Bright sparks light the way—“There are three waves of reform that define the future economy.”

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/bright-sparks-light-the-way/2009/01/31/1232818793461.html

Bright sparks light the way

Greg Hunt (Greg Hunt is the Australian federal shadow minister for climate change, environment and water.)
February 1, 2009

THE great mirror fields of California and Nevada are a vision of the future. No other form of new energy captures the imagination, inspires and allows us to understand the coming transition to a clean economy as easily as vast solar arrays in the desert.

Brilliant work on solar power is being done at both the University of NSW in Sydney and at the Australian National University in Canberra. The world's largest solar concentrator - a form of solar power station - is being built near Mildura.

Crucible Carbon, a small firm in Newcastle, is leading the world in developing biochar, a technology that effectively captures carbon for between 500 and 3000 years in blackened crop waste or wood residue. These mini charcoal pellets are then sown back into the soil, where field trials around the world have shown an increase in crop yields of between 25 and 30 per cent.

The sense that there is no way out is historically incorrect and gives people no reason to harness their own ingenuity. That is why Climate Change Minister Senator Penny Wong's statement last week that south-east Australia's worst heat wave since 1908 was "climate change in action" was so dangerous. It was unsupported, and it said to people that all action is futile.

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[terisan]

1. ah good news!!! hope we can focus more on these advances. nt