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…
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Environment + Energy – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 7301 - 7325 of 7461 articles
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…
Australia has long prided itself on being an equal society, and for most of the 20th century our housing was a mirror of that value or belief. Almost all houses were single-storey detached and, with the…
The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has put out an appetiser for the Treasury modelling of the introduction of a carbon tax. In his speech to the National Press Club he reiterated the necessity of introducing a…
Professor Ross Garnaut recently compared Australia and Norway in the context of climate change policy and a carbon tax. It is both curious that he should choose this comparison and that no journalist…
The peace talks underway about Tasmania’s forests are as rich in ironies and paradoxes as Tasmania’s old-growth forests are in carbon. The current direction of the peace talks locks Tasmania into a pulpwood…
The death threats received by Australian climate scientists such as Will Steffen, Andy Pitman and David Karoly haven’t come out of the blue. They are an extension of the vicious attacks on climate science…
The World Bank ranks Australia among the top five countries in the world in terms of its regulatory environment. Australia also ranks in the top ten countries in terms of control of corruption. International…
Almost every major river basin in the world is significantly impacted by humans. The situation in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) is certainly not unique. In river basins all over the world, communities…
To achieve actual reductions in Australia’s emissions, the carbon price will need to rise from its likely starting point in the $20s. A price floor in the trading phase could help bring about efficient…
This week, unpublished estimates from the International Energy Institute showed that 2010 was the most carbon-intensive year in human history. Chief Economist of the IEA Dr Fatih Birol responded to the…
As the International Energy Agency says the world faces a bleak future as emissions fail to fall at a fast enough rate to combat climate change, the challenge is on for governments to act globally, but…
A combination of science and economics provide compelling reasons for policy initiatives and decisions by businesses and households to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The arguments are strongest…
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released unpublished estimates of 2010 global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and the news is not good. Between 2003 and 2008, emissions had been rising at a rate…
The latest emissions data from the International Energy Agency suggest that our current methods for dealing with climate change have not worked. This means we will have to adapt to climate change, for…
It won’t surprise many people that world carbon emissions have failed to slow down, but the fact we’re now at risk of surpassing targets set for nine years hence, intended to limit the global rise in temperature…
Every night under cover of darkness an advancing wall of toads heads west. Rather than winding through the bush, the toads march straight down the highway, ignoring the official border signs. Meanwhile…
Australia is a major energy exporter. Are we going to continue to increase our contribution to Asia’s energy mix? Will it be clean energy? And is it possible that our best renewable energy resources will…
The most important single number in the latest Garnaut Review is 26, the proposed starting value for the carbon tax, expressed in dollars per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted. By coincidence, this is exactly…
The Federal Government’s move to ban live cattle exports to a handful of Indonesian abattoirs will not, in the long term, end the inhumane slaughtering practices revealed in Monday’s Four Corners report…
Ross Garnaut was unequivocal yesterday in responding to industry claims that Australia’s emission reductions would be irrelevant in an international context. “I do not accept that Australia is a pissant…
Iconic Aussie entrepreneur Dick Smith is feeling intimidated. Not by growing population pressures, nor by climate change or carbon prices, but by the bullies at News Limited. In a recent interview, Smith…
When I told my family that the top ten list of new species had been announced, the teenager asked, “Are we on it?” Although we’re not on the list, our fingerprints are all over it. Homo sapiens remains…
Economist Professor Ross Garnaut has released his final report to the government on climate change and the economy. The report says global warming is expected to continue and estimates that a $26 per tonne…
Last night, the ABC’s Four Corners brought the horror of the Indonesian slaughterhouse into Australian living rooms. The government’s response to images of cattle being hacked to death, having their tails…