News and views

The President of Australia’s leading science body has welcomed the introduction of the government’s Climate Change Bill 2022 into the Australian Parliament.

One-and-a-half billion years ago all life on earth was single-celled prokaryotes – then the first multicellular organism evolved. This was a fundamental evolutionary shift that changed the course of Earth’s history. Today, scientists can trace this history and find answers to all sorts of scientific problems.

As an island nation, Australia is lucky to have geographically isolated borders to help to protect us from imported pests and diseases. But we still need a strong biosecurity system to ensure that we prevent threats to agriculture, natural environments and human health from entering Australia.

Improving Australians’ understanding of the benefits of immunisation is one of the many achievements highlighted in the Academy’s recently published annual report for 2021.

Global demand for prawns has been rising exponentially since the late 1990s. There is, however, an ecological limit to the number of ocean-caught prawns. The solution? Farmed prawns.

Some of our planet’s natural and cultural assets listed under the World Heritage Convention will be impossible to maintain in the face of climate change, even if effective adaptation and on-site mitigation strategies are applied locally, a roundtable of experts concluded in a report released this week.

What impact is our changing climate having on our lives, jobs and homes? And what policy frameworks are needed to ensure a resilient and prosperous future for Australia?

Sustainability leaders, experts, industry and innovators from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific are invited to share their knowledge on sustainability challenges and opportunities in the Oceania region in mid-2022 as part of a major international sustainability event.