Biodiversity is everyone’s responsibility
I’m not sure if many South Australians are aware of this, but the Parliamentary Inquiry into Biodiversity by the Environment, Resources and Development Committee presented a report to the 53rd...
View ArticleSome scary stats about agriculture and biodiversity
Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming the eminent sustainability scientist, Professor Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge, to our humble Ecology and Evolution Seminar Series here at...
View ArticleThe European Union just made bioenergy worse for biodiversity
Extending the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) on solid and gaseous biomass is being used to roll back sustainability requirements. This is the wrong path.
View ArticleSouth Australia doesn’t value its environment
The South Australian State Budget was released yesterday, and as has been the trend for the last ten years or so, the numbers are not good for the State’s environment. While it has been reported that...
View ArticleHow to improve (South Australia’s) biodiversity prospects
If you read CB.com regularly, you’ll know that late last year I blogged about the South Australia 2108 State of the Environment Report for which I was commissioned to write an ‘overview‘ of the State’s...
View ArticleAcademics and Indigenous groups unite to stand up for the natural world
More than 600 scientists from every country in the EU and 300 Brazilian Indigenous groups have come together for the first time. This is because we see a window of opportunity in the ongoing trade...
View ArticleIncreasing human population density drives environmental degradation in Africa
Almost a decade ago, I (co-) wrote a paper examining the socio-economic correlates of gross, national-scale indices of environmental performance among the world’s nations. It turned out to be rather...
View Article“Overabundant” wildlife usually isn’t
Late last year (10 December) I was invited to front up to the ‘Overabundant and Pest Species Inquiry’ at the South Australian Parliament to give evidence regarding so-called ‘overabundant’ and ‘pest’...
View ArticleThe Great Dying
Here’s a presentation I gave earlier in the year for the Flinders University BRAVE Research and Innovation series: There is No Plan(et) B — What you can do about Earth’s extinction emergency Earth is...
View ArticleEnvironmental damage kills children
Yes, it’s a provocative title, I agree. But then again, it’s true. But I don’t just mean in the most obvious ways. We already have good data showing that lack of access to clean water and sanitation...
View ArticleThe politics of environmental destruction
You’d think I’d get tired of this, wouldn’t you? Alas, the fight does wear me down, but I must persist. My good friend and colleague, the legendary Professor Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, as...
View ArticleWhat is a ‘mass extinction’ and are we in one now?
(reproduced from The Conversation) — For more than 3.5 billion years, living organisms have thrived, multiplied and diversified to occupy every ecosystem on Earth. The flip side to this explosion of...
View ArticleGetting your conservation science to the right people
A perennial lament of nearly every conservation scientist — at least at some point (often later in one’s career) — is that the years of blood, sweat and tears spent to obtain those precious results...
View ArticleNot 100% renewable, but 0% carbon
Anyone familiar with this blog and our work on energy issues will not be surprised by my sincere support of nuclear power as the only realistic solution to climate change in the electricity (and...
View ArticleFuture of conservation
Last year I posted about a paper that attempted to gauge the opinions of modern-day conservationists about the perceived role of conservation biology today and in the near future. My main point was...
View ArticleOffshore Energy & Marine Spatial Planning
I have the pleasure (and relief) of announcing a new book that’s nearly ready to buy, and I think many readers of CB.com might be interested in what it describes. I know it might be a bit premature to...
View ArticleOur global system-of-systems
I’ve just read an excellent paper that succinctly, eloquently, and wisely summarised the current predicament of our highly interconnected, global, complex adaptive system (i.e., our environment). If...
View ArticleCommunicating climate change
Both the uncertainty inherent in scientific data, and the honesty of those scientists who report such data to any given audience, can sow doubt about the science of climate change. The perception of...
View ArticleBiodiversity is everyone’s responsibility
I’m not sure if many South Australians are aware of this, but the Parliamentary Inquiry into Biodiversity by the Environment, Resources and Development Committee presented a report to the 53rd...
View ArticleSome scary stats about agriculture and biodiversity
Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming the eminent sustainability scientist, Professor Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge, to our humble Ecology and Evolution Seminar Series here at...
View Article