Blogs
Some of you would know I've been working with Energy Matters for quite a while -
it's an Australian based renewable energy company specialising in solar power.
We've just launched our n...
My father told me a story when I was a kid of how prisoners in the WWII POW camp where my grandfather was held captive (Oflag II B, Arnswalde) used to grow their own veggies. Human urine was used as f...
A report from the Union of Concerned Scientists on the value of GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) crops is the first to evaluate in detail the overall yield effect of these crops after more than 20 ...
Gone are the days of the traditional rubber tire; that is with the rubber coming from a tree. Well over 90% of all tires are made from synthetic material - and they have certainly proved to be an envi...
According to an article on CNN, during the existence of "modern" humans, we've relied on over 10,000 different plant species for food. Nowadays, we only have 150 species under cultivation. Of those, j...
Littering many waterways are bits and pieces of those awful, cheap styrofoam coolers that never seem to last more than a season - if you're lucky. Polystyrene (styrofoam) is derived from crude oil. It...
Noise pollution holds a special interest for me as a particularly underrated environmental threat. We've become so accustomed to noise that I think we don't realize what it does to us, both emotionall...
A couple of years back, I wrote a brief piece on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, home to little except phytoplankton - oh, and plastic trash. The Great Pacific Garbage patch isn't located anywh...
How times have changed - I remember the days of Dad taking trailer loads of rubbish of all types to the tip and it not costing a dime. A few months ago, I took a minivan load of green waste to a landf...
The Canadian Medical Association has called on the country's government to ban all antibacterial household products due to the possibility they may cause bacterial resistance. Additionally, they may a...
One of the questions I'm most often asked is "how do I recycle polystyrene?" (also known as Styrofoam). Polystyrene recycling is a particularly thorny issue as it's such a light material that takes up...
According to a U.S. Geological Survey study published yesterday, scientists have detected mercury contamination in every fish tested from 291 streams across the USA.That's disturbing in itself, but ev...
A loaded Taiwanese oil tanker involved in a collision in the Strait of Malacca last night is on fire, listing badly and may sink, according to Malaysian police.The ailing ship, Formosaproduct Brick, i...
It's been a tumultuous week in Australia after the voting down of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It's a complex issue and a sign of things to come for not only our country but others walking t...
Diethyltoluamide or N,N-Diethyl-3-methylbenzamide, more commonly known as DEET, is used by millions of people around the world as a mosquito repellent. It's the active ingredient in some of the world'...
I'm not sure what they are called in the USA, but here in Australia, the grassed area between the front boundary of a house and the road is called a nature strip.I used to hate the one out front of ou...
Nature certainly seems to be rebelling against humanity on many fronts. Even seaweed is coming back to haunt us for our crimes against the environment.A stretch of beach in France was closed recently ...
Many people don't realize that fossil fuels not only play a crucial role in our food in terms of cultivation, transport, processing and storage; but also as an ingredient in fertilizer. In a sense, we...
Sam, the koala that captured the hearts of millions of people around the world, has died.The koala became a megastar after being rescued during Australia's devastating bushfires in February of this ye...
The issue of population control as a strategy for lessening the impact on the environment is finally starting to get more air play. Why it was ever a taboo subject in the first place is beyond me; pro...
Pregnant women being exposed to environmental pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can negatively impact their child's resulting intelligence quotient; commonly known as IQ, The...
I'm not referring to the lovely Black Eyed Peas Fergie, but the somewhat less attractive (well, in my opinion anyway) Martin Ferguson, Australia's Minister for Resources and Energy.---Rant begins---I ...
I was born in 1969 when the population of Australia was just 12 million. By the end of this year, our population will top 22 million. To folks in other countries, that mightn't seem like much; but it'...
While glass bottles aren't so common these days when it comes to soda, there's a popular beverage that is still widely packaged in the stuff. Beer. Glass is a wonderful storage medium for the amber fl...
I was reading a news item today where a noise complaint turned into murder. It's not an isolated case. Noise issues can contribute to heightened tensions between neighbors and be a catalyst for violen...
Green cleaning products are becoming increasingly commonplace, which is great to see. An extension of this are the green cleaning services now springing up around the world.For a while when I was a ki...
I've been known to be a little bit feral at times, but toilet paper is certainly a gotta have in my books - but it really wasn't all that long ago that none of us used it.Use of toilet paper started a...
Bundanoon, a town of 2,500 in the Australian state of New South Wales may become the first community in Australia to ban the sale of bottled water.The move towards a ban on bottled water came after a ...
If you've been using cell phones for some years, you've probably amassed quite a pile of chargers as well. When the phone dies or you upgrade, the chargers are useless. It's more junk laying around an...
While many places around the world have laws in place where businesses and householders must not place recyclable materials in regular trash, here's a first (I think) - a compulsory composting law.On ...
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