Pearls and Irritations
Two percent of deaths in Australia are due to heat stroke, or to heat contributing to death in those with other diseases. Climate change is increasing the frequency and temperature of extreme heat waves and will do so for decades. Many cities and larger population centres open air conditioned public buildings during heat waves, an option not available in many rural and remote communities. Providing insulated and air conditioned housing for such communities will take years. In the meantime heat shelters must be urgently provided. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations
COP 27 was an “unmitigated” disaster indicating that international cooperation is incapable of stopping climate change. However the environmental degradations caused by our own actions in Australia can be addressed and we must act urgently with a national moratorium on all land clearing. We face an inevitable fall in living standards; government needs to explain the reasons and seek understanding and cooperation by ensuring a more equal society, increased wages for the poorly paid and secure health and social services. Read more…

Croakey Health Media
With Sereako Stephen (Jr), Melissa Haswell and Francis Nona

Without drastic curtailment of greenhouse emissions in the next decade or so, the Torres Strait islands will become inundated this century. The UN has ruled that Australia has violated the rights of its own people by denying their claims. This article describes extensive discussions between local communities and staff and students from three universities and presents the views of the Islanders in a spirit vital to this year of The Voice and the Uluru Statement. “We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.” Read more…

Australia is far behind other developed countries in transitioning to electric vehicles, reflecting Government indifference to reducing greenhouse emissions over the past decade. However the transition carries huge health benefits to Australians. Reduced air pollution will save hundreds of lives and illnesses from heart attacks, strokes and lung disease and reduce the load on distressed health services. The urgency should be reflected in large subsidies for electric vehicles. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations
At a time when the developing nations are doing it tough in the face of inflation, rising power and food prices, many poor African, Asian and Pacific Island nations, struggling with the ravages of climate change are asking for reparation. Will it be China and not the US that leads the way? World temperatures are now firmly expected to rise 2-3 degrees C. We may soon face a dilemma if authoritarianism or a dictatorship can deliver sustainable life when democracy continues to fail. Read more…

Independent Australia
Australia now has a National Electric Vehicle Strategy after years of negligence in failing to provide fuel efficiency standards to drive a transition. Currently only 2% of vehicles are electric– well behind nearly all other developed countries. In addition to the reduction of greenhouse emissions, the prevention of death and illness from air pollution will give relief to our overworked health services, and provide the opportunity to plan green and healthy cities. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations
After nearly ten years of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, implemented to ensure the river remains viable, there is overwhelming evidence that the Plan is ineffective. The fundamental reasons are examined in this article. They are; a failure by government and states to understand the scientific basis of a living river, manipulation or malfeasance in the allocation of water including the use and abuse of a water market, and the abject failure to consider the needs of Indigenous people. Read more…

The safeguard mechanism is intended to help major industries to reduce emissions in line with Australia's climate targets. The mechanism is likely to fail because it does not adequately include the coal and gas industries. Currently their methane pollution is uncontrolled and largely unmeasured. Read more…

The Hill
This Partnership is seen by the US as security in the face of growing Chinese influence. Pacific islands see the financial help it will provide as a down payment on debt and restitution for climate change caused by the world’s biggest polluters including Australia which has been deaf to their pleas to stop coal and gas mining. The Pacific Island leaders have declared “a climate emergency” and some of the world’s most vulnerable countries are asking for a “climate-related and justice-based” global tax. Read more…

Pearls and Irritations
With Professor Melissa Haswell
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) can richly support Environmental Impact Assessment used to approve gas mining projects but is neglected by the states. It is a collaborative public health process based on careful scientific and community assessment of possible harms, their risks and methods of prevention. Consequently new gas developments proliferate. Read more…

Renew Economy
With Professor Melissa Haswell
Since 2011, hundreds of scientific papers from recognised US researchers have provided evidence linking health impacts, ranging from lower birth weight, severe birth defects, asthma and other respiratory disease, mental distress and illness,  heart attacks, heart failure, cancers and all-cause mortality, to living near gas and oil extraction operations. Australian governments have ignored or dismissed this information as insufficient or irrelevant to act on. Read more…

The Fifth Estate
GDP, “the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period, normally one year” is used to measure the economy’s growth. Its rise is often announced by treasurers with chest-puffing pride signifying economic virility. Unfortunately, however, its use reflects an impotence to understand and manage the economy long term. Read more…

With Craig Wilkins
South Australia has a policy of “Health in All Policies” which clearly has not been applied to public transport. Our submission explains the necessity for many measures to improve health including rapid transition to electric vehicles, increased public and free transport and reduced public road building. Read more…

With Professor Melissa Haswell
This submission details a litany of health impacts which are threatened by this massive development proposal to frack for gas. It demonstrates that the unconventional gas industry poses significant risks to human health, water, the environment and the stability of our climate. We conclude that a comprehensive health assessment process must be instituted. Read here at APO or on the Senate website, submission 9.

Mirage News
With Craig Wilkins
This article summarises our submission to the Senate. We examine four legislative or development proposals in South Australia and a large regional review on gas field development in the Northern Territory. There is no evidence that the principles of the Rights have had any impact. Unfortunately the Australian Government has not taken steps to implement the Declaration of Rights into law, policy and practice; has not negotiated with indigenous peoples a National Action Plan to implement the Declaration; and has not audited existing laws, policies and practice for compliance. Read more…

Canberra Times
Many eminent scientists who research a range of interests now realise changes they describe are becoming self perpetuating for pandemic viruses, world pollution and all our life support systems including biodiversity, ecological services as well as climate. These are tipping points. We have only a few seconds left on the Doomsday Clock to midnight. We can see our life support systems deteriorating faster and faster from floods, storms, heatwaves and fires. After 10 years of government neglect, fossil fuels still burn bringing the clock closer to midnight. Read more on Canberra Times (subscription may be required).

Canberra Times
Australian governments have used potent recruitment drives to fill increasing vacancies of health workers from Pacific Nations to fill gaps from the ravages of COVID. Some workers will come from inadequate health services in poor countries also scourged by COVID. We salve our consciences by reminding ourselves that they send money back home! We must stop our colonial attitude and learn to plan for training our own - and paying them more than a pittance would help. Read more on Canberra Times (subscription required).
Or click here to read a PDF copy.

The Hill
Australia's State of the Environment Report paints a vivid picture of nature crumbling under the combined pressure of climate change, prodigious land clearing, habitat loss, invasive species, mining and pollution. It is an indictment of the actions of Australia’s 26 million people and their governments in an island continent nearly the size of the United States. This article explains why the Report is relevant to the USA and indeed to the world. Read more…

Independent Australia
When the gas burns on your cooker or heater, a cocktail of harmful chemicals, gases and particles are produced which are inhaled into your lungs; they are only partially removed by range hoods which should be turned on before the flame is lit. We know that 12 per cent of cases of childhood asthma are linked to exposure to gas cooking stoves. How can it be that governments have ignored this serious health issue for 25 years? Read more…

It is well recognised that Indigenous peoples worldwide have a close relationship to Earth and Nature which is inherent to their health and wellbeing. This submission from the Conservation Council of SA focuses on health and the environment as these are indivisible and integral to Aboriginal societies. They are a common theme in the 46 articles in UNDRIP. Unfortunately virtually nothing has been accomplished to deliver UNDRIP by our government since Ratification in 2009. Read more…