Switch off for Earth Hour 2011

At 8.30 pm on Saturday March 26, electric lights and appliances will be switched off for one hour across Sydney, and around the globe, to celebrate Earth Hour, now in its fifth year. Earth Hour is a community event to raise awareness of the need to take action on climate change. Yes, there are the …

Quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan

We have all been overwhelmed by images of the massive earthquake that hit Japan on March 11, and the resulting tsunami, in some cases up to ten metres high and sweeping ten kilometres inland. And there is the Fukushima nuclear power plant, severely damaged by the disaster and at risk of partial meltdown and large …

Action needed on alcohol and gambling

In a state election campaign in which the lack of policy differentiation between the two major parties is matched only by the intensity of voter boredom, or disengagement, there are two significant social issues on which, if the parties could break the stranglehold of industry lobby groups, some real policy alternatives could emerge, and some real …

Tony Blair on faith and progress

There's a lot of talk these days, and a lot of space and airtime given by media to popular, muscular atheism - the idea that God is dead, or doesn't exist. And many who do believe in God play down the significance of their faith for everyday life, or relegate faith to Sundays. So it …

What causes adultery?

Freelance writer Katrina Fox, in her article on same sex marriage published on Wednesday, suggests that "monogamy may not be natural to humans," and "the proliferation of adultery websites offering extramarital dating services is one indicator that the expectation of lifelong sexual bonding to one person ‘till death do us part’ may well be unrealistic …