Coal mines selling like hotcakes among power hungry Indian and Chinese companies

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Australian, Indonesian, and African Coal Mines Selling like Hot Cakes amongst Power Hungry Indian,Chinese Companies...


 Africa, Australia, China, Coal, Energy, Indonesia:

Coal Mines in Indonesia,Australia,Africa and North America are selling like hot cakes as Indian,Chinese companies as well as mining conglomerates like Rio Tinto,Vale,BHP Billiton fight to secure raw materials.Note India and China are consuming huge amounts of coal to power their thermal plants.While China consumes a monstrous 3 billion tons,Indian demand is rising at more than 10% a year though on a smaller base.Coal is the cheapest form of power despite its polluting and health hazardous affect.Though Coal Plants in Developed countries are becoming much more expensive to build due to taxes and opposition by environmental groups,there is no stopping their furious growth in countries like China and India.Though India too faces some environmental opposition,massive ultra mega power plants with capacity of 4000 MW are getting built by new Indian private utilities.

Acknowledgements: Abkishek Shah

Green World  Investor

http://greenworldinvestor.com/topics/world-markets

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/video/planet-100

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• Indian Billionaires Lead $15 Billion Push to Expand in Indonesia (businessweek.com)
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The endangered Hectors dolphin is found only in inshore waters off New Zealand's South Island...

The Hectors dolphins are among the world's smallest dolphins. They are found only in the inshore waters of New Zealand's South Island. Its close cousin, the Maui dolphin, is found in west coast waters off the North Island.

They are the only dolphins in New Zealand with a wellrounded dorsal fin. Their bodies are a distinctive grey colour with black and white markings and a short snout.

They are also an endangered species - down to only 8,000 in number at present. They also only breed every two to three years.

Hectors dolphins have also been reported to get caught in fishing nets at times.

http://ecospree.com

http://www.blackcat.co.nz/wildlife.html/

http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/marine-mammals/dolphins/hectors-dolphin.fact/

Related articles

• Are dolphins endangered? (greenanswers.com)

The WTO finds in favour of NZ in its 89 year apple dispute with Australia...

Image by Leonard John Matthews via Flickr

New Zealand has finally won a historic victory over Australia - and its not on a sports field either. The WTO -  the World Trade organisation,  has come out in favour of NZ in the 89 year old apple  dispute. An overnight decision by the WTO was heavily in New Zealand's favour. the NZ Trade Minister,Tim Groser said to the media.

Australia could, and may use the dispute for political reasons during the last couple of weeks of their election campaign, and appeal against the WTO decision. They could battle it out in marginal Queensland seats, where the apple lobby is the strongest.

The WTO ruling found in favour of NZ on all 16 measures it raised before the international trade disputes body.

While it opened the door for a potential $30 million market for NZ apples, it was by no means the biggest market for NZ - representing only 5% of its market. Actually the dispute was of more significance internationally for NZ - a loss at the WTO could have seen other export market doors closed as well.. But that wasn't the case and any Australian appeal won't have too much  future effect.

The whole opposition to NZ exports into Australia was built on rather rather dubious premise that NZ apples would be the carriers of two diseases not found in Australia - fireblight and European canker - and a pest, the leaf curling midge.

Despite the fact that these diseases are not present in NZ either, the WTO panel found that apples washed, polished,wrapped and packed could not be carriers.

It has been obvious that Australian opposition over the years was based on economics - they just didn't want to compete wih NZ exports. New Zealand would actually be able to provide a couple of types of apples - Kiwi Breaburn and Pacific  Rose for instance. NZ has never been in favour of a price war with Australian growers, but just wanted to work with them to develop and expand  the market.

Rare meteorite impact crater found in Australia...

Arthur Hickman's discovery on Google Earth of what is almost certainly a rare meteorite impact crater in remote Western Australia has earned him both bragging and naming rights.


Measuring 260 metres wide and up to 30 metres deep, the divot is thought to be between 10,000 and 100,000 years old and was stumbled upon in the rich, rust coloured landscape of the Hamersley Ranges in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

If confirmed, the Hickman Crater will become just the 30th officially-verified meteorite impact crater in Australia and the first such discovery since 2005.

According to the Earth Impact Database, a resource maintained by the Geological Survey of Canada and University of New Brunswick, only 173 such impact craters have been discovered in the world.

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The find will likely deliver a lifetime of peer group kudos to Dr Hickman, a government geologist with the Geological Survey of Western Australia.

"I wasn't looking for it," Dr Hickman recalled in a telephone interview. "I was high up in Google Earth [the free program that enables users to scour the Earth using stitched together aerial and satellite images] when I spotted this little circular structure which struck me as odd."

Dr Hickman, who heads his organisation's Pilbara Craton Mapping Project, says he made the discovery last July while he was looking for possible sites of channel iron deposits - highly sought after alluvial deposits from which the ore can be extracted very cheaply.