The Great Barrier Reef is under attack from a range of enemies including climate change effects (coral bleaching, increased severe storms, and ocean acidification), pollutant discharge from the land, coastal…
No matter how friendly your detergent is, it does damage.
NPS Photo/Neal Herbert
After the big wet, spare a thought for the health of your waterways and the substances that wash into them.
Bacteria are important to the health of the waterways running through our backyards. As decomposers…
Most forms of energy generation are a blight on the landscape: why single out wind?
eidlog42/Flickr
Wind farms make noise. Coal fired power stations pollute the air and atmosphere. Coal-seam gas mines pollute underground water aquifers. All electricity generating sources, to some people, pollute the…
Modern motorists have a pile of engine choices.
Flickr/ Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden
Like many countries, Australia is seeing a growth in the number of diesel vehicles on our roads. Since 2006 the number of registered diesel vehicles has increased by a remarkable 40%; diesel passenger…
Much of our e-waste – such as these computer parts – ends up in developing countries.
Greenpeace India
E-waste from used electrical and electronic gadgets such as desktop computers, laptops and iPhones is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. Rapid uptake of information technology around…
How can we dispose of 20 million tyres a year while minimising our environmental impact?
ppip
Used tyres pose a major environmental risk around the world, with more than one billion tyres disposed of every year. Most of these tyres end up in landfill.
Estimates suggest more than 20 million passenger…
The world is searching for a “holy grail”: zero-carbon electricity provided safely and reliably, 24 hours a day, in any given location and in quantities that matter for a world that is heading for 10 billion…
It doesn't take much for sewage to break out of its pipes and into waterways.
Claire Evans
Australia’s urban waterways are often polluted and sick. They suffer from a condition called the “urban stream syndrome”. A common factor that contributes is contamination from sewage.
How and why does…
Coral bleaching is a serious issue, but we're learning how reefs can best recover.
AFP/Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Coral reefs around the world are under pressure from multiple threats. A burgeoning gas industry – such as that near Gladstone – is one of the newest of these. Pollution, sedimentation, declining water…
Every new person is a new consumer of resources.
World Resources
SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE: In the early 1970s, three leading American scientists were locked in a passionate debate about what had made the greatest contribution to humanity’s impact on the environment.
The…
Oil gets into the ocean in all sorts of ways, but oil spills are the most visible.
AAP
Responding to oil spills, like that in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty, is a very complex, high pressure situation. Decisions must be made based on whatever data are available at the time.
One of the difficulties…
Exporting uranium carries a risk not just in Australia, but all over the world.
Mad House Photography
The South Australian and Federal governments have approved another expansion at Olympic Dam. This expansion raises some very important questions about Australia’s role in the future of global energy and…
Sure, they're ugly; but plastic bags might not be so bad.
Robin Tennant-Wood
From today, plastic bags are banned in the NT. The ACT will follow suit in November: in 2009 the ACT abandoned its 14-year old “No Waste by 2010” strategy and replaced it with a ban on plastic shopping…
Coal seam gas drilling exposes us to chemicals we know nothing about.
AAP
Coal seam gas is indeed a potential disaster if present attitudes and lack of regulatory control prevail.
An important part of public health is to enact precautions based on potential impacts.
The CSG…
