Remembering Penelope – the wonder cat.

It is hard to get back to blogging after three long and heartrending weeks caring for and finally losing our beloved pet, our nearly nineteen year old cat Penelope on August 29.

The family is gutted but the fond memories of a unique family member that was born and died on our property live on.

The runt of the litter, Penelope defied the odds and outlived her three siblings, living an extraordinarily healthy life until recent times. She was always a “talker” and this was often a lucky trait.

We can’t help but remember the time she got herself locked into the neighbour’s garage.  We couldn’t find her anywhere until her meowing rang out from down the street.  The neighbours had gone away and nobody knew where they were or when they would return forcing us to push food and water through the crack under the garage door until they luckily returned.

Then there was the triumphant cry at the door with a frangipani leaf that looked like a mouse, or perhaps a woollen cap, a sock, a pair of girls stockings, a fluffy slipper and even a Tshirt that she proudly brought home as a present for us.  We never did find out where they came from.

Her curiosity knew no bounds as did her delight in sitting on anything that we happened to be reading calling us to pay her a little attention too.  She was friendly and loving, a great mouser in her prime but mostly a great talker and purry member of our family.

Old age overtook her and though she was a beautiful cat to the end, her decline coming in the last few weeks, we thought she would live forever. The tribulations of the world continue and yet our lives are just a little more empty these days without her affectionate presence in them.

Those who love their animals will understand.

Here are some photos of Penelope taken last December.

Olympics – where has good sportsmanship gone?

Having been away for a little winter hibernation I have spent some time observing the Olympic Games and the achievements of the world’s athletes.

Whilst there have been many inspiring moments, it is really disappointing to read the negative press when various athletes fail to live up to “expectations” and perhaps “only bring in a silver or a bronze”.

Over recent years the attitude that anyone is a loser if they don’t come first has become pervasive.  This is now leading athletes to throw down the “lesser” medals and storm off in a huff of bad sportsmanship.

In fact the pouting expressions of “losers” and the over enthusiastic antics of “winners”is becoming really off-putting.  Where is the acknowledgment that even reaching a final among the world’s best is an achievement.  Where is the dignity and graciousness of a  winner or good sportsmanship in defeat.

Perhaps the leading athletes who strut their win or demean a second or third placing need to have a good look at themselves and realize that winning at all costs and in bad form is not winning at all.

And as for the armchair critics who have little conception of the effort required to even make the field in an Olympics it is time to let the athletes enjoy their success whatever that may represent.

That achievement may be gaining a gold, silver or bronze medal, it may be reaching a final, or bettering one’s own best effort, or even reaching the pinnacle of the world’s elite athletes to be present at an Olympic games and be forever an Olympian.  All these efforts are worthy of admiration as are those athletes that display the true mark of good sportsmanship and camaraderie even with their fellow competitors.

PHOTO:

In 1896 Alfréd Hajós of Hungary became  the first Olympic Champion in swimming winning the 100 metres and 1200 meters half of the swimming medals on offer.

Alfréd Hajós, Hungary – the First Olympic Champion in swimming. Public Domain.

The Palestra at Olympia. Source: Wikipedia.

Antarctic fossil find shows Antarctica was once warmer.

The National Science Foundation today released some interesting findings about the climatic history of the Antarctic.

National Science Foundation-funded scientists working in an ice-free region of Antarctica have discovered the last traces of tundra–in the form of fossilized plants and insects–on the interior of the southernmost continent before temperatures began a relentless drop millions of years ago.

An abrupt and dramatic climate cooling of 8 degrees Celsius, over a relatively brief period of geological time roughly 14 million years ago, forced the extinction of tundra plants and insects and transformed the interior of Antarctica into a perpetual deep-freeze from which it has never emerged.

The international team of scientists headed by David Marchant, an earth scientist at Boston University and Allan Ashworth and Adam Lewis, geoscientists at North Dakota State University, combined evidence from glacial geology, paleoecology, dating of volcanic ashes and computer modeling, to report a major climate change centered on 14 million years ago. The collaboration resulted in a major advance in the understanding of Antarctica’s climatic history.

NSF, in its role as the manager of the United States Antarctic Program, supported Ashworth’s, Lewis’, and Marchant’s research as well as U.S. researchers from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Ohio State University and the University of Montana.

Their findings appear in the Aug. 4 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The discovery of lake deposits with perfectly preserved fossils of mosses, diatoms and ostracods, a type of small crustacean, is particularly exciting to scientists, noted Lewis. Fossils are extremely rare in Antarctica, especially those of terrestrial and freshwater plants and animals.

