Dialoguepk

May 8, 2020 5.54am AEST   Paul Strangio ,  Monash University Fifty years ago this month, hundreds of thousands of Australians assembled across the country to call for an end to the Vietnam War. The first of the moratorium campaigns, the demonstrations of May 8 1970 were the zenith of the anti-war movement in Australia that had been five years in the making. The largest of the May 8 marches took place in Melbourne, confirming its status as the national capital of protest politics. An estimated 100,000 demonstrators clogged the city’s streets. Despite scaremongering in preceding weeks by conservative politicians and large sections of the media about the threat of violence and mayhem, the event passed peacefully. Relieved and exultant, the movement’s leader, Jim Cairns,  told the sea of protesters  gathered in Bourke Street: Nobody thought this could be done … The will of the people is being expressed today as it never has been before. The moratorium movement was important in a number of

Scientists find burnt, starving koalas weeks after the bushfires March 16, 2020 5.51am AEDT   Romane H. Cristescu ,  Celine Frere ,  University of the Sunshine Coast The plight of koalas during the recent bushfire crisis  made headlines here  and abroad. But the emergency for our wildlife is not over. Koalas that survived the flames are now dying from starvation, dehydration, smoke inhalation and other hazards. Over the past three weeks in one wildlife conservation property alone, our rescue team found koalas recently crushed under fire-damaged trees, and koalas with burnt paws after descending to the smouldering ground after the inferno had passed, hoping to change trees and find food. One of our most recent rescues was an orphaned, emaciated koala with all four paws burnt. Koalas are also at risk of dying from infections associated with these injuries, or from the ongoing effects of smoke inhalation. Even uninjured koalas are struggling to