When you arrive at your favourite beach these summer holidays, you may notice something different about the coast.
With the triple-dip La Niña now making way for El Niño, our beaches have been through a rollercoaster ride. Some beaches have been completely stripped of sand, while others have grown very wide.
In the past, such changes went mostly unrecorded. However, thanks to a project known as CoastSnap, coastal data is now being collected like never before. Using designated camera cradles installed at beach viewpoints, CoastSnap uses community snapshots taken on smartphones to track beach change.
Almost 50,000 photos have been collected so far. They have revealed a varying picture in recent years: from dramatic beach loss during La Niña storms three years ago, to 60 metres of beach growth in recent months. So with smartphones as commonplace as towels and sunscreen in the beach bag, why not add coastal data collection to your list of holiday activities this summer?
Through CoastSnap, we installed a network of stainless-steel camera cradles along coastal trails all around the world. These camera cradles are positioned at a perfect vantage point for tracking changes to the coast – whether it be due to rising sea levels, extreme storms or other factors.
All you need to do is place your camera in the cradle, take a photo and upload it using the QR code at the station. Because the position and angle of the photo is always the same, over time these snaps reveal how the beach is changing.
As well as being a powerful visual record, sophisticated algorithms turn each photo into miniature satellite images that are used to precisely measure shoreline position. This is done using a process known as photogrammetry, in which pixels in the image are rearranged as though they had been taken from space.
This aerial view enables beach change to be easily measured. Also, since the exact time of photo capture is recorded, the effects of tides as they vary throughout the day can be accounted for.
From its beginnings on the Northern Beaches of Sydney in 2017, new CoastSnap stations have been rolled out all around the world. We now have more than 350 CoastSnap stations in 31 countries and across five continents.
This makes it the largest coordinated network of coastal monitoring worldwide – and all the data is collected by the community.
In Ghana, West Africa, students from local schools are using CoastSnap to better understand how the “golden seaweed” sargassum impacts fishing communities.
On Prince Edward Island in Canada, CoastSnap captured the damage done by Hurricane Fiona last year. The same stations are now being used to track the post-hurricane dune recovery.
In Australia, there are currently 125 CoastSnap stations around the country. This enables a big-picture assessment of the coastal consequences of large-scale weather events. For example, during last year’s record rainfall in eastern Australia, extreme erosion was observed at CoastSnap stations from Queensland to southern New South Wales. The images reveal scouring by floodwaters was the main cause of beach erosion in many locations, rather than wave action as is usually the case.
Data on coastal change is crucial for managing coastlines into the future. This is particularly important as sea levels continue to rise, storm tracks shift, and beaches come under increasing pressure from overdevelopment.
With several CoastSnap stations already operating for over six years now, this growing record is beginning to observe longer-term changes to the coast. This data is being fed into numerical models that help coastal researchers predict what the coastline will be like in the coming decades – and plan accordingly.
Smart coastal planning will help buffer climate change impacts. This will go some way to ensure future generations can enjoy the coast like we do today.
So as you head out to the beach this summer, look out for your nearest CoastSnap station and help monitor the coastline – it really is a “snap”!
]]>Dogs have been working with people for centuries. Think hunting dogs, herding dogs, police dogs or search and rescue dogs. But have you heard of conservation dogs?
Conservation dogs fall mainly into two categories: guardian dogs and sniffer dogs (also called scent, detection or detector dogs).
Guardian dogs protect vulnerable species from predators, while sniffer dogs locate targets of interest using their powerful sense of smell.
In the past 15 years, dogs have begun to play a crucial role in conservation around the world. So let’s take a closer look at them, with a focus on their work in Australia.
Guardian dogs were made famous by the 2015 movie Oddball. The film is based on the true story of Maremma dogs, trained to protect little penguins from foxes on Middle Island near Warrnambool in southwest Victoria. The penguin population had dwindled to fewer than ten before the Maremma dogs got involved. The breed was chosen for its long association with guarding sheep in Europe.
But most conservation dogs are sniffer dogs, because there are so many uses for them. They can be trained to find animals or plants, or “indirect” signs animals have left behind such as poo or feathers.
Dogs can detect anything with an odour – and everything has an odour. Sniffer dogs are trained to detect a target scent and point it out to their human coworker (sometimes referred to as handler or bounder).
Sniffer dogs have been trained for various missions such as:
finding rare and endangered species
detecting invasive animals during eradication or containment such as fire ants or snakes
locating pest plants
supporting wildlife surveys by detecting scats (poo), urine, vomit, nests, carcasses and even diseases.
They have worked in extreme conditions on land (including on sub-Antarctic islands) and at sea, and can even detect scent located underground. Sniffer dogs have also trained to recognise individual animals such as tigers by scent.
A dog’s nose is estimated to be 100,000 to 100 million times more sensitive than a human nose (depending on the dog breed). A much larger proportion (seven to 40 times larger) of the dog’s brain is dedicated to decoding scent.
That means dogs can detect very low scent concentrations – the equivalent of a teaspoon of sugar in five million litres of water (or two Olympic-sized swimming pools). They can also differentiate between very similar odours.
Dogs analyse the air from each of their nostrils independently, detecting tiny variations in scent concentration. This gives them a directional sense of smell that can guide them left or right until they’ve honed in on the origin of the scent.
Thanks to very sophisticated nostrils, dogs can avoid contaminating an odour with their own breath (exhaling air through the nostrils’ sides). They also can analyse odours continuously regardless of whether they are inhaling or exhaling.
Besides being the ultimate scent detection machine, dogs are great ambassadors for conservation – melting hearts all the way to Hollywood.
]]>Despite so many people having air conditioning at home now, many are still unsure how to use it efficiently. And air conditioning uses a lot of energy. For example, running all the lights in an average home all day and night consumes about the same energy as one hour of air conditioning of the same space.
Many people think they can save money and energy by just blasting the air conditioning at a very low temperature, such as 17°C, for a short period of time to chill the room – before switching it off and enjoying the chilled air until another blast is needed later on. But it requires a lot of energy to get a room to a very chilly temperature.
While running it briefly and intermittently at a very cool temperature may feel thrifty, it won’t be the most energy efficient choice. Here’s what to do instead.
First, try to minimise the need for air conditioning. Look for ways to stop your house getting hot in the first place.
Heat can come in from outside through surfaces such as walls, windows, and ceilings. Hot air can creep in under doors or through open windows and vents. Appliances and people inside can also generate heat (although the heat impact of people is generally relatively small, unless there’s a large group).
To reduce some of this heat, you can:
close blinds and windows before it starts getting hot
use draft stoppers around external doors to stop hot air wafting inside
plant trees (deciduous trees will let sunlight through in winter)
install external shading, particularly on north and western aspects of your house
improving ceiling and wall insulation, window glazing and sealing (if time and budget allow)
reduce use of the oven and cooktop on very hot days (more efficient appliances, however, reduce this heating effect and save energy).
Rooftop solar systems provide a dual benefit of adding shade on the roof to stop heat coming in that way, as well as offsetting power usage.
If you’re in a double storey house, the lower level can be a few degrees cooler; it can help just to hang out downstairs on a very hot day.
Turning our attention to the air conditioning unit itself, the most energy efficient action is to set the temperature to the highest value that’s still comfortable (26°C during the day and 22°C when sleeping is often recommended). Then, just let it run.
Modern units (that feature technology known as an “inverter”) will adjust their output efficiently to maintain the indoor temperature at the setting you’ve chosen.
Be careful, however; setting the temperature too low can result in the unit using more power than you think it’s using (based on star rating label).
Older non-inverter units will cycle on and off to maintain the temperature, and you will generally be able to hear and feel it going on and off. (The newer inverter units, by contrast, don’t tend to cycle on and off as much; they usually just stay on and continuously modulate their output).
For non-inverter units, in general, remaining on for much longer than it is off indicates the air conditioning is working very hard. This may suggest the unit is too small for the space you’re trying to cool, or that you just have a lot of heat in the house (are you cooking a roast?). It could also suggest a fault.
Regardless of the type of air conditioning you have, for each 1°C the temperature is lowered, energy use increases by 5 to 10%. So it’s important not to over-cool. That’s why repeatedly blasting the air conditioning at a very low temperature over the course of the day isn’t wise.
Using ceiling fans along with air conditioning can make things feel cooler by 2-3°C due to the air movement, meaning you can set your air conditioning at a higher temperature. Fans use minimal power compared to air conditioning.
Clean the air filters regularly (your manual will explain how) and make sure air grills and vents are not blocked by furniture or, for outdoor units, by vegetation.
If parts of your outdoor units are heavily corroded or badly bent, the unit likely won’t work as well. Animals can cause damage to outdoor units but parts can often be easily replaced.
If your air conditioning doesn’t seem to work well, makes unusual sounds, or if fault codes show up on the display unit, get it serviced.
And if a cool change comes through, switch off the air conditioning and open as many windows and doors as possible to allow the breeze to flow through the house.
If you have a time-of-use electricity tariff (it’ll say on your electricity bill if you do), reducing use in the afternoon and early evening can save a lot. Energy prices can be double or more at these times.
When it comes time to replace your air conditioning, carefully consider the energy efficiency or star rating.
The more stars the better; even a half star higher could more than pay for itself over the life of the unit (especially if you also use it in winter for heating).
Several state governments also have incentive schemes that can help cover the cost of upgrades or replacements.
]]>Firstly, our BRAD volunteers separate the plastic and paper bread tags. We only accept plastic bread tags, the paper ones you can recycle at home by placing them into a larger paper item like an envelope or a paper bag.
The amazing volunteers from Aussie Bread Tags for Wheelchairs then sort the plastic tags by colour.
The bread tags arrive and Brad, Narelle and the team get re-making. The coloured bread tags are added to a mould, compressed and heated.
They are shaped, sanded and laser engraved! So much TLC goes into each item, no two are the same and you can see some of the best before dates on the original tags throughout the bowls.
Watch Brad in action making a bowl here.
Bread tags are tiny baby little things so each product contains hundreds (sometimes thousands of tags).
Small bowls = 930 bread tags
Long bowls = 1,200 bread tags
Hexagon bowls = 1,870 bread tags
Large bowls = 5,000 bread tags
The lazy susans are made from granulated bread tags offcuts from making the bowls and coffee cup lids.
]]>Can vapes be recycled? Yes. Vape batteries can be recycled and 95% of the materials in them can be recovered in the process. Lithium, steel, graphite, nickel, cobalt, aluminium, and copper can all be recovered from these batteries. Mixed metal dust can be created by recycling them which can then be repurposed to create new lithium-ion batteries and other products.
It is also possible to recycle the plastic components used in vaping products, such as the plastic bottles that vape juice is often sold in. The bottles can be thoroughly rinsed and then recycled.
Now that we are all clear on the fact that vapes can be recycled, it's time to explain how to recycle them. While there are a number of different ways to recycle vaping products, the lack of a clear recycling system adds an undesirable layer of complexity that we aim to dispel by explaining how vaping products can be recycled.
Recycling centres, vape manufacturers, retailers, and municipal waste programs are all options for recycling vaping products. Let's explore these options together to find the option that works best for you.
Local material recovery facilities, also known as recycling centres, may or may not accept vaping products for recycling. If they do, they may only accept certain vaping products. You will need to contact your local recycling centre to ask them whether they accept vaping products and if there are special instructions on how to deliver such products to be recycled.
Most recycling centres in the country are hand-sorted, meaning professional recyclers disassemble your recyclables by hand and sort the materials accordingly. There are also some semi-automated and even fully automated material recovery facilities, although these types are in the minority. Material recovery facilities are where your recyclables end up when they're picked up from your kerbside.
The nationally accredited Battery Stewardship Scheme, B-cycle, accepts vape batteries. Using B-cycle to recycle vape batteries is relatively easy thanks to the thousands of drop-off points that exist around the country. To find a B-cycle drop-off point, visit B-cycle's website and use the drop-off point finder to search for a nearby location where you can drop your used batteries off.
B-cycle exists to help solve the problem of used batteries ending up in landfills. In Australia, 90% of used batteries end up in a landfill. B-cycle aims to solve this problem by providing an easy way for all of us to recycle our used batteries.
The Government-backed scheme is run by the Battery Stewardship Council and it is authorised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. To accomplish its goals, B-cycle works with importers, retailers, and everyday Australians to encourage and support battery recycling.
B-cycle does accept "batteries that are easily removed from products like some vapes," a spokesperson for Western Australia's Department of Water and Environmental Regulation told ABC News.
Mobile Muster and Planet Ark are a couple of alternatives to B-cycle that offer similar services for recycling batteries.
Some municipalities provide residents with free waste collection services that recycle vapes. One such service exists in New South Wales where the City of Sydney Council has contracted SCRgroup to provide a doorstep recycling service for Sydney residents that accepts vapes. The service also accepts polystyrene, clothing, and small electronics.
Rather unfortunately, recycling vapes through municipal waste programs is not the standard across the country and you may not have access to such a program in your municipality.
