The Generator is founded on the simple premise that we should leave the world in better condition than we found it. The news items in this category outline the attempts people have made to do this. They are mainly concerned with our food supply and settlement patterns. The impact that the human race has on the planet.
Julia Gillard has rejected suggestions returning the budget to surplus could lead to recession.
Ms Gillard on Sunday said returning the budget to surplus was an economic imperative.
‘The best way we can lock in confidence about the future and send a message to the world about the Australian economy is to deliver a budget surplus,’ she told Network Ten.
Ms Gillard said there was no risk the necessary spending cuts could send Australia into recession.
‘No, there’s not,’ she said.
‘To be talking in that language is to completely misunderstand what’s happening in the Australian economy today.’
But Ms Gillard refused to talk about the details of any particular budget measures.
‘I know it’s budget speculation season – it’s kind of started early this year – and I’m not going to engage in speculation about individual items,’ she said.
‘As we return the budget to surplus – which is the right economic decision now, to lock in confidence for the future – we’ll be taking our Labor values with us.’
Asked also about Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s proposal to subsidise the cost of hiring a nanny, Ms Gillard said it was clear the coalition was not serious.
‘This is all a fig-leaf to start a debate about childcare, to pretend that they’re interested in it, presumably to try and distract from their track record in government,’ she said.
Gas prices are set to soar, according to a new report. Source: The Daily Telegraph
NSW energy consumers – already stung by soaring power costs – face the prospect of gas prices trebling in the next five years as the state’s supplies run out.
An independent report to the state government has warned that, unless controversial coal seam gas deposits in Camden, Gunnedah and the Clarence-Moreton basins were developed, there would not be enough supply to meet demand by the end of 2014.
Suppliers would be forced to source gas supply from interstate, which would significantly drive up the prices from the start of 2015.
The report prepared by independent research firm, Wood Mackenzie, found that NSW was “highly exposed” to gas shortages. “Without more CSG supply, it will need to secure gas from other states, and this is far from guaranteed,” the report states.
It said opposition to CSG operations was strongest in NSW and was becoming increasingly politicised, with the Greens and opposition groups calling for a ban.
QUEENSLAND is expected to produce more liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 2020 than Australia’s total current output, energy economics firm EnergyQuest says.
CSG mining involves tapping underground coal seams, which often occur close to properties, national parks and next to water supply.
Energy Minister Chris Hartcher said the state’s 1 million gas consumers could see bills triple if more reserves of the gas were not exploited.
“A responsible government must take the necessary action to maintain and increase our state’s energy security, which includes the responsible development of a domestic gas industry,” he said.
Mr Hartcher said Green groups had refused to join a rational debate on the state’s future energy needs.
The average gas bill in NSW is already about $716 a year and experts believe gas prices will be the next strain on household budgets.
Electricity bills have already risen 37 per cent in the past five years, with consumers facing a rise of up to 10 per cent from July 1, with the federal carbon tax feared to cost 10 per cent on top of that.
Andrew Reeves, chairman of the consumer watchdog Australian Energy Regulator, said the wholesale price of gas would at least double in the next five years, adding more than 33 per cent to the average household bill. “Gas prices are only heading up,” he said. “While with electricity it’s the cost of networks, with gas it’s about supply, and NSW will start to suffer soon.”
THE company charged with rolling out the NBN has insisted the regions not covered by the $36 billion project were overlooked for engineering reasons – not political ones.
While NBN Co boss Mike Quigley yesterday conceded his company had received “some instructions and directives” from the government, he denied they were political.
“(The government’s instructions were) to get a good balance between regional and metro Australia, to get a balance across the states and to make sure we finish Tasmania by 2015,” Mr Quigley said.
The initial rollout of the NBN will cover 3.5 million homes and businesses in 1500 towns and suburbs across Australia by June 2015. That figure includes 71 Labor seats, 61 coalition electorates and all six crossbench seats.
