Beach Clean
Hosted by The Green Team (formerly called Av. Green Team)Sunday June 18: 9 to 10 amPalm Beach - Pittwater side (Station Beach)Come join us for a beach clean!
It has been estimated that we will have more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050...These beach cleans are aimed at reducing the vast amounts of plastic from entering our oceans before they harm marine life.
Anyone and everyone is welcome! If you would like to come along, please bring a bucket, gloves and hat. Kids of all ages are also welcome! Meet near the Boathouse.
Hope to see you there!
Hosted by The Green Team (formerly called Av. Green Team)
Sunday June 18: 9 to 10 am
Palm Beach - Pittwater side (Station Beach)
Come join us for a beach clean!
It has been estimated that we will have more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050...These beach cleans are aimed at reducing the vast amounts of plastic from entering our oceans before they harm marine life. Anyone and everyone is welcome! If you would like to come along, please bring a bucket, gloves and hat. Kids of all ages are also welcome! Meet near the Boathouse.
Hope to see you there!
The 2017 ORRCA Whale Census
Consultation Opens For Marine Estate Regulation
Proposed Pesticides Regulation 2017
Have Your Say On NSW Government's Biodiversity Reforms
Lendlease Engineering Pty Ltd Fined For Iron-Laden Water Discharge At Barangaroo
NSW Budget: $1 Billion Delivers Safe And Secure Regional Water
Queensland Budget Funds Fracking In Western Rivers; Breaches ALP Election Promises
Department Seeks Community Input On Hume Coal Project Proposal
Container Refund Scheme And Plastic Bag Ban A Step Closer
Boomerang Bags Workshop
Tuesday June 27: at 6 pmSew Craft CookPolo Avenue, Mona Vale
Hey guys following on from the last workshops enthusiasm, the Boomerang Bag ladies have kindly enough offered to host another night for us. Everyone that came down last time had fun whether they were sewing, stamping, ironing everyone was contributing, with the help of the ladies some sewed their own bag from start to finish (some wonkier than others). So join us on the 27th no matter what your sewing skill level is for a 2 hour session of rewarding fun.
For those who can't attend but want to help you can donate any old material, Doona covers, Bags, sheets etc. that can be used to make more bags, that we will happily collect from you. For anymore details feel free to direct message The Green Team.
Tuesday June 27: at 6 pm
Sew Craft Cook
Polo Avenue, Mona Vale
Hey guys following on from the last workshops enthusiasm, the Boomerang Bag ladies have kindly enough offered to host another night for us. Everyone that came down last time had fun whether they were sewing, stamping, ironing everyone was contributing, with the help of the ladies some sewed their own bag from start to finish (some wonkier than others). So join us on the 27th no matter what your sewing skill level is for a 2 hour session of rewarding fun.For those who can't attend but want to help you can donate any old material, Doona covers, Bags, sheets etc. that can be used to make more bags, that we will happily collect from you. For anymore details feel free to direct message The Green Team.
Guarding The Galilee Screening
Friday June 30: 6 to 8 pmAvalon Public SchoolOld Barrenjoey Road, Avalon
The Green Team, in collaboration with other local community groups, is hosting a screening called 'Guarding the Gailee' in response to the Adani Coal Mine that has just been approved to be built in Northern Queensland. The aim of the evening is to spread awareness about the detrimental effects this mine will have on our environment. We hope to have a number of speakers from the community and Parliament as well as some food stalls. We would love to see you all there! All we ask for is a small donation at the door to go towards funding events.
Free Admission
Friday June 30: 6 to 8 pm
Avalon Public School
Old Barrenjoey Road, Avalon
The Green Team, in collaboration with other local community groups, is hosting a screening called 'Guarding the Gailee' in response to the Adani Coal Mine that has just been approved to be built in Northern Queensland. The aim of the evening is to spread awareness about the detrimental effects this mine will have on our environment. We hope to have a number of speakers from the community and Parliament as well as some food stalls. We would love to see you all there! All we ask for is a small donation at the door to go towards funding events.Free Admission
EPA Commences Prosecution Against AGL
It’s Time To Shine And Lead The World In Shark Management
EPA Invites Comments On NSW Noise Control Regulation Changes
If Victoria Can Ban CSG, NSW Can Too!
By The Wilderness SocietyCoal seam gas (CSG) threatens our water, our health and our climate. Many jurisdictions around the world are permanently banning this dangerous industry, most recently Victoria. We do not need or want risky coal seam gas in NSW. It’s clear that the industry has no social licence in our state, yet vast and critical areas—as well as human health—are still under threat from CSG across the state.
Call on the new Premier Berejiklian and the new Planning Minister Roberts to follow Victoria's lead and ban this harmful and risky industry in NSW.
By The Wilderness Society
Coal seam gas (CSG) threatens our water, our health and our climate. Many jurisdictions around the world are permanently banning this dangerous industry, most recently Victoria. We do not need or want risky coal seam gas in NSW.
It’s clear that the industry has no social licence in our state, yet vast and critical areas—as well as human health—are still under threat from CSG across the state.
Call on the new Premier Berejiklian and the new Planning Minister Roberts to follow Victoria's lead and ban this harmful and risky industry in NSW.
Draft Vegetation SEPP
Review Of Complying Development In Greenfield Areas
New Wildlife Reserves To Put Queensland Ahead Of The Nation In Conservation
Native Title Law Now Tainted By Adani: Traditional Owners Slam Passage Of Native Title Amendments
Unfinished Business: Adani, The State And Indigenous Rights
June 12, 2017: University of Queensland
University of Queensland researchers have released a report into the uncertainty and contest surrounding the future of the proposed Carmichael coal mine, highlighting “unfinished business” between Adani, the State and the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council.
School of Social Science Associate Professor Dr Kristen Lyons released the report at an event attended by Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council spokesperson Murrawah Johnson.
“The report raises issues that are of immediate relevance, with Parliament meeting to discuss, for a third time, amendments to the Native Title Bill,” she said.
“This has been widely described as a rushed process, by a Government apparently determined to push through their ‘Adani Bill’ and support the go-ahead of Adani's proposed Carmichael mine.
