Community News

The end of the line – movie documentary on global fish extinction by 2050

Posted: 2 September, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Culture/Education, Food • Comments(0)

Imagine an ocean without fish – The End of the Line premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and is a feature documentary film revealing the alarming impact of overfishing on our oceans. It outlines the possibility of an imminent extinction of seafood by 2050 unless we intervene in widespread use of poor fishing practices.

China invests heavily in bullet trains

Posted: 1 September, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Economy, Transport • Comments(0)

Three years ago China planned to lay 13,000kms of high-speed railway by 2020, more than the rest of the world combined. Then the Global Financial Crisis hit and Beijing brought that deadline forward by 8 years. China’s bullet train project is ambitious and has generated millions of jobs and utilised millions of tonnes of Australian iron ore to produce the high-tensile steel for tunnels, bridges and tracks. More global high speed rail investment is needed to make cities more resilient to oil depletion and rising jet fuel costs in the coming decade.

SMH story here

World Student Community for Sustainable Development

Posted: 1 September, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Culture/Education • Comments(0)

The WSC-SD is a multi-disciplinary network of motivated students with the ability to think and act both locally and globally, and who share the vision to make a difference. Our purpose is to be a leading international student organization that carries out meaningful projects which result in positive and enduring changes that improve lives and communities around the world.

Visit them here

Renewable energy plan to replace all Australian coal power in ten years

Posted: 1 September, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Climate Change, Energy, Governance, Pollution/Chemicals • Comments(0)

During July the University of Melbourne in partnership with the Energy Research Institute released the first national plan for providing base load power to Australia from clean renewable energy. The Beyond Zero Emissions plan proposes a ten year roadmap for Australia to reach a 100% renewable energy target making it the first zero carbon nation on the planet. It proposes that all base load energy can be supplied by renewable sources and is affordable to all Australians at $8 per household per week. The plan has caused a stir in the national energy debate and is gaining widespread support. It is a visionary proposal that offers practical solutions utilising green technologies to tackle climate change.

Beyond zero emissions plan

Australia’s Eastern States – reduced greenhouse gas emission last summer

Posted: 1 September, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Climate Change, Energy, Renewable Energy • Comments(0)

A press release by The Climate Group advises that Australia’s 4 Eastern states reduced greenhouse gas emissions by just over 1.2 million tonnes emitted from energy compared to last summer. This is a significant reduction considering that it was one of the hottest summers on record with temperatures reaching 55 degrees. The fall in emissions was driven by a reduction in emissions from coal-fired electricity generation and a fall in emissions from the use of natural gas.

the climate group story here

Cities Go Climate Positive

Posted: 9 April, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Climate Change, Pollution/Chemicals • Comments(1)

With the worlds population on the rise and more people moving to cities, President Clinton describes a bold new project that will set the global standard for communities striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below zero.

Sydney CBD Metro axed but road spending increased

Posted: 30 March, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Governance, Transport • Comments(0)

In Sydney Australia, NSW state premier Kristina Keneally has taken the axe to the transport blueprint of past premier Nathan Rees, cancelling the proposed metro network to spend the money on expanding the existing heavy rail system but still favouring road spending. $5.3 billion for the Sydney CBD Metro was axed but $21.9 billion in unspecified road spending over 10 years was confirmed.

Read the full SMH article here

Over consumption – the tale of two cities

Posted: 8 March, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Biodiversity, Culture/Education, Waste, Water • Comments(1)

History is littered with examples of urban settlements abandoned and forgotten. In the case of two notable examples, Machu Picchu and Angkor, it has often be speculated that the reason for the demise of these two great metropolis of their times was their success and then the eventual unsustainable growth in population and resultant demand for food and clean water. Fast forward a thousand years and we may be witnessing the start of the demise of two world capitals for the same reasons, cities in which the unregulated consumption of natural materials and resources is rapidly driving the destiny of these cities away from their populations and governments. The capital cities of Sanaa in Yemen and Jakarta in Indonesia are faced with the real prospect of  abandonment or at the very least a radical contraction in terms of national significance and size, and with no real solutions offered it seems the options on the table are to simply move on, start over and let the weeds take root, that is of course assuming there is enough water and clean soil to sustain them for the next one thousand years.

