Post of the Day
Sick of the election? Go for a walk and let nature heal your soul
Warwick McFadyen
Let posters be folded, let corflutes be stacked away. The campaign is over.
On This Day
Arbor Day – Guatemala and Ecuador
Ecological Observance
International Day for Biological Diversity
Climate Change
Global heating is cutting sleep across the world, study finds
Data shows people finding it harder to sleep, especially women and older people, with serious health impacts
Climate change likely to reduce the amount of sleep that people get per year
Most research looking at the impact of climate change on human life has focused on how extreme weather events affect economic and societal health outcomes on a broad scale. Yet climate change may also have a strong influence on fundamental daily human activities — including a host of behavioral, psychological, and physiological outcomes that are essential to wellbeing. Investigators now report that increasing ambient temperatures negatively impact human sleep around the globe.
New Zealand’s promised action on climate is nothing more than a tottering baby’s first steps
Sue Bradford
Instead of taking on vested interests in the agriculture and corporate sectors, the government continues to take the line of least resistance
National
Missed out on election night? Here’s five quick questions to catch you up
Good morning Australia — the country looks very different today after the results of the federal election. If you went to bed early, or didn’t bother tuning in, here are the answers to five quick questions to catch you up.
The ‘teal bath’ of independents heading to parliament
Several well-funded independents ran against established Liberals on a promise of climate action and government integrity. Here’s how the night has turned out for them.
Here are the policies Labor campaigned on to win the election
After winning the 2022 federal election, here are some of the changes the Labor party have promised Australia.
Climate dinosaurs declared extinct at Federal Election
Greenpeace Australia Pacific has declared the Morrison Government’s decisive loss in the polls is “the only time you’ll ever see us celebrating an extinction event”, adding that Australians have voted for the climate in giving the Coalition the boot.
Senate may have a progressive majority as Greens and David Pocock make election gains
If Saturday’s count points to the final result, Anthony Albanese’s government will not face a hostile upper house
This election was the most transformative you can imagine — and it goes beyond Albanese’s win
Laura Tingle
It is the end of the Morrison Government in an election which — while it might not have resulted in a landslide for the Opposition — has seen the conservative party decimated and shattered
Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have emptied the Liberals’ broad church
Katharine Murphy
When Tony Abbott invented a carbon tax to win an election in 2013 – an act of political bastardry that poisoned our politics for a decade – I doubt he understood the climate wars he ignited would recast the electoral map and engineer a new progressive consensus in Australia.
Thank God for compulsory voting
Ian Warden
If I still believed in God (and I am thinking of giving Him another chance) one of the things I would always be thanking Him for in my prayers would be His gift to Australia of compulsory voting.
Sick of the election? Go for a walk and let nature heal your soul
Warwick McFadyen
Let posters be folded, let corflutes be stacked away. The campaign is over.
The class of 2022 will be the voters of 2025 – and they’ll have plenty of reasons to cast their ballots
Daisy Turnbull
If you’re under 18, don’t think you can’t become engaged in our democracy.
Victoria
Passionate environmental campaigner
The environmental movement lost a passionate advocate last month when educator and marine biologist Trent Williams passed away while scuba diving at the age of 48.
New South Wales
Meet the plant detective helping gardeners and fighting crime
Cataloguing biodiversity is just one part of the job for the scientists at the National Herbarium of NSW, whose forensic skills are putting Australia’s plants under the microscope
How to foil climate change: Hairdressers tackling curly topic with clients
Paddington stylist Paloma Rose Garcia organised training for hairdressers in talking about climate change with clients during their time in the chair.
Queensland
Queensland gets greener, but remains a political wasteland for Federal ALP
Dennis Atkins
Queenslanders can throw up election surprises even if the state outcome doesn’t change the parliamentary numbers.While nothing was final late on Saturday night, the scene in Queensland looked clearer than most other states (with noted and contrary exceptions in Tasmania and Western Australia).
More dam releases as flood-weary south east braces for next deluge
Southeast Queensland residents are on flood watch after intense rainfall hit soaked catchments with some dams releasing water ahead of another forecast drenching.
South Australia
The ‘bag ladies’ who have upcycled donated fabric into nearly 19,000 bags
Determined to stop the use of plastic bags in their small seaside town, the “bag ladies” have devoted thousands of hours to making recyclable bags out of donated fabric. Old tea towels and curtains are made into beautiful bags for the community to take free of charge.
Sustainability
What goes around: 100 firms are making plastics a global problem
As international and regional organisations seem to be getting more ambitious in curtailing plastic pollution, the corporate sector looks to be lagging.
Increasing urban greenery could have prevented at least 34,000 US deaths over two decades
A US nationwide study found that increasing green vegetation in large, metropolitan areas could have prevented between 34,000-38,000 deaths, based on data from 2000-2019.
PFAS chemicals do not last forever
The use of sulfite and iodide under ultraviolet light can destroy PFAS in water in a few hours
Environment scientists close in on ‘golden spike’ to define Anthropocene
Researchers searching for a ‘golden spike’ to formally define humanity’s current geological period — and acknowledge human impact on our planet — have announced a major step in their analysis.
Nature Conservation
Organic farming or flower strips: Which is better for bees?
How effective environmental measures in agriculture are for biodiversity and wild bee populations depends on various factors and your perspective.
Past events reveal how future warming could harm cold-water corals
Food supply and oxygen levels appear to play major roles in life and death of a common coral species
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