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The need for a sustainable and affordable alternative to traditional burial practices is becoming increasingly urgent. As cemeteries in Australian cities run out of space, the cost of a basic traditional burial averages $8,000 – and upwards of $25,000 (for a 25-year lease on a plot) in some inner-city areas. A basic cremation costs less – an average of $3,100 – but releases 50 kilograms of CO₂ as well as toxins into the atmosphere.
Composting burial is emerging as an affordable and more eco-friendly alternative. As Emma Sheppard-Simms explains, once the body is placed in a vessel together with soil, wood chips, straw and alfalfa, it takes just four weeks to decompose into soil. This soil can then be returned to relatives for scattering at a special place, to make a memorial garden, or for use at some other place of their choosing.
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Artist’s impression of the proposed ceremonial space of the Recompose facility in Seattle.
Images courtesy of Olson Kundig
Emma Sheppard-Simms, University of Tasmania
Composting burial could revolutionise bodily disposal in Australia. The need for a sustainable and affordable alternative to traditional burial practices is becoming increasingly urgent.
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A composite image of one night watching the Orionids meteor shower.
Flickr/Jeff Sullivan
Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland; Tanya Hill, Museums Victoria
A big year ahead for some of the meteor showers this year. Here's your 2020 guide on when and where to look to catch nature's fireworks.
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When there are too many elites in a society, competition for power makes existing problems worse.
Francisco Goya / Wikimedia
David Baker, Macquarie University
The 2020s promise to be a decade of mounting strain. But will these years be a story of spiralling decline or triumph over adversity?
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Some of the key points in the Uluru Statement mirror demands first made in the 1920s, including genuine Aboriginal self-determination and an Aboriginal board to sit under the Commonwealth government.
James Ross/AAP
John Maynard, University of Newcastle
The Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association, founded in 1924, made several demands to protect Indigenous rights, including installing an Aboriginal board to sit beneath the federal government.
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Health + Medicine
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Linda Sweet, Deakin University; Amanda Muller, Flinders University
If you're expressing breast milk for your baby, it's important to understand how to store it safely – particularly when we're experiencing warmer weather.
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