Together, 45 global livestock companies produce more greenhouse gases than all but eight countries. Plus, crimes against nature are big business that rely on criminal networks, corrupt officials and eager customers, and global warming marches on. (more…)
Category: Climate
-
The most important power station in the nation is no longer a coal plant – it’s on our rooftops
Australia’s electricity grid is increasingly being powered by rooftop solar, batteries and renewables, exposing the limits and rising costs of ageing coal-fired power stations.
-
Why the Doomsday Clock still underestimates the risk of civilisational collapse
The Doomsday Clock has moved closer to midnight than ever before, but its latest warning still leaves out many of the forces pushing civilisation towards collapse. (more…)
-
Record demand, record renewables – and the lights stayed on
Extreme heat pushed electricity demand in South Australia and Victoria to record levels. Wind and solar did the heavy lifting, easing pressure on the grid and curbing price spikes. (more…)
-
Why billionaires building doomsday bunkers can’t predict the next global catastrophe
Reports of billionaires building doomsday bunkers are often read as signs of looming catastrophe. Psychology suggests they reveal something else entirely.
(more…) -
It’s time to measure what matters: actual emissions
Net zero targets are increasingly being met through offsets and land-sector accounting rather than real cuts to fossil fuel emissions. The result is climate progress on paper, while pollution continues in practice.
-
Australia’s flood management has improved. It’s still not good enough
Australia has made big strides in flood warnings, levees and planning rules – but too often the message still doesn’t land. The next step is practical community engagement that builds real understanding, trust and safer decisions. (more…)
-
Environment: It’s official – Australia’s extreme weather events will get more severe
Australia’s first Climate Risk Assessment confirms we’re in for more frequent and more extreme climate hazards. Ten years on from the Paris Agreement, Australia and governments around the world are still kicking the climate action can down the road. (more…)
-
Australia looks like a winner – but we’re losing where it counts
Australia remains wealthy but structurally fragile – highly dependent on raw exports and poorly positioned for a more complex, decarbonising global economy. Economic complexity is a warning signal we can no longer ignore.
-
De-icing the Earth: a fatal decision
Global ice is melting fast, with major sea level rise and extreme heat locked in unless emissions fall sharply. The window to act is closing.
-
Heatwaves, bushfires, and the words that save lives
As heatwaves and bushfire risks intensify, emergency language has shifted too. The challenge is to warn clearly without losing trust.
-
Best of 2025 – Coalition politicians who can’t accept the threat of climate change should resign
Politicians who cannot accept climate change is humanity’s greatest threat should have no place in the Australian parliament.
(more…) -
Best of 2025 – The debate about net zero ignores the evidence
Those in the Coalition who are opposed to targeting net zero carbon emissions, argue that it will cost too much. But that claim is false and not supported by the evidence. How can they get away with it? (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – ‘Disaster season’: What is that?
Anika Wells, in announcing a meeting with three telco giants to discuss Optus’s Triple Zero emergency call system catastrophe in September, referred to the need for Australians to have confidence in the system before the coming “disaster season”. By that she meant summer. Is there really such a season? (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Koalas, carbon credits and the fine print of conservation
We congratulate the NSW Government for establishing the Great Koala National Park, which will protect a nationally significant koala population. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – A smart productivity play: Stop subsidising loss-making native forest logging
On 7 September 2025, NSW set the proposed 476,000-hectare boundary for the Great Koala National Park and halted native-forest logging within it (plantation harvesting continues), with formal gazettal slated for 2026. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Climate change risk to our coastal cities
Confronting the nation’s coastal urban cities as it approaches 2055, 30 years on, will be both higher sea levels and air and water temperatures. (more…)
-
Best of 2025 – Albanese’s sliding doors moment on climate
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has just been handed an unflinching mirror at the Pacific Islands Forum. (more…)
-
2025 in Review: The fading West, a cautious Labor win and an uncertain world
From the erosion of Western authority to Australia’s election result, 2025 exposed deep shifts in global power, alliance politics and the limits of domestic reform.
(more…) -
Cost of wind and batteries fall as CSIRO finds new way to show renewables are cheapest
CSIRO’s latest GenCost report shows battery costs falling fast, wind costs stabilising and coal, gas and nuclear lagging well behind. For the seventh year running, firmed renewables remain the lowest-cost path for Australia’s electricity system. (more…)
-
Climate hot takes for 2025
Scientific evidence in 2025 showed global warming accelerating faster than expected, while emissions continued to rise and climate policy lagged dangerously behind physical reality. (more…)
-
The long consequences of forgetting
As climate breakdown, war and institutional failure converge, the comforts of forgetting no longer shield us from the consequences of our own history.
(more…) -
UN report: acting on climate now would make the world richer, not poorer
A major UN report finds that investing in climate action would deliver enormous economic gains, while failure to act would slash growth, drive instability and cost millions of lives.
(more…) -
Deleting climate science: the Trump EPA rewrites the causes of warming
The Trump administration has removed references to human-caused climate change and key scientific data from EPA websites, alarming climate scientists and health experts. (more…)
-
A long-overdue update to Australia’s broken environment laws
After years of delay, Australia will reform its broken environment laws. The deal brings real improvements, but key risks remain.
(more…) -
Conservatism, denial and the climate crisis: why short-term thinking is holding us back
Human societies are generally conservative, averse to substantial change – and they are getting in the way of the necessary intervention on climate change and emissions reduction. (more…)
-
Senate committee on disinformation should look into the Liberals’ energy policy: It is full of it
The Liberal Party’s new energy policy recycles discredited claims and fossil fuel talking points, undermining public trust and delaying the essential task of real action.
(more…) -
What science tells us about Earth’s changing climate
As leaders leave Brazil and the 2025 UN climate summit draws to a close, it’s worth reflecting on what science says about Earth’s climate – what’s changing, why it’s happening, and where we’re heading next. (more…)
-
Net Zero and the metaphysics of anxiety in Australia
Net zero is not simply an environmental target. It has become a psychological and cultural anchor in a society that feels increasingly unstable.
-
Australia’s toxic algal bloom has killed 87,000 animals – and summer’s coming
An unprecedented toxic algal bloom in South Australia has devastated marine life, tourism and fishing. With no clear end in sight, scientists warn it may become a permanent feature of local waters – and research cuts risk making it worse.
(more…)