“They are the first to be found even though scientific expeditions have been visiting the Dry Valleys since their discovery during the first Scott expedition in 1902-1903,” said Lewis. Robert Falcon Scott was a British Antarctic explorer who perished during an attempt to the first to reach the South Pole in 1912.

The fossil location today high in the mountains is a completely frozen landscape.

Marchant, Lewis and Ashworth, who often spend months living in tents in the Dry Valleys doing their research, all said that the fossil finds stretch their imagination about how the Antarctic continent once looked.

“The fossil finds allow us to examine Antarctica as it existed just prior to climate cooling at 13.9 million years ago. It is a unique window into the past. On land, there are very few places on Earth that contain sediment of this age, and none are as well preserved as those found in the Dry Valleys,” Marchant said. “The sediments allow reconstructions of alpine glaciers, tundra and lakes, all in remarkable detail. To study these deposits is akin to strolling across the Dry Valleys 14.1 million years ago.”

The mean summertime temperatures would have dropped in that period by as much as 8 degrees Celsius. On average, the summertime temperatures in the Valleys during this temperate period would have been as much as 17 degrees warmer than the present-day average. What caused the change, Marchant said, “Is really a big unknown”, though theories abound and include phenomena as different as the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and tectonic shifts that affected ocean circulation.

According to Lewis, the freshness of the crystals and glass in the volcanic ash and the preservation of cellular detail in the fossils argues that they have been permanently frozen since 13.9 million years ago. The climate changed during those millions of years but the temperatures in the mountains never rose high enough to allow groundwater to flow and microorganisms to become active.

This conclusion suggests that even when global atmospheric temperatures were warmer than they are now, as occurred–approximately 3.5 million years ago during the Pliocene Epoch–and as might occur in the near future as a consequence of global warming, there was no significant melting of the East Antarctic ice sheet inland of the Dry Valleys, nor were there dramatic changes in environmental conditions in the fossil region.

If this conclusion stands the test of time, it suggests a very robust ice sheet in this sector of Antarctica, and stresses the complex and potentially non-uniform response of Antarctica’s ice sheets to global change.

Part of the study in the Dry Valleys is captured in the documentary “Ice People,” by Emmy-award winning director Anne Aghion. NSF’s Antarctic Artists and Writers program supported Aghion in the field for four months in 2006 to document the work of scientists there. The film is being released to coincide with the International Polar Year 2007-2009 (IPY), a global scientific deployment, and is scheduled to air on the Sundance Channel in 2009.

A video interview with David Marchant can be viewed at the National Science Foundation website at the link here.

Read the article in full at the link above along with further interesting links.

The wonderful work carried out by the National Science Foundation brings us images and information about this fascinating continent.

IMAGE:

Insects, ferns flourished, then flickered out millions of years ago as the tundra retreated

Examples of fossils found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Credit: Zina Deretsky/National Science Foundation

PHOTO OF THE DAY:

Everett Wilkerson scrambles up an aluminum ladder inside an ice cave. These caves form inside the ‘ice tongue’, a 40-foot-tall bulkhead of snow and ice that runs off the slopes of Mount Erebus on Ross Island.

Photograph by: Alexander Colhoun. National Science Foundation. Date Taken: 1998

Arctic sea ice decline – experience and science.

The decline in sea ice witnessed over recent years has been of  concern to many people.  There are varying explanations for the phenomenon, however the outcome is a change of lifestyle for those living in the Arctic circle.

Whether as a result of cyclical conditions or the direct effects of human activity, people are facing major changes in places like Alaska.

An interesting article in the Fairbanks Newsminer.com looks at the effects of the climate change being experienced in Alaska. It highlights the immediacy of the situation for the people of Alaska and an insight into changes that others are yet to confront. It argues that while in other parts of the country, climate change is largely a future threat, in Alaska it is an immediate reality.

It points out that “while the Earth as a whole has warmed about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century, Alaska has warmed more than 3 degrees in the last 50 years. Alaskans are already grappling with shifting animal species, altered weather patterns, and villages made uninhabitable in part because of shrinking sea ice.”

The warming is having effects on daily life. Here is and excerpt from another article in Newsminer.com

“It had been a weird summer — it was so warm people joked about getting tan — and now it was a weird fall. There wasn’t enough ice on the rivers to go ice fishing, and geese were still hanging around town. A whaling captain’s nephew had shot his first walrus a few weeks before — the Inupiat Eskimos hunt them along with seals and bowhead whales — but when he cut it open there was nothing in its stomach. (Sometimes there are clams you can eat.)

