Category: General news

“Keep Queensland Beautiful” is the new catchcry to stop Queensland’s three-year run as the most littered mainland state in Australia.

In a new initiative, Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland (KABQ) is rebranding itself to focus on the “chronic local litter problem”.

“We need to fix our bad littering behaviour in Queensland,” says Rick Burnett, CEO of KABQ, and creator of the new Keep Queensland Beautiful (KQB) “trading name”.

“We have a new state government, and in partnership with Keep Queensland Beautiful, we have a new commitment and goal.

“Let’s be the cleanest state – not the dirtiest.

“It’s so simple – if we all put our rubbish in a bin, we will keep Queensland beautiful.”

Mr Burnett also launched a new jingle and video which he was negotiating to have played at sporting venues, cinemas and as a community service announcement in local TV and radio airtime.

Sharing the joint announcement, the Minister of Environment and Heritage Protection, the Hon. Andrew Powell MP, said it was a bold decision for the iconic Keep Australia Beautiful organisation.

“The Newman government will be supporting the initiative by providing seed-funding for a new Keep Queensland Beautiful “litter prevention smart phone App”.

“We are in a new age of communication and data collection,” Minister Powell said.

“Keep Queensland Beautiful will develop a new phone app to allow public reporting of littering and data about litter hotspots.”

The Minister said the Newman Government was committed to helping form industry partnerships with Keep Queensland Beautiful to create more investment in a cleaner Queensland.

“It is a matter of pride that we keep our state clean and litter-free, and it’s in our hands to make it happen.”

Mr Burnett said: “We have the most beautiful natural landscapes, beaches, flora and fauna of all the states in Australia – yet we have the worst littering problem.”

(The National Litter Index – measuring litter item numbers and volumes at 983 sites across Australia – has found Queensland had the most littered items in the past three consecutive years.)

“It is lazy, ugly, and destructive – remember: Litter on land, kills at sea!” Burnett said.

“And cigarette butts, plastic bags and plastic bottles are the top killers.

“We have the world’s best-known, most iconic coral reef, brilliant islands and marine environments, yet so many of us are lazy and thoughtless about dropping our rubbish wherever we go.

“We need to lift our game Queenslander!”

Burnett said the KABQ board had decided to adopt a new name and logo to concentrate the litter and recycling messages locally, and to simplify the education and awareness process.

The new state government recently pledged its support, approving an “Everyone’s Environment” grant of $55,000 for the expansion of the KABQ “Adopt a Road” program in 2013 – where community groups voluntarily adopt local roads, parks and other public spaces, and pledge to keep them litter-free.

There are currently 40 groups operating and Keep Queensland Beautiful aims to add another 20 groups this calendar year.

Reducing litter can save huge amounts of public money spent by the state and local governments in cleaning costs. Brisbane City Council alone spent more than $8-milion on litter management last financial year.

The National Packaging Covenant Industry Association (NPCIA) is also partnering KABQ over the next 3 years to expand Queensland’s Tidy Towns and Clean Beaches awards programs, and help spread litter prevention and recycling messages in Queensland schools.

Burnett said the last government funded anti-litter “Do the Right Thing” media campaign was in the 1990s.

“That means a whole generation of young people has never heard an anti-litter message,” Burnett said. “Now they are driving their first cars and think nothing of throwing food or drink packaging onto the roads.

“We need more signs, more education, and stronger penalties.”

Burnett said littering and illegal dumping penalties and fines did exist, but with police and council resources stretched, the public needed to be more involved.

“Dob in a Litterer,” Burnett said. “There are links on the Keep Queensland Beautiful website to report offenders.”

This year Keep Queensland Beautiful has also been granted “environmental charity status” so donations to help its cause are now tax deductable.

Individuals, clubs and corporations can donate or join the organisation by visiting the Keep Queensland Beautiful website www.keepqueenslandbeautiful.org.au

“Clean Queensland? Dirty Queensland? You choose”.

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Registration is open for Australia’s biggest breast cancer research event, the annual Women in Super Mother’s Day Classic. Every Mother’s Day for the past 15 years, Australians have walked or run to fund research and honour those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

More than a quarter of a million Australians have participated in past Mother’s Day Classic events, and you can too this year by registering at www.mothersdayclassic.com.au

At the 2012 Mother’s Day Classic more than 125,000 participants in 53 locations around the nation raised a record $4 million, bringing the overall total raised to $14.8 million.

This makes the Mother’s Day Classic Australia’s largest funder of National Breast Cancer Foundation’s research programs. Since Women in Super initiated the event in 1998, 5 year survival rates for women diagnosed with breast cancer have been increasing, and now stand at 89% of those diagnosed.

ME Bank contributed significantly to the 2012 event as major sponsor, a position it will hold again in 2013.

The 16th annual event, on Sunday 12 May 2013, is open to all ages and fitness levels and participants range from large teams brightly and creatively dressed in pink costumes, through to inter-generational family groups and running enthusiasts.

