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  • Climate Institute Report card fails Labor and Coalition, with Greens outright winner

    The Climate Institute report card on the parties’ climate change policies shows a stark contrast between the successful Greens (90%) and failed Coalition (23%) and Labor (40%). The environment and climate change tops the economy as a voters’ concern in 2007.

    "The Climate Institute’s methodology is conservative. For example, it overlooks the huge greenhouse gas policies of both big parties in promoting the logging and burning of Tasmania’s forests and Gunns’ polluting pulp mill which will exude 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Both parties back public monies going to fund these activities," Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

    "The Greens’ policy to retrofit Australia’s 7.4 million homes with insulation and a solar hot water service has not been matched by Mr Turnbull or Mr Garrett," Senator Brown said.

    "And neither party is prepared for the shock news (Guardian overnight)that world oil production peaked in 2006 and will fall 7% per year – an issue Greens Senator Christine Milne has pursued in the senate for years."

    "The Greens’ call for a funding switch from tollways to fast, efficient public transport must be heard by Labor and the Coalition," Senator Brown said.

  • Queensland delivers world’s most expensive water

    More waste-water necessary: A Water Commission spokesperson said the cost of Western Corridor recycled water should be assessed on a whole-of-life basis rather than simply on initial output levels, which would be expected to pick up once the drought broke and restrictions were eased. However, without additional sources of waste-water, there would barely be enough water to supply South East Queensland’s power stations, let alone provide extra potable water for two million residents.

    Grey water could be used: National water officials were not aware of more expensive water anywhere in the world. The Queensland Water Commission had been searching without success for viable waste-water sources for the past six months — yet had turned a blind eye to one of the most obvious. Tens of millions of litres of grey water diverted into gardens and yards each day could be sent down the drain for recycling. It said the Government had been fooling residents when it masked a pipeline cost blowout with the announcement it would have a capacity of 300 million litres a day. The so-called increase in capacity meant nothing in the absence of increased water.

    Dams about to fall 20 per cent below capacity: SEQ dams were on track to fall below 20 per cent of capacity next month without further heavy rain.

    The Courier Mail, 16/10/2007, p. 4

  • UK claims Antarctic sea floor

    Aus claim not pursued: All territorial claims in the far south were frozen under the terms of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. Despite strong indications of offshore oil and gas reserves, a ban on minerals exploration could not be revisited there until 2048. But the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf opened the way for claimant countries to extend their possessions anyway. The Federal Government spent $40 million to survey a claim to about 1.8 million square kilometres of extended continental shelf off the Australian Antarctic Territory, which it lodged with the UN, drawing objections from six countries. In a compromise that avoided more open conflict, Australia lodged the claim with the UN commission, then asked that it be shelved.

    Likely to be shelved, too: "It’s likely not to go far because it is contested sovereignty," said Dr Hemmings, a senior fellow at the University of Canterbury’s Gateway Antarctica. "The UK proposal would be sure to attract a raft of protests too." Hemmings said countries that made claims did so because under the terms of the Commission of the limits on the Continental Shelf they had a "use it or lose it" deadline of 2009.

    The Age, 18/10/2007, p. 5

  • Food prices soaring on international markets

    Impact of international markets: Economists Katie Dean, Riki Polygenis and Amber Rabinov estimated food prices would rise 5 per cent this financial year and were unlikely to retreat much because developments in international markets would outweigh the benefits of any return to normal seasonal conditions.

    Massive price increases due to global demand, constrained supply: An increase in global food demand at a time of constrained supply had helped drive massive growth in many basic foodstuffs. In the 12 months to September the price of barley had soared by 128 per cent on global trading exchanges, while wheat had gained 60 per cent and dairy products such as powdered milk had surged 79 per cent. Adverse weather conditions had hit grain crops, with growth forecasts for global wheat production in 2007-08 slashed from 5.4 per cent to 1.7 per cent.

    Long-term constraints in food supply: Climate change and a decrease in arable land because of population growth, industrialisation and environmental degradation threatened to constrain food supply in the long term.

    The Australian Financial Review, 19/10/2007, p. 18

  • Tree dwelling fish reproduces on its own

    Biologists studying the killifish say they astonished it can cope for so long out of its natural habitat.

    The discovery, along with its ability to breed without a mate, must make the mangrove killifish, Rivulus marmoratus Poey, one of the oddest fish known to man.

    Around two inches long, they normally live in muddy pools and the flooded burrows of crabs in the mangrove swamps of Florida, Latin American and Caribbean.

    The latest discovery was made by biologists wading through swamps in Belize and Florida who found hundreds of killifish hiding out of the water in the rotting branches and trunks of trees.

    The fish had flopped their way to their new homes when their pools of water around the roots of mangroves dried up. Inside the logs, they were lined up end to end along tracks carved out by insects.

    Dr Scott Taylor of the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Programme in Florida admitted the creatures were a little odd.

    "They really don’t meet standard behavioural criteria for fish," he told New Scientist magazine.

    Although the cracks inside logs make a perfect hiding place, conditions can be cramped. The fish – which are usually fiercely territorial – are forced to curb their aggression.

    Another study, published earlier this year, revealed how they alter their bodies and metabolism to cope with life out of water.

    Their gills are altered to retain water and nutrients, while they excrete nitrogen waste through their skin.

    These changes are reversed as soon as they return to the water.

    Previously their biggest claim to fame was that they are the only known vertebrate – animal with a backbone – to reproduce without the need for a mate.

    Killifish can develop both female and male sexual organs, and fertilise their eggs while they are still in the body, laying tiny embryos into the water.

    They are not the only fish able to breathe air. The walking catfish of South-east Asia has gills that allow it to breathe in air and in water.

    The climbing perch of India can suffocate in water unless it can also gulp in air.

  • Red wine and Green tea may extend human life

    Diet it seems is a major contributory factor.An experiment with the worms proves that sugar turns on a genetic sequence that increases the amount of insulin produced by an organism, which in turn causes the body to demand more sugar. This increases damage to cells in the body, speeding up the slow degradation of cells that contribute to aging. Red wine and green tea have been shown to help repair cells and contribute to an increased lifespan.

    The most significant finding is that the worms remained vigorous till until the very end of their extended lives. In human terms it would mean that a person would remain young for decades, growing old very slowly. It also suggests a radical new method for treating maladies of aging such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and some cancers, which might be put off or eliminated if youth is extended. ‘Age is the single largest risk factor for an enormous number of diseases,’ says Kenyon. ‘So if you can essentially postpone aging, then you can have beneficial effects on a whole wide range of disease.’

    When asked whether it was possible to be immortal Kenyon says ‘I think it might be possible. I’ll tell you why. You can think about the life span of a cell being the integral of two vectors in a sense, the force of destruction and the force of prevention, maintenance and repair. In most animals the force of destruction has still got the edge. But why not bump up the genes just a little bit, the maintenance genes. All you have to do is have the maintenance level a little higher. It doesn’t have to be much higher. It just has to be a little higher, so that it counterbalances the force of destruction. And don’t forget, the germ lineage is immortal. So it’s possible at least in principle.’