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  • Woolworths losing ground in local cases

    We have won the final stage; no two story supermarket will be built on The Hive site, Erskineville Road, Newtown / Erskineville.

    Judgment was delivered in Artro Management Pty Ltd v Council of the City of Sydney at 9.30AM on 13 January 2009. Council was successful in persuading the Court that the development application did not comply with its instruments and would lead to unacceptable amenity impacts on the Erskineville Village area. The Development Application was refused and the appeal dismissed. For a copy of the judgment and the Court’s reasons for refusing the development application, please ‘click’ on the button ‘Court Decision ‘to the right on this website.

    village friends, the Friends of Erskineville Village wish to sincerely thank all our thousands of supporters in our community who have remained diligent, focused and committed since we began our campaign in August 2007 to stop this over development.

    Celebration Drinks.
    Join us at The Rose of Australia Hotel ( Cocktail Bar ) Friday, 23 January from 1830.

    Erskineville is the Winner

    We face many challenges in our area to protect our village way of life. The future of the Tram Sheds, PYC Site, The Hive site, Service Station ( when it is sold ), The Imperial Hotel, the continued rejuvenation of Erskineville Village, management of the increasingly invasive through traffic on Erskineville Road, they will all impact on our way of life, and these issues need to be empathetically managed.

    These are some examples our communities reaction to the decision to reject the Woolworths / Harold Finger Development Application to build a Two Story Supermarket on The Hive site.

    Many thanks for the update. I spend a great deal of my time overseas (currently in China) so have not been able to physically support the group/action as I would like. I am 100% excited about the outcome and want to thank everyone who has so diligently worked to achieve this. Thanks again, and I can continue to look forward to my home time in Erskineville WITHOUT the supermarket

  • Macca spray blamed for two headed fish

    From The Land

    The facts read like a Crichton-esque thriller: A fish farmer’s latest brood turns out bizarre two-headed fish larvae, allegations of chemical contamination emerge and government agencies remain baffled about just what caused it.

    Mystery continues to surround the the two-headed fish larvae at Gwen Gilson’s Sunland Fish Hatchery, which came to national attention this week after 90pc of her latest batch of embryos, taken from breeding stock from the Noosa River, emerged deformed, including some with two heads.

    But Ms Gilson said the problem wasn’t a new one and claimed it was clear to her what was causing it: chemicals from an adjacent macadamia farm.

    She and NSW veterinary expert Dr Matt Landos made a video to explain what they thought the impact from the chemicals were, including reducing the catch from the Noosa River and causing health effects in people.

    “Over two years ago, we noticed that after the spraying drifted over our ponds, our next batch had convulsions and every time we have used water that has been exposed to the (Carbendazim) spray, we have the same results,” Ms Gilson said.

    Ms Gilson said that ever since, she has had problems with contaminated water on the site affecting the hatchlings.

    “This time, we went to the river to get wild stock and this has happened.

    “We still can’t use the water from the site and can only get normal births by using water from our other site or treating them with atropine.”

    Carbendazim products are used for the control of mould, spot, mildew, scorch, rot and blight in a variety of crops including cereals, fruit (pome, stone, citrus, currants, strawberries, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, avocados), as well as macadamia production.

    Australian Macadamia Society CEO Jolyon Burnett said no other cases like this had been reported near macadamia farms and the chemicals used by farmers were thoroughly regulated.

    “Macadamia farmers often have their families on the farm and they wouldn’t spray anything that would have serious health effects on their children,” he said.

    Initial Department of Primary Industries have so far found the adjacent farms complied with the regulations on Carbendazim limits, a spokesman said.

    A spokesman for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts Minister Peter Garret said the Department Environment had been asked for an evaluation of whether Carbendazim or another chemical is implicated in the reported fish kills and deformities.

    Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority spokesman Simon Cubit said the regulations on the fungicide had been under review and if Carbendazim, which is banned in New Zealand for a different use, was found to play a role that would play a critical role in determining whether restrictions would be tightened.

    Despite all the speculation, the DPI, which is investigating the matter, along with EPA and local authorities, says dietary, and other environmental factors haven’t been ruled out.

    “So far we haven’t had any traces of the Carbendazim in the water samples taken from the river,” an EPA spokesman said today.

    Acting Premier Paul Lucas said people should not jump to conclusions until the bizarre incident is thoroughly investigated, as the appearance might be a natural genetic variation.

    So as to what caused the two-headed fish hatchlings, only time and solid science will tell.

  • Inaugration a Green Tie Event

    By Marisa Belger @ MSNBC

    As Washington, D.C., rumbles with pre-inaugural preparations — confirming VIP guest lists, double-checking menus, stocking bars — several party planners find themselves adding another section to their checklists: eco-consciousness.

