This white paper examines the current challenges for clean energy infrastructure and identifies solutions that industrial clusters, transport and logistics industries, and the wider clean energy value chain can jointly explore in order to accelerate its deployment. Thirteen new industrial clusters from Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, …
IN THE midst of the Australian desert, a group of musicians play live music powered by a solar power system. The large images projected on the screen are operated by a wind power system. The truck in which they travel from forests to deserts runs on vegetable oil. That is …
A team of British scientists analysed what has generally been accepted as the world's oldest fossils of bacteria, embedded in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks from western Australia, and they concluded that the rocks had never been more than non-living rocks. "None of the structures we see there we would interpret as fossils,' …
imitations can never compete with real ones. This has yet again been proved with two new studies showing that test-tube babies have more chances of having major health problems than normally conceived ones. While more than 90 per cent of babies conceived through assisted reproductive technology (art) are born healthy, …
Up to 20 per cent of women with inherited breast cancer have a mutation in the gene that is responsible for repairing damage by radiation therapy. A team, comprising Australian and German researchers, recently found two key mutations in the gene called ATM. "If one copy of the mutated non-functioning …
for the past many years, Japan has come up with frivolous reasons for killing hundreds of whales: the mammals may be eating commercially important quantities of fish, therefore, it is important to identify the contents of their diet. Now, Australian and us scientists have developed a method that will challenge …
Intelligence is effected by the environment one grows in, proves an analysis of 124 studies published in the January issue of Psychological Review. Dennis Garlick, of the University of Sydney in Australia, says that the neural plasticity model of intelligence better explains how intelligence is developed. His model suggests that …
despite protests from animal rights groups, Australia's annual cull of kangaroos shot up by more than a quarter this year. Citing substantial population increase, environment minister David Kemp raised the annual commercial quota for killing kangaroos by around 1.5 million to 6.9 million. However, many term this practice as "cruel …
This Radiation Protection Standard (hereafter referred to as ‘the Standard’) sets limits for human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) fields in the frequency range 3 kHz to 300 GHz. The Standard includes: mandatory basic restrictions for both occupational and general public exposure involving all or part of the human body; indicative …
Negotiations over the past four years have diluted the already weak Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997. The protocol requires industrialised countries to reduce emissions of heat trapping gases like carbon dioxide to about five per cent below 1990 levels. This target is to be achieved between 2008-12. At the latest …
they might well be the modern-day buccaneers. To further their research, agricultural and pharmaceutical companies often tap local communities for traditional knowledge relating to the use of biological resour ces. The conglomerates lose no time in appropriating this painstakingly assimilated information. And make a fast buck by developing products based …
australians are the worst greenhouse gas (ghg) polluters in the industrialised world, a new analysis shows. Every Australian is responsible for 27.6 tonnes of ghg emitted, while every Indian is responsible for only about one tonne, the Australia Institute analysis showed. Furthermore, average Australian ghg emissions are 30 per cent …
Australian nuclear waste will now be shipped and processed in Argentina. Officials of both the countries recently signed an agreement to this effect, which has caused concern among the environmentalists. Australia presently sends its spent fuel to France for reprocessing. But following the treaty, Argentina will import the spent uranium …
the biggest coral structure in the world might be threatened very soon. The Australian government has left the option of future oil drilling open near the Great Barrier Reef. tgs nopec Geophysical, a Houston-based multinational company, has recently proposed to carry out exploration for oil near the world heritage area …
australia has rejected a proposal to introduce carbon tax for curbing the emissions of greenhouse gases. The proposal was made by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Develop ment (oecd), whose officials felt that Australia could use economic measures to prevent environmental degradation. But the suggestion met with severe opposition …
Ancient humans started destroying the abundance of the seas by slaughtering numerous species of animals, changing a delicate balance that was tipped further by excesses of the modern age, a recent study finds. Effects of the environmental damage caused by the disappearance of key species, such as sea turtles in …
A previously unknown virus could be contributing to the global decline in number of marine mammals. Studies were conducted by on declining populations of southern elephant seals of Macquarie Island, 2,000 km south of mainland Australia. The study revealed that lice that infect the seals carry a type of virus …
the unique species of Christmas Island are being threatened by a deal between the Australian and Russian governments to launch commercial rockets from there. The Australian-run island is located in the Indian Ocean and has a major unexplored cave system. Biologists say that the launch site on the island's south …
the maximum fine for damaging Australia's Great Barrier Reef has been increased tenfold to us $571,000. Robert Hill, the country's environment minister, said that any vessel polluting or illegally fishing in the marine park would be liable to pay the fine. Penalties for other offences such as picking up corals …
