ANTIMATTER...THE MOST VOLATILE SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN

ANTIMATTER...THE MOST VOLATILE SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN

A single droplet of antimatter contains the explosive power of a ten kiloton bomb (Hiroshima.)Antimatter is extremely unstable and explodes when it comes in contact with absolutely anything (even air.)

Nonetheless, antimatter is now being produced at CERN in Switzerland, where anti-particles are accelerated around a 27-mile-long circular tunnel... traveling so fast that they complete the enormouscircle over 11,000 times per second.

Antimatter is routinely produced at CERN (more than 10 million particles per second.) The World-wide Web was invented at CERN. The world's largest magnet, weighing more thanthe Eiffel tower, is at CERN. CERN's biggest accelerator is 27 kilometers around, andparticles travelling near the speed of light lap it over 11,000 times each second.

In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter,where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed ofparticles. For example, an antielectron (a positron, an electron with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a proton with a negative charge) could form an antihydrogen atom in the same way thatan electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. Furthermore, mixing matter and antimatter would lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.

There is considerable speculation as to why the observable universe is apparently almost entirelymatter, whether there exist other places that are almost entirely antimatter instead, and what mightbe possible if antimatter could be harnessed, but at this time the apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. The process by which this asymmetry between particles and antiparticles developed is called baryogenesis

An antimatter weapon is a hypothetical device using antimatter as a power source, a propellant, or anexplosive for a weapon. Antimatter weapons do not currently exist as far as we know outside fiction (such as Star Trek's photon torpedo). The United States Air Force, however, has been interested in militaryuses—including destructive applications—of antimatter since the Cold War, when it began funding antimatter-relatedphysics research. The primary theoretical advantage of such a weapon is that antimatter and matter collisions convert 100% of mass into energy while comparatively a fusion reaction in a hydrogen bomb is on the order of 0.7%.

The History of Antimatter
The history of antimatter begins in 1928 with a young physicist named Paul Dirac and a strange mathematical equation...

The equation, in some way, predicted the existence of an antiworld identical to ours but made out of antimatter. Was this possible? if so, where and how could we search for antimatter?
From 1930, the search for the possible constituents of antimatter, antiparticles, began, and it has been the main influence behind a major scientific and technical evolution over the last 70 years.

CERN physicists Alvaro de Rújula and Rolf Landua answer your most frequently asked questions.
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• What can antimatter be used for?

There are several different uses for antimatter, the main one being for medical diagnostics where positrons are used to help identify different diseases with the Positron Emission Tomography (or PET scan). For other uses, we are still in the first phases of development and it's difficult to foresee what will happen in the next ten years!

• Can we use antimatter to propel a car or a spaceship?

In principle, yes, but in practice it is very difficult. You all know that the Star Trek Spaceship Enterprise flies around powered by antimatter. But in reality, making antimatter is so difficult that it is hard to foresee it ever being used as a propellant fuel. In order to propel a matter spacecraft weighing several tons up to the speed of light, you would need an equal amount of antimatter and, using the present technology, it would take millions and millions of years to produce a sufficient amount.
However, if you had a gram of antimatter, you could drive your car for about 100.000 years!

• Is it possible to build an antimatter weapon?

The military use of antimatter has the same limitations as spaceship propulsion: both would require a huge amount of antimatter, taking million of years to produce.
But if you define a weapon as something which shoots bullets, an accelerator could be considered an antiparticle gun! But we are talking about single particles, so the amount of energy you release when you shoot one of these "bullets" is so small you wouldn't even tickle your enemy.

• How do you store antimatter?

Antiparticles have either a positive or a negative electrical charge, so they can be stored in what we call a trap which has the appropriate configuration of electrical and magnetic fields to keep them confined in a small place. Of course, this has to be done in good vacuum to avoid collisions with matter particles.
Antiatoms are electrically neutral, but they have magnetic proprieties that can be used to keep them in "magnetic bottles".

• What does antimatter look like?

