Australia Mining Chiefs Missing Over Africa

Sunset for Sundance Resources Chiefs?

Plane carrying several Australian mining executives  has gone missing flying from Cameroon to Republic of Congo

Ken Talbot, a coal mining billionaire, is among the missing in central Africa after his chartered plane vanished. Photograph: Dave Hunt/EPA. Source. Image may be subject to copyright.

The mining magnate Ken Talbot, one of Australia’s richest men, was among a group of nine mining executives whose plane vanished flying from Cameroon to Republic of Congo.

The charted plane set off from the Yaounde, Cameroon capital, to inspect iron ore projects in Yangadou, a remote area in Congo.

Talbot became embroiled in a controversy when the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission charged him with corruption for making payments of about A$360,000 to a Queensland state MP, Gordon Nuttall.

Nuttall was jailed for 7 years in 2009, and Ken Talbot was due to appear in court in August charged with making corrupt payments.

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Another Oil Leak Nightmare Made in Australia

Serial No  1,533. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

Australia Scores Yet Another Double Whammy

Chinese-registered bulk coal carrier runs aground Great Barrier Reef leaking oil.

Shen Neng I, a 230-meter (754-ft) ship on its way to China, ran aground on a shoal on Saturday, with 950 metric tons of heavy fuel oil on board, officials said, Reuters reported.

Oil is leaking from the Chinese bulk coal carrier Shen Neng I, about 70 km  east of Great Keppel Island April 4, 2010. Credit:Maritime Safety Queensland/Handout/ via Reuters

The authorities said patches of oil had been spotted in the water, near where the ship ran aground.

“Early morning flights over the carrier show a small number of oil patches about two nautical miles southeast from the ship. To date there has been no major loss of oil from the ship,” Queensland’s state government said.

The  ship was carrying 65,000 metric tons of coal from the port of Gladstone in Queensland to China.

Anna Bligh, Queensland Premier,  was concerned the ship could  break up. This time, her fears are fully justified. It would take a miracle for the ship NOT to break up!

“We are now very worried we might see further oil discharged from this ship,” she was reported as saying.

“It is in danger of actually breaking a number of its main structures and breaking into a number of parts,” said Patrick Quirk, general manager of Maritime Safety Queensland.

By far the most prophetic comment, however, came from Capricorn Conservation Council spokesman Ian Herbert, who reportedly  told the Australian Associated Press: “We can be certain that this is a sign of things to come.”

“We are outraged that no marine pilot is required on ships between Gladstone and Cairns,” he said.

“A year ago, Moreton Island, yesterday Great Keppel Island, next year — who knows where?” Herbert said referring to two of Australia’s oil pollutions.

The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef, world’s largest coral reef system,  is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland,  northeast Australia. It’s made up of nearly 3,000 separate  reefs and about 1,000 islands that extend over 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) covering an area of about 350,000 square kilometers (135,000 sq miles).

The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s, the world’s, marine and climatic life insurance policies.

This nadir true-color image was acquired by the MISR instrument on August 26, 2000 (Terra orbit 3679), and shows part of the southern portion of the reef adjacent to the central Queensland coast. The width of the MISR swath is approximately 380 kilometers, with the reef clearly visible up to approximately 200 kilometers from the coast. If you retrieve the higher resolution version, a zoomed display reveals the spectacular structure of the many reefs. Source: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR . Click image to enlarge. Full-Res (JPEG): PIA03401.jpg (414 kB)

Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ)

MSQ general manager Patrick Quirk said the ship was badly damaged on its port side (left side).

“We are still very concerned about the ship. It is in danger of actually breaking a number of its main structures and breaking into a number of parts,” he said.

The Double Whammy?

Just imagine the combined impact of a massive oil spill and humongous avalanche of toxic coal on the fragile reefs, and marine life…

Just how much more dirty energy before you say enough is enough?

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• Oil leaking ship may break up, says Bligh

Australia: World’s Smallest Continental Dust Bowl

Another Dust Storm Sweeps North Central Australia

Another dust storm blew across Australia’s Northern Territory and Queensland on October 26, 2009, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead. This true-color image shows the dust plume traveling eastward. In Northern Territory, the dust passes south of Newcastle Waters. In Queensland, the plume skirts a cluster of fires—roughly marked by red outlines—that send their smoke plumes northward. NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Michon Scott. Edited by FEWW

Related Links:

• Could Dust Storms Bury Sydney, Australia?
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• And dust to dust …
• Australia: Uranium Dust Threat Real?
• Australia: What can burn, will!

• Image of the Day: Human Excesses
• Australian fires toll may exceed 200
• A Living Hell Heated by Australian Coal
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• You want to lose weight without exercise?
• Australian Coal and the Planet
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• Hell Hath No Fury Like the Australian… Bushfire!
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• The Mesopotamian Dust Bowl
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• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Future Scenarios
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle
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• Giga Trends
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• Look me straight in the eye & tell me you can’t
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• Blind scientists examining the economic elephant
• How Much Carbon Dioxide Does Your Money Make?
• Cosmic Scale Evil
• Index of Human Impact on Nature

• New York Cognitive Dissonance

• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution
• Stop Burning Earth
• Energy: 286W

• Failing Ecosystems

Australian Oil Disaster Links:

• Australia Fails to Plug Oil Leak in Timor Sea
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• The Australian Clean Energy Ruse
• Australia declares ‘natural’ disaster [again]
• Stick the Policies, Stop the Climate Change!

