2019 might well be remembered as the year the world caught fire. Some 2.9 million hectares of eastern Australia have been incinerated in the past few months, an area roughly the same size as Belgium.
- By Mike Lee
The catastrophic bushfires raging across much of Australia have not only taken a huge human and economic toll, but also delivered heavy blows to biodiversity and ecosystem function.
Climate researchers can now detect the fingerprint of global warming in daily weather observations at the global scale.
Climate researchers have not given up hope and authors were asked to highlight some more positive stories from 2019.
The 12 Days of Christmas is a song that promises a great deal, but there’s a line that carollers may have to omit in future.
- By Hal Gurgenci
Geothermal means, literally, “earth heat”. The temperature of the earth increases as we drill deeper towards its core.
Society’s defining issues are rarely presented as raw facts and stats, and climate change is no exception.
Intensive agriculture may be nourishing most of the Earth’s inhabitants, but it’s doing the opposite to earth itself.
The most important individual climate action will depend on each person’s particular circumstances
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) recently declared climate change a health emergency, reflecting similar positions taken by a growing list of peak medical bodies around the world.
- By Kelly Reed
About a quarter of all the greenhouse gas emissions that humans generate each year come from how we feed the world.
Modern society has given significant attention to the promises of the digital economy over the past decade. But it has given little attention to its negative environmental footprint.
From Sudan to Syria to Bangladesh, climate change is often presented as a powerful and simple root cause of violent conflict and mass migration.
Climate fiction, climate change fiction, “cli-fi” – whatever you want to call it – has emerged as a literary trend that’s gained astonishing traction over the past ten years.
As bushfires rage and our cities lie shrouded in smoke, climate change is shaping as a likely topic of conversation at the family dinner table this Christmas.
Almost 40% of global land plant species are very rare, and these species are most at risk for extinction as the climate continues to change, according to new research.
Reforestation has enormous potential as a cheap and natural way of sucking heat-absorbing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and restoring the degraded natural world
- By Bobby Duffy
The world is often better and getting better than people think. Murder rates, deaths from terrorism and extreme poverty are all down.
Eighteen countries from developed economies have had declining carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels for at least a decade.
The United Nations is beginning its climate summit in Madrid.
- By Nitya Rao
People who directly depend on the natural world for their livelihoods, like farmers and fishers, will be among the greatest victims of the climate crisis.
In shouting “system change not climate change”, young people understand that the 3-4? warmer world we’re headed for would be far more painful, costly and disruptive than any short-term costs or inconvenience we face from taking rapid, bold action.
- By Mark Maslin
The fossil fuel industry, political lobbyists, media moguls and individuals have spent the past 30 years sowing doubt about the reality of climate change - where none exists. The latest estimate is that