Conservation

Zero Waste Camping

21 Ways to Be More Green at Camp

Zero waste living is taking the world by storm right now. And, thankfully, it ain’t going anyway any time soon. So, with the help of our zero waste camping guide, let’s all jump onboard and become eco-warriors at the campground, as well as in everyday life.

Unless you’re one of these amazingly inspirational zero waste heroes, there’s always going to be room for improvement when it comes to doing your bit for the planet. We can all put more time, effort and thought into leading more eco-friendly lives. From making better decisions about the food we buy, to making small changes to our daily habits. And taking those decisions and habits into the great outdoors couldn’t be more relevant.

Eco-friendly living shouldn’t stop just because we’re out camping. But it’s very, very easy to let things slide for the sake of convenience, fun and enjoyment.

Source: Cool of the Wild

Environmentally Friendly Moorings

Protecting seagrass and preventing damage

Environmentally friendly moorings ensure mooring chains are kept off the sea floor, protecting seagrass and preventing damage. Healthy Land and Water has been involved in replacing traditional block and tackle moorings with environmentally friendly moorings in Queensland for the past ten years.

Source
healthy land & water

Are we setting ourselves up to fail by denying we are part of nature?

We are part of nature. But we think and behave as if we are not. This denial of reality matters — to every one of us individually, and as a society.

A new journal / blog article from Osbert Lancaster, Natural Change UK

More frequent heatwaves

As the northern hemisphere sweats its way through deadly temperatures this summer, experts are warning Australia is not prepared to cope with more frequent heatwaves.

Representatives from emergency, health, and urban development services are calling for governments to better equip the country to manage future heatwaves.

They have warned action is needed to prevent risks to infrastructure, business, and the domestic economy, as well as to help protect against avoidable deaths.

Hasn’t climate change always happened?

Scientists address the big questions …

Earlier this year we asked what keeps you up at night when it comes to climate change, and the Curious Climate project received hundreds of questions.

Among the questions — from whether bananas could be grown in Tasmania, to queries on sea level rise, to whether certain areas will have more droughts — there were some sceptical inquiries.

So the ABC Radio Hobart Mornings program took some of your questions to a panel of climate scientists: Read More

Tree planting ‘has mind-blowing potential’ to tackle climate crisis

Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists, who have made the first calculation of how many more trees could be planted without encroaching on crop land or urban areas.

As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that are driving global heating. New research estimates that a worldwide planting programme could remove two-thirds of all the emissions that have been pumped into the atmosphere by human activities, a figure the scientists describe as “mind-blowing”.  Read More

Brisbane a ‘difficult place to live’

An alarming report has found temperature increases from climate change and urban growth will make Brisbane “a difficult place to live” within the next 30 years, and more people will be at risk of dying from extreme heat.

We still have time to act on climate change

Our last summer was the hottest on record in Australia, and we can expect the record breaking weather to continue for at least the next 20 years, new climate change research has found.

Immediate action to drastically reduce emissions would rein in the temperature record-breaking from around 2040, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change today.

But the rate of record-smashing will continue to rise throughout the 21st century if emissions keep increasing at the current rate.

Changing our habits …

Changing our habits beyond reusable cups and containers is what will really help the environment. Read More

How much is nature worth?

The WWF’s Living Planet Index 2018 observes that nature underpins all economic activity, presently worth an estimated US$125 trillion.

By pointing out the economic contribution of the natural world, by highlighting its monetary value, the WWF hopes to broaden the appeal of conservation. Read More

The Impacts of Commercial Walks in National Parks

Multi-day walks in national parks are becoming increasingly sought after – especially commercial ‘supported’ walks run by private operators. Walkers only carry a day or light pack, as accommodation and food are typically provided, as well as guides. Such walks make the experience accessible to a wider range of people keen to appreciate the immersion in nature. However, the impacts of commercial walks in national parks are also coming under increased scrutiny. Read More

Trails on Trial

Mountain biking seems harmless but can damage soil and scare wildlife.

There’s no question about it: parks and protected areas are the absolute cornerstone of our efforts to protect nature. In the long term, we can’t save wildlife and ecosystems without them.

