The sequel to the ground breaking End of Suburbia will be available from the Ebono Institute as of
October 1. The film deals with different approaches to tackling a low energy future and examines the obstacles people face as they attempt to implement a low carbon lifestyle.
See a snip from the film and read reviews at One Stop Green Shop
Premier screenings will be held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne during October. Stay tuned for details of those events.
Our existence on this planet is precarious.
exposes globalization and the mantra of infinite growth in a finite world for what it really is: an environmental and human disaster.
But across India marginal farmers are fighting back. By reviving biodynamics an arcane form of agriculture, they are saving their poisoned lands and exposing the bio-colonialism of multinational corporations. tells their story through the teachings of an elderly New Zealander many are calling the new Gandhi.
Find out more at One Stop Green Shop
Committee scrutiny not good enough: Allison said: "Typically that committee does not undertake a thorough examination of the sorts of issues that have already been raised by Senator Milne and which I will raise as well. It is doubtful that that could be in any way a thorough going over of this agreement, so why not refer it to a committee for proper examination?"
Why now? "I would also ask why it is that we have to have this deal with Russia right now. This is a major departure from the previously cautious approach that Australia has taken to who gets to have its uranium. At the end of an electoral cycle why is it that suddenly this agreement needs to be renegotiated and signed? I think that is something of a mystery. It is also questionable whether, with an election looming, even the treaty process which is being promised will have any effect at all".
Russia has enough of its own uranium: The first point I want to make is that we are being sold something of a pup, because it is not clear to me how the government can justify Russia needing our uranium. Russia has its own uranium. Even if Russia were to install 30 reactors over the next 30 years, there would be no need for us to rush into an agreement with Russia to hand over our uranium to it. It does not need it at this point in time. In fact, Russia has 700 tonnes of highly enriched uranium which was extracted from the nuclear weapons that it dismantled in the 1990s. That highly enriched uranium is required to be mixed with uranium in order to make a substance which is then exported to other countries, notably the United States".
What’s really going on: "The real issue here seems to be not so much that Russia needs our uranium but that Russia needs our uranium so that it can pass a product off to the United States. At least half of the United States’ supply of reactor fuel has been sourced from Russia over recent years. But there is, as I said, 700 tonnes of highly enriched uranium still sitting there. Not only that but there are 10,000 weapons. It has been said that Russia needs to be congratulated for reducing its armaments, its nuclear weapons arsenal. It did; it got rid of mostly obsolete weapons, and that presumably did not pose a problem, but it still holds 10,000 nuclear warheads—probably enough to blow up the planet as we know it. Why Australia has not taken the opportunity to leverage out of Russia an agreement to a time frame within which it will dismantle the remainder of its weapons is anyone’s guess".
Reference: Lyn Allison, Senator for Victoria, Leader of the Australian Democrats, Commonwealth Senate, 17 September 2007 (on Committees: Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee Reference)
Opposition result of misunderstanding: "The other users of the lower aquifer are industrial or township users," said Hanna. "There are not many industrial users in the area, but there are one or two townships that use it. This just makes it all the more important that we get this bit right, because we do not want that underground aquifer to be diminished unduly when communities actually rely on it for their drinking and household water.
Grape growers and irrigators fearful: A lot of concern was expressed by farmers and other water users in the Penola region about the significant water allocation to the mill. Some of that concern was based on a misunderstanding that the allocation of water was from the top aquifer, which is where the grape growers and irrigators generally get their water.
Top already overallocated: "In respect of the top aquifer, there are a number of areas around Penola where the water is already overallocated (in other words, there is an unsustainable drawing of water), and there are also a lot of bores where the trigger levels have been reached.
Bores have tried out: "These trigger levels are simply measurement points where the sustainability of the bore is threatened. There are many bores in the region not far from the mill where those trigger points have been exceeded. In other words, for some water users around Penola, and around the area where the mill will be situated, there are real problems in drawing sufficient water for their crops, their orchards, etc".
Problem of possible aquifer interconnection: "The problem really arises if, indeed, there is some sort of interconnectivity between the upper and lower aquifers," Hanna said. "If there is heavy additional use of the lower aquifer, and if there is a connection or a leakage between the two, there will be additional pressure on the upper aquifer. There was some evidence of such interconnectivity. Mr Glen Harrington, a long-time public servant and now independently an expert consultant in relation to water resources, acknowledged some interconnectivity. However, our science is simply not at the level where we can determine what or even where it is. But there is probably some sort of leakage between the upper and lower aquifers in the region not far from where the mill will be and where Kalangadoo, for example, draws its water.
