Bob Douglas
Em Prof Bob Douglas, AO is a retired Public Health Academic and a committee member of The Council for The Human Future (CHF) and The Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy (CAPaD).
Bob's recent articles
9 April 2025
Can our human species be rescued?
Our own human species is in grave danger of becoming extinct in the not-too-distant future, and there is no systemic global effort underway to minimise this threat. A series of “existential threats” have been highlighted by many scientists.
18 February 2025
Australia's future and the forthcoming federal election
With the election again of Donald Trump as president of the United States, and our own federal election coming very soon, we need to think about to the sort of future we want for our children and theirs.
27 July 2024
Prospects for our progeny
We live in treacherously dangerous times. The recent attack on the life of Donald Trump, is just one of many pieces of evidence that every human on our planet is living under threat. Thanks to the actions of former PM, John Howard, the threat of gun violence here in Australia is less than that in the United States. But, as both the Club of Rome, and prominent Canberra Science communicator, Julian Cribb, have been saying for some years, we are not dealing adequately, with a series of interacting issues that threaten the very survivability of our human species.
8 July 2024
The “Invisible Doctrine” destroying our planet and controlling your life
Best-selling British writers, George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison, have very recently published “The Invisible Doctrine”, which is a powerful critique of neoliberalism, and the role they believe it is playing in destroying our human future.
5 May 2024
To avoid human population collapse, We must transform Society
In the coming year, there will be an election for the Australian Parliament, at a time when the very future of human civilisation is precarious. Three important books have appeared in recent months that should be read by politicians and their constituents, everywhere.
14 March 2024
Transforming for human survival: a challenge to ACT Legislators
It is not difficult to understand, nor to agree, with the growing numbers of thoughtful people who argue that humanity is on the brink of extinction. And that, without transformational change in the way, we think, and live, our descendants are doomed.
24 February 2024
A welcome new approach to economics
The Alternative: How to build a just economy by American author, Nick Romeo, that has been published by Basic Books UK in recent weeks, is a welcome arrival to a human world in crisis.
4 January 2024
An ecological manifesto for the end of the world
We are facing the end of the world as we know it, but it doesnt have to be the end of the world. Our task is to bring people together in a spirit of mutual aid, and to cultivate the Living Democracy that is the only alternative now to authoritarianism, says a new book, Living Democracy by Tim Hollo.
24 October 2023
A war for the human future
Our human world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. Quite apart from what is happening between Gaza and Israel, and in the war between Russia and Ukraine, we are currently living with a series of human-made catastrophic threats that are coming together to threaten the very existence of our own human species. All of these threats are manageable, but we are not yet managing any of them adequately. And the combination is terrifyingly lethal.
24 September 2023
Earth Systems Treaty: John Hewson calls for action on mega threats
Former Liberal party leader John Hewson, in a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, enquired why the United Nations was not acting on proposals to deal with a series of well documented and interacting catastrophic threats.
12 September 2023
Earth System Treaty: Towards a positive human future
It is easy to be pessimistic about prospects for our children, in the face of the climatic events that are now confronting humans everywhere. But there is also some very good news around the idea of developing a Global Earth System Treaty (EST) that could radically alter the trajectory we humans are currently on.
24 August 2023
Australia could be leading the way on human survival: Will Albanese act?
Our human species is drifting rapidly towards extinction, and there is not yet in place, a process to prevent it.
27 June 2023
Interested in Australias future? Help to shape it here
Australia21, the nations not-for-profit Think Tank for the Public Good is seeking a new home.
25 February 2023
Preventing civilisation collapse: Australia should lead the way
Can we avoid, what a growing number of researchers and writers, consider, will be the likely collapse of human civilisation in the not-too-distant future, if we do not quickly and radically change direction?
7 January 2023
Will prospects for long-term human survival improve in 2023?
What can we expect in 2023 about future human prospects? Will current threats to long-term human survival, continue to increase or will they begin to diminish as a consequence of responses to current threats?
18 August 2022
The rise of China- the biggestshift in our international environment sinceEuropeans settled on this continent
We cannot simply rely on the US to keep Asia safe in future. Is our Prime Minister really aware of this?
26 June 2022
Where to next for the human world?