But people want to use parks too, and in rapidly growing numbers. Around the world, parks are destinations for recreational activities like hiking, bird-watching and camping, as well as noisier affairs such as mountain-biking, snowmobiling and four-wheel-driving.

Where do we draw the line?

Australia’s wildest places need immediate protection

A group of Australian scientists is calling on the United Nations to protect 100 per cent of the Earth’s remaining wilderness areas.

World Animal Protection Travel Guide

Your guide to being animal friendly on vacation.
Seeing wild animals when you travel can be such a memorable part of any travel experience. However, you may not be aware these animals often suffer unseen cruelty and abuse.

Read More

Under IPCC forecasts babies born today will be 22 when warming hits 1.5C.
What will life be like?

Meet Casey X. She was born in Alice Springs Hospital on October 13, 2018.

She came into the world screaming, before projectile-vomiting over the hospital floor and falling asleep.

Today — October 13, 2040 — she’s 22, and still lives in Alice Springs. But she’s been thinking more and more about leaving. Extreme hot days in Alice Springs hit 48 degrees Celsius — nearly 3C hotter than on her first birthday. And heatwaves last much longer … read more

This story is a hypothetical scenario, based on data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report

Source
ABC News

Nature’s Perfect Match is Breaking Down … and the reef is in peril

Peel back the veneer and nature is a teeming war zone of many flashpoints. Species compete with their own kind and others for limited resources. In a dog-eat-dog world built upon Darwinian principles and food chain hierarchies, only the fittest survive — and the winners take all.

But oases of harmony do exist, where evolution has played matchmaker and engineered pockets of peaceful coexistence. Take, for instance, a relationship formed more than 210 million years ago around the time dinosaurs first appeared on earth.

Until recently, this remarkable and visually brilliant partnership was still going gangbusters.

Talking Conservation

As part of our* focus on World Heritage protection for takayna, the Tarkine rainforest under threat in North-West Tasmania, our writer Ruby had the chance to interview two incredible supporters of the campaign. Time to get inspired, courtesy of Bob Brown and Rick Ridgeway. (*We are Explorers)

Is ‘Green Living’ a Luxury?

Is ‘green living’ a luxury affordable only to the middle and upper classes? Is environmentalism a luxury of the latte-sipping rich? Are working-class people unconcerned with ‘big issues’ like climate change and sustainable energy?

Protection for Mon Repos Turtles Extended

The marine turtle population in Mon Repos Regional Park, south of Burnett Heads, protection to continue

Eastern Australia’s largest marine turtle population in Mon Repos Regional Park, south of Burnett Heads, will continue to be protected after the Queensland Government and Bundaberg Regional Council joined to restrain new urban development in the area.

First Plastic-free Supermarket Aisle

The world’s first plastic-free supermarket aisle was unveiled in Amsterdam today as pressure to curb the world’s plastic binge and its devastating impact on the planet continues to grow.

With nearly 700 plastic-free goods to select from at one of the branches of Ekoplaza, a Dutch supermarket chain, the aisle gives shoppers the opportunity to buy their groceries in “new compostable bio-materials as well as traditional materials” such as glass, metal and cardboard

Climate Change Threatening Australian Tourism

Ghost Bats Fighting for Survival

One of Australia’s longest running conservation campaigns is facing a disappointing end following a dramatic decline in one of the country’s most important ghost bat colonies.

The Mount Etna caves north of Rockhampton, in Queensland, were at the centre of a major international conservation effort between the 1960s and the 1990s which eventually saw the area freed from limestone mining and converted to national park.

When You Give a Tree an Email Address

The city of Melbourne assigned trees email addresses so citizens could report problems. Instead … people wrote thousands of love letters to their favorite trees.

Learning from Trees

Life Lessons for Future Generations
This report explores the skills and attributes children need in order to help them deal with future challenges. It combines Australian and international peer-reviewed academic research with the results of a snapshot survey of 200 teachers. The survey was designed and commissioned by Planet Ark and conducted online by consultants Kimberlin Education in April 2017

Planning for Environmental and Social Responsibility

A vision of a world in which responsibly produced sporting events are the norm.

Need a reason to save the Great Barrier Reef?

How about 56 billion of them?

