressures on, already vulnerable low-income families, which will inevitably result in higher energy prices.
The group of church leaders is seeking to have 40% of the emissions-related revenues from climate change legislation directed to help the poor deal with rising energy costs. Right now the bill calls for 5% of additional revenues to go to helping the poor.
The church leaders sticking their noses into government which is happening more and more, are claiming while they don’t agree on much they do agree on the need to protect G-d’s creation. Rev. Michael Livingston, president of the National Council of Churches says, “It has become clear that global warming will have devastating impact on those in poverty around the world.”
Bishop Thomas Wenksi of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said, “Those who contribute least to the problem (global warming) are likely to suffer the most.”
84% of evangelicals support mandatory limits on greenhouse gases Richard Cizik vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals says it’s a matter “of moral leadership.”
The average net income of Megachurches was 4.8 million anually. These churches alone numbered 740 and only accounted for 1% of churches in the U.S. and did not reflect any Catholic congregations. These figures were based on a survey done in 2003.
Churches thoughout the world have armies of non-paid, loyal volunteers working tirelessly for their ‘corporations’. Maybe earmarking 40% of their collection plate revenues for low income energy costs would actaully show ‘moral leadership’.
The Warner (R-Va), Lieberman (I-Ct) ACSA, Amreica’s Climate Security Act, seeks to reduce U.S. greenhouse emissions by as much as 70% or the 2005 levels by 2050.
That is a steep reduction no doubt, but 2050 is a long way away.
One co-sponsor of the ACSA Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) says “It is imperative that our nation acts now to address the concerns over growing greenhouse gas emissions, while carefully addressing the effects it could have on working families and our economy.”
Labels: Carbon-credit, Climate Change, Congress, Global Warming, Leiberman, Mega Church, Warner, carbon-trading market, greenhouse gas
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Congress Considers Legislation to Combat Global Warming
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Like a rock-n-roll guitar player that stands too close to his amplifier, climate change is now creating a dreaded ‘feedback’ affect.
Loss of ice in the Arctic means less ‘white’ which reflects the sunshine back into space. In the summer we wear white or light colored clothing to reflect the heat of the sun away from us. In the winter we wear dark colors that absorb the heat. The tundra is melting absorbing more heat. The heat is rapidly decomposing plant material and in return releasing methane. Methane is over 20 times more potent than other greenhouse gases.
A study done at the University of East Anglia shows that the North Atlantic Ocean is only absorbing half of the C02 it once did, and southern oceans have stopped absorbing it, and are now releasing C02 back into the atmosphere.
The ocean’s ability to absorb C02 is called C02 sink. Merchant ships equipped with instruments to measure carbon dioxide (C02) in the water have been collecting data every month and have generated more than 90,000 measurements in just the past few years.
The North Atlantic Ocean’s ability to absorb C02 abruptly declined, while the Indian Ocean’s absorption ability was making more of a taper.
Emissions of carbon dioxide from the ocean have actually increased by 40% since 1981.
International team leader Dr. Corinne Le Quere, from the University of Eat Anglia and British Antarctic Survey says, “This is serious. All climate models predict that this kind of ‘feedback will continue and intensify during this century.”
See PSMI’s Franken-plankton story in the archive.
Labels: Arctic, Climate Change, Environment, Frankenplankton, Global Warming, Ocean, Phytoplankton, Sea, carbon dioxide, ecosystems, greenhouse gas
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Oceans Losing The Ability to Trap CO2, they may be reaching the saturation point.
Friday, October 5, 2007
What do you do if you hold the world record for being the deforestation champion? You host the U.N. Climate Change summit!
Before your guests arrive, from 189 countries, you spruce things up by planting 79 million trees in a single day.
That’s what is happening in Indonesia, where they destroyed an area of forest the size of 300 soccer fields PER HOUR between 2000 and 2005, this according to Greenpeace.
It would be nice attain a world record for planting the most trees in one day. I’m kind of feeling like 79 million seedlings still wouldn’t equal 300 soccer fields per hour for 5 years, but it’s a nice start.
Indonesia is one of the worlds top 3 greenhouse gas emitters due to deforestation, along with the U.S. and China.
China recently became #1 ahead of the U.S.
The tree planting event is scheduled to take place in November with the summit being held in December.
Australia will contribute $22 million to preserve 173,000 acres of peat forest in Indonesia’s kalimantan region and re-flood nearly 500,000 acres of dried up peat swamps. The dried up peat swamps were left as a result of a failed plan to use that land to grow rice. Indonesia wanted to provide all of it’s own rice needs. 10 years later the fields of peat lie brittle and dry catching fire frequently.
When the peat lands burn it sends billows of smoke on the wind to neighbors in the region. Not exactly a good neighbor policy.
The plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 700 million tonnes over the next 30 years.
Photo Thanks: IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency
Labels: Australia, IAEA, Indonesia, U.N. Climate Change Summit, deforestation, greenhouse gas
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
79 Million Trees to be Planted in 1 Day!
