Climate Change
Severe dust storm hits Australian coastal cities
By Alex Safari, September 29, 2009
A huge dust storm blanketed large areas of Australia’s southeastern coast last Wednesday, covering cities and towns in the states of New South Wales and Queensland, before moving out to sea towards ...
Australian government announces more pro-business concessions on carbon trading
By Patrick O’Connor, May 15, 2009
Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week announced a series of changes to his government’s carbon emissions trading scheme, including additional public subsidies to the major polluters and a one ye...
Antarctic ice shelf collapse: climate change and capitalism
By Patrick O'Connor, April 8, 2009
The disintegration of a 40-kilometre ice bridge connecting the Wilkins Ice Shelf to the Antarctic Peninsula is another indicator of the threat posed by climate change.
Australian Labor government’s 2020 carbon emissions target: a declaration of impotence on climate change
By Patrick O’Connor, December 23, 2008
The Labor government’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 5 percent below their level in the year 2000 by 2020 constitutes an admission that it has no effective solution to the climate c...
Australia: Climate change, the Garnaut report, and the profit system
By Patrick O’Connor, September 17, 2008
The Labor government’s Garnaut Climate Change Review has effectively concluded that within the existing international political and social framework, dangerous and potentially irreversible global wa...
US: White House suppressed climate change testimony
By Shannon Jones, July 10, 2008
A former official with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has alleged that Vice President Dick Cheney intervened to alter testimony to Congress about the potential health and safety dangers ...
The EU strengthens “Fortress Europe” against migration due to climate change
By Ajay Prakash and Antoine Lerougetel, May 7, 2008
The European Union is responding to the present and projected catastrophic effects of climate change on the most vulnerable populations of the world, and their inevitable migration in order to survive...
Australia: Rudd government rejects emission targets in official climate change report
By Patrick O’Connor, March 14, 2008
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has dismissed key sections of an interim climate change report released last month by Professor Ross Garnaut, in particular the assessment that Australian carbon emissions ma...
Hawaii climate change summit ends without agreement on emission cuts
By Patrick O’Connor, February 5, 2008
Rivalries between the world’s major powers have again dominated a major international climate change summit, with a two-day meeting in Hawaii producing no agreement on greenhouse gas emissions t...
Bali climate conference ends in farce as US vetoes emission targets
By Patrick O’Connor, December 17, 2007
The UN-sponsored climate change conference held on the Indonesian island of Bali ended on the weekend without any agreement on combatting global warming other than vague generalities. A last-minute, f...
Bush administration isolated at Bali climate conference
By Patrick Martin, December 14, 2007
The two-week UN-sponsored conference on climate change on the Indonesian island of Bali has been dominated by the intransigence of the Bush administration and the mounting conflicts among the great po...
Australia: Labor government moves to ratify Kyoto Protocol ahead of Bali climate change conference
By Patrick O’Connor, December 8, 2007
On Monday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. This move—which marks the first step in the formal ratification process that will ...
