The Mound of Sound

They’re latter day Alchemists, the scientists of the Dark Ages who promised to turn base lead into gold. Today they’ve returned to tantalize us with dreams of “clean coal,” an abundant, non-polluting and virtually limitless supply of cheap energy that lies, not in the Middle East, but right here under our own feet.

Like all dubious schemes, the clean coal idea is delightfully simple. Burn dirty coal to produce electricity but, instead of releasing all that toxic greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, you “sequester” it. In other words, you capture the CO2 before it leaves the smokestack, compress it until it liquifies, and then pump all that nasty stuff into subterranean chambers where it can be stored, out of sight/out of mind, forever. Or so the story goes.

The Devil, of course, is in the details.

The first detail is where do you store this stuff? The next is what happens if, Heaven forbid, the stuff leaks back out to the surface? Then there’s the detail about making this technology work and at an affordable price. Don’t forget to work out who’ll be on the hook when we have those unfortunate accidents, other than nearby surface dwellers who’ll be dead.

You see, to make this work, you have to find a way to secure CO2 at a high-enough pressure that it’s compressed enough to liquify it. High pressure, like high water, is always looking for a way out. Stick a pin in a balloon and you’ll get the idea. In terms of subterranean caverns, a seismic event substitutes nicely for the pin.

Now my own Vancouver Island has coal resources. Yet this big tectonic plate subduction zone I call home isn’t an ideal candidate. When the “Big One” hits (and we keep getting reminded that could be any day) it’s been predicted by some that the entire island could be shifted eastward up to 15 feet.

But surely there are better places, aren’t there? There must be places that are absolutely seismically stable, eh? Hmmm, maybe not. The reality is that you don’t need a scale 9 or an 8 or even a 7-Richter event to pop one of these underground, high-pressure balloons. But earthquakes are only part of the equation. You see, ground moves even without earthquakes. There’s a whole bunch of things going on under your feet every day. There are gases and liquids down there. There’s heat down there, a lot of it. You’ve got things like underground rivers upon which our groundwater resources rely.

So, carbon sequestration brings an inevitable risk of failures and leaks, so what? Well that all depends on a number of factors such as the size of the gas escape, whether it’s detected quickly, how many people are in proximity to the leak and, of course, whether you’re one of them. The stuff is colourless and odourless so… well, just sayin’.

Harper latched on to a long underway carbon capture experimental plant in Saskatchewan, slapped his picture on it and presented it to the gullible national press corps as “his” sequestration initiative. Yippee, we’re saved! Stevie came through after all! A few problems. It’s an experimental operation, an experiment. It’s but one plant, just one. It assumes that the storage part (the hard part) is viable. It ignores the reality that, even if all the problems are solved and we do manage to find a means of truly secure sequestration, transforming our coal plants into clean coal plants will take decades to accomplish – time we haven’t got – and a lot more money than we imagine.

But what about the United States? Surely if there’s one country that ought to be pursuing clean coal technology it’s America, right? Of course it is. American wealth is bleeding out to buy foreign oil to feed its fossil fuel dependency. The US sits on enormous coal reserves. Switching from Islamic oil to domestic coal energy is so obvious, it’s a no brainer. Everyone’s on side – Bush, McCain, Obama, Congress, even Oprah (although it’s rumoured that tool, Dr. Phil is, predictably, waffling).

However, according to the New York Times, America’s clean coal initiative is faltering:

“…the nation’s effort to develop the technique is lagging badly.

In January, the government canceled its support for what was supposed to be a showcase project, a plant at a carefully chosen site in Illinois where there was coal, access to the power grid, and soil underfoot that backers said could hold the carbon dioxide for eons.

Coal is abundant and cheap, assuring that it will continue to be used. But the failure to start building, testing, tweaking and perfecting carbon capture and storage means that developing the technology may come too late to make coal compatible with limiting global warming.

“It’s a total mess,” said Daniel M. Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

Plans to combat global warming generally assume that continued use of coal for power plants is unavoidable for at least several decades. Therefore, starting as early as 2020, forecasters assume that carbon dioxide emitted by new power plants will have to be captured and stored underground, to cut down on the amount of global-warming gases in the atmosphere.
Yet, simple as the idea may sound, considerable research is still needed to be certain the technique would be safe, effective and affordable.

Scientists need to figure out which kinds of rock and soil formations are best at holding carbon dioxide. They need to be sure the gas will not bubble back to the surface. They need to find optimal designs for new power plants so as to cut costs. And some complex legal questions need to be resolved, such as who would be liable if such a project polluted the groundwater or caused other damage far from the power plant.”

It’s becoming obvious that the miracles of carbon capture and carbon sequestration are an awfully long way off. This ought to be the technological challenge for America for the 21st century, something on the scale of the Manhattan Project.

It’s much too important and far too early to write this off. Perhaps a genuine president willing to invest funding equal to a small hunk of America’s warfighting budget could make this a reality. There are so many unknowns, neglected opportunities. However what is apparent is that we can’t rely on carbon capture technologies as a solution to our GHG problems. We can’t bank on it at all because the clock is running and it may just be too little, too late.