Aldi, Battery World, Woolworths, Officeworks, IKEA, and Bunnings all participate in battery recycling programs. There are many other retailers across the country that also participate in battery recycling programs.
Despite their participation in recycling programs, it is still a good idea to contact a store prior to attempting to drop off any used vaping products for recycling. By contacting them first, you can verify that they accept such products for recycling and you can gain clear instructions on how to go about delivering such products for recycling.
In addition to every day retailers, some vape stores may allow customers to recycle their vapes by returning them where they were purchased. Vape manufacturers may also allow customers to recycle their vapes by returning them.
Damaged batteries can be extremely dangerous. As not all vapes are designed to have their batteries removed by their users, it is possible to damage the battery when attempting to extract it. The smart thing to do is to avoid this situation by leaving the job of disassembling a vape to the professionals at a material recovery facility. At a proper facility, professional recyclers will disassemble the product and properly sort its components for recycling.
Caution should be exercised even when extracting batteries from vaping devices that have removable batteries. To keep extracted batteries safe, their terminals should be taped to prevent contact and they should be stored at normal room temperature somewhere both cool and dry.
The reality is that vapes must be disassembled in order to recycle all of the various components. Due to the potential hazards associated with disassembling these types of devices, the best option is to leave the job to the professionals. One such professional, Reece Russell, a chemical engineer who runs a licensed vape disposal service in Western Australia known as Perth Chemical Specialists, told ABC News in an interview that he does not advise disassembling vapes at home due to the potential dangers associated with disassembly.
Recycling is just one of the many steps that we can all take together to help protect our world and build a sustainable future for all of us to enjoy.
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OLD: PLASTIC BOTTLES OF SHAMPOO
NEW: SHAMPOO BAR
Save 6 shampoo and conditioner bottles from polluting the environment by switching to this beautiful solid shampoo bar. Not only are you going to be an eco-friendly warrior, but your hair will also be at it's absolute best. We've added only fully eco-sustainable ingredients and additives, Shea Butter, Argan Oil and Coconut to give your hair the wash it's been waiting for.
OLD: SHAVING CREAM
NEW: SOLID SHAVE BARS
Get nice and foamy with this natural shave bar. Use on all your external bodily bits for a lovely close shave that leaves your skin perfectly moisturised. Use with a brush or rub directly on the skin to start the foaming.
OLD: PLASTIC BODY WASH BOTTLES
NEW: SOAP BARS
Ditch the plastic and make the switch to a good old-fashioned bar of soap. Each soap is handmade with authentic Australian ingredients and no nasties whatsoever. 150g is a large bar size for a bar of soap and will last for quite a number of washes (just watch out for all those pesky family members using it when you're not looking).
OLD: PLASTIC MOISTURISER
NEW: LOTION BODY BARS
Fill your senses with the magic of rose, a sweet aroma that invokes balance and leaves skin soft and silky smooth. Be enchanted by a delicate floral aroma that provides hydration and moisture to the skin, it’s beauty that doesn’t leave behind waste. For the gypsy hearted botanical warriors your zero waste moisturiser bar is here.
OLD: PLASTIC CLEANSERS
NEW: FACIAL CLEANSING BAR
Holy Schmoly - this stuff is brilliance in a bar. Shampoo With a Purpose has formulated this facial bar to cater to a wide variety of skin types including combination, oily and dry skin. Use during your beauty routine to keep your pores cleansed and refreshed. There are two bars per pack so one box should last you for approximately 4 bottles of regular cleanser, PLUS it smells absolutely DIVINE.
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You can't go past our best selling SOS Balm. All natural and organic balm for all ages, all over body. Rich in organic rosehip, calendula and jojoba oils. Intense moisture restoration and protection from damage caused by the elements. Healing and nourishing, use for minor skin irritations including dermatitis, eczema, rosacea, nappy rash, bites and stings. Use me everywhere, every day.
Nothing screams winter warmer like a steamy cuppa and a good book. It's a little known fact that most tea bags are actually made from plastic, switching to loose leaf tea is simple and easy. Plus Little Wildling Co have a fabulous range and tasty organic blends.
An essential step to any cleansing routine, this refreshing toner mist will remove traces of residual oil and surface impurities while hydrating and nourishing your skin.
A unique blend of potent, antioxidant rich, botanical extracts formulated to boost skin hydration and tighten pores. Desert Lime, Finger Lime, Quandong and Kakadu plum work synergistically to reveal a fresher, softer and more hydrated complexion while boosting antioxidants levels.
Speaking of getting cosy, you can't go past a deliciously soft waffle blanket. Nakheel's all-season Waffle blankets are absolutely fluffy and perfect for snuggling. This best-seller weave is sure to add a delicate aspect to your bed and sleeping experience.
Combining the best of both worlds – organic botanical herbs with a little extra something something added (ok it's Magnesium Chloride) for THE ultimate soak. Relax, unwind and recharge with these organic bath salts.
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Hair can be subjected to a number of factors that result in the hair becoming dry, frizzy, undernourished, hair loss and split ends. Some of these factors include excessive use of heat in hair styling, coloring, environmental factors such as pollution and the overuse of hair styling products. Oiling is one of the easiest and most beneficial ways to nourish the hair, protect it and keep it healthy.
Don't let your coffee go cold! These insulated coffee cups keep your coffee seriously hot for 12 hours. Meaning that even in the chilliest of conditions you can warm up with a toasty brew. Easy to use, easy to clean. Loves to travel, fits in your cup holder and is the perfect companion for your everyday.
I personally find body oils to be a super nourishing solution for dry skin. With a vibrant scent of Australian Lemon Myrtle and Ginger, this silky body oil helps to stimulate the mind and invigorate the body as it envelopes and softens skin. The dynamic formula combines Jojoba, Sunflower, Hemp and Pumpkin oil, ingredients known to improve moisture reserves, pacify inflammation and fortify the skin barrier.
Last month, Victoria banned plastic straws, crockery and polystyrene containers, following similar bans in South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales and the ACT. All states and territories in Australia have now banned lightweight single-use plastic bags.
You might wonder why we have to ban these products entirely. Couldn’t we just make them out of bioplastics – plastics usually made of plants? Some studies estimate we could swap up to 85% of fossil-fuel based plastics for bioplastics.
Unfortunately, bioplastics aren’t ready for prime time – except for their use in kitchen caddy bins as food waste liners. In Australia, we don’t have widely available pathways to compost or process them at the end of their lives. Nearly always, they end up in landfill.
That’s why many states are including bioplastics in their plastics bans. Avoiding single-use plastics entirely, whether traditional fossil fuel-based plastics or bioplastics, is more sustainable. And as our recycling system struggles, less plastic of any kind is simply better.
Bioplastics is a blanket term covering plastics which are biologically-based or biodegradable (including compostable), or both.
Plastics are materials based on polymers – long-repeating chains of large molecules. These molecules don’t have to be oil-based - biologically-based plastics are made from raw materials such as corn, sugarcane, cellulose and algae.
Biodegradable plastics are those plastics able to be broken down by microorganisms into elements found in nature. Importantly, biodegradable here doesn’t specify how long or under what conditions plastic will break down.
Compostable plastics biodegrade on a known timeframe, when composted. In Australia, they can be certified for commercial or home compostable use.
These differences are important. Many of us would see the word “bioplastic” and assume what we’re buying is plant based and breaks down quickly. That’s often not true. Some biodegradable plastics are even made from fossil fuels.
To understand this we need to look at the whole lifecycle of the plastic, how it is made, used and what happens to it at end-of-life. Manufacturing bio-based plastics generally has lower environmental impacts and has less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuel plastics.
This isn’t always the case. Producing plastics from plants has an environmental impact from the use of land, water and agricultural chemicals. Increased demand for agricultural land could lead to biodiversity loss and can compete with food production.
Bioplastics often sub in for familiar single use items such as plastic bags, takeaway coffee cups and cutlery. Around 90% of the bioplastics sold in Australia are certified compostable. In most of these applications a reusable alternative would be the most sustainable option.
Some applications have beneficial environmental outcomes: compostable bags for kitchen food waste caddies increase the rate of food waste collected, which means less food waste in landfill and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
What about the crucial question of plastic waste and pollution? Sadly, if bioplastics end up in the environment, they can damage the environment in the same way as conventional plastics, such as contaminating soil and water. A turtle can choke just as easily on a bioplastic bag as a conventional plastic bag. That’s because biodegradable plastics still take years or even decades to biodegrade in nature.
Ideally, bioplastics should be designed to be either recyclable or compostable. Unfortunately, some bioplastics are neither. These pose problems for our waste management system, as they often end up contaminating recycling or compost bins when the only place for them is the tip.
In recent research for WWF Australia, we found widespread greenwashing in the industry, with terms such as “earth friendly” and “plastic-free” adding to the confusion. Regulating the industry and standardising terms would make it easier for us all to choose.
Compostable plastics are designed to be broken down in the compost. Some can be composted at home, but others have to be done commercially.
The problem is these plastics aren’t being composted most of the time. Australian Standard compostable plastics are accepted in food organics and garden organics bins in South Australia and some councils in Hobart. But everywhere else, access to these services is limited. Many councils in other states will accept food and green waste – but specifically exclude compostable plastics (some accept council-supplied food waste caddy liners).
This means most compostable plastics used in Australia end up in landfill, where they emit methane as they break down, where it is not always captured. There’s no benefit using bioplastics if they can’t – or won’t – be recycled or composted, especially if they’re replacing a plastic that’s readily recyclable, such as the PET used in soft drink bottles.
When you reach for a bioplastic product, you’re probably doing it to reduce plastic waste. Unfortunately, we’re not there yet. We need viable pathways for recycling and composting.
So should we avoid them altogether? If you use compostable bin caddies and compost them at home or your council accepts them, that’s a useful option. But for most other uses, it’s far better to just not use plastic at all. Your reusable coffee cup and shopping bags are the best option.
]]>What if we told you the world has forests harbouring creatures with three hearts and where the canopy can grow by a foot a day? What if we told you it was silently disappearing? What if we told you we now have the chance to bring it back?
These wonder-filled and remarkably productive ecosystems are kelp forests. They wrap around almost a third of the world’s coastlines. If you live in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney or Tokyo, you can snorkel over a kelp forest on a day trip, and potentially spot a seahorse or three-hearted octopus.
Kelp forests have even influenced human migration patterns. The so-called “kelp highway” suggests the first Americans settled on the continent by following the kelp-dominated coastline of the Pacific Rim, feeding on plentiful fish and molluscs.
But these vast forests of the sea are little known compared to coral reefs. That’s a tragedy, given they support some of our most lucrative fisheries such as lobster and abalone, house thousands of species, and can capture great amounts of carbon.
Kelp forests are dying at a rate similar to coral reefs or rainforests. In some areas, we have seen near total loss of kelp forests in living memory, and sometimes in just a few years. This includes losing 95% of bull kelp in northern California and 95% of giant kelp in Tasmania.
But this is not a bad news story. This is about you and your ability to help. You might think – what can I do? I’m not a scientist. But all around the world, communities and individuals are working to restore these ecosystems. It might be planting out baby kelp with mask and snorkel, removing destructive sea urchin swarms or even creating art to draw attention to these forgotten forests.
This year, we issued the Kelp Forest Challenge to communities around the world: let’s aim to protect 3 million hectares of surviving kelp and restore one million more hectares by 2040.
A task this size can’t be achieved just by scientists and researchers. We need communities to play an active part. Just as people turn out in droves for Clean Up Australia Day to replant native plants along creeks or fish out introduced carp, we believe community backing is the only way we will be able to regenerate the oceans.
We’re not alone in this. Many other groups are looking to community help to expand restoration efforts. Think of South Australia’s Seeds for Snapper program, which relies on beachcombers collecting seagrass fruit to aid replanting of the seagrass meadows which act as fish nurseries.
The stakes are high. Last year, nations signed the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity pact, which included pledging to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.
We have to ensure our remaining kelp forests are covered. At present, very few kelp forests have any measure of protection. They’re often forgotten or excluded from marine management plans.
But they are vital. Australia’s Great Southern Reef, for instance, is the kelp counterpart to the far better known Great Barrier Reef. Where the coral peters out in northern New South Wales, the kelp starts, spanning thousands of kilometres across Australia and stopping only in Kalbarri, Western Australia.
Some countries are tackling this at a national level. South Korea has pledged to restore an additional 30,000 hectares of kelp forest by 2030. We now need other countries to follow suit.
Yet, there are many ways to help kelp. In Tasmania, for instance, the government subsidised a sea urchin fishery. Why? Because as climate change brings warmer waters, kelp-munching, long-spined sea urchins have migrated from the mainland and now number in the millions. Recreational divers have also been asked to help by removing urchins they spot.
Stopping environmental collapse can seem like an impossible task. But take heart. Remember – we’ve already overcome other seemingly unachievable conservation challenges.
