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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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  • State mulls uniform ban on outdoor smoking

     

    Half of all NSW councils now have some sort of ban on smoking in outdoor areas, up from 38 per last year, and 18 per cent in 2007, a report released today by the Heart Foundation finds.

    However, the rules vary between suburbs, with neighbouring councils implementing smoke-free policies in a piecemeal fashion since Manly Council became the first jurisdiction in the country – and only the second in the world behind Los Angeles – to legislate a smoking ban on beaches in May 2004.

    The Heart Foundation said the current situation, where smoking is banned on Bondi and Balmoral beaches, but allowed at Coogee and Cronulla, was ”ridiculous”.

    Its chief executive, Tony Thirlwell, said the foundation was part of a coalition including the Cancer Council NSW and the Local Government and Shires Associations that had been advocating a statewide approach since 2006.

    ”While we haven’t received any details about proposed legislation, we would welcome a move that bring us into line with other states and protects all NSW residents from harmful second-hand smoke,” he said.

    This week, the Minister assisting the Minister for Health (Cancer), Frank Sartor, said smoking rates had dropped by 5 per cent to 17.2 per cent since 2003, due in part to the landmark Smoke-free Environment Act introduced in 2000.

    ”We are about to release a tobacco strategy which aims to further reduce smoking to 13.5 per cent by 2016 and 10 per cent by 2020,” he told Parliament.

    A spokeswoman for the minister confirmed that legislation prohibiting smoking in outdoor areas was part of a range of policies being considered by cabinet.

    The laws would be similar to those introduced in Queensland, where smoking has been banned in all children’s playgrounds and sporting fields since January 2005 and in outdoor eating and drinking venues, except pubs and clubs, since July 2006.

    The Heart Foundation’s annual survey of smoke-free policies in NSW’s 152 councils found that 74 per cent of the 43 metropolitan municipalities have now introduced some sort of ban, compared with only 40 per cent of 109 regional councils.

    Of the 76 councils with smoke-free policies, 99 per cent cover playgrounds, making this the most common smoke-free area. Sporting fields (80 per cent), pools (46 per cent), areas within a certain distance of council buildings (42 per cent) and alfresco-dining areas (14 per cent) were included to various degrees.

    The president of the Local Government Association, Genia McCaffery, said the lack of state legislation and funding had been a significant barrier for councils implementing or expanding a smoke-free policy.

    There is emerging evidence on how smoking affects air quality in outdoor locations. A recent study showed that a person sitting near a smoker in an outdoor area could be exposed to levels of cigarette smoke similar to those experienced by someone sitting in an indoor pub or club.

    There is also evidence to suggest that smoke-free areas support smokers who are trying to quit as well as reduce their overall cigarette consumption.

  • California bags the plastic bag ban but makes solar leap

     

    Commissioner Timothy Simon noted at Thursday’s energy commission meeting in San Francisco that the price for that electricity is lower than previous solar contracts, another sign that photovoltaic power is edging ever closer to edging out fossil fuels. The price also speaks to the ability of First Solar, an Arizona-based thin-film solar company, to win and begin to execute big projects.

    The commission also greenlighted San Diego Gas & Electric’s proposal for 100-megawatt’s worth of small-scale photovoltaic projects.

    Most installations will be 1 or 2 megawatts and built in parking lots or other open spaces where they can be plugged into the grid without expensive transmission upgrades. The move comes on top of 1,000 megawatts of distributed solar generation that the utilities commission previously approved for California’s two other big utilities.

    Michael R. Peevey, the president of the utilities commission, said despite the failure of the state legislature to institutionalize the 33 percent renewable portfolio standard — currently subject to reversal by the next governor — California was on a solar streak.

    “With approval of this project we’ll have added 1,100 megawatts of photovoltaic electricity by the three utilities,” said Peevey, noting separately that the California Solar Initiative will add another 3,000 megawatts and that by year’s end, regulators are poised to approve big solar farms that will generate 4,700 megawatts of electricity.

    “These are big, big numbers,” Peevey added. “Independent of the legislature, we’re moving to a RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) economy.”

  • Meat eating can be an environmentally friendly choice, argues George Monbiot

     

    We all do. Vegans have long been the ornery saints squatting cross-legged at the intersection of the food and environmental movements; only recently have things like vegan cupcakes crossed over to widespread, Food Network-validated success.

    But now those who have been arguing for a more moderate, catholic approach, one that sees pasture-based livestock raising as an equally green choice to eschewing meat altogether, have new ammunition. 

    Monbiot just read Simon Fairlie’s Meat: A Benign Extravagance (Hyden House September 2010; not yet available in the United States), which takes a close look at both sides of the carnivorous divide, particularly the meat-eating figures that are often batted about. Monbiot quotes one, that it takes “100,000 liters of water to produce every kilogram of beef,” which Fairlie argues “arose from the absurd assumption that every drop of water that falls on a pasture disappears into the animals that graze it, never to re-emerge.” And the ever-popular U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization claim that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, even guiltier than vehicles, turns out to be quite a bullshit figure, predicated on several factual errors.

