Alcoa using up all our water
Posted by christianfletcher in mining companies on April 13, 2011
Alcoa trucks in water as supplies run dry
Updated 10 hours 27 minutes ago
Alcoa has had to truck in water to its alumina refinery with usual supplies running dry (ABC Local : ABC Local )
WA’s once-in-a-century drought has forced Australia’s biggest alumina refinery to start trucking in millions of litres of water.
Water is essential to operations at Alcoa’s refinery in the South West town of Pinjarra and the recent drought has put a dent in supplies.
In the past, the company has used water from rainfall runoff and licensed bores but Alcoa says the past five years have been the driest in more than a century. Hello, we could call that climate change!
The company says water supplies has become a significant problem.
It is the first time water has had to be trucked into the refinery and the Water Corporation says it is an emergency situation.
The water comes from an unused bore near Ravenswood which the corporation says produces water not suitable for drinking.
FMG Land Grab
Posted by christianfletcher in mining companies on April 13, 2011
I ask everyone to sit and watch this whole video and tell me your not disgusted with the way Fortescue Metals Group are trying to railroad this aboriginal community to give up their land and culture for nothing.
It sickens me. Woodside are trying to do the same in the Kimberley. Please watch and forward on to your contacts. So now I have another reason to believe that we really are the worst species on this planet. We destroy everything and soon we will destroy ourselves. My poor children, what hope can I give them. Maybe Twiggy Forrest has an answer!
Fuzzy Altered Landscapes – Mervs Test
Posted by christianfletcher in Altered Landscapes on February 28, 2011
If it is fuzzy and weird looking is it art? I predict a nup! But who is right? This image is my view of the future, deep, like the sh1t we are in.
Merv Secretly loves Altered Landscapes
Posted by christianfletcher in people profiles on February 28, 2011
It is true he is just in denial, you heard it first here on blogileaks. When too much truth is hardly enough!
Don’t forget he has been known to cause erosion at certain Southwest beaches. I thought he was bogged but seems he was looking for coal all along. Shame on you Merv, you have been blogileaked!
Next victim!
Fuji X100 release date mid March
Posted by christianfletcher in New Cameras on February 28, 2011
Get your orders in quick, this little puppy is going to sell like hot cakes. I know how many are in the first shipment and unless your ordering it now you might not get one till later. Benny from Team digital can help you out with that. I will have one for my Karijini workshop. It looks like a brilliant bit of kit and something every shooter should have in the F-Stop bag.
Some stunning news on the new Canon range. Can’t say to much because I don’t know anything yet but I do know someone who is going to a product launch very soon. 5D3, 1Ds4, 600d, who knows, I bet your excited though.
Hans Mende, the billionaire who wants to Mine for Coal
Posted by christianfletcher in mining companies on February 28, 2011
Yes thats right, this guy , who isn’t even Australian wants to make some coin from our Coal reserves in Margaret River. Now I think he has enough money and should be thinking about using some of it to create solar and wind power stations around the world. Imagine what good he could do.
Did you remember 2009 when we all took a hit due to the Global Financial Crisis. Seems not everyone did it tough. Our mate had this good fortune
Felix Resources
The managing director of the coalminer, Brian Flannery, breezed through the financial crisis courtesy of a $3.5 billion takeover bid from China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Company. Aside from enjoying a 366 per cent rise in his base pay to $1.85 million, Flannery also pocketed $529 million from the sale of his stake in Felix. A Felix non-executive director, Hans Mende, pocketed $675 million and the chairman, Travers Duncan, $536 million. Duncan was no doubt being insincere when at the meeting to approve the scheme of arrangement, he said: ”I would also like to thank Yanzhou for making this offer and should the scheme complete, I am sure they will be well-rewarded for this investment.” The cheques were in the mail just in time for Christmas.
Not bad Hans, not bad for a year. Now lets say you felt like doing the right thing. My calculations are you could have put Two Hundred and Seventy One Thousand 1.5kW solar systems on to the roofs of Australian homes for that price. Yeah but how will he then be able to make money the following year as we won’t need as much coal, hmmm, good point. Scrap that idea that would be just plain stupid. I will spend it on destroying the pristine and unique South west of Western Australia, that would be good for the bottom line.
No Coal For Margaret River
Posted by christianfletcher in mining companies on February 28, 2011
Right I’m about to get on my soapbox again. I went to the No Coal Rally in Margaret River on the weekend to offer support to saving our amazing region from smelly coal polluters. I don’t know anyone who wants a coal mine in Margaret River but there aren’t enough people taking this thing seriously. Here are some facts courtesy of the Conservation Council of WA
The Problem with Coal
Global warming and climate change is happening. As effects of our emissions lag decades behind the actual time we pumped the air with pollutants, we are already in worse danger than most people may realise.
