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The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
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Beyond the recession

admin /24 November, 2008

From Information Clearing House

The Winter of 2008-2009 will prove to be the winter of global economic discontent that marks the rejection of the flawed ideology that unregulated global financial markets promote financial innovation, market efficiency, unhampered growth and endless prosperity while mitigating risk by spreading it system wide.” Economists Paul Davidson and Henry C.K. Liu “Open Letter to World Leaders attending the November 15 White House Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy”

The global economy is being sucked into a black hole and most Americans have no idea why. The whole problem can be narrowed down to two words; “structured finance”.

Copenhagen could be postponed while US gets climate act together.

admin /22 November, 2008

The incoming administration of the US will not have sufficient time to get backing for a coherent position at the Copenhagen conference on Climate Change, and will postpone the landmark agreement for a year, according to director of the International Emissions Trading Association, Edwin Aalders. Speaking at a conference in Sydney, Australia, on November 18, Continue Reading →

Australia lags Germany in solar

admin /22 November, 2008

A NATIONAL scheme to pay people for generating solar energy would drive a $17.9 billion investment in the industry, generate thousands of jobs and reduce Australia’s carbon emissions by 4.6 million tonnes a year, a report to be released today reveals.

The report by Access Economics for the Clean Energy Council comes after Australia’s biggest solar-panel factory, BP Solar, announced it would close its doors early next year, saying it could make panels more cheaply overseas.

The research shows that a gross feed-in tariff, under which people would be paid for all of the electricity they generated, including the energy they used themselves, would invigorate the solar industry, leading to strong take-up of solar panels and bringing forward investment in the technology.

Iceland leads geothermal push

admin /22 November, 2008

Drive around Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik on any cold night and look at the houses and apartment buildings lining the streets. The first thing you may notice is how many windows are wide open, allowing the frigid outdoor air to mix with the warm indoor heat. In most places, the scene may seem a bit strange. But in a city that hosts the world’s largest geothermal district heating system, it’s a normal occurrence.

“Energy is cheap and it’s abundant. We don’t have any shortages so we do tend to leave our lights on and our windows open. It’s not something we think about as much,” says Hannes Pálsson, a resident of Reykjavik.

(Image, left: The Hellisheidi Power Plant sends plumes of steam into the sky on a rare calm morning in Iceland.)

DOE defines forward plan for energy

admin /22 November, 2008

by Allan Hoffman, U.S. Department of Energy

This country needs a good debate on energy policy. While there are many divergent views on what that policy should be, I thought it would be useful to begin my thoughts by identifying a set of “facts” on which most people can agree. So here goes.

I would start by recognizing that people do not value energy itself but rather the services that energy makes possible. These services include lighting, heating, cooling, delivery of clean water, transportation of people and goods, communication, entertainment and a variety of business activities. It follows that it is in society’s interest to provide these services with the least energy feasible, to minimize adverse economic, environmental and national security impacts. Energy has always been critical to human activities, initially in the form of human and animal labor and fire, but what differentiates modern societies is the energy required to provide increasingly high levels of services.

Koreans buy African food rights for 99 years

admin /22 November, 2008

The latest round in purchases of food producing land to ensure food security for rich, northern countries, at the expense of developing nations was revealed by The Guardian this week. One million acres of Madagascar have been purchased by Korean conglomerate DaeWoo to provide 5 million tonnes of corn as well as the versatile hydrocarbon, palm oil, for the tiny Asian nation. As reported on The Generator in March this year teams of Korean buyers have been actively bidding for agricultural land in Australia for some time. Head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacque Diouf has described the process as a form of neo-colonialism and predicted that people will starve in the nations supplying food to the north.

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