Scientific basis for caution: So there is a scientific basis for some real concern about additional large allocations of water from the underground aquifer. Water has only been cautiously allocated from that aquifer. I set out all that information because of the real concerns of a number of existing water users, particularly of the upper aquifer. If we find out in future that there is substantial leakage from the upper to lower aquifer, we will have to revise the allocation policy for the lower aquifer, including that for industrial users such as the mill, in future. These are the concerns that led the committee to recommend that the government have the ability to reduce water allocation to the mill but not increase it."
Reference: Kris Hanna, Member for Mitchell, Political Party, Independent, House of Assembly, South Australia, 11 September 2007.
Erisk Net, 16/9/2007
No observers from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) were on hand, so the flight may not officially break the previous record of 30 hours, 24 minutes, 1 second set by Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4A "Global Hawk" on March 21, 2001.
But the FAI is currently reviewing a second test flight of the Zephyr that lasted 33 hours, 43 minutes.
The Zephyr is an ultralight aircraft made of carbon fiber. Though it has a 60-foot (18-meter) wingspan, it weighs just 66 pounds (30 kilograms) and is launched by hand.
During the day, the plane draws on power supplied by paper-thin solar arrays mounted on its wings, while simultaneously charging batteries used for night operations.
With further improvements, it’s hoped that not everything that goes up has to come down. The solar-powered aircraft could stay in the sky indefinitely, acting as a permanent surveillance source or temporary communications relay during an emergency.
"Both flights were achieved in the face of thunderstorms and debilitating heat in the hostile environment of the New Mexico high desert in the summertime," Paul Davey, Zephyr business development director at QinetiQ, said in a press release.
"They have proved that an autonomous UAV can be operated on solar-electric power for the duration required to support persistent military operations."
But in spite of the huge potential of the Turkish wind power sector—the country is surrounded by the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Sea—so far Turkey has made a slow start in exploiting its wind energy potential.
In 2006, only 19 MW of wind power capacity were installed, and this year, installed wind capacity increased to a little under 140 MW.
There are ten wind farms—mainly on land—clustered together in the west of the country and in the Aegean region, including in Çanakkale, close to the site of ancient Troy, Çeþme, Akhisar and on the island of Bozcaada,
Tanay Sýdký Uyar, Vice President of the World Wind Energy Association and Associate Professor of Renewable Energy at Marmara University, said that Turkey had a huge potential for renewable electricity from wind, solar and geothermal sources. He estimated that Turkey could install a wind capacity of 100,000 MW of electricity.
Currently, Turkey has a total installed capacity of about 40,000 MW for electricity from all energy sources.
"Wind power could supply Turkey’s electricity needs twice over within five to ten years if the government had the political will to develop this sector," he told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.
However, Uyar said that the government was slow to give licences to build new wind parks.
A backlog of applications to build wind farms with a total operating capacity of 8,000 MW is still waiting for approval from the government. So far the government has issued about 40 licences for wind parks, each with an installed capacity of between 20 and 60 MW.
The country’s capacity for solar energy is also estimated to be huge, with an average of 7.2 hours of sunshine each day, according to the Research Institute for Electricity Affairs (EIEI) in Ankara.
Also, Uyar said that geothermal energy has the potential to supply 5 million households with heating.
In 2005, Turkey passed a new renewable energy law to bring it into line with European Union legislation to support renewable sources, including wind power, by giving a government guarantee to purchase electricity at a set price for a period of 7 years.
But the tariff of about 5 euro cents per kWh of electricity is much lower than in most other European countries, and economic studies say it discourages investment in the renewable energy sector.
"We have terrific geographic conditions for solar and wind power in Turkey. Exploiting it is already economically and technically possible, but the problem is that the government favors fossil fuels and nuclear energy," Uyar said.
Turkey is locked into long-term agreements to purchase natural gas at fixed prices and also nuclear energy technology and these agreements are a financial disincentive to developing renewable energy, Uyar said.
The government is planning to build 3 nuclear reactors with a total capacity of 4,500 MW by 2012.
Uyar also said that more needed to be done in Turkey to make energy use more efficient.
"There is a huge amount of energy waste. Turkey can cut its electricity needs by 50% if it uses more up-to-date energy efficient technology and so help keep down carbon emissions," he said.
The share of energy that comes from renewable energy sources in Turkey is tiny. In 2006, the country had an installed biomass capacity of 35 MW and 15 MW of geothermal energy.
In addition, Turkey had an installed capacity of 13,100 MW of hydro power, 38,867 MW of thermal power, 11,850 MW of natural gas, 7,491 MW of lignite, 1,845 MW of hard coal, 2,230 MW of oil.