Matter and antimatter are identical. Looking at an object means seeing the photons coming from that object; however, photons come from both matter and antimatter. If there were a distant galaxy made out of antimatter, you couldn't distinguish it from a matter galaxy just by seeing the light from it.

How can you be so sure there is not antimatter around?

If there was antimatter here, around us, it would annihilate with matter and we would see light coming out. But we don't...
About the possibility of antimatter in space (antistars or antigalaxies), theorist have reasons to believe that the Universe is all made of matter. But we are not 100% sure, and that's way there are experiments, like AMS*, which are going to look for it.

• If the only difference between a particle and its antiparticle is the charge, how do you distinguish a neutron from an antineutron ?Neutrons are made of quarks, and antineutrons are made of antiquarks. Quarks and antiquarks have opposite charges, even though they sum up to zero in both cases.
And a very good way to recognize them is to put a neutron close to an antineutron and see how they immediately annihilate.

• What about antiphotons?

Photons have zero charge and do not contain inside objects that are charged, so a photon can not be distinguished from an antiphoton. Photon and antiphotons are the same thing, i.e. the photon is its own antiparticle.

• How do sound waves propagate in antimatter?

If there is a difference between matter and antimatter, it is very very tiny, that's why we are doing experiments here at CERN to investigate it. They are so similar that sound waves, that are vibrations of matter or antimatter, would be identical. An antimatter piano would sound exactly as a matter one.

• How does the gravitational field act on antimatter?

The gravitational force depends from the energy of an object, and since matter and antimatter have both positive energy, gravitation acts on them in the same way.
This means that an object made of matter and one made of antimatter would both stand on the floor, the latter one not flying off the sky...

• How mach antimatter can you make in one accelerator cycle?

Here at CERN we can produce 50 millions antiprotons in each cycle (about once a minute), that allows us to make a few hundred antihydrogen atoms.
The number could be 10 times higher in particular configurations of the accelerator. This sounds a lot, but expressed in grams it is a billionth of a gram in a year.

• How much does it cost to produce antimatter?

If we count on the production CERN has done over the last 10 years (about 1 billionth of a gram), it has cost a few hundred millions Swiss francs.

• How long will it take to have "new results" out of the AD?

The experiments took about three years to set up, and now that they are ready, it will take a year or two to understand the production of antihydrogen and how to contain it. Then the first studies can be done, where we compare atoms and antiatoms, and this will be two or three years from now.

AMS:'Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer'
About 15 billion years ago, matter and antimatter were created in a gigantic Big Bang in equal amounts, at least according to today's best theory. It is therefore surprising that our Earth, the solar system, and our galaxy (the Milky Way) do not contain any antimatter.

To explain this absence, scientists have come out with two possibilities: either antimatter completely disappeared during the history of universe, or matter and antimatter have been separated from each other to form different regions of the universe.

In the second case, we would be located in a region where only matter exists (or rather what we call 'matter'), but some antimatter coming from an 'anti' region outside our galaxy could still have a chance to reach us. This antimatter would be in the form of anti-nuclei (like anti-Helium, anti-Carbon, etc..) as opposed to lighter antiparticles (such as antiprotons) which are also created in high energy collisions between ordinary matter. To search for this extragalactic antimatter, the best way is to place a particle detector in space.

A world-wide collaboration of physicists, lead by Nobel prize laureate Prof. Samuel Ting of MIT, decided to build the 'Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer', or AMS. AMS is a high energy particle detector which will try to detect the passage of such very small amounts of antimatter, while orbiting at an altitude of a few hundred kilometers above the atmosphere.

Some of the main challenges of the project are very technical: having to be carried on the Space Shuttle, each component of the apparatus has to be miniaturized as much as possible to keep the total volume to a maximum of 10 cubic meters and the weight to a maximum of 3 tons (a typical high energy apparatus at LEP with the similar detecting principles is about 1000 cubic meters in volume and 100 tons in weight).

Even more important is the power consumption: AMS should not need more than 2 kW (kilowatts) of electricity, provided by the solar panels of the Space Station. And 2kW is less than what a kitchen oven needs!

