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
New power stations built in Victoria will not be subject to carbon emissions limits after the State Government decided to scrap the restrictions.
The former Brumby Government legislated to allow a limit on carbon emissions produced by new power stations and the then Opposition said it would cap emissions at 0.8 tonnes per megawatt hour.
But the Government has scrapped the restriction after the Commonwealth decided not to go ahead with national standards.
The Energy Minister Michael O’Brien says the decision will reduce uncertainty for “stakeholders”, including the controversial HRL plant planned for the Latrobe Valley.
Mark Wakeham of Environment Victoria says the Government has broken an election promise.
“They’ve torn up every one of their commitments on climate change,” he said.
The Government has also abandoned its 20 per cent carbon emissions reduction target after a review found it would cost more than $2 billion.
Labor’s spokeswoman Lily D’Ambrosio says it could pave the way for dirty new power stations in Victoria.
“The Baillieu Government must explain why they are doing this, why are they now saying that Victoria is open slather for new coal fired power stations no matter how dirty they might be,” she said.
Nuclear terror threat remains, Obama tells world leaders
Julianna Goldman in Seoul
March 27, 2012 – 4:56PM
Barack Obama speaks at the first plenary session of the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul. Photo: AFP/Saul Loeb
The US President, Barack Obama, has warned global leaders that there are “still too many bad actors” in the world trying to get their hands on nuclear material, which could result in a terror attack that kills large numbers of people.
“These dangerous materials are still vulnerable in too many places,” Mr Obama said at the opening session of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, which has drawn more than 40 world leaders, including the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. “It would not take much, just a handful or so of these materials, to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people and that’s not an exaggeration, that’s the reality that we face.”
Mr Obama, who inaugurated the first nuclear security summit in Washington DC in 2010, warned against “complacency” in preventing loose nuclear material from getting into the hands of terrorist groups. The legacy of the Soviet Union’s breakup, inadequate atomic stockpile controls and the proliferation of nuclear-fuel technology mean the world has lost precise count of atomic material, which could be used to make a weapon.
There are at least two million kilograms of stockpiled weapons-grade nuclear material left over from decommissioned bombs and atomic-fuel plants, according to the International Panel on Fissile Materials, a nonprofit Princeton, New Jersey, research institute that tracks nuclear material. That’s enough to make at least 100,000 new nuclear weapons on top of the 20,000 bombs already in weapon-state stockpiles.
Because a terrorist needs only about 25 kilograms of highly enriched uranium or eight kilograms of plutonium to improvise a bomb, the margin of error for material accounting is small.
“There is no effective way to deter terrorist groups from using nuclear materials once they have it,” South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said at the opening session. “The most optimal way to prevent nuclear terrorism is to promptly minimise and eventually eliminate excess nuclear materials, which can be used as ingredients for nuclear weapons.”
A nuclear-armed terrorist attack on the US port in Long Beach, California, would kill 60,000 people and cost as much as $US1 trillion in damage and cleanup, according to a 2006 Rand study commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security. Even a low-level radiological or dirty-bomb attack on Washington, while causing a limited number of deaths, would lead to damages of $US100 billion, according to Igor Khripunov, the Soviet Union’s former arms-control envoy to the US. He is now at the Athens, Georgi, Centre for International Trade and Security. Leaders may pledge tighter controls over nuclear materials to keep them out of the hands of terrorists, according to the draft of a communique to be released today at the end of the meeting. Securing vulnerable nuclear material before the next Nuclear Security Summit in 2014 is the top priority, according to a copy of the six-page working document.
“The threat remains,” Mr Obama said today. “That’s why what’s required continues to be a serious and sustained effort.”
Scientists recently concluded an expedition aboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution to learn more about Atlantis Massif, an undersea mountain, or seamount, that formed in a very different way than the majority of the seafloor in the oceans.
The huge changes in the Earth’s crust that influenced human evolution are being redefined, according to new research. The Great Rift Valley of East Africa — the birthplace of the human species — may have taken much longer to develop than previously believed.
Filmmaker James Cameron descended 35,756 feet (6.77 miles/10.89 km) to reach the “Challenger Deep,” the ocean’s deepest point located in the Mariana Trench, in his specially designed submersible DEEPSEA CHALLENGER. The attempt was part of DEEPSEA CHALLENGE, a joint scientific expedition by Cameron, National Geographic and Rolex to conduct deep-ocean research and exploration. Cameron is the only individual ever to complete the dive in a solo vehicle and the first person since 1960 to reach the very bottom of the world in a manned submersible.
Scientists have investigated how much carbon the natural forests of Sri Lanka contain. The results are important for work to reduce deforestation of tropical countries, and for international negotiations in climate policy relating to a new climate agreement.
A key NASA instrument that can directly measure the impact of solar events on Earth’s upper atmosphere has weighed in on the huge flare that impacted Earth last week.
Guatemalan Volcanoes Increase Activity Prensa Latina 26 de marzo de 2012, 14:28Guatemala, Mar 26 (Prensa Latina) Guatemalan volcanoes Santiaguito and Fuego increased their activity in the last hours and the authorities recommended on Monday took all the necessary precautions with the surrounding air … See all stories on this topic »
“Development has taken place above and around only a small number of stations in Sydney – such as Chatswood, Kogarah and Edgecliff.” Photo: James Brickwood
THE state government should consider creating a special authority to facilitate redevelopment around Sydney’s train stations and railway lines for things such as new apartments and shopping centres, says the state’s top transport official.
A parliamentary inquiry is under way into the benefits and barriers to building Hong Kong-style developments above and around Sydney’s rail corridors, a concept given general support by a broad range of groups, including the City of Sydney, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia and the government’s own Department of Planning. Benefits cited include providing housing where public transport infrastructure already exists and reducing reliance on cars and road congestion.
Development has taken place above and around only a small number of stations in Sydney – such as Chatswood, Kogarah and Edgecliff.
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Part of the difficulty in allowing such developments to proceed is the complexity of dealing with a number of different agencies, said the director-general of Transport NSW, Les Wielinga.
He told the inquiry yesterday a separate authority, a ”one-stop shop” bringing together various necessary expertise and powers including planning, construction and finance, would ideally be established to allow such development to go ahead.
”You’ve got to bring together a group of people that have got the capabilities, the skills, to make these developments happen,” he said.
Mr Wielinga said the authority could function in a similar way to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority. ”This sort of a model is the right sort of model, provided you give it the appropriate powers that the community needs,” he said.
A number of submissions supporting the proposal cite Hong Kong as an example of successful ”transit-oriented development”. But Mr Wielinga pointed out developments usually took place at the same time as stations were constructed – avoiding the challenges developers would face building over or around already established Sydney stations.
David Spiteri from RailCorp told the inquiry the difficulty of shutting down stations or whole train lines, and organising alternative transport during construction, was a major impediment to such development.
”The biggest constraint to a developer is shutting a railway down to the work,” he said.
The City of Sydney said in its submission it had long recommended that opportunities for building above Central Station and its rail yards be explored.
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia identified five city stations in its submission that it considered ideal for redevelopment by public private partnerships – Redfern, Central, Town Hall, Martin Place and Circular Quay.
Under the rule, expected to be announced this week, new power plants will have to emit no more than 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of energy produced.
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