Writer
Julian Cribb
Julian Cribb AM is an Australian science writer and author of six books on the human existential emergency. His latest book is “How to Fix a Broken Planet” (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
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Coral catastrophe signals our own undoing
Five times in the history of life on Earth the corals have perished, swept from the board by conditions hostile to nearly all life. Each time, it has taken them millions of years to evolve anew. Each mass death of corals has been accompanied by the mass deaths of most other species, on land and Continue reading »
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The next World War has started
World War Three has already begun, though few have noticed. It is being fought out in parliaments and the press, on social media platforms, in pubs and at family dining tables around the globe. It is an almost silent war that will kill millions, potentially billions and wreck the planet for all. Continue reading »
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Climate chaos: world overheats while Europe faces a new Ice Age
The hottest January ever recorded in human history has passed, with barely a nod from governments worldwide and international media. For a full year, the Earth has now exceeded the +1.5 degrees danger level set by the Paris Agreement in 2015. And 2024 may be hotter still, US scientists are warning. Continue reading »
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We are exhuming the teeming Dead
In one of our most macabre and diabolical acts, humans are unburying and reactivating the Earth’s teeming dead from ages long gone by, in a wild act that is sure to haunt every one of us for the remainder of our days. Continue reading »
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Humanity declares war on its children
After WWII, a good many people wondered why nobody had put a stop to either Hitler or Stalin, the two greatest butchers of history prior to the modern era, before they could accomplish their wicked designs. Continue reading »
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Hallucinatory world: Governments blind as multiple catastrophes besiege human civilisation
Life on Earth is under siege. A chain of tipping points with catastrophic consequences for everyone are being unleashed. Yet governments worldwide remain indifferent to the danger. Indeed, many continue avidly to stoke the very furnaces that will consume our civilisation. Continue reading »
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Why we need an Earth System Treaty
“Humanity created its current dire trajectory. It is now time to change course with a binding global treaty designed to empower individuals, institutions, and policymakers, and through this shared effort, reduce the existential threats to civilisation. The Earth Systems Treaty is potentially a major step forward, a step towards a healthy future for all.”–Paul R. Continue reading »
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An Australian Holocaust: greenhouse gas emissions and mass deaths
Australian governments and mining firms are cold-bloodedly contemplating the needless deaths of 5.3 million human beings – many of them our own citizens – from climate causes resulting from new Australian fossil fuels developments. Continue reading »
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We need an Earth System Treaty to save civilisation. And we need it now
The world stands in urgent need of a universal accord to ensure it remains a Planet that our children and grandchildren can inhabit and enjoy, far into the future. Continue reading »
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Cities in mortal danger foreshadow the human fate
Often seen as marvels of the human ascendancy, the world’s great cities are in mortal danger as the resources that keep them alive stagger, dwindle and give out. Continue reading »
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Our planet is imploding: when will we act to save ourselves?
While much of humanity was glued to the unfolding drama over one tiny submarine, the Earth we all inhabit is slowly, steadily and implacably imploding around us. Continue reading »
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Look out! Here come The Elders…
There is rising wrath, out there in Elderland. The Elders, it seems, are no longer happy to look on as a bunch of corporates and their political stooges pillage the planet and lay waste their grandchildren’s future. With growing resolve, resources and organisation, older people are fighting back. Continue reading »
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The earth has Bipolar Disorder: and so do we
World Environment Day – June 5 – demands some sober reflection about the mess we humans have got ourselves into. And how the hell we get out. Continue reading »
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Bruce Haigh: time for some revolutionary Australian art
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone? – Joni Mitchell Continue reading »
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The nation state is on the skids
The 21st Century is changing much about the world that humans take for granted. Among the more shocking possibilities is that it will sound the death-knell of the nation-state as the main instrument of human self-governance. Continue reading »
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Bruce Haigh: a farewell
Bruce Haigh, who died on April 7, was a diplomat, an adventurer, an artist and writer, a humanist, a romantic and a man with a deep love of his country, who mourned its fading ideals and values. Continue reading »
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A plan for human survival
Among the world’s many pressing needs, the most urgent of all is a plan for human survival. And Australia should be the country to lead its creation. Continue reading »
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Best of 2022: The world votes for “climate hell”
Something of epochal importance happened in Egypt last week – the most significant event since Cheops shoved up his triangular monument, four thousand odd-years ago at the dawn of ‘civilisation’. But the world media, true to form, missed it almost completely. Continue reading »
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The world votes for “climate hell”
Something of epochal importance happened in Egypt last week – the most significant event since Cheops shoved up his triangular monument, four thousand odd-years ago at the dawn of ‘civilisation’. But the world media, true to form, missed it almost completely. Continue reading »
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8 billionth human: Has the population bomb exploded?
Sometime in the next few weeks, human being number 8,000,000,000 will enter the world. But what sort of a world will they inherit? Continue reading »
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Here comes the catastrophocene…
The good news is that the Anthropocene is almost over. It will have been the shortest geological epoch in all of Earth history. Continue reading »
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The Age of Women
Leadership by wise women is indispensable if we are to escape the catastrophe that male leadership is presently building for humanity. Continue reading »
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Humanity: sinking into a stagnant ocean
“We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea.” – STColeridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner Continue reading »
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The media’s role in the age of deceit
The complicity of the media in disseminating false information is a central part of the modern phenomenon. The lie factories cannot flourish without obedient messengers to carry their deceptions. Continue reading »
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Our two-party system is corrupt — vote for decency instead
Next year, voters will be able to toss out party politicians and embrace candidates with a record of integrity and commitment to the future. Continue reading »
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The earth is now warming itself — it may be too late for humanity
Only the complete cessation of all human carbon emissions within this decade and removing carbon from the atmosphere will save us from immolation. Continue reading »
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Idiocracy: how the decline in human intelligence is undermining democracy
Science increasingly suspects the proliferation of harmful nerve toxins in recent decades is to blame for a downturn in our IQ levels — and this is threatening not just our health but our very system of governance. Continue reading »
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Time to end the mass killing
Many times larger than climate change and more deadly than Covid or war, humanity’s chemical emissions are the crisis nobody wants to acknowledge. Continue reading »
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A choice between national happiness – and national misery
Australia treats its environment with indifference. Yet the evidence is mounting that the environment is at the heart of national wellbeing. One country is showing the way. Continue reading »
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Solving the mega-risks
The world is awash with literature describing the deepening self-inflicted crisis into which humanity is pitching. I am frequently asked how we can solve it, presuming we wish to do so. Here, briefly, are the ten most urgent solutions. Continue reading »
