Climate
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Australian media think that only China has a human rights problem
Australia has a mixed relationship with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Irritation, dismissal and even the occasional openly hostile comment, have registered. But in 1994, the Toonen decision filtered through the Australian legal process, leading the federal government to remove archaically noxious provisions in the Tasmanian criminal code criminalising sodomy. 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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What happens if the climate and ecological crisis is framed as a national threat?
For 30 years, the risk of dangerous climate change, which would render the Earth uninhabitable for most species, has been treated as a scientific and economic governance issue. Partly due to historic norms, but also due to legitimate concerns about securitisation, these have been strictly civil matters. 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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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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Ice age conditions after even “limited” nuclear war would starve billions
An important new study published in Nature Food on 15 August by Lili Xia and Alan Robock of Rutgers University together with colleagues around the globe shows just how dangerous even a “limited” nuclear war in one part of the world would be. Continue reading »
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Where now with climate?
The government’s Climate Change bill, with its 43 percent emissions reduction target, has passed the House. Now, there is a huge agenda of things to do to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. 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: 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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A way forward with Labor’s climate change legislation
Effective action against climate change requires Labor’s legislation. Hopefully the compromise necessary to pass this legislation can be achieved if the target set is for the minimum reduction in carbon emissions required. Continue reading »
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Sri Lanka and Green Policy
Sri Lanka’s food problems do not stem entirely from Green Policies or Organic Farming as is being alleged in some media outlets, but from general economic and external pressures. 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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Another word on the sadness and madness of the language of the ‘one-in-100-years’ flood
Not even the Premier of New South Wales understands the meaning of the term the ‘one-in-100-years’ flood. Nor does the Prime Minister, who this week repeated the Premier’s misguided words on it. 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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Flood misunderstanding, miscommunication, extremes and records
Last Monday, a couple spoke to an ABC television reporter on the back steps of their home on the edge of Wollongong’s Lake Illawarra. They were confident that the flood they could see in front of them would not rise beyond the level it had reached. After all, they’d been living there for 19 years Continue reading »
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Learning from Covid-19: A call for collective reflection
With the end of vaccine mandates for teachers and public servants in sight, it is an opportune moment for collective reflection. What can be learned from Australia’s management of Covid-19? What lessons can be applied to future challenges? 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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Keith Mitchelson. How long, how long the climate blues
Chris Bowen has announced reconfiguration of the energy generation system will not ‘commence until 2025’. Can Labor and Australia wait that long? 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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Stern and Stiglitz: The chaotic world of 2 degrees warming
Most of us will feel confident the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s clutch of recent reports has now delivered a globally dependable well researched path to carbon neutrality. After all its the product of thousands of the world’s scientific experts. 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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The new climate challenge: toughening targets, avoiding new conflicts
To stick rigidly to the 43% target will prove infeasible in the short term and politically self-harming in the longer term. Tougher targets are inevitable. Continue reading »
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On back of urgency on climate, Australia is tipping centre-left
The American Civil War had more than one cause. But it would not have happened without slavery. Saturday’s route of Scott Morrison’s Liberals has several explanations but would not have happened without climate. 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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The Dominoes are falling fast. We face a climate emergency
The belated release of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s “Reef snapshot: summer 2021-22” has exposed the Federal government’s insistence that the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is not endangered as the lie it has always been. Continue reading »
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If I was minister for the environment, my one crucial reform would offer a sustainable future for Australia
The most urgent and vital decision that the Minister could make to help secure a sustainable future for Australia would be to establish a scientifically based national independent Environmental Protection Agency with statutory powers. 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 »
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