Daily Archives: September 2, 2015

It’s no surprise that bottle caps, plastic bags and other pieces of trash are washed off the streets and into our waterways every day. Some studies have shown this pollution can amount to 580,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre in the ocean.

Plastics have a devastating impact on sea life, and according to some estimates, it’s only going to get worse.

Scientists from the CSIRO, Australia’s peak science body, and Imperial College London have projected that 90% of seabirds today have plastics in their stomach, and at current rates, that number will grow to 99% by 2050.

“Finding such widespread estimates of plastic in seabirds is borne out by some of the fieldwork we’ve carried out where I’ve found nearly 200 pieces of plastic in a single seabird,” Denise Hardesty from CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere said in a statement.

Seabird species like albatrosses and penguins often mistake the brightly coloured bits of rubbish as food items, and the plastics can cause weight loss or even death.

To measure how much plastic the creatures are exposed to, scientists matched the locations of debris in the ocean with how seabird species are distributed globally, Chris Wilcox, senior research scientist at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, told Mashable Australia.

Their model used ocean currents and population size along the coast globally to estimate how much plastic enters the sea. “We assume the coastline produces plastic waste in proportion to the population,” Wilcox said. “You can then create a map of where plastics are expected to be.”

The Great Pacific garbage patch is a notorious phenomenon, but the southern edges of Australia, South Africa and South America are the areas of greatest concern. This is where the millions of pieces of floating plastic overlap with the habitat of a significant diversity of seabird species.

The project’s larger research effort is aimed at addressing a whole host of problems: Where plastic goes in the ocean, how it affects ocean species from seabirds to turtles, and what an effective policy response could be.

Bottle deposit schemes, rubbish traps in storm drains and anti-littering drives are all possible solutions, Wilcox suggested. “We found in Australia, if local councils have campaigns against illegal dumping, that can make a significant impact on the amount of ocean plastics in their area.”

He also pointed to a heartening story in the North Sea in northern Europe. “There the plastics manufacturing industry uses plastic pellets that would often wash into the North Sea. Essentially, when the industry implemented a program to improve their use of pellets, the amount of pellets in the sea went down in ten years. Consequently, the amount in seabirds also went down.”

If we make smart decisions about how we dispose of waste, or even how much waste we create, it might not be long until we see improvement. “If we compare this with climate change, we are talking about changing major aspects of our economy,” Wilcox said. “With the plastics problem, you’re really just asking people to dispose of plastics more responsibly.

“All these items were in people’s hands at some point. We’re really just talking about making a small change in people’s behaviour.”

source:mashable.com

French President Francois Hollande awards the Legion of Honour to Alek Skarlatos. Photo: AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool.

Heroic Alek Skarlatos received the Legion of Honour after bringing down a gunman on a train

A heroic Greek American prevented chaos on a train from Amsterdam to Paris last week after an armed gunman opened fire.

US National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, along with fellow serviceman Spencer Stone and student Anthony Sadler, overpowered a 26-year-old Moroccan national who burst into their train carriage with heavy artillery.

Skarlatos was on a European holiday when the events took place, having recently completing a tour of Afghanistan, and spoke to Sky News following the ordeal.

“I just looked at Spencer and said ‘let’s go!’,” Skarlatos told the network.

“Spencer got to the guy first, grabbed the guy by the neck and I grabbed the handgun, got the handgun away from the guy and threw it.

“Then I grabbed the AK (assault rifle), which was at his feet, and started muzzle thumping him in the head with it.”

Throughout the struggle the suspect pulled out a box-cutter which he used on Stone, who later required surgery on his hand.

Once the man was detained Skarlatos disarmed his weapons, at which point he realised the assault rifle had jammed.

“He didn’t know how to fix it, which is very lucky,” he said.

“If that guy’s weapon had been functioning properly I don’t even want to think about how it would have gone. We were incredibly lucky.”

“We just did what we had to do. You either run away or fight. We chose to fight and got lucky and didn’t die.”

Skarlatos, along with Stone, Sadler and a British passenger Chris Norman, were all presented with France’s highest honour – the Legion of Honour – by French President François Hollande.

