Australia’s largest cities could begin experiencing extreme heatwaves with +50° Celsius temperatures within the relatively near term (within the next ~20 years), even if international climate change and greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals are met, according to a recent study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. To be more specific, the recent study dealt
If the Greens have anything to say about clean energy policies in South Australia, this land may showcase a 100% renewable electricity portfolio by 2030. According to RenewEconomy, the Greens have announced plans to have “… South Australia source 100% of its electricity needs from clean energy by 2030.” Such a clean energy achievement will generate 1,000
Among various solar energy technologies, one is referred to as concentrated solar power, or concentrating solar power. The acronym CSP applies to either. Worldwide CSP systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. The concentrated heat is used to eventually spin a
With more travelers interested in their eco-footprint, sustainable travel has become the new trend. According to a recent survey by Booking.com, only 10% of respondents took a traditional sustainable trip in 2014, but 2015 will see the majority of global travelers wanting to reduce their environmental impact, or to ensure that their tourism has a positive impact
One of the largest solar panel manufacturers in the world, the producer of the most efficient commercial solar modules on the planet, and a large solar developer — SunPower* — is teaming up with Sunverge Energy, a producer of “advanced Solar Integration System (SIS) energy storage solutions to residential customers and utilities.” Basically, the two
Never let it be said that the doomsaying, treehugging, pointy-headed nerds of the climate change adaptation movement lack a fundamental sense of humor. The dark amusements of the UN’s COP20 conference in Lima—as at prior venues—surface daily in the presentation of an award for [Climate] Fossil of the Day. During United Nations climate change talks
As you may know from earlier coverage, the powerful G20 meeting this weekend in Brisbane didn’t go exactly the way its Australian planners intended when they drew up the agenda. However, it seems to have worked out as well as could be expected for the environment after all, considering the other glitches. The world leaders in
The G20 meeting of the world’s most influential political and economic leaders in Brisbane, Australia, began slightly off-track today, according to Reuters. President Obama put out a few words about climate change at the start, announcing a much-needed US pledge of $3 billion to get the world two-thirds of the way toward a $10 billion
Australia may have a a crazy or completely corrupt prime minister running the show right now, but the solar energy market in Queensland is unstoppable. Approximately 25% of homes have rooftop solar panels there, and the number is still growing continuously. Recent data from southeast Queensland show that ~13% of the region’s home electricity demand
A young boy from Africa once said, “You people from America have so much clean water that you flush drinking water down the toilet”. The young boy later explained that he usually misses school because he must walk 3 hours to collect drinking water for his family. So why is it that we Americans use more water
There are the good wildfires, and there are the bad. Unfortunately, the latter often overwhelm the beneficial ones. We’ll go on with stories from San Diego in a minute—it’s a long story of an actually short time—but here’s a word about the bright side first. Whoopi Goldberg had a thought that’s worth repeating: When you
By now, many of us have heard that the President spent a little time this morning at a Wal-Mart store in in Mountain View, California, near San Jose. Solar deployment and energy efficiency were the two main thrusts of his speech. He spoke about more than 300 recent private and public sector commitments to create
The threatened Gondwana Rainforests of Australia (source: environment.nsw.gov.au). Sadly, we hear too much about the logging, clearing, and obliteration of earth’s rainforests, and about the global repercussions, including climate change. Here’s a story about rainforest rejuvenation, albeit on a small scale. From Germaine Greer, the Australian author of White Beech: The Rainforest Years: “This is
While most of the northern US was hit with a polar vortex and record cold earlier this month, Australia and New Zealand were hit with a polar opposite record heat wave (see what I did there?). How hot was it? Australian newspaper, the Star, started off its article with the words “Bats are dropping from
At the late November meeting of UN climate delegates in Warsaw, negotiators from Canada–once a strong supporter of fast-start financing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries–and Australia, now led by a rashly conservative government, sat on their hands. Reeling from the costs of mitigation at Fukushima and a stopgap return to fossil fuels,
It would seem to be a rare thing indeed: an expedition to a remote mountain range results in the discovery of an ecological ‘lost world’…but that’s exactly what happened to biologist Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University (Queensland), along with a National Geographic film crew, after being dropped by helicopter onto the remote mountain range
