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  • Australians wary of 36m population target

     

    “Thirty million doesn’t seem to be that much different from our current 22 million; it seems like a natural progression,” he said.

    “I think most people see 36 million as really quite a substantial increase.

    “Some of the concerns about overcrowding, about house prices, about the environmental strain that 36 million Australians would cause, are also starting to bite.”

    The Federal Opposition says the poll results underscore the need for a debate about a sustainable population and immigration rates.

    Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says it shows most people want to make sure population growth is sustainable.

    “The Coalition believe in having a sustainable growth path for our population and this survey shows that many Australians support that view,” he said.

    “But they’re not prepared to sign up to the level of growth that Kevin Rudd is championing.

    “What I’d like [the Government] to do is engage in the debate with the rest of Australia.”

    But Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has played down the results, saying it all depends on how the survey questions were asked.

    Ms Gillard has joked in the past about being a “10-pound Pom”. On Lateline, she cautioned the Opposition against linking the debate on population to immigration.

    She specifically singled out 2001, the year former prime minister John Howard stopped the Tampa freighter from landing asylum seekers in Australia. The issue was potent at the ballot box and many say it cost Labor the election.

    “I think there are some dangers here for the Opposition of trying to pull an election slogan from 2001 and hope that it will work for them again,” she said.

    “We obviously believe that there needs to be a discussion about population. [Population Minister] Tony Burke will lead it.”

    Ms Gillard stresses the 36 million forecast is just that – a forecast and not a target.

    “We can change that future. I think a key question for the nation is about population distribution,” she said.

  • Tokyo to trial electric ‘filling stations’ to boost green transport.

     

     

    Tokyo to trial electric switching stations to boost green transport

    A screenshot from Better Place in-car software showing charge options during route planning. Photograph: betterplace.com

    The first public trial of a system that “refills” electric cars in minutes will be launched this month. The Californian company Better Place will test its automated battery-swap stations in Tokyo.

    It is the latest element in the company’s ambitious plans to build the world’s first infrastructure networks for electric cars by the start of next year.

    Globally, road vehicles generate around a fifth of carbon dioxide emissions. The figure is the same for the UK. According to a study for the Department for Transport, widespread adoption of electric vehicles with a range of 30 miles or more could halve road transport emissions.

    One of the biggest challenges, however, to the large-scale implementation of electric cars is the problem of infrastructure for recharging.

    Better Place has come up with a model that involves building networks of charging points and battery-switch stations. At these a robotic mechanism will swap the empty battery in a car for a fully charged one. This means electric cars can be “refilled” in minutes, rather than taking several hours to charge their batteries.

    On 26 April in Tokyo Better Place will begin the first public trial of its battery-switching stations. “We’re applying the switch technology to taxis and working with Tokyo’s largest taxi operators, Nihon Kotsu,” said Better Place. The trial is expected to last for 90 days.

    The first part of Better Place’s technology, a network of 100 public charging points, is already being trialled in Copenhagen. Using data from the trials, Better Place will launch its first commercial network in Israel at the end of the year.

    “All of our components will be tested together with the Renault Fluence electric vehicles. There will be 10 cars this year, and as we work out the kinks in the system we’ll scale up by bringing in additional vehicles and deploying additional infrastructure,” the company said.

    Further cars will be introduced as the network is built up in size. Electric Renault Fluence cars will be available for consumers to buy by the end of next year and Better Place expects to be able to serve several other makes of car as long as their batteries are easily swappable by its robots.

    How consumers will pay for Better Place’s services is yet to be worked out but Jason Wolf, a business manager at the company, has said that users would probably pay a monthly subscription for unlimited access, or a one-off fee for casual users.

    Better Place has raised about £460m in investment in the past three years and has signed deals with Israel, Denmark, Australia and Hawaii and California to build trial networks of its electric vehicles and charging infrastructureWestminster has expressed interest in the Better Place model but has not committed to it, instead backing a more general £250m scheme including trials of a range of cars and charging infrastructures.

     

  • Arctic winter ice recovers slightly despite record year low. scientists say.

     

    The twice yearly figures published by the National Snow and Ice Data Centre of the winter high and summer low for the Arctic sea ice is seen as a powerful indicator of global warming.

    Last night the US organisation released the data for the winter of 2009-10 showing the maximum extent reached on 31 March was 5.89m square miles (15.25m sq km). This was 250,000 square miles (650,000 sq km) below the 1979 to 2000 average for March when measurements are taken for winter sea ice. The rate of decline for March over the 1978 to 2010 period is 2.6% per decade, according to NSIDC data. Arctic sea ice reflects sunlight, keeping the polar regions cool and moderating global climate.

