Geelong Sustainability

"The Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies Program at MIT conducts research into technologies to capture, utilize, and store CO2 from large stationary sources. Initiated in 1989, our program is internationally recognized as a leader in this field. A major component of the program is the Carbon Sequestration Initiative, an industrial consortium launched in July 2000."

"GravityLight™ is an innovative device that generates light from gravity. It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight that powers GravityLight creating 25 minutes of light on its descent.  "

"Published on 6 Apr 2014 Hollywood celebrities and respected journalists span the globe to explore the issues of climate change and cover intimate stories of human triumph and tragedy. Watch new episodes Sundays at 10PM ET/PT, only on SHOWTIME. Subscribe to the Years of Living Dangerously channel for more: http://s.sho.com/YearsYouTube"

"The latest edition of this authoritative annual report tells the story of the latest developments, signs and signals in the financing of renewable power and fuels. Packed full of statistics, charts and illuminating narrative, it explores the issues affecting each type of investment, technology, region."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's visit to Japan, China and South Korea this week offers the opportunity for the Government to witness the changing circumstances in regional climate leadership and the accelerating Asian action on carbon and clean energy. These have seen Asia become the epicentre of clean energy investment and seen Asian nations the biggest movers in a range of indicators such as last year's TCI/GE G20 Low-Carbon Competitiveness Index.

"But sea debris comes from both land and sea sources and it's hard to point to its exact origin and hence to get a polluter to take responsibility for cleaning it up."

"Don't let all those Texas wind farms and massive installations of solar panels in California fool you. The U.S. is not the world leader in clean energy investment. China is. For the second year, an annual Pew Charitable Trusts report, "Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race?", shows that China is the world leader in clean energy investment, with $54 billion in investments in renewables in 2013, well above total U.S. investment of $36.7 billion."

"Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming by journalist McKenzie Funk tells the story of the people and corporations trying to profit from climate change. Many of them don't want to halt its progress, they want to bring it on."

"California's ambitious carbon cutting policies will start to pay off for residents of the state this month, as 'climate credits' of $29-40 are paid into their bank accounts. Customers of some of California's major energy firms will benefit from the payments, which will go to small businesses, schools, hospitals as well as individual customers."

"Published on 30 Mar 2014 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II released its Fifth Assessment Report on climate impacts and adaptation. While some of the consequences of a warming climate are unavoidable, adaptation strategies can help to manage some of the impacts. Dr Mark Howden discusses how CSIRO is developing strategies to help reduce the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and communities."

"Recently reported leaks of water containing high levels of radioactive uranium from a coal seam gas (CSG) wastewater pond operated by Santos in New South Wales put the spotlight on an industry already wracked by controversy. Most concerns over CSG have to date focused on "fracking" - fracturing deep rock strata to get at gas in coal seams - but as the incident shows, waste produced by CSG wells and brought to the surface is another major environmental issue."

"It is a sad indictment of our political system that, nearly a decade after identifying the problem, we are essentially back to the drawing board on an effective solution to climate change. All sides can share the blame."

"Evidence of how our climate is changing is vital to encourage investment in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as coping with inevitable change. You can help discover how the climate could look by running our free software on your computer. The data generated is sent back to us and incorporated into the climateprediction.net projects. Our computer models simulate the climate for the next century, producing predictions of temperature, rainfall and the probability of extreme weather events. The more models that are run, the more evidence we gather on climate change. Get started and help us predict the climate."

"The World Meteorological Organization released its 'Status of the Global Climate' today, an annual review of the climatic highlights in the past 12 months. In an email to journalists, the WMO also included a compilation of highlights, based on reports from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and WMO Regional Climate Centres. We've added this in full below."

Some power companies are calling for the Renewable Energy Target (RET) to be reduced, while other groups want it abolished entirely. They claim that this will significantly lower electricity bills, which have risen steeply in the last five years. Would reducing the RET do much to lower your bill?

"It is worth taking another look at what's been happening in the electricity sector. For example, take a look at summer afternoon consumption of electricity dispatched on the National Electricity Market (the NEM is the electricity market that serves the east coast states and South Australia). Compared to the previous summer, afternoon consumption during the summer of 2014 fell a further 600 megawatts or 2.3%, continuing a downward trend that dates back to at least 2010."

"Coal seam gas has an image problem, as a former Santos chairman and others in the industry have acknowledged. The way the industry extracts natural gas from deep underground coal seams, both here and overseas, has meant that a lot of people have a lot of questions about CSG's safety and sustainability, particularly in relation to its effects on people's health and that of the natural environment."

"DIRECT ACTION is often perceived as an exercise in keeping up appearances: a fig-leaf policy from a government that has expressed little enthusiasm for serious action on climate change. But with the possible neutering of the Renewable Energy Target, Direct Action subsidies are set to be the main pillar of Australia's climate change mitigation effort as well as a new drain on our scarce fiscal resources."

"A ham and cheese sandwich, muesli bar and milk popper might seem the typical combo for a school lunch box. But the differences in the overall nutritional value can be huge, depending on the brands. Consumer group Choice has applied the algorithm for the healthy food star rating system - controversially removed by Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash - to children's lunch box staples, giving them the star ratings that could appear on packaged foods from July. ''We found big nutritional differences between similar-looking products, and this is critical when it comes to kids' food,'' said Choice campaign manager Angela Cartwright. ''Eat it every day, and it can add up quickly.''"

"The recent start of construction on the first of two large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in outback New South Wales shows the importance of renewable energy targets and funding. The first, currently being built at Nyngan, will be the largest solar PV farm in the southern hemisphere, producing 103 megawatts at peak capacity. "