ECOS Magazine - Towards A Sustainable Future

Holding the thin green line

In 2003, Victorian park ranger Sean Willmore set off to record the untold stories behind the deadly work of fellow rangers across the world. The resulting documentary and foundation, The Thin Green Line, continues to help rangers who risk their lives guarding the world's protected wild areas.

Luke Wright and James Porteous 04-Jul-2011

Small green steps no guarantee of bigger change Feature Danish psychology professor, John Thøgersen, believes we don't know enough about why people engage in pro-environmental behaviour. Sonja Dechian finds out that his research challenges received wisdom about what drives people to make real change for the environment. Sonja Dechian 14-May-2012

Macquarie Island is back in bloom Feature Scientists are astounded at the rapid recovery of native vegetation on Australia's sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island – affectionately known as ‘Macca' – after the launch of a massive program to eradicate introduced rats, mice and an overwhelming rabbit population. Mary-Lou Considine 07-May-2012

Imagining a greener future for Ningaloo
Feature

When we plan for the future, it helps to clearly imagine the alternatives – for example, the impact different development scenarios will have on the environment. Western Australia's Ningaloo coast has natural resources that fuel a major tourist industry. Scientific modelling can help us understand the combined impacts of tourism, offshore gas and mining, and climate change on this unique area.

Beth Fulton and Mary-Lou Considine 02-May-2012

Sea's salt levels points to amped-up water cycle
Feature

Changing salinity levels in the oceans point to an accelerating global rainfall and evaporation cycle. Arid regions are becoming drier – and high-rainfall regions are getting wetter – faster than predicted, according to a paper by Australian and United States scientists just published in Science. The scientists say the changes are a ‘fingerprint’ of global warming.

02-May-2012

Fish as friends not food in sharks' social networks Feature ‘Fish are friends, not food,' says Bruce the Shark in the movie Finding Nemo, during a group-therapy-style meeting for marine predators. But could sharks and fish really be friends? In a statistical way, they could. Carrie Bengston and Grace Chiu 23-Apr-2012

Sustainable neighbourhoods: the cohousing model Feature The ‘housing crisis' in our cities is firmly on the national agenda. Gilo Holtzman reports on a long-standing housing model that offers the promise of affordability, sustainability and social cohesion. Gilo Holtzman 23-Apr-2012

Green shoots from brownfield roots Feature While brownfield sites present many challenges for developers, they may be the key to sustainable growth in the face of intense population pressures on our cities. Nick Fleming 16-Apr-2012

Climate-resilient restoration of box gum grassy woodlands
Feature

Box gum grassy woodlands are an iconic part of the eastern Australian landscape and once extended across large parts of inland south-eastern Australia. On trial sites on farmland in southern and central New South Wales, CSIRO is looking at ways of restoring these unique ecosystems to improve their resilience to a drying, warming climate.

Michele Sabto 16-Apr-2012

A new era of empowerment in caring for country?
Comment

Through the Working on Country program and the Indigenous Land Corporation the Federal Government funds hundreds of Indigenous rangers to apply their traditional knowledge in looking after land and sea country. But the focus on the ranger program often overshadows the role of remote Indigenous communities in ‘caring for country’ as part of a deeper spiritual connection to, and respect for, their environment.

Julian Gorman and Sivaram Vemuri 10-Apr-2012

Arguing the case for carbon capture and storage
Comment

While many nations agree on the need for deep cuts to carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, there is no agreement on how this will be achieved and by when. A range of targets, timetables and strategies have been proposed, but in the absence of a binding international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, progress is slow and global emissions continue to increase.

Peter J Cook 10-Apr-2012

Allan Jones and energy efficiency: just getting things done
Feature

Allan Jones is the man in charge of steering the City of Sydney’s ambitious plan to produce 100 per cent of its electricity needs from local energy and to reduce emissions by 70 per cent by 2030. Like his hero, the nineteenth century British engineer Isambard Brunel, he has a reputation for ‘just getting things done’.

02-Apr-2012

Computer power stacks up for flood mitigation Feature The best tools to mitigate the effects of floods such as those we've seen recently literally splashed across our TV screens may not be levies or sandbags, but computers. 02-Apr-2012