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Landmark sites in the US at risk from climate change – in pictures
From Statue of Liberty to Fort Monroe, a string of national monuments and heritage sites are becoming vulnerable to rising seas, floods and wildfires according to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists
Continue reading...Leave seashells on the seashore or risk damaging ecosystem, says study
You might think twice next time you snag a seashell from the beach and drop it into your pocket: you might be altering the seaside environment.
In a study more than 30 years in the making, researchers have found that the removal of shells from beaches could damage ecosystems and endanger organisms that rely on shells for their survival.
Continue reading...Winner of the 2014 Sharon Sullivan National Heritage award announced
Review of the Water Act 2007
NGER (Measurement) Amendment Determination 2014
NGER (Measurement) Amendment Determination 2014
Carbon Farming Initiative - Application to vary methodology determination
National Waste Policy Implementation Report 2012 and 2013
Notice of intention to vary the Ambient Air Quality NEPM
Portfolio Budget Statements 2014-15
Public consultation: draft approval bilateral agreement between the Commonwealth and Queensland
Traces of cocaine in our tap water don't prove we have a problem
According to various headlines this weekend, we Brits use so much cocaine that traces of the drug have been found in our water supply. A study by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) aimed at assessing the danger from pharmaceutical compounds in drinking water revealed that even after intensive purification treatment, minute quantities of benzoylecgonine – the metabolised form of cocaine – were found at four sites in Britain. So are we a nation of coke-heads? And does the presence of something related to a class-A drug in the water we drink actually matter?
The answer to the first question, says Sue Pennison of DWI, the independent body that ensures the water companies supply water fit to drink, is not clear. Benzoylecgonine, she notes, "is also an ingredient in a popular muscle-rub, and there's no way of telling which it came from".
Continue reading...Honeybees abandoning hives and dying due to insecticide use, research finds
The mysterious vanishing of honeybees from hives can be directly linked to insectcide use, according to new research from Harvard University. The scientists showed that exposure to two neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used class of insecticide, lead to half the colonies studied dying, while none of the untreated colonies saw their bees disappear.
"We demonstrated that neonicotinoids are highly likely to be responsible for triggering 'colony collapse disorder' in honeybee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter," said Chensheng Lu, an expert on environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health and who led the work.
Continue reading...Behind the rise of Boko Haram - ecological disaster, oil crisis, spy games | Nafeez Ahmed
The kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian school girls, and the massacre of as many as 300 civilians in the town of Gamboru Ngala, by the militant al-Qaeda affiliated group, Boko Haram, has shocked the world.
But while condemnations have rightly been forthcoming from a whole range of senior figures from celebrities to government officials, less attention has been paid to the roots of the crisis.
Continue reading...Emissions Reduction Fund exposure draft legislation
Emissions Reduction Fund exposure draft legislation
Wind Power, and Australian Water Accounting - 2 co-badged seminars in May 2014
Invitation to comment on six species listing assessments
The goblin shark: a rare glimpse of something truly hideous
Name: The goblin shark.
Age: You'd have to ask it.
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