A breath of fresh air

We can live for three weeks without food, three days without water but just three minutes without breathing and though we take it for granted, the quality of the air we breathe touches on many social as well as environmental issues.

The invisible invasion

While research is still emerging, the ubiquity of microplastic exposure through food, water, and air has prompted scientists to call for more comprehensive studies on long-term health effects.

The track through the scribbly gums

Your local track through the scribbly gums reminded us that a good society does not only build things that make money. It preserves things that make life bearable.

Thirty to one

For every $1 the world invests in protecting nature, it spends US$30 on destroying it according to a new UN Environment Programme report released today.

Microplastics may accelerate climate change

Recent research reveals microplastics are flooding the world’s oceans, diminishing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, an essential process to regulate Earth’s temperature. Their presence in maritime environments has become ubiquitous and while their current effects may appear minimal, the study warns that their long-term impact will significantly intensify ocean warming and acidification.

The albatross did follow

New research has raised hopes of reducing the toll of commercial long-line fishing on large seabirds between Australia and South America.

Another one bites the dust

From the megafauna to thousands of island species, mankind has been wiping out whole species since the last ice age, but much is lost beyond the animals themselves when they vanish from the Earth.

Culling the crown of thorns

Protected marine zones which spare the large fish which control destructive crown of thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef have helped protect the threatened habitat over recent years.

How much recycled water storage is enough in Victoria?

Max Thomas makes the case for a standard method to calculate the water storage requirement for recycled water irrigation in Victoria.

Of microbes and men

Engineered microbes have the potential to boost crop yields and capture carbon to fight climate change, but are the benefits worth the risk?

Nature, carbon and nutrition

Only farming can tackle climate change, restore habitats and give people nutritious food. Agriculture isn’t an environmental problem, but an essential part of the solution.

Telling the wood from the trees

An analysis of national climate plans released at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil warns that countries are failing to carry out core work required to reduce emissions by halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation, and are instead pushing unrealistic carbon removal schemes, such as large-scale tree planting.