November, 2011

Clancy Moore writes: “Solving climate change can not be separated from the struggle to alleviate poverty.” This was the message on the opening day of the UN Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa. In his opening address, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa highlighted how the Pacific island nation of Kiribati is set to become the [...]

After a turbulent year, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority today released the draft of the $10 billion Murray-Darling Basin Plan which is aimed at restoring the health of Australia’s most important river system. And it seems neither irrigators nor scientists are happy with the latest inclination of the Plan.

In Africa, where this year’s UN Climate Change Negotiations are taking place, many people, especially women, rely on being able to grow their own food to survive. But the changing weather patterns are having a devastating impact on their crops.

Reminiscent of the ridiculous “Climategate” scandal, over 5000 hacked emails and documents from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia have been leaked just weeks before the crucial UN climate negotiations in Durban. Last time the now infamous 2009 Climategate emails were leaked just as UN negotiators and world leaders were ramping up for climate talks in Copenhagen. The emails all involve climate [...]

Brace yourself for more extreme weather, warns the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The full Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation special report is due out in February next year, but a summary for policy makers was released over the weekend.

The PM’s push to change a long standing policy in order to sell Australian uranium to India threatens to wedge Labor and risk the region, writes Dave Sweeney

Considering the largest environmental policy Australia has ever seen was passed into law by government this week, it seems appropriate to write something on Rooted about it. There’s a few articles in the pipeline about the new carbon tax law  – including a clarifier on “what is carbon farming?” — and there will obviously be [...]

Clancy Moore writes: Question: What do Bill Gates, the World Bank and your UN Climate Tracker all have in common? (Hint: It’s certainly not millions of dollars and vast amounts of global influence…) Answer: We all support innovative ways to raise money to fight climate change and global poverty. In a little over three weeks, [...]

If you were going to have a serious high-level discussion about, say, improving science teaching in schools, then who would you invite to chair the meeting. How about an astrologer? A purveyor of crystal healing, perhaps? Maybe a creationist, a fortune teller or a spiritual healer?

The Greens are Australian politics’ most active supporters of policies that go against what Pell regards as core Catholic teachings on how people should conduct their lives: abortion, euthanasia, sex education, homosexuality. If the Greens are “wrong” about those issues, the reasoning goes, then they must also be “wrong” about the climate.