Submitted by rickeyre on
5% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. (Maybe 15% if the rest of the world pitches in.)
$4 billion compensation package to the coal industry.
Stacks of free emissions permits on offer.
Emissions from logging/deforestation exempt.
More later. Pardon me while I take my shoes off...
Submitted by rickeyre on
Submitted by rickeyre on
Submitted by rickeyre on
Submitted by rickeyre on
This is the start of a public beta test vlog that I am trialling, utilising worldwide news sources that make available embeddable video reports on environmental/business themes. With Green Day having taken place on Tuesday, this seems as good a time as any to start.
To kick it off, a report from Reuters dated April 18. I know that the hoi polloi with their harbourside mansions in Sydney hate mangroves because they spoil those investment-hungry "harbour views", and that they attract the mozzies, but mangroves serve an extremely valuable role in the ecosystem, especially as protection against erosion. And it's believed that many thousands of lives could have been spared in the 2004 tsunami if mangroves hadn't been removed on the coasts of India, Sri Lanka and Sumatra.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reports that up to a third of the world's mangroves have disappeared. In the Republic of Congo Reuters Television meets a man who has taken up the challenge of saving his country's mangroves.
Submitted by rickeyre on
It's official. The compact fluorescent lightbulb is the Official Bulb of the State of Texas.
The San Antonio Business Journal takes up the story.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Grist, that marvellous online environmental news magazine, has released its list of the world's fifteen greenest cities.
Reykjavik at number one is interesting, as is Curitiba at three even if only because I hadn't previously heard of it (likewise Bahía de Caráquez at nine). But Sydney at 10? The reasons they give are unconvincing, though to be fair Sydney is not that bad in the post-Olympic era.
Submitted by rickeyre on
"At this rate, it will take Australia 267 years to make the kind of shift to solar that California has planned for 10 years - a million solar roofs by 2017."
- Senator Christine Milne (The Greens), 8.5.07
Senator Milne is referring to the extensions in the solar panel rebate program, or PVRP - Photo Voltaic Rebate Program announced in the 2007-08 Federal Budget. Extensions worth $150 million - that's $7 per capita. Seven dollars.
Submitted by rickeyre on
A short item on the ABC Rural News yesterday grabbed my attention, about a Namibian scientist talking to locals in far west New South Wales about harvesting water from fog.
There's more on the Fog Collection Project at the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre website, and on the Canadian website fogquest.org.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Australia's Can't-Do Prime Minister on Climate Change:
Quote number one (House of Reps Question Time, 28.3.07):
"I am aware of the views expressed by Sir Nicholas Stern. Some of the views that he has expressed I agree with, some I have reservations about and some, I believe, if implemented, literally would do great damage to the Australian economy. When it comes to the decisions of the government, uppermost in our mind will be the national interest, not the views of any one individual, however eminent he may be regarded by some."
