Chicken: The most sustainable meat
July 1, 2008
After decades of playing second fiddle to beef, poultry has become the Australia’s most popular meat in recent years.
But now the humble chook is also being promoted as an environmental champion.
David Farrell from the University of Queensland will tell 2000 delegates to the 23rd World Poultry Congress in Brisbane next week that eating even more chicken will be vital to help an overcrowded planet feed itself.
Dr Farrell said a growing world population, the biofuel industry, increased demand for meat in developing countries plus the effects of climate change would put even more pressure on the world’s already stretched food supply.
He does not believe technology or enough extra arable land will become available to meet the increased demand sustainably, particularly with much of the world’s meat coming from animals fed intensively on grain.
The beauty of chickens is that they can turn less than two kilograms of grain feed into a kilogram of body weight while the ratio for pork is about 4:1 and beef at least 7:1.
But in his paper to the congress, Dr Farrell writes that even with increased chicken consumption at the expense of other meats, the escalating cost and scarcity of feed grain will mean that by 2016 livestock produce will “be out of reach of many of those expected to be categorised as ‘middle class’ in developing countries”.
As for the world’s most impoverished people, “they will continue to compete with livestock for valuable grain so that despite the optimistic predictions of a reduction in numbers of the undernourished and needy, realistically this is unlikely to occur. Mother Earth can no longer cope.”
A recent report by Cranfield University in Britain showed that, compared to other meats, chicken also required the least energy to produce and emitted the least amount of greenhouse gases. The finance house Morgan Stanley has released a paper predicting a global boom time for chicken meat because it will have much lower feed and pollution costs than other meats.
Andreas Dubs, the executive director of the Australian Chicken Meat Federation, said: “Prices at the cash register and … environmental sustainability will determine eating habits … If we want to continue to consume meat protein, chicken is the most economical and environmentally sustainable option.”
Daniel Lewis Regional Reporter
Action on climate change to create three million new ‘green collar’ jobs
June 27, 2008
Australia can take strong action to tackle climate change and create millions of new job opportunities, according to a major report released today.
The report, Growing the Green Collar Economy, identifies the employment impact of action to cut greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and examines the skills, training and workforce implications.
The CSIRO analysis is based on the latest economic modelling and is released by ACF and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum (DSF).
Using two different economic models, CSIRO found:
• If Australia takes significant action to cut greenhouse gas emissions national employment will still increase by between 2.6 and 3.3 million over the next two decades.
• Jobs in sectors that generate a lot of greenhouse pollution – like transport, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and mining – are still forecast to grow strongly in the next decade.
• In these high environmental impact industries 3.25 million workers will need to be equipped with new, more sustainable skills.
The Executive Director of ACF, Mr Don Henry, said: “The CSIRO research shows we can simultaneously grow jobs and our economy while reducing our environmental footprint. The challenge is big but it can be done.”
Demand for new skills will be most pressing in renewable energy and in the design and construction of green buildings and in manufacturing and maintaining cleaner vehicles and transport systems.
“Jobs in sectors that are currently high carbon emitters, like transport, manufacturing and construction are also expected to grow and will need to be turned into ‘green collar’ jobs in a clean economy,” he said.
Ms Oona Nielssen, Executive Director of DSF, said: “Climate change is both our greatest economic risk and a great economic opportunity. But only if the Australian workforce is properly skilled and resourced to underpin truly sustainable industries and workplaces.”
“Little attention has been paid so far to this issue – yet it’s one of the biggest transformations posed by climate change. Current efforts are clearly insufficient,” she said.
Based on the CSIRO findings, DSF and ACF are calling for a national effort to identify and stimulate the green skills, knowledge and work needed for a low carbon economy, to be led by the new statutory body, Skills Australia, and funded by a proportion of revenue from Australia’s proposed emissions trading scheme.
Article published at http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news.asp?news_id=1796
Scientists Are Developing Alloy Based Fridges Running On 50% Less Energy
June 27, 2008
European researchers say they have begun to develop fridges that are powered by a 100% alloy which will reduce their energy usage by 50%. In the last 15 years, fridge technology developers have had to consider what option would be the lesser of two evils. Environmentalists alerted them to the harmful side effects of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the refrigerant chemical, but alternative refrigerants require a lot more energy.