According to climate scientists, the level of greenhouse gases has already passed the danger level of 350 parts per million. Unless fossil fuel emissions are drastically reduced, humanity faces a growing risk of dangerous global warming, as human sources are amplified by natural feedback loops.
There is a straightforward way to address the problem: phase out coal, which is the worst source of global warming pollution. The world’s leading climate scientist James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Space Institute, has said that ending emissions from coal “is80% of the solution to the global warming crisis.”
In 2010 the Barnett Liberal Government approved a massive expansion in highly polluting coal power in WA which will contribute to a staggering 75% increase in WA carbon pollution.
Announcing this appalling decision, the WA Minister for the Environment said that the issue of climate change and carbon pollution had to be dealt with by the Federal Government.
The WA Barnett Government has shown they have no intention of responding to climate change or reducing carbon pollution. As a result, the WA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has advised that Western Australia’s carbon pollution will soar by nearly 75% in the next few years.
Western Australia already has the highest per-capita emissions in the world, with a total output of over 76 Million tonnes of pollution per year.
Now the Barnett Government want to build three new coal fired power stations and re-open two old ones from the 1960s with no effective controls on carbon pollution. If allowed to proceed, this massive coal expansion will lock us into a high pollution future with spiralling energy bills, and lock us out of the clean energy economy that could provide thousands of clean energy jobs. We cannot allow these new big polluters to go ahead.
The world’s top climate scientists have advised that carbon pollution from developed countries, including Australia, must be reduced by at least 40% by 2020. If this is not achieved, we will see devastating changes to the lifestyle that we know and love in WA.
So, how do you feel about?
- A future without Ningaloo Reef
- Our Southwest forests reduced to very small patches
- 80% less water in the Southwest, on top of the 30% reduced rainfall we have already experienced
- Rising seas that will wipe out most of our coastal settlements, surf beaches and river systems
- Collapsed fisheries and farmers driven off the land by drought
As well as allowing three new polluting coal power stations without any pollution controls, the 2010 State Budget allocates 99% of capital expenditure by the government energy utility (Verve) to be spent on polluting fossil-fuel energy sources.
As part of this, Verve plans to recommission 2 old inefficient Muja coal fired power stations dating back to the 1960’s. These old dinosaurs were shut down years ago, and should stay that way!
This is simply not good enough, especially when Western Australia is blessed with some of the best renewable energy resources in the world.
Recently the WA Auditor General released a report saying that the State Government had wasted $50 million on energy that was not needed. If we improved energy efficiency in Western Australia we would save money and there would be no need to build new polluting power stations.
Proposed Coal Mines in WA
Margaret River
Margaret River is well known for its surfing, vineyards, forests, great food and as a global tourist destination. Margaret River is now under threat from a proposed coal mine just 15km from the town centre and 1000m from the river bed from which the town gets its name.
Behind this proposed coal mine are South West Coal Pty. Ltd.(70%) a wholly owned subsidiary of the AMCI Group which was bought in Feb 2007 by Brazil CVRD, and Vasse Coal Pty. Ltd. (30%).
Victorian based LD Operations Pty. Ltd. has been hired by these companies to facilitate the mine approvals, feasibility and mine development of the project.
The Vasse Coal Mining Project is located on the Vasse Coal Shelf, a Permian Coal Seam, spanning from Vasse Newtown (next to Busselton) down through Margaret River Region and ending in Augusta. The project currently consists of 7 mining leases, over approximately 6000 ha of land with an estimated 60 million tonnes of coal through the shelf.
Water pollution risks
The Vasse Coal Shelf runs beneath and through the South West two main aquifers the Leederville and the Yarragadee posing the threat of water pollution and disruption of the aquifer itself.
The proposed mine site is situated on one of the Margaret River tributaries and is directly up stream from the towns water supply catchments at 10 Mile Brook Dam. Water contamination from this coal mine would have disastrous affects on the water security of the Margaret River township and surrounding communities.
Coal mining requires that the site of the mine be dewatered, this may partially dewater the Leederville aquifer on which this proposed mine sits, and have run on affects to the Yarragadee aquifer below.
Due to lack of information on the aquifers of WA this coal mine could seriously damage the surrounding water supply for the area.
To find out more about what residents of Margaret River, and the NoCoal!tion are doing to stop the mine click here.
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