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, …
genetically modified ( gm ) canola plants, grown in secrecy for experimental purposes, have been carelessly dumped in an open commercial rubbish site, triggering off environmental concerns in the South Australian city of Mount Gambier. These herbicide-resistant "super weeds" are almost impossible to eradicate and Federal government experts have issued …
diverted for farm irrigation, dams and towns use of its waters, the once-mighty Murray river at present flows into the sea in a trickle. Worse, the river has a high level of pollution by the time it enters the sea near Adelaide, capital of the state of South Australia. At …
For long, potted plants have been touted as a solution to the sick building syndrome, a range of symptoms that leaves people feeling tired and irritable but with no specific illness. But, Peter Dingle of Australia's Murdoch University thinks it is a "great urban myth'. He set up five cabins …
one of south Australia's endangered ecosystems, the western basalt plains grasslands, has found a saviour in John Wamsley, founder and managing director of the wildlife conservation company Earth Sanctuaries. The South Australian environmentalist has bought a 1000-hectare property for US $7.8 million to protect Victoria's wildlife sanctuary at the You …
the Tokyo Electric Power Company ( tepco ) plans to plant eucalyptus and other trees on 1,000 hectares of land in Australia in an attempt to offset its greenhouse gas emissions. The world's largest power utility, which accounts for up to 8 per cent of Japan's carbon dioxide ( co …
Australian scientists say that they have discovered the smallest form of life, apparently far smaller than any known bacterium. Called nanobes, because their size is in the realm of nanometres (or one billionth of a metre), they are 20 to 150 nanometres in length and are smaller than cells. Scientists …
The last decade of the 20th century was the warmest recorded in Australia. Figures released recently from the National Climate Centre show that temperatures have climbed steadily across the continent since 1940. The average temperature in the 1990s was 22.14
ACCORDING to Australian researchers, few Australian rivers remain wild while most are suffering the ill effects of agriculture, industry and human settlement. Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) say that only three regions contain rivers in pristine condition: Tasmania, the Prince Regent area in the west Kimberley and Arnhem …
Children exposed to their parents' smoking may soon begin suing them. A recently-released report by Eugene Arocca, a partner at the Australia-based Maurice Blackburn Cashman, says that the focus in tobacco litigation in Australia will soon shift from exposure in the workplace to family law and the hospitality industry. He …
some 250 million years ago, Europe was devastated by the great Permian extinctions which wiped out 95 per cent of the extensive conifer forests covering the land. The impact of this was more widespread than the extinction of the dinosaurs and other forms of life by the asteroid impact 60 …
How did the idea of ecological restoration (ER) originate? The concept of er has been around for more than a century. The earliest published call for restoration, that one can recall, was made in India by the famous theosophist Helena Blavatsky in 1879. Madame Blavatsky, as she was known, predicted …
australia's Christmas Island is witness to a spectacular event every year. Millions of red crabs from this 134-sq km island's rainforest migrate to the sea to spawn, and then crawl back into their burrows. But now these crabs are being attacked by alien invaders. The threat is from supercolonies of …
australian scientists have launched a programme to bring the extinct Tasmanian tiger back to life. They are pinning their hopes on a Tasmanian tiger cub, preserved in alcohol for more than 130 years. The Australian Museum unveiled a new trust that will fund research aimed at resurrecting the specie. The …
farmers and residents of South Gippsland, Australia, have warned the state government that it will face protests and blockades if a proposed high-voltage overhead power line is allowed to pass through the region. About 1,300 people attended a meeting in the South Gippsland town of Leongatha recently to discuss the …
australia said it was seeking an injunction to halt "experimental' fishing by Japan for southern bluefin tuna. Australia has accused Japan of using science to disguise commercial fishing and is seeking a declaration from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea that the experimental fishing programme is illegal. …
over the past 22 years, ocean warming has caused an eight per cent increase in rainfall over the Southern Ocean and the South Pacific. Annie Wong, oceanographer at the Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre ( acrc ) in Hobart, Australia, says that warmer ocean temperatures are intensifying the cycle of rainfall, …
australian researchers claim to have discovered evidence that pushes back the date for the first life form on Earth comprehensively. Their findings have shown that life existed on Earth 2.7 billion years ago, 500 million to 1 billion years earlier than previously thought. A recent issue of the journal Science …
