GreenCollar Talent » Voices of GreenCollar

The new Chinese Five-Year-Plan – an equation of x+y=z?

Justine — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:39:55 +0000

If ever there were a question of ‘what does China think?’ the 12th Chinese five-year plan came one step closer to answering it.

As it turns out, it thinks a lot about itself, as itself and with others. The ambitions of the plan, announced on the 14th of March this year, is a comprehensive and [...]

Can you be too green?

GreenCollar — Tue, 31 May 2011 04:06:36 +0000

Back in 2009 the Australian Greens helped the opposition to vote down the then Labor government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme legislation. They said that it was weak on emission reduction targets; the proposed 5 per cent cut was too far from the minimum 25 per cent the Greens wanted.

Now, as a much weaker carbon-tax-to-trading-scheme [...]

Will a feed-in tariff create the green jobs Australia is looking for?

Jan — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:47:43 +0000

The renewable energy industry and its supporters in Australia have claimed for years that a feed-in tariff will be the way towards grid parity as well as a way to build up a renewable energy industry and create thousands of jobs. This has been echoed particularly strongly by the local solar industry – quoting Europe [...]

Go solar now or later: a dilemma for households

Pete — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:15:27 +0000

One can presume that as solar technology advances rapidly, the renewable energy options available to Australian households will be vastly different within a decade.

A number of products are in the market, and more are close to commercialization thanks to the work of Australian universities and incubators, who are producing smaller, cheaper and more powerful [...]

The new RET – unleashing new renewable energy jobs

Jan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:44:19 +0000

On 26 February the government announced a major structural change to the Renewable Energy Target (RET) Scheme, with plans to carve out small-scale renewable technologies into a separate fixed-price scheme. Small-scale technologies will still be able to generate Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), but at a fixed price of $40 per megawatt hour of electricity [...]

Why the skeptics are winning the media debate

Pete — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:34:51 +0000

When I was in year seven, the class nerd Shane stood up to do a presentation on why he believed coca cola was bad for you. Shane had compiled a list of stats outlining sugar content, chemicals and additives and other assorted nasties found in a typical can. He was about to put a [...]

NSW residents get solar reward

Pete — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:55:56 +0000

Have you been thinking of installing solar at home?

If you live in NSW there may never be a better time than right now. In a surprising policy move the NSW State Government will now pay a Gross feed in tariff (as opposed to a net tariff which only rewarded households for surplus [...]

Is factory farming a sustainable ideal?

Pete — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:13:55 +0000

A recent plan to factory farm dairy cattle in the South Island of New Zealand has been met with widespread debate over the relative pros and cons of such an activity. The concept would mean that cows are kept indoors for most of the year, much in the same way many farms [...]

On our nation and climate change

Pete — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:37:39 +0000

The bickering and divisions we have seen in the Coalition of late is nothing short of extraordinary and highlights just how divisive the issue of climate change still is in Australia.

A recent visit to New Zealand confirmed that the Kiwis too suffer from climate skepticism. So it begs the question, if Australia, [...]

Is my steak dinner killing the planet?

Pete — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 05:12:59 +0000

I love a good steak. In fact, I love any meat dish. I grew up in a family where meat was served every day of the week – I honestly can’t recall a single time when meat wasn’t on the table.

Over the last few years I’ve been hearing about the production of red meat [...]