Insurance against Catastrophic Climate Change: How Much Will an Emissions Trading Scheme Cost Australia? (journal article)

by Philip D. Adams

from The Australian Economic Review, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 432–452

" ...If a worthwhile reduction in risk costs 50 per cent of income, then living with the risk may be
preferable. But if it costs 1 per cent of income, then taking the insurance policy may be the
best option. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the possible cost in the context of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) for Australia."

Genetic ethics and "superbabies" (journal article)
by Patrick Tucker
from Futurist, Vol. 42 No. 1, January 2008, pp. 18-19
"This article focuses on ethical issues associated with the use of genetic engineering to improve the health of human as well as his/her other capabilities. In the next few years, researchers believed that science will be able to recognize and eliminate congenital diseases across the world. It is also expected that genomics may allow people to change their own DNA, and in the process, improve his/her athletic prowess or brain power. There are several types of genetic enhancement, and one of which is somatic gene modification."

Sharing, privacy and trust in our networked world: a report to the OCLC membership
Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)

We know that privacy is important to users, and to librarians, but we also know that sharing and open access matter.

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Library 2.0 : a guide to participatory library service
Michael E. Casey & Laura C. Savastinuk

Gives practical advice on how to improve library services using web 2.0 technology and describes a service model of constant and purposeful change, evaluation and user participation.

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Thinking globally, acting locally living personally (journal article)

by Cynthia G. Wagner

from Futurist, Vol. 41 No. 6, Nov 2007, pp.54-58

"The article discusses the highlights of the World Future Society conference titled "WorldFuture 2007: Fostering Hope and Vision for the 21st Century" held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from July 29 to 31. Among the topics discussed in detail include global warming, terrorism and poverty. "Reason" magazine science correspondent Ronald Bailey cited improving agricultural productivity as a success story in the U.S. According to anthropologist Helen Fisher, women are gaining in economic power, health, literacy and other measures of progress."

Is Clean Coal Feasible? (journal article)
by Patrick Tucker
from Futurist, Vol. 41 No. 6, Nov 2007, pp.8-9
"This article focuses on the technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS), seen by government officials and scientists as the ideal way to reduce the carbon emissions from power plants. It describes how the CCS technology would allow the public to meet its energy needs at the same time as cutting carbon emissions. It discusses the effort of the U.S. and Great Britain to invest in the development of a CCS power plant. It outlines the various obstacles to CCS implementation and the arguments against CCS implementation."

Our water mark : Australians making a difference in water reform
Victorian Women’s Trust & Watermark Australia

"Outlines a set of guiding principles and the ranges of actions we can take to conserve this precious resource, wherever we live, whatever we do." - page 5.

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Environmental management systems : general guidelines on principles, systems and supporting techniques
Standards Australia & Standards New Zealand

Provides guidance on the establishment, implementation, maintenance and improvement of an environmental management system (EMS) and its coordination with other management systems.

Now available in Library & Research Services' Ref Standards Collection.

Global trends in R&D spending (journal article)
by Dirk Pilat
from Issues in Science & Technology, Vol. 24 No 1 Fall 2007, pp. 85-88
"The article discusses international trends in research and development (R&D) spending. Increased spending is found in most of the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including the major industrialized countries of Europe, Japan and the U.S. The combined R&D expenditure of China, Israel, Russia, and South Africa was equivalent to almost 22% of that of OECD countries in 2005, up from 9% in 1995, and these countries attract a growing share of investment by foreign affiliates."

Is Stern Correct? Does Climate Change Require Policy Intervention? (journal article)
by Paul H. Jensen and Elizabeth Webster
from Australian Economic Review Vol. 40 No.4, pp. 421–431
"In this Policy Forum, we provide an assessment of the Stern Review and its critics. In
doing so, we focus on the key aspects of Stern’s model and how they shape his policy conclusions.
We concentrate our attention on whether policy intervention on climate change is necessary
(and if so, how much), as opposed to what any policy intervention should look like."

From National to International Climate Change Policy (journal article)

by Warwick J. McKibbin
from Australian Economic Review Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 410–420
"Climate change policy is a classic case where international cooperation is essential. Climate
change is partly caused by the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from all sources. Thus to address this problem all major emitting countries will need to be involved in a
solution."

