This Week in News: July 17th
Government
The Australian government released a Green Paper earlier this week in order to introduce the idea of a Emissions Trading Schema or ETS as a way to reduce green house gases. The official white paper that will contain more details about the plan will come towards the end of the year. The idea behind the ETS is to allow businesses to trade permits among themselves to determine how much they are allowed to pollute. There are mixed reactions to this news as it does target to reduce emissions, but overall prices are slated to rise.
Environment
In order to attempt to suspend a federal mandate the use of bio-fuels, Environmental groups have sent a letter to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Environmental groups are fighting against bio-fuels, such as ethanol, because they are not sustainable and bad for the environment.
They say environmental problems stemming from the mandate include soil degradation, water pollution, and biodiversity loss, and immense greenhouse gas emissions due to changes in land use.
Using fuels like ethanol are just not a long-term solution for our over-dependency on oil. Our country needs to start moving towards using sustainable sources of energy like solar and wind and invest more in hydrogen technology.
Photo by john hanson.
I always knew that the coral reefs were endangered along with some of the creatures that live in them, but I never knew how bad the problem is. Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) published an article stating that one-third of the more than 700 species of reef-building corals are threatened with extinction. This is such a sad number. There are a number of culprits including overfishing, the rise in water temperatures, bleaching of the coral and buildup of CO2. If we can greatly reduce the amount of CO2 build-up in the water and treat the coral as an endangered species, we can save much of the coral reef that is at high risk to dying.
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