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Single-Column Responsive Email Template SENG QLD Newsletter - November 2017 Welcome to Newsletter Number 68 Dear SENG Qld members and friends, Apologies for the ghoulish short notice, but early Halloween evening (Tue 31st Oct) will be the Brisbane launch of Rethinking Cement by Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE), a pathway for modernising cement presented as part of the Zero Carbon Industry Plan by Zero Carbon Australia. Held in Engineering House, the event includes refreshments and registration at 6:15pm, a presentation by Michael Lord (BZE Project Director), a Q&A panel discussion and then networking opportunities with industry, academia and government professionals also committed to sustainable infrastructural development. Please register as soon as possible. This month’s newsletter includes: Rethinking Cement Other Events Interesting Snippets Open for comment David's Blog As always, we welcome input from members regarding topics or speakers of interest. Please contact one of the Qld committee members, or consider coming along to a committee meeting, held at Engineering House prior to each of our technical seminars. We hope to see you there! Sustainable Engineering Society Qld Branch Engineers Australia. Rethinking Concrete Date: Tuesday 31st October, 2017 Time: 6:15 to 8:15pm AEST Presenter: Michael Lord, BZE Project Director Venue: Hawken Auditorium, Engineering House 447 Upper Edward St, Brisbane Cost: Free with registration Produced by Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE), Rethinking Cement sets out a pathway for modernising cement by eliminating carbon emissions whilst still building strong and durable infrastructure. Cement-making is responsible for 8% of all global emissions and if we don’t rethink cement, we won’t achieve our crucial Paris Climate Summit targets. Modernising cement is achievable and affordable, and Rethinking Cement shows how Australia can lead the world with zero carbon cement. We have the technology to wipe out emissions from cement in ten years, and with smart thinking, we can even turn cement into a carbon sink of the future. The event will include refreshments with registration at 6.15 PM, followed by a research presentation from BZE Project Director Michael Lord, a Q&A discussion panel, then opportunities to network with industry, academic and government figures who share the same interest in sustainable infrastructure and development. We hope you can join us. Seats are limited and time is short so please register soon. Beyond Zero Emissions is one of Australia's most respected climate change think-tanks. They produce independent research demonstrating that zero emissions is achieveable and affordable now. Their work is carried out by a small staff of experts, with the help of academic institutions and a large network of volunteer scientists, engineers and economists, funded by private foundations and concerned individuals. You can be part of our audacious vision for a Zero Carbon Australia by making a donation to fund their research. Eighty-five per cent of BZE's researchers are volunteers, making your donation go a long way. To find out how visit http://bze.org.au This event is supported by Engineers Australia. Register now. Other Events Centre for Environmental Training (cet) Erosion and Sediment Control workshops (14 – 17 Nov) Four consecutive workshops address the fundamentals of erosion and sediment control, the International Erosion Control Association (IECA) guidelines, construction site water management, and control plans. Engineers Australia Renewables' impact on Qld Transmission Network / Qld Electrical College AGM (15 Nov) The evening will commence with the Queensland Electrical Branch's Annual Group Meeting followed by guest speaker Mr Kevin Kehl, Powerlink's current Executive General Manager Strategy and Business Development. Mt Kehl’s presentation will focus on the impact of renewables on Queensland's transmission grid and the development of the North Queensland Clean Energy Hub. Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Smart Grid Research at Virginia Tech (22 Nov) Professor Saifur Rahman, Director of the Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute, USA, will discuss renewable energy integration and storage, demand response, energy efficiency and smart grid/smart cities, focussing upon on the interactions between students, faculty, university and industry sponsors on research projects. General 10th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) & Hydropolis 2018 (Feb 12 - 15) The program for WSUD / Hydropolis 2018 has recently been released and the focus is “Creating Water Sensitive Communities". This event aims to challenge delegates’ thinking and knowledge, and expand their views on what represents urban water management best practice and its vital role in developing our future communities. The program includes three days of technical presentations with a number of excellent keynote speakers and range of oral sessions covering both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed papers. A formal conference dinner will be held on 14 February 2018 where Engineers Australia and Stormwater WA Industry Awards winners will be announced, alongside some light entertainment. Register before Tuesday 7 November to secure the early-bird rate. Interesting Snippets For your interest, horror and amusement. SENG makes no claims regarding the accuracy or currency of these items. - The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) are suffering uncertain direction as climate change adaption impacts upon the coal industry, including MCA’s major lobbyists. After a recent and unexpected leadership departure, and waning feasibility for new and old coal-fired power plants, the old ways are coming under scrutiny. Do MCA embrace the emerging renewable energy technology revolution now, or ignore increasing public pressure to continue promoting coal to appease the concerns of their major supporters, BHP and Rio Tinto. Read more here. - The Australian Institute’s Climate and Energy Program have released their first major report, indicating that energy-generation is the cheapest way for Australia to address greenhouse gas emission targets set by the Paris Climate Summit Agreement. This requires 66 – 75% emission-free renewable energy sources by 2030 to stay on target. Find out more here. - The outcomes from Australian National University’s (ANU) recent research of the nation’s pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) options are extremely positive. It is predicted that only a fraction of a percent of these options are necessary to fill Australia’s energy demands with this renewable, emission-free resource. Read more exciting PHES information here. - Collaboration between OPEC Systems and the Australian Department of Defence have applied ‘Green Chemistry’ to develop breakthrough technology, Downhole Foam Fractionation, for remediating soil previously contaminated by now-discontinued fire-fighting foam containing PFAS pollutants. More details here. - TechCollect, an Australian technology (e-waste) recycling company, have conducted a survey seeking answers to why most technology is not being recycled once disused, citing data-security fears, hoarding and unawareness of recycling options as the main reasons. TechCollect are responding by aiming to increase awareness of their technology recycling options and drop-off centres. Click here to find out more. - China halts progress on the development of over 150 new coal-fired power plants but still falls well short of necessary targets. Read more here. - Canada and the United Kingdom have joined forces to phase out all coal-fired power generation by 2030 and 2025, respectively, to improve community health and benefit future generations. They urge other countries to follow their lead. Full article here. Awards and Open Comment The Qld Government's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection and Department of the Environment and Energy require feedback regarding an independent Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) they have financed. The RIS aims to determine any necessary amendments to current reef protection legislation. More information about helping to broaden and enhance reef regulations is available here. Moment for Action Sign the petition David's Blog Keep up to date by reading David's Blog on the SENG website. Log in using your to post comments or questions. Join the conversation on our LinkedIn group page If you have an idea to share, an issue you would like feedback on, or just want to follow the conversation, click here to join the group. If you can't view this email click here to view online Click here to unsubscribe from this newsletter

