CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Dr Michael Brown exposes the tactics used by purveyors of “non-science” to attack climate change research. It takes a lot to get scientists out of their offices and marching…
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Environment + Energy – Articles, Analysis, Comment
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At the National Press Club on 7 June the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, promised to release “hundreds of pages” of Treasury modelling on the impact of imposing a tax on carbon pollution. The hundreds of pages…
OPEC Conference president Mohammad Aliabadi recently joined a chorus of international observers to blame speculation as the source of ongoing volatility in the global oil market. Speaking at an OPEC Conference…
There is much hypocrisy in the statements of those who wish to terminate subsidies to renewable sources of energy through the certificate scheme associated with the federal Renewable Energy Target and…
Most people know the Burrup Peninsula - if they know it at all – from TV footage of gas tankers powering through the impossibly blue channels of the Dampier Archipelago, delivering gas to an energy hungry…
The West Australian government’s decision to reject a proposal to establish a coal mine near the Margaret River in the state’s south came after a drawn-out application and approval process that was anything…
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Director of the Global Change Institute, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg submits some climate “sceptics” to peer-review and finds them wanting. Peer review is the basis of modern scientific…
The Final Report of the 2011 Garnaut Climate Change Review made a strong case for including land based reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and biosequestration activities in a carbon pricing scheme…
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s visit to Canberra earlier this week didn’t prove particularly effective in swaying the government on its freshly drafted mineral resources rent tax (MRRT) legislation. But the…
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute and Professor of Geology Mike Sandiford explores the staggering ways we influence the shape of the globe. Aren’t we too puny to…
How interesting to see Rupert Murdoch’s mother, Dame Elisabeth, gracing the front pages of Fairfax papers, signing a letter supporting putting a price on carbon. Her son, Rupert Murdoch has also stated…
Plants have been making fuel and food from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide for billions of years. Oil, coal, wood and natural gas can be called “old-photosynthesis” fuels. As the human population approaches…
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: CSIRO’s James Risbey explains why it’s not “alarmist” to describe the threat of climate change to the public and how the climate system will respond to half measures. With…
One of the most basic questions to ask in any analysis of Australia’s carbon policy has always been: what is the rest of the world doing? Last week, the Productivity Commission (PC) published a partial…
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Bureau of Meteorology scientist Karl Braganza explains why we know the climate is changing, and what’s causing it. In public discussions of climate change, the full range…
Today, The Conversation launches a two-week series from the nation’s top minds on the science behind climate change and the efforts of “sceptics” to cloud the debate. The overwhelming scientific evidence…
For many agencies and community groups interested in protecting biodiversity, a primary goal has been to protect native species and to control introduced alien species, such as feral animals and weeds…
If climate change ever was in equal part a moral, economic and environmental challenge, then it is no longer so. Morality has fallen from attention. The economists have long dominated the climate change…
Predicting the future has never been more important – or more difficult. We have a strong sense that we need to prepare, but only a limited understanding of what exactly to prepare for. While the broad…
Throughout the heated debate around live animal exports over the past week, there has been an implicit assumption that the mistreatment of Australian cattle only ever begins after the animals have left…
Do you believe in climate change? It’s seemingly a simple question. But there are many reasons why it is not. Who is asking, why, and who is being asked? This is why we read such widely varying reports…
Does a painless death harm an animal? Is it wrong to painlessly kill an animal? These questions go to heart of the ethics of meat eating and humane slaughter, yet they have been largely absent in most…
This will be the century of urbanisation, when seven billion of almost 10 billion people will live in urban settlements. In Australia our urban sprawl is consuming land at a per capita rate that few countries…
Whether it’s sailing across turquoise waters, admiring a sea view or being able to pop a shrimp on the barbie, on World Oceans Day it is fitting to reflect on how most people derive some benefit from our…
The Windsor Inquiry has handed down its report on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. It recommends a halt to water buybacks, more investment in irrigation efficiency and a new governance model for the Basin…