Festival season is starting. In particular, we are excited about a slew of films that are part of the Canadian International Documentary Festival, nicknamed HotDocs, that runs April 29 – May 9, 2010 here in Toronto. With so many fascinating accounts represented in this edition, we thought it best to profile them here, for safe keeping. The tales we have selected chronicle landfills, clean energy wars, and land use ambiguities.

Waste Land, directed Lucy Walker (UK / Brazil)

[Waste Land, directed by Lucy Walker, shows May 1 and May 5.]

Lucy tracks artist Vik Muniz and his work with pickers of recyclable materials in Brazil’s Jardim Gramacho, arguably the world’s largest landfill site.

Land, directed by Julian Pinder (Canada)

[Land, directed by Julian Pinder, shows May 2 and 9.]

Burnt-out baby-boomers, Sandinistas, and ex-lefty capitalist developers clash in a wild-west showdown over land in a bucolic Nicaraguan seaside town.

Gasland, directed by Josh Fox (USA)

[Gasland, directed by Josh Fox, shows April 30 and May 2.]

Flammable tap water, mysterious ailments, poisoned land and livestock, Sundance prize-winner Gasland exposes the environmental calamities and cover-ups caused by natural gas drilling.

Into Eternity, directed by Michael Madsen (Denmark, Sweden, Finland)

[Into Eternity, directed by Michael Madsen, shows May 5 and 7.]

The scientific minds behind Finland’s massive underground nuclear waste storage facility, Onkalo, where radioactive waste must sit untouched for at least 100,000 years to neutralize its potential danger, are probed in Into Eternity.

Wistful Wilderness, directed by Digna Sinke (Netherlands)

[Wistful Wilderness, directed by Digna Sinke, shows May and 8.]

The island of Tiengemeten is getting a makeover. Originally tamed to serve as agricultural land, its now being left to the elements to revert back to wilderness. Filmmaker Digna Sinke documents 15 years of transformation.

Tankograd, directed by Boris Bertram (Denmark)

[Tankograd, directed by Boris Bertram, shows May 4 and 7.]

Chelyabinsk, Russia, once the site of a top secret Cold War atomic bomb factory, is now the most radioactively polluted city in the world. Its residents live with the consequences of catastrophic leaks and dumped toxic waste as cancers, auto-immune diseases, and undrinkable water flow freely. But the city most foul sprouts a most unlikely growth—the vibrant, inspiring Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Dreamland, directed by Þorfinnur Guðnason (Iceland)

[Dreamland, directed by Þorfinnur Guðnason, shows May 2 and 4.]

With its hydroelectric and geothermal power surplus, Iceland’s clean energy initiatives have attracted heavy industries whose pollution decimates natural vegetation. A tale of sabotage from the frontlines of the green revolution.

I Bought a Rainforest, directed by Helena Nygren and Jacob Andren (Sweden)

[I Bought a Rainforest, directed by Helena Nygren and Jacob Andren, shows May 2 and 4.]

Jacob Andren, like over 400,000 other Swedish children, remembers raising money to help save a rainforest. Twenty years later, wondering if his efforts made any real impact, he visits Costa Rica to see whether this piece of land remains preserved.

They Come for the Gold, They Come for it All, directed by Pablo D’Alo Abba and Christian Harbarak (Argentina, Chile)

[They Come for teh Gold, They come for it All, directed by Pablo Abba and Cristian Harbaruk, shows May 6 and 8.]

In a small town on the border of Argentina and Chile, the residents of Esquel are conflicted over a lucrative bid from Canadian mining company Meridian Gold. On the one hand, the mine will provide much needed work for residents, half of whom live below the poverty line. On the other hand, the gold and silver extraction requires large amounts of water and cyanide.

You can access the complete listings–time, locations, details–here. Enjoy.

The nationalization of the Chilean copper mines, originally pioneered in the 1950s, was built around the considerable dependence of the Chilean economy on copper exports–some 60 to 75% of the Chilean GDP comes from copper exports. And this dependence extends beyond its borders, as Chile supplies the world with about one third the global supply. Leading that economic drive is the Escondida Mine–seen above, from above.

The Escondida mine has majority ownership by the (Australian-British-Dutch-owned) BHP Billiton, which is the worlds largest mining company; or, as their tag line bluntly proclaims, "Resourcing the Future." (BHP Billiton requires considerable unpacking, which is filed for later.) They manage mining and processing operations in 25 countries, employing approximately 38,000 people, and their primary by-products are base metals such as copper and lead.