We once used whale oil to fuel our lamps, soap up in the bath and even make sandwiches. But our demand for this oily product soon outstripped supply. Whalers with harpoons drove them almost to extinction. Once considered inexhaustible, humpbacks were hunted down to just 5% of their previous population size.
This ecological tragedy gave way to one of our greatest conservation successes. After getting together, coordinating and acting, we banned whaling. The humpback population has soared to over 135,000.
In this case, simply stopping what we were doing allowed the whales to rebound from near extinction. But we’re not so lucky with our kelp forests.
We have tried cleaning up water pollution, removing pest species and even stopping local harvests. But in many cases, stopping the original cause of decline hasn’t been enough to entice these ecosystems to return. This sobering fact means it’s time to put on our wetsuits and get to work actively restoring undersea forests.
So what can you do?
Do you run a business? Stopping pollution from flowing into rivers is one way to help kelp, as well as avoiding development in sensitive coastal areas.
Even better, some businesses are moving towards being nature positive. That is, their work regenerates nature rather than depletes it. Think of the people in Moreton Bay fisheries active in restoring local oyster reefs.
Tech companies can help by monitoring marine forest health. Kelp farmers can provide seed stock and baby kelp for restoration. Tourism operators can promote kelp forests and their creatures – think of the growing fame of the giant cuttlefish breeding season in Whyalla.
And if you’re a keen community member? You can help by volunteering your time with citizen science projects like the Reef Life Survey, forming community groups to steward and protect your patch of the ocean or contributing to existing restoration projects like Sydney’s Operation Crayweed.
We can no longer rely on the oceans to heal themselves. We’ll need help from all levels of society to make it happen.
]]>The pegs are made of marine grade 316 stainless steel, which empowers them to repel any rust or corrosion, regardless of their surrounding weather and environment.
In other words, whether rain, sand storm, humidity, or even snow, are at your balcony, these pegs are indestructible. Not even the sun will make them fade or wear out; they won’t even get too hot when exposed to the sun for long!
Indoor / Outdoor use
Regular size pegs, 1.7mm wire 5.8cm long
Large size pegs, 2mm wire 7.6cm long
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316 Marine Grade Stainless Steel
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Expand your drying space with Activated Eco's Stainless Steel Sock Hanger.
What makes our sock hanger stand out from the crowd? The entire thing is made from high quality marine grade 316 stainless steel! These will be sure to stand the test of time!
Start your routine with a deep clean, this helps to rebalance and reset your skin. Despite what you may think oil cleansers are the best for those with oily as that is often a sign of dehydration you need to rehydrate it.
Depending on your skin type 1-2 times per week give your skin an even deeper clean with an exfoliant.
Gentle press and dab a few drops of a high quality serum into your skin and neck.
Finish your routine by locking in all of that goodness and moisture with a creamy moisturiser.
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I can't quite believe it, one of the few new years resolutions that actually worked and gave me the brain spark to start Banish.
It feels like just yesterday that Banish was merely an idea on paper but five years later here we are! With over 800 products from over 65 Aussie brands, a community of over 150,000 and not to mention the growth of the BRAD program.
All these years later my aim is still crystal clear; help Australians reduce their environmental footprint with the right products and even better education.
My favourite part of what I do is connecting and teaching people how to live more sustainably. There was a slight pause in in-person events so we focussed heavily on online education with the launch of the WLW Workbook and Recycling Guide but I am excited to get back out there and chat with you all again.
This time last year I announced that Banish had been awarded B Corp certification. Obtaining B Corp cert was no easy feat but I am so proud that we are recognised by an independent international body for our high social and environmental performance.
To date, we have diverted over 14 tonnes of 170,000 pieces of plastic from landfill thanks to the support of over 13,000 households from around Australia.
A pie-in-the-sky goal for me was to host my very own TEDx talk and in 2020 that dream became a reality. Titled "the power of community in fighting climate change" is something a wholeheartedly believe in and put into practice every day.
It is such an honour to be the 2023 NSW Young Australian of the Year. To be given the opportunity to bring planetary conversations to the agenda and to be heard by so many. I don't really know exactly what this year has instore for Banish or myself but I am excited to see what happens.
Most food waste currently goes into red bins as mixed waste bound for landfills. Kerbside collection of organic waste will become a standard service for all residents in New South Wales and Victoria by 2030, for metropolitan residents in South Australia and Western Australia by 2025 and for Canberra residents by 2023.
To achieve these targets, effective policies and incentives will need to be put in place for councils or private waste management companies. They will have to build and operate the infrastructure needed to process FOGO waste, and will want to recoup their costs.
Happily, this waste has increasing value as a source of both high-quality compost and biogas, which can be used like natural gas. The markets for these products, with gas prices in particular soaring, should help drive widespread adoption earlier than 2030.
The rationale for diverting organic waste from increasingly limited landfill space is clear. Collecting this waste separately reduces landfill impacts and costs, while delivering other environmental benefits.
Organic waste in a landfill will biodegrade slowly, eventually turning into biogas (methane and carbon dioxide). It can also produce organic acids that dissolve and mobilise heavy metals, creating a toxic hazard.
Modern landfills operate for decades. Waste is covered as it is placed, but only with soil until the landfill is full. Despite the use of multi-layer liners and impermeable final covers, these eventually deteriorate. In addition to harmful local environmental legacies of landfills, emissions of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – cause global harm.
In contrast, returning clean organic material to soils is beneficial. Australia’s arable soils are typically low in organic carbon, which needs to be regularly supplemented.
But, to produce high-quality compost, FOGO must be collected in a separate bin to avoid contamination. It’s possible to extract organic material from mixed (red bin) waste. This is done by grinding the waste and then using magnets, eddy currents, water flotation and air sorting to remove glass, plastic and metal fragments.
However, red bin waste is not closely monitored. It can contain batteries, electrical goods, paints and other sources of heavy metals in dissolved or fine-particle form.
This is why NSW banned the use on land of compost derived from mixed waste in 2019. A NSW EPA review had identified cadmium, zinc and copper as metals of high concern in this compost. It also found chemicals such as flame retardants and disinfectants were household sources of persistent organic pollutants.
The size and composition of the FOGO resource will change if Australia achieves the UN Sustainable Development Goal of halving the food waste generated per person by 2030, compared to 2015. The 2019 National Waste Policy and Action Plan adopted this goal.
Estimates of food waste in Australia vary. The most comprehensive survey was a nation-wide audit in 2020 of 450 kerbside bins by the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre. It showed weekly food waste was 0.79kg per person, including 0.34kg of inedible peels, bones and expired or perished food. These households disposed of a similar amount of food waste in the home by composting, feeding to pets or flushing down the sink.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s 2021 estimate is similar at 1.5-1.7kg of weekly food waste per person. The National Waste Database estimate for Australia is higher at 2.37kg.
According to the database, 31% of food waste in NSW was separately collected and composted or digested in 2018-19. The figure was less than 10% in all other states except Western Australia, where it was 13%.
As for garden waste, 2.01kg per person each week goes into kerbside bins. Over 50% of garden waste (85% in South Australia) is separately collected in all mainland states.
The demand for organic carbon in Australian soils far exceeds the amount of compost that could be produced from FOGO. But, to tap into this market, the compost quality must be consistent.
A clear definition of acceptable FOGO and carefully controlled operations are needed to produce consistent quality compost. The waste management industry and advice to government have called for FOGO bins to be limited to food waste and garden waste, excluding materials like paper, cardboard and animal waste.
Many councils compost garden waste on open pads, some under cover. Machinery is used to shred and turn over the piles to control temperature and moisture levels.
The control of this process becomes more critical for FOGO. Food waste can be smelly, particularly if the composting process is open to the air but not adequately aerated.
Tighter control, particularly of odour, can be achieved if composting is done in vessels. Typically, these take the form of concrete tunnels.
High-quality compost for farming can fetch A$50 to $80 per cubic metre. That makes separate collection and processing of bio-waste more attractive financially.
In addition, surging gas and electricity prices and the revival in value of renewable energy credits have increased the viability of first anaerobically digesting FOGO to produce biogas, then composting the digested material. FOGO can be digested in sealed tunnels similar to composting tunnels.
This biogas will not solve Australia’s gas shortage (FOGO biogas could meet about 2% of the demand). However, I calculate, as a conservative figure, that the income to an anaerobic digestion operator would exceed $40 per fresh tonne of waste. This figure is based on a conservative methane yield of 50m³ per tonne, a wholesale electricity price of $200 per MWhr and a renewable energy credit value of $50 per MWhr.
All of these considerations indicate we should be confident almost all households will have a FOGO service before 2030. The alternative is to waste this resource in landfills, with all their future environmental liabilities.
]]>At the recent UN biodiversity conference (COP15) in Montreal, parties agreed on a set of targets for reversing global biodiversity loss by 2030. This includes protecting 30% of the Earth’s surface and reforming subsidies for farming and fishing. Meeting these targets will require coordination between governments and businesses.
Yet the pace at which legislation and policies take effect is exceeded by the global rate of biodiversity loss. Here are some of the most effective actions you can take to help reverse biodiversity loss and restore nature now.
The total area of protected land and sea in the UK increased from 27.6 million hectares in 2017 to 40.6 million hectares in 2022. Much of this area is managed by charities, legal bodies and local authorities.
These organisations, such as the RSPB and the Wildlife Trust, restore biodiversity by creating new habitats, improving existing ones and ensuring that wild areas are connected with forested corridors and reserves to allow species to roam. For example, the Wildlife Trust has reintroduced beavers to fenland in Kent, where wet grassland habitats are now thriving as a result.
But the funds available for nature conservation in the UK are often insufficient. Individuals and businesses can donate money to support the work of these organisations.
Many charitable organisations are dependent on volunteers to undertake administration and marketing, site management or to spread the message about the biodiversity crisis. With new digital ways of working, people could volunteer from their own home at suitable times. Experience is not necessary in most cases and volunteers often benefit from on the job training.
Volunteering can also have other benefits. Research has revealed spending just two hours in nature each week can benefit health and well-being.
No one likes being lectured about their diet. But unsustainable farming methods, the expansion of agricultural land and our meat-based western diets all threaten biodiversity.
Converting natural habitats to agricultural land has resulted in one-quarter of all remaining mammal species being threatened with extinction. Research has also shown that agricultural intensification now means that more than half of European bird species are threatened or in decline.
To reverse biodiversity loss, we must change both what we eat and how much we consume.
The UK’s National Food Strategy and the Food and Land Use Coalition’s “Better Futures Report” recommend a diet that is less reliant on meat. The Food and Land Use Commission, for example, suggest that, from 2030, a sustainable adult male diet should consist of 14g of red meat per day, 29g of chicken and other poultry, 250g of dairy products, 500g of fruits and vegetables, 50g of nuts and 75g of soya bean and other legumes.
Urbanisation is increasingly fragmenting natural habitats and, as such, species decline is highest in cities. As cities continue to grow it will become more important to have multiple approaches for biodiversity conservation.
Our gardens, although typically not spacious enough to maintain species diversity, can be important habitats in urban environments. Working with our neighbours, we can scale up our gardens by growing networks of flowers to help insects feed and planting trees for birds to nest in. This will increase biodiversity by creating a patchwork of habitats across a whole neighbourhood. Wildlife-friendly gardens can create corridors for a wide range of species and improve connectivity, provide shelter or nesting sites, maintain genetic diversity and increase the abundance of native plants even in the smallest spaces.
A study in 2009 found that there were up to 28.7 million trees, 3.5 million ponds and at least 4.7 million bird nesting boxes in UK gardens. Nesting bird numbers can be increased if we know where trees can be planted for maximum effect. Networks of pollinating flowers across gardens could also help insects and butterflies feed.
Cats are natural predators and allowing your pet to roam freely around the neighbourhood means it – and all the other free-roaming pet cats out there – could be responsible for the deaths of millions of animals each year. Research in Australia revealed that by allowing cats to freely roam, predation on local prey per square kilometre in residential areas is 28–52 times larger than predation rates by feral cats in natural environments. Cats have caused such devastating impacts to Australian wildlife that cat predation is listed as a key threat to native wildlife within national legislation.
In the UK, cat ownership in the UK has increased by 13% on average each year over the past 40 years so that roughly 90% of the UK’s cats are now pets. This has correspondingly increased the threat to our native wildlife.
There are several ways we can reduce the impact of pet cats on biodiversity. Keeping a cat well fed reduces their need to hunt. Another option is to keep them indoors for parts of the day, during the night or entirely. The impact of pet cats on Australian wildlife has grown so severe that local authorities have introduced bylaws and curfews to contain cat predation.
Cats predominantly threaten biodiversity in urban areas. Yet the interaction between dogs and wildlife occurs more frequently in rural situations.
The issue here arises primarily as a result of predation and disease transmission. But dog faeces and urine fertilise soils with nutrients and can change the type of plants that grow in an area. This carries knock-on effects on a habitat’s structure. By picking up dog faeces and correctly disposing of it, dog owners can reduce the input of nitrogen to the soil by 57% and phosphorus by 97%.