Academician Lomonosov-Russian floating nuclear power station

Floating nuclear power stations are vessels projected by the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency that present self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants, each powered by two modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactorsS
The stations are to be mass-built at ship-building facilities and then towed to the destination point in coastal waters near a city, a town or an industrial enterprise. Each vessel would then provide up to 70 MWWattof electrical or 300 MW of heat energy thatare enough for a city with population of 200,000 people. It could also be modified as a desalination plant producing 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water a day

Name:Academician Lomonosov
Namesake:Mikhail Lomonosov
Operator:Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency
Port of Registry:Russia
Builder:Baltic Shipyard
Cost:US$336 million (projected)
Laid down:15 April 15 2007
Launched:Planned for 2010

Shipyard:Sevmash
Displacement:21,500 tonnes
Length:144 meters
Beam:30 meters
Powerplant :2 modified KLT-40S Nuclear Reactors (Ice breaker type), 70 MW electric or 300 MW heat power
Planned Cost :$336 million

Fueling

The plant needs to be refueled every three years while saving up to 200,000 metric tons of coal and 100,000 tons of fuel oil a year. The reactors are supposed to have a lifespan of 40 years. Every 12 years the whole plant will be towed home and overhauled at the wharf where it was constructed. The disposal of the nuclear waste will be organized by the manufacturer and supported by the infrastructure of the Russian nuclear industry. Thus, virtually no radiation traces are expected at the place where the power station produced its energy.

Safety

Environmental groups and nuclear experts are concerned that floating plants will be more vulnerable to accidents and terrorism than land-based stations. They point to a history of naval and nuclear accidents in Russia and the former Soviet Union, including the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Russia does have 50 years of experience operating a fleet of nuclear powered icebreakers that are also used for scientific and Arctic tourism expeditions. The Russians have commented that a nuclear reactor that sinks, such as the similar reactor involved in the Kursk explosion, can be raised and probably put back into operation.At this time it is not known what, if any, containment structure or associated missile shield will be built on the ship. The manufacturers believe that an airliner striking the ship would not destroy the reactor. According to MosNews, a Russian news outlet, there is no way an airliner striking the ship would destroy the reactor.

Bushidō-"Way of the Warrior"

Bushidō ,meaning "Way of the Warrior", is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honour until death. Born of two main influences, the violent existence of the samurai was tempered by the wisdom and serenity of Confucianism and Buddhism. Bushidō developed between the 9th and 12th centuries and numerous translated documents dating from the 12th to 16th centuries demonstrate its wide influence across the whole of Japan

I. Rectitude or Justice The code teaches that a Samurai knows how one must decide upon an important thing and act appropriately. It is the quality of reasoning.

II. Courage that is put in action for the sake of good is worthy of respect.

III. Benevolence was expected as an integral part of a man of honour.

IV. Politeness was an essential attribute. It is to be a part of every true Samurai of Japan.

V.Honesty and Sincerity Greed for money was considered an immoral and lowly quality. The Samurais lived a Spartan life and abstained from seeking money.

VI. Honor was above everything. A Samurai lived a life of honor and anything that affected his honor affected him personally.

VII. Loyalty The Samurais were extremely loyal to their leaders.VIII. Character and Self-Control The Bushido teaches men to live a life of moral standards. Character is essential for the warrior and equally for the common man.

The rules of the code were those of politeness and respect. It taught to the world, discipline and unfailing morals that will last forever.

Nemawashi

In Japanese culture Nemawashi is an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth. It is considered an important element in any major change, before any formal steps are taken, and successful nemawashi enables changes to be carried out with the consent of all sides. The word means preparing the soil for transplanting a tree from one area to another, so that it will live. Nemawashi in business is preparing people’s minds to accept an idea. It is consensus building.The Japanese have very different ways of conducting business meeting. Before a formal meeting starts, participants have already drawn conclusions regarding information to be presented at the meeting. This system was developed to avoid discrepancies, and gain agreement from everyone in advance, when making a decision in formal meeting. It is also to keep the relationship harmonious. Nemawashi is best used to let people of differing opinions have time to adjust their opinions. When the principles of nemawashi are put into effect first, people have the time to adjust opinions beforehand without wasting time. The main fear people have of nemawashi is its use in politics. People are worried that decisions are sometimes made behind the scenes, instead of out in the open. It is therefore seen as an undemocratic process.