“Our report describes ‘unfinished business’ between Adani and the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council, with the Council's legal campaigns – set to run until at least 2018 – offering the last legal line of defence against the go-ahead of the mine.”
Dr Lyons said the report described the resistance of the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council to the proposed mine on the basis that it would cause irreversible destruction to their country.
The Wangan and Jagalingou are centring their Indigenous rights in the transition to a low carbon future.
Members of the W&J Traditional Owners Council outside the Federal Court
Earth Justice organisation Managing Attorney Martin Wagner, who wrote the report’s foreword, said the story of the Wangan and Jagalingou fight against government and corporate power was an important cautionary tale highlighting the implications for Australian society of the unfinished business between the State and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The report, available here, was written by Dr Lyons, School of Political Science and International Studies Senior Lecturer Morgan Brigg, and School of Economics Professor John Quiggin.
Shelf Sediments Reveal Climate Shifts Through The Eons
June 11, 2017: University of Queensland
Climate change around Antarctica can severely affect Australia’s rainfall and even influence the distribution of wet and dry zones across southeast Asia, an international study has revealed.
Chelsea Korpanty of The University of Queensland’s School of Biological Sciences worked on the study, which was led by Dr Jeroen Groeneveld from the Center of Marine and Environment Sciences at the University of Bremen, Germany.
Ms Korpanty said global climate underwent significant change about 14 million years ago when the Antarctic ice sheet expanded.
“The new study presents shallow-marine sediment records from the Australian continental shelf, providing the first empirical evidence linking high-altitude cooling around Antarctica to climate change in the subtropics during the Miocene era,” she said.
“Our data is consistent with the inference that expansion of sea ice around Antarctica resulted in a northward movement of the westerly winds.
“In turn, this may have pushed tropical atmospheric circulation, shifting the main rainfall belt over large parts of Southeast Asia.”
The study used sediment cores drilled along the west coast of Australia during International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 356 with the research vessel JOIDES Resolution, providing a long-term history of how rainfall and aridity changed on Earth from 16 to six million years ago.
Ms Korpanty worked aboard the JOIDES in 2015 as a sedimentologist alongside scientists from 29 different international institutes and with expertise across paleontology, sedimentology, and physical geological properties.
The results of the expedition, and the data published in the paper, provided an unprecedented climate record for western Australia, capturing when and how Antarctic climate changes affected Australian climate conditions.
Dr Groeneveld said the new study had the enormous advantage of using a complete and thus continuous sediment record which had not been influenced by potential drilling disturbances.
“Today the climate in western Australia varies from north to south - in the north the seasonal monsoon brings pronounced dry and wet seasons, farther south the climate is dry throughout the year, and in the south the westerly winds bring rain during the Australian winter,” he said.
Expedition 356 aimed to determine how this climate gradient developed over longer time periods, especially in the Miocene and Pliocene (16-six million years ago).
Dr Groeneveld said that over longer timescales, tectonic changes played an important role, such as in the closing of the Indonesian Gateway and the northward movement of Australia away from Antarctica.
“Global climate during the Miocene era was much warmer than today, and at the end of the middle Miocene a large part of Antarctica became glaciated and continued to cool the Southern Ocean into the late Miocene.”
The researchers used the natural gamma-ray data acquired with downhole logging during the expedition to reconstruct variations in river runoff and dust and relate these to a history of precipitation and aridity for western Australia.
The findings are published in Science Advances (Australian shelf sediments reveal shifts in Miocene Southern Hemisphere westerlies doi:10.1126/sciadv.1602567)
The research vessel JOIDES Resolution, photo by John Newcombe. Wikipedia Creative Commons.
Australia Post Gives Green Thumb To Aussie Succulents With New Stamps
14th June 2017
Australia Post celebrates Australian succulent plants with a new stamp issue out in post offices across the country from Tuesday 20 June.
Australia Post Philatelic Manager, Michael Zsolt said, "Many Australians have a passion for the great outdoors and for gardening. We believe these stamps will pique the interest of nature-lovers and gardeners alike, providing a window onto some of our amazing native succulent species".
Succulents occur through most regions in Australia and the term "succulence" or "succulent" refers to a plant's capacity for holding water. Besides water-storing capacity, two criteria for determining this group are a plant's ability to withstand long periods of dry without severe leaf loss and the ability to not only survive but continue to grow with minimal food, water and care, making them a popular choice of plant for gardens and courtyards.
The four domestic base-rate ($1) stamps were designed by Melbourne-based Janet Boschen Design and feature the following species:
- Portulaca cyclophylla is found throughout central Western Australia. This species of the Portulaca genus is unusual in having large, showy blooms of up to 3.5 centimetres in diameter, with an extended central stigma.
- Tecticornia verrucosa is found in north, central and south-western central Western Australia; western Northern Territory; and north-western South Australia. This unusually formed plant is blue-green and fleshy; the stems turn a purplish-pink as the plant matures and develop a thin interior woody core.
- Calandrinia creethae is found in central Western Australia and is commonly known as Jelly Beans, named for the clusters of smooth, globular succulent leaves that comprise this plant. Traditionally, species in the Calandrinia genus have been important to Aboriginal people, who gathered its seeds to ground into meal.
- Gunniopsis quadrifida is distributed in south-western Western Australia; southern Northern Territory; northern South Australia; south-western Queensland; and north-western New South Wales. This perennial low-growing shrub has rounded linear, greenish leaves and its fleshy flowers open up, with four leaf-like outer "petals" and white to cream centres.
The products associated with this stamp issue are a first day cover, stamp pack, set of four maxicards, four gutter strips of 10 x $1 stamps with design, roll of 100 x $1 self-adhesive stamps and a booklet of 10 x $1 self-adhesive stamps.
The Australian Succulents stamp issue is available from participating Post Offices, via mail order on 1800 331 794 and online atauspost.com.au/stamps from 20 June 2017 while stocks last.
