Coal - a dirty business...

Did you see last night’s Four Corners episode, A Dirty Business, about coal mining in the Hunter Valley? If you missed it, it’s well worth chasing it up on their website or watching it on ABC’s iView. It was about the terrible health problems faced by people in the Hunter Valley who have gradually had coal mines surround their towns. Doctors have noticed that respiratory disease in the area is well above...

Plantation toxins in Tasmania...

A scene from Something In The Water Did anyone else watch Australian Story on Monday night? It was about an alliance between a GP, a group of oyster farmers and a Sydney scientist, investigating water quality issues in Tasmania’s George River. The oyster farmers found that their business was suffering because of toxins in the water. A local GP believes there is a cancer cluster in the region her patients are from....

Review: Two Men in a Tinnie...

While I’ve been on holidays, I finally caught up with all the episodes of the ABC TV series Two Men in a Tinnie. It’s the one where John Doyle (more famous from Triple J’s Roy and HG shows) and Professor Tim Flannery take a dinghy down the Murray and Darling Rivers, meeting the people who live and work and play there. I saw a bit of it on tv a few years ago, but have only just now rented the whole thing...

Oz in 30 Seconds - the winner!...

The winning ad in the Oz in 30 Seconds competition has been announced: This is what we Australi-ARE. It’s about what Australians are and hope to be, and it includes “clean and green” as one of our aspirations, with an image of wind-farms in the background. When I saw the finalists, I thought this one was a strong contender for first place. I like it - it’s simple, but clear in it’s statement...

The Great Global Warming Swindle...

Last night the ABC aired The Great Global Warming Swindle, a documentary that claims nature, not humans, is causing climate change. ABC Science Online has a debunking at The-Great-Global-Warming-Swindle Swindle which explains the science in layman’s terms. If you really want to nerd it up, you can see more details at RealClimate.org and the Australian Science Media Centre. I’m not sure why the ABC aired such...

Oz in 30 Seconds...

Are you sick of the negative campaigns run by politicians during election season? If so, you’ve got something in common with the members of GetUp!.org.au. They decided that this year the public should have their own political ads describing what they want for Australia’s future. They’re running a competition called Oz in 30 Seconds, where people make their own 30-second advertisements about political...

Carbon Cops...

Carbon Cops is a new show on the ABC at 8pm on Tuesdays. I thought it might be too similar to SBS’s Eco-House Challenge, but it has a different format, more like “Green Eye for the Carbon Guy” than the long-term challenge of the SBS show. The show sends in two “Carbon Cops” to audit a family’s energy use, help them make their house more efficient, then challenge them to cut their carbon...