Almost 260 Sri Lankans aboard a boat moored in Western Java are pleading with Australian authorities to consider their bid for asylum, saying that returning to Sri Lanka means certain death.The group was intercepted in Indonesian waters on the weekend after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rang Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.Bruce Haigh is the former Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka . He says the Prime Minister's actions are the result of fear and a belief that voters are still anti-refugee.

Cubbie Station has been at the centre of Australia’s water debate. The cotton farm, located in southwest Queensland is now up for sale but the Federal government has not placed an offer. Tenders have now closed and there are five groups which have put in a bid. So who is going to buy it? And what will it mean for the River Murray system? Featured in story: Australian Conservation Foundation Healthy Rivers Campaigner, Arlene Buchan and National Coordinator of Fair Water Use Australia, Ian Douglas.

Suppose we had a government that was serious about climate change and accepted our responsibility to reduce emissions by 40 or 50% by 2020 - how would we go about meeting this challenge? That's the premise of a workshop being conducted in Adelaide today by President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor Ian Lowe. He says that when you ask the professionals in industry they all say that it can be done. So why are our political leaders saying it can't?

As Australian summers become more severe, climate experts like Alan Pearce are calling for more sustaiable buildings. Alan Pearce is a private consultant for Sustainable Housing. He says our existing buildings just aren't up to scratch when it comes to climate change.

Suriname is a small country in the Upper Amazon basin, almost completely covered in rainforest. Author and primatologist Andrew Westoll spent a year in this Lost Eden and discovered that while stranger and more idyllic than he could have imagined, it's also under economic pressure to allow mining and other industries which threaten to destroy its pristine image.