Americans have always prided themselves on thinking big. When it comes to energy, the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has given big-thinkers everywhere a shot in the arm with a new study that concludes:“Renewable energy sources, accessed with commercially available technologies, could adequately supply 80% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2050 while balancing supply and demand at the hourly level.”This is a very big finding from one of the world’s most credible experts on advanced energy technologies. This detailed…
Scientists in working in Western Greenland have found evidence of an asteroid or comet impact early in the Earth’s history. At three billion years old, the crater is a billion years older than the previously oldest known crater.
Large parts of Africa’s savannas may well be forests by 2100. The study suggests that fertilization by atmospheric carbon dioxide is forcing increases in tree cover throughout Africa. A switch from savanna to forest occurs once a critical threshold of carbon dioxide concentration is exceeded, yet each site has its own critical threshold. The implication is that each savanna will switch at different points in time, thereby reducing the risk that a synchronous shock to the earth system will emanate from savannas.
Scientists in working in Western Greenland have found evidence of an asteroid or comet impact early in the Earth’s history. At three billion years old, the crater is a billion years older than the previously oldest known crater.
Large parts of Africa’s savannas may well be forests by 2100. The study suggests that fertilization by atmospheric carbon dioxide is forcing increases in tree cover throughout Africa. A switch from savanna to forest occurs once a critical threshold of carbon dioxide concentration is exceeded, yet each site has its own critical threshold. The implication is that each savanna will switch at different points in time, thereby reducing the risk that a synchronous shock to the earth system will emanate from savannas.
Using studies that span the last three decades, scientists have compiled the first evidence-based comprehensive study of the potential for tsunamis in Northwestern California.
Using studies that span the last three decades, scientists have compiled the first evidence-based comprehensive study of the potential for tsunamis in Northwestern California.
South Australia says upstream states have agreed for modelling to be done of returning more environmental flows to the Murray-Darling river system.
SA Water Minister Paul Caica says the Murray-Darling Basin Authority will be asked to model a return of 3,200 gigalitres annually, which is 450 gigalitres more than proposed in the revised draft Basin plan.
The agreement on modelling has been reached at a meeting of state and federal water ministers in Canberra.
Mr Caica said South Australia had long been calling for the 3,200 gigalitres to be considered.
“This is a small but very positive step forward and it’s something we’ve been asking for for a period of time,” he said.
“We’re very pleased that the Ministerial Council today has requested the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to model that figure.”
NEW ”bold and daring” planning laws will end the practice where complaints from individual residents can block or modify proposed new developments, the state government has revealed.
Within weeks the government will release a revolutionary overhaul of the 33-year-old planning act that the Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard, said will end uncertainty faced by developers who buy land not knowing if their plans will be approved when they submit development applications.
“It will be a case of full steam ahead” … Planning Minister Brad Hazzard.
Mr Hazzard said he was determined to end the current practice where individual development applications turn into ”site-specific planning wars” and introduce a system where communities agree in advance on building types, heights and densities for a whole area. Once such agreements were reached they would not be varied and developers could get on and build.
”The government’s direction will be around giving communities a voice upfront in the strategic planning of their areas but, having done that strategic planning, it will be a case of full steam ahead,” Mr Hazzard said.
With new home construction rates at 50-year lows, Mr Hazzard told a Housing Industry Association breakfast the new laws would give developers the certainty needed to build.
With public trust in the planning system shattered by the previous government, he agreed that it would be a challenge to get enough residents involved in discussions that would determine what developers could build where under the new system.
”We will have to make sure communities switch on at a much earlier stage, make sure they actually listen to the fact there’s a strategic plan going on in their area but, having done that, those who provide the housing, those who provide the offices, business spaces should know that if they provide this particular parcel of land they can get on with it,” he said.
Developers welcomed Mr Hazzard’s plans but agreed it would be difficult to get enough community members involved early.
”The core thing the industry is calling for is certainty,” the NSW executive director of the association, David Bare, said.
”I agree [getting community involvement] is a challenge, but it’s one we have to try to address. I don’t claim to have all the answers on how you do it, but the minister also made the point people need to stand up and take notice.”
Mr Hazzard said two former NSW government ministers, Tim Moore and Ron Dyer, had given their report to him on the planning system but the government only agreed with parts of it and had decided to delay releasing it until it had finalised its position.
”And I can tell you that when we release both the independent review and the government’s response to that it will be bold, it will be daring and in my view make a major difference,” Mr Hazzard said.
Huge pumps are struggling to keep up with the continuing inflows of water from the Morwell River into the crippled Yallourn coal mine in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
Floodwaters collapsed an embankment three weeks ago and millions of litres have been pouring into the mine each day since then.
The water flooded conveyor belts carrying coal to the Yallourn generator and three of the four power units have been switched off.
Toby Thornton from the Construction Forestry and Mining Union has visited the site and says workers are concerned about forecast rain this weekend.
“There’s a significant amount of water there and you can just see the lamp post peering out of some sections of the water. It’s a massive amount of water there,” he said.
