Climate
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Climate policy is on a collision course with physical reality
There is a chasm in outlook between the global climate policy-making elite with their focus on distant goals, market solutions and non-disruptive change, and activists and key researchers who see the world hurtling towards climate breakdown and social collapse. Continue reading »
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Environment: Climate protesters blockade Newcastle’s coal port despite government bans
Draconian laws don’t discourage climate protesters. Hydrogen’s rainbow of colours. CCS continues to underperform. Clean energy investments increasing but so are investments in fossil fuels. Continue reading »
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A triumph for greed over commonsense and humanity
For the third year in a row the nations of the world, meeting in solemn climate conclave, have vowed to cook their children and grandchildren alive. Continue reading »
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Earth first: a foundational moral principle
COP29 was a failure not because there wasn’t enough money on offer, but because it ignored population. Continue reading »
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COP 29: grossly inadequate funding signals a deepening East–West divide
Developing countries at COP 29 presented the Western world with an annual US$1trillion financial transfer bill for the cost of their profligate carbon fuelled global warming inducing industrialisation. That sum was no NGO rule of thumb figure but one produced by an organisation funded by Western governments themselves – the International Energy Agency, the world’s Continue reading »
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Exposing the layers of aviation industry greenwash
For the aviation industry as a whole, and, for that matter, our federal government too, ‘net zero 2050’ is just the latest layer of greenwash. The sector is a serial offender, having misrepresented its global warming impact for decades. Continue reading »
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Environment: The future of humanity hangs in the balance
‘We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster’, scientists conclude. Donkeys: feral pests or nature’s saviours? Climate change threatens global food security and farmers’ incomes. Continue reading »
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The gods look on aghast, as human calamity unfolds…
From atop Mount Olympus, Zeus peers in perplexity through fumes of fire, dust and vehicle exhaust, toxic chemicals, roiling tempests and raging floods, idly wondering what those darned mortals are up to now… Continue reading »
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Renewables superpower or climate coward? Albanese needs to make a choice before election
A major new report has detailed the “extraordinary economic opportunity” for Australia to replace its coal and gas exports with decarbonised commodities, and reap six to eight times more than the typical revenues it earns from fossil fuels, and help other major economies to meet their own climate goals. Continue reading »
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Environment: Carbon capture and storage – what’s the real goal?
Carbon capture and storage fails to deliver carbon but succeeds for governments and industry. The pros and cons of reducing your personal carbon footprint. How best to tackle Australia’s land clearing loopholes. Continue reading »
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We are sending the wrong message by focusing on annual carbon emissions based on 100-year global warming potential
The climate crisis is much more severe than most people and politicians realise. Continue reading »
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Urgent case for statecraft on green iron and steel to secure Australia’s future prosperity
A handful of years ago, South Australia’s Whyalla steelworks, owned by British industrialist Sanjeeev Gupta, was touted as the potential birthplace of an Australian green iron and steel industry. Today, the mounting crisis at Whyalla brings sharply into focus both the risks and opportunities of this pivotal moment in Australia’s energy transition, and the transition Continue reading »
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At UNCOP29, improper dealings and safety concerns promise disaster
The chief executive of UNCop29 has been filmed apparently agreeing to facilitate fossil fuel deals at the climate summit. Continue reading »
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Two paramount human-made existential threats: Nuclear weapons and our climate
“I don’t see a pandemic finishing us off, and climate change itself would (to quote Keating) ‘do us slowly’. The one sure path to extinction is nuclear war.” – Professor Peter Doherty AC, Nobel Laureate, communication to the author, 9 Sep 2024. Continue reading »
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America first, Earth last: Australia’s security now needs a climate focus
There’s a new, stark reality we must face: Donald Trump’s victory will push the Earth system further down a perilous path towards three degrees Celsius of global warming or more, with catastrophic consequences for human civilisation and the environment. Continue reading »
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Trump victory increases hazards for climate and global health
The well documented and steadily increasing health problems globally, directly associated with climate change, have been discussed with appropriate alarm by many expert contributors to P & I. Continue reading »
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World teeters on brink as Trump and cronies prepare to flood the zone with shit
Are you OK? It seems an important question as the unhinged and unrestrained president Donald Trump is swept back into power and the world contemplates the implications for the climate, for civil discourse, for women, for minorities, for society as a whole, and for our children and their children. Continue reading »
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2024 ‘Virtually certain’ to be hottest year on record: EU climate agency
A new report contained “the bleakest news possible, especially with a climate denier U.S. president in office for the next four years,” said one climate scientist. Continue reading »
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Can Trump make the Planet Safe, as well as America Great?
Trump’s stated positions on major international issues, e.g. climate change and the value and importance of multilateral institutions, both political and economic, and on particular issues such as Ukraine, the Middle East and relations with China, give grounds for plenty of concern when compared with Australian interests and policies. Continue reading »
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Survival of planetary life depends on decisions made now
Next month, UNCOP 29 is in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11. And as we speak, UNCOP16 on Biodiversity is continuing in Colombia. It would be wise to run them together, given the complementary goals of protecting biodiversity and preventing catastrophic climate change. But the importance of a successful COP29 can’t be overstated. Continue reading »
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When the oceans run amok: “We ought not to ignore such clear indicators of an imminent collapse”
By disrupting the Earth’s main heat transport system, humans risk creating a new Ice Age in Europe – while the rest of the planet overheats to intolerable levels. Continue reading »
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The world at 90 seconds to midnight
What further evidence do apes with apps, the inhabitants of planet Earth, need to have before the liveable climate, the lungs of the Earth, overheat and the mere failure of a computer chip or a brain neuron triggers the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of planet Earth? Continue reading »
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The big con on climate action
The Labor government was elected on a platform of integrity and “real” action on climate. We’ve been duped. Continue reading »
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America selects green reverse gear
America was once a marketplace leader in so many areas. Now the US faces a range of pivotal global markets focused on a greener future, dominated by China, that are developing rapidly without it Continue reading »
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‘The fabric of nature Is unraveling,’ warns new report on wildlife population decline
“This is not just about wildlife,” an expert said. “It’s about the essential ecosystems that sustain human life.” Continue reading »
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The deafening silence in the eye of the hurricane
In the eye of the hurricane is a moment of calm and silence, before wild chaos and destruction resume. Symbolically, the world now stands in such a place. Continue reading »
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Australia should endorse and promote the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Scientists overwhelmingly agree that climate change is threatening life on this planet and that the root cause is the burning of fossil fuels. But what are we doing about it? More importantly, what are our so-called Leaders doing to address the threat? Continue reading »
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Entering an age of social and security consequences
“I will not sacrifice Great British industry to the drum-banging, finger-wagging Net Zero extremists,” was the headline The Sun in London gave to a piece last week by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, defending the expenditure of 22 billion pounds on the cargo cult of carbon capture and storage. This headline captured the delusion at Continue reading »
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Cornell study shows LNG worse for climate than coal
“LNG is not a bridge fuel to clean energy,” said one expert. “It’s a highway to climate hell.” Continue reading »
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Is Arctic methane stoking the climate crisis?
The vast wildfires now ravaging the world’s northernmost regions herald rising danger for all humanity, no matter where we live. Continue reading »
