The frequency of catastrophes – why accurate language matters

The media’s misuse of the term ‘hundred year event’ gives the public a misleading impression of the true likelihood of major floods and other disasters.

Saving a third of the world

Australia has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to halt and reverse biodiversity loss through ambitious law and policy reform to restore 30% of the land to its natural condition.

The curious death of the Murray-Darling

The much heralded national management plan for Australia’s once mighty Murray-Darling River continues to fail, with the river dying a slow, painful death due to massive draws on its dwindling flows by the agriculture industry.

Whatever happened to El Niño?

This summer was supposed to be dry and hot, and a scientist from UNSW Sydney explains why the current warm and wet El Niño cycle hasn’t behaved quite as we expected it to.

Pity the puffins

Nearly half of the world’s migratory species are in decline, according to the first-ever report on the State of the World’s Migratory Species.

Speckles the dolphin

University of the Sunshine Coast researchers believe they have recorded one of the world’s most unusually coloured dolphins for the first time in Australian waters.

Croaky!

FrogID, a phone app which Australia’s citizen scientists can use to help record and count Australia’s frog population has reached a new milestone by logging one million validated frog records.

Soils for life

Land clearing and modern farming practises have devastated Australia’s fragile soils, but recognising our land as a national asset and adopting new techniques to boost, rather than deplete soil carbon, could help the agricultural industry secure its own future.

Humid enough for you?

We were all warned to expect a hot dry summer, but in reality it’s proven warm and wet, especially down Australia’s humidity ridden east coast.

Parklife

Recent tragedies in our national parks highlight the crucial need to reevaluate visitor management strategies to protect people from the wild – and themselves.

The green Sahara

Eccentricities in Earth’s orbit help explain why the Sahara desert has waxed and waned over the course of millions of years.

An eye on Australia’s ‘seafood basket’

A biologically rich region that provides much of the country’s seafood will be the first site in Australia to test the effectiveness of CSIRO’s AquaWatch technology.