Category: News

Add your news
You can add news from your networks or groups through the website by becoming an author. Simply register as a member of the Generator, and then email Giovanni asking to become an author. He will then work with you to integrate your content into the site as effectively as possible.
Listen to the Generator News online

 
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.
As well as Giovanni’s articles it picks up the most pertinent articles from a range of other news services. You can publish the news feed on your website using RSS, free of charge.
 

Major corporates at risk from climate change

admin /10 August, 2008

From The Age 

HALF of Australia’s biggest companies are risking cost blow-outs, an increased regulatory burden and reputational damage from climate change, according to an international report.

The report from the London-based Ethical Research Investment Services and the Centre for Australian Ethical Research in Canberra found that 48% of Australia’s largest 200 companies are classified as having a high or very high potential impact from climate change. Collectively, these companies account for more than $545 billion in market value.

It also found that Australian companies were doing less about climate change than their global counterparts, with a third of global companies deemed to be at high risk. While one in two big Australian companies were at risk, the global data showed that 35.6% in the global 300 were assessed as being in that camp.

Alarmingly, the report found that more than half (53%) of companies in the S&P/ASX200 were considered to have unmitigated risk. In other words, they had not taken sufficient measures to fix the problem and reduce their riskiness for investors. These businesses combined are worth $605 billion.

US Fleet heads for Iran

admin /10 August, 2008

From the Earl of Stirling 

Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area. The massive war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the “enemy force”.

The lead American ship in these war games, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) and its Carrier Strike Group Two (CCSG-2) are now headed towards Iran along with the USS Ronald Reagon (CVN76) and its Carrier Strike Group Seven (CCSG-7) coming from Japan.

Victoria’s electric car sparks interest

admin /10 August, 2008

Victorian electric vehicle company, BEV, has announced a 20 percent price decrease in line with increased sales of the zero emissions car. The Blade Electric Vehicle has dropped from $49,000 to $39,000 as a number of metropolitan  councils have ordered the car, allowing the company to take advantage of economies of scale. BEV founder, Mr. Continue Reading →

Drought limits impact of water buyback

admin /10 August, 2008

The Federal Government’s irrigation water buyback will return just 10 megalitres of flow to the Murray River this year, according to media reports today.

The Commonwealth spent $47 million last year buying back water entitlements from irrigators throughout the Basin.

In May Water Minister Penny Wong trumpeted the program, saying it would return 34 gigalitres to the system.

But as FarmOnline reported at the time, the headline figure did not reflect the fact that the drought and reduced water allocations had decimated the actual amount of water currently available under the bought-back licences.

The full 34GL claimed by the buybacks would only be realised in a flood year, with a Government report indicating that in an average year 23GL would be returned to the river.

Another Perennial grass emerges as biofuel

admin /10 August, 2008

From Renewable Energy World 

In the largest field trial of its kind in the United States, researchers have determined that the giant perennial grass Miscanthus x giganteus outperforms current biofuels sources — by a lot. Using Miscanthus as a feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. could significantly reduce the acreage dedicated to biofuels while meeting government biofuels production goals, the researchers report.

Using corn or switchgrass to produce enough ethanol to offset 20 percent of gasoline use — a current White House goal — would take 25 percent of current U.S. cropland out of food production, the researchers report. Getting the same amount of ethanol from Miscanthus would require only 9.3 percent of current agricultural acreage.

See a previous article about perennial grasses as biofuel

Pulp mills nominated as biofuel producers

admin /10 August, 2008

From Renewable Energy World 

The pulp and paper industry is uniquely positioned to immediately produce significant amounts of biofuels, bioenergy and bioproducts. With a mature, operating infrastructure capable of delivering double-digit billions of gallons of biofuels annually, generally without adding any new fiber processing capacity, many pulp and paper mills around the world are only a one-step investment away from becoming major renewable energy producers. Especially important, paper industry capacity that can be re-aligned and re-purposed toward bioenergy co-production would be 100% cellulosic feedstock based, with no agricultural attachments at all.

 

Pulp Mills as Biorefineries

Pulp mills are ideal sites for integrated biorefinery operations for four basic reasons. First, they are already set up to receive and process massive amounts of delivered roundwood and woods chips, served in this capacity by rail, truck and some also by barge operations. In the U.S. alone, pulp mills use more than 120 million dry tons of wood per year, and they have access to at least an equal amount of forest residuals and even a greater amount of agricultural wastes and energy crops if needed.

Second, these mills have basically the same existing infrastructures for warehousing and shipping out finished products around the country. Third, they have a well-established in-place administrative infrastructure and related human resources that can be extended to serve a biorefinery business without incurring significant new costs. Fourth, pulp mills have operating utility support systems for process water, electricity, steam and waste/environmental treatment that can easily be umbrella’d to support biorefinery operations without major new investments.

«« 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 »»