The more funds we raise, the faster a cure can be found

Mother’s Day Classic National Chair, Louise Davidson, said there was a wonderful community feel to each event, allowing people to show support for those who have been touched by the disease, as well as to support vital research.

“Make Mother’s Day a memorable and meaningful day by registering now. Anyone who has experienced a Mother’s Day Classic event knows what a special vibe there is to the morning,” Ms Davidson said.

“Whether you walk, run, cheer, fundraise or volunteer, by taking part you’re helping to fund essential research – the more funds we raise, the faster a cure can be found.”

Just registering for the event helps fund new research into prevention, detection, treatment and cure – and every extra dollar raised beyond registration helps even more. There are great prizes for top fundraisers in each state.

“By setting up an online fundraising page and asking friends, family and colleagues to sponsor your walk or run, you will help make a bigger investment of funds for future generations of women with breast cancer,” Ms Davidson said.

To register or for more information go to www.mothersdayclassic.com.au

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The entire North Island of New Zealand has been declared a drought zone, after the summer months saw only one third to a half of normal rainfall. The drought is the worst to hit the country in 70 years.

Primary Industries Minister in the National Party-led government, Nathan Guy, made the announcement on March 15, saying it was recognition that “farmers across the North Island are facing extremely difficult conditions”. Drought had already been declared in February in Northland, followed earlier this month by South Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay. Farmers on the West Coast last week became the first on the South Island to ask for drought assistance.

The government’s drought declaration offers farmers a meagre package of financial assistance, including more flexibility in tax payments, provisions for those in extreme hardship to get the equivalent of an unemployment benefit, and making some funds available to Rural Trusts to help stressed residents. Most farmers deride the measures, saying they only help those that are all but destitute.

Farmers from the Manawatu and Rangitikei hill country complained that the formal announcement took too long to come. Manawatu/Rangitikei meat and fibre chairman Fraser Gordon, who has been farming since the 1970s, told the Manawatu Standard that the dry conditions were the worst in his lifetime: “We should have been called three weeks ago. To me, it’s the biggest drought since 1947.”

Extreme global weather events are increasing in frequency around the world. Australia’s summer saw a record-breaking heatwave that lasted more than two weeks across many parts of the country. Temperatures went above 48°C. According to a report by the Australian government’s Climate Commission, global warming was directly linked to these events. The commission noted it was the hottest summer in more than a century of records, capped by the nation’s longest and most extreme heatwave. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), meeting in Hobart in January, also noted that it was part of a warming trend around the world.

In New Zealand, the dry conditions are having a dire effect on the country’s agricultural-dependent economy. It is the fifth-driest summer for North Canterbury since 1940, and access to river-fed irrigation for some farmers in the Oxford area was cut off a month ago. In Waipukurau, it effectively stopped raining last August, producing desert-like conditions. Rain in some areas over last weekend did not come near the 100mm needed to put an end to the drought and was hardly enough, according to the Domini on Post, to “settle the dust”.

The likely cost to the average dairy farmer in the rich Waikato pastoral region is $100,000 to $150,000 in income this season. Many farmers have been forced to sell off stock, at extremely unfavourable prices, because they cannot feed them. Others are struggling to cope as dams dry out, leaving farmers short of stock water, with some trucking in water each day to fill troughs. Some dairy farmers have moved to once-a-day milking of their cows, instead of two, with a 20 percent loss of production. Many will stop milking altogether next month.

Tararua farmer Garth Coleman told the Dominion Post: “It’s depressing looking at your paddocks, which are brown and have no grass, and your stock, wondering what exactly they’re eating.” Climate scientist Jim Salinger said that if consistent rain did not come before May the “damage will already be done” for winter.

The dairy industry is the country’s largest source of export revenue, valued at about $12 billion and comprising more than a third of the total international dairy trade. World milk prices are rising as a result of the drought. According to industry website GlobalDairyTrade, whole milk powder is now almost 50 percent more expensive than a month ago.

New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English said the cost of the drought is now headed toward $NZ2 billion. He refused to rule out that it could tip the fragile economy back into recession. English insisted, however, this would not derail the government’s intention of returning a budget surplus by 2014-15. This will likely be achieved by deeper government cuts. Treasury warned recently that shaving just 0.5 percent off economic growth for the next five years would see core government revenue cut by $7.9 billion, leading to higher debt. Speaking on Radio NZ on 11 March, English warned that taxpayer relief to farmers could well become “unsustainable” in future if droughts get worse.

Dairy NZ estimates that by the end of March, milk production for 2013 will have been reduced by 260 million litres. Prices for basic foodstuffs such as milk and meat are set to sharply rise. Urban areas have also suffered an impact, with water restrictions in place over most of the North Island. Water supply for the country’s capital city, Wellington, was described late last week as at “crisis” levels, with less than 20 days of water left. Almost all the available water in the region’s rivers has been exhausted, forcing the regional council to invoke emergency measures. A council spokesman predicted that without any significant rain in another three weeks “the cupboard will be bare”.

