Stitch In Time Will Bring Pieces Of Puzzle Together
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday October 4, 2007
The best estimate we have is that average surface temperatures will rise by 1.8 to 3.5 degrees by the end of the century. This is going to happen under present conditions. Under the more challenging scenario, inland temperatures will rise even more - by about 5 degrees. If this occurs, living on parts of our globe will be difficult for humans and for the survival of many ecosystems.
We must reduce the steep rise of emissions and find ways to "buy time".Responding to climate change is like making an heirloom quilt. It will take time but we need to fit the pieces of the patchwork together. The sum of the whole will help protect Australia from increasing extreme-weather events and the enhanced greenhouse effect.There are a number of "pieces", or actions, I would like to mention.One that has given me some hope recently is biosequestration. What is the potential to store carbon dioxide in living plants, particularly trees, woody shrubs and even grasses? What is the capacity in Australia? We have to consider additional storage. It is a complex challenge - it will probably attract a lot of fly-by-night investment situations as the carbon trading scheme is brought into being by the Government. But there is a real prospect of large-scale additional storage in trees and shrubs.The second thought that fills me with optimism is based on our technological expertise. People ask why should we bother cleaning up our act when we are only responsible for about 1 per cent of global emissions? Because it is worthwhile and we need to play our part as global citizens. We are a relatively sophisticated technological nation; we should be able to help some of the major emitters in the globe to reduce their contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.Electricity production represents 35 per cent of Australia's emissions, and we have the potential to substantially reduce these. We would like to be able to do it without extra costs to the consumers for electricity, but that is not possible, certainly not at present. It is highly likely that consumers will not continue to enjoy the cheap electricity prices that we have today.We need to develop a portfolio of energy sources for electricity production. There are only two sources that are technologically mature and capable of providing us with baseload electricity with reduced emissions. One source involves the clean-up of coal-based technologies and geosequestration (locking carbon dioxide underground). The second source is nuclear energy. If we could get over the high emotional feelings in relation to nuclear energy and if we began preparing for its introduction right now, it would still be some 15 years before we have nuclear power stations in operation.There are other low-carbon emission sources of energy that we need to develop. These include solar thermal power, photovoltaic power, geothermal power and wind and tidal-generated electricity production. These technologies need to be moved to the status of acceptable power contribution platforms - this implies accepting the cost as well as rolling out the technology.What else can we do to reduce our emissions? Is there anything we can do in the next 10 to 15 years? We need to ask ourselves these questions every day. There is substantial potential to reduce emissions by reducing our energy use, even though a rise in population and other factors have steadily increased our energy demand. The whole population can be involved in making contributions to reduce emissions footprint.We need to look at every aspect of our greenhouse signature and do everything we can to reduce its impact, not only for our generation but for the generations to come. They will depend on the patchwork quilt we stitch.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald