From counting birds to speaking out: how citizen science leads us to ask crucial questions. MY UTOPIA IS based on one simple idea: we should all become citizen scientists. Why? Because citizen scientists can overturn the information inequity that plagues much of our collective decision-making. If citizens immerse themselves in gathering knowledge
Environment
Environmental issues in the Capital region and surrounds.
Your dog can think? Farmed pigs? NSW review fails to think so
HUMANE SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL reports that while a review of New South Wales’ suite of animal welfare laws is underway, a notable exclusion is the concept of animal sentience. This has animal welfare advocates concerned that NSW is lagging behind other states — and the world — when it comes to protecting
Queanbeyan wild birds, rescue and release
Regenerative farming shift could reduce UK [and Australia’s] climate emissions, say experts
Organic farming methods, which use fewer pesticides and store more carbon in soil, are becoming more popular. There is growing momentum behind a shift to ‘regenerative’ agriculture in the UK, which can help to mitigate the climate crisis, say leading experts in the sector. “More and more people are seeing other farmers
For some evangelical Christians, climate action is a God-given mandate
Transparency in factory farming: challenge to ‘ag gag’ laws goes to High Court
The Farm Transparency Project, with local non-profit legal help, has filed a case with the Australian High Court to regain and improve public oversight in regard to animals used for food production — countering NSW laws that have attempted to criminalise evidence gathering of cruel practices in factory farming situations. Here is the
ACT ban on single-use plastics begins this week with cutlery, polystyrene containers first to go
— Harry Frost, ABC News THE FIRST PHASE of the ACT's single-use plastic ban comes into effect this week, meaning plastic cutlery and some takeaway containers can no longer be supplied or sold in the ACT. From Thursday July 1, single-use plastic cutlery, single-use plastic stirrers, as well as expanded polystyrene takeaway food
Who does Unesco think they are? Listing the Great Barrier Reef as ‘in danger’!
Killers stalk suburban woodlands
IT’S CRYING OUT for a sociological study. As hired killers with military training hunt survivors in their last refuge in a major city following a 12-year campaign, that city and the country remain mostly silent. While gunshots echo nightly from the woodlands of Mt Majura, Mt Ainslie, Farrer Ridge, hardly anyone,
SARS, MERS, COVID-19 and Disease X? Another pandemic may still be ahead of us. But what could it be?
— Lucia Stein, ABC News WHILE WE MAY be looking forward to the end of the coronavirus crisis, health experts warn there may be more pandemics ahead of us. Within the last 20 years alone, we’ve “dodged five bullets” with SARS, MERS, Ebola, avian influenza and swine flu. But despite the knowledge gained from those experiences, we