Recent reports have delivered sobering messages about climate change and its consequences. They include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C; the fourth installment of…
Coral: Choosing the wrong symbiotic partner can mean life or death
A Griffith University researcher and her collaborators have found that choosing the right symbiotic partner could mean the difference between survival and death for certain coral species. The finding has…
Engineering students work on Vanuatu cyclone-proof housing
Griffith University engineering students have been helping rebuild a cyclone-devastated area of Vanuatu as part of a program designed to embed in them in real world construction. Griffith’s fourth-year civil…
Out in the heat: why poorer suburbs are more at risk in warming cities
Australian cities are getting hotter. The many reasons for this include urban densification policies, climate change and social trends such as bigger houses and apartment living, which leave less space…
The world’s carbon stores are going up in smoke with vanishing wilderness
The Earth’s last intact wilderness areas are shrinking dramatically. In a recently published paper we showed that the world has lost 3.3 million square kilometres of wilderness (around 10% of…
High Performance Renewable Batteries from 16th Century Chinese medicine
Inspired by 16th century Chinese medicine, Professor Eddie Zhang and his team from the Centre for Clean Environment and Energy have turned to nature for solutions to improve the performance of…
Desal plants a ‘hidden asset’ for power, water
Renewable hydropower generated from desalination plants and other existing infrastructure would bring economic and environmental benefits to our biggest cities, according to research from Griffith University. Based on studies focused…
If planners understand it’s cool to green cities, what’s stopping them?
Our cities are getting hotter, more crowded and noisier. Climate change is bringing more heatwaves, placing pressure on human health, urban amenity, productivity and infrastructure. Urban residents naturally want to…
How Universities fit into the Paris Climate Agreement
A landmark agreement to cut the world’s reliance on fossil fuels and thus slow the pace of global warming presents an important opportunity for universities, says Griffith University’s Professor Brendan…
Turning salt water into energy
Can the saline water from the desalination process be used to generate power? According to new research harnessing the energy created from salinity gradients — for example, when freshwater meets…