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Climate change. Pandemics. Peak oil.These days, many of us have grimly accepted the fact that the human species is hurtling towards oblivion – if not in our lifetime, in that of our children or…
How does climate change threaten your savings? And how do your savings threaten climate change? Can you do anything about it?One of the world’s fastest-growing social movements calls for citizens…
By Michael Green Michael Green lifts the lid on the Victorian government’s ‘good news’ approach to climate change. ‘Gradual changes in temperature potentially enable industries to transition and…
Spraying sulphur compounds into the upper atmosphere to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet? Transforming the chemistry of the world’s oceans so they soak up more carbon? These ideas…
Spraying sulphur compounds into the upper atmosphere to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet? Transforming the chemistry of the world’s oceans so they soak up more carbon? These ideas…
When we think about cities of the future, we think about edgy architecture and technological breakthroughs. But what we should be thinking about is how to plan for a Melbourne that seems likely to…
We bring you our favourite findings from around the internet this week.Men’s magazine culture and the worst celebrity profile everThe internet has been aflame this week over what’s been described as …
We share five of our favourite links, articles and issues from around the internet this week.George Monbiot on climate change and Australia’s heatwave‘Climate change denial is almost a national…
In the clash between money and conservation, money usually wins – with devastating results in a land that tolerates few mistakes. Tim Flannery delivers a wake-up call about the consequences of…
We’ve been sharing some amazing/horrifying/telling photos of the effects of climate change on social media over the past week, and judging from the response, we’re not the only ones who find it…
We bring you our five favourite links and articles from around the internet this week.Playing with your foodErnie Button really, really loves cereal. He’s spent the past decade working on a series…
This week’s Friday High Five brings together a selection of our favourite recent links and stories from around the internet.‘Loose with the Truth’: Leigh Sales vs Tony AbbottThis spectacular…
What does global warming look like? We’re beginning to have a pretty good idea. It looks like catastrophic floods in Queensland and New South Wales, like the Victorian bushfires. It looks like the…
The Breakfast Club is a series of talks events, presented in partnership with the Next Wave Festival, and held at breakfast time: on weekdays at 8am, on weekends at 10am.We’re interested in how the w…
Anna Rose is co-founder and Chair of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Her new book Madlands: A Journey to Change the Mind of a Climate Sceptic tells the tale of her extraordinary journey with …
Anna Rose is co-founder and Chair of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Her new book Madlands: A Journey to Change the Mind of a Climate Sceptic tells the tale of her extraordinary journey with …
In 2012, Ideas for Melbourne will be the talk of the town.With city elections looming in 2012, we’re kicking off this year’s programming by turning the spotlight on some of Melbourne’s biggest civic …
In his Lunchbox/Soapbox talk, David Holmgren explores the profound improvements that the application of permaculture principles and strategies could deliver for the sustainability and liveability of …
In recent years, as we have become more aware of the negative effects of our high-impact lifestyles, a number of environmental responses have been introduced – such as building insulation…
The capital of what used to be known as the garden state is graced by green wedges and a cool climate – but for how much longer? Adam Morton, Kelly O'Shanassy and Kirsten Larsen discuss.
Is the world split between those who want to save the planet and those who want to save themselves? In Quarterly Essay 44, Andrew Charlton exposes the rift that will shape our future: progress…
In the week the Senate finally passed the carbon tax legislation, new research indicates that the amount of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere grew by a record amount in 2010. The…
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist and author. Since the age of 20, he’s dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the…
It’s a debate with a decidedly apocalyptic ring: stand by while the dynamics of life on earth change irrevocably, or try to take action that may slow or halt the process – and in so doing possibly…
It’s a debate with a decidedly apocalyptic ring: stand by while the dynamics of life on earth change irrevocably, or try to take action that may slow or halt the process – and in so doing possibly…
It’s one of those coincidences for which we can claim no credit. Months ago, when we pencilled in next Thursday, 15 September for an Intelligence Squared debate on the carbon tax, we didn’t know…
In recent weeks, in the light of the stock market’s schizoid behaviour, a new argument has been added to the arsenal of opponents of the carbon tax. With stock markets around the world in chaos…
The carbon tax debate is amping up ahead of Julia Gillard’s announcement of the long-awaited carbon tax specifics, to be broadcast nationally on Sunday night. Gillard has said that almost 70% of…
“Climate science is a cumulative enterprise built upon hundreds of years of research. The heat-trapping properties of CO₂ were discovered in the middle of the 19th century, pre-dating even Sherlock H…
In his first Lunchbox/Soapbox, public intellectual Robert Manne speaks of his disappointment in observing the arrival of a cultural and especially political complacency in contemporary Australia.Mann…
