Ecos articles from April 2003

Ecos archives from April 2003

Changes ahead for Ecos. (Editorial).(Editorial)
April 1, 2003... Ecos is on the move. For more than a quarter of a century we've been reporting on the latest environmental research and what it means for Australia. Now it's time to broaden our horizons and take a more active approach to the wider implications...

A new partnership between CSIRO and EcoFutures is an exciting development for building a more sustainable society in Australia.(Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization)(Editorial)
April 1, 2003... A new partnership between CSIRO and EcoFutures is an exciting development for building a more sustainable society in Australia. It is often said that sustainability or the 'triple bottom line' is made up of economic prosperity, social equity,...

Stocking experiment tests the limits of the lake. (spectrum).
April 1, 2003... Australia's lakes and rivers are often stocked with fish to ensure plenty of action for recreational anglers. But new research has found that overstocking can trigger blooms of toxic blue-green algae. The research also questions a long-held...

Selecting for non-shrink sheep. (spectrum).(trying to reduce felting in wool by selective breeding)
April 1, 2003... The days of shrinking woollen garments in the wash may soon be over, thanks to new research revealing that wool shrinkage (felting) is a heritable trait that could be manipulated through conventional breeding techniques. According to CSIRO...

Butterfly booklet. (spectrum).(Conservation of Birdwing Butterflies )
April 1, 2003... BIRDWING butterfly enthusiasts will love the new birdwing information booklet, Conservation of Birdwing Butterflies, edited by CSIRO entomologist, Dr Don Sands, and scientific writer Sue Scott. The 48-page colour booklet provides a snapshot...

Native fauna outfoxed by wanton killer. (spectrum).
April 1, 2003... Predators must kill prey to survive, but they sometimes engage in 'surplus killing', at a rate far beyond the need for food or food storage. The most familiar example is the wily fox that destroys every fowl in the chicken run when just one...

Concerns of over-regulation.(Australia launches an inquiry into biodiversity)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... TREASURER PETER COSTELLO has announced an inquiry to investigate the effect of federal and state regulations relating to biodiversity. 'Concerns have been raised about the impact of regulation that provides for the sustainable management of...

CRC launch promises $1 billion in benefits.
April 1, 2003... AUSTRALIA IS EMBRACING a billion-dollar opportunity to position the minerals processing industry for the 21st century with the launch of the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing in July 2003. The CRC's research...

Super science alliance.(Global Research Alliance aims for UN goal of safe drinking water by 2015)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... A SCIENTIFIC 'super alliance', formed to tackle some of the world's most serious problems, has met to discuss water. The Global Research Alliance (GRA), which comprises eight leading international science and technology...

Government and business talk climate change.(Australia's Government-Business Climate Change Dialogue)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... POLICIES to address the challenges of climate change are being developed through the Government-Business Climate Change Dialogue. The Minister for Environment and Heritage, Dr David Kemp, and Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, Mr...

Planning for the post-petroleum era.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... THE DEVELOPMENT of solar power and hydrogen fuels are not the only ways to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, according to an Australian professor. Jeff Kenworthy, Associate Professor of Sustainable Settlements at Murdoch University's...

Green muds to clean up the oceans.(water based drilling mud less polluting)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... AUSTRALIAN AND US researchers have developed a 'green mud', which is set to be a hot ticket item for the oil and gas industry. A team of CSIRO Petroleum scientists, in conjunction with US firm Halliburton Energy Services, have developed a...

Dust on the mangroves.(measuring ore dust impact on mangroves)
April 1, 2003... DEALING WITH THE DUST derived from mining and ore handling is a major environmental challenge for the resource industry in Australia. Working with BHP Billiton Iron Ore, CSIRO scientists have come up with a smart new way to keep tabs on...

Engineering a sustainable future.(blueprint for sustainable economy will be published in book "Achieving a Sustainable Future")(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... THREE YOUNG AUSTRALIANS are spearheading a project to provide Australia with its own blueprint for a sustainable economy. Following in the footsteps of Europe's Factor 4: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use and the US's Natural...

Flagships: the admiral's view.
April 1, 2003... In the vastly altered political, economic and environmental playing-field of the 21st century, Australia has a deep need for sustainable growth and wealth generation. And with the nation experiencing a slowdown in population growth and a...

Agriculture: adapting to climate change: say 'climate change' and most of us start thinking of a dark cloud with no silver lining. Major variation in our climate patterns does have the potential to seriously jeopardise our agricultural productivity. But Australian farmers can lessen the impact of climate change by developing more 'resilient' agricultural systems.
April 1, 2003... TRAPPING OF HEAT by the atmosphere is a natural phenomenon that has been occurring ever since the atmosphere formed billions of years ago. However human activities since the Industrial Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century have increased the...

Greg Bourne--the not so quiet achiever: international oil major BP raised a few eyebrows when it introduced its forward looking 'Beyond Petroleum' concept. Did this mean the company was planning to turn the petroleum tap off and concentrate instead on renewable energy sources? Phillip Toyne interviews Greg Bourne, Regional President BP Australasia.(Interview)
April 1, 2003... SINCE GREG BOURNE returned to Australia four years ago to head up BP's Australasian operations he has confounded his CEO peers with his outspokenness on issues of national importance. His public advocacy--especially around greenhouse...