The comments come after the government was yesterday accused of pork barrelling, after a Daily Telegraph analysis of the newly unveiled three-year rollout revealed coalition seats were being ignored.
In the Sydney region, 64.7 per cent of rollout sites were located in federal ALP seats – compared with only 35.3 per cent of LNP seats.
Pressure has mounted on the embattled company to explain why key targets were altered. The company had originally said it would pass 4.2 million homes by June 2015, before downgrading that target on Thursday to 3.5 million.
Fat Prophets senior telco analyst Greg Fraser said the government and NBN Co had to explain the discrepancy.
“When they first rolled out, they said the network would pass 4.2 million premises and connect to 2.6 million by June 2015 – that’s been reduced to 3.5 million under way or completed and there’s no explanation why,” Mr Fraser said.
“There needs to be some targets for the number of homes that will sign up.”
Millions starving as world responds slowly to disaster
Matt Wade
March 31, 2012
Famine victim … Ouobra Kompalemba, 2, is fed milk through a tube in a Burkina Faso hospital. Photo: AFP
THE hunger season has come early to West Africa. It’s normal for villagers in the drought-prone Sahel region, which spans from Senegal to Chad, to cut back on meals as food stocks run low in the weeks before the September harvest. But an aid worker with Save the Children in Niger, Marianne Tounkara, says families have already run out of food.
”They are surviving on leaves and plants they would not use in normal times,” she said from her base in the Niger capital, Niamey. ”They are also decreasing the number of meals that they have in a day. But those coping strategies should be happening much later in the year.”
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A lethal mix of sporadic rains, soaring food prices, regional conflict and chronic poverty has left more than 13 million people across the Sahel short of food. Aid agencies fear the crisis could soon turn into a catastrophe and are frustrated by the sluggish international response.
Ms Tounkara said Niger had received only a fraction of the funding agencies estimate will be needed to stave off a disaster.
”The government is doing its best … but it worries me in terms of an adequate response from the international community,” she said. ”Families need support to feed their children now.”
The vast landlocked nation of Niger is the worst affected with about 6 million people facing food shortages and 2 million of those in critical need of assistance. A study by aid agencies in two Niger districts found up to 90 per cent of people believed their food stocks would run out before the next harvest. But even in normal times Niger accounts for about one sixth of global deaths from malnutrition.
In neighbouring Mali, the democratically elected government was toppled in a military coup last week, and thousands of refugees have fled to Niger, adding to the crisis.
A flood of weapons into Mali following the recent downfall of the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has been blamed for boosting a long-running rebellion by Tuareg tribesmen and destabilising the government. The political instability threatens to hamper efforts to curb affiliates of al-Qaeda active in the region.
Meanwhile, about 3.5 million people in Mali need emergency help.
It’s estimated that another 1.7 million people are facing food shortages in Burkina Faso, 1.6 million in Chad and hundreds of thousands in Mauritania and Senegal.
Tristan Clements, a World Vision Australia emergency aid specialist who has worked in the Sahel, said the food crisis could peak in the next months. ”West Africa is an incredibly fragile region; it’s the poorest geographical region on Earth and is probably the most neglected region as far as international donors are concerned. It has huge challenges ahead,” he said.
”We already have 1.3 million children that are malnourished and 400,000 of them severe. Without significant intervention we do anticipate we’ll be seeing high levels of child deaths.”
Save the Children in Australia has called on the federal government to raise the alarm on the Sahel food crisis and lift its financial contribution to the aid effort. ”The Australian government responded generously to last year’s food crisis in the Horn of Africa, but now we need them to follow up with swift action and tens of millions of dollars to save lives in West Africa,” Save the Children’s director of emergency programs, Scott Gilbert, said.
”We’re not seeing starving babies yet, but we fear we might unless the Australian government and the international community act, and act now.”