Visit the Australia Post Collectables website auspostcollectables.com.au and stay up-to-date with new Australian stamp issues. The Australia Post Collectables website is a central resource for stamp collectors and philatelic enthusiasts across the globe.
World's Largest Marine Pollution Project
June 8, 2017: CSIRO
CSIRO is undertaking the world’s largest marine pollution survey, working with countries across the globe to help them assess and reduce the amount of litter entering the oceans.
Some of the world's top 20 polluters will take part in the project including China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam and the United States, plus other countries including Australia, South Korea and Taiwan.
CSIRO senior scientist Dr Denise Hardesty said the project would provide hard numbers on the amount of litter entering the ocean by using real data collected on coastlines and cities across the globe.
"Up until now we've been relying on estimates from 2010 World Bank data, so this will be the first time anyone has brought together a group of countries to look at exactly how much litter is entering the oceans," Dr Hardesty said.
"We will be able to see where the hotspots lie by looking at how people, wind, the shape of the land and storm water moves rubbish into the ocean and then give advice on how to improve this based on science-based interventions."
Representatives from five partner countries will meet next week in Korea for the project's first training workshop.
Our Seas of East Asia Network's Dr Sunwook Hong will lead South Korea's involvement in the project and said taking a global approach was essential to tackle the problem.
"By coordinating our approach we will be able to achieve some quick wins and know where to set our sights for more long-term goals," Dr Hong said.
The project was announced two months after Dr Hardesty presented to the world’s first G20 summit on marine pollution, and on World Ocean Day which in 2017 is focused on plastic pollution.
"We know that almost all litter starts off in someone’s hand, and from there it finds it ways from land to the ocean, where it breaks up into smaller pieces," Dr Hardesty said.
"This means if we can stop the rubbish from entering the ocean, we can make real headway in resolving the problem.
"Along with causing marine and environmental problems, things like plastic bags can also cause storm water drains to become blocked, leading to significant localised flooding and serious health risks for local people."
The project follows years of marine debris research led by Dr Hardesty and her team which has published significant findings including quantifying the amount of litter on the entire Australian coastline and reporting on the number of seabirds and other wildlife eating plastic.
The project is a collaboration between CSIRO, the Oak Family Foundation and Schmidt Marine Technology Partners.
Ocean pollution choking parts of Port Moresby. ©Sustainable Coastlines
Hydroelectric Dams May Jeopardize The Amazon's Future
June 14, 2017: University of Texas at Austin
Map depicting the Amazon's 19 sub-basins and the existing or under construction (green) and planned (yellow) hydroelectric dams.
Credit: Illustration by Edgardo Latrubesse
Hundreds of built and proposed hydroelectric dams may significantly harm life in and around the Amazon by trapping the flow of rich nutrients and modifying the climate from Central America to the Gulf of Mexico. These findings, published in Nature, emerge from a multidisciplinary, international collaboration of researchers from 10 universities, led by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin.
To meet energy needs, economic developers in South America have proposed 428 hydroelectric dams, with 140 currently built or under construction, in the Amazon basin -- the largest and most complex network of river channels in the world, which sustains the highest biodiversity on Earth. The rivers and surrounding forests are the source of 20 percent of the planet's fresh water and valuable ingredients used in modern medicine.
While these hydroelectric dams have been justified for providing renewable energy and avoiding carbon emissions, little attention has been paid to the major disturbances dams present to the Amazon floodplains, rainforests, the northeast coast of South America and the regional climate, the researchers said.
Rivers in the Amazon basin move like a dance, exchanging sediments across continental distances to deliver nutrients to "a mosaic of wetlands," said Edgardo Latrubesse, UT Austin geography and the environment professor and lead author of the study. Sediment transported by rivers provides nutrients that sustain wildlife, contribute to the regional food supplies and modulate river dynamics that result in high habitat and biotic diversity for both aquatic and nonaquatic organisms.
"People say 'oh another dam, another river.' It's not. It's the Amazon," said Latrubesse, who is a faculty affiliate of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. "We have to put the risks on the table and change the way people are looking at the problem. We are massively destroying our natural resources, and time urges us to find some rational alternatives for preservation and sustainable development."
In the study, Latrubesse and collaborators introduced the Dam Environmental Vulnerability Index (DEVI), which was developed to determine the current and potential impacts of dams on rivers and their ecosystems in the Amazon basin. DEVI values quantify on a scale of 0 to 100 an area's vulnerability to potential land use change, erosion, runoff pollution, trapped sediment and overall changes to river systems due to dams.
"To not have an integrated approach is to deny how nature works in the Amazon basin," said Victor Baker, University of Arizona Regents' Professor of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences and co-author of the study." Our role is to show how nature works and that nature is integrated."
Researchers found that many of the existing dams are located in areas of high sediment yield, such as the Andean Cordillera, which provides more than 90 percent of the detrital sediment to the entire system.
The Marañon and Ucayali rivers are the most vulnerable in this area (DEVI of 72 and 61, respectively), with 104 and 47 dams planned or constructed dams on each river, respectively. The researchers estimated 68 to 80 percent of the area upstream of the lowermost planned dam in these rivers will remain unprotected from dam influence, modifying the rivers' dynamics, altering the creation of oxbow lakes and branches, decreasing floods and floodplain sediment storage, and putting thousands of species of birds, fish and trees at risk.
The Madeira River, which accounts for about half of the Amazon River system's total sediment transported from Bolivia and Peru and is home to the most diverse fish population in the Amazon, has the highest DEVI values (greater than 80) and faces extreme risks of potential land use change, erosion, runoff pollution and trapped sediment. Here, two huge dams were recently constructed, the Santo Antônio and Jiaru dams, which led to a 20 percent decrease in the average sediment concentration in the Madeira despite unusually high flood dischargesNature in 2014 and 2015. Researchers expect a greater amount of the nutrient-rich sediment to soon be trapped by the additional trapping effect of 25 dams planned further upstream.
Other large rivers in the central highlands of Brazil are also being impacted, the researchers said. Investigation of the Tapajós River -- where the main riverstem has not yet been directly disrupted, but 28 dams were recently constructed in its major tributaries -- showed that the river and all its major tributaries will be impounded if developers move forward with 90 proposed dams and deforestation continues at its current rate.
