Earth Matters

Pandemic in a time of Big Oil: When holding down a blockade is an Essential ActivityThe 3 day Climate Strike Action planned for April 22-24  to coincide with Earth Day 50th anniversary was cancelled due to global lockdown, but an epic 3 day livestream was organised instead by the Climate Strike Coalition and Stop The Money Pipeline Coalition. On Day 2 First Nations pipeline resistance fighters spo...

As the Covid19 virus proliferates humans watch in horror at how nature can disrupt and destroy our lives. While those with a place to live retreat to their  homes the most vulnerable have no home to go to.  Some money has come from the government for rough sleepers to stay in hotels but this response is patchy and  thousands of people who are not eligible for Centrelink or other government payment...

Australian waters are an ecological hotspot for sharks and rays populations. It's a fact that might concern some and be a cause for celebration for others. During times of global crisis, what can we learn from coming face to face with our biggest fears? And how do sharks keep our ocean healthy and contribute to a sustainable future? Shark enthusiast and speaker, Shannon Hurley from the Victorian N...

Can we simply innovate our way out of the present climate crisis? Or do technological fixes hide another problem - that of a deeply unequal and unjust world? Until we start to understand that climate change is a also political problem we may end up carrying the problems of the present into a clean energy future. Lawyer and writer Lizzie O'Shea argues that if we are going to have a just and democra...

Doing it ourselves: Renewables & bio-hacking COVID-19As the COVID-19 pandemic escalates, the neo-lib stance on privatised & for-profit "herd-culling" healthcare has directly precipitated a drastic shortage of test kits & respirators. But the good news is that an incredible global explosion of grass-roots solidarity & self-organising initiatives are bypassing the general criminal prevarication and...

A  hundred thousands tons of woodchips and  the Eden wood chip mill burned in January bushfires. 80% of the New South Wales, South East  state forests were incinerated. Harriet Swift tells us what's happening on the ground now.  Harriet  lives in the Bega region and has been  campaigning for decades  to close the wood chip mill and end native forest logging. Music  Song of the Restless fly catcher...

Indigenous Science: Water knowledge systemsBrad Moggridge, Kamilaroi man & geologist, and Tyson Yunkaporta of the Apalech Clan from Western Cape York, and author of Sandtalk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, are two Indigenous scientists speaking about exploring water knowledge systems and stories. Recorded live at Bush Heritage Australia's Bush Nights: Stories from the water event at t...

BIPOC Women’s Resistance: IWD 2020BIPOC women in the global south are necessarily at the forefront of climate activism, as it is their communities that are the most adversely affected by climate change. This week's International Women's Day show features Indigenous rights activist Daiara Tukano, of the Tukano people from the north western Amazon, on the impacts of climate fires & deforestation the...

Still threatened, Still fighting: Tassie forests frontlineLisa Searle (Bob Brown Foundation) gets us up to speed with the rapidly shifting landscape of forest activism in Tasmania - as the end of the logging moratorium that came out of the 2013 so-called forest peace deal is rapidly approaching. Closing track is 'Born in This Time', by Natalie Fallah from the N.E.F.A album Lock On! Songs to Save A...

Windara Reef Restoration: Reinvigorating ocean ecosystems Most of the continent now known as colony-Australia was once surrounded and protected for thousands of years by massive reefs built up by shellfish, providing rich breeding grounds for marine life. However colonisation has decimated these ancient reefs and rendered them extinct. So the news that thriving artificial reefs are now being built...

 Exceptional speeches calling for climate action ring with rising anger in response to government  denial and inaction. MC: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki makes climate science segways.   Zali Stegall the Independent member for Waringah outlines her bill for an official bipartisan  climate action plan.  Bruce Shillingsworth a Muruwari and Budjiti man,  from  the north-west NSW river lands  demands:" Put the...

Invasion Day 2020 Highlights (Part2): Narm protest rally & marchPart 2 of a two part Invasion Day tribute features selected speakers from the Narm protest rally & march Earth Matters #1229 was produced by Nicky Stott

Invasion Day 2020 Highlights (Part1): Narm Dawn ServicePart 1 of a two part Invasion Day tribute features the Dawn Service in Narm last weekend, as we pay our deepest respects to all the First Nations Peoples who were massacred by British terrorists during the Frontier Wars, and all their descendants who inherited that mass intergenerational trauma. Earth Matters #1229 was produced by Nicky Stott...

