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22 JUNE, 2022
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CSIRO finding rubbished By Matthew Sims
Karaoke star goes global
An Altona Beach Patrol co-ordinator and volunteer has refuted a Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [CSIRO] report showing plastic on Australian beaches had dropped by an average of 29 per cent. Sacha Blomer, who is one of the co-ordinators of the group which meets monthly to clean up the Altona Beach, said her experience was that the amount of rubbish was growing at a rapid rate. “The reality on the ground – from someone who is regularly collecting plastic from the beach – is that the amount of plastic rubbish found on our beaches has increased exponentially in just the last five years,” she said. “Clearly, it has been a problem for decades, but I can not even walk through a national park area – coastal or inland – without stumbling over numerous pieces of plastic rubbish. “The amount of plastic waste in our natural environment, which includes coastal areas, is at disaster levels.” Published in the journal One Earth, the CSIRO report built on coastal litter surveys conducted in 2013 and included 563 new coastal surveys, and interviews with waste managers across 32 local governments around Australia. Lead researcher and PhD graduate from CSIRO and the University of Tasmania Dr Kathryn Willis said the research focused on identifying which local government approaches had the greatest effect on reducing plastic pollution found on beaches. “Whilst plastic pollution is still a global crisis and we still have a long way to go, this research shows that decisions made on the ground, at local management levels, are crucial for the successful reduction of coastal plastic pollution,” she said. CSIRO researcher and paper co-author Dr Denise Hardesty said the increase in waste levies had delivered the second largest effect on decreases in coastal plastic pollution. “Local governments are moving away from a collect and dump mindset to a sort and improve approach,” she said.
Maidstone’s Harlem Calleja will be representing Australia with his singing skills on a global stage. He is preparing his voice to compete against a number of competitors from countries across the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Greece and Singapore in the Karaoke World Championships’ 2022 Global Video Challenge. Impressing the judges with his rendition of ‘Always Remember Us This Way’ from the 2018 film ’A Star Is Born’, Mr Calleja will be competing at the international finals in Norway from Monday, August 8 until Saturday, August 13. He said receiving the news he was the Australian finalist was “crazy“. “I was expecting to have to go through another round,” Mr Calleja said. He is starting to prepare his voice across a number of styles and learn a range of songs, with competitors not able to read the lyrics. “It’s actually very competitive,” Mr Calleja said. He is aiming to raise $9000 for the journey, with a GoFundMe campaign at $1050 at the time of publication. Details: www.gofundme.com/f/help-merepresent-australia-in-norway-this-august. Matthew Sims
Maidstone’s Harlem Calleja will be joining karaoke stars from across the globe in Oslo later this year as the Australian representative in the Karaoke World Championships Global Video Challenge. (Joe Mastroianni) 285667
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