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Planet Watch
Sustainability
Will Morrison’s gas-led recovery delete the IPCC’s belief we need climate action now?
Jim Beatson - 5
Most Australians know the news, or have had firsthand experiences themselves, of two years of floods, fires, coastal erosion, and storms, both here and overseas. In fact Australia has warmed on average by 1.44 ± 0.24 °C since national records began in 1910.
Sustainability
‘Unprecedented’ but not unpredicted – we are now suffering from our failure to listen to scientists’ predictions of the impacts of climate change 30...
As Australians head into another election season just as many parts of the east coast are recovering from ‘unprecedented’ flooding since February, and the national psyche is still reeling from the trauma of the ‘unprecedented’ Black Summer bushfires before that, it is critical now more than ever to vote according to your environmental conscience and fear for the future.
Planet Watch
Ethical investing goes prudential
Ethical investing is the idea of using your money to make the world a better place rather than simply chasing the greatest financial return. It seeks to account for people and planet, not just profit.
Planet Watch
On track to three degrees of warming
Our planet has warmed by 1.1 degrees, on average, since the Industrial Revolution, and Australia has warmed by 1.4 degrees since 1910 when records of temperature measurements began.
Planet Watch
What’s going on with gas?
David Lowe
According to the prime minister, we’re in the midst of a ‘gas-led recovery’. Until about five minutes ago, the gas in question was...
Planet Watch
Is hydrogen part of a sustainable energy future?
David Lowe - 3
There’s a lot to like about hydrogen. For starters, it’s abundant. Hydrogen can store excess renewable power. When liquified, it’s more energy intense than fossil alternatives. In a fuel cell, it can generate electricity. When it’s burned, the only by-product is water.
Planet Watch
Human activity, climate change risk more pandemics
New research has revealed climate change, environmental degradation and human activity are creating a perfect storm for more deadly pandemics like COVID-19.
Scientists from the...
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Environmentally sound building
David Lowe - 1
Globally, buildings are responsible for a massive share of energy and material consumption. Sustainable building movements are trying to change this, some by going back to the past, and some by diving head-first into the future.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Are humans the disease?
David Lowe - 16
Humans have told a lot of stories about how awesome we are, but there's one emerging hypothesis that casts our species in a very anti-heroic light. In terms of the planet, are we behaving like a disease?
Planet Watch
Planet Watch – Top three environmental issues
With so many environmental crises occurring, it’s hard to focus on just three issues to provide an update to Planet Watch readers – but here's our top three...
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: War and the environment
David Lowe - 12
War is probably as old as humanity. The natural world is much older, of course, but it's been damaged and affected by human conflicts since we first started killing each other.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Living off grid and accepting nature’s limits
Living off grid can teach an individual about living within the limits of their immediate environment – a lesson we need to learn as individuals and as a species. We are well on the way to tipping the Earth beyond its ability to support the myriad lifeforms, including us, that are here.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Regenerative agriculture as one answer to planetary crisis
Over the last few decades, modern industrialised agriculture has wrought havoc on natural systems. It has razed forests, decimated biodiversity, and has done immense damage to soils.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: the madness and corruption of unconventional gas
David Lowe - 3
The people of the Northern Rivers of NSW breathed a big sigh of relief when they stopped the unconventional gas industry at Bentley. But the industry didn't stop when it hit resistance – it simply went around us, and left the region in a false bubble of security.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Deforestation leads to more disease
Conserving primary forest and its biodiversity will reduce the likelihood of future disease outbreaks including pandemics like COVID-19, Ebola.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Is hydrogen the fuel of the future?
David Lowe - 21
There's been a lot of hot air in the media recently about hydrogen. The problem is that there's hydrogen and then there's hydrogen.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: As the NSW North Coast heats up what does it mean for you?
The North Coast region of NSW has already experienced significant climate change: average temperatures on the east coast of Australia have increased by around 0.7 °C compared to pre-industrial levels, and this warming trend is expected to continue.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: the great global experiment
David Lowe - 9
One hidden gift of this pandemic is time to reflect. As the meme goes, 'It's like the Earth just sent us all to our rooms to think about what we've done'.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Climate change and disease
As we find ourselves in the midst of a one-in-100-year global pandemic, now is the time to reflect on the way in which human activities help bring about the creation of new diseases and the spread of existing diseases.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch – Roadblocks to renewables
David Lowe - 2
The Australian political response to the COVID-19 pandemic has proved that governments can act quickly if conditions demand it, even if that means overturning longstanding ideological obstacles.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Emergency on planet Earth
The knowledge of both anthropogenic climate change and the term ‘biodiversity’ have profoundly reshaped both our behaviour and the way in which humans see ourselves in relation to our environment.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: A hot topic – Energy in the age of global warming
Australians have now experienced some of the devastating impacts of what a global heating of just one degree looks like. We must decarbonise our economy, and the earlier we do this, the less painful and costly it is going to be.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Drowning not waving – tales from a dying ocean
This month Planet Watch explores how climate change will affect the oceans and its creatures.
Planet Watch
Planet Watch: Farmers, forests & climate change
Farmers, forests and climate change: The way that humans use and change the land and its vegetation can have a profound effect on the climate, and can either counteract or exacerbate climate change.
Local News
Housing not industrial precinct say Lismore locals
Aslan Shand - 0
Locals from Goonellabah and Lindendale have called out the proposed Goonellabah industrial precinct at 1055A Bruxner Hwy and 245 Oliver Ave as being the wrong use of the site.
Byron Echo
A fond farewell to Mungo’s crosswords
This week we sadly publish the last of Mungo MacCallum’s puzzles. Before he died in 2020 Mungo compiled a large archive of crosswords for The Echo.
Local News
Tugun tunnel work at Tweed Heads – road diversion
Motorists are advised of changed overnight traffic conditions from Sunday on the Pacific Motorway, Tweed Heads.
Local News
Driver charged following Coffs Harbour fatal crash
A driver has been charged following a fatal crash in the Coffs Harbour area yesterday.