The relationship between Chile, copper, and global trade is evident in this truth: The massive earthquake on February 27, 2010 in Chile delivered economic aftershocks as far as Wall Street, as the cooper prices spiked intensely amid fears of global supply delays. Copper is the second largest consumption item of non-ferrous metals in China. Statistics from China Customs showed that China imported 1.38 million tons of copper and 2.88 million tons of copper ore in 2004. (via people daily)

[The radiating deposit of copper effluent fans out from the Chuquicamata mine. Photo by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.]

[Escondidas terraces, or benches, from open-pit mining.]

Located in the Chilean Atacama Desert, the Escondida Mine employs over 5,700 people producing copper, gold, and silver. The massive open-pit mine came on stream in 1990. Current capacity is 127,000 tons/day of ore; 2007 production was at 1.483 million tons of copper worth US$ 10.12 billion. Primary concentration of the ore is done on-site; the concentrate is then sent to the coast for further processing through a 170 km long, 9" pipe. Escondida is related geologically to three porphyry bodies intruded along the Chilean West Fissure Fault System.

Already the largest copper mine in the world, Escondida has recently established plans for expanding (via reuters). Ironically, given its seen-from-space status, Escondida means "hidden."

[Northern mining sites of Chile along the west fissure fault line. Image ©2010 Andina Minerals.]

Previously: Inverted Infrastructural Monuments, pt. 2 |  Inverted Infrastructural Monuments, pt. 1

Related: Moving House(s) |  P3 Post-Peak Phosphorous

Editors Note: File under Glacier / Island / Storm, a studio run by BLDGBLOG at Columbia University GSAPP. Storm edition.

———–

"It is time  /  It is time for  /  It is time for stormy weather" – The Pixies

Storms deal in simple materials: air, water (in various states), and other particulates, such as dirt or dust. Though, not unlike species swarming in nature (or microcosmic viruses for that matter), they assemble, grow, pulse, and respond to environmental conditions. All the while, luring other similar material into their agitated state. Storms move somewhat indifferently to us and often in spite of us. They are often predictable and just forecastable enough to tease those of us that want to know when, where, and how much. All of this is done through pattern play, and behavioral modeling at two-scales: the massive regional and continental airpsaces, and the molecular or particle-based scale. Storms work in cycles, some small seasonal cycles, some century long, and even some on significant larger timespans (quasi-periodic). We are looking here at three storms; all recurring, swirling, pulsing, and shifting–of various particulate matter: dust, water, nitrogen (air). This is through the filter of states of matter: solid, liquid, and gaseous.

[Map showing plume expansion rate, dircetion and growth of the Australian dust storm of 2009. Image by Advanstra.]

1. Solid Storm: Dust // Certainly as one of the most fantastically documented storms of our young century, the Australian Dust Storm of 2009, you have no doubt seen the surreal images of highly saturated red and orange airspace. For this event, air particulate readings were about 15,400 micrograms per cubic meter. A typical day registers at about 50 micrograms, and a bushfire registers around 500 micrograms per cubic meter. It was thick. What was interesting though when this 2-day event rapidly escalated was that its long-term effects were somehow overlooked in favor of the evocative photography of a Mars-like outback. Within two weeks after the flash storm, scientists realized that the event caused a massive shift of phosphates and nitrogen as 4000 tons of desert topsoil particulates were dumped in the Sydney Harbour. Beyond that, the estimates for materials dumped in the Tasman Sea were an astounding 3,000,000 tons. And, as if a massive simulation of ocean fertilization, it was believed that this spurned phytoplankton growth to triple. So, what was in limited supply–yet was needed to grow life–in the desert ocean is ironically abundant in desert land. Further estimates put the additional phytoplankton in the Sea at 2 million tons, and, more impressively, with that about 8 million tons of CO2 captured. Eight million tons; thats a full months of a coal-fired power plant CO2 emission. Estimates for the amount of fish spawned from the increased phytoplankton are not known, but one can only imagine. Storms spawn swarms. Ocean fertilization inadvertently simulated at a massive scale by nature itself. Should it still be called geo-engineering if, in fact, it already occurs naturally on a massive?

[Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas. Dust bowl surveying in Texas, April 18, 1935. Courtersy of NOAA George E. Marsh Album.]

A note should also be included on the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, aka dirty thirties. The Dust Bowl phenomenon lasted during a drought in the Great Plains from 1930-36. After the dust had settled, it was shown that farming practices in the region were irresponsible with crop rotation, deep plowing, and erosion prevention. On numerous occasions during the dust clouds, the sky would turn black by day as far East as Washington DC. Dirt fell like snow in Chicago. The winter of 1934 red snow fell in the Northeast. And on April 24, 1935, the day became known as Black Sunday.

Some believe the Dust Bowl was predictable. Here is a PBS video on the Dust Bowl years.

Another interesting diversion on dust storms is the alkali storms found at Owens Lake and other salt flats. This is well documented by Barry Lehrman in The Infrastructural City. (Pruned has an excellent writeup on this here.)

