World Environment Day 2023

University of the Sunshine Coast

To celebrate World Environment Day on 5 June, we’ve gathered stories from the last year highlighting some of the environmental action and research happening at UniSC.

The 2023 theme is #BeatPlasticPollution, a sober reminder that people’s actions on plastic pollution matters.

UniSC is proud to be a sustainability leader. According to the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, we’re #1 in Queensland and in the top 2% globally for impact, and 3rd in the world for Clean Water and Sanitation.

Global plastic pollution crisis: The Galápagos Islands under threat

It is one of most pristine and protected places in the world, but new research has revealed the alarming extent of plastic pollution in the Galápagos archipelago and the harm it poses to its rare and endangered animals.

New tech breaks ground in saving wetland

Five years of research led by the University of the Sunshine Coast using new remote sensing technology has measured the successful restoration of 200 hectares of abandoned sugar cane farmland back to thriving wetland.

Study finds simple, cheap way to use forests to slow global climate change

Spending $1.50 per hectare to prune climbing vines from the world’s selectively logged forests could remove 800 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over 30 years, according to new research.

Cultural burns can help protect koalas: new research

Research into koala numbers before and after cultural burns on the world’s second largest sand island has fuelled a push to merge Aboriginal knowledge with cutting-edge science to mitigate the dangers of bushfires across Australia.

Study finds double threat for endangered Australian east coast shark

A slow birthrate and night-time wanderings of pregnant grey nurse sharks away from no-take marine protected areas are putting the fierce-looking but mild-mannered species at further risk of extinction

Expert reaction: ‘Oceans treaty’ agreement reached

After more than 15 years of talks and negotiations, the UN has reached an agreement to make the so-called ‘Oceans Treaty’ or Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Treaty) a reality. UniSC researchers Professor David Schoeman and Dr Alexandra Campbell comment.

Meet the eastern bristlebird: tragically under-appreciated, and one fire away from local extinction

In 1962, renowned American conservationist Rachel Carson wrote a book entitled “Silent Spring” after she noticed the birdsong she used to wake up to as a child had been thinning. Its eventual absence had become almost deafening.

Videographer applies research lens to marine encounters

Her underwater encounters with marine life are viral sensations that put the global spotlight on the need to protect Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – and now University of the Sunshine Coast graduate Jacinta Shackleton hopes her research can do the same.

‘Only place in the world’ with three biospheres side-by-side

Queensland has a world exclusive reason to celebrate International Day for Biosphere Reserves on 3 November, University of the Sunshine Coast Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Helen Bartlett says.

World solutions could be found in Aussie bog

Solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems could lie in the boggy backblocks of Australia’s East Coast, according to University of the Sunshine Coast researchers.

15 ways to reforest the planet: UniSC research

International scientists are calling for a ‘decade of global action’ to reforest the planet, following the overnight publication of a themed international journal led by researchers from Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast.

How a man in a monkey cage decided to save the planet, …one tree at a time.

Andy Marshall’s renowned research goes to the root of conservation science – the health or otherwise of the 73,000 tree species growing on our planet, releasing oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide, helping people, animals and the atmosphere breathe easier.

Dugongs and turtles are starving to death in Queensland seas – and La Niña’s floods are to blame

To rescue a turtle, University of the Sunshine Coast PhD candidate Caitlin Smith half-swam, half-crawled across mud on an inner tube. She tied a harness around its chest and front flippers, so the rest of the team could carefully pull it to safety. It was just one of 15 sick green turtles our team discovered in recent weeks in the Great Sandy Strait near Queensland’s Hervey Bay.

Space, satellites and shifting sands – How a UniSC partnership is hoping to save Queensland’s coast

The University of the Sunshine Coast is looking to the sky to explore the sea, in an ambitious new project to help future-proof our shorelines.

Preparing for a heating future in ‘the Sunshine State’ IT’S GETTING HOT IN HERE

When you think Queensland, you think heat. It’s right there in the nickname ‘The Sunshine State’. Yet one of the curiosities of the state is that minimal governance exists to ensure Queensland homes, towns and cities protect occupants from threats posed by heat.

/University Public Release. View in full here.