In this issue

	ECOS Issue 190

Features

Still time to change Earth’s long-term forecast After a lifetime promoting sustainability – sadly, with limited success – last year I sat down to consider what will happen to my beloved world over the next 40 years. The main question I asked myself was whether I should continue worrying about the future during my final 20 to 25 years here on Earth.

Cities as refuges for species on the brink? When we conjure up images of animals in temperate cities, we tend to think of pesky creatures like pigeons, cockroaches, Indian mynas, English sparrows, crows (or ravens), rats and mice. Elsewhere, city dwellers may encounter geckos, monkeys, raccoon-dogs and baboons.

The real cost of pesticides in Australia's food boom More than $17 billion worth of crops grown in Australia annually is attributed to agricultural pesticides. That's a staggering 68 per cent of the $26 billion industry, according to a recent Deloitte report commissioned by CropLife Australia. So should we all pat ourselves on the back and eat up?

The dust-busters You may have heard about science in the pub, but how about science from the pub? That's what one of the citizen scientists involved in a program called DustWatch is doing. When not keeping an eye on local dust activity, he's pulling beers in his hotel at Tibooburra, in far north-west NSW.

How green is 3D printing? 3D printers are the latest craze. But is this revolutionary manufacturing technology environmentally sustainable?

Indian Ocean linked to bushfires and drought in Australia
In a new study published in Nature Geoscience, we show that extreme weather events in Australia such as drought and bushfire are linked to temperature changes in the Indian Ocean. Much like El Niño in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean Dipole has far-reaching consequences, and these effects are likely to strengthen under climate change.