Writer
Peter Sainsbury
Peter Sainsbury is a retired public health worker with a long interest in social policy, particularly social justice, and now focusing on climate change and environmental sustainability. He is extremely pessimistic about the world avoiding catastrophic global warming.
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Environment: Guterres: ‘the ecosystem meltdown is cold, hard scientific fact’
Tell it like it is, António: ‘climate disaster, death sentence, insanity, inconsistent with human survival’. Thank goodness for chocolate and birds. Continue reading »
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Environment: melodrama and tragedy worthy of the great storytellers
Hard times lie ahead. Are the Great Expectations of renewable energy, ocean-based removal of CO2 and protein from microbes justified? Continue reading »
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Environment: No reasonable prospect of keeping 1.5 alive
Not one of over 1200 computer simulations provides a reasonable chance of global warming being under 1.5oC in 2100. Climate protester jailed for 15 months in NSW. Continue reading »
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Environment: COP’s over but climate change is like ‘ol man river …’,
‘… he just keeps rolling along’, destroying homes, communities, health and farming. Continue reading »
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Environment: How to feed 10 billion and predict the next Covid
The global population is now 8 billion but the vast majority make little contribution to global warming. The search is on for ways to feed 10 billion sustainably in 2050. Continue reading »
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Environment: 1.5 degrees is still alive (just)
The bad news: more evidence of humanity’s callous disregard for the environment and our own future. The good news: sex in the moonlight is not yet dead. Continue reading »
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Environment: COP meetings keep happening; emissions keep rising
Four reports and Greta Thunberg highlight the failure of 30 years of COP meetings to slow climate change. Continue reading »
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Environment: Greenhouse gases – same old winners, same old losers
Whitehaven Coal is selling more coal and making record profits and (apparently) helping countries reduce their emissions. Rich nations should cancel developing nations’ debt to help them cope with climate change. Continue reading »
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Environment: Cherish old trees, rivers and birds
The world’s old trees, Australia’s rivers and the USA’s birds are in decline. The cause is the same everywhere – failing to respect nature. Continue reading »
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Environment: Rich countries export their social and environmental problems
Self-righteous rich countries export their problems to poor countries. Animal population sizes a third of what they were. Is Direct Air Capture a promising technology? Continue reading »
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Environment: A bleak, hot future for Australia
New data confirms Australia’s vulnerability to climate change. Nitrous oxide emissions set to become a climate battleground. Answers to where I’ve been for the last month. Continue reading »
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Environment: Pacific wants Australian support for strong climate action
Pacific nations want climate action not military bases. Emissions and temperatures keep rising and forest fires keep increasing. Continue reading »
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Climate laws for the environment and for people
A roadmap for reforming Australia’s climate laws and Chile rewrites its constitution with the environment and people to the fore. Greater warming where and when its coldest. Continue reading »
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Peter Sainsbury’s Environment Report: Rewilding the USA’s west and saving the Amazon’s headwaters
Wolves and beavers could recreate the wild West. Indigenous communities fight for the Amazon’s sacred headwaters. Is your battery killing mine workers? Continue reading »
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This week with Peter Sainsbury on catastrophic ‘Climate Endgame’
Scientists call ignoring ‘Climate Endgame’ dangerous. Biden’s persistence navigates the Inflation Reduction Act through Congress. Renewables keep getting cheaper. Continue reading »
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More aquaculture to feed a silent world
Sustainable aquaculture to boost fish supplies. Rich nations fund poor’s fossil fuel industries. Extinctions silence nature. Continue reading »
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Environment: UN declares right to a healthy environment
Global right to a healthy, sustainable environment declared but governments conspire to hide the truth about climate change, Tassie sanctions the killing of native wildlife and Brazil encourages dangerous mining deep in the Amazon. Continue reading »
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Environment: Australia’s natural environment – sick and getting sicker
Australia’s environment needs better governments and more respect. Mexican asparagus: nice but very naughty. Continue reading »
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Environment: Prescribed burning makes bushfires worse
Prescribed burning does more harm than good, as do fossil fuel subsidies. How to protect wild species. Continue reading »
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Environment: Four actions to help the oceans help us
Our seas are already seriously threatened and more dangers are emerging but four marine strategies will deliver for human health, the environment and the economy. A circular economy in the food and agriculture industry will dramatically reduce biodiversity loss. Continue reading »
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Environment: Supreme Court gives the world a climate headache
US Supreme Court favours ‘democracy’ over climate action. Overshooting 2oC of warming will be bad news for ecosystems. Space tourism preparing for launch. Continue reading »
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Environment: Enormous environmental consequences of the war in Ukraine
The conflict in Ukraine is destroying environments and not only in the war zone. Cartoon characters combat ecofascism and Global South nations outline their expectations of November’s COP meeting in Egypt. Continue reading »
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Environment: Can capitalism deliver the future we want?
We need to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions, not just CO2. Solar and wind slowly replacing coal as Australia’s source of electricity. Sydney and Canberra middle of the pack for sustainability. Continue reading »
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Environment: Can astronomical phenomena inspire us to solve earthly problems?
Forget war, climate change, famine and dysfunctional economics for five minutes, lift your eyes to the pre-dawn skies and see five of our planetary neighbours. Continue reading »
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Environment: Global climate report and watery things
The global climate in 2021 was not looking good, nor were dams, rivers, the Reef or seagrass. Continue reading »
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Environment: An asset for profit or a space for children to thrive?
Is the natural environment to be commodified for profit or cherished to help children and adults thrive? How to decarbonise Australia’s transport systems. Continue reading »
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Environment: Steel and cement emissions. Effects of climate change on mammals.
Ways to reduce steel and cement emissions now. Climate change predicted to increase the spread of viruses from other mammals to humans and affect the ability of marine mammals to communicate. Continue reading »
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Environment: Atmospheric CO2 hits 420ppm. Operating mines and wells must close to stay under 1.5C
The level of CO2 in the atmosphere continues to rise and staying under 1.5 degrees of warming will require closing almost half of currently operating fossil fuel wells and mines: regional Australians know this. Conflicts over water are increasing worldwide. Continue reading »
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Environment: Forests, soil and peatlands disappearing
20 million hectares of tropical and boreal forests were lost in 2021. Climate change is destroying the soil crust in arid lands. Peatlands are disappearing globally. It doesn’t have to be this way: action is possible. Continue reading »
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Environment: Electricity, extinctions and agroecology
Wind and solar generate a tenth of the world’s electricity but coal still dominates in Australia. Reptiles and marine species face high risk of extinction. Moving from agribusiness to agroecology. Continue reading »