The Art of Nemawashi

Nemawashi is the building of support for a project through advance communication and consensus. The Japanese term nemawashi (根回し) comes from "to dig around the roots" in order to prepare a plant for transplant. Without proper nemawashi, a bonsai tree transplanted to new soil may die.

Many people first hear of nemawashi in the context of Hoshin Kanri (policy deployment) which is a fact-based approach to planning and tracking breakthrough objectives. As awareness of the Toyota Way and its elements become more mainstream, the mention of nemawashi as a management behavior has increased.

In business how many projects die because ideas were transplanted to minds that were not prepared to nurture them? The only place I can think of in the U.S. where nemawashi is practiced regularly is in Congress, where the passage of laws requires the support of a certain number of votes and lawmakers spend time and effort to gain support for their ideas.

Like much of kaizen, there's nothing mysterious about nemawashi. It's not a science (though you could take a scientific approach) or a 12-step process. If you have a project that requires decision and support, here's how to get started with the art of nemawashi:

Create the project document. What is the current condition? What are the root causes? What is it costing us to do business this way? What are possible countermeasures? Tip: Fit this on one page, even if it's a big piece of paper (A3 size).

Review the project document with people. Do this in person (in many cultures doing this individually will yield better results than review in groups). Ask each person if they understand the current condition, the root causes and the actions proposed. If you are a leader, prepare to listen and teach but resist the tempation to justify or explain.Tip: Send the project description to people in advance so they can review it and prepare for your face to face meeting.

Rewrite the project document. At this stage the document it is no longer a proposal as such but a summary of what has already been agreed by those who influence and make decisions in the organization.Tip: Keep the original document hard copy with your notes to show the various changes and inputs you gained from people throughout the nemawashi process. Until nemawashi becomes second nature this "draft" document will help people visualize how nemawashi works and how their ideas and inputs were valued.

Meet to decide formally to support the project. This should take less than an hour, including time for questions and clarifications.Tip: If at first you fail to gain smooth agreement at this meeting, spin the PDCA cycle and learn why. Did you miss certain people in the nemawashi process? Was the project document unclear? Did the nemawashi process go on too long so that priorities changed?

There are three main benefits to the nemawashi process:

1) You will have a better understanding of the current condition as people challenge the initial assumptions and results of root cause analysis

2) It creates ownership for the project because others have had a chance to influence and shape it. People support what they create.

3) Time waste in meetings is eliminated or replaced with time doing nemawashi.

Nemawashi is best done in the project design phase or Plan phase of PDCA. How long should this process take? Probably as long as you need to make sure the project will be successfully transplanted in the minds of the people who have the ability to nurture or neglect it. The more that people in positions to influence significant change practice nemawashi, the greater the chance of success will be for these changes.

Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

They’re just like you. But with lots of money

When you think "millionaire", what image comes to mind? For many of us, it’s a flashy 1980s entrepreneur who flies a private jet, and lives the kind of decadent lifestyle that most of us can only dream about.

But many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighbourhoods, go to work and shop in discount stores like the rest of us. What motivates them isn’t material possessions but the choices that money can bring.

"For the rich, it’s not about getting more stuff. It’s about having the freedom to make almost any decision you want," says T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Wealth means you can send your child to any school or leave a job you don’t like.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more people are living the good life than ever before: more than a million households boast a net value of more than $1 million. Most of our millionaires are self-made.

And the very rich are getting richer. According to the BRW rich list, our top 200 wealthiest people are worth on average $698 million apiece – up more than $10 million on the previous year. If more people are getting richer than ever, why shouldn’t you be one of them? Here, four people who have at least a million dollars in liquid assets share the secrets that helped them get there.

