Name Alexandra Blas | ||
Alexandra deBlas (1962) is an Australian journalist and environmentalist who was awarded the 2003 3rd World Water Forum Journalists prize in Kyoto, Japan and the 2004 United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Award.
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She is best known as presenter of the ABC Radio National environment program Earthbeat. Since 2004, de Blas has been on the Editorial Advisory Board of CSIRO’s Ecos magazine and currently runs an environment communications agency.
Education and Early Life
de Blas completed a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Sydney in 1981 and later completed a Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies (Hons) at the University of Tasmania in 1993. She spent several years working on a PhD in environmental communication at the University but this was not completed.
Career
deBlas started work as a Rural Reporter for the ABC in Queensland. She later worked on the ABC Radio National program 'The Country Hour,' reporting from Tasmania and Victoria.
Controversy emerged in connection with deBlas' research into pollution from the Mt Lyell copper mine in Tasmania which she uncovered while writing her honours thesis in environmental studies at the University of Tasmania.
The Mt Lyall Mine Co threatened the University of Tasmania with a defamation suit if the thesis was published and the University decided that the work was defamatory and should not be published.
After two years of attempting to reverse the decision, De Blas took her thesis to the University of Technology where it was published by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.
In 1995, de Blas was engaged as the presenter for the new Radio National environment program Earth Beat, a position she held until the programs demise in 2005. From 2005 to 2008 Alexandra worked at Bush Heritage Australia as their Communications Strategist.