• How Much Oil Pollution Is Too Much?
• FEWW Earthquake Forecast: Timor Sea
• Magnitude 6.8 EQ Strikes BANDA SEA
• Australia hit by another man-made disaster

Australia: What can burn, will!

ashes to ashes …

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on the afternoon of September 27, 2009. Red dots and plumes of smoke mark the locations of dozens of fires burning throughout Queensland. The large image provided above has a resolution of 250 meters per pixel, MODIS’ maximum resolution. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response System.

The thick wall of dust that blew across Australia on September 26, 2009, hung in a slightly thinner veil over the Coral Sea on September 27. Ripples and waves shape the dust in reflection of turbulence in the air. The dust will gradually settle over the ocean, where it will provide a source of iron to phytoplankton, microscopic plant-like organisms that grow in sunlit surface water. The iron acts as fertilizer, making it possible for large phytoplankton blooms to develop. While phytoplankton are an important source of food for marine life, too much phytoplankton can rob the ocean of oxygen, creating dead zones. It is certain that ocean biologists will watch closely to see if and how the immense dust storms of September 2009 will affect Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, visible as blue-green dots in the top center of the image. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek. [Edited by FEWW.]

Related Links:

• Australia: Uranium Dust Threat Real?
• And dust to dust …
• Australia hit by another man-made disaster

• The Australian Clean Energy Ruse
• Australia declares ‘natural’ disaster [again]
• Stick the Policies, Stop the Climate Change!
• The day God [sic] washed his hands off St. Andrew’s church

• Image of the Day: Human Excesses
• Australian fires toll may exceed 200
• A Living Hell Heated by Australian Coal
• Torrential Rains Flood Northern Australia

• You want to lose weight without exercise?
• Australian Coal and the Planet
• Vast swarms of locusts sweep across Australia
• Murray-Darling River Communities Are Struggling
• Hell Hath No Fury Like the Australian… Bushfire!

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• The Mesopotamian Dust Bowl
• Iraq Faces Environmental Catastrophe
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• Iraq Ecocide Nears Totality
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• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Future Scenarios
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix
• Giga Trends
• World CO2 Emissions

• Look me straight in the eye & tell me you can’t
• Protect Economy from Climate??!
• Blind scientists examining the economic elephant
• How Much Carbon Dioxide Does Your Money Make?
• Cosmic Scale Evil
• Index of Human Impact on Nature

• New York Cognitive Dissonance

• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution
• Stop Burning Earth
• Energy: 286W

Australia: Uranium Dust Threat Real?

Future storms may contain radioactive dust, if mine proposal goes ahead—Environmentalist

An Australian documentary maker says that  future dust storms in the country may contain radioactive materials, if the mining company BHP Billiton’s proposal to turn a uranium mine into an open-cut mine goes ahead.

David Bradbury, a renowned filmmaker and environmental activist, who has made four documentaries on nuclear issues, says an  environmental impact study suggest that about 70 million tons of radioactive tailing would be deposited at South Australia’s Olympic Dam uranium mine grounds each year.

The tailings are contaminated with alpha radiation, he says, which is proven to be carcinogenic to all animals, including humans.

“My grave concern is that with the open-cut mine expansion that BHP Billiton wants permission from state and federal governments to go ahead with, that the radioactive tailings left behind will blow over the eastern coast centres of the most populated cities of Australia,” he said.

Bradbury concerns came amid last Wednesday  worst ever dust storm in the Sydney and Brisbane areas as  red dust blown in from the outback shrouded the region, causing problems for people, especially those with asthma, and others with heart and lung conditions.

“[Since] the dust storms…  originated from Woomera, and which is right next door to the Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs, these [storms] could blow those tailings across the face of Australia,” said Bradbury.

However, Australian scientists are playing down fears, assuring the public that there is nothing to worry about [sic.]

Barry Noller an Associate Professor from the University of Queensland, whose research projects include Risk Assessment of Mined Land,  was quoted as saying that most of the particles from the uranium mines in the outback are simply too heavy to be carried by the wind over long distances.

“In a big dust storm, the dust is not going to come from one isolated site, it is going to be mixed in with dust from a [wide] area and diluted considerably,” said Noller.

FEWW Comments:

Come again? What if the storms were stronger and blew more sand more frequently, say, twice more, perhaps five times, or ten time as much every year? The recent atmospheric trends and new patterns set by climate change certainly suggest such extreme scenarios as highly probable!

That’s the most ridiculous comment an Associate Professor could possibly make, even one from the University of Queensland, without quantifying the extent of the problem. The stronger the storms the more dust they carry over populated areas, and with it goes more of the heavier particles.