1. Educate yourself

Tracy Harvey grew up on welfare and the cycle was repeating itself. A single mother of two children, one of whom was autistic, in 1996 she fled an abusive relationship in Adelaide, relocating to Brisbane, where she hit rock bottom.

She was living on a mattress on the floor of a rented property in a bad suburb. She couldn’t afford to get her abscessed tooth fixed and her car was not roadworthy, so she couldn’t take her little girl, Hayley, to school.

"I had taken a handful of pills and I wasn’t thinking properly," says Harvey. "Hayley put her arms around me and gave me a hug and said ‘Mummy, I love you.’ It really was my turning point." Realising that she was the only person who could fix her predicament, Harvey enrolled in a university course to study social work. She also started a small business making theatrical costumes to supplement her pension.

"I saved every penny and put it into a fixed managed fund and started to look for a place to buy," she says. The banks knocked her back, but she found a finance firm prepared to loan her the money to buy her first unit, a run-down dump that had been on the market for a few years. Even though it had no kitchen and holes in the walls, moving in was the best day of her life. She paid as much on the mortgage as she could every week.

Gradually the unit was done up; its value doubled. As soon as she saw the market start to move, she knew it was time to buy again. Because she had made extra repayments and her first home had risen in value, Harvey managed to borrow the money for a second and, almost immediately, a third property.

"I was carrying a huge debt," she says. She took out a line of credit and used that to fix up the properties, and rented them out for more than the mortgage repayments. Then she studied for a real-estate licence so that she could manage all of the properties herself.

Today, Harvey is up to her 14th property and is worth around $4 million. She lives in a beautiful house with a pool, but she’s still ultra-careful with her money: "We live within our means," she says. "I drive an average car. My only goal is to get my daughter through uni and give both my children the skills and know-how to ensure a comfortable financial future.

"So many of us go through a divorce or lose a job – one minute we can have an income and the next minute we don’t. We have to know how to take care of our money."

2. Passion pays off

For 38-year-old Justin Herald, the journey to wealth began one Sunday morning at a church in Sydney’s northwest, when he had an altercation with a member of the congregation.

"You have an attitude problem," she told him.

The accusation sparked something in him, and the cheeky then-25-­year-old borrowed $50 from his brother to have four T-shirts printed with the slogans: "I don’t have an attitude problem, you have a perception problem" and "When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you". "It was the best $50 I ever spent," laughs Herald.

By the end of the morning he’d sold three of the four T-shirts. With the money he made he had another six printed, then 12, then 24. "That first year the turnover was $980,000," he says. His business, Attitude Inc, is now a multi- million dollar concern with a wide range of products selling in 3500 stores across Australia.

His success was due to clever marketing – the public loved the slogans – but also, he admits, luck. In those days there was very little competition in his sector of the clothing industry, and he was in the right place at the right time. The media spotlight also helped, with people picking up on Herald’s likeable personality and infectious passion for his business: the night of one TV appearance, 187 stores rang to get his products into their shops.

"The consumer liked the bloke behind the product. They really did support me as an individual as well as the brand," he says. Herald sold the business three years ago, by which time it was turning over $30 million a year, and now spends his time as a motivational speaker.

His message: anyone can be financially successful if they set their mind to it. "You have to have a lot of stickability – not everything is going to work the way you plan it." Still living in Castle Hill with his wife and two children, Herald believes too many successful people become caught up on the trappings of wealth. "I have lived here since I left school at 16," he says. "In this area, you don’t forget where you came from."

Money has meant he has been able to indulge his other passion – fast cars – but essentially he says he’s the same person he’s always been. "Time and freedom and choice are more valuable than having a lot of money in the bank," he says.

3. No guts, no glory

Many of us harbour a dream of becoming our own boss, but rarely spot an opportunity to do so – and this desire is what prompted Annah Stretton, 48, to take a risk.

Twenty years ago, Stretton was working as a product sourcer for a clothing company. She flew around the world, spotted fashion trends, brought samples back to New Zealand and sold redesigned replicas in bulk to department stores. "I was really good at it," she says. "I knew how to pick styles and wheel and deal."

