The nation appears headed for an election over emissions reductions and power prices after a majority of Coalition MPs endorsed the National Energy Guarantee and set the scene for a showdown with Labor. By Phil Coorey Despite a rearguard effort led by Tony Abbott to kill the NEG stone dead, […]
Science/Environment
Australia’s population to hit 25 million: Can we cope?
Australia’s population hits a big milestone today. By Evan Young In this article… What’s the current growth rate and what’s causing it? Where are people living in Australia? How does it compare to other countries? How has migration played a role? How big will Australia’s population get? Can we cope? […]
PM personally approved $443m fund for tiny Barrier Reef foundation
Head of Great Barrier Reef Foundation tells Senate inquiry money was offered at meeting with Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg Malcolm Turnbull was at the meeting where $443.8m in funding was offered to a small not-for-profit foundation without a competitive tender process or any application for the money, an inquiry has […]
Recycling: how corporate Australia played us for mugs
Australians tried to do the right thing by recycling but corporations shifted responsibility and set us up for failure By Jeff Sparrow The announcement by China earlier this year that they would no longer purchase Australia’s contaminated waste plunged the local recycling industry into a crisis from which it has […]
How government inaction fuelled Australia’s renewable energy boom
Another report, another plan and yet still, we are as far from political consensus over energy and the environment as ever. By Ian Verrender, ABC Business Correspondent. After the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released the findings of its long-running review into the electricity sector last week, Canberra once again […]
Australia’s spending on research now far below OECD average
Universities Australia says government and business have ignored economy’s ‘backbone’ Australia has fallen well behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to research funding, the peak lobbying body for universities has warned. By Michael McGowan Ahead of a parliamentary inquiry into research funding, Universities Australia has complained […]
Groundhog Day is back: ‘climate science and charities under attack’
“I’m often asked if it gets tiring standing up to the naysayers. And while there are days when I contemplate with tired resignation facing yet another attack on climate science or democracy, the truth is, it’s a privilege to do so. By Tim Flannery I’ll never forget the morning close […]
SCU’s National Marine Science Centre says no to plastic waste
Worldwide each year hundreds of thousands of marine creatures are casualties of our plastic obsession, suffering – and dying – after inadvertently eating plastic or becoming entangled in plastic debris found floating in the ocean. The issue is close to the heart of Southern Cross University’s National Marine Science Centre, […]
Bellingen Council votes to express logging concerns to State Government
Five per cent of Bellingen Shire’s forests could be clear-felled and almost 20 per cent subjected to a doubling in harvest intensity if new logging regulations go ahead, councillors were told at yesterday’s Bellingen Shire Council meeting. By Janene Carey These estimates, based on mapping analysis, were put forward by Ashley […]
The hemp house is almost here.
A Perth-based company has found a new way of processing the versatile plant and has developed building panels to create affordable, carbon negative housing. Mirreco chief executive Richard Evans said the company plans to build a hemp micro-home to show the benefits of using hemp in housing (Pictured – a Culburra hemp […]