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.
admin /8 March, 2009
Goondiwindi, Queensland, next week will hear two different approaches to reducing the impact of Australian agriculture on global warming. The Tropical Pastures Conference, held on March 18 and 19 will host Dr Myles Fisher who has experimented widely on pasture management to sequester carbon and water in the soil, improving productivity as well as potentially earning cash from carbon trading schemes. Dr Beverly Henry will also tell the conference about her work in reducing methane emissions from livestock through feed supplements that slow down the process of nitrification. About 60 percent of Australia’s methane emissions come from livestock, and represent more than 10 percent of the nation’s entire emissions.
Conference website: www.tropicalgrasslands.asn.au
admin /8 March, 2009
The Australian Minister for Water and Climate Change, Penny Wong, said last week that the federal government’s $24 million purchase of Toorale station near Bourke in western NSW had resulted in 11billion litres of water flowing down the Darling that would not have been available otherwise. Landowners along the Warrego River which flows through Toorale Station and into the Darling have activated sleeper licenses which allow them to pull out more water when it is available. Wong said she is aware of the issues raised by these entitlements but that is beyond the scope of the existing buy back scheme.
admin /1 March, 2009
A commitment to reduce mercury pollution signed by environment ministers at a United Nations summit in Nairobi last week, will put further financial pressure on coal fired power stations. The eight point plan agreed by the ministers form part of a legally binding international treaty to limit exposure to mercury.
The treaty will include measures to reduce the supply of mercury and its use in products, such as thermomenters, and processes, like paper making. It will also seek to cut back on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, which are responsible for about half of the world’s mercury pollution.
China and the USA have previously opposed the plan but the new administration in the White House moved rapidly to end that opposition and China quickly followed suit.
admin /1 March, 2009
Campaigners from more than 40 developing nations have written to UK climate change secretary, Ed Milband, accusing the government of the United Kingdom of being a climate criminal because of its plans to build new coal fired electricity plants. The open letter expresses alarm at the moves and identifies claims that demonstration plants for clean coal are inadequate. They blame emissions from rich countries for causing global warming and the “increased floods, droughts, sea-levels and disease” that threaten the livelihoods of “hundreds of millions of people”.
admin /1 March, 2009
A combination of failing grape crops and a shrinking market will cause chaos in the price of Australian wine, predicts Wine Australia. The Australian grape crop is expected to be 15 percent smaller than predicted because of the effects of the heat wave, fires and the drought. The crop was already reduced from previous years because of a glut of Australian grapes. Despite the reduced supply, farmers are unsure what the effect on prices will be because global demand for wine has shrunk as a result of the global recession.
admin /1 March, 2009
After years of lobbying by farm groups, environmentalists and advocates of renewable energy, the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, has called for recognition of perennial grasses, bio-char and forestry as components of a national scheme to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. His claim the bio-sequestration could buy 150 million tonnes of carbon are consistent with the figures prepared by the CSIRO and other lobby groups but he refused to detail his plan, or provide a time frame for implementing it. The government claimed that the call was a distraction to cover up the oppositions failure to support carbon trading.
