Global climate tipping points are getting closer, creating danger zones for the biosphere and human societies. Naturally regenerating forests must be left to grow for longer. The North Atlantic Ocean has swapped cod for nanoplastics. (more…)
Peter Sainsbury
-
Environment: Humans are the wisest mammals, but which have the most biomass?
The biomass of marine mammals is almost double that of land mammals. Clean energy investments are increasing but not quickly enough. Illegal gold mining wreaks havoc on the Amazon’s Indigenous communities and environment. (more…)
-
Environment: Judge says advocate and protest to make government responsible for climate damage
Federal Court says Australian government not negligent in failing to protect Torres Strait Islanders from climate change. Human-induced climate change triples current European heatwave deaths but who is responsible for the harm and damage? (more…)
-
Environment: Forget 1.5 degrees C, even 2 degrees C, while forests and peat disappear and natural gas booms
Peatlands are vital for human survival, but we are destroying the few that are left. Australia’s gas industry facing a volatile future. Chinese banks funding the destruction of tropical forests – not good for humans or tigers. (more…)
-
Environment: Ocean acidification has left the safe zone for humans
Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed. Civil society calls for major reform of COP meetings. Big banks fund Australian deforestation. China leaving USA behind in the energy transition. (more…)
-
Environment: Ken Henry and Xi Jinping agree nature is critical to productivity
Ken Henry says high-integrity environmental laws will be the government’s first test but new Labor MPs don’t agree. Great Barrier Reef still suffering from heat, agricultural run-off and overfishing. NATO to increase its spend and its emissions. (more…)
-
Environment: Australia declared climate change ‘rogue actor’
A new “water economics” needed to safeguard supplies of domestic water and make it a common good. Australia’s fossil fuels make it a rich “Climate Wrecker”. Carbon capture technologies fail to deliver. (more…)
-
Environment: Murray-Darling Plan delivers profits, but not environmental improvement
Murray-Darling Plan has achieved five of seven economic goals but only 2 of 12 environmental ones. Will climate change be good or bad for the economy? Nations’ current emissions reduction policies unlikely to keep global warming under 2oC. (more…)
-
Environment: WA addicted to producing, burning and exporting gas
Albanese government eager to support WA’s gas addiction. Tasmania’s natural environment trashed by deer and loggers. Globally, one square kilometre of trees cleared every 10 minutes. Ecological and spiritual values converge in Chinese temples. (more…)
-
Environment: 5% of animal species currently threatened by climate change
An Australian rodent was the first mammal to be driven to extinction by climate change. Renewables will supply almost all of global electricity’s 4% per year growth. Four personal behaviour changes could remove much of the average person’s carbon footprint. (more…)
-
Environment: Freshwater systems and grasslands, forgotten nature and climate heroes
Human activities are pushing many freshwater fish toward extinction globally and in Australia. (more…)
-
Environment: Australians must defend our right to protest
Dissent and protest are under attack across Australia. Thawing permafrost is a problem for everyone, not just Arctic-dwellers. LNG produces more emissions than coal, oil or gaseous natural gas. Renewables rollouts are up, but so are energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)
-
Environment: Nations ignoring the need for a just transition to zero carbon
Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions is dangerously slow, but doing it in a fair, just and inclusive manner is all but non-existent. Climate change’s many harmful outcomes for women and girls includes more child marriages. Fishing doesn’t have to kill mammals and birds. (more…)
-
Environment: Will Labor now protect our environment? If not now, probably never
The world is getting hotter, seas are rising more quickly, oceans are heating faster and freshwater is getting saltier, but Labor’s first-term environmental performance provides little optimism for its second, even though Australia leads the way with solar energy generation. (more…)
-
Environment: Australia’s exported fossil fuel emissions are treble our total domestic emissions
Australia’s exported coal and LNG produce three times more emissions than 27 million Australians. The US wastes prime agricultural land to inefficiently produce energy for cars. Shed snake skin protects young birds. Kosciuszko benefitting from fewer feral horses. (more…)
-
Environment: Australian Governments sacrifice the environment for dollars and votes
The sham of biodiversity offsets for coal mining. Will the climate benefit if Australia hosts the COP in 2026? Albanese further weakens Australia’s outdated environmental protection laws. (more…)
-
Environment: Adopt a tapeworm. Love your lice. Give a leech lunch
Parasites need our help, not our disgust. Electricity usage increases with the temperature, but the price falls as renewables increase. Cyanobacteria’s sliding door moment. (more…)
-
Environment: Coal, oil and gas still produce three-quarters of all greenhouse gases
Three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions still originate from the burning of fossil fuels in the energy sector. Australia’s legislation regarding environmental destruction is hindering environmental repair. Increasing demand for copper requires more recycling. (more…)
-
Environment: Humans’ contempt for the natural world drives environmental destruction
Environmentalists have failed to transform the underlying social values that drive environmental destruction. Fifteen companies produce 30% of Australia’s greenhouse gases. Mountains provide 60% of our fresh water, but not for much longer. (more…)
-
Environment: Building nuclear involves killing more people
Building nuclear power plants requires keeping air-polluting coal power going for an extra 25 years and killing 3000-10,000 Australians. Which milk alternatives will reduce your environmental footprint? Australia’s Carbon Credit Units trade for less than a tenth of the social cost of carbon. US Environmental Protection Agency abandons the environment.
-
Environment: The folly of focusing on net zero
Governments and corporations have been tricking the public by focusing emissions reduction attention on net, rather than real, zero. Reducing methane emissions would reduce global warming quickly and cheaply. Bring back our swamps.
-
Environment: Albanese sacrifices the marine environment for Tasmanian votes
Prime minister showers salmon farmers with treats despite the environmental destruction and massive salmon deaths. Nations have opportunities during 2025 to improve ocean health. Exponential increases in global battery storage capacity. People alive today have produced most of the world’s greenhouse gases.
-
Never has violence been initiated by the oppressed
Violence is initiated by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognise others as persons – not by those who are oppressed, exploited and unrecognised.
-
Environment: Governments like docile populations, that’s why they intimidate activists
Governments want you to feel powerless, but the tools for change are in our hands. Australia’s economy is failing to decarbonise. Burning trees to produce electricity is phoney environmentalism. (more…)
-
Environment: Australia’s exported greenhouse gas emissions are double our domestic emissions
Australia is the fourth largest exporter of fossil fuel emissions. The US should be bearing the largest financial responsibility for helping poorer nations cope with climate-related damage. There’s never been a global transition from one energy source to the next.
-
Environment: States and territories to reduce their emissions by 44% by 2030
States and territories on target to reduce their net emissions by 44% by 2030. Solar’s contribution to the world’s energy supply could hit 50% by 2035. How to curb the carbon-guzzling lives of the super-rich. Helping your local native birds through the hot days.
-
Environment: Australia unlikely to play its proper part in keeping warming under 1.5°C
Will Australia’s Paris Agreement emissions reduction target for 2035 be consistent with a 1.5oC-world? The US wants a fossil fuel future; China wants renewables. Whatever … coal consumption is still rising.
-
Environment: One giant leap for mankind was nothing compared with today’s challenges
Facing the challenges of the energy transition sustainably and fairly. British Medical Journal jumps into the degrowth debate. Let’s all celebrate World Wetlands Day.
-
Environment: Accelerating towards a collision with the climate
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?
-
Environment: Warming, thawing Arctic presents problems for everyone
The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe and the effects are global. Bacteria responsible for escalating methane emissions. The false binary of system change or individual behaviour change.