"Think about putting dams in the Mississippi connecting artificial lakes from Memphis to New Orleans," Latrubesse said. "It would be a scandal because it wouldn't be sustainable. But this is what is proposed for the Tapajós River."
Baker stressed that the Amazon is "the most important river basin on the planet. It's a microcosm of our issues of today involving environment, energy and health of the planet."
Amazon sediments nourish the largest preserved mangrove region of South America, along the coastline of northeast Brazil and the three Guianas, and past research has shown the sediments affect rainfall and storm patterns from the Amazon basin to Gulf of Mexico, Latrubesse said.
"The dimension of the impacts can be not only regional, but also on an interhemispheric scale," Latrubesse said. "If all the planned dams in the basin are constructed, their cumulative effect will trigger a change in sediment flowing into the Atlantic Ocean that may hinder the regional climate."
Edgardo M. Latrubesse, Eugenio Y. Arima, Thomas Dunne, Edward Park, Victor R. Baker, Fernando M. d’Horta, Charles Wight, Florian Wittmann, Jansen Zuanon, Paul A. Baker, Camila C. Ribas, Richard B. Norgaard, Naziano Filizola, Atif Ansar, Bent Flyvbjerg, Jose C. Stevaux. Damming the rivers of the Amazon basin. Nature, 2017; 546 (7658): 363 DOI: 10.1038/nature22333
Large Canadian Arctic Climate Change Study Cancelled Due To Climate Change
June 13, 2017: University of Manitoba
The Science Team of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has cancelled the first leg of the 2017 Expedition due to complications associated with the southward motion of hazardous Arctic sea ice, caused by climate change.
This regrettably postpones the much-anticipated Hudson Bay System Study (BaySys) involving 40 scientists from five universities across Canada. Timing was key for this $17 million, four-year, University of Manitoba-led project.
The need to deal with extreme ice conditions in the south meant the ship would arrive too late on site to meet research objectives.
The Arctic deployment of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen is undertaken through a long-standing collaboration between the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and University-led Arctic science in Canada.
The research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen. Image courtesy of University of Manitoba
This productive partnership has been providing Canadian researchers and their international colleagues with the ability to monitor and understand the impacts of climate change and resource development on Arctic marine and coastal ecosystems and northern communities since 2003.
This year the Expedition Logistics and Science Teams accelerated the mobilization of the 2017 Arctic Expedition to permit departure of the Amundsen six days ahead of schedule.
This would allow CCG to carry out critical marine safety and security operations in the unusually severe ice conditions in the Strait of Belle Isle and along the northeast coast of Newfoundland before beginning the Science Mission.
Unfortunately, the conditions required much more extended support than anticipated. Fleet management issues and inadequate alternative ships forced the cancellation of the science program due to significant safety concerns.
This decision to cancel the BaySys 2017 program was not made lightly. Although the cancellation was due to circumstances beyond control of the Expedition Team, every effort was made to develop a viable option to allow this valuable work to proceed.
The decision to terminate the 2017 program has significant impacts on partners and the large number of graduate students involved.
"Considering the severe ice conditions and the increasing demand for Search And Rescue operations (SAR) and ice escort, we decided to cancel the BaySys mission. A second week of delay meant our research objectives just could not be safely achieved -- the challenge for us all was that the marine ice hazards were exceedingly difficult for the maritime industry, the CCG, and science," says Dr. David Barber, Expedition Chief Scientist and BaySys Scientific Lead.
Dr. Barber and his team of experts were able to use the state-of-the-art equipment onboard the Amundsen to confirm that a significant proportion of the sea ice present originated from the high Arctic.
He noted that, "Climate-related changes in Arctic sea ice not only reduce its extent and thickness but also increase its mobility meaning that ice conditions are likely to become more variable and severe conditions such as these will occur more often."
The Sea Ice Research Team collected a comprehensive dataset on the physics of the ice, ocean and atmosphere in the area and these data will contribute to the understanding of these events and assist Canada in preparing for climate change driven increases in marine ice hazards.
"This extremely unfortunate event is not expected to affect the remainder of the 2017 Amundsen Expedition resuming on July 6. We believe that the oceanographic studies will proceed as planned and do not anticipate an impact on the Nunavik Inuit Health Survey, says Dr. Louis Fortier, Scientific Director of the Amundsen and ArcticNet Science programs. "The Amundsen Science Team is committed to working with Canadian Coast Guard and our industrial partners to plan a 2018 BaySys program."
The research of our scientists clearly indicate that climate change is not something that is going to happen in the future -- it is already here. Research results from scientists onboard the Amundsen and innovative Networks like ArcticNet show the impacts of climate change in Canada's Arctic and Arctic Ocean affect not only northern ecosystems and communities, but also the environments and people living in the south of Canada -- as so dramatically seen off the coast of Newfoundland.
The provision of the best information possible is essential for proper planning, decision-making and adaptation to the realities of climate change.
This experience, and climate change conditions currently affecting Churchill, Man., clearly illustrates that Canada is ill prepared to deal with the realities of climate change.
Plastic Made From Sugar And Carbon Dioxide
June 13, 2017: University of Bath
This is a graphic showing how sugar and carbon dioxide is converted to plastic. Credit: Georgina Gregory
Some biodegradable plastics could in the future be made using sugar and carbon dioxide, replacing unsustainable plastics made from crude oil, following research by scientists from the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath.
Polycarbonate is used to make drinks bottles, lenses for glasses and in scratch-resistant coatings for phones, CDs and DVDs
Current manufacture processes for polycarbonate use BPA (banned from use in baby bottles) and highly toxic phosgene, used as a chemical weapon in World War One
Bath scientists have made alternative polycarbonates from sugars and carbon dioxide in a new process that also uses low pressures and room temperature, making it cheaper and safer to produce
This new type of polycarbonate can be biodegraded back into carbon dioxide and sugar using enzymes from soil bacteria
This new plastic is bio-compatible so could in the future be used for medical implants or as scaffolds for growing replacement organs for transplant
Polycarbonates from sugars offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional polycarbonate from BPA, however the process uses a highly toxic chemical called phosgene. Now scientists at Bath have developed a much safer, even more sustainable alternative which adds carbon dioxide to the sugar at low pressures and at room temperature.
