Resources
ABC News
17 November 2013
The Federal Government has axed plans to dump dredge spoils into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area off Gladstone in central Queensland.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has ordered the Queensland Government and the Gladstone Ports Corporation to consider only onshore dumping of dredge spoils from the construction of a proposed $400 million second sea lane. Read more
ABC Radio Australia
02 October 2012
Australia's peak scientific body says Papua New Guinea's growing population is more of an immediate threat to the region's sustainability than climate change.
James Butler, leader of CSIRO's environment and development team, who released the report, says the window of opportunity for aid spending on the problem is "pretty small."
"We've probably got about 10, 15, 20 years to really get it right," Mr Butler told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific. Read more
Gladstone Observer
14 January 2014
THE impact of catchment pollutants on the Great Barrier Reef is nothing compared to the devastation caused by a reduction in salinity following major floods, according to CQUniversity researcher Dr Alison Jones, who says major floods are "nature's ground zero".
Writing in the PLOS ONE journal this week, Dr Jones discusses the period of December 2010 when the highest recorded Queensland rainfall associated with Tropical Cyclone Tasha caused flooding of the Fitzroy River in central Queensland. Read more
ABC News
14 October 2013
Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell says he is happy to consider legislative changes to help Cape York Indigenous people manage turtles and dugongs.
A new management plan with input from about 30 clans was launched on the weekend. Read more
News.com.au
30 July 2013
SCIENTISTS have developed a new super sunscreen that mimics the way Great Barrier Reef corals protect themselves from UV light.
CSIRO scientists have spent the past two years harnessing the way the reefs' corals have survived Queensland's harsh sun for million of years in shallow waters. Read more
ABC News
17 September 2013
The Queensland Government will wait before beginning an expensive proposal to fix a turtle rookery at Raine Island off Cape York until it assesses the impacts of a new trial.
Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell says they were considering shipping sand to the remote island, which has suffered a dramatic decline in hatchling success rates due to a gradual loss of viable nesting areas. Read more
ABC News
20 November 2013
The Queensland Government has announced the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve and the Wenlock River in Cape York will be protected from open-cut and strip mining.
The area is the first to be named a "strategic environmental area" under the Regional Planning Interests Bill to go before Parliament today. Read more
ABC News
04 June 2013
The first scientific project designed to capture the underwater sounds of the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland has begun.
Queensland researchers are hoping to determine whether human activities such as shipping impacts on communication between marine animals. Read more
Dredging Today
17 January 2014
Queensland’s peak resources sector body said it remains confident that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority will continue to base its decision-making on the best available science.
Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Michael Roche said today that as a result of an expensive but transparently deceptive campaign by environmental activists to demonise port developments, there was growing confusion over real and present dangers to the park’s long-term health. Read more
NERC Science of the Environment
15 November 2013
When tropical forests are cleared, they can take a century or more to re-absorb the carbon they once held, according to a new study. But their biodiversity is even slower to recover, and some species may never return.
Forests absorb carbon from the atmosphere as they grow, but when they are cleared this returns to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. More than half the world's tropical rainforest has now been cleared for agriculture, logged or burned, so it's important to know how long it takes for so-called 'secondary forests' to absorb a similar amount of carbon again once they are allowed to grow back. Read more