The Post-Scientific Society (journal article)
by Christopher Hill
from Issues in Science & Technology Fall 2007, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 78-84
"The article discusses the continued economic success of the U.S. There are growing indications that new innovation-based wealth in the United States is arising from something other than organized research in science and engineering. The emergence of the post-scientific society poses a fresh round of challenges to the U.S. The task of innovation policy is to ensure that the nation has a coherent, well-managed, and well-funded set of private and public institutions that function well as a national innovation system (NIS.)"

Beyond Kyoto: Climate Change Policy in Multilevel Governance Systems (journal article)
by Barry G. Rabe
from Governance Vol 20 No. 3, pp. 423-444, July 2007
"Climate change increasingly presents itself as a challenge not only of international relations but also of multilevel governance, thereby creating considerable opportunity to learn from domestic policy experimentation"

Renewables Information 2007
Author: OECD
"Renewables Information brings together in one volume essential statistics on renewables and waste energy sources. Part I of the publication provides a statistical overview of 2005 developments in the markets for renewables and waste in the OECD member countries. It also provides selected renewables indicators for non-OECD countries. Part II provides, in tabular form, a more detailed and comprehensive picture, including 2006 preliminary data, of developments for renewable and waste energy sources for each of the 30 OECD member countries. It encompasses energy indicators, generating capacity, electricity and heat production from renewable and waste sources, as well as production and consumption of renewable and waste products. "

The Art of digital branding
Ian Cocoran

Covers the pivotal role the colour schemes and menu formats play in the perception of an online brand, and how to encourage and retain traffic flow through competitions, vouchers, and giveaways, moderated forums, or subscription-based membership.

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Climate change and Australian coastal shipping
Andrew Macintosh / Australia Institute
Concludes that "actively pursuing mode shifting from land modes to coastal shipping as a means of reducing emissions is unlikely to be an effective or efficient greenhouse strategy." - summary.

Climate change : getting it right

Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA)

"The most important tools for addressing climate change are markets, prices and investment in low emission technologies." - page 3.

South East Queensland : towards a short-term water balance
Queensland Audit Office
Examines the systems used by the Queensland Water Commission to manage water usage and projected demand in drought conditions.

Automobile politics : ecology and cultural political economy
Matthew Paterson
Addresses the increasingly controversial debate on the place of the car in contemporary society and its contribution to environmental problems.
Contact the library to request this book.

EDMC Handbook of energy & economic statistics in Japan, 2007
Japan. Institute of Energy Economics. Energy Data and Modelling Center
Contains energy-related statistics for all sources, long range outlooks, comparisons with other countries, and energy demand by each major industry sector.
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Global warming, contemporary politics and the principle of least disruption (journal article)
by Tony Lynch and Bert Jenkins
from AQ, Vol. 79 No. 4, July - August 2007, pp. 30-35
"We must appreciate the intertial power of the Principle of Least Disruption, the depth of its grip on us, and then do all we can to overcome that inertia."

The Extreme future : the top trends that will reshape the world in the next 20 years
James Canton
"Discover the trends that will create risk and opportunity in the future, which include: the strategies businesses must implement to compete [and] the innovations that will transform the global economy." - cover.
Contact the library to request this book.

The benefit to the economy of early climate change action (journal article)
by Roger Jones
From Ecos, No. 137, June-July 2007, pp. 11-13
Climate change policy debates have been preoccupied with the economic cost of taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet recent assessments have reframed the question, focusing instead on the cost of inaction. In fact, the damage caused by unmitigated climate change may be the bigger threat to the global economy.

China Rising - growing pains of a superpower
New Scientist special issue
10 November 2007
This special issue has articles about the Innovation Nation; the people's quantum computer; beyond the great firewall; and stem-cell revolutionaries; small farmer/big pharma.
There is a print copy available in the library.

ARIS design platform : getting started with BPM [book]
Davis, Rob & Brabänder, Eric

A practical text which explains how to this software package to create real business models, establish company-wide business process management and structure a process architecture.

