Category Archives: Environment and climate

In 2008 David Michaels’ published a book – Doubt is their Product. How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens your Health – which was instrumental in the subsequent exposure of the systematic efforts of various industries to raise doubt about the … Continue reading →

Reflecting on when the Prime Minister rang to ask him head the Government’s COVID-19 Task Force Nev Power said he couldn’t refuse the PM – reacting as any responsible citizen would.

A guide to the Australian government’s plans for the post-COVID recovery and bureaucrats and scientists talk with feeling about Australia’s Climate Wars. Cyclone Amphan hits India and Bangladesh, providing a current example of the increasing frequency of strong tropical storms. … Continue reading →

Good climate reporting informs us about the complex consequences of a heating planet. In order to also act as a catalyst for change, climate campaigners need to acknowledge the complex emotional responses their stories stir while highlighting avenues for personal … Continue reading →

In the absence of urgent climate action, rising temperatures over the next 50 years will render much of the globe uninhabitable for humans and trees. But global fossil fuel consumption is still rising and a NSW coal company has repeatedly … Continue reading →

While net-zero carbon needs our nation-wide commitment, an older national ambition competes for primacy – Big Australia. CSIRO reports have plans for our future, but can’t please everyone.

Australians think they have it tough with bushfires, coronavirus and bleaching of the Reef but the people of Pacific and African nations have a multitude of other problems to cope with as well – few of which they caused. Are … Continue reading →

 Major cities and their birds are breathing easier. Across China, smog has given way to the colour blue. Even the snow-capped Himalayas are visible from parts of Northern India for the first time in local’s memories.

Two stories from India: creating environmentally sustainable, healthy cities for the post-COVID world and the installation of cheap solar energy signals the end of coal. Plus, Joseph Stiglitz summarises some principles the Australian government should adopt post-COVID, a literary interlude … Continue reading →

Ecosystems are likely to collapse sooner and more abruptly than previously thought, which is not surprising considering Trump continues to destroy the environmental in the USA. We can do better: the post-COVID recovery can be used to promote environmental sustainability … Continue reading →

A rational response from Australia’s leaders to the unprecedented and disastrous 2019-20 megafires would have recognised, first, that they are another warning— and the strongest yet — that the catastrophic impacts of human-induced climate change are here now as lives … Continue reading →

Biodiversity features heavily this week: a distressing update on bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef but good news that the right action now could restore the Earth’s oceans to good health by 2050; the Tasmanian government hellbent on logging native … Continue reading →

As nearly everybody now understands, the changes that have occurred in public policy in the last few weeks are without precedent, at least since the Second World War. They tell us in the most straightforward possible way that only government … Continue reading →

Coronavirus is yet another serious disruption to daily life in Africa, while the Brazilian President prefers clearing the Amazon to managing the epidemic. Two reports from WWF highlight the contributions that nature-based solutions can make to solving global problems but … Continue reading →

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. How will a coronavirus-led recession affect CO2 emissions? Will health improve from cleaner air with fewer vehicles on the road? How can governments use stimulus packages to protect the vulnerable and hasten the … Continue reading →

Marine and coastal environments are the focus this week: how ‘The Blue Acceleration’ poses threats to natural environments, economies, lives and homes through ocean warming, melting ice caps, changes in ocean currents, sea level rise and even bushfires. And some … Continue reading →