(Click to watch video.) Sophie Cunningham, noted writer and departing editor of Meanjin, delivered our Lunchbox/Soapbox last week on the topic of climate…
People hate dealing with change. Alvin Toffler’s 1971 Future Shock outlined humanity’s failure to adapt. Does it still apply in a world where even the climate is changing?Sophie Cunningham asks how w…
People hate dealing with change. Alvin Toffler’s 1971 Future Shock outlined humanity’s failure to adapt. Does it still apply in a world where even the climate is changing?Lunchbox/Soapbox is a…
Click to watch video. One of the big issues that cost the government at the Victorian State Election was the environment. Mark Wakeham spoke just before…
In this Lunchbox/Soapbox State Election Special, Environment Victoria’s Mark Wakeham discusses the opportunities for environmental action which exist in Victoria – including the closure of the…
Over the four weeks leading into the state election, four representatives of key state-based organisations outline the big issues that they’ll be campaigning for.This week Mark Wakeham from…
Click to watch video. As part of our Matter of Life and Death events, David Suzuki opened his address by saying he was in the “death zone” where he wants…
Vandana Shiva has been campaigning for ecological sustainability for more than 30 years and while in Australia to receive the Sydney Peace Prize she gave an enlivening call for action. She critiques …
David Suzuki has been speaking out for the decades on the future of our planet but his message on slowing growth and non-economic ways of understanding the environment has never been more necessary.S…
Professor Tim Flannery has had an illustrious career. From Australian of the Year in 2007, to chair of theCopenhagen Climate Council, it’s little wonder he is one of Australia’s best-known and…
What will Franzen wear next time on the Time cover? You know you’re a superstar author when even losing your glasses is a major news story with it’s own Twitter hashtag,
Click to see the full video As Prof Tim Flannery releases Here on Earth, it’s the perfect time to re-visit his keynote address at the Alfred Deakin Lecture …
Recently Australia celebrated the 60th anniversary of the momentous Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Power Act – the first step in a 25-year journey to modernise our nation. Unrivalled in its…
How Two-Party Politics Has Failed Australian VotersDeep into both a State and Federal Election cycle, it’s hard not to stop and take stock of the choices being offered us. Election day is so much…
Climate change has long been stymied in politics but this panel discussion asks our politicians for leadership and action.Former leader of the Federal Opposition Malcolm Turnbull, Labor MP Mark…
Wind turbines or solar panels, nuclear power plants or ‘clean coal’ solutions, what does it mean to find renewable, sustainable and green answers to the energy challenge, not only in Australia, but f…
Deakin Series curator Tim Flannery has fired another at salvo at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in the latest issue of the Monthly.Flannery characterises Rudd’s policy move as “a funk in the truest sense …
After the disappointment of Copenhagen, Bonn’s climate change talks have been called “a slow grind” by ABC Online.Beginning on Monday, the Bonn talks are being watched closely by Pacific nations as t…
We’ve just released a limited amount of new seats for the Deakin Lecture series keynote address this Sunday with Tim Flannery.Flannery has long been at the vanguard of Australia’s environmental…
The media buzzed with news that Deakins Series curator Tim Flannery has switched his position on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and on carbon capturing.The Australian reported from Flannery’s speech…
Not everyone agrees on climate change. Quadrant Online’s Doomed Planet questions global warming publishing Andrew Gilkson’s argument that there is a “widening gulf between scientific observations…
Working as Head of Programming for the Wheeler Centre has brought its surprises, its challenges and its learning curves, but perhaps none as pronounced as working on the 2010 Alfred Deakin Lecture…
Cold climates dwellers have been smugly thinking global warming will bring sunnier weather. The Guardian's review of Turned Out Nice, Britain will become more like the Mediterranean. London will be…
Earlier this week, the US National Research Council released three reports on climate change calling for decisive action to limit carbon emissions.Originally commissioned by Congress in 2008, the…
Both Tim Flannery and Nick Rowley come to the Deakin Lectures as veterans of last year’s Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. After the disappointing outcome of that conference we asked both…
Reuters reports that debate on reducing carbon emissions is in “legislative limbo”. A draft proposal of almost 1000 pages was issued last week, but little has been done to get it on the US Senate’s a…
Tony Abbott has done a lot to impress Malcolm Turnbull with his new-found praise for Coalition policy on climate change.Back in December 2009 Turnbull’s blog entry scolded “Mr Abbott apparently…
Science magazine this month features an article on the extinction of lizards, attributing their demise to global warming. Up to a fifth of the world’s lizards could disappear by 2080 with a horrific …
As Britain meets its new power-sharing leaders, climate change policy is caught in the middle, according to The Independent.Pre-election slogans from the Conservative party to “vote blue, go green&rdquo…
Professor Tim Flannery at the Copenhagen Climate Conference
Greenpeace advertisments will greet world leaders as they arrive in Copenhagen for the Climate Change Conference this week, but Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and others may not be thrilled but what…
In an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Singer likens greenhouse gas emissions to dropping bombs."We are harming people in Bangladesh almost as surely as if we were dropping bombs on…
