Food & Technology
Parties disagree over regulation of new genetic modification methods
Responses to an election questionnaire circulated by Gene Ethics show major policy differences between political parties on how new methods of genetic modification (GM) such as CRISPR should be regulated.
Economics for Earth
Friends of the Earth Australia News
Published in Chain Reaction #135, April 2019. National magazine of Friends of the Earth Australia.
Economics for Earth
Calling out those who created a toxic environment for Muslims
By Susie Latham
Fraser Anning deserves widespread condemnation for his comments about the massacre of 50 Muslims in Christchurch mosques. But many mainstream voices now censuring him for his views, including Scott Morrison, who has stated that he will "always speak out" about "comments that seek to denigrate Muslims and Islam", created a political environment toxic to Muslims.
Land & water
Drinking Water Concerns in the Northern Territory
Friends of the Earth has ongoing concerns regarding drinking water problems in the Northern Territory. A number of remote communities continue to source drinking water with high levels of substances such as E.coli, Sodium, Fluoride, Uranium, Nitrate, Selenium, Lead and Barium.
(Photo: Laramba in Central Australia - a drinking water uranium "hotspot")
Land & water
Hinchinbrook Island open for business
By Ingrid Marker
Queensland state tourism minister Kate Jones has announced she is opening Hinchinbrook Island, Great Sandy Strait and Coolum National Park for business. Hinchinbrook is precious to north Queenslanders. Its wild coastal beaches and crocodiled creek crossings are a coming of age for wilderness bush walkers up here. It's the land of the Girramay people.
Climate & Energy Justice
The climate change strike: from a student who was there
By Aceda Rose
So here's me (below), amid a crowd of fired up adolescents and children, facing what could be the downfall of everything we've ever known; climate change.
Economics for Earth
Major Plastic Waste Producers Must Get Consent Before Exporting their Toxic Trash to Global South
Geneva, Switzerland — Today, 187 countries took a major step forward in curbing the plastic waste crisis by adding plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste from one country to another. The amendments require exporters to obtain the consent of receiving countries before shipping most contaminated, mixed, or unrecyclable plastic waste, providing an important tool for countries in the Global South to stop the dumping of unwanted plastic waste into their country.
After China banned imports of most plastic waste in 2018, developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have received a huge influx of contaminated and mixed plastic wastes that are difficult or even impossible to recycle. Norway’s proposed amendments to the Basel Convention provides countries the right to refuse unwanted or unmanageable plastic waste.
Economics for Earth
Change the system or face global ecological collapse says global biodiversity assessment
6 May 2019, Paris: The world faces ecological collapse and mass extinctions unless dramatic action is taken to change social and economic systems, according to a global assessment launched today by The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
The IPBES report is the most comprehensive scientific global assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem services to be adopted by Governments. It exposes the main drivers of global biodiversity collapse and calls for urgent regulatory change.
The time has come to stop talking in terms of distinct crises, be it climate or biodiversity – and which is worse – rather we need tackle them all as one, with total system change, according to Friends of the Earth International’s assessment.
Indigenous Land & Rights
Copley declares itself Underground Coal Gasification free
Community members of Copley and Leigh Creek gathered at the Copley Hall to affirm their clear opposition to the Underground Coal Gasification project at the old Leigh Creek Coal Mine. The UCG trial of Leigh Creek Energy (LKE) project is due to end on May 7.
Economics for Earth
New research exposes a crisis in the global trade of "recyclable” plastics
Water contamination, crop death, illness, and the open burning of plastic waste have all flooded into Southeast Asia along with the world’s “recycled” plastics, according to a report by GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) with data analysis on the global waste trade from Greenpeace East Asia.