The Bushfires in Victoria were a paradigm-shifting event – gripping, terrifying and devastating for dozens of communities and hundreds of families…The news was shocking in its magnitude and the disaster will have enormous consequences for land management and housing development across the nation. Professor Poongschtok is an alias for one of Real Dirt’s most informed readers. [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Guest Viewpoint'
Estuary or Mess-tuary?
November 26th, 2008 · No Comments · Guest Viewpoint
Bruce Thom was the chair of the National State of the Environment Council, a member of the esteemed Wentworth Group of Scientists and a long-time warrior for coastal protection. He wants to see determined and national action on the continent’s estuaries. The current woeful state of the Murray River Estuary is an extreme replication of [...]
Tags: climate change·estuaries·murray river mouth·water management·wentworth group
Riverstalgia: How Coal Companies are stealing our rivers
November 21st, 2008 · 8 Comments · Guest Viewpoint
As BP Solar announced this week it was packing up the picnic and emigrating, we were reminded how much fun it is going to be now that we are alone with Nat King Coal. Not only does the coal industry pollute the atmosphere, it has a few good rivers on its conscience as well. Caroline Graham takes [...]
Tags: coal industry·pollution·rivers·water
Missing history or emissions progress?
November 13th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Guest Viewpoint
Jeff Angel is the Director of the Total Environment Centre, a legend of the Australian conservation movement and author of Green is Good. We are at a crossroads, he writes: In the next month Australia will take some steps forwards on the journey to a low carbon economy or falter to a deadstop. In December the Rudd [...]
Tags: climate change·forests
Don’t Annoy Scarecrows: Tossed Food, Lost Water
November 12th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Guest Viewpoint
I bet you never thought of it like this…Dr Charlotte de Fraiture is based at the International Water Management Institute, a non-profit research institute with its headquarters in Sri Lanka…She wrote this small but important opinion while visiting the Institute for Land, Water and Society at Charles Sturt University. It is estimated that around 40% [...]
Tags: agriculture·irrigation·waste
A Better Way of Burning? Climate Change, Bushfires, Indigenous Knowledge
November 10th, 2008 · 9 Comments · Guest Viewpoint, Uncategorized
Living with climate change is nothing new for Indigenous Australians, who survived tens of thousands of years in this continent with wild swings of dry, wet and sea levels many tens of metres lower than today. Clearly current fire management regimes are inadequate. But is there an alternative, asks ranger and landcare officer, Greg Watts? [...]
Tags: bushfires·hazard reduction burning·indigenous knowledge
Scumbags, Slimebuckets, Saviours of the World
October 20th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Guest Viewpoint
The days are getting longer, the beaches more crowded – it’s the bloomin’ algae season but principal research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Professor Alan Millar, says have no fear, those dreaded seaweeds come in peace…. So you think algae stuffs up our beautiful beaches, fouls our precious swimming pools, dams and water supplies, makes [...]
It Couldn’t Happen Here?
September 24th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Guest Viewpoint
The mind boggling disaster of the Chinese milk contamination scare has prompted one of Australia’s leading authors and commentators on baby and toddler issues, Robin Barker, to again ask the question: how safe is baby milk formula? We are all horrified by the reports of tainted formula emerging daily from China. The latest figures state that [...]
Tags: babies·food contamination·milk
Baby Whale – time to get real, not reality tv
August 28th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Guest Viewpoint
Picture courtesy, South West Rocks Dive Centre Story by Nicky Hammond, Marine Programs Manager, NSW National Parks Association The mass public outcry to the baby humpback saga on Sydney’s northern beaches last week was striking. Not just in its sheer magnitude, but also striking in its contrast to the reaction to other wildlife issues. [...]
How Good is Grid Feeding and the Guilt Free Shower?
August 18th, 2008 · 8 Comments · Guest Viewpoint
Stuart Whitelaw is a Moruya based architect and artist. This is his experience of a grid feeding solar system… When we built our house in 2000, power from the grid was already connected to our barn on the site, so rather than go stand alone solar with batteries, we decided to install a grid feeding [...]