Then when the opportunity arose, Stretton decided to set up her own wholesale clothing business. She converted buildings on her family’s farm in Tatuanui, on New Zealand’s North Island, and her father guaranteed an overdraft of $24,500. Stretton then got busy contacting business connections and before long, she started getting orders – her first being for 20,000 dresses. "It was a hell of a task for one woman sitting on a farm," says Stretton. "But I never doubted I could do it."

There were times when Stretton couldn’t make monthly payments, but she communicated with her creditors, telling them why, and when she’d have the money. "I was very upfront with them," explains Stretton.

By the end of its first year of trading, Stretton Clothing Company had turned over $817,000. However, Stretton was too consumed with the business to enjoy her new-found success. She worked hard, driving around in her Mitsubishi L300, sourcing fabrics and visiting customers. But as the Asian import market started to grow, many of the big retailers began buying through their parent companies rather than independently for the New Zealand market. "I wasn’t prepared to follow the same path," says Stretton.

To strengthen her business, she broadened her product line and launched a boutique collection line of clothing, Sam & Libby. Stores were paying a wholesale price of about $33 a garment and selling them for about $150. Eventually, she decided to open her own boutique. "I planned to go into rural areas that were fairly affluent, and offer them services that they would expect from a city store, such as a quality tailor and exciting visuals."

Within two years, she had seven stores. Today, there are 32 Annah S. and Annah Stretton stores in New Zealand, her company exports to around 150 boutiques throughout the world and generates over $8.17 million in revenue a year. As her business grew, so did Stretton’s public profile and she started writing a monthly column in Her Business magazine. One day the editor of the magazine e-mailed her saying the future of the magazine was uncertain, cheekily adding, "You don’t want to buy it, do you?"

Stretton made the snap decision to do precisely that. "I didn’t know much about publishing, but I quickly became passionate about it," says Stretton. Her publishing company now produces three magazines.

Today, the mother of two runs both companies, is heavily involved in charity fundraising and mentors women on how to succeed in business. Stretton’s top tip: "If you don’t love what you are doing – get out and find something you do!"

4. Set your sights on where you’re going

At the age of 40, Paul Counsel from Leederville in Western Australia hardly seemed on the road to wealth. A potter and ceramics artist, he was used to scraping by on whatever work was on offer. Then in 1994 he was invited to a major art exhibition in Perth, where he exhibited 40 beautiful pieces. The show was a success, but still he only sold seven, coming out with just $1500 – not including the cost of the materials.

"I thought, Hang on, I want be wealthy," Counsel recalls.

Thinking like a millionaire is a crucial first step to becoming one. "Most people retire financial underachievers," he says. "You have to see the world differently from the way other people see the world." Counsel borrowed enough money for a deposit on a house, fixed it up and invested the money he made in the share market. In just three years and eight months he’d made his first million.

What counts most, he says, is mindset: freeing yourself from society’s conditioning and becoming economi­cally and personally free.

"As soon as we earn an income, we’re encouraged to buy things we can’t afford," says Counsel. "Credit and buy-now-pay-later schemes lull us into a life of debt servicing rather than experiencing the freedom that income should provide." Today he has more money than he’d like to mention, but still lives in the same Californian bungalow in the suburbs and shuns the trappings of luxury that so many of us aspire to. "My neighbours don’t have a clue how much money I have," he says. "Everybody teases me about my Hyundai car… but it’s bloody comfortable."
From Reader's Digest Magazine - October 2008

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All Fished Out

Human greed may spell the end for the magnificent Mediterranean tuna-

by fen montaigne

No more magnificent fish swims the oceans than the giant bluefin tuna, which can grow up to 4m in length, weigh more than 250kg and live for 30 years. It can streak through water at 50kmh and dive to over a kilometre in depth. Warm-blooded, it roams from the Arctic to the tropics. Another extraordinary attribute may prove to be its undoing: its buttery belly meat is considered to make the world’s finest sushi. Over the past decade, a high-tech armada, often guided by spotter planes, has pursued bluefin from one end of the Mediterranean to the other, annually netting tens of thousands of the fish, many of them illegally. The fish are fattened offshore in sea cages before being shot and butchered for the sushi and steak markets in Japan, America and Europe.

