Australia’s emissions reductions have stalled just when we need to be ramping up ambition and action. Concrete’s emissions set to be high for decades. Australia’s emissions reductions stall Ketan Joshi keeps a very close eye on what the government reports as Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. His analysis of the emissions to the end of 2023 Continue reading »
climate
Each winter the surface of the sea freezes around Antarctica, over a vast area, mostly to a depth of about one metre. But this is starting to change. Last year, the sea ice reached an unprecedentedly low maximum extent of only 17 million square kilometres. Why aren’t we talking about sea ice? Perhaps it’s because Continue reading »
I can not think of a greater tragedy in existence than to allow the greed of a few to destroy all life on earth. “What is it going to take?” It’s the question I whisper as I do the dishes. It’s the question that ticks along in my mind with the indicator at traffic lights. Continue reading »
Despite industry and political spin, our Australian native forests continue to be destroyed. The many mythologies put forward in defence of continued logging are contradicted in detail by the facts and evidence. In this podcast, David Lindemayer, AO, distinguished professor, forest ecology, Australian National University (ANU) and author of the book ‘The Forest Wars: the Ugly Continue reading »
Big old trees are few in number but store lots of carbon. Loopholes found in Victoria’s ban on native tree logging. Great Barrier Reef bleaches for fifth time in eight years. Which trees hold the most carbon? The somewhat complicated figure below illustrates a very important point: the few, older, larger trees in primary forests Continue reading »
Where “Two plus two equals five if the party says so” (George Orwell) and when drilling methane wells reduces global warming. Having turned a blind eye to climate science, ignoring the evidence that extreme atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) rise and ocean acidification have led to mass extinctions of species through time, humanity allows Continue reading »
It sounds wonderful. Politicians and fossil fuel companies love it. But more often than not carbon capture and storage (CCS) is raised as a smokescreen for something that will harm the world. What do Anthony Albanese, Angus Taylor, David Littleproud, Barack Obama, West Virginia senator Joe Manchin and Joe Biden have in common? All are Continue reading »
We are confronting a deep structural crisis in our society. We have confused the idea of democracy with the institutions of political parties and representative democracies. The major parties have become structures representing economic and security elites to which only second rate personalities flock, incapable of navigating the huge challenges we face globally. Meanwhile, the Continue reading »
CO2 emissions continued to increase in 2023 with now little chance of global warming staying under 1.5oC. Planting trees is part of the solution but only in the longer term. Even Hollywood is getting the message. Plants are part of the (long-term) response to climate change In the Autumn 2024 edition of the magazine of Continue reading »
When Labour Governments moved to protect native forest in the past – Hawke, Wran, Gallop, Kirner, Beattie, Carr – they knew that they were protecting irreplaceable natural values and resources. Even as late as the early 2000s however, the role of forests in climate change mitigation was little known. It was certainly not a matter Continue reading »