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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.
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.
 

  • Bullying tactics used in push to industrialise the kimberly

     

    The Commonwealth and WA State governments are trying to threaten and bully reluctant oil and gas companies, Traditional Owners and the local Broome community to accept the Kimberly gas hub proposal.
     
    In the latest development (9th Feb 2010) the Woodside joint venture partners BP, Shell, Chevron and
    BHP have responded to a deadline on gas lease renewals set by Mr Ferguson. These companies have been forced to agree to an initial investment in the James Price Point location, though a final investment decision is still a long way off.

    Mr Ferguson’s deadline was designed to preempt:

    • The State and Commonwealth environmental assessment process,
    • The Federal government’s own heritage listing and marine protection processes,
    • Indigenous consent processes

    As we have seen with the Tasmanian pulpmill fiasco, when government ministers intervene to pre-empt and fast-track decision making processes, every one loses – including big corporations!

    Other examples of bullying tactics include the WA State Premier Colin Barnett’s threat of compulsory land acquisition if Traditional Owners do not agree and the dismantling of the consultative site selection process set up under the former government.

    The Wilderness Society will continue to build on the large and growing movement opposing this reckless proposal and investigate all options, including legal challenges, to make sure that the Kimberley is protected from inappropriate and unsustainable development

  • Gloom obscures M5 tunnel filters

     

    The Daily Telegraph can reveal the RTA this week wrote to those companies applying to build the eastbound filter to say the $20 million project had been dumped.

    The letter, sent to six companies from Australia, Norway, Austria and South Korea, said “a decision has been made not to proceed with the proposed filtration scheme in the eastbound tunnel”.

    An RTA spokesman said no applicants met the assessment criteria, including creating a system that could be placed into the existing roof cavity.

      

    Related Coverage

    “This meant the submissions did not offer the community value for money” and therefore would not proceed, he said.

    The $50 million westbound tunnel filter was being tested just weeks ago but technical glitches have caused a delay.

    The taxpayer-funded was sucking in polluted air but tests found turbulence caused the air to stay inside the structure. The RTA has been forced to fit new parts inside the filter so air will cleaned before being returned to the tunnel as clean air.

    “The RTA is installing guide (air-turning) vanes,” the spokesman said. “The filtration plant is on budget. The trial is planned to start in March.”

    The news comes 18 months after a National Health and Medical Research Council report on air quality and motorway tunnels said the M5 East was one of world’s most polluted tunnels.

    Residents Against Polluting Stacks lobby group spokesman Mark Curran said years of promises had delivered nothing, saying yesterday: “If the haze is visible, it means air in the tunnel is still dangerous.”

     

  • Un top climate change boss quits post

     

    Mr de Boer is known to be disappointed with the outcome of the last summit in Copenhagen, which drew 120 world leaders but failed to reach more than a vague promise by several countries to limit carbon emissions. However, he denied that his decision to quit was a result of Copenhagen.

    Mr de Boer will become a consultant on climate and sustainability issues for global accounting firm KPMG and will be associated with several universities.

    “Copenhagen did not provide us with a clear agreement in legal terms, but the political commitment and sense of direction to a low-emissions world are overwhelming,” he said. “This calls for new partnerships with the business sector and I now have the chance to help make this happen.”

    In recent weeks he came under pressure to sack embattled UN climate change scientist Rajendra Pachauri over his handling of an exaggerated claim about glacial warming in UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in 2007.

    Mr de Boer had maintained the credibility of the IPCC, which Mr Pachauri chairs, remained intact despite its admission it had erred by predicting Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035 if global warming was not checked.

    Mr de Boer said last night he believed global talks “are on track”, although it was uncertain that a full treaty could be finalised at the next summit in November.

    The partial agreement reached in Copenhagen, brokered by Barack Obama, “was very significant”, he said. But he acknowledged frustration that the deal was merely “noted” rather than adopted by all countries.

    The media-savvy former Dutch civil servant was credited with raising the profile of climate issues through his press encounters and his lobbying of world leaders.

