Rubrica

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 ...