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Tin mining dangers
Few of us know that tin is one of the fastest growing rare-earth mineral commodities in 2025, outstripping lithium, cobalt, silver and graphite. Demand for electronics and EVs, all of which use tin solder (48% of the global tin market) is fuelling the boom. Myanmar and Malaysia’s recent blanket-ban on tin mining (due to environmental…
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Heatwaves and more to come with global warming
If you think summers in the Northern Rivers are hot now, just wait a decade and a bit and they’ll be unbearable for most of that time. And by unbearable temperatures, I’m not talking about the usual languid nights filled with humidity but something far more sinister: the inability of the human body to cope…
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Buyback auctions end year on a high
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The Minns Labor Government has exceeded its target of selling 42 flood buyback houses before Christmas after 60 people attended the last auction in Lismore, with sale prices ranging from $7000 to $25,500. Over 130 buyback properties have now been offered for sale in the Northern Rivers since December last year, capturing nationwide attention. In…
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Storm season arrives as BOM website bombs
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) starts this year’s storm season under heavy scrutiny, as the cost of its new website upgrade is revealed to be about $96.5 million. That figure is a far cry from the $4.1 million originally cited for the re-design. New BOM CEO Stuart Minchin told media that the website re-design is…
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The story behind the new bird sign at Aquarius Park
If you’ve wandered along the Rainbow Walk lately, you might have spotted something new in Aquarius Park: a bright, beautiful bird sign tucked near the dam. At our recent Landcare workday someone asked me how it came about, and I realised the story is very much a Nimbin one – full of coincidence, generosity and…
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The greater glider needs more than promises
The greater glider – that wideeyed, fluffy-tailed icon of Australia’s forests – is slipping towards extinction. Once common across eastern and south-eastern Australia, this gentle nocturnal glider has become a symbol of everything going wrong in our native forests: clearing, fragmentation and the ongoing logging of habitat that simply cannot be replaced. Logging removes hollow-bearing…