Once, giant bluefin migrated by the millions throughout the Atlantic Basin and the Mediterranean Sea. So many have been hauled out of the Mediterranean that the population is in danger of collapse. Meanwhile, European and North African officials have done little to stop the slaughter.

“My big fear is that it may be too late,” said Sergi Tudela, a Spanish ­marine biologist with the World Wildlife Fund. “We are witnessing the same phenomenon happening to giant bluefin tuna that we saw happen with America’s ­ buffalo.”

The decimation of giant bluefin is emblematic of everything that is wrong with global fisheries today: the vastly increased killing power of new fishing technology, the shadowy network of international companies making huge profits from the trade, negligent fisheries management and enforcement, and the in­difference of consumers to the fate of the fish species they buy.

The very act of procreation now puts the giant bluefin at the mercy of the fleets. In the spring and summer, as the water warms, schools of bluefin rise to the surface to spawn. Planing on their sides and exposing their massive silver-coloured flanks, the large females each expel tens of millions of eggs, and the males emit clouds of milt (sperm). From the air, this turmoil of reproduction can be seen from many kilometres away by spotter planes, which call in the fleet.

13 Green Questions and Answers

In public toilets, is it better to use a paper towel or an electric hand dryer?

Go for the hot air. The energy needed to heat and blow air at your hands is far less than the energy needed to make and transport paper towels and haul waste away. One US study found that nine fully grown trees are cut down to supply an average fast-food restaurant with paper towels over a year; the tossed towels then create over 450kg of landfill waste. The hand dryer is also more hygienic. Doctors at the University of Ottawa claim the hot air gets into more crevices in the skin, killing off germs quicker.

Should I do the dirty dishes by hand or use a dishwasher?

This one’s not so crystal clear, since it all depends on how you hand wash and on the model of dishwasher. According to Tanya Ha, the author of Greeniology, old-style washing, using one sink for washing and one for rinsing, consumes 15-20 litres of water. “However, the amount increases considerably if you rinse dishes under running tap water instead of using a filled sink or bucket.” Research by the British government’s Market Transformation Programme last year found that dishwashers get items cleaner and use about 75% less water. The key is having a modern model. Dishwashers built today use around 95% less energy than those built 30 years ago, says Ha. Older models can use up to 90 litres of water a load; modern two-drawer dishwashers use as little as nine litres. To be even greener, stick to full loads and use the no-heat or air-dry option.

Should I do my laundry in a front-loader or top-loading washing machine?

Front-loaders win, hands down. Top-loaders have faster cycles but they use much more water, energy and detergent. When you are buying a new machine, look for the labels listing its energy and water ratings. Also choose a machine size that suits your household. Even if you’re not planning on buying a new machine, you can still make your current washer more eco-friendly. Clean the filter, use the minimum amount of detergent, stick to cold water and stick with full loads.

What should I eat for dinner tonight?

Out of everything you do, what you choose to eat has the biggest impact on the environment, says Rebecca Blackburn, author of Green is Good: Smart Ways to Live Well and Help the Planet. “Farming uses more resources than any other industry: two-thirds of Australia’s land and more than two-thirds of our water. It also produces one fifth of our greenhouse gas emissions.” In fact, one third of the average person’s carbon footprint is due to their intake of animal-based food, which is far more than the impact of driving a car or the energy used in our homes.So should we turn vegetarian? Blackburn says you’ll be surprised at how much you can help the environment simply by reducing your red-meat intake even slightly. In fact, eating 3kg less red meat each year is equivalent to reducing household water use by half! Blackburn’s handy tip: go for Meatless Monday.

Is it correct that flicking fluoro lights on and off uses more energy?

Actually no. New data suggests frequent switching doesn’t shorten the life span of bulbs or waste energy. Compact fluorescent bulbs are basically energy-efficient versions of the strip lighting we used to put in laundries and bathrooms. Manufacturer Osram is now selling a bulb that it claims can be switched 500,000 times – equivalent to 91 times per day over its 15-year life.