Another man, Mark Moogalian, who assisted in restraining the suspect, is recovering from a shot wound in hospital and will be honoured at a later date.

The suspect has since been arrested.

source:Neos Kosmos

Sydney school in the spotlight for taking stance
on same-sex parenthood.

Burwood Girls High School in Sydney sent a flyer to parents last week saying all students would attend a special screening of the award-winning documentary Gayby Baby during periods two and three on Friday 18 August.

The film, according to former student and director Maya Newell, is more about four children growing up than their parents’ sexuality. Newell, 27, comes from a family of same-sex parents and Gayby Baby represents the voice of children like herself growing up in Australian society.

The screening, scheduled to be attended by 1,200 students, was to be followed by a morning tea with purple cupcakes and a purple fashion parade, as part of the student-led Wear It Purple initiative, promoting diversity and inclusiveness in schools. Up to 50 schools throughout Australia, starting with NSW and Victoria, had been planning to show the film as part of the Wear It Purple campaign.

Following a Daily Telegraph headline on parents being outraged at the flyer, NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli made a statement on Macquarie Radio, condemning the documentary, saying “schools are not places for political issues to be aired”.
After receiving a phone-call from a Greek Australian mother on Wednesday, Neos Kosmos contacted the Department of Education, which confirmed that “screening the film may be considered if it is an integral part of the planned curriculum for an age appropriate year group”.

“If a school decides to screen the film outside school hours or as an integral part of the curriculum all relevant policy and procedures must be followed,” the department’s media spokesperson said.

Following Minister Piccoli’s statement, the deputy secretary of the Department of Education instructed that all NSW public secondary schools refrain from showing the Gayby Baby film in school time, so that it would not impact on the delivery of the planned lessons of the day. It has been confirmed, however, that Burwood Girls High did not receive a single complaint with regards to showing Gayby Baby during class time.

“We only received four inquisitive emails expressing concern,” the school’s spokesperson said.

In fact, students at Burwood Girls High claim the school has had several interruptions of planned lessons over the past month to attend non-relevant events to their school curriculum, without ministerial intervention. The Wear It Purple event itself is also expected to replace some teaching hours to celebrate LGBTI rights.

“We are going ahead with Wear It Purple day on Friday and we will see what happens at other schools around the state,” said Burwood Girls High school captain Eve Croffrey.

“We consider ourselves leaders in the push for equality and acceptance – for all people. We consider our support to be just one small step in creating better understanding in the community.”

Director Maya Newell defended her work, saying that banning the film would have greater implications.

“If a film that represents your family and your voice is banned from a school as inappropriate to show other students, it gives children being raised in same-sex families the very negative message that their family is abnormal and not acceptable.”

Newell stressed that creating inclusive classrooms and valuing family diversity is essential in promoting student wellbeing and acceptance of difference.

“There is no place for bullying, homophobia or discrimination in Australian public schools,” she concluded.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that the NSW education minister and Premier Mike Baird hadn’t watched the film prior to banning it, even though it screened at Parliament House the night before the alleged turmoil; while Premier Daniel Andrews took to Facebook to show his support.

“I’m getting really sick of this stuff (…) I will not put up with this kind of cruel rubbish in Victoria,” he wrote.

Since Thursday, more schools across the state are defying the ban by hosting after-hours screenings while members and supporters of the LGBTI community plan on protesting on Sunday afternoon outside the offices of The Daily Telegraph in Surry Hills.

Other sources: smh, Facebook

More than 4,200 refugees were due to arrive in Piraeus on two ships from Lesvos Tuesday, only temporarily easing the pressure on scant resources on the island but at the same time increasing concern in Athens about the fate of those who would disembark.

Authorities on Lesvos have registered some 17,500 refugees and migrants over the past week but the transfer to Athens of many of those people would only provide brief respite as hundreds more are arriving each day.

While many refugees head for Greece’s border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), some end up stranded in Athens. Victoria Square in the city center has become a popular gathering point for refugees.

Athens Mayor Giorgis Kaminis is due to meet caretaker Immigration Minister Yiannis Mouzalas Thursday to discuss the issue. European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos is also due in Greece Thursday.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos called his French counterpart Francois Hollande to discuss the issue. Pavlopoulos took the opportunity to explain to Hollande the size of the problem Greece is facing.