As bushfires have been raging across Australia since October last year, cities have been blanketed in toxic smoke. What are the health impacts of this? And how might workers respond to this new environmental health crisis?  On today’s show, workers responding collectively to bushfire pollution, and looking for a working class environmentalism.  Guests: Elizabeth Humphrys (UTS); Katherine Barraclou...

 We are in a terrible, fiery  climate emergency. Humans and animals are in crisis. We have seen at least a billion animals die [not including billions of insects. This number is rapidly rising  as animals face starvation in destroyed ecosystems where there is no food.  Responding to this on the front line of this are the wildlife rescue groups .  They have always been there caring for injured anim...

Heal the Ancestors: East Gippsland bush firesElders Robbie and Mick Thorpe on 3CR’s Fire First discuss bushfires and the Law of the Land, while Mick shares his first hand account of the evacuation from the Lake Tyers Community on Gunai/Kurnai country. Also, an update from Chris Schuringa at Goongerah Environment Centre about what’s happening on the ground with ongoing fires destroying habitat, wil...

Tiny House Warriors: Secwepemc struggleSecwepemc land protector Kanahus Freedom on how Secwepemc people are resisting the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion and ongoing impacts of colonialism & white supremacy by asserting their sovereignty via creative direct action campaigns, such as the Tiny House Warrior campaign.audio sourced with thanks from The Final Straw Radio on Archive.orgEarth Matters #...

What does it mean when we talk of floods of migrants? Is it accurate or even useful? Or does it distract from the real floods, the disasters brought on by climate change? Lauren Piko, presents her paper “Hydraulics and flood: rhetorics and realities of fluidity in Australian cities” at the 2019 Historical Materialism Conference, held at Trades Hall in Melbourne.   Then later in the show, Nic Beure...

As our eyes sting from the ashes of the forests,  Richard Flanagan's call for  climate action  becomes prophetic .  Extinction Rebellion rebels blockade Canberra  streets  preventing politicians from leaving Federal parliament to split for holidays, leaving climate action and leadership behind them. Guests:   Richard Flanagan, Author.                 Extinction Rebellion rebels blockading Canberra...

For the love of Soil: Urban TilthDoria Robinson from Urban Tilth speaking this year at the Community Alliance for Global Justice about dismantling extractive culture. She gets the ball rolling with a crucial task that we all now face; namely, unpacking what we mean by "justice" in the context of making a "just transition", as we move towards systemic change as the logical solution to climate justi...

We must  start cooling the planet. Walter Jehne and Cindy Eiritz  explain how to  restore the Earth s hydrological cooling system AND restore the “soil carbon sponge” offering resilience to global heating. The Soil Carbon Sponge is porous, well-aggregated soil rich in plant roots, diverse life forms, nutrient availability, air, and often holding lots of water. Building up the Soil Carbon Sponge dr...

Finally the Victorian government has acknowledged that native forest logging must end. After decades of mismanagement, financial losses and environmental destruction. The government has announced all native forest logging to end by 2030, with an immediate end to old-growth logging, and the planned protection of the Greater Glider. But the devil is in the detail, and the promises might not be kept....

If you are starting to think that the grip of the coal and gas industry on Australian land and politics is impossible to break -take hope. New coal mines are being knocked back by the courts for their climate impacts. In February  2019   the New South Wales Land and Environment Court made  a landmark judgement  to reject a new open-cut coal mine near Gloucester in the Hunter Valley,  NSW.  For the...

IMARC blockade live outside broadcast (Part 2)Recorded live at the (IMARC) International Mining & Resource Conference blockade in Melbourne Oct 28-31. Presenters Viv Malo & Robbie Thorpe (The Black Block) and Michaela Stubbs speak with Porobibi (West Papuan student activist); Tim (Wiradjuri anti-coal/CSG activist); Lucco (Latin American Solidarity Network); and Jessica (grass roots community activ...

IMARC blockade live outside broadcast (Part 1)Recorded live at the (IMARC) International Mining & Resource Conference blockade in Melbourne Oct 28-31. Presenters Robbie Thorpe and Viv Malo (The Black Block) speak with Jerome Small, Aunty Vicki Abdullah (Tjiwarl & ANFA co-chair) & former greens MP & Gunditjmara & Gunai woman Lidia Thorpe on extractive industries & ecocide, and Indigenous rights & s...