Friends of the Earth. Media release. August 11 2018 Friends of the Earth Australia today welcomed a decision in the Supreme Court of California to award school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson US$289million in damages after Johnson took legal action against pesticide company Monsanto. Johnson was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2014. His lawyers argued that Johnson’s regular use of Glyphosate, which he used up to 30 times a year in his work, caused the disease. Monsanto is facing 5,000 similar lawsuits across the United States. The jury in the Johnson case deliberated for 3 days before deciding the verdict.

It has been a busy few months at Friends of the Earth. Most exciting was the addition of a new national project - Tipping Point.

PRESS RELEASE   Bangkok, Manila, New Delhi, Melbourne                                              July 20, 2018. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is being negotiated in Bangkok, Thailand this week. The mega regional trade deal involving sixteen nations from Asia-Pacific will impact the lives of over three billion people, yet a new study reveals how the deal fails international standards of transparency and public engagement. Experts measured the RCEP negotiations against criteria for Transparency and Public Participation in policy making. The outcome was a resounding FAIL. The report finds the RCEP negotiations to be: Non-transparent:  negligible public availability of official information on the state of negations, a failure to release draft texts and adequate details of key government positions.    Lacking in independent social, economic and environmental impact assessments, making it it particularly difficult for journalists to accurately report on the trade deal. Plagued by numerous examples of vested interests influencing the process, such as corporations holding privileged semi official role in negotiations    Deprived of Asian parliaments and elected officials representation and input. They are frequently shut out, have no  meaningful role in negotiations and often cannot access the text Devoid of public participation, which amounted to, at best, token or ad hoc stakeholder engagements.

Tasmania is blessed with beautiful and intact landscapes and an impressive network of national parks. However, World Heritage Areas and national parks have long been targeted by developers who want to establish commercial tourist operations in a number of places (check here for a current list of proposed developments). One of these proposals would see helicopter tourism inside the Walls of Jerusalem National Park in central Tasmania at Halls Island in Lake Malbena. You have a chance to say NO to this development.

By Catherine Hearse and the Quit Coal Collective at Friends of the Earth Melbourne Golden Beach is an idyllic section of Victoria's Ninety Mile Beach. It boasts a pristine coastline, plentiful fish, multitudes of birds and the skeletal remains of an 1897 shipwreck. But there is a cloud hanging over this lovely place.

By Ingrid Marker ‒ Cassowary Keystone Conservation Inc.            A keystone species and major tourism icon of Far North Queensland, cassowaries live in the Wet Tropics ‒ a small area compared to their original habitat. This land was set aside to protect species from threats, whilst enabling them to access diverse habitats and forage on variety of seasonal rainforest fruits.

The Australian government is seeking to introduce new espionage and foreign interference laws that threaten our democracy.

Friends of the Earth are a community-driven organisation that has played a constructive role protecting the natural environment and supporting social justice in Australia for over forty years.

MEDIA RELEASE: 8 June 2018 Today, community members gathered outside the meeting of the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council (MinCo) meeting at the Hyatt in Canberra with the message: Healthy Rivers Need Water. This is the first time state water ministers will come together since the Federal Government cut 605 billion litres from the Murray Darling Basin Plan in May.

By Cam Walker In the various histories that have been written about the Australian environment movement, most have identified the 'professionalisation' phase that happened in the 1980s as a defining feature in the movement's development.