Queensland election means delay for major renewables and storage tender, but will also be major litmus test for future of industry in Australia.

Menstrual pads are hard to talk about, and also an eco disaster on our beaches – but we need to change our ways

This column nearly didn’t happen. When a manufacturer of eco friendly menstrual pads bounded up to me and asked me brightly in public: “Are you a flusher or a binner?” I stared at her in total horror. Menstrual products and their disposal represent one of the last great consumer taboos – odd in a society which cheerfully discusses the vajazzle. It’s a taboo that powers a huge environmental issue. In their 2016 beach clean-up, the Marine Conservation Society found 20 tampons and sanitary items per 100 metres of shoreline.

Why not embrace the rise of the reusables?

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Sir David Attenborough is returning to our screens and people are very excited about it.

The 50-year civil war is over but, in the Cauca Valley, indigenous communities are on frontline of fight against drug gangs, riot police and deforestation

A green-and-red flag flies over a cluster of bamboo and tarpaulin tents on the frontline of an increasingly deadly struggle for land and the environment in Colombia’s Cauca Valley.

It is the banner for what indigenous activists are calling the “liberation of Mother Earth”, a movement to reclaim ancestral land from sugar plantations, farms and tourist resorts that has gained momentum in the vacuum left by last year’s peace accord between the government and the paramilitaries who once dominated the region – ending, in turn, the world’s longest-running civil war.