    The real villain here is not dodgy statistics, however, but the current U.S. industrial farming model, which depends on feeding artificially cheap grains to cattle, hogs, and chickens.

    “Cattle are excellent converters of grass but terrible converters of concentrated feed. The feed would have been much better used to make pork,” Monbiot says. And pigs should only be eating grain when there’s a surplus — the rest of the time they should be eating from the endless human food-waste stream:

    If pigs are fed on residues and waste, and cattle on straw, stovers and grass from fallows and rangelands — food for which humans don’t compete — meat becomes a very efficient means of food production. Even though it is tilted by the profligate use of grain in rich countries, the global average conversion ratio of useful plant food to useful meat is not the 5:1 or 10:1 cited by almost everyone, but less than 2:1. If we stopped feeding edible grain to animals, we could still produce around half the current global meat supply with no loss to human nutrition: in fact it’s a significant net gain.

    It’s the second half — the stuffing of animals with grain to boost meat and milk consumption, mostly in the rich world — which reduces the total food supply. Cut this portion out and you would create an increase in available food which could support 1.3 billion people.

    In the end, Fairlie — and Monbiot — are arguing for a third way, neither American-style meat-guzzling nor monastic denial: that of responsible meat-eating according to “low energy, low waste, just, diverse, small-scale … if we were to adopt it, we could eat meat, milk, and eggs (albeit much less) with a clean conscience.”

    Vegans will, of course, argue, that there can be no clean conscience when it comes to killing another living creature unnecessarily for food. But natural-born carnivores who’ve been martyring themselves for the good of the planet just might want to check out Monbiot’s column — and then head to the farmers market for some grass-fed beef, pastured chicken, or heritage bacon.

  • Green economy growing in West Midlands

    “But what we are starting to see is the knock-on growth in business advisory services that can provide the necessary support to these green economy companies.”

    Almost half (41%) of the more than 200 professional services firms surveyed reported they are already offering or developing specialised services in the green industry.

    Birmingham based law firm Martineau is cited as an example. It launched its specialist energy practice in 1994 and says it has since seen it become one of its principal practice areas.

    Catherine Burke, partner in the energy practice, said: “Our energy practice has seen tremendous growth in the past few years.

    “Now we not only advise big players in the energy market but a vast range of clients looking to take advantage of the opportunities that the low carbon and renewables agendas have presented.

    “Their involvement ranges from energy efficiency advice to large scale wind farm and biomass development.”

    The survey was carried out to analyse the region’s strengths in the professional services community and identify new growth markets.

    The study also surveyed more than 100 national privately held businesses, mainly in the manufacturing and engineering, construction and property and IT services sectors.

    It found two thirds (67%) reported a growing or strong demand for low carbon industry focused services.

    David Gibbs

    Source: edie newsroom

  • AGL accused of dumping tainted water in Hunter

     

    AGL said it was operating safely within the licence it obtained from the NSW Office of Water, and the discharge had had no effect on the surrounding country. Most of the water was taken away by tanker to be treated, it said.

    But the Hunter Valley Protection Alliance, a coalition of wine, tourism and thoroughbred racing interests campaigning against what they see as excessive industrialisation of the region, commissioned its own laboratory tests on the water. It said it was concerned about pollution even before the potentially large drilling operations get under way in the region.

    ”We think they’re doing this because AGL had run into a problem because it’s expensive to take tankers of water down to Windsor, where it is processed, and it’s easier to just dump it on site,” said a spokesman for the Hunter Valley group, John Thomson.

    ”In our view, AGL is not being held accountable for its actions and the NSW government is not taking sufficient action against the coal seam gas industry.”

    The independent tests, undertaken at Hunter Water Laboratories, showed high salt levels and the presence of some chemicals associated with drilling machinery. Photographs sent to the Herald appear to show large areas of grass killed by the discharges.

    AGL said the dead vegetation was nothing to do with its drilling. “The disposal did not cause any change to vegetation because the area where the water ponded was a depression with existing poor growth because of waterlogged soils,” AGL’s general manager for upstream gas, Mike Moraza, said in a statement.

    The company described the water pumped out of its bore as ”slightly salty” but less salty than seawater.

    “The groundwater brought to surface during drilling was disposed of in accordance with our water bore licence issued by the NSW Office of Water under the Water Act,” Mr Moraza said. ”This approval allows for disposal of water to land during construction, although AGL was proactive in tankering most of the water from the site.”

    AGL was awarded two ”green globe awards” by the state government this year for sustainable use of natural resources and ”climate change leadership”.

    Staff from the Department of Industry and Investment, which is the responsible authority for coal seam gas exploration, have inspected the area.

    ”The quality of the water was of concern to [the department] with potential to affect soil salinity,” a spokeswoman said.

