Environmental Science News
| Training natives to fear cane toads | Posted: 8th of May 2008 |
| New research suggests that exposing native animals to smaller cane toads could teach them to stay away from the pests, before more dangerous invaders arrive. | |
| Climate change may starve koalas | Posted: 7th of May 2008 |
| Increasing temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are altering the nutrients in eucalypt leaves and posing a threat to koalas, according to new research. | |
| Parasite could control cane toads | Posted: 7th of May 2008 |
| A parasite that cane toads brought with them from the Amazon has been found to kill almost a third of the pests' babies, but leave Australian species unharmed. | |
| Feature: A partnership approach to tackling sustainability | Posted: 6th of May 2008 |
| Under the Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI), CSIRO brings together partners from business, government and non-government organisations to work with communities to develop innovative solutions that address their local sustainability challenges. | |
| Cyclones help spread weeds | Posted: 6th of May 2008 |
| Strong winds caused by cyclones can disperse weed seeds more than 40 times further than normal weather conditions, found the results of a new study. | |
| Feature: Acid oceans | Posted: 5th of May 2008 |
| International scientists are now in little doubt about the cause of a threat confronting up to one-third of all marine life: the 27 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide released each year by human activity are gradually dissolving into the ocean’s upper layers, turning them more acidic. Julian Cribb reports. | |
| Cars not sold on sustainability | Posted: 5th of May 2008 |
| Most vehicle ads in New Zealand do not mention greenhouse gas emissions, making it difficult for consumers to make an eco-friendly choice, a study has revealed. | |
| Opinion: Time to pay back the Snowy | Posted: 5th of May 2008 |
| The Snowy Scheme: water is public property yet the state sees fit to appropriate and sell that water. | |
| Opinion: Come clean on sustainability | Posted: 5th of May 2008 |
| Carbon neutrality and other green jargon is in danger of becoming what 'reduced fat', 'low cal' and 'high fibre' were in past decades, according to Margaret Lawson. | |
| Opinion: Much needed due diligence on climate change | Posted: 4th of May 2008 |
| An 'Archimedean' Royal Commission might help us focus on real problems rather than global warming, according to Don Aitkin. | |
| Feature: OECD reports set further challenges for Australia | Posted: 4th of May 2008 |
| Is Australia on the road to a sustainable future? Yes and no, depending on which of two recent reports released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development you read. | |
| Opinion: Letter to Kevin Rudd - stop coal plants now | Posted: 1st of May 2008 |
| The science is unambiguous: if we burn most of the fossil fuels, releasing the CO2 to the air, we will assuredly destroy much of the fabric of life on the planet, argues James Hansen. | |
| Feature: China - the rise of the green city | Posted: 1st of May 2008 |
| China’s rapid urbanisation is cause for concern, but remarkable initiatives in cities such as Rizhao, Wuhan and Beijing are leading to a broader endorsement of sustainability principles, write Matthew Levinson and Jing Chen. | |
| Soil can clean toxic waste | Posted: 1st of May 2008 |
| Research has found that microbes naturally present in Australian soil could be the most efficient way to break down contaminants and toxic waste in the environment. | |
| Feature: Is Western Australia heading for longer summers? | Posted: 29th of April 2008 |
| Researchers believe that warmer seas off Western Australia could result in longer summers and milder winters. Peter Terry investigates the quest to predict the future of water temperatures and seasonal climates. | |
| Feature: Targeting endocrine disruptors in Australias waterways | Posted: 28th of April 2008 |
| Australia has lagged behind Europe and North America in research and policy on endocrine disrupting chemicals in the country’s waterways. CSIRO has been working with Land Water Australia to lay the groundwork for local action. Tuppy McIntosh reports. | |
| Feature: Economic profit the key to sustainable fisheries | Posted: 27th of April 2008 |
| Exploiting a renewable resource for maximum economic profit is the antithesis of sustainable management, right? Not if you're running a fishery, reports Wendy Pyper. | |
| Opinion: Clean soil is at the root of agricultural success | Posted: 27th of April 2008 |
| The agriculture industry cannot continue to grow without its roots firmly fixed in healthy, productive soil, writes David McKenzie. | |
| Tasman Glacier is melting fast | Posted: 23rd of April 2008 |
| New Zealand's Tasman Glacier is melting at an increasing rate and forming a new lake, which is speeding up the melting process further, according to researchers. | |
| Feature: Smarter irrigation in a drier century | Posted: 23rd of April 2008 |
| With global climate models indicating a further 20 per cent decline in rainfall across southeastern Australia by 2030, irrigated agriculture, particularly in the southern Murray–Darling Basin, is suddenly facing an uncertain future. Now that the new COAG National Water Plan is signed, how might our irrigation systems be adapted for the 21st century? Graeme O’Neill provides some perspective. | |
| Opinion: The widening scope of climate change | Posted: 23rd of April 2008 |
| Warming has already taken the planet into a condition where human experience no longer provides a reliable indication of the future, writes Graeme Pearman. | |
| Feature: Applying 'resilience thinking' for sustainable development | Posted: 22nd of April 2008 |
| Dr Leonie Pearson explains that we need to better understand that nature and humanity are dynamic and co-evolving, and that achieving sustainability is not the single goal of decreased consumption, but rather of increasing our adaptive capacity to external shocks and challenges. | |
| Opinion: Combined technology is the future of clean energy | Posted: 22nd of April 2008 |
| Combining the best features of fossil fuels with renewable energy, such as solar and wind, is the way to a clean energy future, according to an expert. | |
| Feature: Neal Fogarty on Australia's sheep industry | Posted: 21st of April 2008 |
| Neal Fogarty has worked in the Australian sheep and wool industry for over forty years and witnessed many changes, including the 'lamb revolution'. At his retirement, the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries asked him to reflect on the past decades' growth. | |
| Opinion: The IPCC - on the run at last | Posted: 21st of April 2008 |
| The IPCC's evidence for dangerous, human-caused global warming, always slim, now lies exposed in tatters for all to see, according to Bob Carter. | |
| Opinion: Negotiating the future | Posted: 20th of April 2008 |
| Coherent and systematic thinking about climate change is an essential component of diplomatic activities, argues Ioan Voicu. | |
| Feature: Injecting CO2 promises cleaner future for energy | Posted: 17th of April 2008 |
| One of the world’s largest carbon geosequestration projects is about to swing into action off the coast of Western Australia, reports Louise Pemble. | |
| NZ unready for genetic modification | Posted: 16th of April 2008 |
| Only half of the strategies developed to control genetically modified organisms have been put into place in New Zealand, according to latest findings. | |
| Opinion: Food for thought - can the Earth sustain 'Magic puddings'? | Posted: 16th of April 2008 |
| It is understandable that consumers want food to be cheap, but not if it ‘costs the earth’, warns Jim Scott. | |
| Corals recover from atomic blast | Posted: 15th of April 2008 |
| The atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in the 50s wiped out many corals, but a large number of species are still flourishing in the blast crater, a study has found. | |
printer friendly
There are no footnotes for this page