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20 May 2013: System Converts Pig Waste
Into Biogas at Chinese Pig Farms

An international team of researchers has developed a system that will help Chinese farmers convert massive amounts of pig waste into a renewable source of energy and fertilizer. The project, led by Australia-based Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), uses a two-step anaerobic biodigester that is able to treat 73,000 tons of waste annually, producing 380 cubic meters of biogas daily and about 5,600 tons of fertilizer per year. According to its developers, it will also provide a solution to a growing waste disposal challenge in China, where pigs generate more than 1.4 million tons of excrement annually. “Only 10 percent of this waste is currently treated, posing a considerable disposal headache, as well as health and water quality risks,” said Ravi Naidu, managing director of CRC CARE. While the system is being introduced at pig farms across China, Naidu says the technology could eventually help solve critical waste management challenges worldwide and make the pork industry more sustainable.
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07 Feb 2013: Wind Energy Now Cheaper
Than Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Australia

Unsubsidized wind power is now cheaper than electricity produced from new coal- and natural gas-fired power stations in Australia, according to an analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The study said that electricity can be supplied from a new wind farm at a cost of 80 Australian dollars per megawatt hour, compared to 143 Australian dollars from a new coal plant and 116 Australian dollars from a new natural gas plant. Even without a recently imposed carbon price, wind energy is 14 percent cheaper than new coal power and 18 percent cheaper than new natural gas, the study said. The analysis said that Australia’s largest banks are unlikely to finance new coal plants because of concern over emissions-intensive investments and that natural gas has become expensive as Australia exports more liquid natural gas. By 2020, the report said, large-scale solar arrays will also be cheaper than coal or gas when carbon taxes are figured in. “The perception that fossil fuels are cheap and renewables are expensive is now out of date,” said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
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08 Nov 2012: Molecular ‘Trap Door’ Method
May Reduce Costs of Carbon Capture

Australian scientists have developed a method for trapping carbon dioxide that they say could ultimately reduce the costs of separating and storing carbon from fossil fuel emissions. Writing in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers from the University of Melbourne say they have produced an ultra-fine sieve that separates only carbon dioxide from a gas stream, acting as a sort of “molecular trapdoor.” According to the study, the new method — which can be used in power plants or during natural gas extraction — uses a chemical called a chabazite that allows carbon dioxide to pass through but blocks other chemicals. While many such existing carbon capture technologies use similar “sieves,” they often require additional stages of refining and extraction before yielding a pure form of CO2. “Because [the new process] allows only carbon dioxide molecules to be captured, it will reduce the cost and energy required for separating carbon dioxide,” said Paul Webley, a professor at the University of Melbourne and one of the study’s authors.
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06 Nov 2012: World’s Rarest Whale Species
Identified After New Zealand Beaching

Scientists have confirmed that two whales that washed onto the New Zealand coast two years ago were spade-toothed beaked whales, an enigmatic species so rare that no human is known to have ever seen one alive. Writing in the journal Current Biology, New Zealand and U.S. researchers provide the first full description of the species, which previously was known only from three skull fragments recovered over a 140-year span, the most recent of which was found 26 years ago. When conservation workers initially found the adult whale and her 11-foot male calf on a New Zealand beach in December 2010, they thought they were Gray’s beaked whales, a far more common species. But DNA tests of tissue samples collected from the animals revealed that they were actually spade-toothed beaked whales (Mesoplodon traversii), a species whose males have blade-like tusk teeth, and researchers later exhumed the whales to conduct additional tests.
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02 Oct 2012: Great Barrier Reef Lost
Half of Coral Cover Since 1985, Study Says

The Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral cover in just 27 years, with most of that decline coming as a result of heavy storms, predation by crown-of-thorn starfish, and coral bleaching caused by warming ocean temperatures. In a comprehensive survey of 214 reefs, researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) found that coral cover declined from 28 percent in 1985 to 13.8 percent this year. Intense tropical storms, particularly in the central and southern parts of the reef, have caused about 48 percent of the coral loss, researchers say. An explosion in populations of starfish along the reef caused about 42 percent of the decline; about 10 percent was caused by major bleaching events. Reefs are typically able to regain their coral cover after such disturbances, said Hugh Sweatman, a lead author of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But recovery takes 10-20 years, he noted. The study found efforts to reduce starfish populations could help increase coral cover at a rate of 0.89 percent per year.
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25 Sep 2012: Coral Biodiversity Hotspot
Is Found in Western Indian Ocean

