ABC ran a macro photograpy competition recently and have posted a gallery of amazing close-ups captured by the camera.
Be awed by the beauty of our natural world at following link.
ABC Science: Photos
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Greenfleet - Regulatory vacuum threatens forestry carbon offsets
Regulatory vacuum threatens forestry carbon offsets headlines - however
'Regardless of what happens in Canberra, Greenfleet will continue to plant trees, and those trees will continue to pull carbon dioxide from the air no matter what form of scheme passes Parliament - if one passes..
''The longer we wait on climate change, the harder the task, and climate change… isn't going to wait for a political solution.'' Ms Gipton says.
Read Brisbane Times article at following link Greenfleet Greenhouse Friendly Penny Wong
'Regardless of what happens in Canberra, Greenfleet will continue to plant trees, and those trees will continue to pull carbon dioxide from the air no matter what form of scheme passes Parliament - if one passes..
''The longer we wait on climate change, the harder the task, and climate change… isn't going to wait for a political solution.'' Ms Gipton says.
Read Brisbane Times article at following link Greenfleet Greenhouse Friendly Penny Wong
Friday, January 22, 2010
Ecosystem services: From theory to implementation — PNAS
FEATURE ARTICLE by Gretchen C. Daily and Pamela A. Matson published in PNAS -Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published online
Around the world, leaders are increasingly recognizing ecosystems as natural capital assets that supply life-support services of tremendous value. The challenge is to turn this recognition into incentives and institutions that will guide wise investments in natural capital, on a large scale. Advances are required on three key fronts, each featured here: the science of ecosystem production functions and service mapping; the design of appropriate finance, policy, and governance systems; and the art of implementing these in diverse biophysical and social contexts. Scientific understanding of ecosystem production functions is improving rapidly but remains a limiting factor in incorporating natural capital into decisions, via systems of national accounting and other mechanisms. Novel institutional structures are being established for a broad array of services and places, creating a need and opportunity for systematic assessment of their scope and limitations. Finally, it is clear that formal sharing of experience, and defining of priorities for future work, could greatly accelerate the rate of innovation and uptake of new approaches.
Even in the face of intensifying pressures and risks on the global environmental front, there is a growing feeling of Renaissance in the conservation community. This flows from the promise in reaching, together with a much more diverse and powerful set of leaders than in the past, for new approaches that align economic forces with conservation, and that explicitly link human and environmental well-being (1). And this promise is flowering thanks to substantial recent advances in key areas of inquiry, such as ecology, economics, and institutions, and their integration (2–5).
Conservation efforts now are expanding into realms well beyond reserves, beyond charity, and beyond biodiversity—and into the mainstream (6). While retaining a core focus on protected areas designed to sustain biodiversity, the new arenas of conservation are much bigger and much more complex than the old. They encompass new places dominated by human activity, new revenue streams from public and private sectors, and new goals of ecosystem service provision. In fact, they encompass important elements of traditional, non-Western approaches (7, 8). Scholars and practitioners are seeking to make conservation economically attractive and commonplace, routine in the decision-making of individuals, communities, corporations, and governments (9).
Here, we feature contributions that span the fundamental science of ecosystem services through to the design, implementation, and assessment of finance and policy mechanisms and systems of governance. Each contribution is oriented around decisions, often cast in terms of tradeoffs among alternative future scenarios of change, whether in natural resource management, population, climate, or other key drivers.
Read the whole article at linked page below.
Ecosystem services: From theory to implementation — PNAS
Doug the koala dies - ABC News
The deliberate harm suffered by our defenseless baby koala was an inhumane attack. What was in the mind of the human being - or beings as they did this?
Will the next inhumane attack be on a fellow human ?
Sadly for us and the endangered koala species, one more dies.
The baby koala affectionately known as Doug has died after being shot with an air rifle north of Brisbane this week.
The male joey had been on life support at the Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast, after he and his mother were found on Tuesday with slug gun wounds at Morayfield.
The joey, who was months old and weighed only one kilogram, died late this afternoon on an operating table.
He had also been suffering from pneumonia and was on oxygen because of the poor condition of his lungs.
Yesterday vets said the koala was expected to make a full recovery.
Police and the RSPCA are still looking for the person responsible for the attack.Doug the koala dies - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) has reported this and earlier stages of the terrible and uncalled for tragedy.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Overpopulation
Overpopulation
The human population doubled from 1 to 2 billion between the years 1800 and 1930 — an unparalleled event in the planet’s history. No large mammal had ever grown to such numbers or commandeered so many resources. The impact on North America’s native species was devastating:
•Driven extinct by hunters, the last eastern woodland bison was seen in West Virginia in 1825.
•Undulata delissea, a Hawaiian plant, was driven extinct in 1865 by domestic cattle.
•The beautiful Falls-of-the-Ohio scurfpea, which existed on a single island, was drowned by U.S. Dam No. 41 in Kentucky in 1881.
•The Whiteline topminnow was last seen Alabama in 1899, its spring habitat repeatedly pumped dry by the growing human population.
•The Culebra parrot was hunted and collected to extinction in Puerto Rico by 1899.
•The Rocky Mountain grasshopper was purposefully driven extinct — a bounty was even placed on its head — by 1903.
