News

Fairtrade Association, 15 October 2009 As part of Anti-Poverty Week, FTAANZ has awarded Fair Trade Workplace status to National Australia Bank (NAB) following the Bank’s switch across all its offices and branches to Fairtrade Certified coffee and tea, and its commitment to promote fair trade to its staff and customers.  Read More...

SUPERANNUATION investors beware: climate change could be about to melt your retirement nest egg. Not only are investors dodging billion-dollar losses from the global financial crisis, share market slump, looming recession and loss of faith in the industry - but now climate change is putting super returns at further risk.  Read More...

Human rights charity Oxfam says a growing number of Australian clothing retailers are running the risk of producing their products in sweatshops overseas. Oxfam has today released a report researching 26 major Hong Kong-based clothing companies, and rating them on how seriously they are tackling the issue of sweatshops. The report gives low ratings to Li and Fung - the same company that manufactures for Pacific Brands, Just Jeans and Myers.  Read More...

Ever wondered how your jeans got that just-so worn look? Well, a world away a worker may have been toiling in a respirator, gloves and protective eyewear. Read More...

A comprehensive survey of mammals included in the annual report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which covers more than 44,000 animal and plant species, shows that a quarter of the planet's 5,487 known mammals are clearly at risk of disappearing forever. Read More...

Environmental rebates are ad hoc, confusing and too stingy, leading to 10 times as many Queenslanders installing water tanks compared with Victorians, conservation groups say.  Read More...

Australia should accept that an ambitious global treaty on climate change is virtually impossible in the short term and make a gentle start on cutting greenhouse gases, the Government's climate change adviser says. Read More...

AT FIRST sight, Ross Garnaut's proposal that Australia should cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 10% from 2000 levels by 2020 looks soft. The scientists tell us the world needs to go on a war footing to avoid catastrophic climate change. Is this war? The European Union has pledged to cut its 2020 emissions to 20% below 1990 levels, and will go to 30% if others do the same. Last year's ministerial conference in Bali floated targets of 25% to 40% for developed countries. Whydon't we aim higher? Maybe it's because Professor Garnaut is an economist, and keenly aware of what things cost in the real world. Maybe it's because he knows that, even with all the new policies, Australia's emissions are still on track to increase 20% from 2000 to 2020. That means he is proposing that, in 10 years once emissions trading starts in 2010, we should use it to cut our emissions from 120% of 2000 levels to 90% of them. That is a big shift, mister. That is a serious policy change. Read More...

THERE are moments in history when fateful choices are made. The decision on whether to take strong action to mitigate human-induced climate change is one such moment. Read More...

FARM production worth more than $1 billion would be destroyed if more Murray River water was diverted to the stricken lower lakes to avert acid poisoning, official advice to the federal Government reveals.  Read More...

Opportunities to help "lead and save" the world have been wasted. CLIMATE change is the most significant challenge facing the global economy over the coming decades. The basic science of global warming is simple, and has been understood for over 100 years. Granted, we are uncertain about precise impacts at the local level. But it is clear to anyone who looks at the evidence, including countless Nobel prize-winning scientists, that we are running grave risks.  Read More...

Today, 200 years after the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom and the United States, human traficking is the third biggest crime in the world behind the trafficking of drugs and arms. Read More...

Keep up to date with what is happening in Antarctica and why it is so important to our planet. Read More...

Governments do not own the rivers. They might think they do, but they do not.....[they] belong to all of us. Our Murray-Darling system is sick and dying. Read More...

A LEAKED template for the management of Victoria's stressed northern rivers promises no substantial increase in environmental flows despite warnings of the possible devastation of river red gum forests, bird breeding cycles and wetlands. The "Cabinet in Confidence" draft obtained by The Age suggests the State Government is set to ignore pleas from water experts and environmental groups for it to guarantee an amount of water to fix the river flows as a first priority. Read More...

....As the lower lakes of the Murray-Darling face doom, this is a picture to make South Australians weep.... Read More...

They were once the yuppy accessory of choice, but the days of the plastic water bottle may be numbered. If a national campaign initiated by a group of Sydneysiders is a success, the humble drinking fountain will take its place. Read More...

Climate change poses a serious threat to essential water resources in the Himalayan region putting the livelihoods of 1.3 billion people at risk, experts said Thursday. The mountainous region, home to the world's largest glaciers and permafrost area outside the polar regions, has seen rapid glacial melting and dramatic changes in rainfall, experts at the World Water Week conference in Stockholm said.  Read More...

We could end up with no crabs, no shrimp, no fish,' study co-author warns. Like a chronic disease wasting a body, ocean "dead zones" with too little oxygen for marine life are spreading around the globe, researchers reported Thursday. The experts counted 405 dead zones in 2007 — a third more than their 1995 survey.  Read More...

74% planned increase in investment in corporate social responsibility over next 3 years by CEO’s in Australia and New Zealand Read More...

It could be the greatest change to the planet's environment many of us will ever see. Within a few decades the vast sea ice that spreads over the North Pole could disappear for weeks or even months in the Arctic summer. The last time this happened, scientists tell us, was long before humans set foot on the earth. The Arctic sea ice is retreating as climate change advances. The change being felt in this fragile world is caused, in part, by us. And it's happening so fast, it's defying scientific models. Read More...

China's booming economy is threatening to sabotage global efforts on climate change. But action has begun to rein in the Asian dragon's dire levels of pollution. Each day NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites pass over north-east Asia and take a snapshot of the world's scariest environmental problem. The photos often show a blanket of soot, sulphur, nitric oxide, ozone and dust that blocks out an area stretching from Beijing in the north to Xian in the west and past the Yangtze River. These toxins irritate the eyes, scratch the throat and lodge deep inside the lungs to cause the premature death of one Chinese person every 45 seconds, or 750,000 people a year. Read More...

The United States is failing to solve today's problems with innovative thinking. Read More...

While Australia has been slow in introducing emissions trading, our tardiness has at least given us the chance to learn from the mistakes of others. But the greatest challenge will be linking our scheme with those of the rest of the world.  Read More...

Growing crops for oil was supposed to solve global warming. Now, as food prices soar, biofuels stand condemned as a crime against humanity. Rarely in political history can there have been such a rapid and dramatic reversal of a received wisdom as we have seen in the past 18 months over biofuels - the cropping of living plants, such as soybeans, wheat and sugar cane, to generate energy. Read More...

A 30 year scientific trial shows that organic practices can counteract up to 40 percent of global greenhouse gas output. A scientific trial of organic and conventional farming practices has proved that organic practices can be the single biggest way to mitigate climate change. Read More...

If you're left holding a handful of plastic bags after you do the big supermarket shop and you don't feel guilty, then you might be as impervious as the plastic bag itself is to breaking down in the environment. Read More...

A study released by Newcastle University delivers incontrovertible proof of the benefits of organics The largest ever study into organics has found that organic food is more nutritious. The Newcastle University study found that organic vegetable crops contained up to 40% more beneficial compounds and organic milk contained over 90% more nutrients than conventionally produced milk. Read More...