Australia, along with much of the rest of the world, faces the challenging task of balancing the need to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while at the same time nurturing a vibrant and sensibly competitive society and economy — this to and fro debate continues to dominate Australian federal politics even in 2018
Agriculture is a complex, sophisticated and indispensable component of modern Australian life. Climate change is heightening these characteristics. It is simultaneously increasing the agriculture sector’s vulnerability: underlining its reliance on nature and fossil fuels, exposing its weaknesses, and testing its ability to rapidly adapt to new circumstances
This chapter is about wellbeing in the Anthropocene. ‘The Anthropocene’ is the name given to the new chronological period the Earth is said to now be in as a result of human modifications, representing its exit from the Holocene (the past, relatively stable 10–12 millenia)
It is difficult to think of an area of our lives that is not touched by the earth sciences — whether it relates to the energy used to fuel our vehicles and homes or the natural disasters that dominate the evening news, to the dependence of our daily lives on weather forecasting or the precious metals used in electronic devices — to name a few
On 24 January 1946, the very first resolution of the UN General Assembly called for the ‘elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons’. More than 71 years later, in Conference Room 1 at the United Nations in New York at 10:47 on 7 July 2017, governments voted 122 to 1 to adopt the text of a historic Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (UN General Assembly, 2017). A room filled for weeks with formal procedure, composed diplomats and committed campaigners erupted with applause, joy, tears and embraces
These are times where one should question how we, as members of society, will formulate meaningful responses to the ever-increasing global complexity: what is the world that our children will grow up in like? How can today’s crises empower parents and children across the globe to cease the current political standstill and instead implement sustainable strategies to prevent further destruction?
Two thousand and twenty has been a surprising and challenging year for many young people, with the unimaginable emergence of a global pandemic and dramatic changes to our day-to-day lives. In the background, before the coronavirus was even contemplating jumping from bats to humans, there had been a global awakening that climate change is real and dangerous, especially among the young populations of the world
As we move from the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic into a ‘post-Covid’ world, it gives us an incredible opportunity to move to a more equitable and sustainable world, one that is courageous in making decisions to address climate change. A world that is healthier for our children and for those ‘not yet born’
Twenty years ago in 1989, Environment Minister Graham Richardson took a proposal to Cabinet for a 20% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2005. He was unsuccessful, but two years later Cabinet agreed to a similar proposal, on condition it would not affect the economy. The Opposition Liberal Party after 1987 had a strong climate change policy under Shadow Environment Minister Chris Puplick, and took that policy to subsequent elections
Place, culture and landscape all provide continuity to our lives. Continuity of biophysical settings, of people and activities, of values and memories; in short, our sense of who we are. Yet communities become most aware of the importance of such continuity only when it is threatened — whether incrementally, for example, through globalisation; deliberately, through redevelopment; or dramatically, through natural disaster or conflict