Latest Story

  • Using maths against the bushfires

    Adam Phelan     |      January 19, 2020

    UNSW Canberra extreme bushfire researcher and mathematical scientist, Professor Jason Sharples, has dedicated his career to understanding the complex behaviour of bushfires.

  • Arvanitakis on American Politics: This week’s controversies, chaos and why Trump keeps his base

    James Arvanitakis     |      January 18, 2020

    This week’s events in the United States once again highlight how the Trump Administration continues to move from chaos to controversy (and back).

  • Out of the ashes

    Open Forum     |      January 18, 2020

    Rather than an untidy mess, fire-damaged trees and half burnt logs left behind by a fire are valuable habitat for recovering wildlife, according to a group of leading Australian environmental scientists.

  • BlackRock is the canary in the coalmine

    John Quiggin     |      January 18, 2020

    The government’s case for doing nothing about climate change has been the “economy-wrecking” costs of serious action, but as investments associated with coal become toxic, inaction will cause even greater economic harm.

  • Do we need a bushfire royal commission?

    Paul Barnes     |      January 17, 2020

    The prime minister has announced that the cabinet will consider a royal commission into aspects of the ongoing fire disaster once the bushfires are under control, so how might this be organised to ensure it produces results?

  • Time out for TikTok

    Fergus Ryan     |      January 17, 2020

    The news that Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok is not approved for use on devices owned by Australia’s Department of Defence should come as no surprise.

  • UniSA expert calls for ‘fire-line’ to future-proof against bushfire disaster

    Open Forum     |      January 17, 2020

    UniSA sustainability expert, Dr Sukhbir Sandhu, is calling for Australia to consider drawing a bushfire demarcation line to identify high-risk areas unsuitable for human habitation.

  • How bad is breathing bushfire smoke?

    Robyn Langham     |      January 16, 2020

    Once the smoke clears, and the immediate issues of infrastructure, jobs and lives are being rebuilt – there will be ongoing questions about the health impacts of urban populations breathing air heavy with bushfire smoke for weeks on end.

  • Appealing to duty may encourage organ donation

    Open Forum     |      January 16, 2020

    The shortage of blood and organ donors could be eased by appealing to people’s sense of duty to others, rather than advertising ‘the gift of life’ according to QUT researchers.

  • Bushfires, bots and the spread of disinformation

    Elise Thomas     |      January 16, 2020

    As fire wreaked havoc across large swathes of the country, online Australia battled another crisis in the form of waves of misinformation and disinformation sweeping across social media.

  • The human cost of ‘fast fashion’

    Sophie Mayo     |      January 15, 2020

    The global fashion industry is increasingly under pressure to address issues of sustainability, from both an environmental and human perspective.  How has the globalisation of the fashion industry functioned to empower and oppress women across the global north/south divide?

  • A season in hell

    Sarah Legge     |      January 15, 2020

    Until the fires stop burning, we won’t know the full extent of the environmental damage. But these fires have significantly increased the extinction risk for many threatened species.