Environment
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What will it really take to become a Renewable Energy Superpower?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese makes great play of his ambition to establish Australia as a Renewable Energy Superpower, a laudable ambition if it can be pulled off. But if ambition is to become more than platitudes, the Prime Minister needs to fundamentally reset current climate policy. Rather than sticking to the government’s inadequate 2022 election Continue reading »
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Can Australia trust Glencore with the Great Artesian Basin?
If you watch a TV channel that airs commercial advertising (my preference is SBS) no doubt you would have seen the recent advertisement by Glencore. The ad advises the viewing public: “The world needs natural resources to power our future. For 25 years Glencore has responsibly mined for metal and minerals that advance our everyday Continue reading »
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NOAA warns world’s coral on verge of ‘Worst bleaching event in history of the planet’
“It’s looking like the entirety of the Southern Hemisphere is probably going to bleach this year,” one scientist said. Continue reading »
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Top science body warns of worst coral bleaching event in history
The top scientific body that monitors the world’s tropical coral reefs, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has warned that “We are literally sitting on the cusp of the worst bleaching event in the history of the planet.” Continue reading »
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Environment: Putting a price on carbon: is it worth all the trouble?
Economic theory supports a price on carbon but implemented schemes struggle to deliver emissions reductions. China firmly in the EV driving seat. Climate action is failing to meet its targets globally. Continue reading »
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The Great Lismore Flood: Revisiting the use of floodplains
Last week saw the release of the NSW State Disaster Mitigation Plan which outlines a blueprint for managing future disasters; this week marks the second anniversary of the great flood at Lismore and places downstream in the Richmond River valley. This is a moment to ask how we are going in NSW as far as Continue reading »
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Our life support systems of climate, water and ecological services are in collective crisis
“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt. We must educate and act urgently on these problems. Continue reading »
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Terra solitarius – the true cost of young peoples’ loneliness
We’re sleepwalking toward social catastrophe. Perhaps we’re there already – terra solitarius. Almost anywhere you care to look – research findings, news reports, general social chatter – all signs point in the same direction: a society free-falling into mass disconnection, loneliness and isolation. The word epidemic is often used to describe this situation. It’s a Continue reading »
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The COP and climate change: a spent force
The latest update by the ANU’s Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions has issued another frank, distressing prognosis. Professor Howden – a vice chair of the IPCC and director of the ANU Institute – warns that the annual Conference of Parties (COP) is not going to deliver global temperatures under 1.5C. Continue reading »
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Bring on our Green Industrial Revolution – But watch for white elephants
Bravo to Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims for their effort at the National Press Club on 14 February to overturn the whole national debate on climate, energy, productivity and tax. But the Green Industrial Revolution may not fall easily into Australia’s lap. Continue reading »
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Shock as warming accelerates, 1.5°C is breached faster than forecast
If there was shock and awe last week when the Copernicus Climate Change Service announced that global average warming over the last twelve months — February 2023 to January 2024 — had exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (°C), it was likely because too many people had succumbed to the predominant but delusional policy-making narrative that holding warming 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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Judgment Day: Final retribution for the ecocidal psychopaths
100 Fossil Fuel CEOs directly and knowingly threaten all life on Earth. Continue reading »
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Too late? Climate change denial and the rise of fascism
“… but they can be sure that they won’t be recorded for their crimes in history — because there won’t be any history” (Noam Chomsky, 2023, in a letter to the author) Continue reading »
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Environment: Canadians and Sydney-siders destroying their trees
Canadians are destroying their boreal forests. Kelp forests need help worldwide. Advice for Australian company directors on preparing for climate change. New uses for old wind turbine blades. Continue reading »
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The latest nuclear power ‘renaissance’ is going in reverse
Nuclear power went backwards last year despite the hype about a new nuclear ‘renaissance’. Meanwhile, renewables enjoyed record growth for the 22nd consecutive year. Continue reading »
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Towards an unliveable planet: Climate’s 2023 annus horribilis
The heat and extreme climate records of 2023 shocked scientists. So where are we heading? Given current trends, the world will zoom past 2°C of warming and the Paris climate goal of limiting warming to 1.5-2°C. Continue reading »
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Humanity’s new era of “global boiling”: Climate’s 2023 annus horribilis
For climate change, 2023 was an “unprecedented” year, “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas” and “scary” and “frightening”. And that was what climate scientists said! The UN Secretary General called it the year in which humanity crossed into a new climate era — an age of “global boiling”. Continue reading »
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Climate adaptation: government action on life support systems is lamentable
The foundation for effective climate change adaptation must be the preservation of ecological life support systems for humans and all other species. We must prioritise the protection and expansion of water, biodiversity and ecological services to provide food security for future generations instead of environmentally damaging industries, especially fossil fuels. Continue reading »
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Australia’s changed climate: The Bureau’s yearly reminder
Is climate change a myth? To use a little old-fashioned English slang, not on your nelly. Continue reading »
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Damaged climate: Australia must learn from deadly Northern Rivers floods
“What happened here in the Northern Rivers [in 2022] with Lismore as the epicentre has to be recognised as one of the worst disasters the nation has ever seen,” says Lismore City Councillor Elly Bird. The scale of the floods was immense: Australia’s “biggest natural disaster since Cyclone Tracy in 1974, the second-costliest event in Continue reading »
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The government will underwrite risky investments in renewables – here’s why that’s a good idea
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen last week announced a scheme to underwrite the risk of investing in new renewable energy generation and storage. Continue reading »
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What was Parliament doing as the earth boiled?
On the day on which the Earth recorded a global average surface temperature of more than 2 degrees centigrade for the first time since records began what was the Australian Parliament and media doing? Continue reading »
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“Unconscionable”: Albanese government’s massive fossil fuel developments mock mitigation efforts
Anguish, despair and fear for the future will ravage your brain when you read the latest edition of the UN Production (emissions) Gap Report. Your distress will further increase when you read that Australia will increase the Gap with the development of the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, when to stand any chance of addressing Continue reading »
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Climate policy: The widening reality gap
The global warming problem seems increasingly insoluble. The past record shows growing gaps between ambition and achievement, decreasing time in which to act, and governments, including Australia’s, stubbornly sticking to policies that have failed to stop emissions growth. Clues to the reasons behind this can be found in the Treasurer’s address to the Economic and Continue reading »
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Environment: Industrial activities produce a third of emissions
Industrial emissions, many hard-to-abate, are increasing. Norway leads the roll-out of EVs but China dominates the number purchased and the production of steel and EV batteries. 40% of amphibians are threatened with extinction. 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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Human and Environmental Health cry out for a revised “Water Trigger”
Environmental and some health organisations are requesting urgent legislative action to amend part of the EPBC Act of 1999, to include shale and tight gas so it can be applied to assessments of the Beetaloo shale gas development. Continue reading »
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The missing link in Australia’s climate change adaptation strategy: Social infrastructure
We have “likely crossed a tipping point for Australia’s temperate broadleaf and mixed forests when a critical level of heat or drought triggers a massive, devastating event. … Climate change is driving a new era of ‘unnatural disasters’ – and as a country we are not prepared to cope.” – Australian Climate Council, 2021. Continue reading »
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The cost of lies: radical honesty has never been more urgent
“Every lie owes a debt to the truth, sooner or later that debt is paid.” – Soviet nuclear engineer Valery Alekseevich Legasov on the consequences of deceit and denial. Continue reading »