[Thermohaline circulation based on a "dolphins perspective" that is where the oceans are shown as a single body of water and the flux can be easier understood without cutting it anywhere. via Avsa.]

[Trend Velocities in North Atlantic in meters per second per decade from May 1992 to June 2002. vectors trace the following graphic of the subpolar circulation in reverse direction, which denotes a slowing gyre. Credit: Sirpa Hakkinen, NASA GSFC.]

The seasonal movement of the ice shelf constitutes one of the largest annual transformations in the Arctic and is the basis for the arctic ecosystem. As the summer months thaw the ice shelf, causing it to migrate northwards, fresh water is released into the sea. This freshwater promotes a blanket of fertile phytoplankton that forms the foundation of the arctic ecological food chain. Ecosystems that migrate with the annual retreat of ice traverse the Arctic seasonally. In the last 30 years, however, the summer sea ice extent has reduced by approximately 15 – 20%, while its average thickness has decreased by 10 – 15%. Both of these rates continue to increase, decreas­ing the foundation of the food chain and consequently applying pressure on species higher in the food chain.

Recent data points to something not-so-innocently called the Great Atlantic Shutdown. As increasing amounts of freshwater enter the THC water is more bouyant and less likely to sink, slowing or even stalling circulation.

[The jet stream. The northern hemisphere polar jet stream is most commonly found between latitudes 30°N and 60°N, while the northern subtropical jet stream located close to latitude 30°N. AP Photo/NOAA.]

3. Gaseous Storm: Jet Stream // Winds have names: Katabatic, Foehn, Mistral, Bora, Cers, Marin, Levant, Gregale, Khamaseen, Harmattan, Levantades, Sirocco, Leveche, and many others (all exhaustively documented here). But all pale in comparison to the steady circulations of the tropospheric jet stream. The jet stream is a shifting river of air about 9-14 km above sea level that guides storm systems and cool air around the globe. And when it moves away from a region, high pressure and clear skies predominate. The jet stream marks a thick shifting swirling line that separates airspace that warms with height and airspace that cools with height. In short, it is the jet stream(s) that creates weather – all kinds of weather, from the ordinary, uninteresting dull gray sky to the devastating life-changing weather phenomenon.

The path of the jet typically has a meandering shape, and these meanders themselves propagate east, at lower speeds than that of the actual wind within the flow. Each large meander, or wave, within the jet stream is known as a Rossby wave. Rossby waves are caused by changes in the Coriolis effect with latitude, and propagate westward with respect to the flow in which they are embedded, which slows down the eastward migration of upper level troughs and ridges across the globe when compared to their embedded shortwave troughs.

[The jet stream core region averages 160 km/h (100 mph) in winter and 80 km/h (50 mph) in summer. Those segments within the jet stream where winds attain their highest speeds are known as jet streaks.]

When the jet stream fractions off an eddy, such a minor event at the scale of the stream generates an cyclone as it hits the ground. Thought to be weakening and moving poleward, the jet stream would produce less rain in the south and more storms in the north. Though in the meantime, there is considerable ongoing research on how to harness this steady streaming power.

[A wind machine, floated into the jet stream, would transmit electricity on aluminum or copper cables--or through invisible microwave beams--down to power grids, where it would be distributed locally. via SFGate.]

One study (above) shows a range of kites responding to the stream in a variety of ways and at different altitudes. The possibility of a series of kites–ladder, rotor, rotating, or turntable–hovering 1000 feet in the air generating anywhere from 50- 250 kilowatts is hard to refute. Afterall, they are just kites. Or maybe, to test this possibility, we just need to tap into all the already ongoing leisurely kite-flying practices–so that regular kites are no longer available, but instead streaming kites only. Streaming kites flying much higher, and of course bigger, and equipped with gear that helps store and harness energy. At the end of a pleasurable day flying a kite you have next weeks electricity in a black box to tote back home.

Post inspired by: Star Archive, Storm Archive, Storm Control Authority, Meteorological Alchemy, Carcinogenic Storms, Life on Mars, Average Natures.

[Togo phosphates mining]

If you thought post-peak oil had generated media frenzy (and spawned endless sustainable design projects), there’s another, quieter crisis looming – post-peak phosphorous.

Phosphorus is at the heart of modern farming; an essential ingredient of agricultural fertilizers. It has no synthetic alternative and is being mined, used and wasted as never before. Inefficiencies in the processing of food and the soaring demand for meat and dairy produce across Asia is fueling demand for phosphorus faster than anyone had predicted.