Building corporate sustainability: in many ways corporations have come to rule our world. But can these rulers be merciful while still achieving their commercial goals? Can they be both sustainable and sustaining?
April 1, 2003... WE ARE FACED with an extraordinary situation. Never before in the history of the world has the viability of much of the life of the planet been under threat from humanity; never before have so many of the world's people experienced such...

Diary.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
April 1, 2003... NB. From the 1st of February 2003 to 1st of November the In Search of Sustainability Online conference is being held. A series of Internet meetings will be followed by a face-to-face conference in Canberra in November 2003....

Green machines.(automotive industry adopts code of practice for energy efficiency)(reduction in greenhouse gases by 2010)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... AUSTRALIAN CARS will be 18% more fuel-efficient by 2010, under a new Voluntary Code of Practice adopted by the Australian automotive industry. According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), the Code of Practice will...

A blueprint for change: a college of Australian scientists has charted a course for sustainable land management. Wendy Pyper seeks the wisdom of the Wentworth Group. (The Wentworth View).
April 1, 2003... The dust storm that swept across eastern Australia in October 2002 delivered the plight of rural Australia to the doorsteps of Sydney and Melbourne. For city dwellers yet to experience water restrictions and higher prices for fresh...

Trading water: clarification of water rights is essential to restoring damaged rivers, protecting healthy ones and improving water-use efficiency Australia-wide. (The Wentworth View).
April 1, 2003... Nine years ago, the Council of Australian Governments (CoAG) established a National Framework for Water, which separated interests in land from interests in water, and aimed to improve water-pricing arrangements. The issue of how to define...

River rights: reliable ways of testing decisions about environmental flows are needed to begin diverting water back from irrigation. (The Wentworth View).
April 1, 2003... Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent, yet Australians are the highest users of water per capita in the world. Our demand for water is so great, that more than a quarter of our river systems are close to, or have exceeded,...

Fishing for the best flows: long-term studies are needed to ensure that environmental flows meet the needs of critical ecological processes. (The Wentworth View).
April 1, 2003... Achieving a balance between consumptive use and environmental flows is technically complex and requires difficult choices to be made between the interests of various sectors of the community. These choices must account for critical ecological...

Leadership needed on clearing: native vegetation is the backbone of productive farms and healthy catchments. To save it, governments must organise their carrots and sticks. (The Wentworth View).
April 1, 2003... Since European settlement, the clearing of native vegetation has dramatically altered the hydrology of the Australian landscape. Despite the knowledge that land-clearing causes dryland salinity, the practice continues apace. In 2001, a...

Peddling the new commodities: good land management is worth paying for: it just needs the markets and the buyers. (The Wentworth View).(defining market value in ecology maintenance)
April 1, 2003... In 2002, the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council reported that environmental degradation occurs because our economy makes it cheaper to degrade Australia than to care for it. This is in part because the value of...

The Murray or the MCG? Where will the money come from for land-use reform, and how could the returns on such an investment be calculated? (The Wentworth View).(MCG=Melbourne Cricket Ground)(using business accounting to evaluate the benefits of and need for spending on environmental projects)
April 1, 2003... Implementing the reforms outlined by the Wentworth Group will be expensive. Studies commissioned for the Business Leaders Roundtable and others suggest that a public investment of $20 billion is required during the next 10-20 years. If such...

Reform lost in red tape: regional authorities are needed to coordinate and implement nationally accredited catchment management plans. (The Wentworth View).
April 1, 2003... The reforms identified by the Wentworth Group build on those developed and implemented by Landcare, the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality. But the group says the work of these three important...

Do sediments sully the reef? Steve Davidson investigates the effects of cattle and cane on the corals of the Great Barrier Reef.
April 1, 2003... The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area collects the run-off waters from a quarter of the State of Queensland, a vast catchment covering 400 000 square kilometres of mostly agricultural land. Some 70 billion cubic metres of water drains...

People and biodiversity linked. (journal extracts).
April 1, 2003... PERHAPS unexpectedly, recent reports have indicated a positive correlation between human population density and species richness across the tropics. That is, people and biodiversity coincide. When Dr Miguel Araujo of the University of...

Fish by-catch dilemmas. (journal extracts).
April 1, 2003... WHEN commercial trap fishers raise their wire traps from the sea floor to sort the catch, many of the fish are undersize and so discarded. Landings of trap-caught snapper in New South Wales have more than halved from 1992-2000, and most are now...

Lizards cool under fire. (journal extracts).
April 1, 2003... WHILE wildfires can be devastating to animals, little is known about the impact on fauna of low-intensity burns of the type used in forest management. Sarinda Singh and two colleagues at The University of Queensland decided to investigate...

Termite magnetism. (journal extracts).
April 1, 2003... ONE of the natural wonders of the Northern Territory is the mound of the magnetic or compass termite (Amitermes meridionalis). The mounds of these grass-feeding termites are built on seasonally flooded plains, resemble massed mud tombstones...

Sea snakes and trawling. (journal extracts).
April 1, 2003... SEA SNAKES are just one of hundreds of by-catch species caught by trawlers in Australia's Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF). But unlike most other by-catch species, sea snakes are venomous and need to surface regularly to breathe. These...

Counting catches in the light of the moon.(Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization studies by-catch reduction)
April 1, 2003... Animal behaviour is often acutely attuned to the phases of the moon. When the moon is full, wolves howl, corals spawn, and many other species migrate or become more active. So it comes as no surprise that the quantity of target and by-catch...