The best antidote to despair about the state of the natural world is to immerse yourself in it. Give these steps a try and you should hopefully discover more ways to not only lessen your footprint, but enjoy a more vibrant local environment.
]]>Many households will have to contend with high temperatures this summer, and it’s getting hotter by the year. Last summer Onslow, Western Australia, endured the highest temperature ever recorded in Australia at 50.7℃. Research suggests climate change will lead to summer temperatures as high as 50℃ becoming common in Sydney and Melbourne.
Australians need to take the risks of heat seriously and do what they can to keep their homes cool. As the World Health Organization points out, energy and health are inextricably linked.
So, while energy policy often focuses on managing costs and reducing energy use in the name of climate action, we should not forget the impacts of heat on health and wellbeing. Fortunately, there are things Australians can do to keep cool this summer while managing their energy bills.
Based on our research and the available evidence, our team has developed several resources including newsletters, videos and brochures on managing energy use while staying cool.
Here are our top ten tips:
1. Insulate your home. Insulation is often the most practical and effective way to make a home more energy-efficient. It’s a barrier to heat gain in summer (and loss in winter). Sealing gaps around windows, doors, walls and floors can make a big difference.
2. Shade helps keep your home cool. External shading of windows can block up to 90% of unwanted heat gain. Awnings, adjustable shutters and trees (ideally deciduous so they don’t block winter sun) and vegetation around windows can help block out the summer sun.
3. Close windows, curtains and blinds during the day. Blocking the sunlight stops heat from getting into your home. Thermally insulated double-glazed or secondary-glazed windows also help, as do honeycomb/solar blinds and blackout curtains with white backing.
4. Open doors and windows when the air is cooler outside. Opening up the house at the right times helps cool it down when the building is retaining heat during a warm spell. The coolest part of the day is usually between 4am and 7am, so if you are an early riser this is a good time to open up and let cool air in. Cool breezes often occur in the late afternoon or early evening, providing another good opportunity to cool your home.
5. Stay hydrated. Hydration is important for health and wellbeing, especially during summer. If you don’t drink enough water, you can start to feel unwell including symptoms of tiredness and headaches. Women need about eight cups or 2 litres, and men need about ten cups or 2.5 litres of fluid every day. Beverages with alcohol, caffeine or sugar are not as good for keeping you hydrated – water is best!
6. Wear suitable clothing. Natural fabrics such as cotton and linen absorb sweat and allow air to circulate against your skin. These are much better than synthetics, which can leave you feeling hot and uncomfortable.
7. Personal cooling practices can help. Using a spray bottle or a wet washcloth for your face and neck can help take the edge off the heat, as can a lukewarm bath or shower. Rest, if possible, during the hottest part of the day – usually 11am-4pm. Vigorous physical activity at these times on hot days can be damaging for your health.
8. Visit cool public places. When your home gets too hot, air-conditioned sanctuaries include shopping malls, libraries, galleries and eateries.
9. Switch on fans. Fans are a cheap and effective way to keep cool. The air flow provides a similar improvement to comfort as reducing the air temperature by around 3℃. Direct the air flow to your face because the face has so many receptors on it. If the outside temperature is lower than in your home, place your fan next to an open window to draw in cool air.
10. Think twice about switching on air conditioners. An air conditioner typically uses ten times more energy than a fan. Try using a fan in combination with an air conditioner. This means you can set the air conditioner to a higher temperature in summer (add at least 3℃) and still benefit. The combined cost will be far lower than running the air conditioner alone set at a lower temperature. For efficient air conditioning, your home or room should be well sealed and well insulated, and windows should be shaded from the sun.
If, to save on energy costs, households don’t cool their homes, the consequences can be more serious than being a bit uncomfortable.
Our research found energy consumption is important for families to care for children, cook and eat well, and live comfortably in the family home. We also found that for older Australians energy is vital for preventing ill health and death, managing illness or disease, supporting good mental health and sustaining social relationships. But our research shows people worry about the costs and need support to use energy to maintain their health and well-being.
Heat exposure can cause dehydration, heat exhaustion and stress. It can also worsen existing health problems such as heart and lung disease. As a result, heatwaves significantly increase hospital admissions and deaths, killing 354 people in Australia between 2000 and 2018.
Hot nights can also cause poor sleep and have harmful impacts on mental health. So, to protect your health, do what you can to keep cool this summer.
]]>The evidence is clear – people need direct, personal experiences with nature to care enough to protect it. As evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould argued,
we cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well – for we will not fight to save what we do not love.
In our recently published study, we explored the perceptions and experiences of nature that Hamilton residents had in their city.
Hamilton City Council is responsible for 1,142 hectares of open space, including more than 200 parks and reserves. In 2019, the council outlined its goal to have 80% of households with access to a park or open space within 500 metres of home.
Green spaces are any areas of unsealed urban land with some form of vegetation cover. We focused on three types – private gardens, parks dominated by native vegetation (“bush parks”), and parks dominated by introduced vegetation (“lawn parks”, large expanses of mown lawn scattered with individual trees).
Residents took us on tours of different green spaces around the city. During these visits, we asked them about the importance of these places, how they engaged with them and about their plant and animal encounters. We interviewed 21 residents – seven restoration volunteers, seven people who frequently visited bush parks, and seven who visited lawn parks.
We were particularly interested in how people perceived urban green spaces and the benefits they got from them. We also looked at the experiences and connection gained from different natural environments.
Kaelin was one of the Hamilton residents who took us on a tour of her garden and local park, one of Hamilton’s many branching gullies.
The gully was cool and quiet, the only sounds the murmurs of the tiny stream at its centre and the occasional indignant cheeps of our fellow fantail. As bell-like flutes punctuated by rude coughs and gurgles announced the presence of a tui, Kaelin turned to me with a delighted smile and said:
You can be down here in the right time of the year and you think, where am I? It’s not the city, it’s just ringing with birdsong.
Our interviewees described native bush parks as special places that provided a relaxing and restorative escape from city life. These green spaces, dominated by native vegetation, were the ones respondents commonly identified as places to sit peacefully and observe nature.
Lawn parks, on the other hand, acted more as “backdrops” for other activities – picnics, sports or farmers’ markets. Residential gardens, like bush parks, allowed for deeper observation and engagement with nature, but as private spaces, they didn’t provide the social benefits that parks do.
Lawn parks are the most common type of green space in cities. Yet our study highlights that participants valued a diversity of green spaces that would meet a range of needs – their own, those of their community and those of other creatures such as birds, bats and weta.
Interviewees voiced a desire to have spaces in cities where unique New Zealand plants and animals could thrive. Respondents enjoyed sharing their parks and gardens with birds, bats and insects, recognising these animals contributed to the meaning of the place.
Creating habitat in cities for wildlife, however, was only one of the multiple purposes of green spaces that respondents believed were important. They wanted to see a variety of parks that meet a range of community needs.
Just as respondents held multiple priorities for their own gardens, not always just as habitats for native flora and fauna, interviewees also wanted urban green spaces to support multiple uses and not serve exclusively as wildlife habitat.
But the benefits of green spaces are threatened by the loss of parks and gardens to redevelopment and densification.
New Zealand’s ongoing housing crisis has intensified political debates about urban green spaces, and Hamilton is no different.
The council recently completed consultation on significant changes to density rules in Hamilton’s central city and surrounding areas. The plan will allow three homes of up to three storeys to be developed on most properties, though the council says it is committed to maintaining its public green spaces.
As urban populations continue to rise, our research supports a renewed call for the importance of reserving space for parks and nature in cities. Instead of being a dispensable luxury, green space is crucial for the health and wellbeing of both people and native species.
Finding ways to foster personal experiences of green spaces, and the plants, animals, people and stories that provide meaning, is one way to increase city dwellers’ emotional involvement with local nature. Such subjective bonds can spur the motivation required for people’s everyday actions to nurture and protect what they love.
]]>The number one item stored in these facilities is furniture. Other items we cannot fit in our houses include appliances and electronics, hobby items, sports equipment, collectibles, memorabilia, books and photographs, cars and wine.
Around a quarter of customers cannot remember what is actually in their storage unit. Around 13% use them to hide their purchases from others.
The massive growth of the household storage industry is a sign of overconsumption. It’s a problem in many developed economies that’s doing increasing harm to the planet.
Unfortunately, the Earth does not have an off-site storage option. Curbing our desire to consume has to be the solution.
Australians owe, on average, about $3,800 in credit card debt and a further $17,700 in personal debt (excluding property debt, which averages $565,880).
This year Australian shoppers were expected to spend $63.9 billion in the six weeks before Christmas, about $2,458 per person.
We waste a lot of what we buy. For example, each year Australia wastes 7.6 million tonnes of food, with consumers accounting for half of this waste. The food we throw out is worth between $2,000 and $2,500 per household – or up to $1,000 per person.
That’s just the start of the wasteful spending – think of all those gym memberships, gift cards, clothes, appliances and furniture we’ve bought but don’t use.
In total, Australian households produce about 12.4 million tonnes of waste each year. That equates to roughly half a tonne per person.
We are not just spending beyond our personal means but also beyond what our planet can sustain.
Eventually, we will run out of places for all this waste to go.
People who own lots of stuff, or who collect things, are not necessarily hoarders, but may struggle to part with personal and household possessions. The reason can in part be explained by Belk’s concept of the extended self. This is when possessions become part of our identity and signal to others who we are and, importantly, who we want to be.
This is certainly the case for those who collect things. Our collections become a part of us and our life story. It can be difficult to disentangle ourselves from these possessions.
Some things we own may have symbolic value because they remind us of special people, places and events, such as gifts from a friend or souvenirs from a holiday. Possessions that still have potential financial or utilitarian value can also be hard to give up.
Part of the problem is we are exposed to thousands of advertisements every day and a huge array of cheap products. The temptation to keep buying things can be too much for many people.
In their 2005 book Affluenza, Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss describe the Western world as being in the grip of consumerism. Fast forward to 2022 and it appears we haven’t changed much. Behaving as though we have a chronic lack of stuff, we simply buy too many things we don’t need.
Many Australians live in small houses or apartments that lack space for all their things. Even those in large houses find they are overflowing with possessions but are loath to give up some of them.
The solution is we pay someone else to store our possessions – and we pay a lot. Self-storage in Australasia has grown into a $1.5 billion industry.
There are about 2,000 self-storage facilities across Australia and New Zealand. Some house hundreds of individual storage units.
Depending on the size, location and type of storage unit (for example, climate-controlled for wine collections), the costs can add up to thousands of dollars a year for some people.
It is easy to be swept up in the shopping frenzies of Christmas and new year sales. We are “programmed” to spend by marketers and retailers who surround us with temptation in stores and online.
But there are things you can do to help counter the impulse to buy and reduce its impacts.
Make a list and set a budget before you head to the shops, and try to stick to it. Use cash instead of cards when you can. Research shows people feel the cost of paying more when using cash. Don’t shop on an empty stomach or when you are tired.
Where possible, shop locally and buy locally made items. It’s great for your local economy, and the planet benefits from fewer air miles.
Rather than products, consider gifts of experiences, which don’t involve accumulating “stuff”. Options include creative classes, entertainment, sports, or health and beauty services.
Look for products with less packaging or with biodegradable packaging. Buy loose products and choose refillable options where you can.
Ask yourself: do I really need to buy this? If I didn’t have a credit card, could I actually afford it today?
We can all use self-monitoring to improve our spending habits and reduce the environmental costs.
]]>Studies show a lack of connection to nature might lead to anxiety and depression for people in cities. Birds are among the most accessible and aesthetically attractive connection points. Hence, thriving bird communities in cities can have a positive effect on people’s health and wellbeing.
Feeding birds is popular in Aotearoa. About half of New Zealand households feed birds in their gardens, predominately with bread and seed. Unfortunately, this mainly attracts introduced grain-eating species such as house sparrows, starlings, blackbirds and spotted doves. They are likely to compete for space and habitat with native birds, which feed on invertebrates, flower nectar, fruits or leaves.
Sugar water serves as an alternative supplementary food for nectar-sipping birds such as tūī, korimako/bellbirds and tauhou/silvereye. It likely benefits native birds over winter when nectar is scarce and it improves their chances of a successful breeding season come spring.
But there are concerns that sugar feeding may lead to an accumulation of pathogens, create health problems and make birds dependent on supplementary feeding. It may also reduce pollination and seed dispersal by reducing bird visits to native plants, and put birds at greater risk of predation.
Our study is the first in New Zealand to determine how sugar water feeding affects backyard bird communities. We explored which birds are visiting and how they interact with each other as well as their overall physical health.
We analysed 990 responses from an online New Zealand-wide survey to explore current sugar-water feeding practices. We found a large variety of feeding approaches, but the crucial aspect that affected which bird species visited backyards was the feeder type.
Feeders specifically designed for nectar-eating species were successful in attracting natives, while non-specific feeders (open dishes or simple containers) also attracted introduced birds.