Ournew government is facing a profoundly difficult and complex world situation,with a string of ten catastrophic threats that are bearing down onhumanseverywhere.
13 April 2022
This should be a climate change election
Anthony Albanese and his colleagues could surely storm to victory if they enthusiastically acted on the arguments presented by climate experts.They would certainly attract the support of the millions of Australians who understandably fear the consequences of our current, disastrously inadequate approach to this topic.
22 November 2021
Repairing our fractured democracy starts with citizens' assemblies
The notion of government by and for the people is being increasingly eroded in Australia the widespread use of citizens' assemblies could be the solution.
8 November 2021
Fixation on climate change has blinded us to a deadly chemical tsunami
Humanity's chemical emissions are poisoning the earth and killing 25,000 people a day and pose as much of an existential threat as global warming.
1 January 2021
Governments everywhere are ignoring the fact that climate change is just one of 10 human-made threats to our survival
Human extinction in coming decades looks increasingly certain, unless we can somehow, quickly engineer, radical transformative change in the way humans everywhere, live and relate to the planet.
23 September 2020
Some Good News at Last?
The recent announcement that the World Economic Forum will be holding a unique twin summit in January 2021 on what is termed The Great Reset is the best news I have read for some time.
16 June 2020
Thriving in a Mega-threatened World
The threats from climate change and pandemics to human well-being and even human survival, have recently become apparent to us all. There is growing recognition, that we must change our expectations and the way we live, in order to ensure that our progeny will both survive and thrive into the future
27 April 2020
Surviving the mega-threats to our world
We humans are a threatened species, and it is mostly of our own making. To survive the ten mega-threats we must act fast, and we must collaborate.
17 March 2020
PETER TAIT, BETH SLATYER, SUE INGRAM and BOB DOUGLAS. Awakening Democracy.
How can we elect political representatives who are committed to the interests of the whole community, and are not influenced by vested interests?
1 January 2020
BOB DOUGLAS:. A Prime Ministerial Summit on Australias Future?
We are at an historic moment of apocalyptic threat to the survival of the human species.
28 December 2019
BOB DOUGLAS: Is our current economic model fit for the purpose of human survival?
If we humans are to survive the catastrophic threats that now confront us, we must urgently rethink the way we live and care for our planetary home. In turn, that demands that we examine the role that economic theory and practice play in the way modern societies operate. There is a case for moving outside the economics profession for a frank discussion of the way the current economic model affects us all.
12 November 2019
BOB DOUGLAS. Responding to Greta's Challenge
How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just 'business as usual' and some technical solutions? You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.We will not let you get away with this. These were the words of sixteen-year old Swedish schoolgirl, Greta Thunberg as she addressed the United Nations climate conference on 25th September this year.
17 July 2019
BOB DOUGLAS. Changing Australian Refugee Policy: What is realistically and politically feasible?
Is there a new spirit of bipartisanship developing between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese? As well as discussing a bipartisan approach to the legislation of religious freedom and an indigenous voice, might they also consider a new bipartisan approach to refugee policy?
26 June 2019
BOB DOUGLAS, Australia Should be Leading The Extinction Rebellion
Prime Minister Morrison is now in a very strong position to lead the way on radical policy reform. I am arguing here that we should help him to develop and promote a strategy for human survival in the face of the ten interacting, mega-threats that seriously threaten the extinction of humanity in the lifetime of our grandchildren.
26 February 2019
BOB DOUGLAS : Towards a proper policy on asylum seekers
Last month, the Victorian prize for literature and the Victorian Premier's prize for non-fiction work were awarded to an Iranian refugee, Behrouz Boochani, for his book, No friend but the mountains: Writing from Manus prison.
29 January 2019
BOB DOUGLAS. Would Australian politicians contemplate a strategy for human survival?
Why are governments around the world avoiding the constellation of threats to survival of humans on the planet?
19 December 2018
BOB DOUGLAS. My Unsolicited Advice to Australias political leaders.
This week I cheekily wrote to the leader of the Federal Opposition seeking an urgent appointment before he embarks on his party's convention this weekend. Because I doubt that I will get to meet with him, here is what I would like to say to him and to the leaders of each of the other political parties as well as the cross benchers.
