Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
Matthew Warren and Matthew Franklin | The Australian KEVIN Rudd’s handpicked climate expert has warned that Australia must make far steeper cuts to carbon emissions than previously thought and demand developing nations follow suit if the world is to avert a climate change catastrophe. Ross Garnaut has also warned that taxpayers will have to compensate Continue Reading →
New guidelines for carbon offsetting will do little to curb malpractice in the rapidly growing market for “carbon credits”, industry critics said on Tuesday. The government issued draft guidelines more than a year ago, but their official publication was delayed until Tuesday after the FT revealed companies were profiting from selling carbon credits which were Continue Reading →
 |
|
Witchweed (purple) growing on corn
David Dickson |
The US$14 million, four-year research programme — launched jointly by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in London yesterday (21 February) — will explore ways in which modern biological techniques can be applied to agriculture.
DFID is providing US$10 million, with the BBSRC providing the remainder of the funding.
The initiative is one of the fruits of a commitment by DFID to double its research budget over the next ten years, and to do this partly through supporting collaborative efforts between scientists working in the United Kingdom and those in developing countries.
From Business Week
Use of herbicides such as Monsanto’s Roundup is on the rise. As weeds become resistant, environmental activists blame genetically modified crops
It’s been 12 years since the first genetically modified crop was sown in the U.S., and controversy has raged since. Now, another salvo has been launched, in the form of a new report from environmental activist organization Friends of the Earth International and the Center for Food Safety, a Washington (D.C.) advocacy group. Called Who Benefits from GM Crops?, the study examines the emergence of "superweeds" that have developed a resistance to conventional herbicides such as Monsanto’s (MON) Roundup. The culprits, says the report, are plants like corn, soybeans, and cotton that have been genetically modified to survive Roundup. Farmers can spray their fields and the weeds will die but the crops will thrive.
As more acres of "Roundup Ready" crops are planted, the use of the pesticide has increased. The increased application has led some weeds to develop a resistance to glyphosate, the generic term for the chemical in Roundup. And, in turn, farmers have had to apply stronger doses of pesticide to kill the superweeds.
Jeffrey Ball, Wall Street Journal
Three of Wall Street’s biggest investment banks are set to announce today that they are imposing new environmental standards that will make it harder for companies to get financing to build coal-fired power plants in the U.S.
Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley say they have concluded that the U.S. government will cap greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants sometime in the next few years. The banks will require utilities seeking financing for plants before then to prove the plants will be economically viable even under potentially stringent federal caps on carbon dioxide, the main man-made greenhouse gas.
The move shows Wall Street is the latest U.S. business sector that sees some kind of government emissions-capping as inevitable. But it shows disagreement about what to do.
From the Age
The federal government remains committed to setting a short-term goal to slash greenhouse-gas emissions, despite warnings from a key adviser.
The government has promised to set a short-term target after considering a report from economist Professor Ross Garnaut, who it has asked to examine the economic costs of tackling climate change.
Professor Garnaut is due to deliver his report in the second half of this year.
Earlier this week, he said it was more important to achieve long-term targets and the market should decide how quickly to cut emissions.
"By focusing on a particular date you may diminish the environmental impact of what you’re trying to do and you may increase the economic costs of it," Professor Garnaut said.