Report raises questions about green houses gases caused by hydro-power
Just prior to the UN Climate Change Conference going on now in Nairobi, Kenya, the International Rivers Network released a report that raises some very interesting questions. Titled Fizzy Science the report claims that hydro-electric power and the reservoirs that go with them emit far more greenhouse gases than previously thought. The premise of the report is that gases such as methane and carbon dioxide that are commonly dissolved in river water, get released from the spillways of dams as the water is churned up going through the turbines. In addition, large quantities of green house gases are emitted from the surface of the reservoirs. When the reservoirs are filled, large quantities of vegetation are typically flooded at the bottom. As this material decomposes it releases large amounts of carbon into the water and eventually the atmosphere.
Frequently cited global warming expert, Philip Fearnside estimates that in 1990, hydropower dams in the Amazon caused between 3 and 54 times more global warming than modern natural gas plants generating the same amount of energy. Before we start relying on more hydro-electric power, maybe we should be looking at these claims more closely and looking at other technologies like reforming all the methane coming from our land-fills and livestock farms into hydrogen and sequestering the carbon back into the earth. The full report is available as a pdf for download.
[Source: International Rivers Network via TreeHugger.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John 1:13AM (11/19/2006)
Oh grand, now hyrdo power is bad for the earth. Why don't we just abandon electricity altogether? The earth seems doomed no matter what we do. When critics of global warming see this report they'll retort..."If something as basic as hydro power is so bad for us why bother with all the other nonsense?" Perhaps human development is bad for the earth period. Maybe we just ought to whoop it up and enjoy ourselves if our destruction is so imminent. What's next, wind farms emit greenhouse gases?
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snakesausage 1:45PM (11/19/2006)
If hydroelectric is bad for the environment then the oceans and natural lakes are really bad. Lets just kill ourselves and save the earth. International Rivers Network can start the suicide along with all the greenhouse gas as a major contributor to global warming believers. This is a natural cycle. There was a cooling trend from between 1940 to the mid 70's and there were a large number of "scientists" that thought we were in the beginnings of another ice age. We can barely predict the weather for a few days much less than on a global macro scale. Kofi Annan may think that I am out of touch or behind the times but we will see who looks stupid in a few years/decades when a cooling trend lowers our temperatures again and ice age fears resurface. I remember about 10 years ago when there was a headline in the news paper that read “Oxygen causes cancer!” this is of the same mentality.
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Tim 9:25AM (11/20/2006)
"..global warming expert, Philip Fearnside..." How much influence has this "expert" has on the global warming movement? What's he smoking... I want some!
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Scott 9:56AM (11/20/2006)
Quite simply the only report we need on global warming or any other pseudo-anti-environment propaganda is that human beings (at least civilized ones) are bad for the environment. Everything we do has a negative effect on the environment. Unless you live in a tribal village in a bamboo hut as a hunter/gatherer chances are you are directly involved with helping to negatively affect the planet. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not in any rush to go back to wearing a loin cloth and sleeping on the dirt, so I'll take my chances using hydroelectric power or whatever power is supplied to me.
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Arnie 11:39AM (11/20/2006)
The IRN article is fantastic! All the right/cheap probaganda tricks. Example with translation:
A bitter debate (there's no significant debate but let's call it "bitter" to inflate the significance of our PR spin) has broken out in the scientific community (you haven't heard a thing about it but it's in the scientific community and these people are smarter than you so believe it) over hydropower’s contribution to global warming (not "suspected" contribution - we talk about it as an accepted fact, then people will believe it's an accepted fact). A leading (you have never heard about him but he's "leading" - that's all you need to know) Brazil-based climate scientist calculates that startlingly (why not use "devastatingly"?) high levels of greenhouse gases are emitted when water is released from the turbines and spillways of tropical dams. But hydro industry-backed (Industry-backed=sponsored by capitalist pigs so do not believe them) researchers have fiercely attacked (not debated, but attacked for money. The bastards!) his work. In an effort to settle the debate, International Rivers Network (we are "settling the debate" and of course we are impartial unlike those industry-backed mercenary scientists - it's not like we are biased or against dams or anything) is releasing a report, just prior to the UN Climate Change conference (by that timing you can clearly se that this is not PR spin! Ehh?) in Nairobi (Nov. 6-25), calling on a UN science panel to determine hydropower’s culpability in global warming. (Yes: "determine" "culpability" - there's nothing to debate, it's a fact because it suits us.)
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Tim 11:41AM (11/20/2006)
Big Energy, Big Auto, Big Gov't, Big Banking. They don't care about the planet or us AT ALL. The love of money (and control) is the root... Anyone who thinks the U.N.-American anti-freedom organization is there to help anybody but themselves by setting up a One World (Bigger) Gov't "New World Order" is still asleep. That's the BIG PICTURE. Watch what they do, not what they say. Don't be fooled. They must keep us energy dependant at all costs.
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