Indigenous kinship networks link each plant to the next and connect us to Country. Honouring this way of being and engaging in fair collaboration might give power to our heartbreak.
Eric Kerr, National University of Singapore and Malini Sur, Western Sydney University
When a bushfire burns is one country, smoke drift means it can become the world’s problem. But the law lacks the teeth to hold those responsible to account.
There is a real risk a national inquiry could get bogged down in politics, or not lead to real change. But we need more federal action on bushfires. Our old approaches are broken.
To be clear, I’m not advocating compulsory population control, here or anywhere. But we do need to consider a future with billions more people, many of them aspiring to live as Australians do now.
For decades Australian scientists have, clearly and respectfully, warned about the risks to Australia of a rapidly heating climate. After this season’s fires, perhaps it’s time to listen.
The destruction of recent fires is challenging our belief that with enough time, love and money, every threatened species can be saved. But there is plenty we can, and must, now do.
It’s been a deadly summer for Australia’s wildlife. But beyond the fires, we need to act now to protect bats – which make up a quarter of Australian mammal species – from a silent overseas killer.
Approximately 70 nationally threatened species have had at least 50% of their range burnt, while nearly 160 threatened species have had more than 20% burnt.
F1 has promised a move to ‘credible offsets and breakthrough C02 sequestration programs’. But there’s a persistent lack of clear detail in the how, what and where.
Fire debris flowing into Murray-Darling Basin will exacerbate the risk of fish and other aquatic life dying en masse in a repeat of the shocking fish kills of last summer.