How much water really is there on Spaceship Earth?

We're told that all the water on Earth came here via comet impacts. That's a fact that's pretty hard to reconcile. I mean there's just so much water right?

Not when you look at it all balled up and sitting next to the planet...

And not when you compare it against all the liquid water in Saturn's moon Titan - not even compared to the water on Jupiter's moon Europa.

The heavy bombardment period must have been a pretty serious time to be around...

Related articles

• Oh my. This puts it all in perspective wonderfully...
• Here's an interesting size comparison of the terrestrial planets in our Solar System
• New exoplanet PH2 b is the second for citizen science project PlanetHunters.org
• Take a full tour of the International Space Station with former Commander Suni Williams

This ocean current video from NASA is a great big ball of beautiful art!

This new video from NASA has gone around the world like wildfire - for good reason - it is truly beautiful.

And everywhere it's gone, it is compared to a Van Gogh painting. Looking at these screen grabs, you can see why.

Here's what NASA says about the video:

Overflow of half-built new Cotter Dam in timelapse

Canberra's water shortage solution, the massive expansion of the Cotter Dam suffered a major setback tonight when the current consistent rains led to the half-built dam overflowing. A diversion tunnel couldn't cope with the inflow and over it went, for all to see on the webcam set up to show construction progress!.

MNeuling has captured the every-40-second webcam shots and converted them into a timelapse video:



Well done.

It came up incredibly quickly, giving testament to what a strong catchment the expanded dam will have.

The work crews were very busy this afternoon removing what they could from the site and evacuating.
Hopefully not too much damage is done to all the equipment and scaffolding that couldn't be removed in time.

Some of what I've been reading and writing over the past week - The Beach House Weekly Wrap

Amazing what you get through in a single week. This auto-generated summary always intrigues me.

It can also be funny seeing what categories the Paper.Li thingo puts articles under - Exhibit1: a gay rights article under "Leisure"!

Enjoy The Beach House Weekly Wrap as at 24 December 2012.

And now for the desal campaign...

Now Queensland's Premier Anna Bligh is trying to hit back spitefully at the Sunshine Coast after the rejection of her pet dam project, by trying to fast-track a desalination plant at Marcoola.

Talk about digging yourself a hole and then jumping right in. Go right ahead Anna Bligh.
The Marcoola site is in the midst of endangered wallum heathlands. This area was once national park that was degazetted by David Low to get the road that bears his name built in return for development rights over the coastal strip.

This Crown land was then designated by DNR as "Industrial" and "Investigation" for many years. After about two years of negotiations with DNR staff, personal discussions with then Ministers Jim Elder and Rod Welford, and a unanimous resolution of Maroochy Council supporting my push, the State Government agreed in 1999 (?) to change the designation to "Conservation". It was a great personal win, and was written up in SCEC's Eco Echo magazine at the time. Perhaps no-one has mentioned this conservation status of the land to Bligh, or mentioned that this is one of the few wildflower areas remaining on the Coast?

Corbell sets a high bar for ACT emissions

ACT Energy Minister Simon Corbell has announced ambitious new greenhouse targets for the ACT, that include peaking in 2013.

Well that's great Simon. I'm right with you.

So to have any hope of meeting that 2013 goal, we are going to have to see some massive ramping up of initiatives in the ACT.

The various concept plans for all new suburbs are going to have to be thrown out - including Molonglo - in favour of more appropriately oriented streets and blocks.

We'll need mandatory declaration of the energy star ratings of every block at the point of sale as an economic tool to "encourage" developers (including the ACT's LDA) to design better subdivisions.

ACTPLA's work on variable lot setbacks depending on block width and orientation will have to be fast-tracked. Ditto consideration of a "solar fence" concept.

Rain tank rebates will have to be ramped up - including for greenfield sites where people go beyond the minimum. Ditto for greywater systems - because treatment = energy.

Cubbie collapse

Apparently the giant (93,000 ha) Cubbie Station in South-west Queensland is in voluntary administration, with some $320 million in debts to NAB and Suncorp.

Barnaby Joyce thinks it is the Liberals' fault. I reckon it's a manifestation of the unsustainability of the Cubbie model - an example of what happens in a global warming scenario with a farming approach that doesn't factor in whole of cycle costs. If Cubbie was sustainable, then they should be able to ride out such dry years.

You have to wonder whether they've just been hanging on (maybe even trading insolvently?) hoping to get a buy-out offer from government.

The Queensland Farmers Federation reckons it should be saved and allowed to continue to mine the area's rivers for its water storage that exceeds the capacity of the Sydney Harbour. Curious to know what the NSW Farmers Federation thinks, given they represent all the farmers who miss out on all that water that Cubbie sucks up for wastful cotton irrigation.

The Queensland and Federal Governments should be seizing on this opportunity to buy up the water rights now and shut it down with regard to water wasting crops, instead allowing it to focus on more efficient crops.

Traveston dam is a travesty - and unnecessary

Anna Bligh's grand plan of a dam on the Mary River at Traveston Crossing near Gympie is now in the lap of Peter Garrett. This is a dumb dam plan in a dumb location that would produce a massively wide yet shallow dam with extraordinary evaporation losses. It will also emperil the already endangered prehistoric lungfish that live in those reaches of the river.

The fact is that there are viable alternatives to building more dams. And the Queensland Government knows it.

In 1999, the Department of Natural Resources advised the Caloundra-Maroochy Water and Wastewater Steering Committee (on which as a Councillor I was the Maroochy Council's delegate) that their research had shown that, despite facing runaway population growth, use of wastewater recycling would allow Queensland to cope with all the projected population growth without needing to build any more dams.

That's right - no more dams at all.