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Improved compliance and enforcement activities under national environmental law
Three new species listed as critically endangered
Carmichael Coal Mine project
Draft National Recovery Plan for the Orange-bellied Parrot, Neophema chrysogaster
Commonwealth environmental water annual water use options 2014-15 are now available
Don't miss out on the SENG Qld dinner with Richard Denniss 6 August
Giving up beef will reduce carbon footprint more than cars, says expert
Study shows red meat dwarfs others for environmental impact, using 28 times more land and 11 times water for pork or chicken
Beef’s environmental impact dwarfs that of other meat including chicken and pork, new research reveals, with one expert saying that eating less red meat would be a better way for people to cut carbon emissions than giving up their cars.
The heavy impact on the environment of meat production was known but the research shows a new scale and scope of damage, particularly for beef. The popular red meat requires 28 times more land to produce than pork or chicken, 11 times more water and results in five times more climate-warming emissions. When compared to staples like potatoes, wheat, and rice, the impact of beef per calorie is even more extreme, requiring 160 times more land and producing 11 times more greenhouse gases.
Continue reading...National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme - Outcomes 2012-13
Approved co-regulatory arrangement annual reports
Groundwater Purchase Tender in the Central Condamine Alluvium
Public consultation: draft assessment bilateral agreement between the Commonwealth and Tasmania
Cheetah smuggling driving wild population to extinction, report says
Rising demand for luxury pets in the Gulf states taking gruesome toll as two-thirds of snatched cubs are dying en route
The rising trade in cheetahs for luxury pets in the Middle East is helping to drive critical populations of the wild cats to extinction, according to new research. The report also reveals the gruesome toll of the trade, with up to two-thirds of the cheetah cubs being smuggled across the war-torn Horn of Africa dying en route. However, the nations at both ends of the trade have now agreed that urgent action is needed.
Cheetahs, famous as the world’s fastest land animal, have lost about 90% of their population over the last century as their huge ranges in Africa and Asia have been taken over by farmland. Fewer than 10,000 remain and numbers are falling. There is an ancient tradition of using trained cheetahs as royal hunting animals in Africa but, more recently, a growing demand for status-symbol pets in the Gulf states has further reduced populations.
Continue reading...Clear differences between organic and non-organic food, study finds
Organic food has more of the antioxidant compounds linked to better health than regular food, and lower levels of toxic metals and pesticides, according to the most comprehensive scientific analysis to date.
The international team behind the work suggests that switching to organic fruit and vegetables could give the same benefits as adding one or two portions of the recommended "five a day".
Continue reading...KiWi Power: the tech-savvy energy firm with a way out of Britain's power crisis
A small iron gate squeezed between a newsagent and printing shop off Carnaby Street in central London is not the obvious location for a business that could avert a British power crunch.
Step inside the cramped, white-painted offices of KiWi Power and it looks more like a tech startup than an energy business – as exemplified by the open shirt and beaded necklace sported by co-founder Ziko Abram.
Continue reading...Dark snow: from the Arctic to the Himalayas, the phenomenon that is accelerating glacier melting
When American geologist Ulyana Horodyskyj set up a mini weather station at 5,800m on Mount Himlung, on the Nepal-Tibet border, she looked east towards Everest and was shocked. The world's highest glacier, Khumbu, was turning visibly darker as particles of fine dust, blown by fierce winds, settled on the bright, fresh snow. "One-week-old snow was turning black and brown before my eyes," she said.
The problem was even worse on the nearby Ngozumpa glacier, which snakes down from Cho Oyu – the world's sixth highest mountain. There, Horodyskyj found that so much dust had been blown on to the surface that the ability of the ice to reflect sunlight, a process known as albedo, dropped 20% in a single month. The dust that was darkening the brilliant whiteness of the snow was heating up in the strong sun and melting the snow and ice, she said.
Continue reading...The long shadow of Chernobyl
A new book from National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig documents the worst nuclear disaster in history with sobering but stunning images. Ludwig visited Chernobyl nine times in 20 years to tell the stories of the lives of the victims, the exclusion zone and the abandoned city of
Pripyat. The book also contains an essay from former president Mikhail Gorbachev on how the accident changed the course of the world's history by accelerating the collapse of the Soviet Union
Victor Gaydack is now in his 70s and lives in a Kiev suburb. In April 1986 he was a major in the Russian army, on duty when reactor four at Chernobyl exploded. He was one of tens of thousands of fit, young “liquidators” sent in from all over the Soviet Union to try to make safe the stricken reactor. Since the accident, Gaydack has suffered two heart attacks, and developed severe stomach cancer.
Continue reading...SENG SA News and Events - July 2014
Product List 2014-2015
Kangaroo tail a 'third leg' that gives speed, not just balance, says study
Scientists have discovered a kangaroo's tail propels it forward with as much force as its front and hind legs combined
The role of kangaroos’ unusually large, muscular tails appears to have been definitely answered, with scientists discovering the tail propels kangaroos forward with as much force as its front and hind legs combined.
Researchers measured the force the tail exerts on the ground and found it is critical in getting kangaroos moving at slow speeds, to a greater degree than even its legs.
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