Rubrica

  Once upon a time service stations had workshops attached to them. If one needed something mechanical, one could go to the workshop and a bloke in greasy overalls would come out, wiping his hands on an oily rag, and say something like, "G'day, mate/love [strike out whichever is inapplicable] what can I do for you?" Whether one's problem was black smoke emanating from under the bonnet, or a tyre that needed pumping up, the mechanic would deal with it. Now service stations have retail assistants who stand behind virus-and-bullet-proof plexiglass and sell petrol, drinks, snacks, dodgy pies and sandwiches and who have likely never lifted the bonnet of a car or hefted a spanner. If one wants something mechanical done, one has to go to a Mechanical Repairs Centre, which has a reception area with comfy chairs, wifi, a big screen TV, a water cooler and a receptionist whose job it is to keep the general public as far away from the mechanics as possible. One has to b...

There is no doubt that the impact of human development and negligence has caused the extinction of a lot of species. The thylacine, passenger pigeon and dodo for starters. The black rhino, orangutan and hawksbill turtle, among many others, are hanging on by a thread. In Australia the  antechinus, mountain pygmy possum and orange-bellied parrot are on the critical list and loss of habitat is posing a growing threat to our beloved koala, which could be gone within 25 years if there is not significant intervention to ensure their preservation. So when news broke this week that the dire wolf, a species extinct for the last 10,000 years, has been genetically reproduced and brought back , the popular media went into a frenzy of congratulatory glee. All those creatures we've hunted into oblivion can be restored! Let us rejoice! Umm, not so fast. Let's face it, apart from zoological paleontologists, who'd even heard of a dire wolf until the TV adaptation of George RR Martin's ...

  From the Department of I-Can’t-Believe-We’re-Still-Having-This-Discussion comes Peter Dutton’s plan for Australia’s energy future: nuclear. Forget that nuclear power plants are being decommissioned and phased out all over Europe , with Germany and Italy now fully nuclear-free and other countries in the process of exiting nuclear capacity. Forget that the waste from nuclear power plants is radioactive and must be stored, usually underground, for thousands of years, with the ongoing risk of leaks and contamination. Not to mention the danger of transporting said waste. Forget that nuclear reactors use 35 to 65 million litres of water per day, mostly for cooling so it goes up in steam and can’t be recycled. Forget that CSIRO estimates found that a 1 gigawatt large-scale nuclear plant would cost about $9bn if it were possible to start building in Australia today and a nuclear industry was already well established, but large-scale generators could cost twice ...

Watching the footage of Trump and Vance bullying Ukraine President Zelensky was like watching a couple of schoolyard bullies intimidating the little kid for lunch money. Which was precisely what they were doing, and it wasn't the first time the Trump administration has bullied Zelensky since taking office less than two months ago.*   The background Ukraine has significant deposits of minerals: graphite, lithium, copper, uranium, rare earth metals and titanium. And Trump wants them. Zelensky had originally agreed to terms whereby the US would continue its military aid to Ukraine in return for access to its mineral wealth. The deal was described as “a special agreement for the joint protection of the country’s critical resources, as well as joint investment and use of this economic potential”.  But Trump wanted more (of course). He wanted $US500 billion worth of minerals in return for past aid to the country with no guarantee of future assistance. To this end, US Treasury...

 Shades of non-colour are trendy at the moment. From cigarette-smoke grey to sepulchral black, non-colours appear everywhere. From where I sit now, I can see six parked cars and not one of them is an actual colour. But worse than this profusion of non-descript greys on the roads are the vast swathes of our suburban landscape given over to grey houses with black roofs, and to this I only have one thing to say: stop it! Stop it right now. Enough with the grey and black. And not just for aesthetic considerations, although that's reason enough. Our cities are urban heat sinks. As we cover up the natural landscape with houses, roads, airports, carparks, shopping malls, waste transfer stations, office blocks and so forth, we alter the landscape's natural ability to cool itself down. The built environment absorbs heat quickly and retains it for longer than the natural environment. After a very hot day the road will still be warm to the touch long after sunset, as will the western wall...