In feeders designed for nectar feeders, the bird must push aside the guard with its narrow bill and protrude its tongue under the feeder’s cover to drink the sugar water. Introduced birds (not nectar-feeding specialists) do not have the right-shaped tongues and bills or behaviour to do this and are excluded from using these feeders.
Next, we explored how seasons affected bird foraging behaviour and aggressiveness. In winter, birds visited feeders more often, spent a longer time foraging and were more aggressive to other birds using the feeder. This suggests winter feeding helps survival when natural foods are scarce.
We also observed Auckland tūī in winter in backyards where we experimentally added feeders with either low (half a cup of sugar per litre of water) or high (one cup/litre) sugar concentrations. Tūī spent longer foraging at low-concentration feeders but were more aggressive at high-concentration ones.
This suggests birds must forage on low-calorie solutions for longer to gain energy, while high-calorie sugar water is a fiercely defended valuable source. However, feeder presence did not change the overall number of backyard birds.
Finally, we evaluated how the presence of sugar-water feeders, seasons and climate affected the birds’ body condition and disease prevalence. Similarly to findings from previous overseas studies, individuals had better body conditions in non-feeding gardens than in those that provided a feeder.
But in gardens with feeders, body condition of birds was better in Auckland (milder climate), in summer (warmer temperatures) and at high-sugar concentration feeders (more calories).
Sugar-water feeding was also associated with a higher risk of coccidia infection which can lead to loss of pigmentation, diarrhoea and even kill birds in severe cases. Fortunately, our screening did not detect salmonella in any individuals or feeding stations.
However, in a similar study on backyard feeding in Auckland using bread and seeds, 7% of feeders tested positive for salmonella. This suggests that birds such as house sparrows, which visit feeders with simple designs that can be accessed by most birds, contribute to pathogen transmission risks for nectar-eating birds and, possibly, people.
Based on our study, we make several recommendations:
do not feed bread and seeds to birds, as this only encourages highly abundant introduced species
rather than using open dishes, choose commercially available sugar-water feeders designed for native birds (Tui Nectar Feeder™, Topflite Nectar Nutra feeder™, PekaPeka™) to exclude introduced bird species
provide sugar water only in winter and stop feeding in spring and summer to let birds use natural foods, pollinate plants and minimise the risk of bacterial growth in hot weather
in winter, use about one cup of sugar per litre of water, as we linked this sugar concentration to better bird body condition than lower-sugar solutions
clean all structures used in feeding thoroughly at least two times a week by scrubbing with hot water to minimise the risk of bird disease outbreaks
attach the feeder to a tall post away from trees and fences to minimise chances of predation by cats.
Providing birds with supplementary food is an affordable and appealing way to interact with wildlife. However, it is important to state that supplemental feeding alone is not the solution for urban bird populations.
The long-term answer is to transform our backyards and urban parks into bird-friendly habitats. Nectar-feeding birds need protein from insects found on plants and native vegetation provides essential food, shelter and nesting sites.
Clean water baths can help during prolonged summer droughts. But perhaps most importantly, backyard pest control of rodents, possums and hedgehogs is essential if we want to increase native bird numbers and diversity in a way that will benefit both birds and people.
]]>But how many of us could name an underwater forest? Hidden underwater are huge kelp and seaweed forests, stretching much further than we previously realised. Few are even named. But their lush canopies are home to huge numbers of marine species.
Off the coastline of southern Africa lies the Great African Seaforest, while Australia boasts the Great Southern Reef around its southern reaches. There are many more vast but unnamed underwater forests all over the world.
Our new research has discovered just how extensive and productive they are. The world’s ocean forests, we found, cover an area twice the size of India.
These seaweed forests face threats from marine heatwaves and climate change. But they may also hold part of the answer, with their ability to grow quickly and sequester carbon.
Underwater forests are formed by seaweeds, which are types of algae. Like other plants, seaweeds grow by capturing the Sun’s energy and carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. The largest species grow tens of metres high, forming forest canopies that sway in a never-ending dance as swells move through. To swim through one is to see dappled light and shadow and a sense of constant movement.
Just like trees on land, these seaweeds offer habitat, food and shelter to a wide variety of marine organisms. Large species such as sea-bamboo and giant kelp have gas-filled structures that work like little balloons and help them create vast floating canopies. Other species relies on strong stems to stay upright and support their photosynthetic blades. Others again, like golden kelp on Australia’s Great Southern Reef, drape over seafloor.
Seaweeds have long been known to be among the fastest growing plants on the planet. But to date, it’s been very challenging to estimate how large an area their forests cover.
On land, you can now easily measure forests by satellite. Underwater, it’s much more complicated. Most satellites cannot take measurements at the depths where underwater forests are found.
To overcome this challenge, we relied on millions of underwater records from scientific literature, online repositories, local herbaria and citizen science initiatives.
With this information, we modelled the global distribution of ocean forests, finding they cover between 6 million and 7.2 million square kilometres. That’s larger than the Amazon.
Next, we assessed how productive these ocean forests are – that is, how much they grow. Once again, there were no unified global records. We had to go through hundreds of individual experimental studies from across the globe where seaweed growth rates had been measured by scuba divers.
We found ocean forests are even more productive than many intensely farmed crops such as wheat, rice and corn. Productivity was highest in temperate regions, which are usually bathed in cool, nutrient-rich water. Every year, on average, ocean forests in these regions produce 2 to 11 times more biomass per area than these crops.
These findings are encouraging. We could harness this immense productivity to help meet the world’s future food security. Seaweed farms can supplement food production on land and boost sustainable development.
These fast growth rates also mean seaweeds are hungry for carbon dioxide. As they grow, they pull large quantities of carbon from seawater and the atmosphere. Globally, ocean forests may take up as much carbon as the Amazon.
This suggests they could play a role in mitigating climate change. However, not all that carbon may end up sequestered, as this requires seaweed carbon to be locked away from the atmosphere for relatively long periods of time. First estimates suggest that a sizeable proportion of seaweed could be sequestered in sediments or the deep sea. But exactly how much seaweed carbon ends up sequestered naturally is an area of intense research.
Almost all of the extra heat trapped by the 2,400 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases we have emitted so far has gone into our oceans.
This means ocean forests are facing very difficult conditions. Large expanses of ocean forests have recently disappeared off Western Australia, eastern Canada and California, resulting in the loss of habitat and carbon sequestration potential.
Conversely, as sea ice melts and water temperatures warm, some Arctic regions are expected to see expansion of their ocean forests.
These overlooked forests play a crucial, largely unseen role off our coasts. The majority of the world’s underwater forests are unrecognised, unexplored and uncharted.
Without substantial efforts to improve our knowledge, it will not be possible to ensure their protection and conservation – let alone harness the full potential of the many opportunities they provide.
]]>One of the major supermarket chains, Sainsbury’s, is replacing these labels with product messaging that says “no date helps reduce waste”.
Apples, bananas, potatoes, cucumbers and broccoli are among the most wasted foods. Removing “best before” labels from these foods alone will reduce waste by an estimated 50,000 tonnes a year.
In Australia we produce 7.6 million tonnes of food waste every year – about 300kg per person. About 70% of what we throw out is still edible. Why aren’t we following the UK’s example?
And consumers will still be able to assess the state of fresh produce for themselves.
Food waste costs Australia A$36.6 billion a year.
This waste occurs right across the supply chain, including primary production, manufacturing, distribution, retail and hospitality. However, households produce more than half of the waste, at an average cost per household of A$2,000 to $2,500 a year.
In 2017, the Australian government pledged to halve food waste by 2030 when it launched the National Food Waste Strategy.
This is a complex issue, but one simple solution could be to follow the UK and remove “best before” dates.
Our labelling system is fairly straightforward, but many consumers don’t understand the difference between “best before” and “use by”. This confusion leads them to throw away tonnes of food that’s still suitable for eating.
In Australia, the regulatory authority Food Standards provides guidance for manufacturers, retailers and consumers on using dates on product labels. These dates indicate how long food products can be sold, and kept, before they deteriorate or become unsafe to eat.
Food with a “best before” date can be legally sold and consumed after that date. These products should be safe, but may have lost some of their quality.
Products past their “use by date” are considered not safe.
The food supplier is responsible for placing date labels on the product.
Differences in packaging and date labelling can be subtle. For example, lettuce sold loose or in an open plastic sleeve does not have a “best before” date. The same lettuce packaged in a sealed bag does.
Bread is the only fresh food that uses a different system with “baked on” or “baked for” date labels.
Some foods, such as canned goods and food with a shelf life of two years or more, don’t have to be labelled with “best before” dates because they usually retain their quality for many years. They are typically eaten well before they deteriorate.
Food producers and retailers are keen to keep the labelling status quo, because it makes it easier to manage stock and encourages turnover.
Some packaging is used to separate branded products such as fruit varieties protected by plant breeders’ rights, organic products and imperfect vegetable ranges. Once packaged, these products require a “best before” date.
Plastic packaging can greatly increase the shelf life of some vegetables. In these cases, it effectively reduces food waste. A striking example is cucumbers. Plastic wrap can extend their shelf life from a few days to two weeks.
Vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower contain beneficial anti-cancer compounds called glucosinolates. Plastic packaging that seals in specialty gas preserves these longer. However, overcooking quickly erases this packaging benefit.
The chemistry of a fruit or vegetable starts changing the moment it is picked. Some types of produce, such as bananas and pears, are picked early so they ripen in the shop and at home. Other produce, such as sweet corn and peas, rapidly decline in the quality and quantity of flavours and nutrients once they’re picked. Snap freezing is an excellent way to preserve this produce.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are still alive. Their cells remain full of chemical reactions and enzymatic activity.
This is why a cut apple turns brown. It’s also why ethylene gas released from bananas and other fruits can shorten the life of their neighbours in the fruit bowl.
Potatoes, one of the most wasted products, are sold with “best before” dates when packaged in plastic bags. But if stored correctly in low light and in a “breathable” bag (paper or hessian), potatoes stay “alive” and edible for months. Just make sure you cut away any green parts, which contain toxic solanine.
As well as fresh produce’s own cellular activity, there is microbial activity in the form of bacteria and fungi.
Fortunately, we come equipped with a number of evolved chemical sensors. We can feel, see, sniff and taste the state of fruits, vegetables and other products. Trust (and train) your instincts.
To reduce food waste, we need a combination of approaches, including appropriate packaging, sensible labelling and consumer awareness.
Ideally, the Australian and New Zealand Food Standards Code would be updated to reflect a more nuanced view of packaged fresh foods.
In the short term, consumer awareness and buying power are the best drivers of change. Ask yourself questions like:
Do I need a packaged product?
Does the packaging enhance shelf life?
Would I buy less if it wasn’t packaged?
Thinking about these questions will help us reduce the impacts of food waste.
]]>And while there are many ways we can fight for climate justice and live our values, how we choose to spend, use and invest our money is a probably one of our most powerful tools for change.
Read on to learn some of the ways your money could be supporting fossil fuels, and how you can start investing in renewable energies and create positive climate impact.
found Australian Superfunds were guilty of greenwashing by including fossil fuel investments in their ‘sustainable’ portfolio options. Yikes
You can also research your banks sustainability practices or get in touch and ask where they stand on fossil fuel lending.
Investments
Another way our money could be inadvertently fundng the climate crisis is through your investment choices. Whether you invest directly in companies, through a fund or an ETF, make sure you do your own research - even into the companies and funds claiming an ESG (environmental, social and governance) focus. A recent report found that at least two ASX-listed companies were being investigated for their ‘greenwashing claims’ - highlighting that many investment options out there are not true to label. Before investing your money make sure you do the research and look into climate friendly investment options.
. Every single asset in our fund not only has to meet our investment philosophy/ framework but also has to be approved by our Investment Committe - which includes some of Australias’ brightest Climate Impact Investors. You can see a full list of Bloom’s investments here.
ETFs
For those who want to purchase a ‘basket’ of assets - ETFs (exchange traded funds) can be a good place to start. However finding ETFs that align well with your values can require a bit digging - particularly as there is no universally accepted criteria for ESG investing. Finder.com has compiled a great list of some of Australias most popular ESG focused ETFs.
Impact Investing Managed Fund (wealth investors)
A third avenue you can explore for investing in renewable energy/ climate impact is impact investing managed funds. These are funds built to deliver a positive impact and are put together and actively managed by a group of investors. However these funds often only accept institutional investors - i.e individuals with a certain level of wealth. These funds often require a minimum investment of $50,000 or $2M in net wealth. If this is an avenue you can explore Social Ventures Australia could be a good place to start.
Australia has the opportunity to become a renewable energy superpower in the next decade by replacing coal, gas and uranium exports with renewable energy.
Australia has been heavily reliant on fossil fuels as our main source of energy for decades. Between 1994 - 2010 coal and natural gas fuelled 90% of Australia’s energy consumption. However since 2010 use of renewable energy sources has increased. In 2020 the fossil fuel industry saw it’s biggest disruption, with renewables contributed to 24% of total electricity generation in Australia. Demonstrating the accelerated uptake of this form of energy.
