“A huge amount of the life and strife of the twentieth century revolved around the getting of fossil fuel—of coal and, more dramatically, of oil. So important have such fossil fuels been that they have become synonymous with energy. But this elision obscures the truth. Fuels are not a source of energy—they are just a way of storing it. And the finite store of sunlight that fossil fuels represent is inevitably going to run out. If the people of the developing world are to use energy at roughly the rate that people in the most developed countries use it today, we need to quadruple our current power generation capacity. That energy needs to come from somewhere other than the deep past. It needs to come from something available today.”
P.376 Eating the Sun; How Plants Power the Planet, Oliver Morton, Harper Perennial 2009
overburden
verb |əʊvəˈbəːd(ə)n| [ with obj. ]
load (someone) with too many things to carry.
give (someone) more work or pressure than they can deal with.
noun |ˈəʊvəbəːd(ə)n|
1 [ mass noun ] rock or soil overlying a mineral deposit, archaeological site, or other underground feature. the kaolin is mined by removing the overburden and digging a pit.
2 an excessive burden: an overburden of costs.
overburden
verb |əʊvəˈbəːd(ə)n| [ with obj. ]
load (someone) with too many things to carry.
give (someone) more work or pressure than they can deal with.
noun |ˈəʊvəbəːd(ə)n|
1 [ mass noun ] rock or soil overlying a mineral deposit, archaeological site, or other underground feature. the kaolin is mined by removing the overburden and digging a pit.
2 an excessive burden: an overburden of costs.
The land masses of Earth are covered with a comparatively thin layer of an incredible diversity of ecosystems, theatre to an unimaginable interconnectedness of thousands of species. This to the mining industry is the overburden, that layer that is life on Earth.
BOOKS
Coal
2021
The town of Newcastle lies at the mouth of the Hunter River. I have recently read that Newcastle has the biggest coal loading facility in the world.
The settlement of Newcastle was initiated when coal was discovered there in the 1790s. (British settlement as the First Fleet had arrived in Botany Bay then moved to Port Jackson (Sydney) in January, 1788) Coal is embedded in the history of white settlement of the Hunter Valley. Coal, mining, wine, vineyards, cattle and, more recently, olives—that’s the mix of the Hunter Valley region.
The Hunter Valley marks the Northern geological edge of the Sydney Basin. The Sydney Basin is estimated to be lying over c. 375,000 Megatons (Mt) of coal deposits, however only 6500 Mt are “recoverable”. The coal is particularly close to the surface in the Hunter region, which has led it to becoming the biggest coal producing area in the NSW. Trains run from the Upper Hunter mines to the port and loading facility in Newcastle harbour.
When you buy a property in the Hunter Valley region of NSW, about 2.5 hours drive north west of Sydney the title includes a clause “Land excludes minerals and is subject to rights to mine.” This might seem contradictory unless you know that you, the landowner is not the mineral extracting miner.
Petroleum
2020
The history of petroleum.
Texts from wikipedia and Oliver Morton
Images: Monica Oppen and other online sources
Printed through Blurb
Gasoline: Stanmore, NSW May 2009
2019
All about gasoline, the series of photographs was taken throughout May, 2009 in Stanmore, NSW Australia. There was a crude oil panic pushing the price of petrol suddenly higher before setling down again.
Text from wikipedia
Images: Monica Oppen
Printed through Blurb
