Increasing Australia’s Resource Bonanza

With the starting gun for the carbon tax just a month away, Prime Minister Julia Gillard told a mining industry dinner in Canberra last night that Labor is determined to spread the boon of Australia’s resource bonanza to the working people of the nation.

”And here’s the rub. You don’t own the minerals. I don’t own the minerals. Governments only sell you the right to mine the resource, a resource we hold in trust for a sovereign people,” she said (reported by Mark Baker writing in today’s Sydney Morning Herald).

Space Pioneers wonder if the Prime Minister barking up the wrong tree?

Yes, the citizens of Australia should benefit from the nations amazing resource bonanza, but could this be through a much more inspiring approach to the challenge.

Only last month Planetary Resources declared their intention to mine the vast wealth of the asteroids to access minerals and water.

Beyond the Earth’s atmosphere there is also an unlimited free energy source from the Sun, which would allow minerals to be processed in space in a whole new industrial era.

Though it is extremely expensive leaving the Earth to fly into space, the total reverse is the case when returning to the surface, so that once industry is established in space, it would be very cheap to supply Earth markets with high quality products that can only reduce in cost as time goes by.

With industry in place beyond Earth and direct access to unlimited free energy, the next logical step is to build islands in space, called orbital space settlements, which offer an Earth gravity generated by rotation and could in time be located across the Solar System, offering the potential of thousands of square kilometres more land area than the Earth could ever provide.

Rather than frittering away our resource bonanza like there is no tomorrow, we should invest our bounty in building a future for this nation where the wealth can only increase without any foreseeable limit.

Rather than ending up in political bun-fights with the mining companies about how all the loot is carved up, the mining industry could become an inspired partner with the government to increase the nations wealth, without any foreseeable limit.

By launching a deadly serious space program with the aim of building solar power stations in space, accessing the mineral wealth of the Solar System and launching industry beyond Earth, the whole nation will become a highly motivated participant in building a future with a future beneath the stars of the Southern Cross.

In this future there will be no more arguments over immigration, as we will need all the workers we can attract Down Under to build our future among the stars.

We would not be alone, but would naturally inspire friendly nations, like South Africa and India, Canada and the United States, to participate in building the boldest of space programs in the Antipodes.

As an uncertain age gathers around us with climate change, we would then have access to the unlimited energy of the Sun to build our way through any crisis on Earth, as we strengthen this nation.

With stellar energy we would be able to lead the world in extracting excess carbon from the air and sea and with that energy, turn it back into a useful resource for use in manufacturing and construction.

In this way we can keep the Earth safe, by being able to decide on the carbon level in the biosphere, as we move our society to a sustainable and healthy presence in this land.

With unlimited stellar energy, we would be able to desalinate any volume of ocean water and pump this liquid gold to any location, where the deserts can be made green, where innumerable new cities can be built, where a powerful manufacturing base can be built across this nation, as well as in the celestial realms.

In this future, we would be able to send poverty into history, as we build a totally inclusive nation, where all children can enjoy a healthy life with unlimited creative opportunities, on Earth and among the stars.

Should we continue to dash about like so many blind mice in some antediluvian maze, as we approach the uncertain years of a dangerous climate on this planet, with shifting climate zones, with sea level rise inundating coastal regions, with ocean acidification impacting the food chain in the sea?

Australia has a responsibility as a nation to all citizens, to build for a better future and if we are serious about this, it is a future that must include the stellar dimension.

Last night the Prime Minister said, ”I know you’re not all in love with the language of spreading the benefits of the boom,” but if the mining industry and the Australian people are inspired by a greater vision for this nation, there will be a greater shared love for building this future, among miners and citizens.
Kim Peart