If we can put a man on the Moon, we can save the Great Barrier Reef

Scientists recently confirmed the Great Barrier Reef suffered another serious bleaching event last summer - the third in five years. Dramatic intervention to save the natural wonder is clearly needed.

Research into breeding coral hybrids for heat-stress
resistance could help restore parts of the reef.

First and foremost, this requires global greenhouse gas emissions to be slashed. But the right combination of technological and biological interventions, deployed with care at the right time and scale, are also critical to securing the reef’s future.

This could include methods designed to shade and cool the reef, techniques to help corals adapt to warmer temperatures, ways to help damaged reefs recover, and smart systems that target interventions to the most strategically beneficial locations.

Read the story from The Conversation - “If we can put a man on the Moon, we can save the Great Barrier Reef.”

Horror first poll for ScoMo’s ‘next-gen team’

Scott Morrison, Australia’s come-from-nowhere prime minister, has suffered a horrific first poll result, as he unveils a ministry with few women and plenty of coal.

The new PM has promoted fellow coal backers to key positions.

In Sunday’s all-important Newspoll, the first since the leadership chaos, popular support for the Coalition dropped to the lowest levels in a decade. Labor gained five points to a whopping two-party preferred vote of 56 per cent to the LNP’s 44 per cent.

Bill Shorten was also crowned the nation’s new preferred prime minister, with 39 per cent support to Mr Morrison’s 33 per cent. This was a gain of seven points for Mr Shorten and a loss of 11 points for Mr Morrison from Malcolm Turnbull’s last number.

Read the story from The New Daily by Jackson Stiles -  "Horror first poll for ScoMo’s ‘next-gen team’.”

When water runs dry

Argentina just experienced its worse drought in thirty years; California recently suffered its worse drought since the 1400s according to ring tree research carried out by the University of Arizona; Oregon Governor Kate Brown just signed an executive order over the dire conditions of drought in the Klamath Basin, agriculture disaster was recently declared by the US Department of Agriculture in four states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas) due to drought, concentrated in to a total of 25 parishes and 124 counties; last week Iranian farmers in Isfahan protested the government’s failure to act on a drought that has plagued the region for over a decade; farmers in Maharashtra, India protested over loan waivers, prices, and land rights with state ministers due to the growing problem of drought in the region; on Tuesday, Kansas Governor, Jeff Colyer, signed a drought declaration for all 105 counties in the state of Kansas; and also on Tuesday the South African government declared that the drought afflicting Cape Town and other parts of the country is a national disaster.

Read the opinion from International The News by Julian Vigo - “When water runs dry."