ABC News
27 October 2008
The Victorian Opposition has endorsed a proposal to bolster Melbourne’s water supply by capturing stormwater.
A parliamentary committee inquiry is considering the submission, which says the method could lessen the city’s flood risk and reduce pollution of waterways from urban run-off…
Read the full article here.
The Australian
28 October 2008
A TOTAL of 2.6 million residents of southeast Queensland will become the first Australians to drink their own waste, as about 60 megalitres of recycled sewage a day will soon be pumped into their water supply.
The Queensland Water Commission said the recycling process would go through seven levels of purification, ensuring the water was safe to drink for the people of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and other centres in the region.
Opposition to the move has been surprisingly muted, given the furore that surrounded a 2006 referendum in Toowoomba, when 62 per cent of residents voted no to recycled water…
Read the full article here.
The Age
27 October 2008
Melbourne’s Yarra River has unkindly been described as an “upside-down” river for its muddy, brown colour, but it seems the river is also a nasty chemical cocktail.
Fish in the Yarra have arsenic levels up to five times the safe level for human consumption and some are so badly contaminated that they could cause kidney or nerve damage in humans, according to a study by the Herald Sun newspaper…
Read the full article here.
The Australian
26 October 2008
PREDICTIONS that cities would die are proving to be, like reports of Mark Twain’s death, grossly exaggerated.
Big cities are getting bigger. More than half of the people on the planet now live in cities, a watershed reached for the first time this year.
Some 500 million more people will be urbanised over the next five years, at the rate of 30,000 a day.
There will be 100 new million-plus cities by 2025.
These were among the facts and projections reported by a range of international experts this week at the World Metropolis congress in Sydney…
Read the full article here.
The West Australian
27 October 2008
More than 80 per cent of Perth’s most prominent native birds face extinction if land clearing continues at current rates, according to alarming new research that puts the spotlight on the State’s planning practices…
Read the full article here.
The WetlandCare National Art Competition 2009 is still open for submissions, with entries closing on Friday, December 5.
The competition is offering a fantastic range of prizes, including the $1250 Sydney Metropolitan CMA Open Art prize, and the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change Open prizes. There is no entry fee.
There are categories for children and adults, as well as a primary school prize for wetland posters.
The themes of the competition are Upstream-Downstream; wetlands connect us all or Wetlands generally. The winners will be publicly announced at an exhibition of the winning works on World Wetlands Day, 2 February 2009, and the works will then be displayed in regional exhibitions and in an online exhibition on the WetlandCare Australia website.
Artists and photographers of all ages are encouraged to take advantage of this exciting opportunity to link art and environment.
Entry forms can be downloaded at www.wetlandcare.com.au or are available by contacting WetlandCare Australia on 02 6681 6169.
This new CSIRO report investigates the skills, innovation and workforce dimensions of the transition to a more environmentally sustainable society, with a particular focus on the challenges involved in achieving deep cuts in greenhouse emissions.
ABC News
24 October 2008
Leaders of 40 of the world’s major cities pledged action to fight climate change, taking measures ranging from promoting solar energy to tracking genetically modified food.
Warning that crowded urban areas were especially susceptible to the planet’s rising temperatures, city officials said they needed to take the lead in adapting to climate change…
Read the full article here.