Palm oil prices jumped in
September and are predicted to rise 20 per cent next year while
global demand for biofuels is now rising at 25 per cent a year.
Environmentalists are calling for sustainable cropping
Roger Higman of Friends of the
Earth UK, which backs biofuels, says: “We need to ensure that the crops
used to make the fuel have been grown in a sustainable way or we will
have rainforests cleared for palm oil plantations to make bio-diesel.”
New Scientist, 19/11/2005, p. 19
Lake Macquarie News (16
November 2005, p.1) reports that the gas extraction system consists of
a pattern of vertical production wells across the 1.2 million cubic
metre landfill facility. An underground pipe network links the wells
and delivers gas to a central compression facility located at the site
where it will be turned into electricity for sale to the grid.Council waste
sites coordinator Rick Brindley said the system had the potential to
cut greenhouse emissions by about 44,000 tonnes a year. System
infrastructure was already in place at Awaba and generation would begin
in a few months after power was connected and testing was completed.21/11/2005
Source: http://www.erisk.net
The Green Power scheme was developed by the Sustainable Energy and
Development Authority (now incorporated into the Department of
Energy, Utilities and Sustainability) and is a national accreditation
program that sets stringent environmental and reporting standards for
renewable energy products offered by electricity retailers to
households and businesses across Australia, said the report on the
compliance and operation of the NSW Greenhouse Abatement Scheme.
This scheme provides a certification mechanism for the
provision of zero emissions electricity to consumers across
Australia. Organisations who purchase Green Power (usually as a given
percentage of their total electricity consumption) cannot claim that
initiative as an emissions reduction under the NSW Greenhouse
Abatement Scheme. Green Power is administered by the Department of
Energy, Utilities and Sustainability.
Reference: NSW Greenhouse Abatement Scheme – Compliance and
Operation of the Scheme during 2004. Inquiries regarding this report
should be directed to: Christopher Spangaro, ph: (02) 9290 8419,
Margaret Sniffin, ph: (02) 9290 8486 or Gary Drysdale, ph: (02) 9290
8477. Independent Pricing and Regulatory, Tribunal of New South
Wales, Level 2, 44 Market Street, Sydney NSW 2000, ph: (02) 9290
8400, fax: (02) 9290 2061, website: http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au
Source: http://www.erisk.net, 17/11/2005
That’s the beginning of a concept called “peak oil” and hundreds of
people in Portland, USA, believe it’s coming soon, if it’s not here already.
The days of cheap
transportation, cheap food, and our relatively easy way of life here in
the 21st century will soon end.
As oil sources dry up, the cost of food will rise
dramatically because many fertilizers and pesticides are made from oil,
and the cost of transporting food from farms to factories to retail
outlets will increase. For example, food on an American families table
at dinnertime has travelled an averge of 1,500 miles to get to them.
That’s why initiates such as learning how to grow your own fruits
and veggies or subscribing to co-op farms are on the agenda in
Portland. City commissioner Dan Saltzman passed out a resolution to
determine what areas could be used to grow crops. The city is
interested in creating a network of self
suffiency inside the city.
There are countless estimates on when peak oil might happen. A
report by the French government says 2013, another report from the US.
Geological Survey says 2037.
Even Chevron says oil production has already declined in nearly two thirds of the largest oil producing countries.
Source: http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/articles/563
The value of Australian mountain rainforests, in terms of supplying
water via cloud stripping, has been estimated at $120 million a year.
However, if rising temperatures lift the cloud base 100 metres for
every one degree, as suggested by an international study, cloud forests
will be less able to harvest water directly from the clouds and North
Queensland’s water budget will be affected, according to The Australian, (16/11/2005, p. 17)
North Queensland towns rely on rainforest streams: Many towns
such as Port Douglas and Cairns rely on rainforest streams, not dams,
for their water supply. Peter Hairsine, principal research scientist at
CSIRO’s Land and Water Hairsine said a 40 per cent drop in run-off
would have serious consequences, especially in the dry season when,
despite the lack of rain, the mountains still produce water.
Fisheries and hydro power also affected: Hydro power and
fisheries, which rely on flushing flows through estuaries to move
juvenile fish into the ocean, could also feel the loss if the clouds
miss the mountains, Hairsine said. The value of ecotourism in the
mountains which earns $400 million a year, 10 times what logging
earned, may also be affected.
The Age, 16/11/2005, p. 17
Source: http://www.erisk.net
According to Neil James, Executive director of Australia Defence
Association, Federal Labor MP Daryl Melham (“Anti-terrorism measures
call for more opposition”, Opinion, October 31) thoroughly sinks his
own argument in his first sentence, (The Australian Financial Review, 8 November 2005, p. 65).
These are not ‘peacetime’ measures: “While our strategic and
domestic security circumstances are perhaps not ‘wartime’ in the
traditional sense, they are certainly not ‘peacetime’ either. Under
international law, armed conflict is a material fact by its sense only,
irrespective of national interpretations or individual opinions (even
MPs’),” James wrote.
Undisputably under attack from Islamist terrorism: “And don’t
raise the hoary old myth about needing to declare a war. No country has
legally ‘declared war’ since the United Nations Charter came into force
in 1945. Australians are indisputably under attack from Islamist
terrorism. Only the degree, nature and duration of the attack, and our
responses to them, are open to question.
Terrorists have ‘declared’ war: “The terrorists may also be
criminals under Australian and international law but this conflict is
more than just a law and order problem – not least because the other
side considers it a war even if some naive Aussies think otherwise.
As a country, we’re at war: “Finally, our troops are deployed in
at least two war zones overseas (Iraq and Afghanistan). As a country
we, not just them, are at war, even if some Australians choose to
ignore this. To try to discuss national security measures without
acknowledging or understanding such basic facts is simply irresponsible
as well as uninformed. To do so consciously is even worse,” James added.
The Australian Financial Review, 8/11/2005, p. 65