The government contributed $128 million to the emergency response in the Horn of Africa last year and has so far pledged $10 million for emergency food aid in the Sahel.
The government’s aid agency, AusAID, also supports CSIRO scientists to work with farmers in Niger and Mali to improve farming practices where there is limited water.
The head of AusAID in Africa, Jamie Isbister, said emergency assistance in West Africa would need to be carefully managed to ensure fragile local food markets in the region were not impaired. ”It’s important for the international community to respond to both the immediate crisis but also to support the longer term food security needs in Sahel,” he said.
Last year’s famine in East Africa highlighted shortcomings in the international emergency relief system.
A report released in January by Save the Children and Oxfam on the response to the Horn of Africa food crisis said there had been a collective failure to take preventive action, as well as the failure to respond with adequate humanitarian aid when it was needed.
It concluded an earlier response could have saved millions of dollars and thousands of lives. Aid agencies don’t want to make the same mistakes as conditions in West Africa deteriorate.
”Food crises rarely take the world by surprise and yet all too often we see the international community fail to act quickly enough,” World Vision Australia’s chief executive, Tim Costello, said.
The rhino is being hunted to the brink of extinction, driven by growing horn demand in Asia. But EU pressure on China and Vietnam can force international action to save the rhino — sign our petition today to ensure the EU acts!
The rhino is being hunted into extinction and could disappear forever unless we act now. Shocking new statistics show 440 rhinos were brutally killed last year in South Africa alone — a massive increase on five years ago when just 13 had their horns hacked off. European nations could lead the world to a new plan to save these amazing creatures but they need to hear from us first!
Fueling this devastation is a huge spike in demand for rhino horns, used for bogus cancer cures, hangover remedies and good luck charms in China and Vietnam. Protests from South Africa have so far been ignored by the authorities, but Europe has the power to change this by calling for a ban on all rhino trade — from anywhere, to anywhere — when countries meet at the next crucial international wildlife trade summit in July.
The situation is so dire that the threat has even spread into British zoos who are on red-alert for rhino killing gangs! Let’s raise a giant outcry and urge Europe to push for new protections to save rhinos from extinction. When we reach 100,000 signers, our call will be delivered in Brussels, the decision-making heart of Europe, with a crash of cardboard rhinos. Every 50,000 signatures will add a rhino to the crash — bringing the size of our movement right to the door of EU delegates as they decide their position. Sign the petition below then forward this email widely:
So far this year one rhino has been killed every day in South Africa, home to at least 80% of the world’s remaining wild rhinos. Horns now have a street value of over $65,000 a kilo — more expensive than gold or platinum. The South African Environment Minister has pledged to take action by putting 150 extra wardens and even an electric fence along the Mozambique border to try and stem the attacks — but the scale of the threat is so severe that global action is required.
Unless we act today we may lose this magnificent and ancient animal species permanently. Some Chinese are loudly lobbying for the trade in horn to be relaxed, but banning the trade in all rhinos will silence them. With the EU’s leadership, we can bring these international gangsters to justice, put the poachers in prison, and push for public awareness programmes in key Asian countries — and end this horn horror show for good.
In the next few weeks, the EU will be setting its agenda for the next big global meeting in just a few months — our best chance of turning the tide against the slaughter. We know that rhinos will be on their agenda, but only our pressure can ensure they challenge the problem at its source. Let’s build a giant outcry and deliver it in a spectacular fashion — sign now and together we can stop the slaughter across Africa:
In 2010, Avaaz’s actions helped to stop the elephant ivory trade from exploding. In 2012, we can do the same for the rhino. When we speak out together, we can change the world — last year was the worst year ever for the rhino, but this can be the year when we win.
With hope,
Iain, Sam, Maria Paz, Emma, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team
We’re entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way.
Is it snowing microbes on Enceladus? The idea might not be so far-fetched, say researchers, as evidence mounts for a “uniquely accessible” habitable zone on Saturn’s icy moon.
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