‘Wake-up call': microplastics found in Great Australian Bight sediment

Plastic has been found in ocean-floor sediments 2km below the surface in one of Australia’s most precious and isolated marine environments.

The Great Australian Bight marine park, a so-called ‘pristine’ biodiversity
hotspot where microplastics have been found below the surface.

CSIRO scientists discovered the microplastic pieces while analysing samples taken hundreds of kilometres offshore at the bottom of the Great Australian Bight – a so-called “pristine” biodiversity hotspot and marine treasure.

Conservationists and scientists said the discovery off the South Australian coast should act as a “wake-up call” for governments and corporations to cut unnecessary use of plastics and to “legislate and incentivise” to tackle the growing ocean plastics problem.

Read Graham Readfearn’s story from The Guardian - “‘Wake-up call': microplastics found in Great Australian Bight sediment.”

How the national interest can prevail over seven years of energy madness

As the new multimillion-dollar security fence encircles Parliament House, amplifying the impression that this is a place increasingly isolated from ordinary Australians, the temptation to expect the worst from those within rises daily.

Not-so-splendid isolation: The security fence at Parliament House. 

And yet.

Could it be possible that the most noxious political brawl, which has subsumed the better part of a decade, could be in the process of grinding to a  resolution? And could that be because the political class has finally recognised that the public and the national interest must be served if the parliament is to regain a shred of dignity?

We are referring, of course, to what is drolly called the energy debate.

Read Tony Wright’s analysis in today’s  Melbourne Age - “How the national interest can prevail over seven years of energy madness.”