Ecos articles from December 2005

Ecos archives from December 2005

To positive commitments.(Editorial)(Editorial)
December 1, 2005... Compliments of the season. Last year closed with an ominous sense that climate change is perhaps a more immediate issue than many really fully care to consider as we go about our routines. Its surreal implications and silent calls to...

Young EcoMinds show strong undercurrents of opinion.(United Nations Youth Forum)
December 1, 2005... Delegates to a United Nations Youth Forum in the Philippines, held during November, have surprised organisers with fervent and sometimes unexpected views of their nations' place in the emerging sustainable practice challenge. Part of a...

HSBC on track with carbon credits in Australia and New Zealand.(HSBC Group)
December 1, 2005... In a strong endorsement of international carbon credit markets, HSBC Group, one of the world's financial services giants, is finalising its investment into carbon sink projects in Victoria and the North Island of New Zealand to meet new...

Government shows a lead on depleted and illegal fishing.(Australian fishing policy)
December 1, 2005... After the Federal Government's applauded $200 million initiative last November to buy out about half of the country's 1200 commercial fisherman, it has followed up by brokering solid cooperation from Indonesia on illegal fishing. With...

Coopers' yeast sent to Suntory in good taste.(Adelaide's Coopers Brewery sends live waste to Japan's Suntory )(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... Adelaide's Coopers Brewery has an agreement, and a new export opportunity, with Japanese distilling company Suntory under which live waste yeast from their brewing process will now be used to improve the flavour and complexity of Japan's...

A sweet European deal for Plantic's bioplastic.(Plantic Technologies)(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... Innovative Melbourne-based packaging company Plantic Technologies has won its first major customer in the European market, after signing a contract with Nestle in the UK for the use of its bioplastic in the food giant's Dairy Box chocolate...

Success with Polish coal bed C[O.sub.2] sequestration.
December 1, 2005... An international research project involving Australian expertise has successfully stored carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) in European coal beds, raising further promise that geological sequestration can be a viable strategy to help reduce greenhouse...

The first cuts must be the deepest: a number of emerging international studies are showing that the deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions needed to stave off severe global warming effects can actually be achieved, economically, by 2050.(Comment)(International Panel on Climate Change)
December 1, 2005... The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned repeatedly that nations will need to shift towards a low-carbon future, more or less immediately, in order to avoid the dangerous effects of climate change being discussed by...

Inside Asia's rice revolution.(System of Rice Intensification)
December 1, 2005... An innovative rice-growing technique, known as the 'System of Rice Intensification' (SRI), is being steadily taken up by farmers across Asia because of its claims to significantly reduce water use, produce higher yields and endow farms with...

A new wetlands effort for the last Southern Brolgas: the Southern Brolga population has been reduced to about 600 or maybe 1000 individuals.(Progress)(northern Victoria environmental groups work to save cranes)
December 1, 2005... Numbers of the majestic Southern Brolga have declined dramatically since European settlement, but restoration of a wetland in northern Victoria, a combined effort by the Loddonvale Landcare Group, the Norman Wettenhall Foundation and the North...

Private conservations.(Progress; land trusts)
December 1, 2005... Land trusts, also known as heritage, private or statutory conservation trusts, have led the recent growth of conservation on privately held land. They seem to be well organised, well informed and financially viable and now, collectively, hold...

Buying the Bush Family Reserve.(Progress)(Victoria's Gippsland region)
December 1, 2005... Trust for Nature's Land Acquisition program is helping preserve Australia's disappearing natural heritage in Victoria's Gippsland region. When the 255 hectare Bush Family Reserve came up for sale in the late 1990s, Trust for Nature (TfN)...

The science of private conservation.(Progress; Australian Bush Heritage Fund )
December 1, 2005... The Australian Bush Heritage Fund has a strong scientific focus when it comes to protecting and restoring environmental and cultural heritage. This approach is evident on Cravens Peak in far western Queensland, the most recent Bush...

Our Swedish ways.(environmental management)
December 1, 2005... With its archipelago lake system lapping at the shores of red-patched villages, Sweden's urban landscape doesn't really look much like Australia's. But that hasn't stopped Swedish and Australian representatives sharing a'Partnership for...

Diagnosing the shortfalls of economics.(Economics for Collaborative Environmental Management: Renegotiating the Commons )(Book review)
December 1, 2005... Although economics, with its priority in planning, continues to have a weighty say over the direction of public issues, it remains rather poorly equipped to take on board the conceptual framework increasingly being employed for the...

Experience coral reefs.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2005... True reef-building corals are limited in geographical distribution to the clear, warm, sunlit waters of the tropical oceans where, as has been well documented, they appear increasingly vulnerable to heightened temperature due to climate change...

Sound treatment for polluted sites.(Research)
December 1, 2005... Australian researchers have discovered that pesticides and other undesirable pollutants in soil can be rapidly destroyed by exposing them to ultrasound. They hope their work will mean that soil from chemically contaminated sites can be cleaned...

Washing the salt from Aceh's wounds.(Research)
December 1, 2005... Australian researchers are making good progress in assisting Acehenese farmers revive their tsunami-swamped agriculture. Dr Peter Slavich recently returned from the region with his team. The tsunami that followed the earthquake on 26...

Rear-guard action for the innocent grey nurse.(Research; sharks)
December 1, 2005... Grey nurse sharks have been killed in their thousands over the past two centuries. Originally hunted for their liver oil and later mistakenly blamed for shark attacks at Sydney beaches, fewer than 500 now remain on the east coast of Australia....

Events calendar.(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... Turning Point--NZ Association for Environmental Education Conference Auckland, New Zealand, 22-25 January www.cce.auckland.ac.nz/conferences/ index.cfm?P=7716 The Australasian Society for Biomaterials 16th Annual Conference...