The resulting plastic has similar physical properties to those derived from petrochemicals, being strong, transparent and scratch-resistant. The crucial difference is that they can be degraded back into carbon dioxide and sugar using the enzymes found in soil bacteria.
The new BPA-free plastic could potentially replace current polycarbonates in items such as baby bottles and food containers, and since the plastic is bio-compatible, it could also be used for medical implants or as scaffolds for growing tissues or organs for transplant.
Dr Antoine Buchard, Whorrod Research Fellow in the University's Department of Chemistry, said: "With an ever-growing population, there is an increasing demand for plastics. This new plastic is a renewable alternative to fossil-fuel based polymers, potentially inexpensive, and, because it is biodegradable, will not contribute to growing ocean and landfill waste.
"Our process uses carbon dioxide instead of the highly toxic chemical phosgene, and produces a plastic that is free from BPA, so not only is the plastic safer, but the manufacture process is cleaner too."
Dr Buchard and his team at the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies, published their work in a series of articles in the journals Polymer Chemistry and Macromolecules.
In particular, they used nature as inspiration for the process, using the sugar found in DNA called thymidine as a building block to make a novel polycarbonate plastic with a lot of potential.
PhD student and first author of the articles, Georgina Gregory, explained: "Thymidine is one of the units that makes up DNA. Because it is already present in the body, it means this plastic will be bio-compatible and can be used safely for tissue engineering applications.
"The properties of this new plastic can be fine-tuned by tweaking the chemical structure -- for example we can make the plastic positively charged so that cells can stick to it, making it useful as a scaffold for tissue engineering." Such tissue engineering work has already started in collaboration with Dr Ram Sharma from Chemical Engineering, also part of the CSCT.
The researchers have also looked at using other sugars such as ribose and mannose. Dr Buchard added: "Chemists have 100 years' experience with using petrochemicals as a raw material so we need to start again using renewable feedstocks like sugars as a base for synthetic but sustainable materials. It's early days, but the future looks promising."
This work was supported by Roger and Sue Whorrod (Fellowship to Dr Buchard), EPSRC (Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Chemical Technologies), and a Royal Society research Grant.
Georgina L. Gregory, Gabriele Kociok-Köhn, Antoine Buchard. Polymers from sugars and CO2: ring-opening polymerisation and copolymerisation of cyclic carbonates derived from 2-deoxy-d-ribose. Polym. Chem., 2017; 8 (13): 2093 DOI: 10.1039/C7PY00236J
Funding NSW Budget: Record $100m Palliative Care
13 June 2017: NSW Minister for Health, The Hon. Brad Hazzard
The NSW Government will provide record funding for palliative care across NSW to support people suffering terminal illness and their families.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Minister for Health Brad Hazzard said the upcoming NSW Budget will invest an additional $100 million in palliative care services over the next four years.
“From additional nurses in frontline palliative care to funding for 24-hour community care services, this is a package of funding that will have a powerful and tangible impact across the State,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“At a time in people’s lives where every moment is incredibly precious, this investment is about providing the care options to lessen the strain on them and their loved ones.”
Palliative care aims to improve the quality of life of patients with an active, progressive disease that has little or no prospect of a cure.
Mr Perrottet said: “I am incredibly proud that this Budget includes the most serious commitment of any government in NSW history to give people at the end of life’s journey, and their families, the peace, comfort and support they deserve.
“We have an obligation to honour the dignity of everyone in our community to the very end, and this funding demonstrates our Government’s commitment to meeting that obligation.”
Mr Hazzard said the initiative includes a range of professional training measures.
“This package includes training for 300 nurses and allied health staff, 300 scholarships for rural and regional staff to enhance palliative care skills and 30 additional nurses in hospitals, homes and nursing homes,” Mr Hazzard said.
“We have listened to communities at palliative care roundtables across the state and the message from Broken Hill to Sydney, from Griffith to Lismore is that we need to expand our palliative care resources and choices at a local level.”
“We want the community to have confidence and choice in their end-of-life care and this Budget is a giant leap towards that outcome.”
The 2017-18 State Budget includes funding for:
- palliative care training for 300 nurses and allied health staff ($900,000)
- 300 scholarships for rural and regional staff to enhance palliative care skills ($300,000)
- an additional six palliative care specialists in rural and regional areas ($2.4 million)
- two specialist positions to provide relief to other specialists in rural and regional areas ($795,000)
- an additional 30 palliative care nurses providing care in hospitals, homes and nursing homes ($5 million)
- community-based palliative care services in Western Sydney, including a 24 hour, seven day a week on-call specialist palliative care service at home ($6.9 million)
- the development of comprehensive and integrated palliative care services, in line with community expectations and need ($1 million in 2017- 18 as part of a $22 million investment over four years)
- community pharmacy initiatives to improve medication management for palliative care patients ($200,000).
NSW Budget: $217 Million For Preschool Fee Relief
9 June 2017: Media Release - Minister for Early Childhood Education, The Hon. Sarah Mitchell
The NSW Budget is backing our youngest learners and making early childhood education more affordable for families with an additional $217 million for the successful Start Strong program.
To ensure affordability is not a barrier for families, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the investment in the 2017-18 Budget extends Start Strong to 2021.
"This is an unprecedented investment in early childhood education by the NSW Government and delivers on our commitment to reinvest our economic success into supporting families," Mr Perrottet said.
"My eye is firmly on the future in this Budget and with this additional funding, community preschools and long day care services will continue to be funded through Start Strong to 2021.
"Every single preschool across NSW will benefit from this ongoing funding – which means this Government continues to back our kids and their families."
Minister for Early Childhood Education Sarah Mitchell said we know the success of a child's education on their last day of school is determined by their very first day of school.
