Reuters - Drought in Australia food bowl worsens

Drought in Australia's main food growing region of the Murray-Darling river system has worsened, with water inflows over the past two years at an all-time low, the government's top water official said on Tuesday.

The drought will hit irrigated crops such as rice, grapes and horticulture the hardest, but would have less impact on output of wheat, which depends largely on rainfall during specific periods and is on track to double after two years of shrunken crops.

The rainfall is sufficient to support hopes for a strong wheat harvest, but not enough to replenish ground water, which troubles those farmers who grow fruit rather than grain.

The record drought, which has gripped much of the country for close to a decade, was the worst in 117 years of record-keeping, with 80 percent of eucalyptus trees already dead or stressed in the region as large as France and Germany combined.

ABC - Drought depletes Hydro storages

Hydro Tasmania's water storages are the lowest they have ever been at the end of winter. At present they are just over 22 percent of capacity compared to just under 27 per cent at the same time last year. Hydro's Energy Resources Manager David Marshall says the state has had 10 consecutive months of low rainfall, resulting in a heavy reliance on the gas-fired Bell Bay power station and buying power from the mainland via Basslink.

The Australian - Our watermark of dishonour

In Changwon, the Australian delegation can expect to be challenged over why this situation has arisen, why no emergency response has been activated, why Australia has not used its Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to protect this site - even though Ramsar wetlands were one reason it was enacted - why Australia has failed to use its external affairs power (as in the case of protecting the Franklin River) to secure the water needed to save the site and why Australia has failed to place this site on the convention's Montreux Record of threatened sites. Unlike the International Whaling Commission, where we could take the moral high ground, one suspects Australia will be in the cross-hairs this time.

Another question Australia will be expected to answer is whether the Coorong and Lakes will be delisted as a Ramsar wetland and replaced with another site that retains qualities comparable to how the Coorong and Lakes used to be, assuming there is one. In the nearly 40-year history of the Ramsar Convention, this will give us a very special black mark for being the first country to delist a site of this size due to mismanagement.

Crikey - Victoria dies in an (arid) ditch for water cap

Stuff.co.nz - Mighty River seeks to have wind farm project called in

State-owned Mighty River Power is asking the Government whether its application to build a wind farm development at Turitea near Palmerston North can be fast-tracked by being called in. ...

Last week Environment Minister Trevor Mallard announced he was calling in Contact Energy's proposal for a 180-turbine 540-megawatt (MW) wind farm near Raglan. ... The company has said Turitea would have up to 131 turbines and generate up to 360MW of power which would be enough for up to 150,000 houses. ...

Might River also said today that a new geothermal power station near Kawerau was officially handed over to its operations team from principal construction contractor Sumitomo. The $300 million station was fully operational ahead of time, under budget and capable of generating at a higher-than-expected capacity of 100MW, Mighty River said.

Peak Energy - ClimateSmart In Queensland

The Queensland state government will be rolling out smart meters to all who want them as part of their ClimateSmart initiative next year. The meters will display electricity usage, cost and carbon emissions.

WA Business News - First WA geothermal permits awarded

The geothermal industry in the state has been given a kick-start with the government awarding a private Guildford-based company the first exploration permits in Western Australia. New World Energy Solutions has been offered 12 of 13 geothermal exploration applications in the Perth Basin which has potential to supply electricity to the Perth metropolitan area and to resource projects in the Mid West region.

"Our permits north of Perth are close to the proposed new 330kV line that will supply electricity to the resource-rich Mid West region, while our permits south of Perth are adjacent to the proposed Binningup desalination plant and incorporate the Kemerton Industrial Area," NWES managing director John Kibby said.

Larvatus Prodeo - Long-term soil carbon

One area that generates extended discussion on LP climate change threads is the ability of biological processes - forests, particularly - to remove some of the excess carbon dioxide we’re so thoughtlessly dumping into the atmosphere. It’s a genuinely problematic area, apparently - aside from measurement difficulties, it’s difficult to include in emissions trading schemes because the stored carbon can be released again by fires, land clearing, or soil disturbance.

In that context, a story on the 7.30 report about some new scientific research is quite interesting. Phytoliths are a microscopic structure that forms in many agriculturally useful plants, notably grasses. They’re a little blob of carbon, which is not that unusual in biological structures. However, what makes them interesting is that they have an external skin of silicon - rather tough, hard, and durable stuff. Because of this, the carbon in a phytolith is effectively locked away for a very long time - thousands of years, according to the story. It doesn’t matter if the land use changes, or careless agricultural practices are used. The carbon is effectively taken out of the biosphere. And according to the story, it’s easy to measure the quantity of carbon thus sequestered. Quantifiable, long-term biological sequestration - sounds all good, doesn’t it?

Inhabitat - COULD SOLAR HIGHWAYS POWER OUR CITIES?

In the search for a solar solution to power our cities, one of our biggest obstacles is the massive acreage required by conventional arrays. Photovoltaic panels are flat and expansive, and urban centers are at a serious loss for free space. Now Australian renewable energy retailer Going Solar has conceived of a clever strategy that infuses urban transit systems with energy producing potential - install solar panels in highways as sound barriers.

SMH - Petsec relieved after Gustav downgraded

Stuff.co.nz - New Cheal oil well tied into production facility

Wellington-based Austral Pacific Energy says a new oil well has been tied into the production facility at its onshore Taranaki Cheal field. The well was being produced at 200 barrels of oil a day with no water during the testing phase, Austral said today.

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