“Guest Post by Geoff Russell. Geoff is a mathematician and computer programmer and is a member of Animal Liberation SA. His recently published book is CSIRO Perfidy. His previous article on BNC was: Greenpeace’s Plan for India

Switzerland. It’s smaller than Tasmania, but rather more famous and never missing from maps of Europe. Cheese and chocolates, pocket knives and swatches. Banks replete with hot money and the global puppeteers of the World Economic Forums at Davos. Everybody has an image of this tiny little country of just 7.5 million people in the center of Europe. But the image may be vastly different from the reality with fame inevitably viewed through a pale ale, darkly.

Recently Switzerland has been in the news for joining the lemmings massing to jump the nuclear ship in the wake of the failures at Fukushima. What will this do to the Swiss greenhouse gas footprint? What is that footprint?

The greenhouse gas emissions per person in Switzerland are well under a third of those of an Australian. That’s 7 tonnes per year compared with 25. This 7 tonnes per year is still 7 times bigger than the 1 tonne budget which following generations will inherit and be required to meet before today’s toddlers are getting a pension, but it’s still remarkably low compared to our bloated Aussie hoof print.

How is such a low footprint possible? Is there a simple explanation? Is it because the Swiss are parsimonious misers who build bicycles from recycled bottle tops or drive tiny efficient matchbox cars while Australians BBQ gross steaks in front of monster screen TVs and drive gas guzzling 4WDs vast distances across our great brown land? And what are the long term (30 year) prospects of the Swiss getting down to that magic 1 tonne sustainable emissions limit?…”

“The Water Research Centre in conjuction with Australian Water Association SA Branch
would like to invite you to our next Water Wednesday

• Wednesday 27th July, 2011
• 5:30pm – 6:50pm
• Florey Lecture Theatre
• Medical School North building, University of Adelaide, Frome Road

Desalination: Future directions for Australia’s world class facilities
This special joint Water Wednesday forum will feature presentations from two leading experts in Desalination, followed by time for discussion and an opportunity for networking with AWA members after the forum.

Mr. Nikolay Voutchkov
President, Water Globe Consulting, LLC, Connecticut, USA
Nikolay is a recognised world leader in desalination technology. He has over 25 years of experience in planning, environmental review, permitting and implementation of large seawater desalination, water treatment and water reclamation projects globally.

National Centre of Excellence in Desalination R&DMr David Furukawa
Chairman of the Research Advisory Board, National Water Research Institute
Mr Furukawa has more than 40 years of desalination technology experience in both public and private sectors, including roles as Past-President and Director of the International Desalination Association and American Desalting Association (now AMTA); and life member of AWWA.

Registration is through the AWA website. To register, click here. Please register by Monday 25 July…”

“How cutting-edge research is revealing new ore deposits and the forces that create them.

Presented by: Prof Nigel Cook
When: Tues 12th July, 5.30-6.30pm
Where: North Terrace Campus, Horace Lamb Lecture Theatre

To find out more go to the University of Adelaide – Research Tuesdays’ website or click below to register.

Register Now…”

“The following post, by Dan Meneley, was originally presented at the 17th Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference Cancun 2010, and is reproduced here with Dan’s blessing (I plan to buy him dinner, as thanks, when I visit Toronto in June). Its contents are highly topical in the context of the current situation in Japan and the debate that the Fukushima crisis has inflamed. It is also effective as a counter argument to the recent MIT report on the future of the nuclear fuel cycle (which I think made a really bad call, from both a technical and socio-political standpoint).

You can download the 15-page printable PDF version here. There is also a really excellent annotated PowerPoint presentation (30 slides) available here, which is also definitely well poring over….”

“The Centre for Energy Technology, CET, at the University of Adelaide recognises that a key to realising a clean energy future is the development of cost-effective transitional technologies. Key among these are clean combustion technologies and novel solar-combustion technologies. The Centre seeks to support the development of these technologies by undertaking innovative and outstanding research in partnership with industry, government and the community…”

“Listen to 10 minutes of edited highlights from the December 22nd iPad ‘Enhanced Learning for First-Year Sciences’ night…”

“As I noted in a recent post, my new goal with TCASE posts is for them to be shorter, more targeted and more regular, with the aim being to break big problems in sustainable energy down into very focused questions (each of the new TCASE posts will be a maximum of 1,000 words — my new self-imposed editorial limit for this series!). Editorially, I like to note that if any regular BNC readers are up for submitting a short TCASE post following this format, please email me and I’ll be happy to discuss your idea. Here’s the first of the new batch….”

“The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) has now broadcast my debate with Ian Lowe over nuclear power, on Radio National’s Counterpoint program. The discussion lasts 50 minutes, and includes various questions and answers from the Why vs Why: Nuclear Power book, moderated by Paul Comrie-Thompson. We cover issues of waste management, weapons proliferation, adequacy of renewable energy alternatives, reactor safety, deployment rates and costs, cognitive dissonance. There is an audience Q&A session at the end, which includes some questions by BNC commenter Luke Weston. Details below — enjoy!…”

“…Hansen’s thesis, in brief, is that if we burn all of the available fossil fuels, we run a high risk of setting in train amplifying feedbacks that lead to a runaway greenhouse effect.

How could this happen? Is it plausible? Well, perhaps, perhaps not. The ‘Venus syndrome’ hypothesis has certainly been derided by some, but to me, such blasé attitudes are puzzling, on both philosophical and scientific grounds. But let’s explore the issue a little more, before I offer some opinions.

Hansen first raised this issue in public at the 2008 AGU meeting…”

“Free CET Seminar May 12 – Combustion in porous media and its application for syngas production from gaseous and liquid hydrocarbon fuels…”