More than 350,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean this year and 2,600 have died while making the journey, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.

The latest figures from IOM show that 234,778 migrants had landed in Greece and another 114,276 in Italy, with most of the other arrivals split between Spain (2,166) and the island of Malta (94).

The figure from 2015 already dwarfs that of 2014, when 219,000 made the crossing throughout the entire year.

source:eakthimerini.com

Greece’s Syriza party is on course to win 26 percent of votes in a snap election in September, just one point ahead of the conservative New Democracy party, a poll published by the Pulse for Action 24 television channel said on Tuesday.

Former premier Alexis Tsipras of Syriza resigned in August to seek a new mandate for a bailout deal he clinched with the country’s international creditors, but Syriza’s slipping poll lead suggests the decision could backfire.

Tsipras came to power in January promising to end austerity in a country battered by recession and unemployment but eventually accepted stringent conditions for a new 86-billion-euro bailout after months of difficult negotiations with Greece’s lenders.

Worryingly perhaps for Tsipras, more than two-thirds of the poll respondents disapproved of his government’s performance in its seven months in office. Previously, polls had suggested Tsipras remained popular with voters because he had at least put up a fight in the negotiations for a bailout.

The leftist Syriza party led the New Democracy party by as much as 15 percentage points in May, but its lead has dropped sharply over the summer, opinion polls suggest.

The new poll also said the Golden Dawn party was on course to win 6 percent of votes, while 10.5 percent of Greeks were undecided.

“We’ve made a tough choice to not lead the country to a national disaster,” Tsipras told a crowd during a speech on the campaign trail on the island of Crete.

“We are proud we gave this battle all these months, defending Greek people’s rights.”

The poll showed that Independent Greeks will not win enough votes to pass the 3 percent threshold to enter parliament, while the Popular Unity party, a hard-left splinter group that broke from Syriza last month, will get 4 percent.

A quarter of the people polled would like to see a coalition government made up of Syriza, New Democracy and other parties.

source:reuters.com

Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou has slammed both sides of soccer’s increasingly ugly pay battle for taking focus away from the team’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

As the war between Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) escalated on Tuesday after Socceroos players decided to boycott commercial appearances in Perth, Postecoglou said the whole saga was an unwelcome distraction the team should not have to deal with.

“I’m not happy it’s getting played out in Socceroo camp,” Postecoglou said.

“I don’t have the players often and when I have them, that time’s precious. I don’t want any minute wasted.

“If we think it’s OK during the World Cup qualifiers to play out this scenario then I’m out of whack with everyone else because I think while the camp is on … lay down your guns and pick them up as soon as it’s over, and go as hard as you want.

“It’s not good enough.”

Bangladesh clash overshadowed

Australia faces Bangladesh on Thursday at Perth Oval, but the match has been somewhat overshadowed by the wrangling over a new collective bargaining agreement for Socceroos, Matildas and A-League players.

Socceroos players have pulled out of all commercial appearances with FFA partners in Perth this week – a move which has riled FFA chief David Gallop, who says the players are being fed “misinformation” by their union.

“The talk by the PFA of salary cap freezes and having no protection is nonsense,” he said.

“We have spent six months and countless meetings on the new CBA. We were very close to an agreement to benefit all parties.

“The PFA’s move to stage this boycott is wrong and against the interests of everyone in the game, including the Socceroo players.

“Our competitor codes will see our PFA as having scored an own goal for the sport.”

Players deserve respect: PFA

PFA boss Adam Vivian said the players were after just one thing – to be treated with respect.

“Currently that is missing from the negotiations regarding a new agreement to protect the rights of the players and to grow the game together,” he said.

Postecoglou said he was not taking sides.

“If I did, I’d fall into the same trap as everyone else,” he said.

“I should be talking about team selection, team tactics, growth, qualifying for the next World Cup.

“Maybe there’s a perception outside of camp that these games aren’t going to be that tough, and we can afford to have arguments that don’t impact us on the football field.”

source:abc.net.au