A Pale Blue Dot

Carl Sagan.

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Read except from Carl Sagan’s book on The Planetary Society - “A Pale Blue Dot."

Coal mining, transport and burning brings pollution problem to Hunter Valley

The recent studies of air pollution in the Hunter finally show us the constituents of pollution and points to the likely sources. We agree with the editorial comment (Newcastle Herald, April 30) that it is extraordinary that the EPA seems to have leapt to the defence of the coal industry, because a close look at the results shows that coal mining, transport and burning is a major contributor to pollution.

Air pollution is a complex mixture of components. The largest fraction shown from the Particle Characterisation Study in Newcastle was sea salt which is probably innocuous, however this is true wherever air pollution has been studied. The large health studies from Europe and North America showing air pollution to cause lung cancer and heart disease also included a salt fraction, so this is not an argument to ignore the high levels of fine particle pollution recorded here.

Read the Newcastle Herald story - “We need a regional air quality plan for the Hunter.”

Sydney communters hit with heavy rain

BoM meteorologist,
 Ashleigh Lange.

Sydney commuters were hit with heavy rain during the afternoon peak hour as the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) issued a severe thunderstorm warning for other parts of NSW.

Large hail, destructive winds and flash flooding have been predicted for the Hunter, Illawarra, Central Tablelands and the Central West Slopes and Plains of New South Wales.

BoM meteorologist Ashleigh Lange said there had been heavy rainfall over Sydney but the Hunter region was now at the greatest risk from thunderstorms.

Read the ABC story - “Sydney weather: BoM issues severe thunderstorm warning for NSW.”