When it comes to grocery shopping, should I do a big shop each month or fortnight, or should I shop every few days?

Australians admit to throwing out a whopping $5.3 billion worth of food a year. Not surprisingly, the majority of the wasted food is fresh: $2.9 billion worth. “It’s not just money that’s being wasted, it’s the resources that went into making the food,” says Blackburn. “Do an audit of the fridge before you go shopping and figure out what’s left behind, what went off and why you didn’t eat the food.” So by all means do a big monthly shop of durables and non-perishables, but buy your fresh fruit and vegetables every couple of days so they don’t sit in the crisper unused.

Are the new hybrid cars that much better than small, fuel-efficient, conventional cars?

Hybrid cars are not the be-all and end-all. “Choose the smallest car that you can manage and choose the most fuel-efficient car in that range,” says Blackburn. New vehicles are rated by website http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/based on greenhouse and air pollution emissions. “You can make a big difference without buying a hybrid,” says Blackburn. “If money’s an issue, you’d be far better off spending the extra money on a rainwater tank, solar hot water, insulation and energy-efficient appliances.

”What’s best: curtains or venetian blinds?

When it comes to keeping your house insulated, curtains win hands down. Venetian blinds don’t reduce heat transfer at all; a close-fitting, lined, floor-length curtain with a pelmet will reduce heat loss in winter by one third. To keep the radiant heat out in summer, install outdoor shutters, awnings or miniature louvres. Window films provide some protection from summer sun but are less effective than external blinds, and they also don’t protect against heat loss in winter.

When it comes to baby, what’s best: disposable nappies or cloth nappies?

Let’s call this a draw. Several independent studies – taking into account all the environmental factors such as raw material and energy usage, emissions of air and water pollution, and even waste management – conclude that both have roughly the same environmental effect. But the dollar cost is another equation.

I’m thirsty. Bottled water or tap?

Australians drink 150 million litres of bottled water each year. And Clean Up Australia reckons just 35% of all plastic bottles are recycled – the rest end up as landfill.When it comes to tap water, there are no transportation costs or carbon emissions. Buy your own water bottle. Instead of spending $2 per bottle, factor in just 2c and decide now if the taste is OK.

Solar hot water and solar panels: what’s the difference?

A lot of people get confused about this. One is taking the sun’s energy and heating up hot water. The other is taking the sun’s energy and producing electricity.If you can imagine going camping with a big black barrel filled with water sitting in the sun, when you had a shower from the barrel, the water would be warm, says Blackburn. That’s essentially the same as the process in a solar hot water system. Solar electricity is more complicated. It’s still quite expensive so the federal government has introduced a rebate of up to $8000 if you install solar panels, which practically halves the cost. Says Blackburn, “It’s not cost effective to install solar panels as a way to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. For much less money, you can install energy-efficient appliances, lights and insulation and reduce your emissions by about half.

”Rechargeable versus disposable batteries?

Rechargeables. No question. They work out better on the hip pocket, too. “You buy them once for about $4, versus a normal alkaline battery for $1, but get to use them about 1000 times.” And for those who think rechargeable batteries are too fiddly to use and take too long to charge: remember, you’re already using them in your mobile phone and laptop. “If you were using throwaway batteries in your mobile, it would cost more than your phone bill.

”Scraps. Should I compost them or throw them straight in the bin?

Up to 50% of domestic waste is food scraps and garden waste that could be composted. Make it easy for yourself: keep a little plastic bin on the kitchen bench, or use a stainless-steel cooking pot and line it with newspaper so it cleans more easily.You can compost the strangest things: vegetable oil, tea bags, coffee grounds, vacuum dust, eggshells, hair clippings or hair removed from a brush, ash from wood fires, shredded paper and cardboard, even dried flower arrangements. If you live in an apartment, consider a Bokashi bin. It sits under your sink and the fermentation process doesn’t produce smells. When full, visit the communal garden or enrich a friend’s garden