All articles
-
It only takes 1 plastic bag to ruin your whole day.
On a recent trip to the Sunshine coast, my 10 year old son asked if we could go to the Aquarium. I’m not usually a party pooper but my first thought was not excitement but trepidation and then concern for the animals living in the facility. Underwater image of a turtle with plastic on his…
-
Fast fashion: Three tips to reduce your textile waste
Anyone who has recently walked past a clothing store knows: it’s sale time. The temptations are strong: an extra 50 per cent off, prospects of cheap chic, a risk of missing out on bargains. Fast fashion is popular. Hong Kongers love buying clothes and, apparently, throwing them away as well. Last year the region discarded 110,000…
-
Plastic pollution: five easy tips to reduce how much plastic you use
Plastic is ubiquitous. It’s in our clothing, our shoes, our phone, our furniture. We store food in it, we eat and drink from it, we sit on it, we brush our teeth with it. It comes in all colours, shapes and sizes. The reason plastic is ever-present? It’s cheap, it’s convenient, and it lasts. But plastic…
-
What just happened to electricity prices in South Australia? 6 things you need to know
In case you haven’t heard, power prices had a brief but sizeable jump in South Australia over the last few weeks. There has been a lot of heated, and often misleading, commentary this week about what happened and why – some of which has blamed the state’s high level of renewable energy. Here are the…
-
Why Pacific Islanders will lead the fight against climate change
Most of us know the story of coal miners and their caged canaries. When my seven-year-old daughter heard it, she was sad that the canaries had to give up their lives to warn the miners to get out. She asked me if miners still use canaries today and I reassured her: ‘No, we have come…
-
Welcome to Ban the Bag!
Hi! My name is Ruby, I’m a volunteer with the Ban the Bag team at Greenpeace Australia Pacific. Welcome to the campaign and to the Greenpeace family! Plastic bag in the waters of Laganas Bay, the most important nesting area for loggerhead sea turtles in the Mediterranean Sea. Plastic bags can block the digestive system…
-
The scary things I’ve found as a turtle researcher – Dr Qamar Schuyler
I’ve spent a significant portion of the last 6 years forcing turtle poop through a sieve. Seriously. As a sea turtle researcher focused on understanding the what, why, and where of turtles eating harmful plastics, I’ve had to cut open hundreds of sea turtles stranded dead on beaches in Moreton Bay and the Queensland coast…
-
We put the Reef before coal before coal kills the Reef.
This year the Great Barrier Reef experienced its worst bleaching event ever and the Australian public didn’t let the Reef down. The public said loud and clear they support coral rather than coal. The Australian public know the fossil fuel era is over. The public know there’s never been a more exciting time to save…
-
Damn the Dams: Why we need to say no to flooding the Amazon
Imagine, for a second, if your home was sunk under water. Not temporarily flooded, like a leaky roof after heavy rains, or water on your carpet that eventually receded. But permanently. Imagine your whole town under water. That is what is currently proposed for the lands of the Munduruku people, in the heart of the…
-
There’s never been a more exciting time to save the Reef.
This year the Great Barrier Reef experienced its worst bleaching event ever. Almost a quarter of the Reef died. According to Reef scientists only an immediate and drastic reduction in the use of fossil fuels will save the Great Barrier Reef. Climate change has already warmed the world by more than a degree Celsius…