RaoulDuke

joined 1 year ago
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These researchers from Canterbury University have come up with an idea that they say can cheaply remove 3 million tonnes of CO₂ from the air each year. And it utilises existing infrastructure.

The TLDR is that geothermal water contains CO₂, and the stations here have systems that capture and dissolve that CO₂ into the water before it's reinjected. This CO₂ rich water is heavier than the surrounding water, so it sinks to the bottom.

The heat from geothermal wells is not replenished at the speed it's taken by the stations, so eventually the water coming out isn't hot enough and new wells need to be drilled.

The scientists are suggesting that instead of simply drilling a new wells, we burn biomass from forestry to heat the warm water up the last bit. The carbon in this fuel has been gathered by the trees, and if it was released into the atmosphere it would be carbon neutral. But if you use the station's existing CO₂ capture and dissolve systems, the carbon goes underground permanently. The operation becomes a carbon sink that also enables the use of geothermal energy that would otherwise be unusable.

They say, "in terms of buying ourselves out of an emissions liability, geothermal carbon removal is one of the cheapest options out there." They compare it with the cost of switching from a petrol to electric car - US$700 for each tonne of CO₂ saved. With the existing infrastructure, they say their plan would remove CO₂ at a cost of about US$55 a tonne.

Their papers and a bunch more evidence and info is linked in the article.

 

Sheep numbers in sharp decline as farmers increasingly shift to forestry, fuelled by demand to earn carbon credits

 

An increasingly crowded field of parties are competing to harness the vestigial energy of the parliamentary occupation.

 

Former TV presenter turned anti-vaccination campaigner Liz Gunn has launched a new political party, asking people to donate up to $1 million.

 

The government is following through on a promised ban on new coal boilers, and phasing out existing ones by 2037.

Other changes announced yesterday include new standards requiring councils to factor in climate change in decisions about consents for furnaces that burn fossil fuels.

Currently more than half of the heat used to process raw material - for example in dairy and paper production - comes from burning fossil fuels.

It accounts for 8 percent of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods said the changes would reduce emissions equivalent to the exhaust fumes from 100,000 cars a year. [...]

The ban on installing new coal heating devices kicks in from late next month, with the new nationally consistent standards for councils ready for implementation before the end of the year.

The new standards only cover devices used to generate heat for industrial processes.

Stuff had a related story this morning about the last coke-powered foundry in NZ shutting down.

1
Icon vote (lemmy.nz)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz
 

I want to finally get an icon up for !newzealand , but I want you to decide between these two.

The icon will show up as a circle in some places and a square in others. Both could have some small tweaks if they're chosen.

Vote on the comments. Best score at 10pm Thursday will be the icon.

EDIT: Well that was pretty clear. The kiwi it is. Thanks to @sortofblue@lemmy.nz for the suggestion.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 year ago

OK, cool. What does the little download button that shows up when you zoom in do?

 

In an analysis, academics recently found several cases of pro-CCP and pro-NZ-National-Party bias in NZ Chinese-language media. It’s long been known that China interferes in Chinese-language media here.

Interestingly, it appears the CCP and NZ Chinese-language media are currently putting their weight behind National MP Nancy Lu. She was secretly “trained as a candidate” by former National MP Jian Yang, according to a statement made by Yang in 2020. Notably, Yang used to train spies for the People’s Liberation Army before he came to NZ, and left parliament after intelligence agencies flagged him over his relationship with the CCP.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 year ago

Good catch. I guess it shows NZ unis are doing a good job with sustainability at least.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thanks for making and sharing this. I know I'll use it. I keep discovering features. I'm glad you've got the Basemaps imagery on there.

In terms of offline use, does it keep low-res tiles of the whole country for offline use, with the option to download individual tiles when you're zoomed in? That's how it seems to work.

 

Some positive news about NZ universities. These are the rankings changes according to the Herald:

2024 2023
University of Auckland 68 87
University of Otago 206 217=
Massey University 239 292
Victoria University of Wellington 241 275=
University of Waikato 250 331
University of Canterbury 256 284
Lincoln University 362 368
Auckland University of Technology 407 486=

Other coverage:

 

~~@Dave@lemmy.nz~~ @SamC@lemmy.nz already posted about this yesterday, but there's been heaps more coverage of this story. This was yesterday:

Plus a few press releases:

But by the end of the day yesterday and this morning, stories were coming out saying major job cuts will probably still go ahead:

And last Friday, before the funding was announced, The Spinoff ran a list of which university courses were likely to be dropped

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I've never heard of that. But if they did it right, I guess we'd never know.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I think the point is to go after the leaders rather than the henchmen who will just be replaced.

Usually it's not too hard to establish who the leader is, even if it's not always easy to prove. I imagine that's another reason they're allowed to go after any member.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago (7 children)

The RICO Act itself is strange. An organisation must engage in two or more "racketeering activities" within 10 years. It's a long list of pretty much all serious crimes. It's in the RICO predicate offences section of the Wikipedia page.

If an organisation is in violation of the Act, any member can be charged with any of those offences committed by any other member. The idea is to use that pressure to get them to turn on the leaders. It also means they can go after anyone they think is really in charged. But it's up to prosecutors to make sure only those most responsible are charged.

It's far too broad of a definition, in my opinion. And it's too open to corruption and interpretation. If we were to enact something similar here, those details would need to change.

I’m keen to hear more about the “strange ways it’s been used in the US”!

Because the definition is so broad, it's been used to go after members of regular corporations, like FIFA and a healthcare provider. Whether or not those people deserved to be charged, it goes way beyond the intended scope of the law.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Increasing sentences is a common knee-jerk reaction to these kinds of things, but it doesn't usually play out the way people think. Humans are complex, and longer sentences usually result in higher crime rates in society. Which seems to defeat the point.

I think a better solution would be to develop some kind of RICO Act-like legislation, with various changes to avoid some of the strange ways it's been used in the US. The RICO Act destroyed the Mob's stranglehold on America, and has been used successfully to eliminate gangs and other criminal organisations since.

Essentially it would be a law that allows leaders of criminal gangs to be charged with the actions of its members, or a prohibition on being a leader of a gang. These kinds of laws allow the police to simply establish someone is the leader then put them in jail. When they are inevitably replaced, the next leader is taken out too. As this continues, being the next leader will be very unattractive, and with the good leaders gone, the organisation falls to pieces.

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