Like his American Idol, George w. Bush, our own Furious Leader, Stephen Harper is dead keen on usurping the power of the legislature in order to concentrate it in his own hands. He and his faceless, unelected minions in the PMO are the Ringmasters of Harper’s parliamentary circus.

From the Toronto Star:

“When Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in Parliament and introduced a bombshell motion to formally recognize the Québécois as a nation within Canada, he surprised not just the country but his own cabinet minister ostensibly in charge of the file.
Michael Chong, intergovernmental affairs minister at the time, says Harper never consulted him about the bold move – made in November 2006 – even though he was responsible for Ottawa’s relations with the provinces.

A few days later, Chong resigned his post, saying he disagreed with the intent of the motion.
Academic and author Donald Savoie cites that incident as one example of the growing concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s Office – at the expense of MPs, bureaucrats, cabinet ministers and ultimately the public.

He argues that Canada has evolved into a court-style government, where the prime minister sits as “king” and has a “court” of select senior ministers, mandarins and lobbyists that rule the nation. Savoie says Parliament has been reduced to a bit player and cabinet ministers are now mere pawns.”

Obviously imperial rule appeals to a leader who values secrecy above anything else and considers that notions of accountability stop well short of his elevated throne. This guy has no respect for our people, our Parliament or our democracy.

Update: h/t Ken Chapman for drawing attention to Lawrence Martin’s piece on the “Sun King” in today’s Globe & Mail.

“Not a team man. Not a big advocate of democratic decision-making. The flaws of Stephen Harper are spelled out in Preston Manning’s book, “Think Big.”

That pretty much sums up Harper today, more warlord than prime minister, a creepy sort of guy to be hanging around in our prime minister’s office, too obsessed with plotting to have much time left over for serving the country.

Okay, it was mainly high drama, but it took security guards yesterday to keep British environmental writer George Monbiot from placing neo-con John Bolton under arrest for war crimes.

From The Guardian:

“Bolton had defended the US’s right to launch pre-emptive nuclear attacks and to promote regime change or, if necessary, a military attack on Iran to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons. As a lawyer, he said, he was not prepared to offer a view either on rendition or torture of suspects, because he had not studied the issues – a claim that provoked dismay.

Afterwards, Monbiot, a contributor to the Guardian, said: “I’m disappointed I couldn’t reach him, but I made what I believe to be the first attempt ever to arrest one of the perpetrators of the Iraq war, and I would like to see that followed up.”

I’m looking forward to getting my hands on former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s tell-all book.

It’s not that there’s much in it that we didn’t already know. It’s that a former insider is essentially standing witness against his former boss, a man who may be a mass murderer on a grand scale.

What interests me is McClellan’s admissions of what fueled Bush’s decision to invade Iraq – his vanity. The former aide says that Bush’s overarching objectives were to be a wartime president and win a second term in office. Taken in this context, George Bush is a war criminal and a mass murderer. It was all about this frat boy rising out of his career of serial failures to stand tall as the victorious Commander in Chief of the United States of America. That thousands of his own people would have to die and hundreds of thousands of innocents abroad would lose their lives was of no moment to Barbara Bush’s wretched hellspawn.

To get his way, Bush turned on the American people and attacked them with a lethal brew of deception and fearmongering. Fully aided and abetted by a collaborative, right-wing media, Bush convinced his people that Saddam was a genuine threat to the world and, above all, to the United States and each and every one of them. Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, even nukes, and was buying the raw materials for his arsenal (remember the “yellowcake”?) even while he was denying it. Worst of all, he was in cahoots with al-Qaeda and could even deliver chemical, biological and nuclear weapons into their hands for use against the U.S.

George w. Bush soaked the American people in the blood of innocents. He sullied and besmirched the honour and integrity of the volunteers who signed on to serve their country in its armed forces. He cajoled and intimidated and bribed other nations to serve as his collaborators, his enablers.

What does a man such as George Bush and what do his principal minions deserve for this treachery? They deserve to become an example to those who might be tempted to do this all over again some day. They deserve to be arrested and brought to the prisoners’ dock in shackles to stand trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and mass murder. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Feith, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rice, Gonzales and yes, even Powell, should answer for all the killings and the torture and their abuses. Then they should be put in cages in their very own Spandau somewhere and held, incommunicado, for the rest of their lives.

For these people are villains of the very worst kind, those who kill for glory. Tyrants.

Asia Times Online reports that Bush will launch a bombing campaign against Iran before the end of August.

“Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.

The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC’s elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds’ stated mission is to spread Iran’s revolution of 1979 throughout the region. “

Asia Times has identified the senators who’ve threatened to go public as Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana.

The idea of American air strikes on Iran gives everyone cause for concern. Air raids are unlikely to have much effect and could even backfire. Many experts believe bombing could cause the Iraqi people, including dissenters, to rally behind Tehran’s hard-liners. It’s also widely thought that an American attack on yet another Muslim country, the third, could strengthen the hand of Islamist radicals throughout the Muslim world. Then there’s the issue of the West’s dependence on Persian Gulf oil routes. Iran is well stocked with modern, anti-ship missiles which could easily shut down Persian Gulf tanker routes. With the American and world economies already reeling from the subprime mortgage meltdown, a closure of the Persian Gulf oil routes could have a massive effect on world markets and global oil prices.

