Financing reef destruction

The “big four” Australian banks—ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB and Westpac—have played an integral role, together lending almost $4 billion to coal and gas projects in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area since 2008.   Deals are becoming larger and more complex. While the role of Australian banks remains critical, projects now require a host of international lenders participating in a deal and support from government-backed institutions.   Australian and overseas banks alike are contravening principles and initiatives that promote environmentally responsible investment. Several major new fossil fuel export projects are seeking to meet investment deadlines in 2013.   Australians have a brief window of opportunity to intervene and prevent these projects securing the investment required to proceed

Fracking finance

Coal seam gas (CSG) is an unconventional gas source that often requires highly invasive extraction methods, including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking). While CSG has made up a small part of Australia’s gas supply mix since the late 90s, production has increased drastically in the past few years, and with it the threat of many more CSG projects going ahead in the near future.   At the end of 2013, Queensland was home to approximately 5,500 CSG producing wells, however this number is projected to grow to over 14,000 by the end of 2020. Similarly, NSW CSG production is expected to increase dramatically if two major proposed projects go ahead. AGL’s Gloucester gas project is expected to produce up to 30 petajoules (PJ) per annum over its 30-year lifespan, and Santos’ Narrabri project up to 73PJ per annum over 25 years. Together, these two NSW projects’ annual production would amount to around 40% of the total CSG produced in Queensland during the 2013-14 financial year.   The massive increase in CSG production is largely due to the development of three liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities on Curtis Island in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area near Gladstone, Queensland, which are to be supplied with gas from unconventional sources in eastern Australia

Fueling the fire

Since the global financial crisis, tens of billions of dollars have been loaned to the Australian fossil fuel industry. Many of these projects have been responsible for horrific environmental damage, including the destruction of prime agricultural land and nature reserves, contamination of aquifers, declining air quality and the industrialisation of iconic sites including the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.   Fossil fuels are also the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Fossil fuels make up over 85% of global energy consumption, producing more than 30 Gt CO2 (billion tonnes of carbon dioxide) each year. The increasing concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere is causing global warming, which is already delivering dangerous impacts that are set to become catastrophic without an urgent reduction in emissions.   Funding decisions made by banks to support fossil fuel projects have massive impacts on our climate, environment, health, communities and economy. It is incumbent on these institutions to withdraw their support for the destructive and dangerous activities of the fossil fuel industry

East Midlands life and work survey 2003: themed summary report - social capital and active citizenship

Themed report from the 2003 East Midlands regional household survey, 'The Life and Work Survey', undertaken to inform a range of partner organisations, including emda and the Learning and Skills Council. Themed report summarises findings from a number of questions designed to examine social capital and active citizenship, such as involvement in community activities

Vida y concepción de mundo. Un texto olvidado de Karl Ernst von Baer (1860)

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Freud pensador.

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The Role of Activation-Induced Cytidine Deaminase in Antibody Diversification and B Cell Malignancies

Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) is indispensable for somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) in B cells. SHM alters the affinity of an antibody for its corresponding antigen by introducing point mutations within the variable region of the immunoglobulin (Ig) gene heavy chain locus. CSR replaces the Ig μ constant region with one of the downstream constant region, thereby changing the physical properties of the antibody. To study the molecular mechanism of AID in these two antibody diversification events, I cloned, expressed and purified the recombinant AID protein from E. coli and showed that it can deaminate cytidines within singlestranded DNA molecules in vitro. In addition, I showed that AID does not have a preference for mutational hotspot sequences within a short DNA oligo in vitro. By studying truncated recombinant AID protein and AID point mutants I confirmed that AID activity is due to its typical cytidine deaminase active site. Hence, the role of AID in SHM and CSR is beneficial to an organism as it gives rise to antibodies of high affinity and avidity crucial in clearance of the antigen by humoral immune response. Aberrant AID activity, however, can lead to c-myc/IgH chromosomal translocations and ultimately to B cell lymphomas and plasmocytomas in mice. Such translocations can also be detected in B cells stimulated to switch in vitro. I showed that switching B cells also upregulate Rae-1, a ligand for the NKG2D activating receptor found on natural killer (NK) cells, which renders them sensitive to NK attack. Furthermore, I demonstrated that IgH/c-myc translocations can be detected in vivo in germinal center (GC) B cells of immunized mice, and that these cells also express Rae-1. However, these calls are found in same frequencies in NK + and NK- mice, implying that NK cells may be actively excluded from the GC. In addition, my data suggest a role for NK cells in clearance of B cells bearing IgH/c-myc translocations outside the protective environment of the germinal center

Fichte y Nietzsche. Reflexiones sobre el origen del nihilismo.

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The Economic Impact of Beaver Lake Reservoir: A Cost Benefit Study

This study was undertaken to determine the impact of Beaver Lake Reservoir on four contiguous Arkansas counties. Analysis of economic data indicated that lake related personal income in the area has, since the project was completed, been about 2.5 percent higher than it would have been had the lake not been constructed. The greatest impact has been associated with the counties having the largest share of the shore line. In the aggregate, however, the most significant cause of economic growth in the area has been associated with growth of manufacturing employment. Also the relative economic position of each of the counties remained virtually unchanged since the project was undertaken. From the viewpoint of economic efficiency, revenues to the Federal Government attributable to the project have been sufficient to result in the project having a net annual yield of 2.8 percent even without considering the free recreational benefits of the lake