Author Archives: hmcadmin

PLEA Network

29 June 2015, Climate News Network, Stress on water resources threatens lives and livelihoods. Satellite data raises red-flag warning about the draining of underground aquifers to meet the demands of expanding populations. The planet’s great subterranean stores of water are running out – and nobody can be sure how much remains to supply billions of people in the future. Satellite instruments used to measure the flow from 37 underground aquifers between 2003 and 2013 have revealed that at least one-third of them were seriously stressed – with little or almost no natural replenishment. The research was conducted by scientists from California and the US space agency NASA, who report in the journal Water Resources Research that they used data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites to calculate what is happening to aquifers. Read More here

PLEA Network

29 June 2015, The Guardian,Australian climate policy paralysis has to end, business roundtable says: Business and industry alliance sets out climate ‘principles’, including that climate policy should be ‘capable of achieving deep reductions’ in emissions. Groups included in the ‘climate roundtable’ include the Business Council of Australia and Australian Industry Group, along with environmental groups and unions. An unprecedented alliance of business, welfare and environmental groups and trade unions is demanding an end to Australia’s decade of political paralysis and division on climate policy, insisting the Abbott government make credible emission reduction commitments and the major parties agree on how the pledges should be implemented.In an attempt to reset the bitter political debate on climate policy, the powerful lineup of interest groups has reached a historic agreement on “principles” that should guide Australia’s climate policy.  Read More here. Read principles here

PLEA Network

26 June 2015, CBS, California drought fueling wildfire flames: California firefighters are battling a new wildfire. The Sterling fire broke out Thursday in the San Bernardino Mountains, where firefighters have been battling flames for over a week. It has already burned at least 100 acres. It’s one of the more than 2,500 fires that have broken out in California so far this year, and gusty winds and drought conditions are fueling the flames. New data show the drought is designated as “extreme” or “exceptional” in more than 70 percent of California. That gives firefighters a new obstacle this year: searching for water.

Flying over the parched hills of Southern California, it’s clear how four years of drought has taken its toll, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. “Normally at this time of year, we’d be seeing green and wildflowers as far as we can see. But because of the drought, we’re seeing brown, dry fuel that has no moisture in it at all,” Orange County fire Capt. Dave Lopez said. Lopez pointed to hills where a small fire could quickly grow into an inferno. The landscape is so dry, fires burn hotter and spread faster, making early attack from the air essential. But just as the drought has made the landscape flammable, it’s also dried up many of the water sources firefighters depend on to do their job. Read More here

PLEA Network

25 June 2015, The Conversation, Burning wood: an opportunity for renewable power and heat: Burning some wood waste from native forests will be counted as renewable energy under revisions to the Renewable Energy Target (RET) passed this week. Environmental groups and the Greens have criticised the move as possibly encouraging the logging of native forests. Burning wood waste was included in the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act (2000). Under the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Regulations 2001, harvesting native forest just for energy generation was explicitly not eligible. Until 2011 some wood waste from native forest harvesting was eligible. The latest revisions reinstate some native wood waste under the legislation with the restrictions that existed until 2011.

The RET legislates that, by 2020, 33,000 gigawatt hours of electricity must be generated by renewable energy. This includes wind, solar, hydro, tidal and various bio-energy sources. The scheme works through the creation of certificates for energy generation, and the requirement for liable entities to purchase these certificates. The latest revisions cut the RET from 41,000 GWh to 33,000 GWh and make burning wood waste from some native forest harvesting eligible for certificates under tight restrictions. However, as recognised in the relevant legislation and as shown by developments in Europe, burning wood waste from a variety of sustainable sources offers great potential as another source of renewable heat and electricity. Read More here