Day by day the prospect of military confrontation grows stronger. ABC News reports that Pakistan may now be aiding Iran by agreeing to hand over members of the tribal militant group Jundullah who Iran claims are working as spies for the CIA.

Jundullah, a Baloch insurgent movement, is known to have been carrying out attacks on Iranian army facilities and officers. According to ABC, US intelligence officers frequently meet with and advise Jundullah leaders. It also claims that the United States is using Iranian exiles to funnel money to Jundullah without requiring White House acknowledgement and Congressional oversight.

“Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.

Some former CIA officers say the arrangement is reminiscent of how the U.S. government used proxy armies, funded by other countries including Saudi Arabia, to destabilize the government of Nicaragua in the 1980s.”

Here’s some tough news for global warming deniers – the climate we once knew is gone and it’s not coming back, at least not for many centuries to come.

The US government’s own Climate Change Science Program has issued its report on what lies in store for agriculture, water resources and biodiversity over the next five decades and it’s clear that big changes are in store.

The rise in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from human activities is influencing climate patterns and vegetation across the United States and will significantly disrupt water supplies, agriculture, forestry and ecosystems for decades, a new U.S. government report says. From the International Herald Tribune:

From the CCSP summary:

Grain and oilseed crops will mature more rapidly, but increasing temperatures will increase the risk of crop failures, particularly if precipitation decreases or becomes more variable.

Higher temperatures will negatively affect livestock. Warmer winters will reduce mortality but this will be more than offset by greater mortality in hotter summers. Hotter temperatures will also result in reduced productivity of livestock and dairy animals.

Forests in the interior West, the Southwest, and Alaska are already being affected by climate change with increases in the size and frequency of forest fires, insect outbreaks and tree mortality. These changes are expected to continue.
Much of the United States has experienced higher precipitation and streamflow, with decreased drought severity and duration, over the 20th century. The West and Southwest, however, are notable exceptions, and increased drought conditions have occurred in these regions.

Weeds grow more rapidly under elevated atmospheric CO2. Under projections reported in the assessment, weeds migrate northward and are less sensitive to herbicide applications.
There is a trend toward reduced mountain snowpack and earlier spring snowmelt runoff in the Western United States.

Horticultural crops (such as tomato, onion, and fruit) are more sensitive to climate change than grains and oilseed crops.

Young forests on fertile soils will achieve higher productivity from elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Nitrogen deposition and warmer temperatures will increase productivity in other types of forests where water is available.

Invasion by exotic grass species into arid lands will result from climate change, causing an increased fire frequency. Rivers and riparian systems in arid lands will be negatively impacted.
A continuation of the trend toward increased water use efficiency could help mitigate the impacts of climate change on water resources.

The growing season has increased by 10 to 14 days over the last 19 years across the temperate latitudes. Species’ distributions have also shifted.

The rapid rates of warming in the Arctic observed in recent decades, and projected for at least the next century, are dramatically reducing the snow and ice covers that provide denning and foraging habitat for polar bears.”

http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-3/default.php

These are changes that will occur regardless of any measures that may be taken in the near future to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The forecasts are based on what exists today. Can the forecasts be worsened by failure to dramatically cut GHG emissions? Absolutely. The future could be much, much worse unless we somehow find the social and political will to make the drastic changes necessary to break our carbon addiction.

What does the future hold? I just don’t see the big emitters of the world reaching any meaningful consensus in time to avoid the problems that are looming. We’re struggling just to reach agreement on greenhouse gases alone and haven’t even begun to come to grips with the other environmental, resource and population challenges that, taken collectively, could pose as great a threat to mankind as global warming itself.

One thing is clear. In terms of climate change, there’s no going back. In addition to wrestling with GHG emissions we also need to be taking action, now, on remediation and adaptation. Of course that too is hampered by the heel-draggers fighting the rearguard action on emissions controls. The last thing they want is an informed, public discussion of just what does lie in store for our countries in the next half century.

It’s one thing for Max Bernier to have left classified, highly sensitive documents on his girlfriend’s coffee table. It’s another matter entirely for her to have them for five whole weeks.

Five weeks?

Bernier and Harper need to answer for that. Why weren’t the documents recovered the minute Bernier realized he’d left them behind? Did he just forget he’d left them at Couillard’s apartment? Was this an isolated incident or the sort of thing Maxie is prone to when he’s on the hunt? Has somebody done an inventory of the former minister’s documents to veryify that there’s nothing else laying about where it’s not supposed to be? Is Harper properly managing his cabinet? Are other Con ministers just as negligent as Bernier?

Let’s face it, Harper’s cabinet isn’t exactly the faculty from the Rocket Academy but something more akin to the supporting cast from a Charlie Chaplin movie. Bernier wasn’t just the minister of tractor parts, he was foreign affairs minister and yet he operated like a rank amateur.

It’s time that Parliament got to the bottom of this. Somebody has to and it’s plain that Harper won’t do it.