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In recent years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that 585 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, with the electrification rate as low as 14.2% in rural areas. Perhaps most pronounced is the situation in East Africa, with only 23% of Kenyans, 10.8% of Rwandans, and 14.8% of Tanzanians have access… Read More »Juabar: Bringing Electricity to Eastern Africa through a Fleet of Solar Kiosks

Arbor Day: Inspiring People To Plant, Nurture, and Celebrate Trees As the level of CO2 in the atmosphere relentlessly rises towards 400 parts per million mark, we seem to be incapable, as a species, of altering our behaviours that are driving the rise. The main behaviour is, of course, our burning of fossil fuels. While… Read More »Arbor Day

In the 1950’s, my best friend, Robert, introduced me to astronomy. I introduced him to stamp collecting. I definitely got the better of the deal- the stamp collecting is now a thing of the past for me, but a love of astronomy just grows and grows. Rob had a little terrestrial (not astronomical) telescope, with… Read More »What A Wondrous Universe: The Hubble Ultra Deep Field

El Nino is a cyclical weather pattern, where warming of the Central and Eastern Pacific areas  leads to major shifts in weather patterns across the Pacific Ocean. El Nino tends to bring hotter, drier conditions to Australia. When the pattern reverses, it’s called La Nina. I started marketing water tanks in 2002. Of course, they… Read More »El Nino Returns To Australia

Last week I read a very troubling headline. “Greenland ice sheet albedo continues dropping at highest elevations”, it said. Now that doesn’t sound like ‘changing the world as we know it’-type news, does it? But it just could be. The Greenland ice sheet is over 3 km high at its thickest point, and contains some… Read More »The Greenland Ice Sheet, the Ocean Conveyor, and Abrupt Climate Change

This Sunday sees the introduction of  Australia’s ‘Carbon Tax’. The ‘Chicken Littles’ of our country, with Tony Abbott as chorus-leader, and assisted by complicit or compliant media, have been running one of the most-successful (so far) scare campaigns that I can remember. And I can remember back a long way… So, will the sky fall… Read More »Carbon Tax Introduction: The Sky Won’t Fall In

Climate Change: Science & Solutions for Australia Frankly, the science is settled. Climate change happens. Global warming IS taking place. Human activity IS contributing to global warming. There ARE going to be consequences- many inconvenient ones. We need to act more strongly and more quickly than we are to mitigate change. We need to plan… Read More »Free: Climate Change eBook by CSIRO

Perpetual Motion, Internet Scams, and the Howard Johnson (HoJo) Motor. Today I received a spam email with a Subject field that promised ‘Free Energy’, thanks to the ‘HoJo Motor’. Now I love ‘Free’ as much as the next man. Also, being a Member of the Solar Energy Society, I know that once you’ve paid for… Read More »Renewable Energy Scam: The Howard Johnson HoJo Motor

I get heartily fed up with the dishonesty of power company spokespeople, conservative politicians and Rupert’s Media, all peddling the line that increases in electricity prices are all down to renewables subsidies, and the (yet-to-be) carbon ‘tax’. The truth is that these items have a small impact on the price increases for electricity. The majority… Read More »Air Conditioners & Increasing Energy Prices: Not Cool!