Earth Matters

Earth Matters Bec Horridge meets a persistent team: Fridays 4 Forests [ Facebook] who regularly protest outside Janelle Saffin MP's office in Lismore on Friday. They are calling for the creation of the Richmond River Koala Parks and to "Stop Native Forest Logging".Then we meet climate campaigner Brett, from Market Forces who dresses as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz to call out Australian Super's c...

Earth Matters 30th Birthday Special: Goolengook Blockade Reflections  This month in June, Earth Matters has turned 30 years old, and our proud partner 3cr Community Radio also celebrates their 50th Birthday. To celebrate these important milestones we have been going through our archives.  In this episode we hear the first Earth Matters host, Juliet Fox at the Goolengook blockades, in East Gippslan...

This year, Earth Matters is thirty years old! And 3CR, our proud parent, is 50 years old! We’re celebrating by digging into the archives, tipping our hat to past presenters who paved the way with hard-hitting and crucial content on environmental current affairs. Have you heard of Pine Gap? Most likely you have. You may even have heard about the fight against the construction of the US military bas...

Earth Matters presents a live show in the studios of 3CR in Fitzroy Naarm to raise funds for our broadcasting. Earth Matters presenters Kieran Stewart-Assherton, Mia Audrey and Claudia Craig together with past producer Judith Peppard are joined on phone by Bec Horridge and Hannah York for a live to air Radiothon broadcast. Also on the show we hear from campaigners Cam Walker (Friends of the Earth)...

To celebrate 30 years of Earth Matters, Mia digs into the archives and presents a special feature on a historic milestone: the Jabiluka blockade. You'll hear former presenter Juliet Fox interviewing Jane Weepers, spokesperson for the Jabiluka Alliance, on the first day of the blockade in March 1998; and audio from the road trip to the proposed uranium mine site organised by the Australian Student...

Content WarningThe episode mentions domestic and sexual violence, and online hate in this episode which might be distressing for some listeners. Later on there is a more in-depth discussion of mental illness including suicidal ideation. The presenter announces when the more in-depth discussion begins and provides support service contacts for anyone needing help at the end of the show. Part 2 Explo...

This week on Earth Matters, Hannah speaks with fire scientist Phil Zylstra about the large planned burn that took place in the Snowy River National Park.  He speaks on the ecological impacts planned burns have on wet forest ecosystems and how Forest Fire Management Victoria is escalating the impacts of fires in the long-term.  We also hear from activist and organiser Violet Coco on fuel breaks mim...

This episode of Earth Matters examines the ecological crisis unfolding across this continent, from the destruction of the Victorian Volcanic Plains to extinction, land clearing, invasive species and climate change. It explores the responsibilities people hold in response, including First Nations obligations to Country grounded in lore, kinship and cultural practice, alongside the broader responsib...

Sooty from South East Forest Rescue shares a significant legal win in the High Court, which affirmed the right for third parties with a "special interest" to take Forestry Corporation to court in New South Wales. This overturned Forestry's argument that such actions would "open the floodgates” to legal action from environmentalists. Sooty describes  the subsequent ongoing case in the Land Environm...

This week on Earth Matters, we zoom out, and across the world, to speak with an author and human development practitioner based in Antigua, about the big picture of sustainable development. You’ll hear about what has changed in the development sector over recent decades; Cherise’s intersectional understanding of poverty and wealth; the concept of the metacrisis; and more. Cherise Adjodha is an aut...

Felling of Mt Macedon snow gums leaves conservationists aghast This week Earth Matters travels to a mountain peak in Central Victoria where the State government has destroyed almost a hectare of fragile snow gums. Nature lovers and conservation advocates are devastated and confused. The snow gums were part of a montane woodland that had regenerated over the course of forty-years since the catastro...

The Belém Gender Action Plan is a nine-year framework, representing a historic step forward in embedding gender equality into climate action. ensuring inclusive, intersectional, and gender-responsive policies and practices. It emphasizes that climate change impacts are not gender-neutral, recognizing that women and girls—particularly those from rural, Indigenous, migrant, or marginalized communiti...