As we look towards 2023 and beyond Australia will be facing significant challenges to meet supply and demand if we don’t start to rapidly move towards renewable energy sources. The 2022 National Energy Market Statement of Opportunities said “On the supply side, the reliability of the thermal (coal and gas) generation fleet stayed at historically poor levels in 2021-22, and plant operators have advised that overall plant reliability is unlikely to materially improve in 2022-23”.
Australia has a lot to gain by moving our electricity grid over to renewable sources. If we moved 90% Australia’s energy system to renewable sources by 2040, 15B would be added to the GDP and would enable increased spending by Australians of $11B. So moving over to renewable energy sources doesn’t just make environmental sense, it makes economic sense as well.
With 2050 being only 28 years away, Australia has the challenge of rapidly overhaulling and upgrading our energy systems. Presenting significant opportunities to investors who ride the windtails of this industry makeover early.
To learn more about Australias clean energy transition, and how you can benefit, visit the Bloom website for more information.
The information on this blog is prepared by Bloom Impact Investment Services Pty Ltd (ACN 651 965 098 AR 001294778), who is an authorised representative of Cache Investment Management Pty Ltd (ACN 624 306 430 AFSL 514 360) (Cache). All information is general information only and does not take into account your personal circumstances, financial situation or needs. The financial products described herein will be issued by Melbourne Securities Corporation Limited (ACN 160 326 545 AFSL 428 289), as disclosed in the relevant PDS. You should also read the TMD which describes who the financial products mentioned herein, may be appropriate for. All information is general information only and does not consider your personal circumstances, financial situation or needs. Before making a financial decision, you should read the PDS and consider whether the product is right for you and whether you should obtain advice from a professional financial adviser.
]]>But this report also shows every Australian can be on the conservation frontline. We can save species in the places we live and work. According to the report, Australia’s cities and towns are home to more than 96% of our population and 46% of threatened species. We have mapped the occurrence of hundreds of threatened species in urban areas.
We share our cities with iconic koalas, charming gang-gang cockatoos and floral wonders like Caley’s grevillea. And, as the report notes, some species are found only in urban areas – our cities and towns are the last chance to save them from extinction. What an incredible opportunity to reconnect Australians with our fantastic natural heritage and protect it at the same time.
Our research shows a huge appetite for saving nature in cities. Councils, industry and community groups all over the country are working to make change.
Here are five things we can think about to improve the state of our city environments.
Don’t have a lot of space? That’s OK! Whether it’s a small pond, garden strip or solitary gum tree, these often provide a key resource that isn’t found elsewhere in the nearby landscape. This means they pack a punch when it comes to supporting local nature.
And resources like these all add up. Researchers found that a collection of small, urban grassland reserves supported more native plants, and rarer species, than just a few large reserves.
So while making one small change might feel futile, it can make a big difference.
Conservation doesn’t just happen in nature reserves, which is good, because urban areas don’t have many. Backyards are already making huge contributions through “gardens for wildlife” initiatives.
But what about the more unconventional spaces? We found city-dwelling species take advantage of roadsides, schoolyards, carpark gardens, railway stations and rooftops. These are all opportunities for us to make a little more space for nature in cities.
People aren’t the only ones facing a housing crisis – wildlife struggle too. The tree hollows, rock piles and fallen wood that many species call home are often removed in favour of sleek lines and tidy urban spaces.
You can provide valuable real estate for local critters by adding nesting boxes, bee hotels and lizard lounges. And simply leaving a designated “messy patch” in your garden improves the local habitat too.
Moving safely through cities can be risky for wildlife. They have to navigate cars, fences, roaming pets and swathes of concrete.
Many councils and road agencies are looking at creative ways to help wildlife get from A to B. Solutions range from rope bridges for western Sydney’s sugar gliders and tunnels for Melbourne’s bandicoots to forested bridges for Brisbane’s bush birds. Some gardeners in Bunbury even built their own backyard “possum bridges” to help the endangered western ringtail possum in their neighbourhoods.
Having threatened species live close to people is typically seen as bit of “negative’” in the conservation world. But this closeness can be an advantage if the community is aware and engaged.
Orchids like the sunshine diuris and Frankston spider orchid would surely be extinct if not for countless hours of volunteer work, crowd-funding and the passion of the local community.
Get involved through your local council or “Friends of” groups to see how you can support nature in your neck of the woods.
There are so many wonderful ways to support nature in cities. Recent examples include conservation goats saving native skinks, floating habitat rafts in city waterways and using flowerpots on concrete sea walls to support marine life. New ideas are being explored and tested all over the country.
Some of the best examples bring all these ideas together. For example, Melbourne’s Pollinator Corridor, led by the Heart Gardening Project, helps individual community members convert their own small urban patch into a bee-friendly garden. When complete, 200 individual gardens will create an 8km pollinator paradise between two of the city’s largest parks.
Right now, efforts to save nature in cities are driven by champions – individuals in our communities, local councils or industry who see an opportunity to make a difference, no matter how small, and fight to make it happen. Imagine what we could achieve if more of us pitched in.
So, look around. Can you add just one small patch? Contact your local council about turning a neglected roadside strip into a pollinator paradise? Or maybe set up a little B&B for wildlife in your backyard?
]]>Governments expand our major highways in the interests of road safety and traffic flow. But major roads become barriers to wildlife movement, as well as places where cars can hit and kill many animals.
Our new research explores whether highway underpasses help animals safely cross roads. We wanted to know if animals actually use underpasses – and if they had hidden dangers by funnelling animals through a confined space, making it easier for predators.
To find out whether underpasses work, we used wildlife cameras to monitor 12 underpasses for more than two years in north-east New South Wales. Five under the Oxley Highway at Port Macquarie and seven under the Pacific Highway south of Grafton.
What we found was quite astounding. Vastly more animals than we expected were using the underpass. We detected over 4,800 medium-large mammals and goannas, while smaller species such as snakes and rodents also used the underpasses but were less reliably detected by our cameras.
Species such as eastern grey kangaroos, swamp wallabies, red-necked wallabies, red-necked pademelons and lace monitors crossed some underpasses more than once a week. Rufous bettongs and echidnas crossed individual underpasses every two to four weeks. These crossing rates suggest animals use underpasses to forage on both sides of the freeways.
We were particularly interested in whether the endangered koala would use the underpasses. They did, occasionally. We found they were not avoiding the underpasses, because they were detected infrequently in the adjoining forest.
Do underpasses with fences reduce or eliminate wildlife roadkill? Anecdotal evidence for our study road at Port Macquarie suggested roadkill rates were very low. Only four roadkills (two eastern grey kangaroos, one red-necked wallaby and one brushtail possum) were reported to the local animal welfare group for this road segment over a three year period encompassing our study. However, we should not be complacent. Roadside fences develop holes and need to be repaired to maintain their value.
Many people believe underpasses increase predator risk. This idea – known as the “prey-trap hypothesis” – suggests predators will be drawn to places where they can easily pick off unsuspecting animals funnelled into the confined space of an underpass.
We detected red foxes, feral cats and dingoes using these underpasses. But of these, only foxes were detected frequently enough to be a potential concern.
We tested the prey-trap hypothesis by testing three predictions. If the hypothesis was correct, foxes should be more common in the underpasses than in the forest, foxes should focus their activity at underpasses where potential prey are more abundant and the timing of use of underpasses by foxes and potential prey should coincide.
What we observed didn’t match these predictions. At Port Macquarie, foxes were detected at three underpasses, while being absent from two. Of the three underpasses used by foxes, one particularly favoured by foxes was not favoured by bandicoots and pademelons, the potential prey.
We expected to detect foxes close in time to prey detection. But on average, there was a gap of over three hours between detecting foxes and bandicoots or pademelons, and over four hours between foxes and wallabies. We also found foxes were less often detected on nights when potential prey were using the underpasses.
These observations suggest potential prey may be avoiding the underpasses when foxes are about.
Underpasses are a useful tool to enable wildlife to move across landscapes with roads. Not all ground-dwelling species of wildlife will find underpasses to their liking, but many do.
Could we retrofit underpasses to highways with very high roadkill rates? That depends. The conditions have to be right. For an underpass to be installed, you need the road to be adequately elevated. You also need roadside fences, to prevent animals taking the shorter but much more dangerous path across the highway. These fences don’t work if there are intersections, freeway off ramps or driveways.
What we need is to prioritise areas where underpasses are possible, where threatened species exist and roadkill rates are high. It’s very expensive to retrofit underpasses into existing roads, which is why we have to focus on priority areas.
In the future, it could be possible to use cattle-grid type structures to stop animals like koalas getting around fences and onto the roads. These are currently being trialled.
To figure out how to make underpasses even more effective, we need more publicly available research. At present, there’s a great deal of monitoring sitting in expensive but unpublished reports from consultants.
Underpasses are not a panacea for impacts on wildlife. And we shouldn’t use their effectiveness as a justification to run highways through pristine areas. They’re a tool to minimise impacts of road projects that have wide community support.
]]>Climate change – one of the key platforms on which the teal candidates successfully campaigned - is central to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s parliamentary agenda. A bill to enshrine a climate target into Australian law was among the first introduced to parliament last week.
Women are on the front line of climate change impacts, which makes our experiences and leadership critical at decision-making tables. From Barbados to Finland, we’ve seen women’s leadership on climate bring fair, innovative and ambitious policies. We hope a new era in Australian climate policy is upon us, too.
Women around the world are disproportionately impacted by climate change due to existing systemic inequalities. For example in Africa, when disaster strikes, women may find it more difficult to evacuate their homes as primary caregivers, be unable to read written warnings, or be overlooked in rescue attempts in favour of men.
Australia’s experience is no exception. For example, researchers note sharp surges in domestic violence in the wake of disasters, such as bushfires.
Women also have a critical role to play in achieving ambitious and innovative climate action. As the Women’s Leadership statement at last year’s Glasgow climate summit noted:
Despite increased vulnerability to climate impacts, we recognise that women and girls have been creating and leading innovative climate solutions at all levels.
There are scores of examples of female climate leadership and the benefits that follow when women and girls are afforded the opportunity to take a lead on climate action, throughout recent history.
Notable examples include Christiana Figueres, who steered international climate negotiations to a successful outcome in 2015, with the adoption of the Paris Agreement.
Greta Thunberg’s vigil to sit outside the Swedish Parliament every Friday protesting inadequate climate action inspired a youth climate protest movement.
Other young women such as National Director of Seed Mob Amelia Telford in Australia, and Pacific Climate Warriors founding member Brianna Fruean are at the forefront of First Nations’ climate advocacy efforts.
An OECD Working Paper released this year notes that women’s participation in decision-making often leads to the development of comparatively strong and sustainable climate policies and goals.
Case in point, Finland, under leadership of progressive Prime Minister Sanna Marin, recently committed to one of the most ambitious climate targets, legislating net zero by 2035 and carbon negative by 2040.
Meanwhile, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley aims to phase out fossil fuels by 2030 and is a passionate advocate for developing nations vulnerable to climate change.
In the private sector, women’s participation is also crucial. The OECD cites evidence that when women occupy at least 30% of board seats they bring about change to climate governance within companies.
Saara Peltola/Lehtikuva via AP
The Australian government’s sharp focus on climate change is a far cry from the “climate wars” that have been a roadblock to meaningful climate policy in this country for the past decade.
But Australia wasn’t always a problem country in international climate negotiations. At times, we’ve been a climate leader.
Under Julia Gillard’s Labor government, for example, Australia was one of the first countries to introduce a national legislated carbon price in 2011. This changed in 2013, when the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott swiftly repealed this landmark law. Almost a decade of inaction on climate change by the federal government followed.
Signs of progress on climate change began to take shape at the 2019 federal election, when conservative but green Independent MP Zali Steggall ousted Tony Abbott from his long-held seat of Warringah.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
The May election then brought a teal wave of female independents, along with gains for Greens and Labor women candidates. These women – such as Kate Chaney, Zoe Daniels, Monique Ryan, Sophie Scamps, Kylea Tink, Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender – are set to play a transformative role in our politics and society.
They campaigned on a climate and integrity platform, calling for stronger 2030 climate targets, increased renewable energy generation and passing a Climate Change Act to legislate and lock in emissions reduction targets.
Labor’s Climate Change Bill was one of the first pieces of legislation to be introduced to the new parliament, and negotiations are now well underway between Labor, the Greens and the female independents to pass it.
An early success borne from these negotiations has been establishing that Labor’s current target – 43% emissions reduction by 2030 – is a floor, not a ceiling, for ambition.
Still, as Kate Chaney put it in her first speech, “we need to go further”. This includes addressing questions about accountability for achieving the target, and a mechanism to ensure future governments continue to lift their ambition.
Paul Wennerholm/TT via AP
The success of the teal independents represents the enormous groundswell of anger and frustration felt by many people who might have, in the past, voted for the Coalition government.
This immense transformation points to the need for Australia to place gender equity, climate action and integrity at the centre of our decision-making.
