Comments Mike B has made

  • Solution?

    A social revolution...we need to get together to fundamentally change the way we engage in production and consumption.  On U.N. report says world environment doing quite poorly posted 2 years, 1 month ago 1 Response

  • Water unlimited

    Max Whisson has invented this device which extracts water from the surrounding air, kind of like squeezing out the dew.

    http://www.waterunlimited.com.au/

    I think this invention has vast implications for areas of the planet where people are facing water shortages, including Australia.

    Also in the Perth area, there is a group (CETO) which has developed a wave power mechanism which is not only producing electric power, but also desalinating ocean water at the same time.    On A global trend toward drought posted 2 years, 1 month ago 1 Response

  • Why not a solar powered air "car"?

    For those of us who don't give a damn about speed and just want to get from one place to another in a sunburned, largely unpopulated country, why not create a solar powered air vehicle which stays relatively close to the ground?  No need for roads.  Just anchor it when storms roll by.On Green car dealerships sell alternative vehicles posted 2 years, 1 month ago 1 Response

  • Rainforests

    An Australian Senator, Bob Brown of the Greens, said in a Friday interview on ABC that IF "we" could just stop cutting down the rainforests, we could advance the cause of stopping global warming by leaps and bounds.  

    It's always a question of who is responsible.  "We" are responsible for politicians elected in bourgeois democracies.  Sometimes, we get a good one, like Brown, but mostly "we're" manipulated by those who have economic interests in maintaining the status quo vis a vis burning things to produce power.  Our whole psychology is built on the socially received wisdom that obeying our masters will make us safe.  Therefore, in Australia, "we" vote in people like John Howard, a capitalist toady who is a climate change skeptic.On It's good posted 2 years, 9 months ago 8 Responses

  • We've got wave power.....

    This technology is amazing. Not only do waves produce clean, carbon free electric power, but they also produce fresh water! By supporting technology like this, along with wind power and solar, we can beat the coming heat. Granted, the damage done already by buring fossil fuels will take about a thousand years to clean up, but this kind of machinery is a beginning.

    The following is a statement by the Energy Minister of Western Australia, Fran Logan.

    Regards,

    Mike B)

    Major leap forward for WA wave-energy technology

    4/2/07

    Wave-energy technology invented and developed in Western Australia has taken another step closer to commercialisation.

    Energy Minister Francis Logan today unveiled the first of nine pre-commercialisation wave-energy units that will be installed in the ocean off North Fremantle and thoroughly tested over the next year.

    "This new and innovative wave energy technology, designed to produce both fresh water and green electricity, has been developed in WA and has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the State," Mr Logan said.

    "It is very pleasing to see this technology progressing to the next stage and used to support the development of a wave energy industry in WA.

    "Wave energy is a clean, renewable source of energy that can produce electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions."

    The units, named CETO2 after a Greek sea goddess, were developed by WA company Seapower Pacific and its parent company, UK-based Renewable Energy Holdings.

    The companies have invested about $10million in the technology and expect it to be fully commercialised within two years. They are currently evaluating several sites off the south-west coast of WA for commercial deployment.

    "An array of the units will be installed about 250m off North Fremantle over the next two to three months, in time for the autumn and winter swells," the Minister said.

    "The CETO2 wave-energy technology uses an underwater pump driven by the waves to deliver high-pressure seawater through a pipe to the shore. The seawater is then used to drive a turbine to generate electricity or passed through a reverse osmosis desalinisation unit to produce fresh water.

    "The company has advised that one unit can produce about one million litres of fresh water every day and has the capacity to generate 180kW of clean electricity. An array of 100 units could supply 45 gigalitres of fresh water or enough electricity to supply 20,000 households.

    "There is considerable global interest in using waves as a source of energy, with various devices being developed in countries like Norway, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States.

    "WA has an excellent wave energy resource available, with enormous potential to use this resource to produce clean electricity and fresh water."

    Note: Renewable Energy Holdings is an international renewable energy operator and investor. It actively invests and operates in both proven and innovative renewable energy projects and currently operates a bioenergy project in Wales and windfarms in Germany.

    Minister's office - 9222 8950

    further reading can be found here:
    http://www.seapowerpacific.com/NEWS.htmOn The 411 on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change posted 2 years, 9 months ago 6 Responses

  • Proletarian pipedreaming...

    Reminds me of the once, much talked about Vietnam "peace dividend".  When capitalists and their minions in their State become generous, we'll all live in a nicer world.  On Record profits posted 2 years, 10 months ago 2 Responses

  • Good one!

    Very apt.On He predicted climate change in the '60s posted 2 years, 10 months ago 5 Responses

  • A Child's Prayer

    Oh Lord
    I wish you could
    stop global warming
    'cause the poles
    are melting
    and I've only started
    on growing
    Why must the eedolts
    keep BURNING
    things for power
    When the wind and sun are free
    as the waves of the deep
    blue sea
    and I'm on my knees
    wondering
    Why Lord aren't you in charge
    'stead of all them
    fools who say
    It isn't happening
    Not here
    Relax Joe Six
    Have another beerOn The report may pass over some of the worst dangers posted 2 years, 10 months ago 6 Responses

  • Live in harmony with the Earth

    That sentiment is also part of the IWW Preamble.
    Is living in harmony with the Earth possible within a system which commodifies everything, including the Earth?

    Won't it be too long to wait, if we have to come up with schemes which will appeal to "cost-efficiency" logic?

    The relentless drive to make all human creations and Nature into saleable objects is incompatible with human survival at this stage of historical development. We either face that reality or we gradually grind our way to barbarism as the chaos of global warming envelops us.On A single-issue movement won't cut it posted 2 years, 10 months ago 15 Responses

  • Grassroots (Classroots) yes...

    I'm in total agreement.  The only way for the rank and file to be recognized by the powers that be is for them to become a power on their own.  Organizing within One Big Union with a Preamble like this is a great way to begin:

    The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

    Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

    We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

    These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

    Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

    It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old. On A single-issue movement won't cut it posted 2 years, 10 months ago 15 Responses

  • Re: Trucks

    Thanks amazingdrx.  

    Can someone tell me what's wrong with putting unused electric current from a wind powered grid though say, sea water, to obtain hydrogen.On Warning: techno-engineering speak ahead posted 2 years, 11 months ago 43 Responses

  • Air and truck transport

    I'd be curious to know if there are any decent proposals on the table to green power airplanes and the trucking industry.On Warning: techno-engineering speak ahead posted 2 years, 11 months ago 43 Responses