Other people were saying they’d seen walrus that looked thin. And there were reports that lots of walrus were hauling out farther down the shore.”

The National Snow and Ice Data Center predicts that this year’s melt will not reach the record levels of 2007, however, it finds “the Arctic sea ice is in a condition we have not seen since satellites began taking measurements.”

“thin first-year ice dominated the Arctic early in the melt season. Thin ice is much more vulnerable to melting completely during the summer; it seems likely that we will see a faster-than-normal rate of decline through the rest of the summer.”

and then this evaluation:

“So, will we break last year’s record low minimum extent? Will the North Pole become ice-free? Probably not this year. However, the ice is in a vulnerable state and there are six weeks of melting left, so a lot can still happen.

And perhaps the most important point as we continue to watch this season’s evolving ice cover is that, whether or not Arctic sea ice sets a new record low, this year continues the pattern of well-below-average ice extent seen in recent years.”

The problem with the continuing decline in sea ice is that the feed-back effect means that reflective sea ice that keeps the Arctic cooler is replaced with dark water that absorbs heat and so continues to further melt existing sea ice.  This then exacerbates the problem even further.

The articles in the Newsminer.com and other interesting articles on the changing climate of Alaska can viewed at the link here.

Also tonight the ABC will be looking at the problem of the declining sea ice on its Four Corners program on ABC1 at 8.30pm( repeated about 11.35 pm Tuesday August 5; also on ABC2 at 8 am Tuesday.)

“Four Corners journeys to the Arctic Circle to explore how the melt is challenging human understanding of global warming. The Four Corners team* joins scientists on board a Canadian icebreaker, Louis S St Laurent, as they scout for icebergs, bears and evidence of a changing seascape. Across the scientific community there is a quest for answers: How fast is the melt happening? Is it stoppable? What may be lost? What riches will be unlocked? How much global warming is caused by people and how much by nature?”

IMAGE: The National Snow and Ice Data Center has this as its latest assessment of the sea ice in the Arctic:

“Sea ice extent continues to decline, but we have not yet seen last July’s period of accelerated decline. Part of the explanation is that temperatures were cooler in the last two weeks of July, especially north of Alaska.

Because we are past the summer solstice, the amount of potential solar energy reaching the surface is waning. The rate of decline should soon start to slow, reducing the likelihood of breaking last year’s record sea ice minimum.”

Credit: National Snow and Ice data Center.

PHOTO:

Visible-band satellite imagery confirms the low-concentration ice cover. This view places NASA MODIS Aqua data in a perspective generated in Google Earth, simulating a view from far above Earth.

—Credit: From National Snow and Ice Data Center courtesy NASA

China leads the world in renewable energy.

Following up on a recent post about the progress made by the Suntech Energy Holdings and its founder Dr. Zhengrong Shi, comes an interesting report from The Climate Group on China’s growing green energy revolution.  While being one of the world’s big CO2 emitter it is leading the way in innovation in green technologies.

China is already the world’s leading renewable energy producer,( in terms of installed renewable energy) and is over-taking more developed economies in exploiting valuable economic opportunities, creating green-collar jobs and leading development of critical low carbon technologies, says a new report to be published by The Climate Group.

The report – China’s Clean Revolution – shows that China’s transition to a low carbon economy is well underway, led by supportive government policies which are not only driving innovation in low carbon technologies but also diverting billions of dollars of investment into energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The report reveals that the low carbon economy is just as attractive to developing nations like China, as it is for richer countries such as the UK, Japan and Germany.

China’s combination of cost advantages, a clear policy framework, a dynamic and entrepreneurial business environment and abundant abatement opportunities, is proving that developing nations have as much, if not more, to gain from investment in low carbon solutions creating green-collar jobs, social benefits and economic growth.

Despite its coal-dependent economy, the report reveals Chinese government and businesses have embarked on a Clean Revolution that has already made it a world leader in the manufacture of solar photo-voltaic technology (Solar PV) where its six biggest solar companies have a combined market value of over USD $15 billion.

Over the next 12 months, China is also set to become the world’s leading exporter of wind turbines and is competing aggressively in other low carbon markets including solar water heaters, energy efficient home appliances, and rechargeable batteries.

One of the Key Findings from the report:

• China has recently over-taken the US as the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gas and will play a key role in solving the climate change challenge facing the world. China’s 1.3 billion population currently accounts for 24 per cent of total global emissions. Although China’s CO₂ per capita is still relatively low, should China’s citizens ever emit as much CO₂ per capita as Americans now are, China’s total emissions would be roughly equivalent to the entire planet today.

