Building a Strategy for Key Energy Transitions: Modeling Biophysical Economics

Economists rarely model the economy as explicitly bound by Earth\u27s ecological systems. However, ecological systems act as constraints on the economy --- constraints that have historically been too far away from economic productivity to seriously consider. These ecological or biophysical constraints have been growing closer and more prominent as natural resources are depleted and environmental impacts increase. Modeling these constraints is what defines the emerging sub-discipline of biophysical economics, BPE. The goal of this dissertation is to map out and extend current biophysical economics modeling strategies. BPE provides the ideal framework to holistically understand energy transitions towards sustainability. In Chapter 2, we examine and classify 110 biophysical models of the economy. Although BPE modelling approaches are varied, grouping the research by common characteristics reveals several active research areas. Gaps also exist. We identify which of those gaps could be promising avenues for future research. In Chapter 3, we integrate US food production data into the environmental-input–output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) model. The extended model is used to characterize the food, energy, and water (FEW) intensities of every US economic sector, and is applied to every metropolitan statistical area (MSA) within the U.S. Results of this study enable a more complete understanding of food, energy, and water as key ingredients to a functioning economy. Chapter 4 analyzes datasets from multiple sources to build a detailed picture of the CO\textsubscript{2}-eq emissions generated by coal rail transportation. The results show that rail transportation distances range from 0 km to over 3500 km. Transportation emissions can be as high as 35\% of a power plant’s operational emissions --- a number significantly higher than previous literature estimates. Additionally, implementation of post-combustion Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at existing plants may further increase transportation emissions. Chapter 5 uses an agent-based model to demonstrate the potential economic impacts of a resource supply shock. Economic “agents” mine resources and invent technology in order to grow their economy. Economic growth, however, comes with a cost. Unexpected, large economic collapse can arise from a shock to even a single resource, due to each resource’s interdependent role in the economy

Tracer studies on the solid state

A study of self-diffusion in anthracene single crystals has been carried out using a radioactive tracer technique. A method was developed for the growth of large single crystals of anthracene from the melt, starting from the Bridgman technique. On to one surface of the crystals was evaporated a deposit of anthracene - 9 - carbon-14, prepared by a seven stage synthesis from barium 14-carbonate, and the crystals and their deposits were heated at constant temperatures in the range 150 -190 G for periods up to 230 hours. The crystals were then sectioned parallel to the initial active face, using a calibrated, hand operated, lathe. The quantity of radioactive material which had diffused into each section was determined by quantitative combustion of the sections to carbon dioxide in an "Empty Tube" rapid combustion apparatus, followed by the determination of the disintegration rate of this gas in a gas counting tube, using carbon disulphide as charge transfer agent. Penetration was found up to a depth of 4 x 10(^-2) cms. It was found that two concurrent diffusion processes were occurring in the crystal. One of these involved only a small proportion of the total diffusing activity and may represent diffusion along intersecting dislocations in the crystal. The second process involved most of the diffusing activity and was thought to represent bulk diffusion in the crystal The temperature dependance of the diffusion coefficient for the second process is given lay the equation. D = (1.31 ± 1.13) x l0(^ll)e (^–(42,400 ± 1,200)/RT) cm. (^2) per second. The pre-exponential factor and activation energy for this process are unusually high. This leads to the conclusion that a co-operative diffusion phenomenon is occurring in the crystal, in which diffusion occurs by way of vacant lattice sites, and that the loosening or premelting of from four to six molecules occurs in the neighbourhood of the vacancy during diffusion. This is one of the few studies of self-diffusion in molecular crystals

Our multicultural future and the school

It is only in the last four or five years that an observable effort has been made to extend the growing awareness within the community that Australia\u27s population is clearly multicultural in composition. Despite this, most of the political, economic and social structures and organisations in the community do not adequately reflect or cater for the variety of people of different ethnic origins and identities. While this increasing awareness in individuals is encouraging, it has been evident that the focus of discussions, conferences and gatherings to date, in Western Australia at least, has been rather narrow. Some have concentrated on issues relating to migrants, and others to Aborigines, but none have adopted the real multicultural concern which they espouse. Any approach which does give significant coverage of both migrant and Aboriginal perspectives and experiences is guilty of the same type of monoculturalism (although a little more comprehensive) which the multicultural viewpoint is trying to overcome..

Working with Aborigines in remote areas

This Handbook has been written to answer an urgent need expressed by people whose jobs involve working with Aboriginal people in remote areas. This includes a wide range of positions in health, welfare, police and law, employment, construction, community advice, missionary endeavour, linguistics and research. Almost all people in these positions have a common need: to gain some background information about Aboriginal people, life in remote communities, and ways of developing good communication with Aboriginal people

Dynamics of a slowly-varying sand bed in a circular pipe

The long wave-length dynamics and stability of a bed of sand occupying the lower segment of a circular pipe are studied analytically up to first-order in the small parameter characterizing the slope of the bed. The bed is assumed to be at rest, with at most a thin sand layer (the bedload) moving at the sheared interface. When the sand bed is plane, with depth independent of position z along the axis of the pipe, the velocity of the liquid is known from previous studies of stratified laminar flow of two Newtonian liquids (the lower one with infinite viscosity representing the sand bed). When the depth of the sand bed varies with z, secondary flows develop in the cross-sectional (x, y) plane, and these are computed numerically, assuming that the sand bed remains a straight horizontal line in the cross-sectional plane. The mean shear stress acting on the perturbed sand bed is then determined both from the computed secondary flows and by means of the averaged equations of Luchini and Charru. The latter approach requires knowledge only of the flow over the unperturbed, flat sand bed, combined with an accurate approximation of the distribution of the perturbed stresses between the pipe wall and the sand bed. The perturbed stresses determined by the two methods agree well with each other. Using these stresses, it is then possible to apply standard theories of bed stability to determine the balance between the destabilizing effect of inertial (out-of-phase) stresses and the stabilizing effects of gravity and relaxation of the particle flux, and various examples are considered