As our national climate laws and policies take shape, we watch with anticipation to see how Albanese will navigate two houses occupied by women with strong, clear climate objectives and unprecedented support from their electorates.
]]>Rotting seaweed has plagued the Caribbean for more than 10 years – but our research shows how we could clean up beaches and emissions at the same time, by turning what’s now rubbish into renewable electricity and fertiliser.
Pelagic sargassum is a brown seaweed that floats at the surface of oceans, particularly in the Atlantic.
Over the last decade, unprecedented amounts of this seaweed have washed up on coastlines of the Caribbean region, Gulf of Mexico, United States and West Africa, triggering human health concerns and negatively impacting the environment and economy.
Recent satellite images have spotted more sargassum at sea than in previous years. Experts fear this year’s influx could be the worst since the catastrophic 2018 season.
Given the noxious hydrogen sulphide gas emitted by the seaweed as it decomposes and the frequency with which these influxes have recurred since 2011, sargassum has devastated Caribbean economies that depend on tourism and fisheries for survival.
But there is something we can do.
Our team of researchers has developed a new approach to turn sargassum into bioenergy and fertiliser – a solution that could help restore beaches, create jobs and produce renewable electricity.
Tourism is a major sector in the Caribbean region, accounting for 30-40% of the gross domestic product of some of the small nations.
Rotting seaweed has resulted in reduced visitor arrivals.
Sargassum has also triggered a state of emergency in the fisheries sector of several islands. The seaweed has resulted in reduced visibility, higher occurrences of fishing net entanglement, widespread boat damage and lower fish capture.
The marine ecosystem is further affected because sargassum accumulation on beaches and along shallow coastlines impairs the nesting of sea turtles and causes fish die-offs due to deoxygenation and toxins in water.
Sargassum also promotes coral bleaching and reef mortality.
Human health and the integrity of infrastructure have also been compromised by the hydrogen sulphide, a corrosive and toxic gas with a rotten-egg smell, emitted as the seaweed decomposes.
Though some small-scale attempts have been made to make sargassum useful, landfilling remains the primary way to manage the influxes. This approach is an expensive practice, with high labour and energy demands.
Sargassum is promising as component in anaerobic digestion systems – a process through which bacteria break down organic matter without the presence of oxygen, resulting in biogas.
The seaweed is rich in polysaccharides, a good source of energy, and low in lignin and cellulose, which are difficult to digest.
However, sargassum doesn’t readily biodegrade.
To overcome this challenge, our research takes a new approach: for the first time, combining the technologies of super hot water pre-treatment with anaerobic digestion system.
Hydrothermal pre-treatment is a green technology that uses high pressure to make water super hot (140°C), while keeping it in a liquid state. Treating sargassum in this super-hot water for 30 minutes helps break it down.
This means hydrothermally pre-treated sargassum yields more energy than unprocessed sargassum.
Hydrothermal pre-treatment also reduces the hydrogen sulphide content in the generated biogas from 3% to 1%.
In the second step, hydrothermally pre-treated sargassum is processed with food waste or other organic wastes in the anaerobic digestion system.
Putting different organic wastes together helps balance out the feedstock, meaning more biogas can be produced.
What’s more, the substance that remains after biogas production is nutrient-dense and pathogen-free, making it safe and useful as an organic bio-fertiliser or soil conditioner.
Building a sargassum-based biorefinery equipped with hydrothermal pre-treatment and anaerobic digestion technologies would offer a number of socio-economic and environmental advantages to Caribbean countries.
Most obviously, a biorefinery would supply electricity to the national grid and produce a bio-fertiliser for local and international use.
A proposed biorefinery in Barbados could handle an annual feed input of 15,750 tonnes of hydrothermally pre-treated sargassum mixed with raw food waste. This would handle a significant portion of sargassum influx, keeping it out of landfills.
This feed input could yield 0.69 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity, 1.04 GWh of heat and 15,000 tonnes of solid-liquid biofertiliser for Barbados.
While sargassum is available only seasonally, a biorefinery could run solely on food or other organic waste when there is no seaweed, making the refinery a sustainable, year-round source of green energy.
Implementing this technology would also help increase the economic sustainability of the tourism and fisheries sectors, assist with waste management and help develop industry and infrastructure in the Caribbean.
However, the cost of development and management of a biorefinery in Barbados has to be carefully managed and will require substantial support from the local community.
According to our analysis, the biorefinery will not break even on power generation alone. Maximum profits could be achieved through selling all of the fertiliser to international markets – but this approach provides zero support to local food security. Our recommended option would be to split the waste 50/50 between local farmers and international markets.
While this solution can’t directly prevent sargassum influxes, the biogas produced would help reduce carbon emissions.
Since climate change appears to be a factor in the increased sargassum blooms of the past decade, contributing to global efforts to mitigate climate change may eventually improve the situation.
In the meantime, we could have an effective way to deal with the stinking mess ruining Caribbean beaches.
]]>The first, published in Science, debunked a few theories on why amphibians and reptiles (such as tortoises) live long lives. It found most reptiles and amphibians have highly variable rates of ageing and that, perhaps counter-intuitively, being coldblooded is not indicative of a long lifespan.
The only exception is turtles, which may fit the hypothesis of having a “protective phenotype”, where physical or chemical traits such as shells or venom enable a species to live longer.
The second study, which I was involved in, discovered the age of the world’s oldest aquarium fish: Granddad the lungfish.
Granddad was sent from Australia to Chicago in 1933 and lived in an aquarium until 2017. Our study measured changes in Granddad’s DNA to calculate his age at death. He was 109 years old.
Finding out how long an animal lives for isn’t easy, especially if they can outlive humans. It is well established that ageing is under genetic control, as the DNA sequence of certain genes can predict potential lifespan.
However, environmental pressures – such as getting eaten by a predator or succumbing to disease – can cut life off short, and may explain age differences between closely related species, such as between reptiles in the first study.
Here, I introduce you to five remarkably old animals and the fascinating lives they’ve led.
Age: 109 years
Species: Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri)
The world’s oldest lived aquarium fish is Granddad, the Australian lungfish. In our recent study, we used a DNA-based method to determine that Granddad was 109 years old when he died.
He lived a remarkable life. In 1933, Granddad made the 20-day voyage from Australia to the Chicago World’s Fair in the United States, where more than 100 million people visited him in the John G. Shedd Aquarium.
As its name suggests, Australian lungfish have the unique ability to breathe air from a single lung during dry spells, when streams become stagnant or water quality becomes poor.
The species, now endangered, has a deeply ancient lineage. Indeed, the Australian Lungfish is the closest living relative to all land-based “tetrapods” – four-limbed animals including frogs, humans, and even dinosaurs.
To find out Granddad’s age, we used a test that looks at “epigenetic” changes in the DNA, which occur from environmental changes and accumulate over a lifetime.
In fact, our study also identified the sub-population in Queensland Granddad came from. We learned Granddad originally came from the Burnett River, one of three rivers in Queensland home to Australian lungfish.
Age: 119 years
Species: sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita)
Another long-lived Australian animal was a sulphur-crested cockatoo named Cocky Bennett, who lived to 119.
Cocky lived at the Sea Breeze Hotel in Blakehurst, New South Wales, and even had a tribute written in the newspaper in 1916 when he died.
According to the tribute, Cocky would often say “one at time gentlemen, please” when other birds harassed him, and “one feather more and I’ll fly”. But due to a disease, Cocky was almost featherless for the last two decades of his exceptionally long life, and had a long, curved and twisted beak.
Prior to ruling the Sea Breeze Hotel, Cocky Bennett is thought to have accompanied a ship captain on his seafaring journeys for 78 years, and reportedly circled the globe seven times.
The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database report a much shorter lifespan for sulphur-crested cockatoos in the wild at 57 years. But in captivity, they can live as long as humans.
This is where researchers need to be careful, as lifespans are often longer for animals in captivity than would naturally occur in the wild.
Age: 190 years
Species: Seychelles giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa)
Jonathan the Seychelles giant tortoise, at 190, currently holds the record for the oldest living land animal.
It’s estimated he hatched in 1832 in the Seychelles Islands. When he was around 50 years old, Jonathan was transported to St Helena, a remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean, and gifted to the St Helena governor. Jonathan has not only outlived the governor, but has seen 31 different governors hold office.
As the new study on reptiles and amphibians hypothesised, tortoises may be long-lived due to their extra protection from their shells. A lack of predators may also play an important role. For example, Galapagos giant tortoises can live to over 100 and are free from any natural predators.
Age: 392 years
Species: Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus)
The species, the Greenland shark, is thought to be the longest-lived animal with a backbone. We know only little about Greenland sharks. But a 2016 study used radiocarbon dating and found one to be 392 years old.
The authors also estimated that Greenland sharks don’t reach sexual maturity until 156 years old.
Living deep in the cold waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans, these iconic sharks are also one of the slowest growing, at a rate of around 1 centimetre per year. Yet, these ocean giants can reach over 5 metres in length.
We know only little about Greenland sharks, including how long they can live for. It’s thought freezing polar waters may play a role in their longevity as it may slow down their metabolism.
Age: 507 years
Species: ocean quahog (Arctica islandica)
The ocean quahog is the world’s longest-lived species, with many reaching over 400 years. As a clam (or marine bivalve mollusk), it’s the only invertebrate on our list. Just like the Greenland shark, this species also lives in the cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.
One ocean quahog called “Ming” lived for 507 years. He was named after the Chinese dynasty in power when he was born in 1499, and was discovered off the coast of Iceland. His age was confirmed by counting growth bands on its shell, in the same way you’d count the rings of a tree.
Little is known to why ocean quahogs live for so long but, similar to the Greenland shark, it’s thought the colder waters may have a role in its long lifespan.
]]>For more than a century, researchers have explored the idea of ocean thermal energy conversion. There’s nothing fundamentally new to the idea of extracting power from temperature differences. In fact, the underlying technology is similar to the way coal, gas and geothermal power plants create electricity, by using vapour to spin a turbine.
The challenge is finding the right spot, where the temperature differences make it worthwhile. That means relatively close to the equator – think north of Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and off the coast of southern Japan.
At present, pilot plants are only able to generate a fraction of what a large wind turbine can. But on the positive side, ocean thermal plants can generate power 24 hours a day.
These power plants operate by running liquids with low boiling points, such as ammonia, through a closed loop. The heat from warm sea water (between 20 and 30℃) heats the liquid until it turns into vapour and can be used to spin a turbine. Then, the vapour is exposed to cold sea water (around 5℃), which turns it back into a liquid so the cycle can continue. To get this cold water, these plants have pipes stretching down 600 metres into the deep sea.
The benefits of the system are clear: it’s a closed loop, heated and cooled by heat exchangers with no discharge of the fluid to the ocean. And it’s available at all times, in contrast to the well known intermittency challenges of better developed renewable technologies like solar and wind.
The downside is at present, the technology isn’t ready for prime time. A pilot plant in Hawaii installed by Makai Ocean Engineering in 2015 has a capacity of 100 kilowatts. That’s 20–30 times less than a typical wind turbine when operating, or the equivalent of around 12 solar arrays on homes or small businesses in Australia.
The main technical challenge to overcome is getting access to the large volumes of cold seawater required. Makai’s pilot uses a pipe one metre in diameter which plunges 670 metres into the ocean depths.
To scale up to a more useful 100 megawatt plant, Makai estimates the pipe would have to be ten metres in diameter and go as deep as one kilometre. This kind of infrastructure is expensive, and must be built to withstand corrosion and cyclones.
If the plants are built offshore, the cost of transmission lines adds to overall expense. Makai estimates 12 commercial scale offshore plants could cover Hawaii’s total electricity needs.
If OTEC plants can be built large enough, the cost will come down. But there’s another challenge too. To get close to wind and solar’s cost – now as low as 1–2 cents per kilowatt hour – ocean thermal plants would need around four Niagara Falls worth of water flowing through the system at any one time.
Why is such a huge volume of water required? In short, a thermodynamic bottleneck. The physics of any energy conversion mean it’s impossible to convert all the heat energy into mechanical work like spinning the turbine. This efficiency issue is a real challenge for ocean thermal plants, where the energy conversion process has a relatively small temperature difference between warm and cool seawater. In turn, that means only a very small percentage of the heat energy in the seawater is converted to electricity.
While these plants couldn’t compete with wind and solar in large mainland markets, they could have a role for the small island states dotting the Pacific and Caribbean, as well as islands far from the main grid, such as Norfolk Island or many of the smaller Indonesian islands.
Island nations, in particular, tend to have high retail electricity prices, low electricity demand and a reliance on imported diesel for electricity generation. Researchers from Korea and New Zealand have made the case that OTEC could be a viable source of baseload power for island states – but only after more pilot plants are built to help perfect the design of larger plants.
If I was tasked with helping an island state produce its own clean energy, I would first look at geothermal, a more mature technology with better economics. That’s because the areas most favourable for OTEC plants typically have significant potential for geothermal electricity, produced by drilling wells on land and using high temperature fluids from those wells.