"This investment builds on the NSW Government's commitment of $115 million to make it easier for families to access affordable, quality preschool programs no matter where they live," Mrs Mitchell said.
"Start Strong links needs-based funding to 600 hours of enrolment in quality education in the year before school to ensure more kids participate because we know how important it is.
"To ensure this increase in funding has a real impact upon service affordability; community preschool services must pass on at least 75 per cent of the increased funding to parents.
"NSW has a diverse early childhood education sector, and this Government is ensuring there is choice when it comes to quality services that meets individual needs."
Since the launch of Start Strong in January this year, more than half of all community preschools in NSW have changed their business model in response to the new funding program.
Museums Victoria Leads World-First Research Voyage To Uncover Life In Australia’s Eastern Abyss
An international team of 40 scientists embarked on a pioneering deep-sea research voyage to uncover the mysterious life that inhabits the abyss off eastern Australia a month ago – an almost unexplored habitat 4000 metres below the surface.
Called Sampling the Abyss, the voyage on the Marine National Facility research vessel Investigator brings together scientists from Museums Victoria, CSIRO and other Australian and international museums and research agencies. The voyage departed Bell Bay (Launceston, Tasmania) on 15 May and visited seven Commonwealth marine reserves (CMRs) – from the Freycinet CMR off eastern Tasmania to the Coral Sea CMR off central Queensland – before finishing in Brisbane on the 16th of June.
This is the first time the biodiversity of these abyssal areas has been explored and the scientists are expecting to discover many new deep-sea species.
Dr Tim O’Hara, Museums Victoria’s Senior Curator, Marine Invertebrates and Chief Scientist of Sampling the Abyss said:
“The abyss is the largest and deepest habitat on the planet, covering half the world’s oceans and one third of Australia’s territory, but it remains the most unexplored environment on Earth.”
“We know that abyssal animals have been around for at least 40 million years, but until recently only a handful of samples had been collected from Australia’s abyss.”
Dr Tim O’Hara stands on Investigator’s rear deck amongst nets and sleds used by the scientsists. Image Matthew Newton/Marine Biodiversity Hub
The abyss is a world of crushing pressures, no light, little food and freezing temperatures. Research in other parts of the world has found that the animals that live there have evolved highly unique ways to survive.
At these huge depths it is so dark that creatures often have no eyes or produce their own light through bioluminescence. As food is scarce, animals are often small and move slowly. Many are jelly-like and spend their lives floating about, while others have ferocious spines and fangs and lie in wait until food comes to them.
What lies in wait in the deepest parts of Australia’s ocean for us to discover? And why is it so important to understand?
Dr Tim O’Hara explains:
“The data gathered on this trip will be crucial to understanding Australia’s deep-sea habitats, their biodiversity and the ecological processes that sustain them. This will assist in its conservation and management and help to protect it from the impacts of climate change, pollution and other human activity.”
The research team used a high-tech multi-beam sonar to map the structure of the seafloor, and cameras, nets and sleds to sample habitats 2500 and 4000 metre depths. In the deepest parts of the ocean it takes seven hours to lower and raise this equipment from the seafloor.
Scientists caught a blobfish at a depth of 2.5 kilometres off the coast of New South Wales. Supplied: Robert Zelugaro
Scientists expected to find a range of animals, including new species, of fish, starfish, molluscs, crabs, sponges, marine worms and sea spiders.
Back in the lab, scientists will map patterns of biodiversity and evolution across the seafloor, and analyse the chemistry and DNA of tissue samples to reconstruct deep-sea food webs and discover links between deep-sea populations.
The team have brought the Australian deep-sea alive though photography and video on ‘Blogging the Abyss’ and Museums Victoria, CSIRO and the Marine Biodiversity Hub social media.
The Sampling the Abyss voyage is being led by Museums Victoria, with support from the CSIRO Marine National Facility and National Environmental Science Programme’s Marine Biodiversity Hub.
Visit Blogging the Abyss and have a look at what they’ve been up to in the last month at https://www.nespmarine.edu.au/abyss-landing-page
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Phoebe Lewis of RMIT University prepares the manta net to sample microplastics in surface waters beside the CSIRO RV Investigator. Image: Asher Flatt
"We've done about 50 different small net tows on the bottom and every one of them has brought up a piece of rubbish," Dr O'Hara said.
The array of litter includes old bottles, wire, ropes and plastic and burnt coal residue — known as clinker, dumped from old steam ships (the ships that were on the seas a century and more ago).
RIP CURL GROMSEARCH SET TO RAISE THE BAR FOR ANOTHER NATIONAL SERIES
Wednesday, 14th June 2017 by Surfing NSW
From September 23 Australian beaches will host the cream of the crop in junior surfing, as the 2017/18 Rip Curl GromSearch Series presented by Flight Centre gets underway.
The prestigious National series will feature five stops in the key surfing regions of Jan Juc (VIC), Maroubra (NSW), Trigg /Scarborough (WA), Yorke Peninsula (SA) and the Sunshine Coast (QLD). Participants can look forward to activities, giveaways and the chance to meet surfers from all over the country at each event, as well as hone their skills in the water. 2017 sees the introduction of a “priority system” in several divisions across the series, allowing athletes to gain valuable experience with the same system used across all elite surfing events.
Professional surfer and current WSL world number five Matt Wilkinson commented… “I loved the GromSearch series as a kid. Travelling to different places, meeting new crew and having a good time on your holidays is what every grom wants to do. Then throw in the chance to surf the National final to try and represent Australia… it’s unreal!"
The Australian series allows surfers from around the country to compete against their contemporaries in a fun and engaging environment. Each result in the five-event series is awarded points that count towards a surfer’s GromSearch National rating, giving participants across the country the opportunity to compare their performances against their peers. After the last event in Queensland, the top ranked surfers qualify for the Rip Curl GromSearch National Final (in their respective divisions), where they then compete for the chance to become the Australian GromSearch Champion. The National Champion then represents Australia at the Rip Curl GromSearch International Final, held at a new location around the globe each year, against the best junior surfers in each participating country.
