In this issue

	ECOS Issue 184

Features

Cooling India What if every supermarket in Australia had no access to cold storage for fruit and veggies? This is the challenge that faces rural India. The widespread lack of access to electricity in rural areas means that cold storage facilities are few and far between. Learn more

Whatever happened to myrtle rust? It was the disease plant biologists in Australia had been expecting with trepidation. In April 2010, a type of rust that had been threatening eucalypt plantations overseas was found dusting a plant leaf in a New South Wales nursery. Learn more

Synchrotron makes light work of waste Imagine light one million times brighter than the Sun that can be precisely focused onto objects at the molecular level. What could you see with such a light? And, could you use it to help put industrial by-products to good use? Learn more

Grey areas in greening cities
How can we accommodate the extra 6 or 7 million people expected to populate our major cities by 2056 – while also reducing the carbon footprint of individual Australians? Is the answer to increase urban density? But is medium-to-high density development the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cities? And how can we protect biodiversity in a concrete jungle?
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It’s 2050 – time for a low-carbon cuppa Next time you boil the kettle in your kitchen or office, have a think about this: over 90 per cent of the electricity used today is being generated by coal and gas. By 2050, when you do the same thing – make a cuppa – the electricity you use could be generated by over 20 energy sources and technologies. That's a big change. Learn more

What is ocean energy? Renewable ocean energy harnesses the power of the oceans to produce electricity. This can be done in several ways, but the resources that have the most immediate potential in terms of energy production for Australia and globally are: Learn more