The western Indian Ocean, especially the waters between Madagascar and Africa, contain one of the highest levels of coral diversity worldwide, with 369 coral species identified in a recent study and more still to be identified. Scientists say the western Indian Ocean may contain as much coral biodiversity as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, though not as much as the world’s richest region for corals, the so-called coral triangle in Southeast Asia. Reporting in the journal PLoS ONE, David Obura, a scientist with the Group Coastal Oceans Research and Development in the Indian Ocean, said that 10 percent of the species are found only in the western Indian Ocean. He said the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, between Madagascar and mainland Africa, contains roughly 250 to 300 coral species. Meanwhile, Australian scientists report that water temperatures around the Great Barrier Reef have increased steadily in the last 25 years, in some places rising as much as .5 degrees C. Such increases can contribute to coral bleaching, which can lead to mass coral die-offs.
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30 Jul 2012: Scheme Opens Papua New Guinea Forests to Foreign Loggers, Report Says

More than 5 million hectares (12.3 million acres) of community-held land in Papua New Guinea have been signed over to foreign and domestic corporations through a government leasing scheme, accelerating deforestation in the resource-rich nation, a new Greenpeace study says. Using data and mapping analysis and government information, the group found that about 75 percent of the leased forest land — or about 3.9 million hectares — is controlled by foreign corporations for up to 99 years through a so-called Special Agricultural and Business Leases (SABL) scheme. The report claims that many companies paid government officials to approve long-term leases and that in one case logging companies paid police to intimidate and assault landowners who opposed the leases. “People are losing their land and their livelihoods for up to three generations and their forests forever,” said Paul Winn, leader of the Greenpeace Forests Team. Greenpeace says Papua New Guinea’s logging exports increased 20 percent last year, due largely to the SABL scheme. The total amount of land leased through SABLs makes up 11 percent of the country’s land area and 16 percent of accessible commercial forest.
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25 May 2012: Marine Reserves Replenish
Commercial Fisheries, DNA Tests Show

DNA testing has shown that the creation of marine reserves where no fishing is allowed helps to replenish fish stocks outside the reserve boundaries. In a study conducted at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, researchers collected tissue samples from two species of commercially popular fish — including 466 samples of adult coral trout and 1,154 samples from stripey snapper — located within three reserve areas. After collecting juveniles of both species in protected and unprotected areas over the next 15 months, the researchers found that about half of the juveniles were offspring of fish found in the reserve areas, even though the reserves accounted for just 28 percent of the study area. In other words, fish found in the reserves “punch above their weight in replenishing fishery stocks,” said Garry Russ, a researcher from James Cook University and one of the authors of the study, published online in the journal Current Biology.
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30 Apr 2012: Australia Lists Koala As
Threatened Species for First Time

The Australian government has added the koala to the list of threatened species in parts of the country for the first time, saying the iconic species is under threat from habitat loss, urban expansion, disease, and climate change. Following a three-year study, Environment Minister Tony Burke announced that koalas will be listed as vulnerable in Queensland, where populations have declined by 40 percent in two decades; New South Wales, where numbers have dropped by one-third; and the Australian Capital Territory. In addition to the listing, which will impose restrictions on development in areas where the species is threatened, the government committed $300,000 for koala monitoring and habitat research. Not only are koalas facing declining food sources as eucalypt plants are aggressively cleared for development, but scientists say the nutritional value of remaining eucalypts has diminished as a result of climate change. While the government says there are about 200,000 remaining koalas nationwide, the Australian Koala Foundation estimates there are likely fewer than 100,000.
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02 Apr 2012: Some Corals More Resilient
To Increased Acidification, Study Shows

Some coral species may be better able to cope with the increasingly acidic condition of the world’s oceans than previously believed, a new study says. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, an international team of scientists describes an internal mechanism by which many coral species are able to buffer against the rising pH levels and still form healthy skeletons. According to the scientists, coral species with skeletons made of aragonite — including the well-known Porites and Acropora corals — contain molecular “pumps” that enable them to regulate internal acid balance. Corals that form calcite skeletons, however, do not have this mechanism. Also, the researchers found that coralline algae — which they describe as the “glue” that holds coral reefs together — remain vulnerable to ocean acidification. In another study, scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have documented how temperatures in the upper regions of the world’s oceans have increased by an average of .59 degrees F (.33 degrees C) over the last 140 years, with the greatest temperature increases occurring at surface levels, where temperatures rose by an average of 1.1 degrees F.
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27 Mar 2012: Common Herbicide a Threat
To Great Barrier Reef, Report Says