With parallel Rip Curl GromSearch Series in over 10 countries, it has become a crucial stepping-stone in the development of junior surfers. The list of previous GromSearch winners illustrates the prestigious history of the series, with World Surf League (WSL) competitors Gabriel Medina (Brazil), Tyler Wright (Australia), Owen Wright (Australia), Matt Wilkinson (Australia), Jordy Smith (South Africa), Kolohe Andino (USA) and Sally Fitzgibbons (Australia) among the list of former competitors and GromSearch International Final Champions.
Working in conjunction with Surfing Australia, the Rip Curl GromSearch includes divisions in 16-and-under, 14-and-under and 12-and-under, for both boys and girls.
Entry details, event format and further information on entry procedures will be available in the coming weeks.
2017-18 Rip Curl GromSearch Series Dates:
RCGS - EVENT 1 - Jan Juc, VIC - Sept 23 - 25, 2017
RCGS - EVENT 2 - Maroubra, NSW - Sept 30 - Oct 3, 2017
RCGS - EVENT 3 - Trigg / Scarborough WA - Oct 6 - 8, 2017
RCGS - EVENT 4 - Yorke Peninsula, SA - Nov 4 - 5, 2017
RCGS - EVENT 5 - Sunshine Coast, QLD - Dec 11 - 15, 2017
RCGS - National Final - NSW coastline - Jan 15 - 17, 2018
The 2017 Rip Curl GromSearch Series is presented by Flight Centre.
Image: Ed Sloane / Rip Curl
Providing $400,000 Life-Saving Drug To Australian Kids With Rare Disease
15 June, 2017: Media Release - The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Health, Minister for Sport
The Australian Government will provide a life-saving treatment to Australian patients who have a rare medical condition known as Morquio A Syndrome, at no cost.
Vimizim® (elosulfase alfa) will be available under the Life Saving Drugs Program from 1 August.
With treatment costing around $400,000 each year, many Australian children suffering from Morquio A have been unable to receive treatment as it has simply been out-of-reach.
It’s an awful disease that cruelly affects children. Having access to Vimizim will be life-changing and indeed life-saving for some of our youngest Australians.
Morquio A Syndrome, or mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) type IV A is an inherited metabolic condition, with Vimizim the only available treatment.
People born with the syndrome are either missing, or don’t have enough of, a crucial enzyme needed to break down long chains of sugar molecules. As a result they have abnormal development and a possible early death.
Before accessing this new drug, patients will need to undergo a clinical assessment and then yearly checks to ensure Vimizim treatment continues to be effective and appropriate for their condition.
Adding medicines to the Life Saving Drugs Program is rare and Vimizin is only the 13th medicine to be added.
It will cost of $44 million over five years to treat 20 children. We are able to make this life-changing listing today because of our responsible financial management of the cost of medicines.
Since coming into Government, we have added over 1400 new and amended drug listings to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to improve the health of Australians.
Unlike Labor, we are adding medicines recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee without fear or favour. Labor delayed the listing of seven vital drugs.
Australia’s PBS is one of the foundations of our universal health care system and is the envy of many countries.
The Turnbull Government has a rock solid commitment to Medicare and part of this commitment is ensuring people have access to medicine when they need it.
For further information go to the Life Saving Drugs Program website.
Gluten-Free Beer From Witkop Teff Grains
June 14, 2017: American Chemical Society
For celiac patients and others on gluten-free diets, it seems like gluten is everywhere -- cakes, cookies and breads. It's even in most beers. But now, one team reports in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that beers made with Witkop teff grains may be a good alternative to traditionally brewed barley beers.
Gluten based sensitivities impact millions of people each year, leading to a dramatic rise in gluten-free food products on grocery store shelves. According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, one percent of the global population has celiac disease, which results in the immune system attacking the small intestine when gluten is consumed. Currently, no medicinal treatments are available, and the only option is to follow a strict, gluten-free diet. As a result, breweries have been exploring alternative grains, such as corn, rice and buckwheat, to replace barley in the malting and brewing process. Teff, a small cereal native to Ethiopia that doesn't contain gluten, is another possibility that researchers have tested. Now, Valeria Sileoni and colleagues wanted to examine, for the first time, the potential of a variety of teff called Witkop as a raw material for malting and brewing.
The researchers examined the Witkop teff malting process, in which grains are steeped, germinated and dried, to determine the optimum conditions. Witkop teff took longer to malt than barley, and the team found that the teff had different enzymes to break down sugars than barley. The researchers concluded that Witkop teff grains have potential as a raw material for beer production but would likely require custom malting equipment on an industrial scale.
Lidia Di Ghionno, Ombretta Marconi, Eung Gwan Lee, Christopher J. Rice, Valeria Sileoni, Giuseppe Perretti. Gluten-Free Sources of Fermentable Extract: Effect of Temperature and Germination Time on Quality Attributes of Teff [Eragrostis tef (zucc.) Trotter] Malt and Wort. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2017; 65 (23): 4777 DOI:10.1021/acs.jafc.7b01717
Dawn Of Humanity: Neanderthal-Homo Sapiens Transition
June 14, 2017: Australian National University
Archaeologists at The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Sydney have provided a window into one of the most exciting periods in human history -- the transition between Neanderthals and modern humans.
An archaeological dig in a cave in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic has provided a timeline of evidence from 10 sedimentary layers spanning 28,000 to 50,000 years ago. This is the period when our modern human ancestors first arrived in Europe.
The dig, in a cave near the Czech border with Austria and around 150kms north of Vienna, has unearthed over 20,000 animal bones as well as stone tools, weapons and an engraved bone bead that is the oldest of its kind in Central Europe.
A stone tool thought to be a speartip made from radiolarite sourced over 100km to the east of the cave. Credit: Miroslav Kralík
ANU archaeologist Dr Duncan Wright said the project was so important because it gives some of the earliest evidence of modern human activity in the region. This was a period when humans were moving substantial distances and bringing with them portable art objects.
"In the early layers the items we've found are locally made flakes, possibly used by small communities living and hunting in the vicinity to kill animals or prepare food, but around 40,000 years ago we start to see objects coming from long distances away," Dr Wright said.