European scientists now claim that they’ve found the alternative to both chemicals, a solution that will reduce your fridge’s energy bill by half. Trick is, they say, to use electromagnetic fields. No joking. The scientists work on behalf of BASF, the chemicals company, and a Dutch foundation called Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM). They are pioneering technology based on magnetocaloric materials (again, no joking). These materials are a new class of refrigerants and are set to significantly reduce the negative impact of today’s cooling systems on the environment.
Magnetocaloric materials could be highly efficient cooling technology. Research leader Prof.dr. Ekkes Brück from Delft University of Technology has reserved five years for developing the materials with the best properties. He and his team will be working in the BASF laboratories in the Netherlands and Germany to improve the alternative chemicals requiring lower energy levels. Magnetocaloric materials are solid alloys and earlier research by the scientists has already proven that it’s set to be an attractive alternative for cooling fridges. “The [magnetocaloric materials] warm up in a magnetic field and cool down when the field is removed. Theoretical considerations show an energy savings potential of up to fifty percent”, the scientists say. Not only will the technology be applicable to fridges, but because of its compactness it’s likely it can easily be installed in air conditioners, central heating systems and even in computers.
The technology, if it makes the commercial stages, will be staggeringly useful because it’s estimated that 25% of our total energy consumption today is used for cooling applications, for instance in refrigerators and air conditioners.
Published at http://www.enn.com/business/article/37490.
Water needs top priority argue scientists
June 25, 2008
Following on the back of last week’s leaked document reporting that the Murray-Darling has only months left if it is to be saved from permanet damage from drought, water experts are urging the Council of Ausatralian Governments (COAG) meeting to be held next week that the time for talk is over and that it is time for action on saving the Lower Murray. Professor Mike Young from Adelaide University says that action must include water shares for all states as well as for the environment, and Peter Cosier from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists argues the case for speeding up the Government’s water buy-back.
For further reading please visit www.ecomedia.org.au
Eco Living Centre Now offers you lighting design solutions
June 24, 2008
LIGHTING DESIGN
Eco Living Centre is proud to announce that we now have a full lighting design and rendering facility available. By utilizing the AGi32 program Eco Living Centre can show you how LEDs and other energy efficient lighting solutions can work for your lighting applications. AGI32 is not only a comprehensive point-by-point program, but a lightning fast, photometrically correct, colour-rendering tool as well. Imagine computing all of your point-by-point values simultaneously with a full colour image. Now you can not only review the “numbers”, but incorporate accurate visualization into your everyday lighting design. This is enormously powerful for both conceptualization and presentation. You get great lighting design to show your clients and the confirmation its meets the power lumen densities required for section J.
Eco Living Centre has the capability of predict lighting system performance for any application from one luminaire in a jail cell to hundreds of luminaires in a professional sports facility. Interior or exterior, we can build environments for most any lighting application with unlimited luminarie, calculation points, reflective or transmissive surfaces. Eco Living Centre can present lighting designs to you and to your clients with just the click of a mouse, this programs allows us to take you on an animated walk through of your design as shown below.
Coal union push for energy target
June 24, 2008
THE coal workers union has written to Climate Change Minister Penny Wong urging her to stick with the Government’s policy for a mandatory renewable energy target against a rising tide of advice that the emissions trading regime could make it superfluous.
The MRET, which requires 20 per cent of energy to come from renewable sources by 2020, is intended as a way of boosting renewable technologies to commercial scale in the medium term, while the price imposed on carbon is still so low they would not be otherwise competitive.
But both the Productivity Commission and the government’s adviser on climate change policies, Roger Wilkins, have suggested the Government would be better off relying on the emissions trading scheme alone, rather than such “market distorting” initiatives.
Now the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has written to Senator Wong urging her to ignore this advice, arguing that a low initial price on carbon would encourage energy supply from gas, but do nothing to develop technologies that are necessary to deliver the far deeper cuts in emissions that will have to be made in the future. “If we remove the renewable target it will result in a substitution of gas for wind power and other forms of renewable energy,” wrote CFMEU mining and energy division general president Tony Maher. “While that will result in a lowering of our average emissions it does not help to prepare the economy and the energy supply industry for the medium to long term.”