A popular herbicide used widely in coastal regions of Australia has been found at dangerous levels in the Great Barrier Reef, posing a toxic threat to the world’s largest coral reef system. The chemical Diuron, which is used largely by sugar cane farmers along the Queensland coast, was found at levels 55 times higher than safety standards in creeks that drain into the reef, and at levels 100 times the safe standards in the reef itself, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund. After a decade-long review, the Australian government on Tuesday announced it would continue a suspension of the chemical except in the country's tropical regions. A decision on a permanent ban will be made by November, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority said. In a recent report, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority called a decline in the quality of water in catchment areas one of the greatest threats facing the reef. Nick Heath, the WWF freshwater and reef coordinator, said the widespread use of the chemical and the length of time it persists in the environment pose a significant threat.
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23 Mar 2012: Australian Mammal Extinctions
Tied to Human Hunting, Not Climate Change

The disappearance roughly 40,000 years ago of dozens of large mammals in Australia — including rhinoceros-sized wombats and tapir-like marsupials — was caused by human hunting and not by climate change, according to a new study by Australian scientists. Researchers at the University of Tasmania reached that conclusion after analyzing two mud core samples dating back as far as 130,000 years. By examining the cores for the Sporomiella fungus — which only releases its spores when in the dung of plant-eating animals — the scientists concluded that megafauna survived periods of climate change over the last 100,000 years. But when humans arrived in sizeable numbers, the presence of the spores dropped “almost to zero” around 41,000 years ago, indicating that hunting was the main reason for the extinction of these large animals, according to the paper, published in Science. Not long after the megafauna was hunted to extinction, grasses and trees began to grow more profusely because of the decline of grazing animals, setting the stage for large fires. The Australian research parallels other, similar findings worldwide showing that human hunting was crucial in large-animal extinctions.
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12 Mar 2012: Scientists Use Ancient Gene
To Create Salt-Tolerant Wheat Variety

Australian scientists have crossed a popular variety of wheat with an ancient species, producing a salt-tolerant variety they say could help reduce food shortages in the world’s arid and semi-arid regions. Using a genetic variation that had been lost in plants due to domestication before it was rediscovered a decade ago, the researchers say they were able to boost yields of durum wheat by 25 percent in salty soils. The gene, which was isolated from an ancestral cousin of modern-day wheat, Triticum monococcum, is believed to help prevent salt from traveling up the plant’s shoots, where it can cause damage, lead researcher Matthew Gilliham of the University of Adelaide, told Reuters. “Salty soils are a major problem because if soldium starts to build up in the leaves it will affect important processes such as photosynthesis,” he said. The findings could have an important impact on wheat yields worldwide, where salinity already affects more than 20 percent of soils, Gilliham said. The study was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
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15 Feb 2012: Documents Expose Campaign
By Think Tank To Undermine Climate Science

A series of leaked internal documents from the Heartland Institute, a conservative U.S. think tank, reveal an elaborate, multi-million dollar campaign to undermine the credibility of global warming science. The documents — which were sent anonymously to several bloggers and can be viewed online at DeSmogBlog.com — describe efforts to produce scientific studies that “discredit the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Heartland Institute also allocated $100,000 to create a global warming curriculum for school teachers emphasizing “that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain — two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science.” According to the documents, a significant part of the campaign has been funded by a single anonymous donor, who spent more than $8.6 million on “climate change projects” from 2007 to 2011. That individual donated $3.6 million in 2008, the same year that the Heartland Institute began organizing annual climate change conferences.
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25 Jan 2012: South Pacific ‘Free-for-All’
Decimating Fish Stocks, Report Says

Years of lax oversight, corruption, and political rivalry have allowed industrial fishing fleets from Asia, Europe, and Latin America to decimate fish stocks across the southern Pacific, a “free-for-all” that has pushed one critical species to the brink, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). With governments ignoring the threat of overfishing and heavily subsidizing the fishing industry, fleets have plundered the waters off Chile and Peru and have fished heavily right up to protected Antarctic waters. Stocks of jack mackerel — an oily fish that is a staple in Africa and a vital component in fishmeal for aquaculture — have declined by more than 90 percent, from an estimated 30 million metric tons to less than 3 million metric tons, in just two decades. According to Daniel Pauly, an oceanographer at the University of British Columbia, the jack mackerel decline could portend a collapse in fisheries worldwide.
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29 Nov 2011: Carbon Sinks in Estuaries
Have Been Degraded by Industrial Activity

