MetaFilter posts tagged with Australia and environment

Teach, Bundanoon, teach!

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:18:47 -0800

impending shark food

ZachsMind — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:31:08 -0800

"Why the fuss? Well, Colin's a baby whale..." Oh no. They named the doomed little thing ('little' meaning about the size of a large car). Mal Holland's report from the Daily Telegraph gives a very illuminating rundown of the nervous breakdown that "Sydney's booming whale watching industry" is experiencing right now... For those too lazy to click on the link, the shorthand version of this story is a baby whale's been found off the shores of Sydney Australia thinking that a yacht was its mum. Colin, as some have now taken to calling him, was found suckling on the yacht. The guy who owns the yacht was quoted as saying it sounded like a vacuum cleaner attached to the hull of his ship. They tried coaxing the little guy out into the open sea, but he appears to feel more secure near the shore. It's theorized that his mother has abandoned him, but no one knows why. Some people are demanding something be done to save the animal, but others are saying this is just part of the circle of life. Zoos won't take the whale into captivity cuz no one knows how to nurse a whale calf for eleven months. A scientist tried to bolster an interest in creating an artificial mammary gland for the guy, but it'd take too long and cost too much. The odds of finding a surrogate whale who will take him in are slim to none, so essentially whale watchers are currently watching a two week old calf starve to death, helpless to do anything. Does humanity have a responsibility to save an orphaned baby whale, or is our duty to let nature take its course? And why do we anthorpomophize starving baby whales?

Instant Environmental Satisfaction

Jimbob — Fri, 04 Jun 2004 16:43:44 -0800

Greenfleet is an Australian environmental organisation who aim to help citizens offset their own greenhouse gas emmissions. Their Tree Totaller (Australian-based, but I'm sure conversions are easy) works out how many trees you need to offset your annual emmissions, based on private car, home energy use and flights. It's a very neat little flash-app, and at the end it lets you chose to "subscribe" to Greenfleet so they'll plant the necessary number of trees for you. I owe 44 trees, for only AU$103 a year.

solar challenge

ginz — Sat, 18 Oct 2003 08:03:31 -0800

World solar challenge 2003. Darwin to Adelaide 19 - 28 October. Check out the route. Meet the teams. Have a look at the Green Fleet class as well, where technology meets reality. I won't be able to watch the race but have high hopes for next year's Olympics.

Solar Tower

homunculus — Mon, 06 Jan 2003 10:55:30 -0800

A kilometre-high solar tower, to be built in the Australian outback by EnviroMission Ltd, will become the world's tallest structure when completed in 2006. Designed by Jorg Schlaich of Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, the solar tower (or solar chimney) operates like a hydroelectric power plant, but uses hot air instead of water, and it could provide enough electricity for 200,000 homes. Time calls it one of the best inventions of 2002, and I think it's one of the most ingenious ideas I've ever heard. Another solar chimney project was planned in Rajasthan, India, but I haven't found any information on its current status.

gottabefunky — Fri, 11 Oct 2002 07:14:35 -0800

However you spell it, it sounds like good news. After five years of lobbying by the Aborigines, Australia set aside a huge chunk of the central Outback yesterday as the country’s largest national park. At 38,000 sq mi (98,000 sq km), Ngaanyatjarra is twice the size of Switzerland. This comes on the heels of the Canadian government's plans for ten new national parks and five new marine conservation areas over the next five years, a move greeted with skepticism by some. (And then there are those that say national parks are obsolete anyway). Has anyone been to any of these places?