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Links of Interest

Suboptimisation: the tendency of engineers and designers to spend their time finding the very best way of doing something that shouldn’t be done at all, because they fail to consider the larger context, often with disasterous consequences.
 

Links to sites that may be of interest, resources and information.

 
 

Atmospheric Vortex Engine

Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 at 11:05AM by Registered Commenterstevem | CommentsPost a Comment

The Atmospheric Vortex Engine (AVE) is a process for capturing the energy produced when heat is carried upward by convection in the atmosphere. The process is protected by patent applications and could become a major source of electrical energy. The unit cost of electrical energy produced with an AVE could be half the cost of the next most economical alternative.

Click to read more ...

Salt 2 Fresh Watermakers - Desalination Specialists

Posted on Monday, October 1, 2007 at 10:17AM by Registered Commenterstevem | Comments Off

The Land Series (BHL Range) can produce up to 6,800 litres of Fresh Water per day and has been especially designed for Waterfront Homes, Small Hotels, Apartment Blocks and Marinas.

Click to read more ...

Water Futures - Blogspot

Posted on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 10:14AM by Registered Commenterstevem | Comments Off

What is Agenda 21? What is “Toowoomba Vision 2050”?

 

Moving from Agenda to Action
During the Local Government Session at the World Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa (August 2002), local government leaders from around the world, as well as representatives from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN-HABITAT and the World Health Organization (WHO), joined ICLEI in launching Local Action 21 as the next phase of Local Agenda 21 (LA21).

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group Weblog

Posted on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 09:59AM by Registered Commenterstevem | Comments Off

Documentation Of IPCC WG1 Bias by Roger A. Pielke Sr. and Dallas Staley - Part I

This weblog illustrates this defect using the example of their assessment of the multi-decadal land near-surface temperature trend data, where peer reviewed papers that conflicted with the robustness of the surface air temperature trends are ignored. Later Climate Science weblogs will document this issue with other climate issues.

Readers of Climate Science are invited to present other important peer reviewed papers that were available to the IPCC that were ignored in their assessment as further evidence to document IPCC bias.

 

 

They call this a consensus?

 
Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post

Published: Saturday, June 02, 2007

“Only an insignificant fraction of scientists deny the global warming crisis. The time for debate is over. The science is settled.”

 

The Aquadam Project – A Bold Solution to Australia’s Water Crisis

Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 10:07AM by Registered Commenterstevem | CommentsPost a Comment

UNIQUE PLANET PTY LTD

The Aquadam Project – A Bold Solution to Australia’s Water Crisis

Project Overview (Pdf)

Click for full Word Doc

Smart water project developed by Unique Planet. This project is focused on constructing an innovative large-scale freshwater collection and storage system. By utilising renewable energy and collecting water from multiple sources, Aquadams will have the potential to supply a greater quantity of freshwater to Australia’s ever-increasing population and are planned to take over the current role of inefficient river-based dams.

The project has received interest from the CSIRO department of Manufacturing & Infrastructure Technology in Victoria, Griffith University Gold Coast campus, and several other companies and organisations involved in the water industry. We have also had general discussions with individuals in the farming and mining industries who are interested in receiving freshwater supply from the Aquadam.

It is imperative that Australia rises to the challenge of securing our precious water resource. Councils and governments must search for better long-term solutions for guaranteeing the supply of more freshwater to the population, rather than restricting the current supply.


Unique Planet Website: www.unique-planet.com.au

Desalination

Posted on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 11:27AM by Registered Commenterstevem in | Comments Off


On April 19, India’s Minister for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, announced the success­ful start of the world’s first floating desalination plant, now producing one million litres of fresh water per day. The plant, produced by India’s National Institute of Ocean Technology, sits on a barge about 40 kilo-metres east of Tamil Nadu coast. The cost of producing such fresh water, including transporting it to shore, is currently six paisa per litre ($A1.72 per kiloijtre), and once up-scaling to 10 million litre per day systems occurs, the cost is ex­pected to halve, at three paisa per litre ($A0.86c per kilolitre).
 

“We call it alchemy - converting wind to water”

The plant is one of the newest in a rapid spread of desalination plants in countries that can afford them. Though the plants are expensive to build, water from them costs only $3.50 per 1,000 gallons. (about $1/Kl). They are commonplace in the Middle East, where oil pays for water, and Southern California is home to many smaller plants. What sets the Perth plant apart is not only its size but its engine —wind power. The plant is driven by power from 48 turbines in the Emu Downs Wind Farm, about 100 miles to the north, with a capacity of 80 megawatts of electricity, more than three times the needs of the plant. That avoids the trade-off at most desalination plants, which are powered by fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases.

“We call it alchemy — converting wind to water,” said Mr. Crisp, the Perth plant’s principal desalination engineer.
 
 

Some of Australia’s leading scientists have joined forces to find a more energy efficient way of converting salt water to drinking water. While desalination might be easier for many voters and politicians to swallow than the prospect of recycled sewage, converting salt water to drinking water is expensive and energy-hungry. But a new project involving scientists from the CSIRO and nine Australian universities aims to vastly improve the efficiency of desalination methods and cut the costs - both financial and environmental.

Investigative Journalism

Posted on Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 01:32PM by Registered Commenterstevem in | Comments Off
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The mission of the Center for Public Integrity is to produce original investigative journalism about significant public issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable.
 
WORTH A LOOK:   The Water Barons 
 
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On June 11, 2007, the government of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh closed the gates of the Omkareshwar dam in the Narmada valley. Since then, dozens of villages have been flooded, and houses, fields and trees have disappeared under the water. Most families from the submerged villages have not been given new land — they have nowhere to go.

A Clarence Valley Protest

Posted on Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 01:10PM by Registered Commenterstevem | Comments Off
***NEW***
 
Website dealing with Clarence Valley residents fight against the proposal to divert water to Brisbane.
 
See also: Democracy4sale.org
 
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