Growing population, growing demand for food, climate change: Australia's rural lands are facing a number of pressures. So how can we sustainably use them in the future?
Sydney’s farms on the urban fringe produce 10% of the city’s fresh vegetables.
Alpha/Flickr
Author and ecologist Paul Ehrlich told Q&A that humans, on average, have associated with only about 150 other people for millions of years. Is that right?
There is a glut of flats in Melbourne and Sydney, but the most pressing need if for family-friendly housing.
AAP/Joel Carrett
Sydney will need to provide dwellings for an additional 309,000 households and Melbourne an additional 355,000 households over the next decade to 2022.
New season asparagus from farmland on Melbourne’s city fringe.
Matthew Carey
The discovery of Homo naledi has been a social media sensation, recording an extraordinary number of views – more than 170,000 – for a scientific paper.
Pope Francis and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon are together seeking to mobilise world opinion to change the way we live and produce.
EPA/L'Osservatore Romano
On his first visit to the US, Pope Francis will highlight the challenges of poverty and sustainability. A related issue, he acknowledges, is population. So what does that mean for Catholic teaching?
The peacock butterfly, found in Europe and temperate Asia.
Charles J Parker
Climate change means droughts will become more frequent, and butterflies will be particularly affected.
Australia’s projected population for 2050 in the fourth Intergenerational Report is 1.9 million larger than the 35.9 million projected by the third report.
AAP/Joe Castro
How appropriate were the fourth Intergenerational Report's demographic assumptions? Should greater attention be paid to the potential consequences of population growth?
By 2100 there could be 11 billion people on Earth, but there’s no quick way to slow growth.
James Cridland/Flickr
The rise in population since 1900 has been so rapid that up to 14% of all humans that have ever lived are still alive today, according to recent research. Other research shows that slowing population growth…
Having two children could leave more carbon emissions than you can save by changing lightbulbs.
p.Gordon/Flickr
You’ve changed your lightbulbs, you recycle, you’ve retrofitted your house, cycle when you can, and drive an electric car when you can’t. You’re doing your bit to reduce your carbon emissions and prevent…
Legislating for commercial surrogacy would enable Australia to overcome concerns about poorly regulated clinics overseas, such as this one in Thailand.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
Often emphasised in discussions about children’s best interests is the idea that certain ways of having and raising children are “natural”. For example, this word appears frequently in reference to how…
Demography is destiny. It’s an old idea but it remains as true as ever, despite the fact that it doesn’t get anything like the attention it deserves. It’s not hard to see why: not only is there a crowded…
The pigeon is still blaming humans though.
Wagner Free Institute
Once the most numerous bird species in North America, passenger pigeons went from numbering in the billions to being extinct…
Developing policies to shape the level and nature of future population change must go beyond the ‘big’ versus ‘small’ Australia dichotomy.
AAP/David Crosling
In the lead-up to the budget, the story of crisis has been hammered home, but there’s more to a country than its structural deficit. So how is Australia doing overall? In this special series, ten writers…
Who lives in a house like this? Only the census can tell you for sure.
Rob Noble
The coalition government has already secured its legacy in a torrent of cuts to public services. But it hopes to do more. It also wants to do away with the largest evidence base that is available to inform…
We collect huge amounts of data. In health, this includes data relating to inpatient and outpatient care, mental health services, prescribing and primary care. Big data is when the amount of these data…
Anthropologue et démographe, professeur au Muséum national d'histoire naturelle et chercheur associé à l'INED, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)