Green Options

An oil spill on Wednesday has left more than 40 miles of Australia’s Sunshine Coast in dire straits.

A man who stabbed an Emu to death ‘because he wanted to eat it for Christmas lunch’ has been fined almost A$4,000 (US$2,500) for animal cruelty.

An Australian court heard that, two days before Christmas, Patrick James Andrews, 23, crept into the Emu enclosure at Alexandra zoo in south-east Queensland, where he repeatedly stabbed a 30-year-old Emu named Mary, before cutting its legs off. Zoo staff later found the animal dead in its enclosure.

Water contamination by toxic chemicals appears to be the cause of a mutation which resulted in the deaths of thousands of bass larvae in Australia. The two headed fish survived a mere 48 hours before dying off en masse.

Dr. Matt Landos of the Australian College of Veterinarian Sciences specializes in aquatic animals, and says that this is the first time he has ever seen anything like this. He sees no natural explanation for the deaths and is pinning the likely cause on the chemicals being used by a local macadamia nut plantation.

One of the major sticking points in Australian politics has often centered on the growing need for desalination plants across the country. Reports are widespread, both nationally and internationally, about the worsening drought conditions in the country. So there’s no surprise that we need to do something, but just what has long been a point of contention.

Nonetheless, there are a few desal plants cropping up, and the latest one, on Australia’s Gold Coast, is nearing completion.

Honeybees and songbirds might be getting harder to find, but not redback spiders. In fact, so many of the poisonous arachnids are swarming the tiny Baralaba Multi Purpose Health Service hospital in Australia’s Queensland state that officials are closing the facility for one day so they can fumigate. Authorities blame the infestation on warm temperatures that have encouraged the hatching of more spiders than usual.

Speaking to a friend the other day, our conversation wound its way to the Australian drought. My side of the conversation consisted of imparting facts regarding the Indian Ocean Dipole’s effect on the La Nina, subsequently creating or worsening Australian drought conditions. Dave’s side of the conversation was to inform me that there are kids throughout the country – particularly on the eastern seaboard – that are for the first time in their lives seeing rain.

And these just aren’t 8-month old babies. Kids as old as 16 years old are witnessing rain fall on their very heads.

That rain, according to the National Climate Center (NCC), is an indicator of what might be called the end of our drought. And for this, the entire nation is beyond thankful. We’ve moved all the way through in to … well, whatever is past thankful!

It’s sunny and hot in Cloncurry, Australia, so much so that the Queensland government is planning construction of a $7 million solar thermal power station to provide the community of under 5000 with 24 hour a day electricity.

Anna Bligh, the Premier of Queensland, announced the town will be powered by a 10-megawatt plant using 8000 mirrors to reflect sunlight onto graphite blocks. Water will be pumped through the blocks creating steam which will power a turbine electricity generator. According to the news source the amount of water used to generate the steam is no more than the amount of rainfall the area receives in a year.

The plan will deliver about 30 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to provide electricity for the community 24 hours a day. If all goes as planned, the small town will be buzzing with electricity by 2010.