the converation
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3 Billion Animals Were In The Bushfires’ Path. Here’s What The Royal Commission Said About Them
The Black Summer bushfires were devastating for wildlife, with an estimated three billion wild animals killed, injured or displaced. This staggering figure does not include the tens of thousands of farm animals who also perished. The bushfire royal commission’s final report, released on October 30, recognised the gravity of the fires’ extraordinary toll on animals.…
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How We Discovered Three New Species of Penguin in the Southern Ocean
When you think of scientists discovering new species, you might imagine searching the Amazon rainforest for new types of insect or the depths of the ocean for undiscovered crustaceans. But these days most new species we discover are found hiding in plain sight. Such “hidden” species can look so similar to their relatives that they…
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How The #DanLiedPeopleDied Hashtag Reveals Australia’s ‘Information Disorder’ Problem
At midday on August 12 2020, the hashtag #DanLiedPeopleDied started trending on Twitter. By evening it had attracted over 10,000 tweets. The hashtag appeared to reflect widespread public distrust in Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ handling of the coronavirus outbreak. In reality, however, it was driven by a small number of fringe, hyper-partisan accounts – and…