Famously, it was the effects of extreme weather that triggered the French Revolution. The “causes” were many – gross inequality, urbanisation, weak and oligarchic governance, the circulation of shocking new ideas and pornographic scuttlebutt via populist DIY media – but a decade of failed harvests, bitterly cold winters and widespread hunger brought
“What are people going to do? They are going to start robberies” The subtitle is a quote from a story in The Australian describing Yallourn North in Victoria's Gippsland as the heartland of One Nation's recent surge in popularity, linking this to the forthcoming closure of
One source of bewilderment for climate advocacy in the twenty-first century is the stubborn interval, the hiatus—the chink—between fact and act. Careful sifting and milling of facts for half a century has not triggered transformational change. One of the frequent demands climate advocacy makes is to “follow the
Two related problems caught fire in me when forests I love burned in the Black Summer, six years ago now. I began this newsletter in part to explore these problems and am grateful to you all for your interest. Though the newsletter has been sporadic, as the year ends, I&
During two days of parliamentary debate about Australia’s national environment laws this week, I was reminded of the guest lecture I gave in September at the University of Newcastle for Professor Patricia Pender, in her course “Writing for Social Change.” The piece below is adapted from that lecture and
“Come to me, said the world," (Louise Glück, from “October,”) “Computer says, ‘no’," (David Walliams in “Little Britain”) In Tasmania, contrast makes plain the root of the crisis. Wild forest is patched by plantations. Uniform neat rows of adolescent blue gums on bare ground, or the howl of
Australian Government yesterday released a comprehensive National Climate Risk Assessment. It is the first time in over 15 years that a detailed review has been undertaken into the likely consequences of climate change for this country, and really the first time ever that it has all been pulled together like
Theodor Adorno declared that “poetry after Auschwitz is barbarity.” I won’t say this is precisely why it has taken me several weeks to put something new in this Handbasket, but waves of grief have been swamping me and I have not been able to make sense in the turmoil.
The evidence paints a picture of the Pilliga as a cultural landscape where Gomeroi cosmology is alive and the celestial bodies, animals, plants, lands and waters interact with Gomeroi people (Native Title Tribunal Future Act Determination, Santos NSW Pty Ltd and Another v Gomeroi People and Another 2025) Early this
“Nature, too, awaits the revolution” declared Herbert Marcuse fifty years ago. She has given up waiting and events are now overtaking us. The Gaian revolution is underway and it will prompt those of us living in the eye the late-modernity cyclone to ask each other: what is important? Human politics
Why a handbasket? For the alliteration, and because you can carry it with you, even through hell. Because it recalls Ursula le Guin's Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. Because it is woven, made of organic material, and can be mended. Because practicality and beauty are inseparable. Because you