The idea that we make rational choices is the basis for how businesses and governments make their plans. But psychologists have been asking some awkward questions.
Protecting the Great Barrier Reef’s water quality finally has a hard dollar price on it.
AAP Image
A groundbreaking new economic study has found that investing A$8.2 billion would get us very close to hitting targets to cut water pollution into the Great Barrier Reef by 2025.
Detail from a satellite photo of Lake Okeechobee’s algae bloom and the St. Lucie canal into which water was released. Rising water levels from heavy winter rains had water managers worried that water would breach the dike.
NASA
Toxic algae blooms like the intense one now fouling Florida’s waterways harm wildlife and people in various ways. They’re also on the rise.
Malcolm Turnbull and his colleagues have pointed $1 billion of the government’s existing green energy funding towards the Great Barrier Reef.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The Coalition has ramped up the race to fund the Great Barrier Reef’s protection. All three major parties have promised hundreds of millions of dollars, but where from, and what will they be spent on?
A market that lets sugar cane farmers trade ‘nitrogen permits’ could help keep a cap on fertiliser use.
iStock
You’ve heard of cap-and-trade schemes for greenhouse gases. Perhaps we also need one to limit the amount of fertiliser runoff onto the Great Barrier Reef.
Fixing water pollution on the Great Barrier Reef will take a huge effort.
Reef image from www.shutterstock.com
Camille Mellin, Australian Institute of Marine Science; Aaron MacNeil, Australian Institute of Marine Science, and Julian Caley, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Banning fishing helps fish, but it also helps reef recover from cyclones, disease, and coral bleaching.
There are still concerns over the impact of upstream coalmines on water in the Warragamba Dam, a key part of Sydney’s water network.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
The cutting of senior staff from WaterNSW, the body that oversees the safety of Sydney’s water supply, poses serious risks to Australia’s most complex water network.
Lead can linger in bones.
X-ray via www.shutterstock.com.
Lead might not be in paint or gasoline anymore, but since it doesn’t break down in the home or the environment it remains a problem throughout the U.S.
Millions of people in Africa don’t have access to adequate sanitation.
Shutterstock
Despite improvements, there are still millions of people without adequate sanitation in Africa. Sustainable solutions that can be replicated elsewhere are being developed in South Africa.
Algae overload: Lake Erie algal bloom 2011.
NOAA/NASA
The same conditions – ultimately tied to nutrient runoff – that created the damaging toxic blooms and dead zones in US waterways of recent years are forecast to return this year.
Unless water is governed properly, the African continent will face massive problems in the coming years.
EPA/JIM HOLLANDER
A law signed into effect last week seeks to reduce fertilizer runoff that causes toxic algae blooms. But to really address the problem requires taking a hard look at how America farms.
The World Heritage Committee has called for a comprehensive assessment not just of the threats to the Great Barrier Reef, but of their cumulative effect.
AAP Image/Australian Institute for Marine Science, Ray Berkelmans
The government says it has met all of the recommendations for safeguarding the Great Barrier Reef. But a close reading of the dozens of UN recommendations shows that many have been only partly fulfilled.
The Bellinger Snapping Turtle is under threat, and that bodes ill for the entire ecosystem.
Copyright: Gary Bell/OceanwideImages.com
The Bellinger River Snapping Turtle is under threat of extinction, and it suggests something very wrong with the whole ecosystem.
One Nation’s Pauline Hanson says landholders’ constitutional water rights have been undermined by government changes – but is that true?
AAP Image/Tertius Pickard
The Australian Constitution says residents have the right to water from the rivers for irrigation and conservation purposes but governments have brought in laws that are restricting this – One Nation’s…
The amount of water at the Earth’s surface is pretty constant, but in many parts of the developed world we are running out of the right sort of water, and our ability to access it. The severe water shortages…