Originally published on Solar Love. Some places clearly don’t have the health or transportation facilities that most of us are accustomed to. Cleantech is increasingly being used to help provide that. In the latest such story, a high school student from Adelaide, Australia, has helped design a solar-powered car to transport pregnant women in Zimbabwe
When we think of “green” or “eco-friendly,” we probably think of things like bikes, solar panels, electric cars, intelligent thermostats, organic food, pinwheels (oh wait, not pinwheels, unfortunately), and so on. But how often do you think about the internet as being eco-friendly. Indeed, despite some quite popular misinformation, the internet is very green, especially
Originally published on Solar Love. We’re in the midst of a massive cleantech revolution. Solar power is beginning to disrupt the hell out of the power industry. Electric vehicles are on the verge of putting gasmobiles to sleep. Wind power is already one of the cheapest options for new electricity generation in the world — if not the cheapest. The movement
A massive new liquified natural gas (LNG) construction project in Australia — one of the first “coal-conversion” projects of its kind — took a major step towards completion last week when, on June 25, a dome-shaped steel roof, weighing more than 850 tons (more than four 747 airliners) was lifted to into place by electric
We’re trying to get more solar energy stories going here on Planetsave. To catch readers up, I’m doing a short series on the top 50 solar energy stories of 2013 so far. Learning from the Top 33 EV Stories article I recently published, I’m splitting this one into 5 posts. Otherwise, the page would take forever to load.
Reposted from RenewEconomy: Australia’s newly appointed Minister for Energy and Resources, Gary Gray, admitted he was once a fierce climate sceptic, but now says he is embarrassed by his former position on climate science. Asked on ABC TV’s Lateline program, Gray admitted that he had once branded climate science as a middle class conspiracy, as
No, it isn’t news of a full extinct species restoration, but scientists did successfully clone cells from an extinct frog species. Researchers in Australia used somatic cell nuclear transfer to make gastric brooding frog embryos. Cell nuclei were taken from tissue samples of the extinct species collected in the 1970s. Then they were placed in
Two fishermen in New South Wales, Australia were near the Tweed River when they saw a dolphin beached on a tidal river flat. They assumed the dolphin was dead as it wasn’t moving and appeared left high and dry. As they approached, they were surprised to see the marine mammal move and actually appeared to
Every one of us is on a learning curve capable of transformation. Every one of us chooses a path, or the path takes us. We grow attached to our efforts, ideas, the commitment to our beliefs — the environmentalist who concerns himself with saving the trees; the logger, happy to have the only real work
Researchers from the James Cook University in Australia have come across a huge slab of sea floor near the Great Barrier Reef that is in the early stages of collapse. When the one cubic kilometre slab finally breaks away, it will fall one kilometre into the adjacent basin causing a localised tsunami along the Queensland
The star is called Tau Ceti and it’s a mere 12 light years away from our own — practically in our solar system’s back yard. Even more impressive, one of the five suspected planets that orbit Tau Ceti appears to be orbiting within the star’s habitable zone — an invisible zone around a star within
It’s at times like the current environmental and climate change catastrophe that you realize just how deeply fearful and conservative people can be. For example, leading and well respected proponents of green economics and resilient society are still rabbiting on about how we can avoid rises of over 2°C by 2100. Makes me want to scream… Then
Much of Australia has just come out the other side of restrictive water use regulations in an attempt to halt the dramatic decrease in water-storage levels. Levels have recovered, but a new study shows that Australia should start banking its water underground now in preparation for future dry times. “There is enormous national potential to
An Australian scientist told the Australian Academy of Science’s Earth System Outlook Conference in Canberra that Australia could be a world leader in developing marine reserves that are able to keep pace with climate change and absorb the impact of warming oceans, storms, and flood events. “The challenge we face is that a marine reserve or
Two hot “world’s largest marine reserve” stories have been swimming around the news over the last few months. A few days ago Australia announced it was going to create a massive network of marine reserves whose area would total 888,000 miles2. That’s nearly the combined area of Alaska and Texas… 931,000 miles2! However, back
In 2008, the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland reported that Australia was highly dependent on car travel – it accounts for 80% of all passenger travel. There are 28 tonnes of greenhouse gases per head in Australia. Emissions from vehicles account for around 8% of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, which contributes