Still, OTEC could play a useful role tackling several challenges at once. Take cooling. You can take the cool seawater and use as a form of air conditioning, as two resorts in French Polynesia are doing. You can also use this cool water in aquaculture to raise cold-water fish such as salmon, or as a way of keeping surface water cool during marine heatwaves threatening fish farming in New Zealand. It may even be possible to use OTEC plants to produce hydrogen as an export commodity in small island states.
To meet our urgent emission reduction goals, it is worth exploring all renewable energy options.
We shouldn’t write off OTEC just yet. At this stage, however, it’s hard to see how ocean thermal plants can become competitive with better established renewables, such as wind, solar and even geothermal, given the vast volumes of cold seawater required. File this under “has potential, but needs more work”.
]]>But despite the productivity potential of home food gardens and the like, they are rarely analysed as serious farming systems. There’s little data, for example, on how much can be grown on an average suburban property.
As climate change threatens global food supplies, however, building sustainable urban food systems will be crucial.
Our research has examined how productive the average home vegetable garden really is, and how to get the most from your patch.
Urban agriculture refers to growing produce and raising livestock inside a city’s boundary. In Australian cities, it might involve a home vegetable patch, community garden, backyard beehives, an edible rooftop garden on an apartment block, indoor hydroponics, a communal orchard and more.
Sometimes, especially in developing countries, urban farming can help address issues such as poverty, unemployment and food insecurity.
More broadly, it can increase access to healthy, fresh produce and lead to more sustainable food production. It can also help us save money and improve our well-being.
Societies have traditionally lent on urban farming during times of stress. So it’s no surprise the practice resurged during the COVID pandemic. In Australia, keeping edible gardens significantly helped people maintain mental health during lowdown, particularly those on low incomes.
But to what extent can we rely on our backyard gardens to meet all our fresh produce needs? Our research shows these three factors are key.
We looked at the potential for food production at about 40,000 residential properties in suburban Adelaide – mostly free-standing homes.
We calculated the amount of land required for a household of 2.5 people to grow the recommended five servings of vegetables per person each day. Then, using high-resolution aerial imagery to get a birds eye view of properties, we identified those with enough lawn area to make that happen.
Some 21m² of lawn is needed to produce the recommended vegetable intake. In a scenario where a garden is high-yielding, this would require converting 23% of lawn area on a typical block into a vegetable patch. Of the properties modelled, 93% had the room to a create 21m² garden from the total lawn space.
In a medium-yield garden, 72% of lawn on a typical block would need converting to produce enough vegetables to feed a household – equating to 67m².
We limited the research to in-ground veggie production and didn’t include fruit trees. So a property’s potential to grow food would be even higher if food gardens or fruit trees already exist, or other garden beds or paved areas could be converted.
Research out of Adelaide, which surveyed about 30 home gardeners, found yields per square metre ranged from 0.24kg to 16.07kg per year. This suggests a high rate of variability in home garden productivity – notwithstanding the fact people grow different crops.
Not all of us have green thumbs and in some cases, your veggie patch might not yield as much as you hoped.
Perhaps you gave it too much or too little water. Maybe you didn’t have time to pull out weeds or harvest produce. Pests and fungus might have struck down your crop. You may have planted the wrong seeds at the wrong time or just have poor soil.
Our research suggests low-yield gardens would need 1,407m² of converted lawn to meet the vegetable needs of a household. However, less than 0.5% of properties in the analysed Adelaide sites had so much land. So to reach self-sufficiency in urban agriculture environments, medium to high yields are preferred.
Skilled gardeners with high yields will need much less land. Given the space constraints in cities, upskilling gardeners is important to maximising production.
Good soil is a key factor in productive gardens. It needs a good structure (one that allows water and air to enter and drain easily, while retaining enough moisture) an ample supply of plant nutrients and a rich microbial community.
In city areas, heavy metal contamination and pollution of soils can be a concern. We examined soils at 12 urban agricultural sites in Adelaide, and found in all cases that metal concentrations did not exceed health guidelines for residential areas – even at sites with an industrial history.
But this might not always be the case. An analysis of residential and community gardens in Melbourne, for example, showed some soils were contaminated at levels which could pose a human health hazard. This highlights the importance of testing urban soils before planting.
Proper management of inputs – particularly fertiliser – is also key. Our research has found urban gardeners can choose from a variety of organic waste-based fertilisers such as spent coffee grounds, food scraps or lawn clippings. But this abundance can lead to imbalances.
In Adelaide, for example, the widespread use of freely available horse manure led to excessive phosphorous levels in almost all of the 12 tested sites. This imbalance can depress plant growth and damage the broader environment.
Urban agriculture has been identified as a A$4 billion economic growth opportunity for Australia. However, suburban blocks are trending towards smaller yards with less growing space.
Given the many benefits of urban farming, it’s time to think more seriously about maximising efficiency and scale.
Community gardens are well placed for knowledge-sharing. Research on 13 community gardens in Sydney revealed they were very high-yield – around twice as productive than the typical Australian commercial vegetable farm.
Funding for more community gardens, and other education opportunities for urban gardeners, would be a valuable investment in improving public health and sustainability.
This should be coupled with policy and planning decisions designed to increase the amount of urban farming space in our cities.
]]>Our new research has found the critically endangered southern bent-wing bat is continuing to decline. Its populations are centred on just three “maternity” caves in southeast South Australia and southwest Victoria, where the bats give birth and raise their young. At night, mothers leave their pups clustered in a “creche” on the cave ceiling while they head out to hunt for moths, including agricultural pest species. These beautiful bats have already lost 90% of the natural vegetation in their range due to land clearing. Now they face a drying climate.
Our research tracked thousands of these bats and found new mother bats and their young were not surviving well, especially in drought conditions. Our modelling shows they will be near extinct within 36 years, with declines of up to 97%. That’s just three generations of bat.
To stop them following other species into extinction, these bats need urgent action.
Most cave-roosting bats are highly threatened in Australia, with 62% of species listed as threatened at a state or national level.
While we don’t often see them, bats make up one quarter of all Australian mammal species. They play vital roles in our ecosystems, with microbats like the southern bent-wing bat feeding on insects, including agricultural pests. Fruit bats like flying-foxes are important long-distance pollinators and seed dispersers. Despite this, Australian bats are under-studied and under-funded for research and conservation.
Bats themselves don’t make it easy. They can be incredibly difficult to study. While many Australians are familiar with our spectacular flying-foxes as they pass by at night, most of our 81 bat species are very small. They are also agile flyers, making them difficult to catch. It is particularly difficult to capture the same bats many times to study critical aspects of their biology such as survival rates.
With the help of a huge team of volunteers, we safely tagged almost 3,000 southern bent-wing bats with small microchips.
The tags let us detect these bats as they flew in and out of an important cave at Naracoorte Caves in South Australia. With this approach, we were able to gather millions of detections over a three and a half-year period, without having to catch the same bats again and again.
So what did we find? We found the lowest adult survival rates amongst female bats who had just given birth and were nursing pups compared to males and non-breeding females. Young bats recently independent from their mothers also had low survival rates.
We used these survival results to model future scenarios for the South Australian population and found predicted declines, with sharper drops during droughts. If these rates of decline continue across the total population, the species will be close to extinct within three generations.
Droughts can have devastating effects on our wildlife, with the most damage done to our most threatened species. Worse, droughts take place against a backdrop of existing threats such as the widespread clearance of natural habitats.
As drought and bushfires worsen as the the climate changes, they can impact large proportions of the habitat remaining for some species. The Black Summer bushfires contributed to the listing of the closely-related eastern bent-wing bat as critically endangered in Victoria.
These threats pose particular risks for cave bats because their hunting range is limited by the locations of suitable caves. Although southern bent-wing bats are highly mobile and can fly more than 70km between caves in just a few hours, most bats gather at the three maternity caves for much of the year. This means food and water need to be available around these key sites to support the populations.
Unfortunately, 90% of natural vegetation in the southern bent-wing bat’s range has been cleared and most of the region’s wetlands have either been drained and converted to agricultural land, or are drying out due to a combination of groundwater extraction and a drying climate.
Australia’s recent extinctions have shown the need to act quickly. In response to these threats, the southern bent-wing bat now has a national recovery team of species experts, researchers, vets, land managers and representatives from government agencies, zoos and NGOs. This team is implementing the national recovery plan for this bat in a bid to prevent extinction and see it recover to a healthy population.
But we can’t leave it all to this group. We can help this and other endangered bats on these four fronts:
take action to help reduce the impacts of climate change, such as worsening droughts, megafires and heat events
help community efforts to restore natural landscapes by planting trees and native vegetation and restoring wetlands
avoid entering caves known to have bats in them, as the southern bent-wing bat and several other species are highly sensitive to disturbance
share why bats are important and in need of our protection.
This year, we’ve had the welcome news that the eastern barred bandicoot has recovered significantly, from being listed as extinct in the wild on the Australian mainland to endangered.
This remarkable result shows sustained conservation effort can bring back even species teetering right on the edge of extinction. We can do the same for the southern bent-wing bat.
]]>Renters are particularly at risk, but our research has shown many home owners are in the same boat as well. We’ve collected data over the last few years on how many Australians have cold homes, find it difficult to stay warm, and can’t afford their heating bills.
What counts as cold? The World Health Organization recommends a minimum home temperature of 18℃ for health and wellbeing. About a fifth of Australian renters, for example, have cold homes. Our current research has shown this applies to home owners as well, with 26% of people across all housing types unable to stay warm at least half of the time during winter.
Australia’s energy crisis is likely to see soaring rates of energy poverty, meaning being unable to keep your home warm or cool enough. Here’s why this is such a problem – and what you can do about it.
If you’re cold at home, you have a higher risk of developing respiratory problems and high blood pressure. People in the coldest homes face a higher risk of dying in winter. Cold can have a flow-on impact on our health system, which is already struggling.
Australia’s south-east has had the coldest start to winter in decades. Melbourne hasn’t been this cold this early since 1949, while Sydney hasn’t seen these temperatures in early June since 1989.
If you’ve been hit by the recent cold snap, chances are you’ll have been reminded how cold your home can get. This is not a surprise given how badly existing homes and new housing perform in keeping an even temperature.
The cold has made many people doubly worried, because the energy required to heat our leaky, poorly insulated homes is about to get very expensive.
Early results from our survey of over 350 Australians found 25% of people were experiencing shortages of money to the point they will be unable to adequately heat their homes. One third of our respondents said energy was unaffordable. Some reported making trade-offs, such as skimping on food or healthcare to pay energy bills.
These people are experiencing energy poverty, where a household is unable to properly heat or cool their home or face significant financial difficulty doing so.
While data about energy poverty in Australia is patchy, we know around 180,000 households in Victoria had persistent bill payment issues as of 2018, and 45,000 households were consistently unable to heat their homes.
Lower income households are more at risk from the cold. That’s because they’re more likely to live in homes that are in poor condition and hard to heat. One quarter of low income households told us they struggle to stay warm. Insulation may be a key factor, with 25% of our respondents reporting their rental properties did not have insulation.
Insulation matters, because heat escapes homes through single-pane windows, or poorly insulated walls and ceilings. As a result, poorly insulated homes cost more to heat.
This makes life harder for low income renters, given they have little control over insulation or other home modifications. Worse still, heaters that are cheap to buy are often the most expensive to run.
While an efficient reverse cycle air conditioner would save money and heat the space better over the longer term, it is often difficult for renters to negotiate installation with property managers or landlords – especially given the intense competition for rentals at present in many cities. That can mean renters will suffer in silence, unwilling to ask for something that will make their lives better.
Low income renters face real threats from energy poverty this year. While we need systemic change to improve the outlook for Australia’s renters, there are low-cost DIY ways to improve how your house retains heat this winter.
The first step: check your current heating appliances are working efficiently. Many people don’t clean the filters on their reverse cycle air conditioners. This makes them less efficient, and can drive up energy bills.
Poorly sealed windows and doors make it hard to stay warm.
Using thermal curtains, and keeping them closed makes a big difference. Putting a piece of plywood or even a scarf between the curtain rail and the wall to make a DIY pelmet also helps keep the heat in. If you have single glazed windows, consider window films as a way to improve performance for a fraction of the cost of double glazed windows.
Sealing the cracks around windows, under doors and around the wider home is also important. Silicon or expanding foam can be used for gaps and cracks. Draughts under doors can be stopped with door seals or door snakes.
Close the doors to your bathroom, laundry and other rooms not in use to keep the heat where you need it most. Hanging a blanket over a doorway can also be a cheap way to seal off a room and concentrate heat.
It’s also worth checking what rebates and concessions your state government or council is offering. These might include energy efficiency improvements or extra help with heating costs. If you’re renting, your home must meet minimum standards, so make sure you check what you are entitled to as these vary by state.
Everyone deserves a warm home. Our health and well-being depend on it. Building new, energy efficient homes is only part of the answer. We also have to make our 10.8 million existing dwellings warmer.
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