Giles Parkinson 29 April 2019 Leading economist and climate change policy expert, Professor Ross Garnaut, says Australia could be powered 100 per cent by ‘intermittent’ renewables by the early 2030s, and have a grid that is more reliable, secure, and cost-effective than it is now. In the third of a series of six public lectures […]
Richard Trethowan University of Sydney. A UN report released last month found a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions come from the food chain, particularly meat farming. This has prompted calls to reduce emissions from agriculture and to feed the world on plant protein. UN climate change report: land clearing and farming contribute a third […]
Kate Dooley University of Melbourne.Brendan Mackey Griffith University. A special report on how land use affects climate change was released in August by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Land degradation, deforestation, and the expansion of our deserts, along with agriculture and the other ways people shape land, are all major contributors to global climate […]
Bruce Duncan. The extraordinary fires in the Amazon in August 2019 struck dread into the hearts of climate specialists and observers worldwide, since the Amazon forests remain one of the great bulwarks against global warming. They cool Latin America, and generate 20% of the world’s oxygen. Smoke from the fires darkened the sky over Sao […]
Brian Toohey. Labor governments surrendered Australian sovereignty by agreeing in 2008 to renew the lease on North West Cape without any conditions on how US nuclear attack submarines could use the base[i]. This could include undermining China’s ability to deter a nuclear war[ii]. Labor subsequently agreed to let the US install long-range ground sensors at […]
Helen Praetz Daffey. Dr Jim Bowler is well known as the scientist who discovered Mungo Lady and Mungo Man, ancient remains buried on the dried-up shores of Lake Mungo in outback New South Wales, subsequently dated at 42,000 years old. Their discovery changed our understanding of how and when Australia was occupied. It also profoundly […]
Neville Nicholls Monash University. This month, the world has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon. But this week sees another scientific anniversary, perhaps just as important for the future of civilisation. Forty years ago, a group of climate scientists sat down at Woods Hole in Massachusetts for the […]
Michael Keating. By any standard, Scott Morrison’s Government has a very threadbare policy agenda. Furthermore, the Government seems resistant to new ideas, whether from its backbench or from the public service. According to Scott Morrison, the role of the public service is limited to implementing government policy. This may help explain the thinness of his […]
Andrew Glikson. History testifies to powerful rulers’ aspirations to the position of gods, including the Pharaohs and Roman Emperors such as Caligula or Nero. Nowadays, such rulers are mimicked by billionaires and their followers, including some scientists, with false messianic prophecies in public and the media of ‘intergalactic civilisation’. Included are predictions of making life interplanetary by […]
Michael Mazengarb. 29 July 2019 A new study of the economics of nuclear power has found it has never been financially viable, that most plants have been built while heavily subsidised by governments, often motivated by military purposes, and that nuclear power is not a good approach to tackling climate change. The study has come […]