A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has lost half of its coral in the last 27 years thanks to storm damage, crown of thorns starfish and bleaching. The study, conducted by researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science
Launched today by the CSIRO is the 2012 Marine Climate Change in Australia Report Card which demonstrates that climate change is having significant impacts on the marine ecosystems that border Australia. Aspects of the study include changes in sea temperature, sea level, the East Australian Current, the Leeuwin Current, and El Niño-Southern Oscillation, as well as marine
A first of its kind study has been performed on 27 natural climate records to produce the first large-scale temperature reconstruction for the Australasian region over the past 1,000 years. Led by researchers from the University of Melbourne, researchers used a range of natural indicators including tree rings, corals, and ice cores to study
by Patrick O’Keeffe The Kimberley Coast, located on the north-western edge of Australia, is under significant threat from a boom in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production, as companies swoop on large gas fields off the West Australian coast. The most controversial of these projects, is the Browse Basin development, which involves the development of a
HostelBookers, a budget accommodation specialist I’ve used numerous times, has announced that it is supporting WWF’s Earth Hour, the world’s largest campaign for action to protect the planet, in a number of ways. On March 31, 2012 at 8.30pm, the global skyline will be plunged into darkness as hundreds of millions of people, landmarks,
Oceanographers from across the world have identified a series of ocean hotspots that have been generated by strengthening wind systems across the planet that are successfully pushing oceanic current polewards, well beyond their known boundaries. The hotspots – locations where the temperature has increased outside of expected norms – have formed alongside ocean currents that
In a briefing paper released January 19 by Oxfam.org entitled, “Left behind by the G20? How inequality and environmental degradation threaten to exclude poor people from the benefits of economic growth,” the standard mantra of pro-growth policy — a rising tide lifts all boats — appears to be an economic myth (like “trickle down”) and
No matter what the motivation (to make money, probably), this is an awesome video from Giant on giving more props to ‘real riders’, everyday bicyclists who are doing it for the planet, their health, or just because they love it. This is what we need, more emphasis on everyday people cycling for fun, health,
If you haven’t heard, three anto-whaling activists, or whale warriors, were ‘taken captive’ by Japanese whalers after boarding the Shonan Maru 2 several days ago are supposedly to be released. The Australian activists from Forest Rescue — Geoffrey Owen Tuxworth, Simon Peterffy, and Glen Pendlebury — were facing trial and possible imprisonment in Japan for
With the world’s population approaching 7 billion people, we are encountering a threat of a lack of clean drinking water. Now is the time to start conserving water and considering processes to alleviate the lack of clean drinking water.
For many of us, we’re never going to see an aurora. We simply live too far away from the poles. We might be able to make do with photos people have taken from the ground, but even that doesn’t match up with the video and image below, which show the aurora australis over Antarctica on September 11, 2005.
The global climate movement has made some big gains in the last couple of weeks thanks to the effort of organisers in Australia.
You might have heard that just last week, the Australian Lower House of Parliament passed a landmark package of legislation to enact a price on carbon. The legislation now only has to make it past the Senate, which because the Greens hold the balance of power is almost certainly guaranteed. Part of the package includes $10 billion for the establishment of the “Clean Energy Finance Corporation” – in a bid to accelerate the deployment and investment in clean energy projects.
Tipping points are always a hotbed issue in climate science, but in a new study it has been found that a region with tropical tree cover will jump quickly between a forested state to a savannah or treeless state.
Deep in the heart of Australia’s outback rests a massive rock. Known for a long time as Ayers Rock, but known for an even longer time as Uluru, the sandstone formation stands 348 m (1,142 ft) high, though most of its bulk lies underground.
In an effort to stop CO2 emissions in Australia, they have come up with one proposal that is completely absurd. They are talking about killing off their wild camel population because they are farting too much, supposedly creating too much CO2.
This astronaut photograph shows the Shoemakr (formerly Teague) Impact Structure in Western Australia, a massive impact site approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) in diameter and easily discernible from the surrounding landscape by concentric ring structures.
