Writer
David Shearman
David Shearman is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Adelaide University and previously held senior academic positions at Edinburgh University, where he qualified in Medicine and Biological Science, and at Yale University. He is author of many books on climate change and related issues. He has served on the IPCC, has been President of the Conservation Council of South Australia. With the late Professor Tony McMichael he founded Doctors for the Environment Australia in 2001. He is author and co-author of several hundred scientific and medical papers.
-
We need national unity to act on the climate emergency
The basic science underlying the climate emergency indicates that green house emissions must stop this decade. This now seems unlikely and we need a national unity government to make us more secure from its consequences. Continue reading »
-
‘Let it rip’ mentality underlies Australia’s cruelest policy failures
Australia’s Covid ‘let it rip’ mentality is deeply ingrained in the nation’s past and, through climate and environmental inaction, is driving a larger peril. Continue reading »
-
Economic planners do not reckon with climate crisis bearing down on us
The current population of 25 million may be Australia’s limit, unless we are prepared to reduce our lifestyle footprint. Continue reading »
-
Crash and burn: the deadly climate policies of our major parties
The Coalition and Labor refuse climate action that will ensure humanity’s survival, even as thousands die globally from the burning of fossil fuels. Continue reading »
-
Party’s over for climate vandals: only informed independents can save us
A new parliament is urgently needed with the ability to act on the climate crisis and this must include young people whose future is at stake. Continue reading »
-
One minute to midnight: only fresh thinking can tackle climate and biodiversity crises
The world’s biodiversity will continue to deteriorate even if temperature rise was arrested. The question for the Glasgow summit is whether our emission-driving economic system can respond. Continue reading »
-
The climate apocalypse: Can a collapse of global civilisation be avoided?
If OECD countries don’t phase out existing coal by 2030, they will be facilitating global collapse. Continue reading »
-
The EU tariff plan is good news for Australia’s place in the World
The steady deterioration in Australia’s environment and the ineffective revision of the EPBC Act suggests that we need help from other developed nations to solve our problem. This help may come from proposals on trade from the EU and the USA. Continue reading »
-
The curse of coal and government health malfeasance
Policies which prolong the life of coal shorten the lives of many Australians and must be confronted – they are preventable deaths. It is distressing that ideology and ignorance have come to this. Continue reading »
-
Outcomes of the ‘Biodiversity, Natural Capital and the Economy’ Report at the G7 Summit
Following Australia’s extravagant claims to climate leadership at the G7, hopes for a more diplomatic approach were dashed by a Prime Ministerial statement claiming that “Australia is a frontrunner when it comes to taking action to conserve our biodiversity…” Continue reading »
-
Mr Morrison, the G7 Summit and the report “Biodiversity, Natural Capital and the Economy”
When Mr Morrison arrives at the G7 Leaders Summit later this week he will have before him a report on Biodiversity and if he reads and understands it he will realise that Australia’s reformed gross domestic product (GDP) would almost certainly be in negative territory and likely to fall further because of our poor record Continue reading »
-
Democratic reform is vital to address the climate and environmental crises
Society faces a fast moving confluence of climate change, environmental decay, and increasing zoonoses but fails to recognise the most compelling underlying problem, the crumbling ability of democratic systems to deliver any meaningful action. Continue reading »
-
The importance of environmental water: is the national water initiative up to the job?
Momentous decisions are needed on water policy to ensure that life in Australia is sustainable when climate change is advancing and the natural environment is deteriorating rapidly. Is the National Water Initiative (NWI) capable of reform to ensure a sustainable future? Continue reading »
-
Does the desire for power over-ride saving lives by acting on climate change adaptation?