    History will be made next Tuesday as Barack Obama is sworn in as president, but the celebrations will be framed in another first as organic and local food, carbon offsets and energy-efficient lighting debut on the party planning priority list.

    If any presidential inauguration were to feature not one — but two — carbon-neutral galas, it would be Obama’s. The President-elect has made his hopes for environmental action clear, and when you think about it, there’s no better moment to kickstart the new green economy then at an inaugural fiesta.

    Green galas
    Hoping to set a clear eco-example, the planners behind these environmentally conscious events — The Green Inaugural Ball hosted by Al Gore and The Green Inaugural Party hosted by Event Emissary, a DC-based event planner — have transformed their conventional parties into paradigms of eco-entertaining.

    “We want to show people that you can do an event at the caliber of an inaugural ball and still have it be green,” says Jenna Mack, a co-producer of the Green Inaugural Party taking place January 17. “We have greened every aspect of the event.” She’s not kidding. Any leftover food (organic and local of course) from the event will be composted; the outdoor catering tents will be powered with a biodiesel generator; energy-efficient LEDs will make up the decorative lighting; VIPs will skip the plastic bottles, hydrating instead with water made from the air (check out ecoloblue.com to learn all about atmospheric water generation); and staff and talent (including headliner Wyclef Jean) will be shuttled in chauffeured electric cars — thanks to GEM, a division of Chrysler — among other highly considered eco details.

    Meanwhile, the Green Inaugural Ball (January 19) will be meeting equally high environmental standards — but with Al Gore as the face of the event, was there ever another option? “We’re really focused,” says Shelley Cohen, chair of the event’s greening committee. “We’re looking at everything holistically, understanding that everything makes an impact.” Lucky attendees will walk down Bentley Prince Street’s recycled green carpet; dine on food sourced — when possible — from vendors in the D.C. metropolitan area; wash their hands with biodegradable soap; and rest assured that 100 percent of the energy used to power the event is being offset through a partnership with carbon offset organization Native Energy.

    Transportation
    But green tie events are just the beginning of the eco-awareness that will be sweeping D.C. during inauguration week. Revelers — estimates predict that millions of people will descend on the city — are encouraged to leave their cars at home and seek out alternative and public methods of transportation (there will never be a better opportunity to see ball gowns on the Metro). Bike riders can utilize the Washington Area Bike Association’s two free bike valet stations at the primary inaugural event; friends of the segway (a two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle) can rent the contraption through Segs in the City. Those who insist on four wheels can make a better choice by renting a hybrid vehicle from a local rental agent or looking for one of the Saturn hybrids that will be used as courtesy vehicles throughout the inauguration.   

    Accommodation
    Are you extraordinarily wealthy and interested in greening your accommodations while in D.C.? For a mere $40,000 you can experience the Fairmont Washington D.C.’s “Eco-Inaugural Package,” which includes four nights in a eco-sumptuous suite made from rapidly renewable materials like bamboo; a party gown designed by famed sustainable designer Linda Loudermilk; a series of organic spa treatments; an all-organic midnight supper; and a Lexus hybrid complete with driver for all of your transportation needs.

    Or you can do what I would do and crash on the couch in the house of your best D.C. buddy.

    Personal responsibility
    From green balls to green transportation, I can’t help but wonder if all of this inaugural eco-effort has rubbed off on other presidential affairs taking place next week — including the main event. “My understanding is that [Obama’s inaugural team] has brought in a consultant to help them with green measures,” says Mack. “It’s obviously something this administration cares about. I am confident that they are working to green the event.” And if the inauguration can go green, we can, too. “We are encouraging people to take personal responsibility,” says Cohen.” We’ve demonstrated that this is a very doable thing, that there is an infrastructure for it.”

  • Farmers attack failed carbon scheme

    To cap off what AFI executive director Mick Keogh calls the “all stick and no carrot” nature of the CPRS, nowhere in the design of the scheme is there any incentive for farmers to innovate with offsets like forestry or soil carbon sequestration.

    Nor are there imbedded incentives for research organisations to plunge money into emissions-reduction R&D, with no apparent means of making a return on the investment.

    The result, says the AFI report, headlined Emission Impossible, is that by 2016, the farm sector could be bleeding between 2.4pc and 7.8pc of its cash margins to the CPRS, with no ability to trade on its assumed ability to sequester carbon, other than through voluntary markets yet to be devised.

    Should agriculture be included under the CPRS in 2015, as is currently being discussed, outcomes could be even worse.

    Even if government recognises agriculture as “trade exposed” and provides 90pc of emissions permits at no cost, AFI’s modelling suggests that farm cash margins across the sector would drop between 3-24pc.

