Managing director of Ebono Institute and major sponsor of The Generator, Geoff Ebbs, is running against Kevin Rudd in the seat of Griffith at the next Federal election. By the expression on their faces in this candid shot it looks like a pretty dull campaign. Read on
In her twenty years at the Murri Ministry, Ravina Waldren has accompanied many families through times of sorrow and times of joy, has worked towards reconciliation and actively campaigned to prevent Aboriginal deaths in custody. For her important work in the local community, she is going to be honoured with a WILPF Peacewomen Award. (more…)Reuters this morning accidentally declared George Soros dead.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/18/soros-george-b-aug-idUSL2N0CR1TF20130418
The incomplete news story read…
Amelia Ahern visits a Close The Gap Day Event in West End.
AOver 120 locals gathered at the Brisbane Homelessness Service Centre, 52 Peel Street West End, to address Indigenous health issues.
The event took place as part of the national ‘Close the Gap’ campaign, initiated by Oxfam Australia, designed to raise indigenous health issues across the nation.
Currently, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities experience an average life expectancy of up to 17 years less than other Australians.
Local elder, Uncle Des Sandy says the campaign is a fantastic way to unite the community to spread the message. “There are no strangers here, only people we have not met,” he says.
As well as enjoying live entertainment and fresh food, participants were encouraged to sign a pledge, promising their commitment to the Close the Gap campaign. Oxfam Australia says that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience higher rates of preventable illness such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.
The campaign calls on the Australian government to achieve Indigenous health equality within 25 years. Oxfam says long-term investment in Indigenous health and the address of social issues such as poor housing, nutrition, employment and education is key.
Greater Metro South Brisbane project officer, Colleen Lavelle, discussed health improvement strategies for effected communities.
“The main thing is working with GPs to enable better health outcomes. We all need to maintain our health for the sake of futures generations,” she says.
BHSC Social Coordinator Tony Robertson agrees. “Closing the gap is achievable. We’ve got strategies and individuals commitment to address the issues inhibiting all Australians from leading full and rich lives,” says Mr Robertson.
The ‘Close the Gap’ campaign has attracted over 130 000 Australians since 2006. For more information, visit the Oxfam website https://www.oxfam.org.au/explore/indigenous-australia/close-the-gap/
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Professor Andrew Glikson argues that Climate Chaos as a result of burning may be the inevitable outcome of human evolution.
Read this fascinating article that demands a significant response.
Unique among all creatures the genus Homo is defined by its bipedalism, an increase in its cranial volume from Australopithecines to Hominines, and cultural features― including the use of tools. The later include stone, 0bone and wood tools of the Lower Palaeolithic (~2.6-0.3 million years ago [Ma]), the Oldowan industry (2.6-1.7 Ma) and the more sophisticated Acheulean industry (from ~1.7 Ma). However, whereas these and other attributes are shared by many species, it is the use of fire which distinguishes Homo from other members of the animal kingdom. Born on a flammable biosphere coated with a carbon-rich layer, the facility of Homo to ignite fire has become its blueprint, all the way from clans of nomad bipeds to civilizations capable of releasing energy and increase entropy in nature many orders of magnitude higher than human physical capacity.
Discovery May Allow Scientists to Make Fuel from Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere
Mar. 26, 2013 — Excess carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over are looking for new ways to generate power that leaves a smaller carbon footprint.
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Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found a way to transform the carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere into useful industrial products. Their discovery may soon lead to the creation of biofuels made directly from the carbon dioxide in the air that is responsible for trapping the sun’s rays and raising global temperatures.
“Basically, what we have done is create a microorganism that does with carbon dioxide exactly what plants do-absorb it and generate something useful,” said Michael Adams, member of UGA’s Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and Distinguished Research Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
During the process of photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to transform water and carbon dioxide into sugars that the plants use for energy, much like humans burn calories from food.
These sugars can be fermented into fuels like ethanol, but it has proven extraordinarily difficult to efficiently extract the sugars, which are locked away inside the plant’s complex cell walls.
“What this discovery means is that we can remove plants as the middleman,” said Adams, who is co-author of the study detailing their results published March 25 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We can take carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and turn it into useful products like fuels and chemicals without having to go through the inefficient process of growing plants and extracting sugars from biomass.”
The process is made possible by a unique microorganism called Pyrococcus furiosus, or “rushing fireball,” which thrives by feeding on carbohydrates in the super-heated ocean waters near geothermal vents. By manipulating the organism’s genetic material, Adams and his colleagues created a kind of P. furiosus that is capable of feeding at much lower temperatures on carbon dioxide.