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Though regarded as among the tastiest fish, 90% of the catch goes to Europe. Now a supermarket campaign aims to change that

At close to midnight, the crew of the Rachel Anne are surprisingly cheerful, given they have spent seven hours fruitlessly searching the English Channel for sardines. Scanning the screens in the wheelhouse, Richard Chamberlain, the skipper, suddenly spots a red blob on the echo-sounder which indicates a sizeable shoal is close by. “It’s looking good,” he shouts, checking its location and satisfied that it is a “tight” (and therefore plentiful) shoal, and not too deep. “Let’s shoot.”

The nocturnal silence off Cornwall is shattered as a huge circular net is catapulted or “shot” overboard by a hydraulic winch and – engine revving – the boat lurches ahead in a giant curve, the net unfurling behind.

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The Convention of Migratory Species includes chimpanzees, leopards and vultures on its list.

Scores of the sea creatures are witnessed crawling out of the water at a beach in Ceredigion.

While at university, self-taught gardener Emma Sibley often swapped houseplants and cuttings with friends. Now, her desire to combine nature with city life has led to Urban Botanics (Aurum Press £18), a book illustrated by Dutch artist Maaike Koster, guiding readers through 70 indoor plant varieties, their origins and upkeep. “Having plants in your home helps to purify the air. Living in a city, this is a welcome benefit,” says Sibley, who also runs the shop London Terrariums. While a houseplant isn’t a true substitute for being out in nature, she says, it can create a “calmer, greener environment that helps both productivity and relaxation”.

• To tie in with the book, Emma Sibley will demonstrate how to make a terrarium at Heals, London W1 on 2 November

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Animals have got stuck in mud after searching for relief from Brazil's prolonged drought.

Once it grew only sugar and was heavy handed with fertilizers and pesticides, now Cuba is in the grip of a small-scale organic farming revolution

In the town of Hershey, 40 miles east of Havana, you can see the past and the future of Cuban farming, side by side.

The abandoned hulk of the Camilo Cienfuegos sugar plant, shut along with 70 other cane refineries in 2002, towers over the town. But in the lush hills and grasslands around Hershey, fields of cassava, corn, beans, and vegetables are a sign that there is life after sugar.

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World-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking thrilled fans with a talk on black holes.

Caersws, Powys Afon Hafren meanders to the flood plain, a broad, stately, river in comfortable middle age

Long before the Romans built their two forts at Caersws, the ridge to the west of the town was dominated by the ramparts of Cefn Carnedd. In the low afternoon sunshine the defensive banks that still rise above the hillside woodland were picked out by deep shadows.

The iron-age fortress stands above a kempt farmed landscape drained by the afon Hafren (river Severn) as it meanders across the valley floor. Only a few miles from where it rises, gathering volume from the tributary streams funnelling in from the many side valleys, it has already changed from a lively moorland torrent to a broad, stately, river in comfortable middle age.

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The temperature of waters around Britain have increased by two degrees in just forty years. Kelp are slowing moving towards cooler waters with many now endangered.

Matt Canavan says his immediate priority is to get NAIF funding for the Adani coal mine and a new coal-fired generator in north Queensland.

Cambridge University say the online repository has "never seen numbers like this before".

It was thought that cane toads couldn't survive, and certainly couldn't breed as far south as Sydney. That thought was spectacularly wrong.

From solar to running generators, some have quit the energy grid and several others are showing interest in ‘defecting’

In the heart of Queensland’s mining belt, a businessman who has grown his enterprise mostly off the back of the coal industry sees the energy sector going only one way.

“I think renewable energy is where the market’s going – what we class as the energy revolution,” says Jason Sharam.

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President will reverse protections established by two Democratic presidents on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante, sparking fury from environmentalists

Donald Trump is shrinking two national monuments in Utah, accepting the recommendation of interior secretary Ryan Zinke to reverse protections established by two Democratic presidents, a Republican senator said Friday.

Related: National Park Service wants to sharply raise entry fees at most popular parks

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Colin Bannon on how to tackle a post-Brexit problem

The WWF is absolutely right that our fish stocks are at risk from leaving the common fisheries policy (Call for Brexit monitoring of UK fishing fleet, 27 October). This is because in reality fish stocks all round Europe are precarious and all the (welcome) “recovery” in cod stock means is that there are now very few fish instead of very, very few.

My contribution to the future of fish stocks is to not eat fish until there are marine conservation zones all around the UK and fish stocks are allowed to increase massively.

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