    NSIDC said there had been some recovery in the amount of ice that was two years old or more, from last year’s previous record low.

    However, the spread of the ice, though higher than in some recent very bad years, was still low compared to past decades. “I think it’s the sixth or seventh lowest maximum out of the previous 32 years,” said Walt Meier, a research scientist at NSIDC.

    Looking ahead to the other key annual figure – the lowest extent of sea ice at the end of the summer melting season – Meier said this year was also expected to be historically low, depending on temperatures and winds which blow the ice around, and sometimes out of the Arctic Sea into the warmer Atlantic and Pacific currents.

    “I would say [it’s going to be] low, perhaps one of the lowest, but not approaching 2007,” said Meier, referring to the record lows that year when the Arctic lost an area of ice the size of Alaska in one year. “Given the amount of thin ice we know we’re going to be low, it’s just a matter of how low.”

    Last month, Japanese scientists reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that winds rather than climate change had been responsible for around one-third of the steep downward trend in sea ice extent in the region since 1979. The study did not question global warming is also melting ice in the Arctic, but it could raise doubts about high-profile claims that the region has passed a climate “tipping point” that could see ice loss sharply accelerate in coming years.

    Last week the Catlin Arctic Survey leader Ann Daniels wrote for the Guardian about the ice seen by the team of three explorers trekking across the Arctic in “incredibly strong north winds” to measure ocean acidification linked to greenhouse gases. “We’ve also been seeing vast areas of open water and very thin ice — it’s the first time any of us have experienced anything quite like this on such a large scale,” wrote Daniels. “The way the ice is behaving is simply the strangest we have ever seen.”

  • Farm pesticides linked to skin cancer

    Farm pesticides linked to skin cancer

    Ecologist

    7th April, 2010

    Large-scale study highlights agricultural chemicals as a possible risk factor behind rising rates of melanoma in the US

    Repeated exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of developing skin cancer, according to research conducted on farm workers in the US.

    The study looked at more than 55,000 pesticide sprayers working in Iowa and North Carolina and asked them to detail their exposure to 50 pesticides. Using that data researchers were able to compare their cancer rates with their use of certain pesticides.

    Six chemicals in all, including two fungicides (Benomyl and Maneb/mancozeb) and two insecticides (Carbaryl and methyl/ethyl parathion) were found to double the risk of developing skin cancer with repeated exposure of more than 50 lifetime days.

    Sun exposure

    The researchers, led by Professor Leslie Dennis from the University of Iowa, admitted their study was limited by being unable to control for sun exposure.

    ‘Sun exposure, perhaps the strongest risk factor for melanoma, is difficult to capture via questionnaire. Since farmers spend a great deal of time in the sun, we cannot rule out the possibility that these pesticides-specific results are driven by sun exposure.’

    However, they concluded that agricultural chemicals should now be considered as a risk factor.

    ‘Most of the previous melanoma literature has focused on [personal] factors and sun exposure, but our study suggests more research is needed on chemicals and other environmental factors that may increase the risk of cutaneous [skin] melanoma,’ they said.

    A study published by the EU Parliament in 2008 found increased cancer rates among children of farm workers and children living on farms.

    Nick Mole, from the Pesticides Action Network-UK (PAN), said he hoped the current UK consultation on pesticide use, which ends on May 4th, would bring in greater protection for farm workers, including restrictions on re-entering sprayed areas and greater use of non-chemical alternatives.

    Useful links
    Full study: ‘Pesticide Use and Cutaneous Melanoma in Pesticide  Applicators in the Agricultural Heath Study’, published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal

  • Britain brandishes olive branch to restart global climate change talks

     

    Britain’s unilateral move addresses the key issue that doomed Copenhagen – that the rich accept the legally binding commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions enshrined in Kyoto.

    The initiative could lead to two separate global treaties on climate change. It also offers a challenge to China, India and other major developing countries, who have been unwilling to commit legally to acting on climate change because the Kyoto agreement specifically exempts them.

    “We are asking that developing countries internationalise in a legally binding agreement the actions they take domestically,” said the government action plan, published today in advance of formal UN negotiations that reopen next week in Bonn.

    “We would not envisage developing countries being subject to any punitive compliance measures,” it added.

    The move is the strongest signal yet that rich countries’ attempts to sideline or even abandon the Kyoto treaty have failed and that the negotiations will continue within the 192-nation UN climate body and not in smaller groups of countries as the US and other nations had wanted.

