• Perch on prozac

    Open Forum     |      September 1, 2024

    An international study led by biologists from Monash University and the University of Tuscia has revealed how long-term exposure to pharmaceutical pollutants is dramatically altering fish behaviour, life history, and reproductive traits.

  • Cleaning up the chemical industry

    Open Forum     |      May 14, 2024

    The global chemical industry is a major fossil fuel consumer and climate change contributor; however, new Curtin University research has identified how the sector could clean up its green credentials by “getting dirty”.

  • Plastic planet

    Open Forum     |      April 29, 2024

    An international team of researchers has found that more than half of branded plastic pollution in the environment is linked to just 56 companies.

  • Watching the river flow back

    Open Forum     |      February 10, 2022

    Even after they have closed mines still leak poisoned water into the environment, but the Wollangambe River in the Blue Mountains is an encouraging example that a clean-up is possible in even the most polluted environments.

  • Fire alarm – The dangers of wood heaters

    Open Forum     |      August 9, 2021

    There are few things better than cosying up next to a wood fire in winter, but Aussie researchers are calling for better public health education and policy after a study found excess deaths associated with our woody winter warmers.

  • Call for Australia to produce ‘zero pollution’

    Open Forum     |      May 19, 2021

    A group of eminent scientists has urged Australian governments, Federal and State, to adopt a zero pollution target for the nation’s land, air and water.

  • New study finds agricultural pesticides can affect prawns and oysters

    Open Forum     |      August 21, 2020

    New research from Southern Cross University has highlighted the importance of managing the potential impacts of pesticide run-off in areas of intensive coastal agriculture.

  • The drop in air pollution will be short-lived

    Gabriel da Silva     |      April 2, 2020

    COVID-19’s hit to the global economy is cutting air pollution, but the eventual recovery could leave our environment worse off and further behind in reducing emissions.

  • Our polluted path to oblivion

    Warren Brown     |      January 10, 2020

    Warren Brown traces the roots of climate change to the industrial revolution, and appeals for politicians to start prioritising the environment over economic growth.

  • Fuel for thought

    John Quiggin     |      October 22, 2019

    In news that will surprise nobody stuck behind a huge 4×4 or smoke belching diesel, emissions from Australia’s traffic continue to climb, despite optimistic claims to the contrary.

  • A scientist, an island and 38 million pieces of plastic

    Open Forum     |      April 8, 2019

    Two years after revealing that one of the world’s most remote islands was littered with plastic waste, IMAS scientist Dr Jennifer Lavers is leading an expedition to clean up its beaches.

  • Hang on to your balloons to save our seabirds

    Open Forum     |      March 5, 2019

    While recent bans on plastic bags have helped reduce one source of marine plastic pollution, it is balloons and their fragments which pose the biggest risk to turtles and seabirds.