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.
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
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 »
-
Environment: Native forests out perform plantations in providing environmental benefits
Native forests deliver more benefits than plantations. ‘Loss and damage’, the unloved sibling in climate negotiations. China builds up its environmental legal system. Continue reading »
-
Environment: IPCC lays out the gruesome climate facts
Three years to turn the carbon supertanker around. ‘Fortress conservation’ of forests is killing local communities. Cats and foxes destroy 3 billion Australian native fauna every year. Continue reading »
-
Environment: Colonialism, chocolate, Krugman and climate change
The IPCC has accepted that colonialism causes climate change. Options for reducing beef-related emissions. Vastly different population trajectories around the world. Continue reading »
-
Environment: Terrestrial and coastal ecosystems destroyed by human activities
Seagrasses are the forgotten but valuable cousins of our coasts. Powerful ‘farmers’ pay lots and lobby hard to avoid regulation, but methane emissions can be reduced. Continue reading »
-
Environment: nobody wants to pay for climate action
The Commonwealth government continues to ignore climate action, while developing countries resist bearing the burden of the renewable energy transition. Scientists say ‘no’ to solar geoengineering. Continue reading »
-
Environment: Pollution destroys lives, the ozone layer and bushland
Profits trump health in sacrifice zones, and pollution from the 2019/20 bushfires may increase Australia’s skin cancer rate. Dogs destroying bushland. Continue reading »
-
Environment: Emissions rising and no green recovery visible
Despite endorsing the IPCC’s findings, and rising emissions, Morrison still supports coal development. New climate-social system model identifies central importance of responsive political institutions for controlling global warming. Continue reading »
-
Environment: Wealthy are the major CO2 emitters
Victoria turns a blind eye to illegal logging while USA maps protected areas. Rich individuals and nations need to reduce their emissions and eliminate global poverty. Continue reading »
-
Environment: Medications damaging nature and humans
Prescribed drugs, government subsidies and deforestation are destroying nature. But nature fights back in Ecuador. Continue reading »
-
Environment: Destroying wetlands increases methane emissions
We’re destroying wetlands and their methane is killing us. Big Oil can’t be trusted but nor can the EU’s climate commitments. Boomers leave their great grandkids a tenth of what they enjoyed. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up
Electric cars sales are booming but so are coal’s, strongly supported by the banks. The Kyoto and Pari agreements fail to keep tabs on military forces’ greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round-up
Greenhouse gases explain the science of climate change but money, greed and deception explain our failure to tackle it. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up.
Tackling the challenges of feeding 10 billion people, keeping our cities cool and meeting the increasing demand for batteries without destroying the environment. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up.
To limit global warming we must stop producing and burning fossil fuels. But nations’ and companies’ plans don’t match their grand pledges and rhetoric. Nor with deforestation. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up
Four laws of ecology still relevant 50 years on but obscuring the truth more prevalent. Global warming continues and invasive species threaten Australian wildlife. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up
Most of Earth’s minerals need living organisms to form. Young people recommend consuming less: smartphones, meat and alcohol would be good starts. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up
Cooee Australia, stop producing fossil fuels and develop credible climate action plans. All nations must preserve ecosystems with ‘irrecoverable carbon’. Continue reading »
-
Dave Sharma, the very model of a Wentworth modern Liberal
Preparing for a tough election battle, federal Liberal MP Dave Sharma massages the truth on the government’s climate action for Wentworth’s voters. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up.
Coal region residents want economic transition. Plastic becoming a significant producer of CO2. Illegal logging and fishing in Myanmar and Mexico. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up.
On land and sea, humans need to do a better job protecting the environment … and our rights to enjoy healthy environments. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up.
COP26 is finished but are we any closer to reducing emissions? Global temperatures rising and supplies of fresh water falling. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up.
Fossil capital (grateful nod to Andreas Malm) holds up climate action in Glasgow and Canberra, a fishy resuce, the vicious CO2 circle. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up
COP, COP, COP and COP … focusing on forests and migration. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up
While humans struggle to do the right thing for themselves and their fellow Earth travellers, animals act to save the world. Continue reading »
-
Sunday environmental round up.
I know Scotty is a regular reader, so this week’s round up is a handy cheat sheet to help him as COP26 in Glasgow beckons. Continue reading »