Latest Story
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Forget the Carbon Economy
Peter.Droege | February 22, 2009Instead of wasting time with an impossibly complex and ultimately hopeless carbon trade regime, let us swiftly implement a 100 per cent renewable energy system.
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Nationalism VS Patriotism
Hani Montan | February 19, 2009Assimilation of migrant parents into society is an essential step towards the elimination of conflict with their children. Children want to belong and be part of society, rather than be isolated by antagonism.
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Shopping around for “natural” beauty
Catherine Fritz-Kalish | February 18, 2009We need standards to ensure that words like" natural" have a clear meaning. The personal care industry should follow the lead of food labelling requirements.
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Are We All Keynesians Again?
Robert Carling | February 18, 2009The stimulus measures adopted in late 2008 and early 2009 are excessive and largely of the wrong kind. It would have been better to accelerate desirable structural changes, such as permanent tax reform, which improve incentives for individuals and businesses.
The unfolding global economic debacle has led many governments, including our own, to reach into their policy toolkits for fiscal stimulus measures. In doing so, they have revived fiscal policy as a counter-cyclical tool, which was so much in vogue until the early 1970s that Richard Nixon famously declared ‘We are all Keynesians now.’
Are we all Keynesians again? At first sight, fiscal pump priming might appear to have a lot going for it in current conditions: inflation is receding; spare capacity is increasing, at least in the major developed economies; and the crisis in the banking system is weakening conventional monetary policy.
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A Spirit of Generosity – Now More Than Ever
socialclubs | February 18, 2009Now more than ever, we need a spirit of generosity in our society.
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The IT skills shortage we have to have
Douglascomms | February 17, 2009Why fall over ourselves attempting to make IT look sexy for young people, while systematically excluding those who actually want to work?
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Why is Carbon Capture and Storage Needed?
Graeme.Puxty | February 17, 2009To meet our future energy needs in a cleaner way, we will need a mix of technologies, not just one.
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The Impact on Voluntary Action under an Emissions Trading Scheme
Chris.Doherty | February 16, 2009People voluntarily reduce their carbon footprint because they want to see a net reduction of emissions; it's important carbon trading scheme doesn't undermine this effect.
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Another (V) day, another dollar
alison gordon | February 12, 2009After doing a quick scan of people's general reaction to the words "Valentine's Day", one would have to say it's a mixed lot, at best.
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You don’t have to be Carbon Neutral to be Carbon Conscious
Peter.Balsarini | February 12, 2009It’s better to be doing something rather than nothing as long as you don’t make misleading statements to the market in an attempt to make your product something it’s not.
There are growing numbers of Australian companies choosing to offset their emissions voluntarily.
What motivates an organisation to offset its carbon footprint?
The reasons vary but often the aim is the same: to become carbon neutral and be a good corporate citizen. This is achieved by calculating the emissions each company creates – then purchasing offsets from emission reduction projects (such as planting trees) to help counteract them.
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It’s up to us!
Sean Barrett | February 11, 2009Any cut is better than nothing… but only if we achieve it.
Now we know the worst, an emissions target of five percent, we must now focus on the fact that it is a target. It doesn’t matter what the figure is if we do not achieve it.
The immediate priority is to equip people and business with ways to reach the target. There is too much emphasis on theoretical targets and too little emphasis on practical actions.
Results from research have been consistent: people are concerned about climate change but they lack information on simple, easy ways to tackle it.
The five percent target is a start, a baseline, a beginning. It should be the starting pistol for individuals and organisations to race to do better, to aspire to beat the target. That assumes that they can get the information on how to do so.
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New opportunities in a carbon economy
Open Forum | February 10, 2009Why has the Rudd Government been so dismissive of the potential of biochar and other new green carbon technologies which offer enormous economic and environmental benefits?
