At our first August session, the sustainability group discussed a number of issues arising from circulated articles. In the previous month the big news was Twiggy Forrest laying off hundreds of workers from his Green Hydrogen enterprise, raising the question as to whether the hydrogen bubble has burst even before it formed. It was a reminder of how fast the field of industrial sustainability and renewable energy was moving. Nothing is settled and everything is changing. In a similar vein was news that sodium-based batteries, rather than lithium, might become the standard for large scale battery farms. Sodium is abundant and doesn't have the ignition potential of lithium.
At our second session we were privileged to hear from a guest speaker. Mike Vanderzee, a Swanpool local, is with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and he works on the Murray-Darling Basin issue. His extensive background in all things 'water' meant he has an in-depth perspective on the history of the Wentworth Group working to influence governments to cap extraction of water from the basin and establish a pool of water for the environment. It was interesting to learn that the target for the environmental pool agreed by governments was somewhat less than that recommended by scientists and that even this lower level has not yet been achieved, hence the Federal government has resumed buying water on the open market. There have been lots of twists and turns in this story over the decades!
At our second session we were privileged to hear from a guest speaker. Mike Vanderzee, a Swanpool local, is with the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and he works on the Murray-Darling Basin issue. His extensive background in all things 'water' meant he has an in-depth perspective on the history of the Wentworth Group working to influence governments to cap extraction of water from the basin and establish a pool of water for the environment. It was interesting to learn that the target for the environmental pool agreed by governments was somewhat less than that recommended by scientists and that even this lower level has not yet been achieved, hence the Federal government has resumed buying water on the open market. There have been lots of twists and turns in this story over the decades!
John Lane
John Lane
