10 free passes are available to PhD and Masters students at Adelaide Uni for the CleverGreen conference and showcase.

To apply students must contact the Environment Institute by email, environment@adelaide.edu.au with their contact details and the topic of their PhD or Masters. Applicants must register their interest by the 8^th of February and will be advised of the outcome by the 12^th.

The CleverGreen conference and showcase brings together researchers, government and business to examine and discuss green technologies, market opportunities and innovation for environmental sustainability.

What to expect.

• Join South Australia’s leading Clean Technology innovators.
• View the many South Australian products and services
• that are helping the world to be cleaner and more environmentally sustainable.
• Find out about the world-class research coming out of our Universities and research sector.
• Hear internationally recognised speakers on investment and global trends in the Clean Tech sector.
• Visit some of our best Clean Tech business operators and innovators through industry tours.
• Enjoy world class food, wine and hospitality.

Eric Mazur’s seminar “Confessions of a converted lecturer” is now ready as a podcast. Download the podcast here.

The seminar was sponsored by the Centre for Learning and Professional Development. In the seminar Professor Mazur spoke about how changing his approach to teaching significantly improved the perfomance of his students.

“I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than earning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonising conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show you how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students performance.”

Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University.

‘From Plains to Plate’ Conference, February 10-13 2010

‘From Plains to Plate’ will bring together community, business and government to discuss the issue of strengthening South Australia’s food systems in the face of intensifying environmental, social and economic challenges.

Speakers from a range of fields will discuss how local producers and successful government policies and programs can complement community action to provide accessible, healthy food and the skills to cultivate resilient communities. The convergence will examine food and agriculture through a number of streams, including urban planning and growth, agriculture and the environment, public health and food access, education and sustainability, and economics and policy.

‘From Plains to Plate’ will bring together great minds and great ideas to produce a vision that will pave the way for making healthy and sustainable food systems a reality in South Australia.

For more information please visit http://futureoffoodsa.ning.com/.

Tom Blees the author of “Prescription for the planet”, will be in Australia in February.  His book the “Prescription for the planet” presents a solution to the world’s energy and environmental crises. Tom is also the president of the Science Council for Global Initiatives, a new international Non-Governmental Organisation, creating the framework for the global energy revolution proposed in in his book. For twenty years Tom skippered a seasonal fishing boat on the Bering Sea, and led a diverse and adventurous life. He then founded a charitable organisation with his wife, to provide safe water supplies to villagers in Central America. While fundraising to launch this project, Tom discovered some lesser known technologies that if properly used, could have a profound global impact. After nearly ten years of research and working hand in hand with scientists who helped develop the core concepts, Blees wrote ‘Prescription for the Planet’.

Tom Blees will be in Australia during the first two weeks of February and throughout his stay he will speak about his book at functions in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Tom will speak at two functions in Adelaide, both open to the general public. The first event, hosted by the Royal Institution of Australia, in association with The Environment Institute, will be a discussion with Tom as he explains his thinking and outlines how a trio of little-known yet profoundly revolutionary technologies (such as the Integral Fast Reactor), coupled with their judicious use in an atmosphere of global cooperation, can solve the power, pollution and resource problems facing the world today.  For more information about this event and to register your interest in attending, please click here.

The second event, presented by The Australian Solar Energy Society, Sustainable Populations Australia and The Zero Carbon Network, will see a debate on “Should we consider Nuclear Power as a response to climate chage?” with Mark Diesendorf and Helen Caldicott for the negative and Barry Brook and Tom Blees for the affirmitive. For more information about this event and to register your interest in attending, please click here.

148 gigalitres of water has been promised to South Australia by the New South Wales Government. In addition the Federal Government has purchased 20 gigalitres for environmental flows. The water will be used to help the ailing lower lakes and delays the decision to build a weir at Wellington. The Institute’s Mike Young has said that the inflow of water should help to prevent the further acidification of the lakes until 2011. The water is expected to reach the lower lakes by March.

If you want to find out more about the ecology and natural water regime of the lower lakes listen to Dr Kane Aldridge’s seminar, “What is the future for the Lower Lakes?” Kane’s seminar also discusses how the lakes may be managed in the future to provide a resilient ecosystem that is able to cope with variability in flow and climatic conditions. Download the podcast here.

Professor Barry Brook

Barry Brook has passed a major milestone with his ground breaking blog Brave New Climate. In one and a half years his blog has now had over half a million hits and is growing by the day… follow the link and join the debate.

bravenewclimate.com

ConservationBytes.com is now listed as one of nature’s blogs.

Corey Bradshaw’s blog site ConservationBytes.com has recently been added to the list for Nature.com blogs, a site where you can find some of the latest information, news and posts about science.

Click here to keep up to date with the latest on Corey’s blog, or go to Nature.com blogs to view “ConservationBytes” and others.

“Meltdown”, episode 4 of Hot Cities, is now live on the Rockhopper website.

Water security is one of the most pressing issues around the world particularly in the face of climate change. If average global temperatures rise by only a few degrees most of the world’s glaciers will all but disappear, leading to floods and severe water shortages for millions of people.  Hot Cities looks at the repercussions of this global threat.

This documentary concludes with the plight of the Lower Lakes at the mouth of the River Murray in South Australia, with Professor Mike Young explaining how past management has impacted on water regimes resulting in serious strife for the river system.

Click on the following link to view the full programme http://www.rockhopper.tv/programmes/298

The Institute’s Director, Professor Mike Young was on the front page of today’s Australian, talking about water rights.

The recent floods in NSW have caused over 300 gigalitres of water to enter into the Murray- Darling system providing relief for drought ridden communities and river ecosystems downstream. Who has rights to this water is another matter, it appears that unless 640 gigalitres enters into the system, water will not be released to the lower Murray River. NSW has rights to 640GL before being required to relase water downstream. SA Premier Mike Rann has appealed to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to intervene in this situation to allow SA to receive water from the floods.

To find out more read the article in the Australian here.

Mike Young also appeared on an ABC news story about the water issues to view the video use this link.

View Mike Young’s interview on ABC News tonight at 7pm about the decision to retain floodwaters interstate http://tiny.cc/ynIt0

Professor Mike Young will appear on the ABC News tonight commenting on the NSW Government’s decision to retain floodwaters within the state.  Follow this link to the ABC News website to view the story.

Professor Young has already commented in The Advertiser yesterday that “Investing in infrastructure means NSW and Victoria have a much greater capacity to run the system so that SA gets its absolute minimum” and “The original spirit of the agreement was that the minimum was going to be the worst case [scenario].  The minimum is now the norm.” Click here to read the full article.