Further reading:

Water, Not al-Qaeda, is Yemen’s Main Domestic Concern, Experts Say

Indonesia mulls new capital as Jakarta sinks

The profit in pollution

Posted: 8 March, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Economy • Comments(0)

A new study is set to reveal that if large corporations were made accountable for their environmental impacts then they would lose up to a third of their annual profits.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/18/worlds-top-firms-environmental-damage

Slime Mould Grows Emergent Network Like Tokyo Rail System

Posted: 28 January, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Transport • Comments(0)

A recently completed slime mould experiment by a team led by mathematical biologist Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Hokkaido University in Japan and cell biologist Mark Fricker of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom used Physarum polycephalum to find the shortest route through a layout of oak flakes. The slime discovers and grows over its food digesting it through its body creating thin tendrils that manifest into an ever simpler and efficient network of tubes. The tubes carrying the largest volume of nutrients expand while the less used contract and die off. The oat flakes were positioned on a diagram of Japan in the locations of major cities and the mould released into the map. In a period of twenty six hours the mould self organised into an efficient route layout that resembles the train network around Tokyo. The experiment was designed to use biology as a tool for determining the most efficient possible infrastructure network after human designers had struggled to find an answer. The team now wants to make a mathematical model that mimics the mould’s simple algorithms to apply to the design of real transit networks.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/slime-mold-grows-network-just-like-tokyo-rail-system/

Climate Change – Emission reduction pledges interactive global map

Posted: 13 January, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Climate Change, Pollution/Chemicals • Comments(0)

The Associated Press has put out an interesting interactive map of climate change data, including the emission trends from countries in the northern hemisphere, graphs of the various indicators of global warming such as glacier melts and global temperatures, and the pledges that different countries have made when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/associated-press-launches-interactive-map-of-climate-emissions-pledges-and.php

Hong Kong air pollution – Life threatening one in every 8 Days

Posted: 13 January, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Health, Pollution/Chemicals, Transport • Comments(0)

A report, citing figures obtained from the government, says Hong Kong’s roadside air pollution reached life-threatening levels one in every eight days last year. The air pollution index was recorded by the Environmental Protection Department. It said there were 44 days of “very high pollution” last year. That number is up from the 39 reported days in 2008 and the 13 days in 2005. The impact of vehicular and industrial pollution on the health of citizens in major cities is becoming increasingly documented. Public transport needs to play a bigger role in moving people around their cities to reduce pollution.

http://www.ecoworldly.com/2010/01/04/hong-kongs-air-pollution-life-threatening-one-in-every-eight-days-last-year/

Shrinking City – Detroit Michigan

Posted: 13 January, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Built form, Economy, Peak Oil • Comments(0)

It is an open secret that the downtown of Detroit, Michigan is as empty as the residential districts that surround it. As heavy fossil fuel reliant industries and products become increasingly redundant due to rising fuel costs from peak oil shrinking local economies will continue to make some cities redundant.

Ordos – New city stands empty in China

Posted: 13 January, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Built form, Economy, Governance • Comments(0)

China’s economy is continuing to grow despite the global recession, helped by a massive government stimulus package of $585bn. But doubts remain whether such strong growth can be sustained by public spending alone. Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan reports from Inner Mongolia, where a whole town built with government money is standing empty.

Climate Change – 2 degrees of warming – Ocean Life in Danger

Posted: 12 January, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Climate Change • Comments(0)

National Geographic

Climate Change – 5 degrees of warming – Civilisation Collapses

Posted: 12 January, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Climate Change • Comments(0)

National Geographic

Climate change – 6 degrees of warming – Mass Extinction

Posted: 12 January, 2010 • Category: News • Tags: Climate Change • Comments(0)

National Geographic

Renewable Energy now the global mainstay for investment in electricity generation

Posted: 28 October, 2009 • Category: News • Tags: Renewable Energy • Comments(1)

In June, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story highlighting recent figures from the United Nations revealing that renewable energy has overtaken fossil fuels in attracting investment for electrical power generation. In 2008, $US140 billion was invested in wind, solar, hydro and other renewable technologies compared with $US110 billion in gas and coal. More than a third of this investment in renewable energy was destined for Europe, however, the biggest growth in investment came from China, India and other developing nations. Wind power attracted the largest investment in renewables, followed by solar and biofuels.

The recent economic slump has seen overall investment to date in 2009 fall 2% in the west, although signs of recovery are evident. Developing countries led by China and India have risen 27%. The UN states that US$750 billion needs to be spent worldwide on renewables between now and 2011.

Transition Towns

Posted: 28 October, 2009 • Category: News • Tags: Biocity Studio, Ecosystems • Comments(2)

A shared presentation at Cundall’s Sydney office in August 2009 from Adrian McGregor of the Biocity Studio and Peter Driscoll & Sarah Hatcher from Transition Sydney, a branch of the global Transition Towns movement identified similarities between the two initiatives.  Primarily, that they are both tackling the challenges of peak oil and global warming.  The Biocity Studio has referenced the Transition Towns initiative in it’s university courses as a positive precedent for providing solutions to cities for the transition to a post peak oil, global warming affected planet. For more information on Transition Towns, visit
http://www.transitiontowns.org/