Everyday heroes compelled to break the law when government fails to protect us

What does it say about the state of our democracy when it falls upon everyday people to stop a billionaire building the largest coal mine in the southern hemisphere?

The Abbot Point coal terminal in Queensland.

And what does it say about our politicians that they will let Adani’s mine proceed when the vast majority of Australians don’t want it, and scientists are urging us to keep coal in the ground to avoid more dangerous climate change?

This month, nine people - many of them first-time offenders - were collectively fined more than $70,000 for their efforts in January to keep Adani’s coal in the ground.

Read Julian Burnside’s story from The Sydney Morning Herald - “Everyday heroes compelled to break the law when government fails to protect us.”

Today is National Skip the Straw Day

Order your next drink without a straw and talk to local businesses about why they should #breakfreefromplastic.

Order your next drink without a straw and talk with the shop
owner about why they should #breakfreefromplastic.

Today is National Skip the Straw Day. It always falls on the fourth Friday of February, and is a reminder of how important it is to move away from using single-use, disposable plastics in our everyday lives. 

The National Park Service estimates that Americans use 500 million straws daily, which means that if everyone observed Skip the Straw Day, that would be 500 million fewer straws getting tossed today. 

That is a lot of straws, roughly enough to fill 127 school buses daily and circle the Earth's circumference 2.5 times.

Read the Treehugger story by Katherine Martinko - “Today is National Skip the Straw Day.”

Brides of the sun: this is what climate change looks like

Everyone has their own idea about what climate change looks like. It's that polar bear adrift on its ice floe. It is an apocalyptic future of cities disappearing beneath the waves. Or it is just a big fat lie.

Agnes Mposwa,15, was married at the age of 14 and has a new baby.

Hardly anyone would imagine it is a young girl sitting in the doorway of a mud hut in a small African village, nursing her first baby as she watches her friends trot off to school.

But a new investigation suggests that girl, and millions more like her, are now the human face of climate change.

As rising temperatures and irregular rainfall throughout Africa have brought more drought and flooding, families once able to feed themselves have seen harvests fail year after year.

Eventually, many conclude that there is only one option left: their daughters have to go.

Read Gethin Chamberlain’s story in today”s Melbourne Age - “Brides of the sun: this is what climate change looks like.”