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Pessimism, computer failure and information systems development in the public sector (article)
by Shaun Goldfinch
from Public Administration Review Vol. 67 No. 5 September/October 2007
The majority of information systems developments are unsuccessful. The larger the development, the more likely it will be unsuccessful. Despite the persistence of this problem for decades and the expenditure of vast sums of money, computer failure has received surprisingly little attention in the public administration literature. This article outlines the problems of enthusiasm and the problems of control, as well as the overwhelming complexity, that make the failure of large developments almost inevitable.

Energy in Australia : an overview of Australia’s energy sector and its regulation

Minter Ellison

Covers: "The Australian political and regulatory system", "The market for electricity", "Transmission regulation in the NEM", "State by state overview of the electricity market" and "Climate change - issues associated."

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Crude : the incredible journey of oil
Richard Smith
"Consults the leading international scientific experts to join the dots between geology and economy and provide the big-picture view of oil." - cover.
Contact the library to request this DVD.

Infrastructure to 2030. Vol 2. Mapping policy for electricity, water and transport

OECD

Takes a long-term perspective to explore how much investment will be required, and addresses some of the specific interdependencies among the different infrastructure sectors.

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Australian Infrastructure Review 2007
Published for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Australia
Includes articles on the Northern Economic Triangle, the Dept of Infrastructure’s Program Management Office, South East Queensland’s water projects and creating an inland port.
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Blogosphere: the best of blogs
by Peter Kuhns and Adrienne Crew
Covers: what a blog is, how to build your own blog, and the reviews the best political, environmental and current events blogs.
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Governing environmental flows - global challenges to social theory

edited by Gert Spaargaren, Arthur P.J.Mol and Frederick Buttel

Takes a different approach to developing environmental policy, and presents case studies on climate change, biodiversity, globalised food production and transport.

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A Stern warning that markets fail
by John Coulter
An article from Australian Options, Winter 2007, pp 5-8
'Placing the greatest environmental threat ever faced by humanity in the context of 'the market' abd 'economic growth' is disturbing. It assumes a legotimacy of this context for the analysis and presumably the resolution of this and other environmental threats that is unjustifoed. ... Stern identified two areas in which the market system has faild with respect to climate change.'

The national and regional economic consequences of rapid growth in Australia's telecommunications sector.
By James Giesecke
An article from Economic Analysis and Policy 36,(1/2) pp 61-97
This paper investigates the national and regional economic consequences of the sector's growth over the period 1996/97 to 2001/02 using a multi-regional CGE model of the Australian economy.

Regulating infrastructure - monopoly, contracts and discretion
by Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez
"How can government fairly and effectively regulate what are ’natural monopolies’ - those infrastructure and utility services whose technologies make competition impractical?"
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Environmental law in Australia, 6th edition
by Gerry Bates
"Updated to include new developments in policy, case law and legislation, and also reflects the ongoing international influence upon the development of Australian environmental law and policy."
Contact the library to borrow this book.

Water - facts, issues, problems and solutions

By David Leaman

A hydrology textbook, which also uses case studies from Tasmania to consider the ethical, political and economic issues for the sustainable management of water resources.

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Between a rock and a hard place - the science of geosequestration
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Science and Innovation
Request a loan from the library

The Cult of the amateur - how today’s internet is killing our culture and assaulting the economy

by Andrew Keen

Argues that social networking sites such as Wikipedia and YouTube are having a detrimental impact on cultural standards and social values, as well as the creative economy.

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The Last oil shock - a survival guide to the imminent extinction of petroleum man

by David Strahan

Argues that the decline in oil and gas production will provoke a world economic crisis, and that governments are doing little to prevent it.

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Climate change litigation - analysing the law, scientific evidence and impacts on the environment, health and property
By Dr Joseph Smith and Prof. David Shearman
"This book reviews the legal basis of claims and defences available to litigants, discusses obstacles that will stand in their way and summarises the first wave of ground-breaking cases from around the world."
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The Spontaneous Order of Science
Policy, Vol 22 No 4 Summer 2006/2007
This is an 8 page excerpt from the book The Australian Miracle: An Innovative Nation Revisited, by Thomas Barlow.
"Among the biggest problems any country, and, in particular, any government, faces, is where
to invest in order to maximise the likelihood of innovation."

Solar Revolution - the economic transformation of the global energy industry

This book argues that recent technological advances have made solar energy a cost-effective and feasible energy solution.

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