[Global fertilizer use, 2007 via NYT]

Dana Cordell, a senior researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology in Sydney, states: “Quite simply, without phosphorus we cannot produce food. At current rates, reserves will be depleted in the next 50 to 100 years. Phosphorus is as critical for all modern economies as water. If global water supply were as concentrated as global phosphorus supply, there would be much, much deeper concern. It is amazing that more attention is not being paid to ensuring phosphorus security.”

Not only does the fluctuating price of the raw material – phosphate rock – impact food prices, but some researchers believe that the risk of future phosphorus shortages dismantles the idea of bio-fuels as a “renewable” source of energy.

Significant Phosphate reserves exist in only a few nations: Morocco holds 32 per cent of the world's proven reserves, with Western Sahara, South Africa, Jordan, Syria and Russia holding the other significant reserves. A new geopolitical map may be drawn around the remaining reserves – creating a small number of new “resource superpowers” with a pricing control over fertilisers that some suspect could end up rivaling OPEC's control over crude oil.

[global phosphate reserves]

The economic battle to secure phosphorus supplies may already have begun. China apparently has 13 billion tonnes of phosphate rock reserves and has started to guard them more carefully, alarming the fertiliser industry, as well as Western Europe and India, which are both entirely reliant on phosphorus imports. With America's own phosphorus production down 20 per cent over the past three years, it has begun to ship phosphorus in from Morocco.

Few researchers hold out hope of a discovery of phosphorus large enough to meet the continued growth in demand. The ore takes millions of years to form, extracting phosphorus from the sea bed presents massive technological and financial challenges. The solution, say scientists, lies in better use of existing phosphorus reserves.

Ironically, excess phosphorous leaching into water supplies causes plant and algae blooms, killing water oxygen supplies and creating ‘dead zones’ in coastal waters.  Scientist such as Cordell are looking into recycling the millions of tons of phosphorus that originate in fertilizer or sewage and move to the seas each year would address the twin problems of pollution and shortage.

[Extracting one ton of phosphate produces five tons of the waste. Florida, a major producer, has approx. 1 billion tons of slightly-radioactive heaps, which form a significant state landform.]

Many sewage treatment districts recycle sewage sludge to farm fields, while the Swedish have developed a toilet which captures phosphorous-rich urine, stores it for use farm fertilizer.

Would post-peak agriculture be replaced by fields of fertilizer-efficient greenhouses, producing new technological landscapes. In the meantime, perhaps we are all shareholders of the new yellow gold?

We were excited to see that MedSec and UNEP have released a series of recent maps on various aspects of the environment dependent upon Mediterranean Sea. The series is titled, appropriately enough, "Environment and Security in the Mediterranean." They have documented Agriculture and Fisheries, Migration, Water, Population, Non-renewable resources, and Desertification. Here they are in all their geo-informational glory. 1000+ possibilities…

[Mediterranean: Water. Zoï Environment Network.]

[Mediterranean: Population. Zoï Environment Network.]

[Mediterranean: Non-renewable resources. Zoï Environment Network.]

[Mediterranean: Migration. Zoï Environment Network.]

[Mediterranean: Desertification. Zoï Environment Network.]

The optimism surrounding the potential of electric vehicles to mitigate resource extraction does overlook a few key factors that extend beyond the obvious economic and cultural hurdles. One interesting factor is resources needed; Yes, resources for electric and hybrid vehicles. Such as the need for massive amounts of lithium carbonate. Lithium is the mineral of choice for batteries, and is found in most laptops and mobile phones. It is central to the next generation of hybrid and electric cars and this success will depend upon 5 times the current estimates of lithium worldwide to support the emerging industry.

[Salt mounds harvested, after a night of rain. photo by flickr/kuzquiano.]

Many are turning to Bolivia for clues. With over half of the world's (untapped) lithium reserves found in Bolivia, in the the Uyuni salt plain, the attention is obvious. Uyuni is the largest salt playa in the world, covering nearly 9,000 square kilometers. The salar playas are believed to have been a closed basin for the last 10000 years. Receiving about 300mm/year of rainfall has created a repeated wet/dry cycle and a thick but smooth evaporite of mostly halite.  Besides its fascinating geomorphological history, the Uyuni is also simply a stunning endless mirror landscape of surficial saline waters.

[A $6 million pilot plant for extracting lithium from the salt flats of Uyuni, in the town of Rio Grande, Bolivia. Noah Friedman Rudovsky/AP.]

Recently, the southern Uyuni has been found to contain major lithium deposits, originating from the drainage area of the Rio Grande de Lipez. And with this discoverey comes attention from major companies and developers, such as Mitsubishi, to mine this landscape. Currently Bolivia depends predominantly upon the export of natural gas for economic viability. Pressure to determine the future of this landscape is mounting with economic and environmental concerns complex and contradictory…

related:
Sea Dust, pt 1
Sea Dust, pt 2