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	Ocean waves could power Australian future by Reuters Australia   Waves crashing on to Australia"s southern shores each year contain enough energy to power the country three times over, scientists said in a study that underscores the scale of Australia"s green energy.   The research, in the latest issue of the journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, comes as Australia is struggling to wean itself of years of using cheap, polluting coal to power the economy and to put a price on carbon emissions.   Oceanographers Mark Hemer and David Griffin looked at how wave energy propagates across the continental shelf and how much is lost. The aim was to build a picture of the amount of energy on an annual basis and how reliable that source is.   The government has recently passed laws that mandate 20 percent renewable electricity generation by 2020 to begin to curb carbon emissions and wind power features prominently. Wave power is still in early development.   "Basically what this means is that there is a fairly large resource for 90 percent of the time," said Hemer.   "Wave power has a great potential to deliver steady power supplies. Averaged over the whole year, Australia"s southern coastline has a sustained wave energy resource of 146 gigawatts," the researchers say in their study, or three times Australia"s total installed generation capacity.
	U.N. calls for action against advancing deserts by Luc Gnacadja UN Convention to Combat Desertification   Aug 2010   Poor farming practices, lack of water management, deforestation and climate change are turning vast stretches of the Earth into barren deserts, says the United Nations.   Launching a 10-year campaign to halt the advance of deserts, the U.N. environment programme (UNEP) said land degradation in dry places had affected 3.6 billion hectares (8.9 billion acres) - a quarter of the world''s land area - and over one billion people.   12 million hectares of arable land was lost to desertification each year, causing losses of agricultural productivity of $42 billion annually.   Africa is the continent considered the worst affected by desertification. Its semi-arid Sahel region, stretching from Senegal in the west to northern Somalia, is fast turning into a wasteland.   Frequent droughts cause crops to fail. Niger and Chad are facing life-threatening hunger as much of the Sahel has been suffering a food crisis in recent months.   Desertification, threatens the livelihoods of people in 100 countries. Desertification is defined as the degradation of drylands, which comprise more than 40 per cent of the world’s land surface and are home to 2.1 billion people – one in every three people worldwide.   One third of all crops cultivated today have their origins in drylands, which also support half of all livestock.   “Continued land degradation – whether from climate change, unsustainable agriculture or poor management of water resources – is a threat to food security, leading to starvation among the most acutely affected communities and robbing the world of productive land,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the launch of the Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification.   The General Assembly designated 2010-2020 as the Decade in 2007 to heighten public awareness of the threat posed by desertification, land degradation and drought to sustainable development.   The Secretary-General pointed out that there are growing social costs resulting from land degradation, with increased competition for resources spurring conflict, while the forced migration of millions of people also heightens the risk of social breakdown.   Around the world, efforts to rehabilitate drylands are bearing fruit, Mr. Ban noted. Continued help for local communities can lead to the preservation or recovery of millions of hectares of land, alleviate vulnerability to climate change and reduce hunger and poverty.   Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), stressed that “the path of business-as-usual will worsen the speed of degradation with devastating impacts on livelihoods families and communities, and will further cause more extinction of life and jeopardize the future of humanity.”   Nearly all of the inhabitants of drylands are in developing countries, and he called for international cooperation on financial assistance, capacity building and technology transfer.   The Decade, he emphasized, must fight lingering misperceptions of drylands as being wastelands, marginal areas or liabilities, as well as the idea that desertification is only a local – not global – concern.   “Let us not be the generation that jeopardizes the heritage of future generations by degrading any more land,” said Mr. Gnacadja. Visit the related web page
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