Sustainability
A nervous watch on the Three Gorges Dam
To understand China, it’s not a bad idea to keep an eye on what is happening inside the country. Much of the current international discussion about China focuses on China’s plans…
The goals for Australia to do better
Although the idea is hard to bear, we now all know that Australia’s 2019–20 bushfire catastrophe and the Covid-19 crisis will not be one-off historical events. Public health…
Japanese whaling is down but not out
Even before the coronavirus pandemic began to dominate the news, and as Australia’s bush fires took most of the media oxygen, this past summer was an unusually quiet period in the…
If a tree falls in Nepal, will anyone care?
For all its natural attributes, Nepal is considered a country that provides a template for what not to do, ecologically.
Officials from neighbouring states will quietly admit to…
Should you lie to your children about reality?
Is the world currently too awful to contemplate for the so-called “snowflake generation”, which apparently can’t face the realities of life in even the most fortunate of nations?…
China’s carbon emissions trading scheme: Smoke and mirrors
Chinese officials have recently given some important indications about the design of China’s much-anticipated – and much-hyped – national carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS),…
The underappreciated value of Japanese aid in the Pacific
In the varied debates about influence in the Pacific, rarely does Japan’s position in the region feature prominently. On the off chance that Japan’s presence in the Pacific is…
Indonesia should put more energy into renewable power
Air pollution is worsening in Jakarta and West Java, while tens of millions of people experienced a day-long blackout earlier this month after gas-powered electricity generators…
Keep calm and fly on … unless someone stops me
Shame is a powerful emotion, but is it powerful enough to save the planet? Almost certainly not. But the question has assumed unexpected prominence as the sensitive Scandinavians…
Chernobyl: the continuing political consequences of a nuclear accident
The recent mini-series on the Chernobyl nuclear accident is a reminder that after 33 years the consequences of the accident are still very much with us. The costs to public health…