Pollution of our environment has been recognised as a problem for eons. Early humans knew that separating waste from consumables was essential to health, even if they did not understand the true reasons why. Pollution has often been separated from climate change as though they are two separate issues and that the problems of dealing with pollution are unrelated to the issues of climate change
Our climate is changing and so must we. As climate changes become manifest, our intrinsic survival instinct will make adaptation an inevitability. However, whether we change quickly and effectively enough to ameliorate catastrophic change so as to ensure future generations enjoy a safe climate is open to question
Chemistry is the most central of scientific disciplines and under- pins the physical, material and biological world. Opportunities are abundant in the field of chemistry, as most major advances take place at the interface of two or more disciplines and chemistry sits at the core of trans-disciplinary research
The mysteries of passion, love, and how to best live day to day in a couple relationship is one of the most constant subject of conversations. Literature is dominated by these themes and movies make millions from the subject, highlighting how couple relationships are a major source of emotional passion and joy, as well as the deepest pain
The rising incidence of allergic and autoimmune diseases imposes an ever-increasing burden on individuals, populations and economies. Possible mechanisms for this phenomenon, related to changed environmental conditions that impact on immune response genes are discussed. In this chapter, we consider the role of reduced and delayed exposure of infants to infections, as well as additional factors that could promote chronic immuno-inflammatory disease
We are living in a time of unprecedented risk for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic pulmonary disease. In 2008, it was estimated by the World Health Organization that NCDs were responsible for 63% of deaths (57 million deaths) worldwide. In Australia and other developed countries, communicable (or infectious) diseases are no longer the primary cause of mortality
In this chapter we explore how goals have been used to manage climate change. What is their role? What are they? Who sets them? Are they useful? Who is responsible for achieving them? Are they being achieved? We focus on Australia, but in a worldwide context
The internet has played a key role in the spread of racism, offering opportunities that amplify the reach and potential impact of White power, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamist and ultra-nationalist ideologies and actions. At the same time that racist organisations were discovering, exploring and exploiting the potential of the internet, the international community was recognising the dangers that the technology represented to community wellbeing and harmony
One of the most serious problems facing the world today is the over-abundance of unreliable information, a condition sometimes referred to as info-obesity. Not good. In Too Big To Know, David Weisberger of Harvard calls this a crisis of information. And it seems technology, in particular the internet, may be to blame
I started as a journalist just as hot metal printing was being banged out of publishing companies in the late 1970s — an era now referred to as the Golden Age of journalism. Over the ensuing 40 years, the world of journalism has largely been kind to me, but with all the good has been much bad. I’ve had ringside seats for much of the worst that journalism has had to offer: Fleet Street malpractice and corrupt journalism of the type that led to the phone-hacking revelations