In response to a series of increasingly severe droughts in 2007, 2008 and 2010, governments have done little to prepare for future disasters. Data released last week by the government climate science agency NIWA showed that drought will become more intense and more frequent in the next 30 years. Climate scientists have warned it could it could mean the end of farming in New Zealand as it is currently known.

Victoria University scientist James Renwick told the Dominion Post that the risk of drought will increase by 10 percent by 2040, and will double in duration to more than two months per year. “Drought is likely to become the ‘new normal’ in some parts of eastern and northern New Zealand,” he concluded.

Republished from: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/21/nzdr-m21.html

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Premier Campbell Newman and his Transport Minister, Scott Emerson, have announced that Lord Mayor Graham Quirk must also sign off on the bus routes to be axed in Brisbane.

Councillor for the Gabba Ward Helen Abrahams has welcomed the move, saying: “This announcement aims to flush out the position of the Lord Mayor.”

” The Lord Mayor has talked vaguely in the Council chamber about many discussions and “doing certain things … to encourage people to get out there and to find out what these changes mean for them” and “continual representation on behalf of the people” but he has fallen short of condemning Premier Newman’s cuts to 25% of bus routes in Brisbane.”

Helen Abrahams says the Lord Mayor must now act and start a genuine consultation process on what bus services residents want for our Brisbane. “He should organise public meetings so people can have a say and extend the consultation period to three months,” says Helen.

“I will certainly be holding meetings with inner south residents if the Lord Mayor doesn’t,” said Helen Abrahams.

“Judging from the number of signatures on petitions being handed into my office, residents want to and deserve to have a meaningful say.”

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What’s going on in the Northland waters near Minnesota? Well, scientists and other experts aren’t quite sure – yet.

Not just one type but almost all kinds of fish, to include some of the most popular gaming fish like bass and walleye, are changing.

What – wait. Changing? Yes, and at least one local news team has been documenting these changes since 2002, when concerns were first emerging. A decade later, “scientists are beginning to call it a significant threat,” the Northlands Newscenter reported in February.

“Walleye cakes, walleye bites, walleye sandwich…it’s a popular delicacy in restaurants around the northland,” the Newscenter said. “It’s also a multi-million dollar industry, attracting hundreds of thousands of anglers to the Northland’s beautiful lakes year round.”

Feminization of male fish

While many area residents and not a few visitors to the area take the industry for granted in believing that the waters can be fished forever, scientists have discovered a major threat to the abilities of many kinds of fish to reproduce.

“Changes in, for example, the external characteristics of males where they start to resemble females,” Dr. Gary Ankley of the U.S. EPA Lab in Duluth, Minn., told the Newscenter.

Dr. Pat Schoff added, of the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota-Duluth: “The small mouth bass and large mouth are sensitive to fish feminization. We’re seeing lots of symptoms in these species.”

How can fish actually change genders? Scientists aren’t sure but they do know that it is a frightening phenomenon that is happening all over the world. Studies show thus far that a feminized male fish can suffer a reproductive disability of at least 76 percent and more; the more researchers look into this, the more they are finding fish that cannot reproduce at all.

The phenomenon has “actually caused some fish populations to go extinct,” said Ankley.

Some of the leading scientific research examining the problem is taking place in Duluth, at UMD’s NRRI, and also at an Environmental Protection Agency lab there. Scientists believe chemicals are behind the fish gender transformation.

“There’s only a few labs in the world that can do this very effectively when we deal with these very potent chemicals,” Ankley said. “There’s a number of chemicals that can act as what we call estrogens.”

Scientists and environmentalists note that there are literally thousands of chemicals that make it into the nation’s streams, rivers and other waterways every day. They include medications, agricultural run-off and other substances that carry very powerful estrogens scientists believe may be altering fish genders.

“We can see everything from testicular tissue that is growing like an ovary. Or some fish have one teste and one ovary,” said Schoff.

“The male testes actually has eggs in it,” Ankley added.

5,000-8,000 different medications could be altering environment

Researchers know when they expose fish in the lab to such powerful estrogen compounds they will see nearly complete transformations from one gender to another, and that such transformation is dramatically harming fish populations.

“There’s lower rates of reproduction or even no reproduction,” Dr. Schoff said.

Scientists say they aren’t sure what other substances and chemicals, besides estrogen, might be contributing to the gender transformations in nature.

“It turns out there are chemicals that can mimic natural estrogens and when you expose males to these chemicals they can start to achieve these female characteristics,” Ankley said. “There’s probably 5,000 to 8,000 different medications that are used and could enter the environment.”

They say even substances as common as Ibuprofen might be contributing to the problem as well.

Republised from: http://www.naturalnews.com/039573_fish_gender_bender_chemicals.html

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6160974
http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112888785

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