Ecos articles from February 2008

Ecos archives from February 2008

The power of partnership.(Editorial)(Editorial)
February 1, 2008... Back in 2006 when then Prime Minister John Howard requested that CSIRO lead a one-year stocktake of the Murray--Darling Basin's total water volumes and capacity, it set in train the largest and perhaps most complicated research project the...

Carbon storage trial set to go.
February 1, 2008... While proponents of carbon capture and storage say it will enable Australia to achieve the deep cuts in emissions needed to prevent dangerous climate change, critics say it's risky and expensive. In April, the Cooperative Research Centre...

Wielangta heading to High Court?(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] More than a year after Senator Bob Brown won a Federal Court battle to prevent logging of the Wielangta Forest in Tasmania's south-east, the Greens Leader is heading back to court. In December 2006, the Federal...

Care required in slowing deforestation.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has warned that new incentive schemes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) must address the wider political and economic causes behind the problem....

Scientists target Indonesia's illegal logging.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... An Australian researcher is spearheading a three-year project on the Indonesian islands of Sumbawa and Sulawesi to assess social and economic options to help stem Indonesia's loss of 2 million hectares of forests a year--a major contribution to...

Baseload solar prospect gets funding boost.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Just before last year's Federal Election, the Australian Government announced its support for commercialisation of a patented hydrogen-based storage technology developed by Melbourne-based Solar Systems, which says the technology will enable...

Solvent solution could delay 'peak lithium'.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... The global boom in portable electronic products such as mobile phones and laptop computers has put a premium on rechargeable lithium batteries. A typical lithium battery lasts for 300-500 full recharges--around one to three years--before...

'Go national' says recycling body.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... The recent announcement of new Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery (WARR) regulation in Western Australia has reignited debate about the need for national extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulation. The WA Government will...

Macquarie rabbits soon to be on the run.(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... Following last year's announcement that Tasmanian and Australian Government environment ministers had finally agreed to jointly fund an eradication program targeting pests on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island (see Ecos 136, p. 20), the Tasmanian...

Pulp mill assessment challenge dismissed.(Tamar Valley pulp mill)(Brief article)
February 1, 2008... The Wilderness Society has issued a call for law reform in response to the Federal Court's dismissal of its challenge last year to Australian Government approval for Tasmania's Tamar Valley pulp mill. The Federal Court also issued costs against...

Concerns raised about ocean fertilisation for carbon credits.
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Proposals by private companies to boost artificially the oceans' capacity to absorb C[O.sub.2] and thus generate carbon credits have been met with opposition from environment groups, scientists and international...

Supermodelling the Murray-Darling.(Focus: MURRAY-DARLING BASIN)(Cover story)
February 1, 2008... How does the Murray-Darling's complex water system work, how do we measure its capacity and supply under increasing demands, and how do we understand the implications for local communities--in just a year? CSIRO's Murray-Darling Basin...

The tsunami gardeners: a simple organic gardening and ecosystem restoration program is building new self-sufficiency in Sri Lankan communities striving to overcome tsunami damage and effects from the ongoing civil war.
February 1, 2008... Just over three years after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami hit, killing more than 30 000 people, disaster relief efforts in Sri Lanka have moved well beyond the relief phase into the recovery and consolidation modes. On top of the wave's deep...

Sustaining development through protecting 'critical capital': stocks of different sorts of 'capital' are integral to society's capacity for sustainable development. Steve Hatfield Dodds--senior CSIRO researcher and president of the Australia New Zealand Society for ecological economics--explains why.(DEFINITION OF SUSTAINABILITY--2)
February 1, 2008... Achieving sustainable development--rather than just talking about it--requires a framework for understanding threats to sustainability, and identifying practical options for addressing these. Most measures of 'development' or 'progress'...

Clever cooperation will step up climate progress: in the first of a two-part series, Michael Smith and Karlson Hargroves discuss how cost-effective and mutually beneficial opportunities for OECD countries to assist fast-growing developing nations can appreciably reduce emissions in a new era of greater global cooperation.(Progress)(Cover story)
February 1, 2008... At the UN Bali Climate Change summit in January, delegates from nearly 190 countries, for the first time, agreed to a negotiation process for both developed and developing nations which will result in commitments to measurable, verifiable steps...

Flight path to peril: in a tiny desert outpost, a tenacious ornithologist is fighting to keep open one of Nature's wonders--the greatest migratory bird highway on Earth.
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Each northern spring an awesome aerial torrent of 500 million birds pauses at a tiny fleck of a sanctuary at the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, en route from the heart of Africa to the vastnesses of Europe and Asia. ...

Rescuing the Barmah Forest.(Progress)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A powerful collaboration between research, catchment management, indigenous, national parks and government working groups is combining knowledge to restore a precious native river habitat. Around 225 km north of...

Firefighters get more bushfire savvy: as bushfires again spark across the country following the hottest year on record for south-east Australia, advanced research has provided fire agencies and land managers with vital new methods of predicting bushfire behaviour in dry eucalypt forest and assessing forest fuel hazards.(Progress)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Project Vesta has been Australia's most extensive research exercise into intense bushfires in dry eucalypt forests. The 10-year study found that our existing systems for anticipating fire behaviour could...

Farming a climate change solution.
February 1, 2008... Farmers have a golden solution to global warming largely missed by climate change pundits, right beneath their feet. The innovative Australian Soil Carbon Accreditation Scheme is showing how incentive payments can be received by landholders for...

Free online--a new skill for a climate-constrained future.(The Natural Edge Project)
February 1, 2008... Design Transformed: Whole System Design for Climate Change Mitigation is a free online training package developed by leading sustainability think-tank, The Natural Edge Project (TNEP), with the support of the Federal Department of Environment...

Dr Vincent Serventy, 1916-2007--new morality crusader.(Obituary)
February 1, 2008... Dr Vincent Serventy AM, who died last September, was referred to as the Father of Australia's environmental movement with good reason. After a bush childhood, then zoological research with CSIRO, he set out to teach Australians about nature and...

Integrating science to support sustainable agriculture.(Research)(Agricultural Sustainability Initiative )
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CSIRO's new Agricultural SustainabUity Initiative looks at ways landholders can shift their approach to farming and reduce their impact on the environment. It's no news that Australian farmers are struggling to...

Resistance warning given for GM herbicide-tolerant crops.(Research)
February 1, 2008... The Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management (Weeds CRC) recently cautioned that Australia must observe Canada's approach to integrated weed management if it is to introduce herbicide-tolerant crops and manage them in a way...

Wind energy round the clock.(Research)(variability of wind power)
February 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A cost-effective energy storage solution that combines the best of both batteries and capacitors may be the 'missing link' that will help balance the variability of wind and solar inputs to the electricity grid. ...

Events calendar.(Calendar)
February 1, 2008... Business Clean Up Australia Day 26 February (national) www.cleanup.org.au The Future of the Carbon Market London, UK, 26-27 February www.marketforce.eu.com/carbon/ EcoForum Conference & Exhibition Gold Coast,...