11 September 2018
BOB DOUGLAS. Homelessness, a sign of increasing Australian Inequality that we must now address.
The growing number of people sleeping rough on the streets of our cities has alerted many Australians to the fact that Australia is no longer the egalitarian society we once were, and that, as in other western democracies, inequality is on the rise.
25 July 2018
BOB DOUGLAS. What will it take to restore governance to its rightful owners?
Around the world, and also here in Australia, voters are turning away from the political process, alarmed at the capture of political parties by vested interests, and alienated by the fact that the issues which concern and affect ordinary people, are being ignored. Our social and economic system is moving both funds and influence away from people in the lower 60% of incomes and wealth, to those in the upper 10%.
2 April 2018
BOB DOUGLAS. Changing drug law and practice to help rather than harm.
Last week Australia21, (www.australia21.org.au ), hosted a summit of experts on drug treatment, drug law and the social impact of drug use in Australia. The signatories included a former Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, people who have been actively engaged in research into alcohol and drug use for periods as long as 40 years, researchers into the criminal justice system, prisoner rehabilitation, domestic violence and child protection, as well as church agencies working in various aspects of the welfare space.
4 March 2018
BOB DOUGLAS. Time for Australia to lead in building a safer future
A combination of hazards threatens the continued survival of human civilization on Planet Earth. They are all man-made and most are being systematically ignored or under-rated by political decision makers everywhere and especially, here in Australia.
18 January 2018
BOB DOUGLAS. Towards social and political transformation.
British writer and columnist, George Monbiot, has recently published an important book about national and global politics and the need for radical, cultural and political transformation. Entitled Out of the wreckage: a new politics for an age of crisis, the book boldly tackles economics, environmental threats, widespread voter alienation and the political corruption that pervades modern democracies. The author offers a new narrative to replace neoliberalism, which he considers responsible for many of the crises that now confront humans everywhere.
30 November 2017
BOB DOUGLAS. Changing the Economic Narrative. How Feasible and How Soon?
What will it take to develop a new economy in Australia that seriously addresses the problems of human inequality and environmental degradation? What is required to place radical economic reform properly on the Australian political agenda?
1 October 2017
BOB DOUGLAS. How will we change the human story?
What do we need to do to make it likely that our children and theirs will inherit a flourishing, rather than a collapsing human world? Our politicians must surely be starting to realise that large numbers of Australians are thoroughly fed up with the fact that the wellbeing of all (not just some) humans, and the health of the planet have become second order and neglected issues because of a widely shared ideology of endless, indiscriminate growth, unfettered markets, rampant individualism, small and impotent government and a key focus on competition.
16 August 2017
BOB DOUGLAS An algal industry ready to bloom
A high level Roundtable held in Canberra in November 2017 concluded that algal technology can help to protect the Great Barrier Reef and create new jobs and growth for regional areas.
1 August 2017
Minimising existential threats of our own making
Events that could permanently and drastically curtail humanity's potential or even cause human extinction are often referred to as existential threats. A moderate sized asteroid hitting our planet is a prime example. It could wipe us all out in a flash, as apparently happened to 75% of the species on earth at the time a 10 Km diameter asteroid hit the Earth about 65 million years ago.
16 April 2017
BOB DOUGLAS. Are humans headed for early extinction?
Observing the national and international political scene, one could be forgiven for believing that all we need to do is promote economic growth and jobs and everything will be okay. We have become besotted with the idea that money and markets will solve all of our problems. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, our commitment to endless economic growth and denial and ignorance of its ecological consequences is an integral part of the problem, which must urgently be addressed if our grandchildren are to survive.
11 August 2014
Bob Douglas and Claire Higgins. Beyond Operation Sovereign Borders.
Recently in The Saturday PaperMax Opray reported on the harrowing story of two 16 year-old Vietnamese asylum seekers, who have been removed from their Adelaide school without warning, and placed in closed detention in Darwin. The boys are among around 30,000 asylum seekers who are currently in Australia awaiting resolution of their protection claims. Many live without work rights, and many fear sudden re-detention or removal. Indeed, the boys case has led to fifteen other Adelaide teenagers in a comparable situation to go into hiding, wary of a similar fate. So why were the boys re-detained? Was it to...