Often described as the factory of the world, 23 per cent of China’s CO₂ emissions were produced in the manufacture of products for export in 2004, mainly to the developed world. However, it is precisely its ability to manufacture technology in large volumes and at competitive prices that will enable it to dominate the world’s renewable technology market.

Read the rest at the Climate Group’s  link and the Executive Summary link here

China’s dependency of coal for its energy source continues but it is encouraging that it is making efforts to invest in renewable energy sources and perhaps it may be China to lead in innovation that will one day see renewable energy overtake fossil fuels as the planets main energy source.

PHOTO:

Photo Courtesy Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. who retain rights.

Major breakthrough in solar storage at MIT.

Yesterday I wrote about the progress in solar cell technology and the excellent prospects for the future of this renewable green energy, today comes the news that MIT has made a breakthrough in that the other aspect of providing Solar energy, the means of storing it when the sun doesn’t shine.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy. Anne Trafton of MIT reports on the innovation:

“The key component in Nocera and Kanan’s new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity — whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source — runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.

Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.

The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it’s easy to set up.

MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper described the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”

Until now the application of solar technology has been limited by the fact that storing solar electricity has been prohibitively expensive and inefficient.  This major breakthrough offers a means of storage that is simple, cheap, highly efficient and requires nothing but abundant non-toxic materials.

Combined with the development of solar cell technology, this breakthrough finally allows a means of harnessing the power of sunlight, which ” has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world’s energy problems,” says Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year.

And where will this breakthrough lead?

“Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.”

This is a truly breathtaking piece of discovery that heartens all of us who have been hoping for some breakthrough for the obstacle of solar power storage.

Read more and view images and hear Daniel Nocera speak about his discovery at the MIT link here.

and also this article in MIT’s Technology Review.

PHOTO: The new catalyst will open the door for effective storage of solar energy.

Photo courtesy of MIT News Office.

Suntech Power Holdings Co.Ltd. signs new agreements and makes submission to Senate inquiry.

(Photo of solar panels in production courtesy Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd)

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. have signed a five year supply agreement with PV Crystalox Solar PLC, a specialist multicrystalline solar wafer manufacturer today. Under the agreement, PV Crystalox

Solar will supply Suntech with a total of 260MW of silicon wafers from 2008 to 2013.

This comes after yesterday signing a two-year agreement with Enel.si, a subsidiary of Italian utility Enel, to supply 30MW of solar modules in late 2008 and 2009.

Suntech is one of the largest solar module manufacturers in the world and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: STP). With 5 Production Sites at Wuxi, Luoyang, Qinghai Nagano, Japan, and Shanghai (under construction), we have 8,000 global employees.

Suntech CEO, Dr Zhengrong Shi was quoted by the Xinghua news agency as saying

“With a strong demand outlook for 2009, the emergence of a number of high potential solar markets in Europe, and growing sentiment supporting the need for renewable energy, we are confident that the solar industry will sustain long term growth. We will continue to develop and diversify our silicon channels to ensure we have a stable base of raw material supply to support this industry growth.”

In fact Dr Shi, in a written submission to the Save Our Solar (Solar ProtectionRebatre) Bill 2008 before the Australian Senate, envisaged improvements to the efficiency of solar cells in the near future:

“We envisage the cost of silicon (a key ingredient in PV panels) to fall sharply by 2012 – to the extent that the cost of PV panels will fall by up to 50%.”

“Suntech Power has a long-standing affinity with Australia. Our founder and global CEO
Dr. Shi Zhengrong is an Australian citizen and developed many of his world-leading solar power technologies during his time working at the University of New South Wales.”

In spite of this the Australian government has set a means test for rebates for installation of solar panels that has generated much criticism.  The Suntech submission outlines the problem with the government policy:

“It is important that Australia develops a strong solar power industry. A robust and growing solar sector will help reduce greenhouse gas emission, have a positive impact on our environment and create jobs in new, emerging technologies.”

and

“increased production scale is largely contingent on healthy ongoing demand in the
community. If the means test has an adverse effect on public demand, it will result in lost
installation jobs and the loss of critical installation experience in the sector.

Moreover, if vital momentum is lost during these formative years, taxpayers will end up paying twice for the same solar megawatts. This is due to having to once again provide incentives towards solar power, with the additional requirement to once again to re-engage consumers after the market disruptions are over.