"Dating from this same time we unearthed a bead made from mammal bone. This is the oldest portable art object of its type found anywhere in central Europe and provides evidence of social signalling, quite possibly used as a necklace to mark the identity of the wearer.
"So between these two periods, we've either seen a change in behaviour and human movement or possibly even a change in species."
Archaeologist Ladislav Nejman of the University of Sydney said one of the biggest questions is the beginnings of human exploration of this landscape by Homo sapiens who arrived in this area for the first time. "We've found that somewhere between 40-48,000 years ago people became highly mobile," Dr Nejman said.
"Instead of moving short distances near the cave where they lived, they were walking for hundreds of kilometres quite often. We know that because we found various artefacts where the raw material comes from 100-200 kilometres away.
"The artefacts were also made of different materials from different regions. Some from the North-West, some from the North, some from the East."
However in layer 10, which represents an earlier time period between 48-45,000 years ago, all the recovered stone artefacts were made using local raw material, which indicates that the high residential mobility came later.
Dr Nejman said the study also revealed valuable new information about the climate of the region.
"We haven't had such a long sequence of sedimentary layers before that we could test," he said.
"The climate changed quite often from warmer to colder, and vice versa, but at all times it was much colder than the interglacial period that we have lived in for the past 10,000 years."
Samples from the site have been sent through for analysis using a new technique, called ancient sediment DNA analysis. This is the first scientific method that can detect which species were present even without the bones of these species. It tests remnant DNA preserved in the sediment.
Dr Wright said the results will shed new light on a period of transition between two species of humans and also give clearer evidence about the activities of our modern human ancestors in a period and region where little is known.
"We can tell by the artefacts that small groups of people camped at this cave. This was during glacial periods suggesting they were well adapted to these harsh conditions" Dr Wright said.
"It's quite possible that the two different species of humans met in this area."
The study was initially funded by a grant from SoMoPro program with a financial contribution from the European Community within the Seventh Framework Programme. The study has been published in the Journal of Human Evolution.
L. Nejman, R. Wood, D. Wright, L. Lisá, Z. Nerudová, P. Neruda, A. Přichystal, J. Svoboda. Hominid visitation of the Moravian Karst during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition: New results from Pod Hradem Cave (Czech Republic). Journal of Human Evolution, 2017; 108: 131 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.03.015
Making Art Activates Brain's Reward Pathway
June 13, 2017: Drexel University
Your brain's reward pathways become active during art-making activities like doodling, according to a new Drexel University study.
Girija Kaimal, EdD, assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, led a team that used fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) technology to measure blood flow in the areas of the brain related to rewards while study participants completed a variety of art-making projects.
"This shows that there might be inherent pleasure in doing art activities independent of the end results. Sometimes, we tend to be very critical of what we do because we have internalized, societal judgements of what is good or bad art and, therefore, who is skilled and who is not," said Kaimal of the study that was published The Arts in Psychotherapy. "We might be reducing or neglecting a simple potential source of rewards perceived by the brain. And this biologocial proof could potentially challenge some of our assumptions about ourselves."
For the study, co-authored by Drexel faculty including Jennifer Nasser, PhD, and Hasan Ayaz, PhD, 26 participants wore fNIRS headbands while they completed three different art activities (each with rest periods between). For three minutes each, the participants colored in a mandala, doodled within or around a circle marked on a paper, and had a free-drawing session.
These are examples of the doodling activity. Picture Courtesy of Drexel University
During all three activities, there was a measured increase in bloodflow in the brain's prefrontal cortex, compared to rest periods where bloodflow decreased to normal rates.
The prefrontal cortex is related to regulating our thoughts, feelings and actions. It is also related to emotional and motivational systems and part of the wiring for our brain's reward circuit. So seeing increased bloodflow in these areas likely means a person is experiencing feels related to being rewarded.
There were some distinctions between the activities in the data collected.
Doodling in or around the circle had the highest average measured bloodflow increase in the reward pathway compared to free-drawing (the next highest) and coloring. However, the difference between each form of art-making was not statistically significant, according to analysis.
"There were some emergent differences but we did not have a large-enough sample in this initial study to draw any definitive conclusions," Kaimal said.
It was noted and tracked which participants in the study considered themselves artists so that their results could be compared to non-artists. In that way, Kaimal and her team hoped to understand whether past experience played a factor in triggering feelings of reward.
Doodling seemed to initiate the most brain activity in artists, but free-drawing was observed to be about the same for artists and non-artists. Interestingly, the set coloring activity actually resulted in negative brain activity in artists.
"I think artists might have felt very constrained by the pre-drawn shapes and the limited choice of media," Kaimal explained. "They might also have felt some frustration that they could not complete the image in the short time."
Again, however, these results regarding artists versus non-artists proved statistically insignificant, which might actually track with Kaimal's previous research that found experience-level did not have a bearing on the stress-reduction benefits people had while making art.
Overall, though, the finding that any form of art-making resulted in the significant activation of feelings of reward are compelling, especially for art therapists who see art as a valuable tool for mental health.
In fact, in surveys administered to the participants after the activities were complete, respondents indicated that they felt more like they had "good ideas" and could "solve problems" than before the activities. Participants even said they felt the three-minute time spans for art-making weren't long enough.
"There are several implications of this study's findings," Kaimal said. "They indicate an inherent potential for evoking positive emotions through art-making -- and doodling especially. Doodling is something we all have experience with and might re-imagine as a democratizing, skill independent, judgment-free pleasurable activity."
Additionally, Kaimal felt that the findings of increased self-opinion were intriguing.
"There might be inherent aspects to visual self-expression that evoke both pleasure and a sense of creative agency in ourselves," she said.
Girija Kaimal, Hasan Ayaz, Joanna Herres, Rebekka Dieterich-Hartwell, Bindal Makwana, Donna H. Kaiser, Jennifer A. Nasser. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy assessment of reward perception based on visual self-expression: Coloring, doodling, and free drawing. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 2017; 55: 85 DOI: 10.1016/j.aip.2017.05.004