John Gardner, US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare joined Lyndon Johnson’s cabinet in 1965 to help create a ‘Great Society’ to end poverty, promote equality, improve education, rejuvenate cities…
Driving away from fossil fuels: fields of rapeseed which is used in biofuels, many of which are under development in Australia and abroad.
Flickr/roger g1
In 300 BC, the Syrian city of Antioch had public street lighting fuelled by olive oil. At the 1900 Paris World Fair, German inventor Rudolph Diesel demonstrated his engine powered by peanut oil.
Biofuels…
Humanity's control of fire has led to a vastly changed atmosphere.
Jason A Samfield
The evidence for a rapid shift in state of the terrestrial atmosphere-ocean system over the last two centuries (see figure 1) requires a deep time perspective, beyond events of the day. Tracing the original…
Environmentalists are getting off the streets and into the courts in an effort to stop coal.
Takver
The bill creating the carbon price has passed through Parliament. However, the campaigning efforts of the environmental lobby will not pause. More than ever, the coal industry is in its sights, with court…
There are several options for future energy generation. We just need to get there.
waldopepper
In news today, the Greens are calling for an end to federal funding for a proposed coal- and gas-fuelled power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. Others have suggested the plant provides a source of…
Future fuels will be made from a range of raw materials, including algae.
SandiaLabs
By Ian O'Hara, Queensland University of Technology
It’s one of the key challenges of our generation: transforming our global energy use from emissions-intensive, non-renewable fossil fuels to low-carbon, sustainable energy technologies.
The challenge…
Solar is now a viable industry that should be taken seriously
AFP Photo/Sakis Mitrolidis
A solar energy revolution is brewing that will put the coal and nuclear industries out of business. Solar is already reaching price parity with coal in many parts of Australia. In contrast to coal and…
Debate is intensifying over the extraction of coal seam gas, particularly in NSW and Queensland. Farmers are protesting over safety concerns and threats to the country’s food security.
The Greens and…
What can you do with a hole in the ground? It's about more than planting trees.
OZinOH/flickr
In late 1986, residents of Diamond St, Kingston, an outer southern suburb of Brisbane, began to notice a black sludge-like substance seeping through the soil and into their gardens.
Within six months…
Winds of change: Julia Gillard's comparison is politically convenient, but doesn't make sense.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week used the example of Spain to indicate how Australia’s energy mix could be transformed.
The potential for this transformation is nothing more than wishful thinking…
The movie Gasland galvanised the public on the dangers of fracking.
Gasland
Fracking. It’s a hotbed of controversy that spans our increasingly energy-hungry globe.
The French have turned their back on it. Permanently. And now the NSW government has temporarily frozen the use…
Believe it or not, sulphur emissions are keeping us cooler.
lillicomanche/flickr
The Earth energy balance – the difference between energy/heat absorbed by the Earth from solar radiation and the energy/heat emitted back to space – is currently offset by the cooling effect of sulphur…
Renewables or fossil fuels, we'll send them offshore when it makes sense.
Flickr/nosha
Australia is a major energy exporter. Are we going to continue to increase our contribution to Asia’s energy mix? Will it be clean energy? And is it possible that our best renewable energy resources will…
A carbon tax priced at $26 per tonne could raise $11.5 billion in the first year, said economist Ross Garnaut.
AAP
Economist Professor Ross Garnaut has released his final report to the government on climate change and the economy.
The report says global warming is expected to continue and estimates that a $26 per…
Coal seam gas drilling threatens our most arable land.
«Jonny Boy»/flickr
Coal seam gas has been touted by some as the answer to our addiction to dirty coal. It’s marketed as a “transition fuel” that will ween us off fossil fuels as we move to renewable energy.
But the process…
For politicians, there's no bright future in pushing up petrol prices
Alcohol Gasoline/Flickr
Politically, increasing petrol prices is one of the least popular things a government can do. But is there any point to a carbon tax if it doesn’t cover petrol?
Vladimir Putin has just found how quickly…
Our old-fashioned addiction will be hard to kick.
JD Hancock/flickr
Oil is a finite and non-renewable resource. Its production is going to peak.
“Peak oil” is the point at which half of the world’s original endowment of oil has been extracted.
This is the point at which…
In a coal-abundant nation trying to go green, coal seam gas drilling offers us a cleaner source of energy.
But there is a draw back.
Many coal seam wells will require fraccing and the community is concerned…
At least three-quarters of city commuters travel by car.
AAP
Emissions trading is back in the news and in national political debate, as is the related question of how it will affect Australian motorists.
Fair enough. This should receive attention because greenhouse…
