The January release of the Cabinet papers for 2003 reminds us of the failure of the second attempt to introduce an economy wide carbon price in Australia through an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It marks the ascendancy of the energy and resource sectors in influencing the Coalitions climate change policies. This decision to reject emission Continue reading »
climate
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. The devastating consequences of increased Continue reading »
Reporting a climate of hope and despair for the environment in 2023, Peter Sainsbury has brought us a raft of issues impacting our environment in his weekly report. We share a selection here to round off 2023. Environment: Life scientists endorse civil disobedience Environment: Rapidly closing window of opportunity to achieve a safe, sustainable future Continue reading »
Is climate change a myth? To use a little old-fashioned English slang, not on your nelly. Every New Year, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology publishes on its website a measure of Australia’s climate change. Its formal name is “Annual mean temperature anomaly Australia (1910-2023)” but it is a simple blue and red graphic, with blue Continue reading »
Despite what we have we seen and learnt during 2023, the COP meeting failed again to take strong action on fossil fuels. Is nature for nature or only for humans? COP out on phase out again The demand from climate activists at the recent COP28 meeting in Dubai was for a ‘Fast, Fair, Full, Continue reading »
Chris Bowen would have us believe that actually mentioning the words ‘fossil fuels’ and a transition away from them was a “turning point” in the history of COP negotiations. What is he smoking? Way back at the first COP in 1995 that might just have held true. But 28 years later this agreement – riddled Continue reading »
Exmouth Gulf threatened with industrial development. Africa being forgotten as global economies develop. Australia’s emissions reductions likely to stall long before we get to net zero. Read on for the weekly environment update. Living in our environmental bubble Florence Miller is the Director of the UK-based Environmental Funders Network, the aim of which is to Continue reading »
“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 »
Now what on earth will those staunch monarchists and climate denialists – John Howard and Tony Abbott – say about their new king, Charles III, and his very strongly held environmental views? Charles may or may not be terribly bright (well smarter than his brother anyway) and rather pompous but that tends to go with Continue reading »
Food loss and waste harm the environment, human health and wallets. Chemical recycling of plastic not living up to its promise. Concerns about dead solar modules are unfounded. Food loss and waste cause 10% of greenhouse gas emissions One-third by weight and a quarter by calorie content of all food produced globally is lost or Continue reading »