On 10 September 2024 federal aviation minister Catherine King gave Melbourne Airport the go-ahead to build a third runway. Eighteen months earlier, on 10 February 2023, Melbourne Airport’s owner, Australia Pacific Airports Melbourne (APAM) submitted its draft Third Runway Major Development Plan to the Minister, for her approval. The federal Airports Act specifies what APAM Continue reading »
climate
For the second year running, lies have emerged as the primary risk facing humanity, in the Global Risks Survey 2024-25 conducted by the World Economic Forum of 900 experts worldwide. Disinformation and misinformation are now deemed more dangerous, in the short run (next two years), than violent climate events, wars and societal disintegration. Even over Continue reading »
The International Court of Justice heard, last month, that after reconstruction is factored in Israel’s war on Gaza will have emitted 52 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. A figure equivalent to the annual emissions of 126 states and territories. It seems somehow wrong to be writing about the carbon footprint of Continue reading »
Human societies are setting themselves on a collision course with climate-induced catastrophes. Lithium-ion batteries will soon be facing competition. How to deal with x and the conflicts it creates? Collision course with climate disaster and societal collapse I am sorry to be starting the new year with depressing news but for anyone wanting a readable, Continue reading »
If you care about saving Earth from catastrophe, you might be feeling a little down about the re-election of Donald Trump as United States president. Undeniably, his return to the White House is a real setback for climate action. Trump is a climate change denier who has promised to increase fossil fuel production and withdraw the US from the Paris climate Continue reading »
Wildfires in California replicate the massive fire storms in the boreal forest in Canada and Siberia, the lungs of the earth. Our addiction to fossil fuel has ignited an age of fire. The apocalyptic wildfires that have erupted in the boreal forest in Siberia, the Russian Far East and Canada, climate scientists repeatedly warned, would inevitably move southwards as rising Continue reading »
Hundreds of scientists gathered in Australia for an “emergency summit” within the auspices of the inaugural Australian Antarctic Research Conference d/d November 2024. This gathering of 450 mostly “early-career” polar scientists flexed scientific muscles to alert the world to the what’s happening to our planet, taking off the gloves and coming out swinging. They claim Continue reading »
In 2024, faster than forecast change taught us new lessons about the climate system. In 2025, worse is to come, as political shock troops steer a course towards climate-driven societal collapse, writes David Spratt. If an unexpected leap in the global average temperature in 2023 was described by one scientist as “gobsmackingly bananas”, are there Continue reading »
2024 will mark the hottest year in recorded history as global production of fossil fuels reaches record highs. Climate-related natural disasters continue to devastate the planet in the form of unprecedented floods, droughts, hurricanes, and wildfires, with marginalised and Indigenous communities, situated in the Global South, exposed to its worst impacts. Global North countries have contributed the most Continue reading »
This Christmas, we can give to all planetary life. The loving intent must be to stop carbon emissions as soon as possible. The transition to renewables is obviously complex but ‘loving our neighbours as ourselves’ includes those on islands in the Pacific who know the consequences of global warming and need us to focus unambiguously Continue reading »