Mr Maher said the Government might even need to be more interventionist than the present plans for the MRET assume, assigning specific targets for emerging renewable technology such as geo-thermal and solar thermal, which would otherwise be squeezed out by proven and cheaper renewable technologies like wind power.
Mr Maher’s industry does not stand to benefit from the MRET, but is lobbying government to set up a separate target for electricity generated with carbon capture and storage technology.
The Government has not responded to this suggestion.
As The Australian reported recently, Mr Wilkins, who is reviewing Labor’s climate change policies to complement an emissions trading scheme, has questioned whether the MRET is the best way to force a shift to renewable technology.
His comments came after the Productivity Commission also questioned the wisdom of an MRET operating alongside an emissions trading regime.
Lenore Taylor, National correspondent | June 23, 2008
Water for the Future
June 22, 2008
Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, has today released three separate fundings under the $12.9 billion federal Water For the Future plan:
- $8.6 million to create a how-to guide for farmers, involving farm-scale demonstrations, with the aim of simultaneously improving water use and productivity, while delivering better environmental outcomes
- $2.5 million for a national water education and awareness program to be developed by 2009, aiming to reach more than 70, 000 students across regional Australia each year.
- The chance for irrigation providers to apply for a grant of $500, 000 to make their facilities efficient and sustainable.
For further details visit www.ecomedia.org.au
Catholic Church Greens it up
June 16, 2008
The Catholic Church of Australia is to install solar panels and water tanks on it’s premises’ - including churches, aged care facilities, welfare and Non-profit agencies - with a longer term aim of contributing energy to the national grid by 2025.
As published at www.ecomedia.org.au
Australian solar breakthrough pioneered in USA
June 16, 2008
FORMER Sydney University professor Dr David Mills couldn’t find funding for his giant solar power plants in Australia, but US investors had no qualms wagering at least $40 million on the idea.
Dr Mills’ first factory for the mass production of “solar parks” will open in Las Vegas later this month. It hosted a gaggle of interested Australian politicians last night in Nevada, including the NSW Environment Minister, Verity Firth.
The power plants, conceived in Dr Mills’s Sydney University lab, will reflect sunlight with mirrors to boil water and use the steam to spin turbines, generating electricity for a price not much higher than that of a coal-burning power station.
But, unlike some solar power systems, they can function when the sun isn’t shining by storing heat in insulated chambers for a rainy day, and continue steadily feeding power into the grid.
The technology, some of which the company is keeping under wraps, is not complicated or particularly expensive, but it is being exploited in Nevada rather than NSW because that is where the financial backing is, Dr Mills said.
“We’re not really talking about government money or subsidies, we’re trying to establish a level playing field for the technology,” Dr Mills said.
“There is a big debate being held here [in the US], but I don’t think that debate is being held as it should be in Australia.”
Dr Mills moved the headquarters of Ausra, the solar company he founded, to the US last year because he found that banks there were more willing to take risks on large-scale developments that feed directly into the power grid.
“We’ve shown that the system will be competitive with coal-fired electricity, especially when it has the extra cost of having carbon capture and storage fitted,” Dr Mills said.
“Added to that, we obviously have no fuel costs.”
There have been regular inquiries from potential investors in Australia, but so far none has been found to fund a project on a scale that could start seeing greenhouse gas-intensive coal power stations replaced. Ausra does have a pilot plant already functioning at Liddell Power Station near Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley’s traditional coal country, supplementing the coal-burning plant and preserving an estimated 4000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
The NSW Government would like to see more schemes like it, although it is offering no special incentives at this stage.
Ms Firth said she hoped the introduction of the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme and renewable energy target of 20 per cent by the year 2020, together with the state’s own $40 million renewable energy fund, would encourage Dr Mills’ company to persist with a large-scale solar plant in the state.
“We’d obviously like to see this sort of industry in NSW, it’s absolutely part of our longer-term agenda,” Ms Firth said.
Ben Cubby, Environment Reporter
New development in solar technology
June 1, 2008
Researchers from the University of Queensland have achieved what was once thought to be impossible: grown the world’s first titanium oxide single crystals. These crystals, among other useful properties, absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity and will be a cheaper alternative to solar panels in future generation of solar power. The technology is expected to be available commercially within ten years.
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