Category: Archive
Archived material from historical editions of The Generator
admin /20 December, 2005
For over 25 years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) Solar Heating
& Cooling (SHC) Programme has worked to expand the use of solar
energy for heating and cooling, reported Erisk Net on 6 December 2005.
Award encourages contributions from all sectors: The SHC Solar
Award celebrates the work of those committed to increase the expansion
of this renewable energy source. The Award is open to individuals,
companies, and private and public institutions.
admin /20 December, 2005
An assessment by ASIO which led to the removal of US political activist
Scott Parkin on national security grounds was based on “credible and
reliable information”, an independent inquiry has found, according to The Age (7 December 2005 p3).
Info on activist “credible”: The Inspector-General of
Intelligence and Security, Ian Carnell, found that ASIO had credible
information that Mr Parkin, 36, from Houston, Texas, was involved in
activities that came within the definition of politically motivated
violence.
admin /20 December, 2005
New maps show that the Earth is rapidly running out of fertile land and
that food production will soon be unable to keep up with the world’s
burgeoning population, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (7 December 2005 p13).
World-wide maps show agricultural land use: The maps reveal that
more than one-third of the world’s land is being used to grow crops or
graze cattle. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
combined satellite land-cover images with agricultural census data from
every country to create detailed maps of global land use.
admin /19 December, 2005
Installations of solar water heating systems are typically at the
domestic level and special processes have been developed to support
their inclusion in the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) system,
according to the financial annual report of the Office of the Renewable
Energy Regulator.
RECs from solar water
heaters currently contribute around 21 per cent of the total RECs
registered since the beginning of the Act. While the number of RECs
from solar water heaters is expected to continue to rise, this
proportional contribution is predicted to decline as the targets
increase and more electricity is generated from new power stations.
admin /19 December, 2005
“You cannot live without using energy,” Sun Guoshun, director of the
Department of Treaty and Law at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, told Associated Press, reported The Sydney Morning Herald (3-4 December 2005 p15). He said
it was unfair to expect China and India, with millions of people in
poverty and without access to reliable power supplies, to cut back on
energy consumption.
US the big per capita culprit: Mr Sun also said it was a pity
that the United States, the biggest producer of greenhouse gases, had
not agreed to reduce its emissions, noting that per head of population
the US produced more than seven times the greenhouse gases China did.
admin /19 December, 2005
For almost four decades, climate scientists have been extracting cores
of ice from polar regions. From the chemistry of ancient ice, they have
constructed theories about how these cold wastelands drive the world’s
climate system, reports New Scientist (26 November 2005 p47).
But 29 years ago, a lowly American graduate in coal geology decided
that the high ice fields of the tropics might tell a different story.
After 50 expeditions in the Himalayas, the Andes, East Africa and
Tibet, Lonnie Thompson has probably spent more time at high altitude
than any other researcher. And with thousands of metres of ice cores
stored away in his deep freeze, he believes he will prove the tropics
are the true source of much of the Earth’s climate variability.
