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Articles by Jon Day
Water pollution has long been a threat to the Great Barrier Reef – plans to fix it aren’t up to the task
When you think about threats to the Great Barrier Reef, coral bleaching due to climate change would likely be first. But the world's largest reef system faces many threats. One surprisingly large threat is poor water quality. When sediment is washed off farms, cities and bushland into rivers, it can be transported kilometres offshore. If there's too much, it can smother corals and seagrass meadows. Fertiliser and pesticide residue can make things worse.
Since 2020, 4 of Australia’s natural World Heritage properties have deteriorated
Since 2020, the conservation outlook has worsened for four of Australia’s 16 natural World Heritage properties – Ningaloo, Shark Bay, Purnululu National Park and the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites. This means 25% of our natural areas globally recognised as being significant are either in worse health or need better planning to secure their future. The Great Barrier Reef remains in the lowest rating – “critical” – as one of just 17 natural World Heritage properties globally with this outlook.
UNESCO Expresses ‘Utmost Concern’ At The State Of The Great Barrier Reef
The committee on Monday released draft decisions regarding the conservation of 62 World Heritage properties. This included the Great Barrier Reef, for which it noted: Overall, while progress has been made, significant challenges remain in achieving water quality targets, managing extreme climate impacts, and ensuring the long-term resilience of the property.
Leah Libresco Sargeant
The Lamp is published by the Three Societies Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Three Rivers, Michigan, in partnership with The James Cardinal Gibbons Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Institute for Human Ecology or The Catholic University of America or of its officers, directors, editors, members, or staff.
In defense of rats
In the ranks of unloved animals, rats are surely king — so reviled that other pest species are often referred to as variations on the archetype: pigeons are “rats with wings,” gray squirrels are “tree rats.” There was also a recent flurry of stories about Britain facing an “invasion” of “300 million monstrous super-rats capable of gnawing on steel and chewing through concrete.” Yet how reliable are these stories?
In defence of rats
I n the ranks of unloved animals, rats are surely king – so reviled that other pest species are often referred to as variations of the rat archetype: pigeons are ‘rats with wings’, grey squirrels are ‘tree rats’. There was also a recent flurry of stories about Britain facing an ‘invasion’ of ‘300 million monstrous super-rats capable of gnawing on steel and chewing through concrete’. Yet how reliable were these stories?
The controversial side of carp fishing
All anglers are obsessive, but carp fishers are the most single-minded of all. They think nothing of spending weeks on the banks of a muddy lake or gravel pit, lines and breath baited, waiting for a bite. Ask an aficionado what motivates him and he’ll speak — with an intensity that sounds a lot like love — about the carp’s unrivalled cunning and fighting ability: its coquettish, crafty takes and its long, blistering runs.
The mysterious world of pigeon racing
Pigeon racing isn’t much of a spectator sport. Race birds are driven to the ‘liberation point’, where they’re released to fly back to their homes. Only the liberation and the return are witnessed — what happens in between is a mystery. This is partly what makes pigeon racing so fascinating. It’s also what can make it so stressful. A week ago, between 5,000 and 10,000 pigeons went missing during a race from Peterborough.
Man about the house: Kitchenly 434, by Alan Warner, reviewed
Alan Warner. Credit: Getty Images I have enjoyed many of Alan Warner’s previous novels, so it gives me no pleasure to report that his new book is so monumentally tedious that when two accountants turn up halfway through you think: great! Things might finally be getting interesting. Kitchenly 434, set in Thatcherite Britain, is narrated by Crofton Clark, an aging hippy who lives at Kitchenly Mill Race, a Tudorbethan pile belonging to the mainly absentee rock star Marko Morell.
After the Olympics
For a few weeks before the Olympic Games began, my morning run route was dominated by some of the best athletes in the world. As I shuffled my way around Victoria Park in East London, track-suited Olympians sped by me, their nationalities emblazoned across their backs, their lanyards flailing in the breeze. Marketed as a way of “inspiring a generation,” the Olympics made me at least feel pretty shitty about my athleticism.
Breaking Point | Online Only | n+1
Up until the campaigning over the referendum started in earnest last month, it didn’t feel as though many people (other than those who have dedicated their entire political or journalistic lives arguing for exit) wanted to decide on our future in Europe at all. Isn’t that what we paid politicians to do? No one seems to know whether the stakes are very low or extremely high, or precisely what it is we’re debating.
Man dies of caffeine intoxication
Tokyo - A study has concluded that a man died of caffeine intoxication in the first such reported case in Japan, local media reported on Monday. According to the forensic study conducted by Fukuoka University, the man in his 20s from the Kyushu region in Japan's south-west likely died of consuming too many caffeinated drinks in the first such case reported in Japan.
The UK Election Disaster
People were sharing a clip from Patrick Keiller’s film London on Twitter this morning. In the film an unnamed narrator trawls through post-Thatcherite London with his friend “Robinson.” The scene was filmed on polling day in 1992. The polls had been predicting a hung parliament after years of Tory rule, but things didn’t turn out like that: by 4 AM it was clear that the Conservatives had won. Again.
Abe vows to use all available means to free remaining hostage
TOKYO, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated his assurance Monday that Japan would use all available means to secure the safe release of Kenji Goto, a war journalist, still held captive by the Islamic State (IS) militants, following the likely killing of Haruna Yukawa, a security contractor, on Saturday.
News Analysis: U.S.-Japan defense ties in spotlight as anti-base Onaga wins Okinawa governor election
TOKYO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were dealt a decisive blow Sunday by former mayor of Naha, Okinawa, Takeshi Onaga, who dispatched of the LDP-backed incumbent in the region's gubernatorial election. Onaga, 64, a staunch opponent of relocating the controversial U. S.
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