Native forest logging is economically costly, environmentally damaging and socially divisive, and should not be revived in Victoria or Western Australia or maintained in Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland. (more…)
Category: Climate
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Bowen’s electrification gospel has a truck-shaped problem
Australia is urging the world to electrify, but its own freight system remains overwhelmingly dependent on imported diesel when electric trucks could cut emissions, strengthen fuel security and lower costs. (more…)
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Decarbonisation is now being driven by cost, security and necessity
In emerging and developing economies, the shift away from fossil fuels is increasingly being driven by energy security, affordability and economic pressure rather than formal climate targets alone.
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Not measuring climate change won’t make it go away
The US National Science Foundation is dismantling a deep ocean monitoring system that provided crucial data on ocean currents. (more…)
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Man the desert maker; woman the healer
The solution to the desertification of the planet may well rest with women – since it is men who do most of the destroying. (more…)
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Avoiding ‘worse-case’ climate warming is big news. But is it true?
Claims that climate scientists have abandoned their most dire scenario have been widely misunderstood. While the highest emissions pathway is now considered unlikely, evidence suggests the climate system may still be tracking toward dangerously high levels of warming.
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A carbon tax is a good idea
A carbon tax would help substantially in tackling two of the major problems facing Australia today: climate change and paying for the government services that we want. (more…)
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Hybrid wind and solar power plants are the next step for Australia
A wind and battery hybrid could replace a coal plant – and outperform it at almost every level. Then next step for Australia is to create fully integrated renewable generation systems. (more…)
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Stop native forest logging
Research across the world shows that logging substantially increases fire risks in Australian native forests. (more…)
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A breakthrough year for batteries in Australia but solar and wind lag
Australia is now the third-largest utility-scale battery market in the world, behind China and the US, but structural barriers are impeding investment in big solar and wind projects. (more…)
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China on the way to being the first electro-state
China’s careful approach to ensuring its energy security is paying off, even as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz damages the global economy. (more…)
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When the Earth’s well runs dry
Beneath our very feet, a silent crisis is unfolding. Unseen, unheeded, the Earth is running out of freshwater. (more…)
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The importance of plantations in the Australian forest industry
Timber plantations now provide the overwhelming majority of Australia’s sawn wood products and will become even more important as native forest logging declines and climate pressures intensify. (more…)
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Why have we not heeded Attenborough’s warnings?
We have collectively created a self-propelling destructive system that no-one is in charge of.
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Where’s the Australian Silicon Valley?
Australia generates world-class research in clean energy but we are still not good at commercialising that knowledge. (more…)
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Turning a blind eye to climate risk threatens derailment
The 2026 budget is a continuation of the Labor Government’s denial of the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions before the climate reaches a tipping point. (more…)
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The Safeguard Mechanism for greenhouse gases is flawed
The government’s main policy instrument for reducing greenhouse gases only covers a small proportion of emissions and allows companies to offset these emissions. This is totally inadequate when the climate imperative is to rapidly reduce the use of fossil fuels. (more…)
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A man-made comet is striking the Earth
From climate change and extinction to groundwater depletion and chemical pollution, human activity is now transforming the Earth on a geological scale with potentially catastrophic consequences for civilisation and life itself.
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What is a healthy forest?
Many proposals to create so-called ‘healthy forests’ through thinning and repeated burning risk further damaging Australian ecosystems already degraded by logging, clearing and over-management. (more…)
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Renewables have won the electricity battle but not the climate war
Renewable electricity is taking over. But this does not mean the end of global warming. We may need a shock to take the climate problem seriously and strive for negative greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)
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Budget 2026: The government buckles on fossil fuel tax reform
In a federal budget that sought to restore intergenerational equity, particularly through reforms to tax concessions that have long favoured Australia’s wealthiest few, the Albanese government is facing criticism for ignoring a golden opportunity to balance the scales on energy and climate. (more…)
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Budget 2026: Clean energy spending grows but gas giants still avoid reform
The federal budget increases investment in emissions reduction, batteries and clean energy infrastructure, but leaves major fossil fuel tax concessions and gas industry profits largely untouched. (more…)
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One Nation now represents two of Australia’s best wind and solar regions
One Nation’s victory in Farrer places the party at the centre of major renewable energy and transmission projects in regional New South Wales, despite its strong opposition to the clean energy transition.
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Farming in a flammable future
Drawing on the on-farm financial experience of John Mitchell, a grazier in New South Wales who saved his family farm, this article sets out strategies farmers can use to prevent wildfire damage and deal with its consequences (more…)
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Environment: Atlantic currents are slowing so let’s dam the Bering Strait
When you’ve run out of options to solve the climate problem sensibly, do something ludicrous like damming the Bering Strait. All Norway’s new cars are EVs. Greenhouse gas emissions are up 50 per cent since nations decided to control them. (more…)
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Record installations of home solar and battery systems
Home battery installations shattered records in April. Householders were racing to secure the biggest possible discount for the biggest possible energy storage system before changes were introduced to the federal rebate that are designed to encourage much smaller systems. (more…)
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The coming famine
The short-term world food crisis caused by the conflict in West Asia is superimposed on a far graver, deeper and longer-running risk of a collapse in global food production caused by the remorseless combination of climate change and losses of soil, water and biodiversity. (more…)
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Children’s eco-anxiety can be a foundation for action
Children are watching, thinking and feeling worried, but also hopeful, about the future of the environment. Those feelings deserve to be taken seriously. (more…)
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Environment: Air pollution still kills almost eight million each year
Outdoor and indoor air pollution cause one in eight deaths, mainly in low income countries, climate change is bringing heatwaves and droughts together in hot-dry extremes, and the market has no incentive to save humanity.
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The ‘little’ things that matter – Message from the Editor
There were lots of ‘big’ stories this week, in the wider world and in P&I. The assassination attempt at the White House dinner, the anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, rising debate over our place in the world in our Foreign Policy Rethink series, and constant violations of the Israel/Lebanon ceasefire. The list goes on. (more…)