Eco online

Evolution’s Edge

“The world is sleepwalking its way to the edge of catastrophe.… The Doomsday Clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight.” Prince Charles
Is it good enough to hope that everything will turn out fine? Would you take the people you love on a trip if you knew that you might run out of [...]

Green Legends of the Sunshine Coast

Book Review: by Valerie Lewis
I first read the script of Elaine’s book while on holiday in Sydney and found myself having to read out passages of it to friends who could hardly believe what they were hearing. A fun park on Mount Coolum? Development on the Marcus Dunes?
While it sounds incredible today, these and other [...]

What we eat affects the world and its population

By Dr Valerie Lewis, President of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council
In 2006, an important paper by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow” was released and then almost completely ignored by the world’s media.
In it, the contribution of the world’s livestock agribusiness, including dairy and eggs was shown to be 18 [...]

Consumption and population: reduce one, but what about the other?

Water shortages, along with climate change, are perhaps the best and most topical examples for describing the complex affects of population and consumption.
Our solutions to water shortages and climate change have, to date, focused upon consuming less. Reduce water consumption during long dry periods and use less carbon-based energy resources. Reduced levels of water use [...]

Spring Update 2009

Inside this edition

Caloundra South development
Palmview development
Exploring the Past – Candle Mountain
Up Close with Ian Lowe
Traveston Dam: These will not be forgotten years
Wildlife: Lock up those cats
Eco Adventures: Booloumba Creek walk
Book Review: Overloading Australia
Print Edition

Caloundra South
A city with the population of Gladstone on the Sunshine Coast’s doorstep. Seven-storey buildings may soon welcome our southern visitors courtesy [...]

Overloading Australia

Book Review: Overloading Australia
Greenhouse gases going up. Oil and gas depleting. House prices exploding. Overloading Australia explains why — and how to stop it.
The press of numbers on this continent affects us all – those living, as well as those yet to be born. To talk of saving the environment or of climate change is [...]

Booloumba Creek walk

Rugged landscapes, fast-flowing mountain creeks, waterfalls, cascades and impressive forests are all part of a new walk in the Conondale Ranges, several kilometres south of Kenilworth in the scenic Mary Valley.
The 10 kilometre walk from Booloumba Campsite 3 up to the impressive Booloumba Falls will eventually form the first day of a four- day walking [...]

Lock up those cats

Once again our WILVOS hotline received a call for an injured animal. This time it was a glider — maybe a sugar glider, maybe a squirrel glider.  It doesn’t really matter which one it is, gliders are fast reaching extinction on the coast and hinterland areas.  Yet it is so simple to prevent the extermination [...]

Up close with Ian Lowe

Ian Christesen, on behalf of Eco News talks to Professor Ian Lowe about the problems associated with the Sunshine Coast’s ever increasing popularity.  A popularity which arises from having ideal temperatures and a stunning natural environment. With developers focusing their attention on large areas of land, poor planning is perhaps one of the biggest threats [...]

Candle Mountain

Selected by Dr Deborah Jordan and taken from a newspaper cutting held in the Palmer Papers.

The Indigenous people from the Undumbi, Nalbo, Dallambarra and Gubbi Gubbi clans have a long, long association with the Sunshine Coast. In the 1920s, when Vance and Nettie Palmer, the two significant Australian writers, were living in Caloundra, down on [...]