The submission to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee details recent human health and environmental evidence on the Beetaloo gas mining development. Read Submission No 50 here…

Pearls and Irritations

The steady deterioration in Australia’s environment and the ineffective revision of the EPBC Act suggest that we need help from other developed nations to solve our problem. This help may come from proposals on trade from the EU and the USA which penalize trade with countries having ineffective climate and environmental legislation. Read more…

Independent Australia

The recent shenanigans in the National Party has exposed the inability of the Coalition to understand that water is a national security, human health and sustainability issue. It may bring a possible breakdown of existing water governance, which however inadequate, does offer a modicum of protection against plunder by individual states and vested interests. Read more…

This draft policy which is orientated to economic growth leaves many needs unanswered if South Australia is to have an environmentally sustainable future. It also fails to offer secure and uncontaminated water to remote Aboriginal communities. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations
Policies which prolong the life of coal shorten the lives of many Australians and must be confronted – they are preventable deaths. It is distressing that ideology and ignorance have come to this. As a doctor I must present the medical facts to the Government and Opposition on deaths and illness from coal. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations

The recent G7 summit aimed to help the world build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic and create a greener, more prosperous future. the Report prepared by the OECD provided policy guidance for Ministries to underpin transformative domestic and international action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations

Natural capital underpins all economic activities and human well-being; it is the world’s most important asset. Humanity’s demands on natural capital are unsustainable. The unprecedented and widespread decline of biodiversity is generating significant but largely overlooked risks to the economy. Australia’s natural capital is declining and consequently so is our true GDP. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations
Society faces a fast moving confluence of climate change, environmental decay, and increasing zoonoses but fails to recognise the most compelling underlying problem, the crumbling ability of democratic systems to deliver any meaningful action. An increasing proportion of society recognises the threat to future generations and increasingly demands action on the crisis, but few remonstrate or demonstrate for reform of democracy to bring effective action. Read more…

Renew Economy
The Climate Council report “Kicking the gas habit: How gas is harming our health” details the known and potential health harms caused by the mining of natural gas. This article explains the potential harms to land and to humans from fracking for natural gas which have been ignored by governments and industry. Read more…

Some human health aspects of the Act, vaccination and anti-vaccination are not mentioned. Yet this is a vital public health issue now and for the next decade. Read more…

Renew Economy

The black coal industry in New South Wales and Queensland uses 383 billion litres of fresh water every year, the same as five million people. Shale gas mining uses 4 to 24 million litres in each hydraulic fracturing event which can be applied many times per well across thousands of wells. Read more…

Croakey

The availability of water is a human right, as is water quality. After 17 years of the National Water Initiative, we still transgress these rights of many communities. The gap in providing water rights for Aboriginal people is shamefully wide. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations

Momentous decisions are needed on water policy to ensure that life in Australia is sustainable when climate change is advancing and the natural environment is deteriorating rapidly. Is the National Water Initiative (NWI) capable of reform to ensure a sustainable future? Read more…

The submission provides a dossier of evidence and discussion that the National Water Initiative NWI and related legislation and regulation are very unlikely to provide a sustainable future of Australia. Major failures are in climate change planning, establishment of priorities and in allowing dispensations for fossil fuel developments. Read more…

Renew Economy

A ‘ground-sparing’ economic report on biodiversity indicates that economic practice will have to change because the world is finite. For decades many have been aware of this reality, but it is a giant leap forward for current economic thinking. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations

A key role of government is to save lives. It has done this admirably for Covid-19 at huge expense. It will need to do the same regarding climate change adaptation if we are to protect human health and lives. Read more….

Pearls and Irritations

While cats provide much-needed companionship, they are also genetically programmed killers. Cats have devastating effects on biodiversity, which is vital for food security. Estimates are that domestic cats kill 61 million birds a year and those becoming feral kill more than 300 million birds plus countless small mammals and reptiles. By contrast the recent Australian bushfires killed 180 million birds. Read more…

Sydney Morning Herald

The insurrection against democracy in the US Capitol may have one positive outcome. It may bring home to all remaining democracies that Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms cannot continue to be allowed to peddle lies on COVID-19 that are detrimental to human health. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations

The human brain cannot grasp the magnitude of the global problems we face in a move to sustainable living and governance systems which can deliver a secure future for our children. The article discusses economic changes to Green Growth, a Steady State Economy and De Growth for civilisation to survive. Read more…

Independent Australia

Two former prime ministers, Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, are deeply concerned about Australia's lack of media diversity which threatens the viability of our democracy and our ability to act on climate change. Perhaps they could work together to bring bipartisanship to the issue. Read more…