•Merriam’s elk was hunted to extinction in Arizona in 1906.
•The Tennessee riffleshell disappeared in 1930 due to pollution and dams.
The human population doubled again by 1975, this time taking just 45 years. The rate of extinction also increased. Today’s population stands at 6.8 billion and, if it continues on course, will reach 8 billion in 2020 before leveling off at about 9 billion in 2050. If it doesn’t level off, the worldwide population could theoretically reach 15 billion by 2050, but that is unlikely due to the insurmountable economic, political, and ecological crises that would likely ensue.
Read the whole article here.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Within One Cubic Foot — National Geographic Magazine article
One Cubic Foot — National Geographic Magazine article reveals the biodiversity around us every day.
...
In any habitat, on the ground, in the forest canopy, or in the water, your eye is first caught by the big animals—birds, mammals, fish, butterflies. But gradually the smaller inhabitants, far more numerous, begin to eclipse them. There are the insect myriads creeping and buzzing among the weeds, the worms and unnameable creatures that squirm or scuttle for cover when you turn garden soil for planting. There are those annoying ants that swarm out when their nest is accidentally cut open and the pesky beetle grubs exposed at yellowed grass roots. When you flip a rock over, there are even more: You see spiderlings and sundry pale unknowns of diverse form slinking through mats of fungus strands. Tiny beetles hide from the sudden light, and pill bugs curl their bodies into defensive balls. Centipedes and millipedes, the armored snakes of their size class, squeeze into the nearest crevices and wormholes...
In any habitat, on the ground, in the forest canopy, or in the water, your eye is first caught by the big animals—birds, mammals, fish, butterflies. But gradually the smaller inhabitants, far more numerous, begin to eclipse them. There are the insect myriads creeping and buzzing among the weeds, the worms and unnameable creatures that squirm or scuttle for cover when you turn garden soil for planting. There are those annoying ants that swarm out when their nest is accidentally cut open and the pesky beetle grubs exposed at yellowed grass roots. When you flip a rock over, there are even more: You see spiderlings and sundry pale unknowns of diverse form slinking through mats of fungus strands. Tiny beetles hide from the sudden light, and pill bugs curl their bodies into defensive balls. Centipedes and millipedes, the armored snakes of their size class, squeeze into the nearest crevices and wormholes...Read the whole article by by Edward O. Wilson with photography by David Liittschwager at the link above.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity
Every six hours man loses one type of unique vegetable - we have lost 300,000 vegetable varieties last century.
Mission
- To defend food biodiversity
- To safeguard the environment and the land
- To endorse sustainable agriculture
- To protect small producers and their communities
- To promote the gastronomic traditions of the whole world
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Bumper Brisbane mango crop goes to waste - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
By Andree Withey
Posted Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:00am AEDT
Updated Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:07am AEDT
16 wheelie bins have been rejected for collection in the last week because the bins were overloaded with rotting mangoes. (Vanessa Mills)
A glut of homegrown mangoes has become a problem for some south-east Queensland residents, with the weight of the fruit proving too heavy for waste collectors.
The Brisbane City Council says 16 wheelie bins have been rejected for collection in the last week because the bins were overloaded with rotting mangoes.
One bin filled with mangoes weighed 170 kilograms - 100 kilograms more than the allowable limit.
The council says even filling half a wheelie bin with the fruit is too much for a waste collection truck's arm to lift.
One southside resident says she has about 60 mangoes fall from her tree each night.
The council has advised residents either to go to the dump with their excess fruit or hire a skip, as overfilled bins cannot be emptied."
Is is amazing to me that some such fortunate residents have yet to share their surplus produce when there are so many hungry people in our local and wider communities.
Some of these trees may be heritage trees which were planted many years ago by the pioneers who had a real understanding about food and where it came from..
May I suggest that if you have too much food for your own needs that even spoiled fruit can be used to make compost as a final destination - and chutney does not require perfect fruit.
Please reconsider how we can avoid burying unwanted food in landfill. It can be used by nature to convert the nutrients into compost and feed the soil again.
Your local community garden and Slow Food Australia may be able to help you.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Butterflies Reeling From Impacts of Climate and Development
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Save Bahrs Scrub Alliance
Bahrs Scrub contains several endangered plant species which are unique to this patch of South East Queensland. Koalas and other fauna live within the Bahrs Scrub precinct.
This area is now within the Logan City Council boundary - formerly it was part of Gold Coast Council.
LACA, Gecko, Wildlife Logan and others are concerned that the unique biodiversity values of this landscape are threatened by government haste to populate South East Queensland. Members of these groups have joined to campaign together to achieve best possible environmental outcomes for the ultimate benefit of residents of South East Queensland.
A separate website http://www.bahrsscrub.org.au/ is under construction to provide wider opportunity for community participation. Please visit the site.
If you have any historical photos or information you would like to contribute, we'd be delighted to add the information to our website. Council's history of the suburb is very scanty.
Windaroo Valley high School was named after a housing estate development in 1993. Read more here.
If you are concerned about any aspect of conservation in our local area please consider joining the Logan and Albert Conservation Association. Details for joining are available here.
Information about Logan's Planning Study is available on council website here.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Scenic Rim group of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland
Information about this group is currently hosted here
If you'd like to know more contact platypuscorner@bigpond.com
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