    “We hope by doing this we can take away the myth that developed countries were trying to destroy Kyoto,” said Miliband.

    “We are determined to unblock the negotiations. We are willing to offer a second agreement under Kyoto, provided there is a separate legal treaty covering all other countries.”

    The move was immediately welcomed by Bharrat Jagdeo, president of Guyana. But he warned that developing countries would not accept an agreement if rich countries – who have emitted by far the most carbon pollution – did not commit to further deep cuts in emissions.

    Referring to the US, he said: “There are countries who stick out and clearly need to do more work. If the largest [developed] country emitter falls so far below the minimum, it makes it far harder for other countries, and you lose the element of justice and fairness.”

    The diplomatic moves came as Gordon Brown met billionaire financier George Soros; Obama’s economic adviser Larry Summers; economist Lord Nicholas Stern and other finance ministers to find ways to raise $30bn (£20bn) a year immediately and $100bn a year by 2020 to enable developing countries to adapt to climate change.

    The high-level advisory group on climate change financing, convened by UN general secretary Ban Ki-moon and chaired by Brown and Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi, will consider at least six ways of raising up to $1tn dollars for climate change adaptation. These include:

    • a small levy on all international aviation and shipping

    • enlarging existing carbon cap-and-trade markets

    • imposing a small “Robin Hood”-type tax on all financial transactions

    • using the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights.

    The group of 19 financial leaders have been asked by Ban to report back by November, when UN climate talks take place in Cancun, Mexico.

    Environment and development groups welcomed the British initiative. Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth’s executive director, said: “It’s positive that the government has restated its commitment to the Kyoto protocol, which enshrines the responsibility of rich countries, as the biggest historical polluters, to slash their emissions first and fastest.”

    Joanne Green, head of policy at development agency Cafod, said: “This shows that Gordon Brown is listening to the concerns of developing countries. This is a first stride in rebuilding the trust desperately needed between developing and developed countries.”

    And Melanie Ward, Christian Aid’s UK political adviser, said: “The positive language needs to be matched by the necessary political choices.

    “These include using international finance to support clean development in poor countries, rather than more dirty coal power stations, and demanding much deeper cuts in EU emissions levels.”

  • Lasers could create clean nuclear energy

     

    Emeritus Professor Heinrich Hora, of the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of New South Wales, is leading the research effort, and says the process relies on a new generation of extremely powerful and very fast lasers being developed.

    “The key is a very carefully controlled extremely short laser pulse essential for ignition. The pulse would ignite a fuel made of ordinary hydrogen and boron-11,” Professor Hora said.

    “The idea of a hydrogen and boron fusion reaction is interesting because it wouldn’t cause neutron production. Neutrons are a problem because they generate radioactivity.”

    The team’s findings appear in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.

    Professor Hora says his team was originally developing computer models using next generation lasers to duplicate the work being done at the new $4.34 billion National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States.

    The US scientists are developing what is currently the world’s largest laser to ignite highly compressed spheres of deuterium-tritium fuel in a nuclear fusion reaction.

     

    Fast and furious

     

    The laser can produce a pulse of a few billionths of a second duration which produces 500 times more power than all US power stations combined.

    Professor Hora’s team originally rejected the idea of a hydrogen-boron fuel for their simulations “because the higher temperatures and compression needed made it 100,000 times more difficult than the Lawrence Livermore approach, making it just about impossible”.

    “But when we ran computer simulations using these next generation petawatt [quadrillion watt] strength lasers with a hydrogen-boron fuel, we were shocked to find that it’s only 10 times more difficult than deuterium-tritium,” he said.

    “It makes this all within the reach of current technology in a relatively short time. In fact these types of lasers are already in early testing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.”

    Professor Hora says the key is to ensure the laser pulse is “extremely clean”, lasting no more than a millionth of a millionth of a second.

    “This allows conversion of optical energy to mechanical energy without heating,” he says.

    Professor Hora says the hydrogen-boron fuel has a numberof advantages over deuterium-tritium.

    “It would be largely free of radioactive emissions producing less radiation than that emitted by current power stations that burn coal, which contains trace amounts of uranium,” he says.

    According to Professor Hora, hydrogen and boron are plentiful and readily accessible, and the waste product of ignition would be clean helium gas.

    “The hydrogen-boron fuel would not have to be compressed. This means it needs far less energy to start the ignition,” he said.

    But Professor Hora warns the study only demonstrates the potential of the new process and much work needs to be done to demonstrate it in practice.

    Tags: science-and-technology, energy, engineering, physics, united-states, university-of-new-south-wales-2052