Greens election demands to Labor
The Greens may not allocate preference votes to Labor unless it opposes the US free trade agreement.

The Greens may not allocate preference votes to Labor unless it opposes the US free trade agreement.

Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell has announced a $2 million program to restore and protect wetlands along the coast of the Great Barrier Reef. The program also includes promoting volunteer work to ensure greater protection of these wetlands.

Scientists have called for the increase of water flow to the Murray River by an extra 1,500 gigalitre. An increase would drive the ecological system and fix the health of the river.

Wide-scale burning of the Amazon rainforest is raising temperatures and reducing rainfall according to scientists. Burning by loggers and farmers is affecting weather patterns and is significantly accelerating the disappearance of the forest which is home to up to 30 per cent of the world’s animal and plant species. Last year an area bigger than the state of New Jersey was hacked and burned from the forest.

The federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell has spoken about introducing new colour-coded eco-friendly shopping bags with various colours signifying what areas of the environment could be helped by using these bags instead of traditional shopping bags. However the proposal has upset Planet Ark, who have their own environmentally friendly blue bag promotion. The minister also talked about how he is now convinced of the existence of global warming.

Aldi, the independent German supermarket chain is reporting that there has been good sales of its new biodegradable shopping bag. The bag is manufactured from renewable sources and breaks down in around two to three months.

A report by the Washington-based environmental organisation Forest Trends found that indigenous inhabitants of forests should be funded because of their local expertise in forest conservation.

There are plans to reduce the levels of pollution in central Victoria as data shows that the Bendigo council alone generates more than 1.25 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

The drowning of a humpback whale calf in a shark net off the Gold Coast on Monday morning has reignited the debate over the danger posed by shark nets to marine life. The director of marine sciences at Sea World has called for shark nets to be removed during periods of whale migration whilst the Humane Society wants to have shark nets officially listed as a threat to wildlife to allow legal action to be taken against councils that didn’t do enough to prevent marine life from drowning in their nets.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has agreed on a motion to try and protect an endangered gray whale colony near Sakhalin Island. The seismic waves that geologists use to survey the region for geological structures conducive for holding hydrocarbons interfere with the way that the whales use communicate and navigate. Furthermore, the mining operations themselves pose a potential pollution hazard.