World Needs an Ambitious New Deal for Nature & People

From the fresh air we breathe to the clean water we drink, nature provides the essentials we all rely on for our survival and well-being. The loss of nature threatens these essentials. Loss of biodiversity is therefore not only an environmental issue, but also a developmental, economic, security, social and moral issue. It affects us all and all aspects of our lives.

We need a better deal for narture and people.

Yet, worryingly, a series of recent major intergovernmental scientific reports which will inform policy making all over the world from the IPCC, IPBES and others have issued a siren warning: Our natural world is now under unprecedented pressure. At the current rate of nature loss, we stand to face the extinction of an estimated 1 million species within decades and significant declines of food and water supplies and many other services that nature provides to us everyday, for free.

This is supported by WWF’s Living Planet 2018 report, which has found population sizes of wildlife decreased by 60% on average globally between 1970 and 2014.

Read the story from Medium by the Director General of WWF International, Marco Lambertini -  "World Needs an Ambitious New Deal for Nature & People.”

Turning CO2 into Fuel.

When we hear the word ‘environment’ it conjures images of the natural world – vast forests, rolling hills, pristine waterways and fresh air… but these wonders are under threat from greenhouse gases produced by industrialised activity and fossil fuels. For years scientists have been searching for ways to sustain and protect these natural resources so they can continue to support future generations long after we’ve all checked out.

Artist’s rendition of our fantastic catalyst (not 100% accurate).
 Purple are Ruthenium nanoparticles supported on the
ZrO2 nanoparticles (Zr – blue, O – Red). In reality they are
 in the nanometer range 10-20 nm and are black. 

Like all good stories, there is a baddie in the sustainable environment tale, hell-bent on thwarting our science crusaders. Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the product of combusting fossil fuels, plays this role. When fossil fuels that are solid (coal) or stored underground (petrol and natural gas) are burned to provide energy, they produce CO2 in a gaseous form which is released directly into the atmosphere. And we release a lot of it! We also use natural gas, a fossil fuel that contains mostly methane (CH4), for a lot of our industrial activities.

So how do we solve this problem? How can we have our industrialised world and breathe clean air too?

Read CSIRO Blog story by Ali Green - “Turning CO2 into Fuel.”