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Section: Environment

  • ENVIRONMENT

    Flying with disability in Second Life

    • Margaret Cassidy
    • 15 May 2007
    6 Comments

    The online virtual world Second Life has been subject to bad press focussing on examples of narcissistic and unprincipled behaviour. But paralympian Niels Schuddeboom has found an opportunity to forget his disability and experience life as a walking avatar.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Say 'no' to nuclear – but not for the usual reasons

    • Les Coleman
    • 15 May 2007
    8 Comments

    Opponents of nuclear power in Australia most often use environmental and economic arguments. The real problem with establishing a nuclear power industry is that it is a hugely complex and dangerous technology, and Australia has a poor record in safely managing even relatively simple technologies.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    The psychology of climate change denial

    • Paul Collins
    • 16 April 2007
    2 Comments

    The economic tools we are using to deal with climate change are inappropriate, and the long-term consequences for local areas are largely unknown. Global warming skeptics should critique the analysis of climate change rather than just retreat into a psychology of denial.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Individuals can offset their own carbon emissions

    • Tim Thwaites
    • 02 April 2007
    2 Comments

    Pollution released by high-flying jets directly into the atmosphere is up to four times as damaging as the same amount released at ground level. Increasingly people are prepared to spend significant money to salve their consciences over flying.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Upgrading ourselves towards obsolescence

    • James Massola
    • 02 April 2007
    16 Comments

    Modern consumer society is structured so that we are constantly unhappy with what we have. Advertisers make us feel dissatisfied so we keep buying new things, which is good for the economy but bad for the environment. The 'upgrade cycle' pushes us to buy the latest and greatest, whether we need them or not.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    World Youth Day's ecological conversion opportunity

    • Stefan Gigacz
    • 08 March 2007
    9 Comments

    More than 100,000 international visitors are also expected at next year's World Youth Day event hosted by the Catholic Church in Sydney. A large number of these will arrive on flights close to 25 hours duration, putting 7-8 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Populate and our environment will perish

    • Paul Collins
    • 27 February 2007
    8 Comments

    Australia is not infinite; there is a limit to our productive capacity and we may well have already exceeded it. One of the unmentionable and politically incorrect questions is how many people the continent can sustain while retaining some respect for the integrity of the landscape.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Triumph of the tree huggers

    • Tim Thwaites
    • 27 February 2007

    In the past six months, climate change has gone from an idea which may have some future relevance to something which is already happening around us. Each region of the world seems to have had its own epiphany over climate change.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Water is our teacher in the school of life

    • Clare Coburn
    • 27 February 2007
    5 Comments

    Throwing money at water is not the only way to fix our current problems. Reflecting on some of the meandering and non-linear qualities of water, and seeking to emulate them, may be a starting point for more receptive and sensitive ways of being in the world.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    'Polluter pays' a must for global common good

    • Sean McDonagh
    • 27 February 2007
    2 Comments

    President Bush and Prime Minister Howard have used scientific uncertainty as an excuse to avoid cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This transgresses the precautionary principle that requires nations to take precautions not to harm other nations.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Climate change - it's the apocalypse, stupid

    • Mark Byrne
    • 27 February 2007
    1 Comment

    Like many other politicians and scientists, the man who "used to be the next President of the United States" thinks that "the most serious crisis ever confronting human civilisation is this climate crisis". At the same time, in An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary about his travelling climate change slide show, Al Gore laments his failure to have shifted US government policy on the issue.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Ethical alternatives to research that destroys embryos

    • Norman Ford
    • 27 February 2007
    1 Comment

    There are ethical alternatives to embryo destructive research. There are many possibilities of finding or developing stem cells of wide potentiality without involving embryo destruction. Human stem cells can be derived from umbilical cord blood, bone marrow, fetal tissue, and even from the nose’s olfactory-mucosa.

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