Here’s what the Aussies, even their corporate media, should demand to know:

How much stronger must the storms be, and how frequently must they below before they pose,  (i) some risk, (ii) significant risk to the public health, threatening human and animal well being?

Should this professor make similarly stupid, biased and unqualified remarks again, the Moderators will have to investigate his role and function as a government scientist with regulatory bias.

Related Links:

• And dust to dust …

• Australia hit by another man-made disaster
• The Australian Clean Energy Ruse
• Australia declares ‘natural’ disaster [again]
• Stick the Policies, Stop the Climate Change!
• The day God [sic] washed his hands off St. Andrew’s church

• Image of the Day: Human Excesses
• Australian fires toll may exceed 200
• A Living Hell Heated by Australian Coal
• Torrential Rains Flood Northern Australia

• You want to lose weight without exercise?
• Australian Coal and the Planet
• Vast swarms of locusts sweep across Australia
• Murray-Darling River Communities Are Struggling
• Hell Hath No Fury Like the Australian… Bushfire!

Additional Related Links:

• The Mesopotamian Dust Bowl
• Iraq Faces Environmental Catastrophe
• Riyadh City May Collapse by 2010
• Iraq Ecocide Nears Totality
• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Future Scenarios
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix
• Giga Trends
• World CO2 Emissions

• Look me straight in the eye & tell me you can’t
• Protect Economy from Climate??!
• Blind scientists examining the economic elephant
• How Much Carbon Dioxide Does Your Money Make?
• Cosmic Scale Evil
• Index of Human Impact on Nature

• New York Cognitive Dissonance

• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution
• Stop Burning Earth
• Energy: 286W

• Failing Ecosystems

And dust to dust …

Images of ‘Doomsday?’

Another man-made disaster strikes Australia

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: 100 kph winds whipped up heavy dust storms followed by severe  thunderstorms in Sydney and much of New South Wales last night, media reported.

Road traffic slowed down to a crawl, ferries canceled, flights diverted or canceled as dust storm shrouded Sydney, and suffocating haze forced the residents to stay indoors.

Reuters: “This is unprecedented. We are seeing earth, wind and fire together,” said Dick Whitaker from The Weather Channel.

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, and the NSW state government recently cut the state’s 2009/10 wheat crop estimate by 20 percent because of hot, dry weather across the grain belt.

The country is one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change, but also the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter per capita as it relies on coal-fired power stations for the bulk of its electricity.

Red dust and gale force winds have severely disrupted flights into and out of Sydney (ABC online User submitted: Amber Hooper). Image may be subject to copyright.

Karen from Sydney’s inner western suburb of Dulwich Hill said she woke up to find the red dust had covered her floors and birds had been blown out of their nests.

“It did feel like Armageddon because when I was in the kitchen looking out the skylight, there was this red, red glow coming through,” Karen told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

“In the south, where there are showers, people will find it is falling as mud this morning, but that will help clear the dust from the air,” said the BOM spokeswoman.

(Top) A shot of Neutral Bay on a normal day, and (bottom) this morning. Photo: Lauren Jarrott, smh.com.au reader photo. Image may be subject to copyright.

Associated Press: Sydney’s fiery dawn was caused by the sun hitting a blanket of dust that was whipped up by wild weather in parched areas of the New South Wales outback.

People exercising at Coogee Beach. The Age.com.au reader Photo: Peter Rae. Image may be subject to copyright.

A person takes pictures of the dust on his car during a dust storm in Sydney. Photo: AP Photo/Rob Griffith. Image may be subject to copyright.

An enhanced colour satellite image shows the dust storm covering over eastern Australia in this handout picture dated September 23, 2009. REUTERS/Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology/Handout

Photo Gallery: The Age – Australia

Related Links:

• Australia hit by another man-made disaster
• The Australian Clean Energy Ruse
• Australia declares ‘natural’ disaster [again]
• Stick the Policies, Stop the Climate Change!
• The day God [sic] washed his hands off St. Andrew’s church

• Image of the Day: Human Excesses
• Australian fires toll may exceed 200
• A Living Hell Heated by Australian Coal
• Torrential Rains Flood Northern Australia

• You want to lose weight without exercise?
• Australian Coal and the Planet
• Vast swarms of locusts sweep across Australia
• Murray-Darling River Communities Are Struggling
• Hell Hath No Fury Like the Australian… Bushfire!

• The Mesopotamian Dust Bowl
• Iraq Faces Environmental Catastrophe
• Riyadh City May Collapse by 2010
• Iraq Ecocide Nears Totality
• Image of the Day: Sandstorm in Saudi Desert

• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Future Scenarios
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix
• Giga Trends
• World CO2 Emissions

• Look me straight in the eye & tell me you can’t
• Protect Economy from Climate??!
• Blind scientists examining the economic elephant
• How Much Carbon Dioxide Does Your Money Make?
• Cosmic Scale Evil
• Index of Human Impact on Nature

• New York Cognitive Dissonance

• Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution
• Stop Burning Earth
• Energy: 286W

• Failing Ecosystems