    If agriculture is brought under the CPRS umbrella with no upfront assistance, cash margins could in some sectors—notably medium-sized beef-sheep enterprises—shrink by more than 100pc.

    Looked at from all angles, the CPRS is currently a “dead end” for agriculture, Mr Keogh concluded.

    “It’s hard to see where to go from here,” he said.

    “One of the proposals put to government in the run-up to this was that it develop an offsets scheme for agriculture that’s not part of the emissions trading scheme, but enables farmers to act to reduce their emissions and gain some benefit.

    “That was rejected in the Green Paper and the White Paper (on CPRS design).”

    If introduced, agriculture may have developed technologies, like soil carbon sequestration or methane reduction, that allowed it to offset emissions trading costs and ultimately transition smoothly into the CPRS, Mr Keogh said.

    Without it, agriculture faces a raft of new costs outside its control.

    “The bit of the White Paper that I found particularly jarring was the statement that if agriculture didn’t become a covered sector, then a ‘cost-efficient emissions reduction requirement’ would be placed on the sector,” Mr Keogh added.

    “It seems to mean that whatever happens, agriculture will pay the equivalent of the CPRS price for carbon. The way things stand, that will just be a dead hand on the sector.”

  • WorldWatch report highlights need for stability

    From The WorldWatch Institute

    It’s New Year’s Day, 2101. Somehow, humanity survived the worst of global warming—the higher temperatures and sea levels and the more intense droughts and storms—and succeeded in stabilizing the Earth’s climate. Greenhouse gas concentrations are peaking and are expected to drift downward in the 22nd century. The rise in global temperatures is slowing and the natural world is gradually healing. The social contract largely held. And humanity as a whole is better fed, healthier, and more prosperous today than it was a century ago.

    This scenario of an imagined future raises a key question: What must we do in the 21st century—especially in 2009 and the years just following—to make such a future possible, and to head off the kind of climate catastrophe that many scientists now see as likely? This question inspires the theme of the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2009 report: how climate change will play out over the coming century, and what steps we most urgently need to take now.

    The year 2009 will be pivotal for the Earth’s climate. Scientists have warned that we have only a few years to reverse the rise in greenhouse gas emissions and help avoid abrupt and catastrophic climate change. The world community has agreed to negotiate a new climate agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. Early that same year, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th U.S. President. The United States, one of the world’s largest producers of greenhouse gases, will have its best chance to provide global leadership by passing national climate legislation and constructively engaging with the international community to forge a new consensus on halting emissions

    Download Chapter one of the report

  • UK report shows domestic turbines to be underpowered

    The Guardian

    Home wind turbines are generating a fraction of the energy promised by manufacturers, and in some cases use more electricity than they make, a report warns today. The results of what is thought to be the most comprehensive study undertaken of the industry show the worst performers provided just 41 watt-hours a day – less than the energy needed for a conventional lightbulb for an hour, or even to power the turbine’s own electronics.

    On average the turbines surveyed provided enough electricity to light an energy-efficient house, but this still only represented 5%-10% of the manufacturers’ claims, said consultants Encraft. The findings will be an embarrassment for an industry which was an early winner from the small but high-profile rush to adopt green technologies. Trendsetters included the actor Pete Postlethwaite at his country house in Shropshire and novelist Iain Banks at his home near Edinburgh. Opposition leader David Cameron applied for permission for a turbine on his west London home.

    But the results also prove that when turbines are put up in the right places they are a good investment, said Matthew Rhodes, Encraft’s managing director. “Sadly, an average semi-detached house, like the areas where most people live, where there are obstructions like trees and buildings, are poor locations,” he said. The “vast majority” of customers had been poorly advised, said Rhodes: “There’s a risk they [customers] will go off the whole agenda.”

    The study, funded by the Pilkington Energy Efficiency Trust and the BRE Trust, looked at turbines made by five manufacturers in four rural, 10 suburban and 12 urban sites for a year. It found the best performing turbines would generate “clean” electricity equivalent to that needed to manufacture them in less than two years, while the worst performing ones would take 40 years.

    However, Alex Murley, the BWEA’s micro-generation expert, said the study had been skewed unfairly, with few sites, and too many in areas with poor wind.

    New codes of conduct for manufacturers and installers had been introduced, he added. The latest BWEA figures show 1,000 building-mounted small turbines had been installed in the UK by the end of 2007, with 900 of those installed during that year.

    • This article was amended on Friday 15 January 2009. The Encraft Warwick wind trials, which tested building-mounted wind turbines, were not funded by the British Wind Energy Association and the government, as we reported above. The research element of the project was funded by the Pilkington Energy Efficiency Trust and the BRE Trust. This has been corrected.