Island Airport Goes Solar & King Tide Beach Snaps Sea Level Rise

A Queensland government project, initiated by Green Cross Australia, is asking beach goers to take summer holiday beach snaps as a way of recording the impact of king tides, which can predict sea level rise. And the Micronesia island state of Palau has covered its airport car park with 1000 solar panels to generate 250 megawatt-hours of electricity annually and avoid about 80 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

King tides predict climate change sea level rises

By Neroli Roocke ABC Rural News (27 December 2011):

A Queensland government project, initiated by Green Cross Australia, is interested in summer holiday beach photos taken around the time of king tides.

King tides are the highest tides of the year and one of the biggest is forecast for January – although already over Christmas an ex-tropical cyclone sitting almost 1,000 km off the east coast of Australia has pushed up swells as big as four metres.

Beaches from Fraser Island in Queensland to the south of New South Wales have had to be closed and there’s been erosion and some minor flooding as the water pushed inland.

David Robinson from the Queensland Centre for Climate Change Excellence wants to collect images of how high the seawater reaches in as many locations as possible.

“We know that the sea level is rising but it’s a little difficult to visualise and understand what that means,” he said.

“But if we take photographs of the big tides of the year, then this will give us an indication of what’s going to come in the future.”

“The king tides of today will become the everyday tides of the future.”

Similar photographic studies have been undertaken in New South Wales, California in the US and Canada.

Photos can be uploaded to www.witnesskingtides.org and they will go towards an interactive map.

Source: www.abc.net.au

Palau enters race against climate change

ABC Asia Pacific News (28 December 2011):

The roof of Palau airport’s carpark is covered in more than 1,000 solar panels.

Palau has entered the global campaign to tackle climate change by covering its airport carpark in solar roof panels to reduce the facility’s carbon footprint.

More than 1,000 solar panels have been installed, producing an estimated 250 megawatt-hours of electricity annually.

The project is expected to avoid about 80 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

The minister for Public Infrastructure, Industries, and Commerce, Jackson R. Ngiraingas said the panels would help reduce the country’s reliance on expensive, imported fossil fuels by 2030.

“Our country is very environmentally conscious,” Mr Ngiraingas told Pacific Beat.

“The window of change has begun in which most countries are becoming aware of climate change.”

Palau says the project was funded by a Japanese aid grant.

Solar panels have also been rigged in the country’s main hospital parking lot along with three government buildings.

Mr Ngiraingas said the solar panels are multi-purposed as they also provide shelter for parked cars.

“It’s a blessing in disguise,” he said.

“People park their cars in the area, and at the same time in the sunshine it provides shade for the cars and even when it rains it acts as an umbrella.”

Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, 800 km east of the Philippines and 3,200 km south of Tokyo.

In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a Compact of Free Association was approved in 1986 but not ratified until 1993. It was put into force the following year, making it one of the world’s youngest and smallest sovereign states.

Source: www.abcasiapacificnews.com