    But his travel and frenetic diplomacy failed to bridge the suspicions and distrust between developing and industrial countries that blocked a final agreement at Copenhagen in December.

    People who know him say he was more disheartened by the snail-paced negotiations than he was ready to admit.

    Mr de Boer, 55, was appointed in 2006 to shepherd an agreement to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions an average 5 per cent. He said the high point of his efforts was the agreement by developing countries, reached at the 2007 conference in Bali, to join efforts to contain global warming in return for financial and technical help from the wealthy nations.

    The Bali meeting was so intense that during its final meeting, when he was accused of mishandling the arrangements, Mr de Boer left in tears. He returned to an ovation.

    AP

  • Electricity sale grinds to a halt

     

    The delay of the sale is a further embarrassment for the government, which is already facing flak over several delayed and dumped transport projects.

    This morning the Herald revealed that a metro underground rail system for Sydney was doomed, with the construction start date, which was due for this year, to be pushed well back when Premier Kristina Keneally releases her Land Use and Transport Plan on Sunday.

    The move to delay the sale comes against the backdrop of continued uncertainty over the likely impact of the federal government’s emissions trading scheme, coupled with speculation that banks remain unwilling to lend to companies planning to bid for generator output, under the so-called gentrader model of the sale process.

    The opposition’s energy spokesman Duncan Gay said: “The State Labor Government’s credibility has been shot to pieces with yet another failed transaction.

    “The process is flawed, the timing is wrong, it’s time the Government admits it’s dead and gave it the last rites.

    “It’s a case of another project, another failure for this incompetent Government.”

  • China using ‘mind blowing’amount of fertiliser

    China using ‘mind blowing’ amount of fertiliser

    Ecologist

    14th February, 2009

    Overuse of nitrogen fertilisers in China is leading to rapid soil acidification and is causing lasting damage to ecosystems, according to soil study

    Nitrogen fertilisers used to increase crop yields in China are having ‘extreme’ environmental consequences, according to a study from leading soil scientists.

    Scientists from China, the UK and the United States measured the pH of soil samples taken from agricultural land across China in the 1980s and 2000s and found widespread acidification caused by nitrogen fertilisers.

    On average, the pH of soil across the country had decreased by 0.5 in 20 years. In parts of Hunan province, in south China, the pH of the soil had dropped to between 3 and 4.

    Most crops are suited to a neutral range between pH 6 and pH 8.

    Intensification drive

    Dr Goulding, head of soil science at Rothamsted Agricultural Research Centre, said Chinese farmers had been encouraged to use more fertilisers to drive up yields, but had not been warned about the risks.

    ‘The message from the Chinese government was very simple: put nitrogen fertiliser on your crops and get more yield. The result in many parts of the country is extreme acidification,’ said Goulding.

    Professor Peter Vitousek of Stanford University, who worked on the study, said the amount of fertiliser being used in China was ‘mind-blowing.’

    ‘Whereas on a grain farm in Illinois, an average of 200 kg of nitrogen fertiliser are being used per hectare, on a maize farm in China that could be as much as 800 kg per hectare.

    ‘More than half of that is not going into the crop: instead it’s having grave environmental consequences downwind and downstream,’ he said.

    Cutting fertiliser usage

    Professor Vitousek said the research had shown that farmers could cut the amount of nitrogen fertilisers used almost in half without affecting yields.

    ‘This would be an absolute benefit to the environment and farmer costs,’ he said.

    Useful links
    Report in full

  • Solar panels put homes at risk of fire: Clean Energy Council

     

    The Renewable Energy Systems Committee wants an audit of the scheme and more inspections undertaken.

    Committee spokesman Ted Spooner says there are “very, very limited inspections” being made to ensure the panels meet national standards.

    “When you have very poor quality controlling modules you can end up with fractures in joints … that can lead … to fires,” he told ABC Television last night.

    The Environment Department is reportedly discussing whether an audit is needed.

    Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt wants Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to order an Auditor-General’s inquiry into both the solar and deadly home insulation schemes.

    “These [programs] … have all been riddled by mismanagement,” he told ABC Radio.

    “There are homeowners who are at risk.”

    AAP