    ”The department has issued AGL with a direction to remediate the affected site. Industry and Investment NSW has asked AGL to provide further information. The matter is not closed.”

    AGL has 16 groundwater monitoring bores in the district, and these are separate and less deep than bores drilled to extract coal seam gas. Four main holes and 15 production wells for gas have been drilled for the Broke district as part of the gas exploration.

  • Deadly flood threat hangs over French Alpine village

     

    The danger may be invisible but it is real enough. One such disaster remains in Saint-Gervais’s collective memory. In 1892, 80,000 cubic metres of water that had collected in a sub-glacial cavity burst through the ice “cork” that was holding it in. A torrential flow of water tore down rocks and trees in its path and buried Saint-Gervais in mud and debris, leaving 175 dead.

    According to the current mayor, Jean-Marc Peillex, far greater damage would be caused now, “due to urbanisation and the large number of tourists visiting the glacier”. As many as 900 houses could be swept away.

    The alarm was first sounded in 2007, when the thickness of the ice was measured by radar. “Nobody thought there might be water under the glacier,” Vincent said. “But the images showed something abnormal about 10 metres above the bedrock.”

    In 2009 this was confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance, a technique similar to a medical MRI scan. It proved that an enormous pocket of water – or possibly several pockets – was locked deep inside Tête-Rousse. The reason for the water collecting lies in climate warming. But paradoxically – grassroots science being more complex than theoretical models – this has led to a cooling of the lower part of the glacier. The probable process, as described by Vincent, is that the water from thawing in the upper part of the glacier trickles down on to the bedrock though micro-fissures until it finds an outlet.

    In the case of Tête-Rousse, the warming observed over the past decades has reduced the thickness of the snow cover (the firn, which provides thermal protection), and to a greater extent in the lower part of the glacier than in the upper part.

    As a result, during a recent cold snap, the thinner spur of ice below cooled more rapidly than the ice at the glacier’s summit (there being a difference of more than 2C between the two), resulting in the formation of a dam that blocked the water trickling down from above. However, being unable to find an outlet, the water has accumulated and now the pressure is rising – and threatening to burst like a pressure cooker.

    A scientific report issued in July by three Grenoble laboratories concluded that it was necessary to pump the water out the sub-glacial cavity as soon as possible. A warning system, costing $640,000, was immediately set up. Two metal cables were placed across the glacier, which, if broken, would trigger a siren in the valley below. The nearest inhabitants have been informed about the 17 rallying points on high ground, and would have 10 minutes to reach the nearest one if the alarm sounds.

    The pumping of Tête-Rousse began last month. Powerful boring machines and pumps were transported by helicopter to the glacier. The water will be pumped out within a month and gradually released. The whole operation will cost $2.5m, 80% of which will be paid for by the French government and the European Union.

    Is that the end of the story? “In a year or two we will have to check if the pocket is filling up again,” says Vincent. “If that is the case, we will have to consider boring a permanent channel to drain the water.” Models show that the water collected in just two years.

    Reservoir formation under glaciers is a rare phenomenon. But with global warming these risks are increasing, such as the collapse of surface ice and, with the receding permanent snowline, the formation of proglacial lakes whose natural barriers will give way, up there between earth and sky.

    Keeping the lights on

    In Chamonix, climate change is also a reality for EDF, the French electricity giant. The Mer de Glace glacier has been retreating fast in recent years and is threatening the sub-glacial water intake in the Les Bois hydroelectric power plant.

    When this plant came on stream in 1973, the intake took place 200 metres under the ice. In spring 2009, it was out in the open, and, to make matters worse, covered by a mass of glacial rock and sediment following a number of storms.

    EDF now has to maintain electricity production while carrying out the work needed to adapt to the new circumstances – and keeping the Les Bois plant “at the highest level of environmental integration”.

    Not without reason: the 12km Mer de Glace is the longest French glacier and something of a national treasure.

    The stakes for the Haute-Savoie region are considerable. The Bois hydroelectric plant produces 113m kWh per year, mostly during the thaw, which is the domestic consumption of 50,000 inhabitants, or a town the size of Annecy.

    However, the glacier has been retreating at a rate of about 30 metres a year since 2003. “And the pace has increased in the past few years,” said an EDF official. At the Rochers de Mottets level, for instance, ice thickness has been falling by between eight and 10 metres a year since 2004.

    “We anticipated this situation, and after some research, we decided to move the intake upstream in the glacier under 100 metres of ice, which won’t change anything to the scenery or the tourism business,” said EDF, before launching the $19m project. Work started in 2008 on an underground channel to divert the water permanently to the new intake area – no easy matter under such difficult geographic and climatic conditions. The installation is due to come on stream in the spring.

    Meanwhile, a temporary solution was found by digging a channel a few dozen metres long to emerge below the glacier. That will provide sufficient water to feed the plant until 2011.

    This article originally appeared in Le Monde