Category: News
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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.
admin /18 January, 2009
When Australian agriculture meets the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) next year, it faces an extraordinary scenario in which stands to lose up to 8pc of farm cash margins to a scheme it plays no part in.
Agriculture has been written out of the CPRS as being in the “too hard basket”, but in fact the scheme as it is currently designed will still overwhelm farm profits, according to a new report from the Australian Farm Institute (AFI).
Not only will agriculture wear additional costs passed on from players within the CPRS, like the transport and fertiliser industries, but it faces lower returns from large processors obligated to pay out under the scheme.
admin /18 January, 2009
Released last week, State of the World 2009 report from the World Watch Institute highlights the need for strong governance and drastic action to reverse the crises facing the world. It highlights trends in population, carbon dioxide emissions, water and food shortages as major problems that will affect us in our lifetimes and leave the world a poorer place for future generations. Four of the ten major challenges facing the world involve stabilising current runaway trends through international agreements backed by strong institutions. Good governance and strong institutions are identified as two separate challenges. This year’s report identifies agreement in Copenhagen on strong targets for carbon dioxide emissions as the next major break point for global governments. “The outcome of this meeting will be written in the world’s history books,” the report says.
admin /18 January, 2009
A report released last week by UK consultancy Encraft indicates that many domestic wind-turbines do not generate enough electricity to warrant their purchase and installation cost. The report shows that most suburban areas are not windy enough to generate sufficient power and that many turbines are simply too small to be effective. This is consistent with an analysis published by The Generator in 2006 headed ‘The $8,000 light bulb’. That article pointed out that most people do not want to live in areas that are windy enough to warrant placing a turbine. The Encraft report highlighted the advantages of distributed microgeneration as a means of powering small devices rather than feeding electricity into the grid.
admin /18 January, 2009
By John M. Broder
Lisa P. Jackson during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times)Lisa P. Jackson, chosen to head the Environmental Protection Agency, said at her confirmation hearing Wednesday morning that she would assure that political appointees at the agency would not overrule scientists and other professionals to tilt policy decisions.
Her promise was an implicit rebuke of the management of the E.P.A. under President Bush, where career officials’ recommendations were at times ignored in decisions on lead in the air, arsenic in water, and carbon dioxide coming from tailpipes and smokestacks.
admin /18 January, 2009
Read the News Limited story
Toyota has unveiled the third-generation Prius, more than a decade after the original model went on sale.
The successor to the world’s biggest selling hybrid car – more than 1.1 million have been sold – was revealed at the Detroit motor show overnight ahead of its Australian debut in June.
The Japanese maker has completely redesigned the Prius from the ground up. In an attempt to rid hybrid cars of their dowdy image, the new model has more performance, more technology and more styling pizzazz.
Prius Three, as it is known in car-industry shorthand, has more power from both its petrol and electric motors and yet, the car uses less fuel and accelerates more quickly than its predecessor.
admin /18 January, 2009
Leader of the federal opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, claimed last week that criticisms of the US financial system are incorrect and the problem is simply that the government encouraged sub-prime mortgages. Writer Tanya Cariina Hsu has extensively debunked the claim, analysing the role of the private banks who control the US Federal Reserve and pointing out that the $700 billion rescue package has given a small coiterie of the world’s wealthiest people cash to pick up retail banks at rock bottom prices. She claims this pattern was repeated in 1929 and 1987. Turnbull has been defending the US financial institutions at the same time as governments in Europe and Asia are distancing their economies from the US system that has undermined their independence.