If Australia wants lower solar power costs in the long-run, it needs to
invest wisely. This requires stable, long-term planning in consultation with the local installation sector, whilst fully using other factors such as education.”

It is an irony that Suntech lists on its timeline of the history of Solar:

1985 – The University of New South Wales breaks the 20% efficiency barrier for silicon solar cells under  1-sun conditions.

Dr Shi has built one of the foremost companies in the Solar energy field, remains a citizen of Australia, was chosen as “50 people who could save the planet” by British Journal “the Guardian” and named one of TIME magazine’s 2007 “Heroes of the Environment”

Successive governments over the years have let opportunities in this technology slip away and now this means test appears to yet again stop progress dead in its tracks. It is hoped that there will be a re-think on this policy to give all Australians the opportunity of “making a substantial contribution to Australia’s green energy future.”

In the words of the Suntech submission:

“Solar power is an intrinsic public good, which is demonstrated through relieving transmission and distribution congestion, minimising climate pollution and reducing the number of new power plants; with their adverse water usage and environmental impact.”

Read the submission in full at this link:

PHOTO:

CEO of Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. Dr Zhengrong Shi. (Photo courtesy Suntech Power HoldingsCo. Ltd.)

Ice break from Arctic’s Ward Hunt Ice Shelf a significant event.

A huge four square kilometer piece of ice has broken off the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf. Jessica Leeder from the Globe and Mail, Canada quotes Warwick Vincent, director of Laval University’s Centre for Northern Studies, who has had students monitoring conditions on the ice shelf for years:

“He called the ice break “a significant event” that the shelf has been building toward since it began gradually thinning during the 1950s. Since then, over a 40-year period, the shelf thinned from 70 metres in the early 1950s to about 35 metres in the 1990s, Dr. Vincent said.”

This ancient ice shelf dates back 3,000 years and is the largest of five remaining arctic ice shelves.  The losses are exacerbated by the fact that new ice is not forming.  With the loss of sea ice and its reflective ability, the dark waters absorb heat causing further melting of existing ice.

The thick ice of the Arctic is retreating faster than expected and events like this highlight the need to address climate change. Whether one accepts that the problem is a man-made one or not the time to act is upon us, the changes are apparent.

PHOTO OF THE DAY:The first sign of the spring melt – a stream is seen flowing on the ice.

Source: Wikipedia,

(Location: Tigvariak Island, Alaska North Slope ; Photo Date: Spring 1950 ; Photographer: Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren, NOAA Corps )

Landmark Aboriginal win in High Court grants them control of NT tidal waters.

After a 30 year court battle the Aboriginal community has won a  ruling in the High Court of Australia upholding a decision by the full bench of the Federal Court early last year, granting Aboriginal people from Blue Mud Bay rights over the tidal waters adjoining their land between the high and low water marks in May last year. It has been received with great joy by the Aboriginal community.

The original ruling had been challenged by the NT government and had caused concern in the fishing industry.

Effectively today’s outcome means Aborigines will have the power to decide who enters the waters on up to 80 per cent of the territory coast giving legal recognition of their sea rights.

This is a very important ruling which for the first time gives Aboriginal communities control over economically important areas.   The Northern  Land Council has moved to allay fears that  the ongoing commercial and recreational fishing of the tidal waters over Aboriginal land would be halted, looking forward instead to a negotiated settlement with parties that have an interest.

It is envisaged that there will be a permit system developed after a moratorium period of one year.

PHOTO: Satellite image of Australia’s Northern Territory.

Credit:

NASA Satellite image. Photographer: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

July 26, 2003

Toru Takemitsu-enter the garden.

For fans of Taru Takemitsu Here is a link to an audio of Enter the garden – a profile of Taru Takemitsu, presented on the ABC’s Radio National program Into the Music on July 19, 2008.

This excellent program presents a ” portrait of the great Japanese composer combines the words of friends and family, sounds from Takemitsu’s favourite Kyoto gardens and examples from his concert music and film scores, as well as a specially recorded performance of his guitar arrangement of the Beatles’ Yesterday.”

It is an interesting insight into Takemitsu and his music provided by the composer’s daughter Maki, conductors Oliver Knussen and Marin Alsop, composers Dai Fujikura and Joji Yuasa, musician David Sylvian, film makers Shinoda Masahiro and Peter Grilli and Tokyo gardener Ryutaro Takahara .

This excellent program includes archival recordings of the composer’s voice and makes for great listening.

PHOTO: Japanese garden at Tofukuji, Kyoto, Japan

Photograph courtesy Wikipedia, 12 July, 2005