Viv Forbes: Net Zero Burial of Carbon Dioxide

The Queensland Government recently placed a ban on pumping and dumping carbon dioxide into the rocks of the Great Artesian Basin.

This was an event rarely seen – politicians have stumbled onto a sensible energy policy. Burying CO2 would achieve nothing useful – just more futile green waste.

But their ban on Carbon Capture and Underground Storage (CCUS) should be extended to all areas of Queensland, not just this one basin.

Even the blinkered Greens and the TikTok generation should recognise that today’s low levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are too close to the red line of death, where all plant life will die (followed by animal life). 

Far too much of Earth’s limited carbon dioxide has become locked up in massive deposits of coal, limestone, magnesite and chalk, and plants are starving. Greenhouse operators have to pump CO2 into their nurseries to help their plants, and cultivated crops and trees do better where they can breathe heavier-than-air CO2 emitted by nearby power stations burning coal or gas. (Trees near the coal-burning Tarong Power station in Queensland were measured to be growing 20% faster than trees 20 km away from the power station.)

While the human use of coal, oil, gas and limestone has restored some CO2 to the atmosphere it is not enough to allow plants to thrive. Only green fools would add to our problem by burying the gas of life.

Announcing their enlightened ban on CCUS in the GAB, the Queensland Premier said “the unique environmental, agricultural, economic and cultural significance of the Great Artesian Basin is worth protecting".

But surely the flora and fauna of the Great Dividing Range is also worth protecting from the bulldozers clearing roads and sites for wind power stations and preparing for the water-wasting hydrogen industry speculators. Who is protecting our farms, grasslands and woodlands from those promoting suffocating solar blankets? And who is going to save the whales, fishermen and seabirds from dangerous and noisy offshore wind machines? 

How times change: https://carbon-sense.com/2024/02/09/how-times-change/

Will the green destroyers keep pushing until every ridgeline has its regiment of whirling swords and every grassy flat is smothered under plastic panels?  Decaying remnants of these green religious monuments will remain like the cold silent Easter Island statues, reminding future generations of the stupidity of this generation of Australians. 

Have a look at the disastrous impact of Green Energy Projects on the Natural Environment in Queensland – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6BFe3al3bs

If a private landowner did this on his own land he would be punished severely. But for the disciples of the Green Energy Religion it seems that anything is OK.

So-called “Greens” are driving all this damage and cost to produce electricity that is intermittent and unreliable. And the worst is yet to come.

At the same time as they force-feed this chaotic rush into intermittent energy, our politicians are also rushing to electrify everything – cars, trucks, trains and home heating/cooking. When coal, diesel and gas power are banned, and we are still arguing about nuclear power, all these electric cars, trucks and trains will stop at sundown with flat batteries. How do we recharge all those batteries while we cook dinner and watch TV on a windless night?

They have another destructive green answer to energy storage: “Install pumped hydro plants on every coastal river.” 

These pumped-hydro dreams require electricity to pump water to the upper reservoir when green energy is available during sunny/windy days and then use that stored energy to recharge all those batteries by releasing stored water at night. 

But not all the energy can be recovered – some is always lost. And what if we have three or more cloudy windless days? That’s when the sensible oldies crank up the diesel generator in the shed, get into the old Holden to go shopping (with cash in hand), and drag out the gas-fired barby.

Viv Forbes BScApp, FAusImm, FSIA is the Executive Director of the Saltbush Club and Founder of the Carbon Sense Coalition. He has no investments in or contracts with gas, coal or cement companies. But he has a diesel generator in the shed, a petrol-powered quad bike, a diesel tractor, a gas barby and solar panels on his roof.

Further Reading:

The Blackout Agenda:
https://saltbushclub.com/2021/06/17/the-blackout-agenda/

Atmospheric levels of CO₂ fall close to the RED LINE OF DEATH:
https://carbon-sense.com/2022/04/18/the-red-line-of-death/

Nature controls the level of CO2 in the atmosphere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU4jf5XDgkc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1_r84vgxfNDuqk0klxWW0hqMbwECYB9wm5vo-j8hYJscczRrboOkzYfkc

Ocean Temperature Controls CO2:
https://carbon-sense.com/2010/12/29/forbes-co2-and-oceans/

The Insane Plan of the UK Government to Decarbonise the Economy:
https://principia-scientific.org/uk-governments-insane-plan-to-decarbonize-the-economy/

The Cost of the EPA CO2 capture Rule:
https://co2coalition.org/2024/05/07/the-cost-of-epas-senseless-co2-capture/

Offshore Wind Factories harass and kill whales:
https://co2coalition.org/2024/04/29/noaa-permits-wind-energy-operators-to-harass-and-kill-whales/

CO2 – the good gas:
https://carbon-sense.com/2024/04/06/co2-the-good-gas/

Increased Tree Growth near Tarong Power Station: 
Personal Communication with the Engineer who took the measurements