Past Programs
Environment - 2006
Carbon credit card
23/12/2006
In the UK, talks are underway to introduce a carbon-rationing scheme, whereby individuals will be given an annual allowance of the carbon they could expend on products ranging from food, energy and travel. Under the proposal, every citizen would be issued with a carbon 'credit card' to be swiped every time they bought petrol, paid an energy utility bill or booked an airline ticket.
The proposal could come into operation within five years, according to a feasibility study commissioned by the UK's Environment Secretary, David Milliband.The study is titled A Rough Guide to Individual Carbon Trading, prepared by the Centre for Sustainable Energy in the UK
Recycling challenges (transcript available) Read Transcript
30/09/2006
We generate about 1.7 tonnes of waste per head per household in Australia every year. That figure is nearly double that of what we disposed of more than a decade ago.
While we've been at the forefront in recycling, especially kerb-side recycling, we're still the fourth largest waste producer in the world.
Overseas, businesses are seeing an opportunity in waste recycling, particularly in the United States and Europe where it has been said that the recycling industry is now a much bigger industry than waste.
One of the areas of growth in the recycling industry is e-waste.
Australians discard more than one million computers a year, and to date we have about 5.1 million being warehoused around the country. Not to mention the millions of mobile phones, television sets and other electronic gadgets that are thrown away every year, posing a serious challenge for the recycling industry.
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
21/01/2006
Mesopotamia is said to be where civilisation was born and the waters that nurtured its existence in ancient times were the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. We add them to our ongoing series on rivers and find out how they are faring today. Both rivers spring from the highlands of eastern Turkey, and run through Syria, Iran and Iraq before joining together to form the Shat-Al-Arab River, which eventually empties into the Persian Gulf. Along the course of all three rivers there was once a huge marshland which supported the Ma'dan people, who lived entirely off this rich environment largely as their ancestors had done over 5,000 years ago. Over the last few decades, and particularly during Saddam Hussein's regime, the area has been dramatically shrinking. Hossein Ghadiri who has been working on the restoration of the marshlands talks to Geraldine Doogue.
