There is a good article in The Guardian from a farmer commenting on the recent cuts to Australia’s scientific research organisation, CSIRO’s climate change analysis capacities, which can be found here. Whilst we have seen comments from scientists and other professionals, it’s always important to get the perspective from those where, as the author Marian MacDonald puts it, ‘the rubber of climate change adaptation hits the road’. It’s extremely unfortunate that at the time when Australia is needing climate science to …
I’ve recently been working on a series of projects linking, in various ways, community-based adaptation to climate change, or CBA. These approaches highlight two very important assumptions: 1) communities are capable of understanding, and acting on, climate change impacts. This doesn’t mean that this can occur without support or facilitation or capacity building or knowledge enhancement. 2) communities therefore are not passive in the face of the impacts of climate change. This in turn means the development of projects, policies or approaches …
Bushfires (as they’re called in Australia – also known as wildfires elsewhere) have been once again burning early in the season, this time in and around Sydney. Hot temperatures, dry undergrowth and climatic shifts have contributed to a very dangerous situation very early in what by all accounts will be a very hot summer and a bad fire season. Bushfires aren’t new. They have been a standard part of the Australian ecosystem, and also Australian life for those who live …