Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
NSW Water Minister David Campbell says there is enough renewable electricity to run the proposed desalination plant at Kurnell in Sydney’s south. Dam levels in Sydney have dropped to 35 per cent and construction of the desalination plant is scheduled to start if levels drop further to 30 per cent. The trigger point could be Continue Reading →
The Iemma Govt is refusing to "Splash out on Water Tank Sudsidies" preferring instead to pursue the Desalination Option which would cost in excess of 1 Billion Dollars against a Water Tank , recycling and reduction on water pressure as is being done in Brisbane which would be a fraction of the Desalination Cost. Continue Reading →
In 1994, a group of committed activists in Australia’s most easterly point, Byron Bay, created a document, known as “The Vision.” That document outlined features of the development for the Shire that are broadly supported in the community. Now, twelve years later, it is time to revisit that vision. There is nothing wrong with the Continue Reading →
A genocide is engulfing the people of Gaza while a silence engulfs its bystanders. "Some 1.4 million people, mostly children, are piled up in one of the most densely populated regions of the world, with no freedom of movement, no place to run and no space to hide," wrote the senior UN relief official, Jan Egeland, and Jan Eliasson, then Swedish foreign minister, in Le Figaro. They described people "living in a cage", cut off by land, sea and air, with no reliable power and little water and tortured by hunger and disease and incessant attacks by Israeli troops and planes.
Egeland and Eliasson wrote this four months ago as an attempt to break the silence in Europe whose obedient alliance with the United States and Israel has sought to reverse the democratic result that brought Hamas to power in last year’s Palestinian elections. The horror in Gaza has since been compounded; a family of 18 has died beneath a 500-pound American/Israeli bomb; unarmed women have been mown down at point-blank range. Dr David Halpin, one of the few Britons to break what he calls "this medieval siege", reported the killing of 57 children by artillery, rockets and small arms and was shown evidence that civilians are Israel’s true targets, as in Lebanon last summer. A friend in Gaza, Dr Mona El-Farra, emailed: "I see the effects of the relentless sonic booms [a collective punishment by the Israeli air force] and artillery on my 13-year-old daughter. At night, she shivers with fear. Then both of us end up crouching on the floor. I try to make her feel safe, but when the bombs sound I flinch and scream …"
Investment in fuel ethanol distilleries has soared since the late-2005 oil price hikes, but data collection in this fast-changing sector has fallen behind. Because of inadequate data collection on the number of new plants under construction, the quantity of grain that will be needed for fuel ethanol distilleries has been vastly understated. Farmers, feeders, food processors, ethanol investors, and grain-importing countries are basing decisions on incomplete data.
The policy goal should be to use just enough fuel ethanol to support corn prices and farm incomes but not so much that it disrupts the world food economy.
Electricity demand over summer, passed winter demand for the first time in Australian history this summer. For full details see NEMMCO