Equality still a long way off
COVID-19 has left more women than men disadvantaged. A picture is emerging that shows unemployment, lowered incomes and underemployment, less secure work, greater household and family demands, and the crisis that is domestic violence.
Behind the beauty of the reef
The next federal budget will allocate $33.5 million to nature-tourism projects and reef conservation work. It’s welcome news for Great Barrier Reef which suffered its largest bleaching event in February. Now, the first step to conserving the Great Barrier Reef is understanding what lives there.
World’s cities offering refuge to trees
We usually think of urban areas as a cause of species extinctions. A new analysis of 12 million (!) tree planting records has turned these assumptions on its head. Turns out urban areas aren’t quite the concrete wastelands we thought it was. Quite the opposite.
Jobs, jobs, jobs – and housing
The government is urged to invest in social housing projects to get the economy back on the rails. During the GFC it kept tradies in jobs and offered many a secure roof over their heads. Now, new data shows that construction could start almost immediately on thousands of homes.
Environment facing a perfect storm
Some very important reports about the environment have just been published. Missed it? We nearly did too. With COVID, the US elections and the tensions with China all taking out the number-one spot for newspaper headlines, some other big stories were easily overlooked. Here, we look at some of them.
New Zealand child wellbeing at all-time low
As regular visitors to New Zealand and with a deep and abiding love for our Pacific neighbours, a recent UNICEF report came as a shock. The report on child wellbeing had New Zealand a long way down the list (35 out of a total of 41) among the world’s wealthiest countries. What is happening?
Australian Mint releases “donation dollar”
The Royal Australian Mint is releasing a “donation dollar” coin designed to be given to charitable cause. It is the first Australian $1 coin to feature a colour other than gold and will be the first coin purposed for “giving” rather than “spending”.
Koala numbers decimated after black summer bushfires
“Seventy-one percent is an average so in some places we lost nearly all the koalas, which of course is devastating.” In total, 123 sites across six locations from Forster to Ballina were examined as part of the study.
Deterioration of young people’s mental health
The number of young people seeking help from mental health services has soared since the beginning of the pandemic. Organisations are putting more staff on to keep up with the demand. Governments have announced extra funding for mental health and experts warn of long-term effects. What’s going on?
Protecting wildlife starts at home
We know feral cats are an enormous problem for wildlife – across Australia, feral cats collectively kill more than three billion animals per year. But pet cats are wreaking havoc too. An analysis of 66 different studies shows the impact our pet cats have on Australia’s wildlife.
