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SENG SA News and Events

Newsletters S.A. - Wed, 2014-04-02 08:50
SENG SA News and Events
Categories: Newsletters S.A.

Public consultation on the Minamata Convention on Mercury has now commenced

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2014-04-01 10:18
The Department is seeking public comment on the proposal for Australia to ratify the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Comments close 30 June 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

Jane Goodall blames 'chaotic note taking' for plagiarism controversy

The Guardian - Tue, 2014-04-01 09:10
Scientist revises her book Seeds of Hope after allegations 12 sections were lifted from other websites

Leading primatologist Jane Goodall has blamed a "hectic work schedule" and her "chaotic method of note taking" for a plagarism controversy surrounding her reissued book.

Speaking ahead of the publication of a revised edition of Seeds of Hope, first published in August 2013, Goodall, said she had learned lessons following reports in the Washington Post last year that at least 12 sections of the book were lifted from other websites including Wikipedia.

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'We expect catastrophe' – Manila, the megacity on the climate frontline

The Guardian - Mon, 2014-03-31 15:00
IPCC report warns life in the Filipino capital and other coastal cities will get much worse in many ways as temperatures rise

Joshua Alvarez and his family fear for their lives when the monsoon rains come. Last August their two-bedroom flat in Manila was flooded when severe tropical storm Trami dumped 15 inches of rain (380mm) in a few hours and the local reservoir overflowed. They fled to a flyover with thousands of others as five large areas of the capital were inundated with muddy waters up to three metres deep and a state of calamity was declared in three Philippine provinces.

In 2012, typhoon Haikui battered the megacity of 12 million people for eight days, but when tropical storm Ondoy hit Manila in 2009 and a month's worth of rain fell in a few hours, the city came close to catastrophe. Nearly 80% was flooded, 246 people died and hundreds of thousands had to be evacuated.

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Green Army Request for Tender Now Open

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2014-03-31 14:28
The Department is inviting tenders from Service Providers interested in being involved in the Green Army Programme.
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Australia’s fifth national report to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2014-03-31 08:05
Public consultation 31 March – 18 April 2014
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James Lovelock: environmentalism has become a religion

The Guardian - Mon, 2014-03-31 03:30

Scientist behind the Gaia hypothesis says environment movement does not pay enough attention to facts and he was too certain in the past about rising temperatures

Environmentalism has "become a religion" and does not pay enough attention to facts, according to James Lovelock.

The 94 year-old scientist, famous for his Gaia hypothesis that Earth is a self-regulating, single organism, also said that he had been too certain about the rate of global warming in his past book, that "it’s just as silly to be a [climate] denier as it is to be a believer” and that fracking and nuclear power should power the UK, not renewable sources such as windfarms.

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Management Program for the Saltwater Crocodile in the Northern Territory

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-03-28 10:05
Release of the Management Program for the Saltwater Crocodile in the Northern Territory of Australia, 2014–2015
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Public consultation: draft assessment bilateral agreement between the Commonwealth and the Australian Capital Territory

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2014-03-27 16:17
The Department is seeking public comment on a draft assessment bilateral agreement with the Australian Capital Territory. Comments close 28 April 2014.
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New Carbon Farming Initiative methodology proposal

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2014-03-27 13:47
Sequestering carbon in soils in grazing systems - open for public consultation until 6 May 2014.
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Threatened Species Commissioner - Draft Terms of Reference announced

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-03-21 14:04
To help address the growing number of native flora and fauna that are faced with extinction, the Government is appointing Australia's first Threatened Species Commissioner to bring a new national focus to conservation efforts
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Queensland Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Fin Fish Fishery

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-03-21 11:09
Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 24 April 2014
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Queensland Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Fin Fish Fishery

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-03-21 11:09
Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 24 April 2014
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Queensland Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Fin Fish Fishery

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-03-21 11:09
Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 24 April 2014
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Groundwater Purchase Tender in the Central Condamine Alluvium – Round 2 now open

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-03-21 09:32
Applications close 5.00pm AEST Friday 11 April 2014
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Iraq invasion was about oil | Nafeez Ahmed

The Guardian - Fri, 2014-03-21 01:23
Maximising Persian Gulf oil flows to avert a potential global energy crisis motivated Iraq War planners - not WMD or democracy

Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of the 2003 Iraq War - yet to this day, few media reflections on the conflict accurately explore the extent to which opening up Persian Gulf energy resources to the world economy was a prime driver behind the Anglo-American invasion.

The overwhelming narrative has been one of incompetence and failure in an otherwise noble, if ill-conceived and badly managed endeavour to free Iraqis from tyranny. To be sure, the conduct of the war was indeed replete with incompetence at a colossal scale - but this doesn't erase the very real mendacity of the cold, strategic logic that motivated the war's US and British planners in the first place.

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Torres Strait Tropical Rock Lobster Fishery

Department of the Environment - Wed, 2014-03-19 12:24
Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 23 April 2014
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Does Paris have worse air pollution than Beijing?

The Guardian - Tue, 2014-03-18 04:32

On Friday, levels of pollution in Paris were higher than in many of the world’s most notoriously polluted cities. With your help, Karl Mathiesen, investigates how the City of Light became the City of Smog.

Join the debate. Post your views in the comments below, email karl.mathiesen.freelance@guardian.co.uk or tweet @karlmathiesen

6.32pm GMT

Why is there so much attention in UK media to Paris air quality, and not our own? @guardianeco @GeorgeMonbiot @DefraGovUK @MayorofLondon

When I go to eastern China, I expect air pollution, but Paris? Was not expecting to see hazy orange skies and feel the particulates.

@KarlMathiesen Check out the UKs high level of air pollution last Friday. Yet no mention in weather reports or news pic.twitter.com/jvWGKsUhmV

6.32pm GMT

Since it adopted ecologist anti-car policies, Paris tend to be more and more polluted. Cars are losing spaces of circulation for the profit of other transports and stay stuck in endless jams with their motor running, which make pollution worse. One more proof of how ideology is hell.

Dirty diesel needs to be banned in cities like London and Paris. It kills thousands every year.

Some very modern diesels engines are not too bad but most over 5 years old are positively dangerous.

I get the feeling Paris is the victim of its own success in this case, since the roads network to get into and out of town is so brilliant that I really enjoy driving there - albeit only during the holidays.

The problem is that the system is so well designed, with loads of great underground parking provision that everyone drives in.

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SENG SA Chapter News and Events

Newsletters S.A. - Mon, 2014-03-17 23:15
SENG SA Chapter News and Events
Categories: Newsletters S.A.

Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'? | Nafeez Ahmed

The Guardian - Sat, 2014-03-15 04:28
Natural and social scientists develop new model of how 'perfect storm' of crises could unravel global system

A new study partly-sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.

Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."

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