The research team then used hydrogen gas to create a chemical reaction in the microorganism that incorporates carbon dioxide into 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a common industrial chemical used to make acrylics and many other products.
With other genetic manipulations of this new strain of P. furiosus, Adams and his colleagues could create a version that generates a host of other useful industrial products, including fuel, from carbon dioxide.
When the fuel created through the P. furiosus process is burned, it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide used to create it, effectively making it carbon neutral, and a much cleaner alternative to gasoline, coal and oil.
“This is an important first step that has great promise as an efficient and cost-effective method of producing fuels,” Adams said. “In the future we will refine the process and begin testing it on larger scales.”
The research was supported by the Department of Energy as part of the Electrofuels Program of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy under Grant DE-AR0000081.
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New-look Climate Change Department: What’s ahead?
By environment reporter Sarah Clarke
Updated 42 minutes ago
Icebergs in Antarctic waters Photo: Some commentators say the Government just needs to take climate change seriously. (Karen Barlow: ABC News)
Map: Australia
After last week’s spill that never happened and in a week described by the Prime Minister as “appalling”, it was on the cards that those who stuck by Julia Gillard would be rewarded.
But with the new ministries unveiled and extra portfolios being taken on by some, you have to ask, are they being rewarded or overloaded?
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has been a staunch supporter of the Prime Minister and that has now translated to a number of extra titles and a huge portfolio.
What issues matter to you?
ABC News is launching an interactive online application called Vote Compass to help voters engage on important policy issues during the coming election campaign.
The tool will allow ABC audiences to compare their views in policy areas with the platforms of political parties.
Join the conversation by filling out a short survey and tweeting about your top issues with the hashtag #abcmyvote.
Help us prepare the tool and find out more here…
As Fairfax’s Tony Wright put it, imagine the letterhead on that one; the “Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education”.
It is a mouthful by any standards.
And what does this mean for what was the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency? It is now being squeezed under the umbrella of the Industry Department, while the Energy Efficiency component is being shifted to the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.
The Climate Change Department’s staff once numbered above 1,000. It is now down to “approximately 620 with 50 contract staff” and, according to Senate Estimates from October last year, “employee staff numbers are steadily declining”.
Around 300 staff moved to the Clean Energy Regulator in 2012. Departmental secretary Blair Comley moved to the Resources Department last month.
A spokesman from Mr Combet’s office says there will now be “one secretary in the merged department, Don Russell”.
So with no more Climate Change Department, there will no longer be a Climate Change secretary.
As for the future of the department’s deputy secretary and the executive, the spokesman noted “these sort of decisions will be determined by the secretary of the merged department in the coming period as the merger is implemented”.
Has the Climate Change portfolio been neglected in the reshuffle? Is the Government doing enough? Have your say.
Which agencies are safe?
A spokesman from Mr Combet’s office says the “Clean Energy Regulator, Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)” are all clear.
The Clean Energy Regulator will remain independent with the newly-merged Climate Change Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education portfolio.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is an independent agency within Treasury. That too won’t change.
ARENA is independent within the Resources, Energy and Tourism portfolio. That too continues as is.
But can Climate Change and Industry work together? The Climate Institute thinks so.
“It’s not illogical to have Climate Change, Industry and Innovation under one umbrella,” chief executive John Connor said.
Mr Connor says what matters is that climate change is taken seriously across all of government and across all portfolios.
Will it work?
Not everyone is convinced it is a partnership that will work.
When it comes to the movement of Energy Efficiency to Resources, some industry insiders had thought that energy and emission reduction policies best fit with the Climate Change Department.
To quote one: “how can the minister overseeing the big mining companies turn around and manage renewable energy?”
Leigh Ewbank, from the group Yes 2 Renewables, stated that Climate and Energy Efficiency is a more natural fit, given the urgent need to decarbonise the economy.
And what happened to Climate Change Adaptation? Has that once commonly used title now gone altogether?
The ABC did a story last month about the future of the body charged with preparing the nation to meet the challenge of global warming, the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
It saw the writing on the wall. The Federal Government did not recommit any future funds and the facility is worried about its future.
So the Government has five-and-a-half months to make this new Industry and Climate Change partnership work.
For now, the 600-plus staff at the formerly known Department of Climate Change can continue enjoying their six green star accommodation at the Nishi building at a cost of $10 million a year.
But that residence may be short-lived.
Come September, the Coalition says if elected it will reassess the building contract and its expense.
It has got another marriage in mind.
It has vowed to reunite Climate Change and the Environment in a relationship it believes makes more sense.