A key role of government is to save lives. It has done this admirably for Covid-19 at huge expense. It will need to do the same regarding climate change adaptation if we are to protect human health and lives. Continue reading »
-
The continuing loss of plant, animal and reptile species has dire consequences
While cats provide much-needed companionship, they are also genetically programmed killers. Cats have devastating effects on biodiversity, which is vital for food security. .. Estimates are that domestic cats kill 61 million birds a year and those becoming feral kill more than 300 million birds plus countless small mammals and reptiles. By contrast the recent Australian Continue reading »
-
The economic conductor of the catastrophes of climate change and biodiversity loss
The human brain seems unable to grasp the magnitude of the global problems we face in moving to ways of sustainable living and governance systems which can deliver a secure future for our children. Continue reading »
-
Three cheers for health workers who care for patients, communities and the planet
During the Covid crisis doctors and heath care workers have been a ‘light on the hill’ for service and dedication to humanity. By September 2020 over 7000 around the world had died from Covid contracted at work. Continue reading »
-
The Royal Commission bushfire report must lead to a national Climate Adaptation Policy
The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements (Bushfire RC) report is eagerly awaited not only by eminent fire fighter Greg Mullins who hopes it will lead to action to reduce climate change emissions but by all anxious Australians who recognise our government’s negligence by not preparing a national climate adaptation plan. Hopefully the Bushfire Continue reading »
-
LobbyLand. The politics of fossil fuels – the pits!
Fossil fuel lobbying is a cancer inflicting death, illness and misery on Australian society. How does it operate, what are its impacts and how can society allow this disabling condition to continue without treatment? Continue reading »
-
The EPBC Review says good-bye to environmental and human health on Planet A
The Samuel Report and its rejection of an independent regulator by the Minister have ‘grave’ implications for the health of countless communities around Australia. Continue reading »
-
The Battle of Narrabri may well decide our climate future
Approval for the Narrabri gas project will say goodbye to any hope of an effective climate policy and usher in an expanding national gas industry with a rise in emissions and untold direct damage to the sustainability of this drying continent. Continue reading »
-
Our political processes have failed us on climate change and the environment.
The Covid crisis will be controlled in a few years with new pharmaceuticals, vaccination or gradual human attenuation or immunity. Its lasting impact may well be from its distraction from addressing the crises eating away our life support systems. Continue reading »
-
Coming Crises in Sustainability and Health will challenge the PM in his Leadership of the National Cabinet
Mr Morrison has created a National Cabinet to drive a “singular agenda” to create jobs. If it functions successfully as it has done over Covid, it will be a masterstroke of governance allowing state leaders from both major parties to interact for the common good without the damaging rancour shown in Parliament and the media. Continue reading »
-
The Climate Tide roars in, yet leaders fail to understand and act
Climate change is a massively complex ‘wicked’ problem hence solutions require human capacities of logic and imagination guiding action. Our leaders appear bereft of science-based logic, acknowledging neither magnitude nor urgency of climate change. Continue reading »
-
DAVID SHEARMAN. After Covid-19 the ‘New Normal’ must have ‘Real Universities’ acting on the Climate Crisis
The Market Forces UniSuper divest campaign details continuing UniSuper investments in fossil fuels despite many concerns expressed by academics and despite the progressive climate change crisis. Do the Universities have responsibilities? Continue reading »
-
DAVID SHEARMAN and MELISSA HASWELL; The EPBC Act Review is a once in a decade chance to prioritise our Environment, our Health and our Future
After COVID 19, many of us have a flicker of hope that our government will apply some of its demonstrated sense of responsibility on medical advice to the larger health emergency on our doorstep. Continue reading »
-
DAVID SHEARMAN and PHIL SHEARMAN; Anguished Scientists and the Collapse of Democracy
In the clouded eyes of government, scientific facts, which have guided our technologically advanced civilisation are now simply an opinion which can be discarded in favour of their own. Continue reading »
-
DAVID SHEARMAN. The Unrelenting Desire to Export more Coal
Australia has become the climate change pariah of developed countries which are trying to deliver a fair share of emissions reduction. Continue reading »
-
As the Liberals rest on their climate laurels, Labor must bite the coal bullet
As the smoke from our bushfires circles the Earth and other developed countries admonish our indolence on climate change, we are deluding ourselves if we hope for government action on emissions. Continue reading »
-
DAVID SHEARMAN.-Doctors urged to engage with water policy concerns and a timely review
he climate and health emergency must remind doctors and the community that water is one of our life support systems and its scarcity in Australia will bring human misery, displacement of individuals and towns, and failures in food production. Continue reading »