It’s renowned as the world’s largest living thing… but of Australia’s celebrated natural assets, the Great Barrier Reef is also the biggest contributor to our national economy and our international brand.

Putting a price on it might seem impossible, given the Reef’s irreplaceable beauty and biodiversity. Of course it’s invaluable on so many levels, but identifying its value can help an appreciation of its importance, and shape thinking and policy around its future.

In a world first, a new Deloitte Access Economics report, for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (with support from National Australia Bank and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority) calculates the total economic, social and icon asset value of the Reef.

And the number is $56 billion. That’s a lot of reasons to think very carefully about the Reef’s future.

READ MORE

Seagrass Recovering from Cyclone Yasi

Baby dugongs’ return to Great Barrier Reef suggests vital seagrass recovering from Cyclone Yasi.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s (GBRMPA) Roger Beeden said the fact that dugongs are reproducing suggests their ecosystem is in better health.

Moreton Bay Coral Discovery

Scientists have discovered and mapped out new parts of the coral reef system in Moreton Bay with the hope the work will help inform decisions to better protect it.

“On Goat Island, not far from where the ferry travels to go to North Stradbroke Island, there’s quite a lot of coral there which most people would be really surprised to know,” Reef Check Australia’s Jennifer Loder said.

She said the mapping project, that also involved the Healthy Waterways organisation, provided the clearest picture so far of what was beneath the surface of the busy boating playground.

“You’re looking at these sites on a map going, maybe there’s something there. Then you dive over the side to have a look and all of a sudden are greeted with these coral habitats that you totally didn’t expect,” she said.

Paris plans major boost for cycling infrastructure in fight against pollution

Paris plans a major boost to its cycling infrastructure and will ban cars from outside the Louvre museum as it steps up its fight against traffic pollution, Mayor Anne Hidalgo said.

“Climate is the number one priority. Less cars means less pollution. 2017 will be the year of the bicycle”

BOM climate report finds 2016 fourth-hottest year on record for Australia

Key points:

• 2016 saw a number of “extreme” weather events including golf-ball sized hail, supercell storms, and rainfall at Uluru
• Annual rainfall across the country was 17 per cent above average
• Hottest year on record recorded in Sydney

Coral dead north of Port Douglas

Great Barrier Reef: Most coral now dead north of Port Douglas off far north Queensland, scientists say

Herpes virus carp kill in River Murray may sap essential oxygen, research shows

The Federal Government is hoping to release cyprinid herpesvirus-3 at the end of 2018 to reduce huge numbers of the introduced pest. The strain has been proven to kill carp without affecting other species.

Source
ABC News

Endangered Night Parrot
Habitat of endangered night parrot placed under exclusion zone by Queensland Government

A rare Queensland parrot once thought extinct will be protected under new laws with an exclusion zone to keep bird watchers and poachers away.

The night parrot was considered extinct for more than 75 years but in 2013 it was rediscovered at a site that was kept secret, known as Pullen Pullen nature reserve in central western Queensland.

Great Barrier Reef health could be improved with ‘seaweed tourism’

The Reef Recovery Project hopes to restore health to “smothered” coral reefs by removing 500 kilograms of macro-algae, or seaweed, from Magnetic Island, just minutes off Townsville’s coast.

“As the numbers of macro-algae increase, the number of corals go down, and we are trying to redress that balance and see if what we do in a small scale can make a difference,” Dr Adam Smith, lead researcher and director of project management group Reef Ecologic, said.

Alongside local researchers, the project team has employed international university students to facilitate the trial — a relationship that has enthused local tourism operators.

“There are a number of people in Townsville who are excited about edu-tourism,” Dr Smith said.

Animals need protection from drones

A code of practice to protect animals and wildlife from research drones is needed until any negative effects are fully understood, a University of Adelaide researcher says.

Read More

A Walk in the Woods

Why a walk in the woods really does help your body and your soul. Have you ever wondered why you feel healthier and happier when you stroll through the trees or frolic by the sea? Is it just that you’re spending time away from work, de-stressing and taking in the view?

Protecting migratory birds when our beaches have gone to the dogs

How do you reconcile the recreational needs of a city of two million people with the protection of migratory birds recovering after journeys half way around the planet