The ability of the world’s estuaries, salt marshes, and mangrove swamps to sequester carbon has been seriously degraded by industrial activity, according to a study by Australian researchers. Scientists at the University of Technology, Sydney, examined layers of estuary sediment in Sydney’s Botany Bay for the past 6,000 years. They found that sea grass abundance has declined sharply, while quantities of micro-algae have soared. Increasing nitrogen deposition and pollution are the main culprits in destroying seagrass beds, which have the capacity to store as much as 100 times more carbon than micro-algae. The researchers dated the sediments using radiocarbon dating and determined the plant makeup of the Botany Bay estuary by examining isotopic ratios of seagrass versus micro-algae. Reporting in the journal Global Change Biology, lead researcher Peter Macreadie said the results show the importance of preserving and restoring so-called “blue carbon habitats” in wetlands and estuaries. The partial loss of these carbon sinks has “severely hampered the ability of nature to reset the planet’s thermostat.”
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28 Nov 2011: World's Largest Marine Reserve
Proposed in Australia’s Coral Sea

Australia has proposed the creation of the world’s largest marine park in the Coral Sea, a 382,000-square-mile area where fishing would be limited and oil and gas exploration would be banned. The so-called Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve would begin in waters about 36 miles off Australia’s northeastern coast, an area known for its array of coral reefs, sandy cays, sea plains, and canyons. According to Tony Burke, Australia’s Environment Minister, the waters of this area have become increasingly vulnerable to overfishing and habitat degradation. “In the space of one lifetime, the world’s oceans have gone from being relatively pristine to being under increasing pressure,” Burke said. According to the plan, 196,000 of the reserve square miles will be designated as “no take” areas where fishing is banned. Larissa Waters, a Queensland senator and Green Party member, said the plan doesn’t go far enough, with only two out of every 25 reefs receiving “full protection.”
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11 Nov 2011: New Irrigation Device Pulls
Water From the Air in Driest Conditions

A student at Australia’s Swinburne University this week received the James Dyson Award for a device he says is capable of harvesting moisture from the air for use in irrigation, even in the world’s driest places. Developed by Edward Linnacre, the Airdrop is a wind- or solar-powered device that sucks air underground through a coiled metal pipe, where the cooler temperature of the surrounding soil slowly causes it to condense. The device ultimately collects the water in an underground tank before it is pumped back to the roots of nearby crops via a sub-surface drip irrigation system. According to Linnacre, a prototype that he developed in his mother’s backyard was able to produce about one liter of water per day. He hopes the technology can be used for agriculture in even the driest conditions. “There are water-harvesting technologies out there, but there’s very few low-tech solutions,” he said. “A low-tech solution is perfect for rural farmers, something that they can install, something that they can maintain themselves.”
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08 Nov 2011: Australian Parliament Passes
Landmark Tax on Carbon Emissions

The Australian government has passed the world’s first tax on carbon emissions, a landmark reform proponents say will promote better energy efficiency and increased reliance on renewable sources of energy, while also significantly cutting air pollution. The legislation, which was passed by the Senate in a 36-32 vote, will require the nation’s 500 biggest carbon emitters to pay a price of 23 Australian dollars ($23.78 U.S.) per ton of carbon beginning in July 2012. It then will shift to an emissions trading scheme beginning in 2015. Those companies — most of which are electricity generators, heavy industry manufacturers, and mining companies — will need to obtain a permit for each ton of carbon they emit. According to government officials, the new tax will reduce carbon emissions by at least 160 million tons annually by 2020 — or the equivalent of taking 45 million vehicles off the road. Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who staked her political career on the controversial legislation, called it a significant victory for the environment and for the emerging green energy economy. “It’s the right thing to do,” she said.
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12 Oct 2011: Australia Edges Closer
To Carbon Tax After Key Vote

The Australian government has taken a critical step toward adopting a tax on carbon emissions, with the lower house of Parliament approving the controversial plan by a narrow margin. The bill, which survived a late push by opponents to delay a vote, would require the nation’s 500 biggest carbon emitters to pay a price of 23 Australian dollars ($23 U.S.) per ton of carbon. Most of the biggest emitters are electricity generators, heavy industry manufacturers, and mining companies. While the initiative will increase living costs for the average household by about $9.90 per week — including $3.30 for electricity — advocates of the plan say those hardships will be offset by reductions to the income tax and other benefits increases. The measure, which has been aggressively pushed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, is expected to pass the Senate with ease sometime next month. If approved, Australia would become the first nation to impose a direct tax on carbon, as opposed to an emissions trading scheme like the one now in effect in the European Union.
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