Green+ Malaysia's Premier Eco-friendly, Sustainable and Green Business Magazine

ENERGY
Hydropower means
a lot worldwide
Twenty per cent of global electricity has been made by
using renewable sources this year
The present boom
in making electricity
from hydroelectric
sources pays no heed
to some political considerations,
but helps the trend
continue towards renewable
energy. Dams grow everywhere
possible in developing countries
and emerging economies,
while construction companies
are delighted to do the work.
Apart from the national rivalries
exposed by this loss of water,
rivers have a lot to lose (about
20% of large free-flowing rivers
currently extant) in terms of
biodiversity.
The University of Copenhagen
recently closed its conference
on Global Challenges:
Achieving Sustainability. This
commendable confab is also
setting up a novel Biofresh
DataPortal. Massive support for
indices of species and observation
of the states of hydrology
worldwide will be provided.
The news of doubling hydropower
is the door into a new era
for dams. Professor Christiane
Zarfl of the University of Tübingen
studied the hydropower boom at
the Leibnitz Institute in Berlin and
produced a database. We have
compiled available data on future
expected hydropower dams - to
form a key foundation for evaluating
where and how to build the
dams and how to operate them
sustainably, she reports at the
congress.
Twenty per cent of global electricity
has been made by using
Credit: © Shutterstock
renewable sources this year. 80%
of that is hydropower, with 3,700
new dams about to add to that,
making a total of 1,700GW available
from this renewable! China,
with its disputed giant Yangzi
dams and many others will still
be the leader of this water race.
Meanwhile their dominance
will be challenged by Amazon and
La Plata projects in South America
and Ganges-Brahmaputra dams
in India and Nepal. Here is the
story of the enormous DRC dam
plan for the great Congo in Africa.
The river dolphins, the migratory
fish, the rare amphibian and
even reptiles such as turtles will
be joined by countless insect
species, vital to the ecosystems
of rivers, who will become threatened
by loss of flow. Plant species
will be affected first, with the herbivores
which devour them next.
Specialised predators will
probably disappear while those
organisms requiring clean,
oxygenated water will be disappearing.
Prospects seem dim,
but hopefully the embryonic
database system will keep track
better than previous attempts
to map extinctions. Because it is
extinction of whole river systems
we are dealing with. The energy
is needed, but the use of smaller
dams may avoid nation fighting
nation for the pure water, the
power and the glory.– www.
earthtimes.org
Fracking still rears its ugly head
Jerry Brown, the Californian
Governor, is moving to halt
wastewater dumping into
the state’s aquifers from up
to 30 injection wells. These
fracking operations are not
only using great amounts of
drought-stricken California’s
water, but carelessly dumping
where freshwater aquifers
have been contaminated.
Further afield, the UK
energy minister, Owen
Paterson, has regularly
pushed his right-wing party
further in the fracking debate,
without too much objection,
from them at least. Desolate
parts of the small country
should be used for fracking,
according to some in his
party. The rest of the world,
however is deeply concerned
with this water pollution,
mini-quakes and land rights.
We need an international
approach to all fracking and
similar undermining of the
need to escape from our fossil
fuel addiction. While dinosaurs
might have retained
their opinions on how climate
change would not affect
them, thinking humans need
to improve on our dismal
record of air pollution. CO2
alone has almost directly
caused a temperature rise
approaching 2oC. We have
finally realised, apart from
one or two politicians, many
of the links this has with vast
changes in our environment,
both now and more so in the
future.
In the US fracking has
long been acquiring a terrible
reputation, which people like
Patterson pretend to ignore.
The great white hope for him
is destined to become an
even larger grey cloud. Highly
pressurised water, sand
and chemicals including the
carcinogens benzene and
toluene are used and released
in these hidden, but dirty,
operations. The Central Valley
Water Board in California has
found half of its wells with
excessive amounts of toxic
chemicals. Some way has
to be found there quickly to
dispose of waste water in safe
ways, well separated from
natural aquifers.
In the UK, the outgoing
government seems desperate
to copy some of Europe’s
fossil fans, and the American
dream of cheap fuels. The
vigorous anti-fracking
campaign has persuaded
them that their opponents are
exaggerating their argument.
Take some bribe money from
the frackers and enjoy the
cheap energy seems to be
their only argument!
Perhaps the local Scottish
example and the German
and Italian non-renewable
approach would appeal more
to those voters who don’t
seem to be particularly fond
of people who also claim they
have no rights to prevent
fracking under their land. If
this government repeal the
Climate Change Act of 2008,
flouting the EU’s approach
completely, perhaps that will
be their last desperate act!
Fracking seems bound
to go on, but what a pity that
people have to rediscover
consequences that have been
clearly shown in comparable
situations for decades. Do
they really believe that any
fuel company is going to clean
up, after all of the recorded
quakes, contaminations and
spills? – www.earthtimes.org
66
november-december, green+.2014