Mia interviews Te Raukura O’Connell Rapira and Laniyuk, two staunch and inspiring warriors in the defence of Larrakia country. Larrakia country is Laniyuk’s country, and together with Te Raukura and an ever-expanding network of fellow protectors she has been fighting a military housing development on her land. Laniyuk is a Larrakia, Kungarakan, Gurindji and French creative and organiser. In Januar...

Continuing our popular online Women's Climate Congress conversation series, this event featured  Jennifer Nadel FRSA, Co-Founder and CEO, Compassion in Politics (UK).In the last federal election campaign, Anthony Albanese referred to kindness in government, saying that kindness is not a weakness but a strength. This mirrors Action 6 of the WCC Charter for Change: 'Elevate compassion and kindness i...

Exploring Extreme Heat: Part One Hot histories - can heatwaves of the past teach us how to adapt to extreme heat? Earth Matters is embarking on a multi-episode series exploring what intense heat events mean for Australians.  We’ll be hearing from settler Australians, migrant communities and First Nations people living in different parts of so-called Australia to understand how heat affects us, and...

In this edition of Earth Matters, host Keiran Stewart-Assheton interviews Matt from the pirate nursery Basalt Buddies, discussing the Victorian Grassland Plains, local conservation efforts, the limitations and unseen issues within government conservation policies, and how people can get involved in conservation efforts in their local area.

As with all other areas of Direct Activism for social and environmental justice, some of the most staunch, courageous and passionate forest defenders are women. At the Lutruwita Forest Resistance Tour last month Hannah and Rosie were fortunate to meet and work alongside many of them, who ranged from teenagers to 80 year-olds. They spoke to two of these incredible women - Jenny Weber (Bob Brown Fou...

Mia speaks with two poets about their recent books, both of which chronicle relationship-building with the more-than-human world. Eungedup is a work of poetry and narrative non-fiction recounting Giles Watson's relationship with a freshwater wetland during a long, dry summer. Vampire Squid is a close and personal account of the deep sea and the people who study it, written throughout Dr Prema Aras...

A jubilant senior cultural custodian, Adrian Burragubba makes the first announcement of a landmark decision handed down in the Queensland Court of Appeal, restoring the case to protect the sacred Doongmabulla springs from Adani’s Carmichael coal mine. Adrian's son Guridyula describes the reoccupation of his traditional land on the mine site at Waddananggu. Then an introduction to The South Coast A...

Helena Norberg-Hodge is a pioneer of the new economy movement, a filmmaker, author and founding director of Local Futures, which is committed to the revitalisation of cultural and biological diversity and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide. Helena has just turned 80 years old. Helena argues for a radical shift from destructive global capitalism and unchecked technologic...

Mia chats with the folks behind A Climate for Art and Creative Climate, initiatives driving climate conversations and action in the arts and cultural sector. Eliki Reade is an Interdependent Producer and artist of kailoma-Fijian (Fijian/European) heritage. They are a co-instigator of A Climate for Art (ACFA), a collective of artists, arts workers and organisations intent on mobilising their sector...

Earth Matters brings you Voices from "Rising Tide" protest blocking coal ships in Moolobinba/Newcastle, highlighting youth climate anxiety, calls for government accountability, and the interconnectedness of environmental, social, and Indigenous justice issues in Australia. We will hear from:Grace Goldman from Youth Rising expressed deep fear for her future and her hometown, Newcastle, due to gover...

This Invasion Day, Earth Matters confronts the truth behind January 26 — not as a celebration, but as the beginning of invasion and ecological destruction. From colonisation as an environmental catastrophe to the climate crisis as a colonial crisis, this special episode centres First Nations sovereignty, Land Back, and the reality that there is no environmental justice without decolonisation. Beca...

‘Aboriginal people in Western Australia experience the highest rates of death from mesothelioma globally. That’s because of Wittenoom. And there isn’t a Banjima family who isn’t touched by this. This is really a huge human rights issue.’‘We went pretty deep into where the main tailings dumps are. We have this drone shot that goes for five minutes…It shows the tailings dumps going for like hundreds...

The climate crisis is a crisis of imagination; we are stuck in a web of stories about what’s possible. But voices outside the web are picking at the knots, opening other ways of being through different, older stories. This is the work of artists. And while you may not know it from how your tax dollars are spent, artists are a lifeline for our world in crisis.  Enter A Climate for Art (ACFA): a col...