The latest federal government carbon emissions inventory shows Australia has increased its emissions and has come under fire for allegedly vastly underestimating the amount of land clearing that has occurred, and its associated emissions.

The Quarterly Update of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, which counts emissions in Australia up to September 2015, says greenhouse gas emissions from land clearing have fallen to record lows.

But Guardian Australia reported last month that a report commissioned by the Wilderness Society showed a land clearing surge in Queensland since 2012 has been so big that it would create emissions roughly equal to those saved by the federal government’s emissions reduction scheme, where they paid other farmers more than $670m to stop cutting down trees.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/19/australias-emissions-rising-and-vastly-underestimated-says-report

 

 

Australia's top medical research body has given two researchers $3.3 million to study the effects of wind farms on human health despite its own year-long study finding no "consistent evidence" that a problem exists.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) awarded Guy Marks, a professor at the University of NSW $1.94m, to study the health impacts of infrasound - sound waves typically inaudible to humans - generated by wind turbines.

Peter Catcheside, an associate professor at Flinders University, secured $1.36m to investigate whether wind farms disturb sleep compared with traffic noise.

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"Existing research in this area is of poor quality and targeted funding is warranted to support high quality, independent research on this issue," Anne Kelso, NHMRC's chief executive, said in a statement.

"These grants directly support the Australian Government's commitment to determine any actual or potential effects of wind farms."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/quite-disgraceful-nhmrc-doles-out-33m-to-study-windfarm-effects-on-health-20160321-gnnzhe.html#ixzz43ghDaqIg
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Wind farms are demonised daily on the Daily Telegraph and all other Murdoch publications around the world, as well as affiliated mediocre mass media. The tone has changed somewhat from being dangerous to birds, having bad smells and being ugly, to once more they are dangerous to people's health. There has been hundreds study on this subject showing nothing of the sort but our Malcolm/Turdy government still harps on it...
A few years ago, it was the amount of "rare earths" that these "monsters" used, that was the topic of attack — and the damage that the exploitation of rare earths in China did on the environment (the gas/coal/oil companies care about the environment...). Though I do not dispute the fact that the hunt for "rare earths" does damage the environment, I won't go into the specific sites (gas/oil/coal) promoting this crap about wind turbines, and I can say with confidence there are far more "rare earths" in your TV set and your cell phone than there is in one wind turbine.

 

Australia’s emissions from electricity generation continue to rise and are now 5.5% higher than when the carbon price was repealed, new data reveals.

The environment minister, Greg Hunt, claimed recently that Australia’s total greenhouse emissions had “peaked” in 2005.

Declining electricity demand has been dampening electricity emissions and reducing the total increase in greenhouse emissions despite increases in emissions from land clearing and mining.

But the latest data from Pitt and Sherry for the year to March 2016 shows total demand in the east coast electricity market increased for the 13th successive month and demand increased for the seventh successive month in the west.

“There can be little doubt that the period of falling demand for electricity across Australia has now ended,” said Pitt and Sherry analyst Hugh Saddler.

That increasing demand and an increase in generation using black coal, after the removal of the carbon price, saw annual emissions increase 5.5% in the year to March 2016, compared with the year to June 2014, when the carbon price was scrapped.

Total coal generation was 76.1%, compared with a minimum of 72.3% in the year to July 2014. Total renewable generation was 13.2%. Coal generation in Queensland is rising particularly quickly to fuel the booming liquefied natural gas export market. Those emissions will soon comprise an extra 8m tonnes of CO2 a year.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/06/electricity-emissions-surge-by-55-since-removal-of-carbon-price