Earth Matters

The Radioactive Exposure Tour is a road trip exploring nuclear Australia, past and present, and forging connections for the ongoing campaigns to keep uranium in the ground, to stop unwanted and unnecessary radioactive waste dumps and to eliminate nuclear weapons. Tune in to the Rad Tour 2018 to hear about the inspiring resistance taking place beyond the city, and some special snippets from Rad Tou...

On this week’s show, we listen to a wide ranging conversation between best-selling author and journalist Naomi Klein and comedian Aamer Rahman. Recorded just days after Donald Trump won the 2016 US presidential election, they discuss race and the colonial mindset in a post-Trump world and reflect on what this means for environmental organising in Australia and Canada. You can watch the full conver...

Dr Jackie Kelly  is one of the many people who dedicate their time and are committed to better environmental outcomes for the health of our rivers and wetlands. And today we’re in conversation with Kelly on the latest on the Murray-Darling Basin plan from an environmental perspective, the politics and you'll hear how community members from all over the country are passionate about saving the might...

In this edition of Earth Matters we look at the costs of war to the environment through habitat destruction, nuclear test fallout, chemical pollution, weather manipulation, depleted uranium, and  CO2 emissions. Our guests unpack the staggering financial cost of war and question the proposed development of a large subsidised weapons export industry in Australia.  Together we broach the question: ho...

Changing light bulbs isn’t stopping climate change so people are breaking their own addictions to coal and doing it for themselves. 1.8 million rooftops in Australia have solar panels. Solar Citizens are campaigning to grow and defend that, and increase access to the renewable revolution. A sinister collusion of business and government is again wreaking havoc on the environment. NSW land-clearing...

Exploring SeedbanksAustralia is home to two seed banks and coming up on Earth Matters in this program we are joined by guest Dr Sally Horton as we take a look inside the Australian Grains seedbank at Horsham and we yarn on Norton’s recent return from the Global Seedbank also known as the Doomsday Vault in a remote mountain location in Norway.

People of the Pacific Islands are already feeling the ravages of climate change - be that loss of food production as sea levels rise, the erosion of shorelines, king tides, and the increased occurrence and severity of cyclones. But Pacific Islanders are speaking out. So on today’s show we are tuning-in to Pasifika voices and amplifying their messages. We’re going to hear from a brand-new podcast....

Karina Lester, Yankunytjatjara-Anangu woman from South Australia, tells us about her work to reclaim, revive and maintain Aboriginal languages. Karina's late father was blinded by the nuclear testing program in the 1950s. The Lester family have played an enormous role speaking out against nuclear dangers, from nuclear weapons to radioactive waste. Karina explains the critical role of language in k...

This week on Earth Matters we explore the current recycling issue affecting some Victorians as the Chinese Government ban on foreign recyclables came into effect on January 1st 2018. The Victorian State Government and the various stakeholders including some Victorian local councils (metro and regional) are all trying to work through how to best deal with this problem right across the state of Vict...

On this week's show:We take time to listen to three writers and activists who help us see our world differently, helping us to imagine other possible futures. Hannah Donnelly is a Wiradjuri woman from New South Wales. She is the creator of the Sovereign Trax music blog, celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and culture. Hannah is also the co-editor of the Sovereign Apocalypse. He...

All around the planet widespread ideological folly on the neoliberal bandwagon is targeting environmental activists systemically via government and big business. But Indigenous land rights activists are fighting back, and looking to the global community for support in their struggles. Last week activist and protest organiser Heri Budiawan, aka Budi Pego, from Banyuwangi in East Java was sentenced...

At the end of last year the Commonwealth government’s Office of the Gene Technology Regulator quietly proposed to deregulate a new genetic modification technique know CRISPR.Also, we bring you an update on the campaign against the development of the former NuFarm site in Fawkner, Victoria. Responsible for manufacturing highly toxic industrial chemicals, including Agent Orange. Guests: Lou Sales (F...

This week on Earth Matters - A Decolonising Climate Action panel discussion held in Melbourne at the Black Dot Gallery Brunswick in April 2017.Featuring a poetry performance by Kate West panel followed by a panel discussion featuring deadly first Nations women Jen Rae, Mathi Canadian Aboriginal group and Artist, Allara Briggs - Yorta Yorta & Seed Mob and Jacinta Fuamatu - A Samoan Pacific islander...

Earth Matters this week we bring you to PART 2 of our conversation - Keeping Bees in a natural environment with program guest Adrian Iodice from Beekeeping Naturally and coming up in this program you’ll hear how keeping bees in a natural environment can be positive for you at home in a rural or urban setting plus you’ll hear how to make deadly honey from your hive and we find out how to naturally...

On this week's show we're going to Belfast Coastal Reserve. Stretching 22 kilometres between Warrnambool and Port Fairy in Victoria, this small strip of land is important environmentally, culturally, socially and economically. It faces many challenges, including horse racing. We'll be talking to Bill Yates from the Belfast Coastal Reserve Action Group and Lou Hollis from Killarney Coast Care.

Coming up in this program all you need to know about natural bee care in our environment as we explore Beekeeping Naturally and we take a look at how it compares to conventional bee keeping methods and you'll also hear how good it is to be keeping bees naturally, as it is a positive practice for the environment. Earth Matters program guest is Adrian Iodice - BeeKeeping Naturally.want more informat...

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and commentator. He writes for Haaretz newspaper and is a fierce critic of the occupation of Palestine. On this episode of Earth Matters we hear him speak in Canberra in November 2017, at an event organised by the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network and Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine. Thanks to "Behind the Lines" for the recording. Earth...

This week's on Earth Matters we bring you Part 2 of our International Day of people with a Disability broadcast as we bring you audioof a timely discussion on the intersection of disability, climate change and natural disasters. Produced by FREED CIL – A disability activist group based in Nevada US that produce a show called Disability Rap. Coming up in this Disability Rap program you’ll hear from...

On today's show we're looking at the recent cases that were held in the Northern Territory Supreme Court, prosecuting peace activists who walked onto the secretive Pine Gap military base. We will be discussing why environmentalists should care about Pine Gap and about peace issues. Throughout the show we will be talking to a number of experienced peace activists who were present at the trial: defe...

This week's on Earth Matters we celebrate International Day of people with a Disability and we bring you audio of a timely discussion on the intersection of disability, climate change and natural disasters. Produced by FREED CIL – A disability activist group based in Nevada US that produce a show called Disability Rap. Coming up in this program you’ll hear from the Disabilty Rap host in conversati...

Newly engineered deep sea mining machinery sits waiting at Port Moresby. Canadian company Nautilus Minerals wants to mine gold and copper 1600m underwater in Papua New Guinea’s Bismarck Sea. The surrounding coastal communities already know about the disastrous impacts of land-based mining, and are also confronted with rising sea levels. Legal action is afoot and the campaign is growing in strength...

It’s a race to the bottom of the sea on the frontier of extractive industries: experimental deep sea mining. Canadian company Nautilus Minerals is planning to mine a hydrothermal vent 1500m underwater: Solwara 1 in the Bismarck Sea. This sea is ringed by islands and coastal communities that depend upon it, in a country that has already seen the worst of land-based mining. Surrounding communities,...

Phytoplankton are small organisms that drift around in all aquatic environments. They are important because they create about 50-85% of the world's oxygen, and they are the basis of aquatic food chains. Phytoplankton numbers are affected by pollution and climate change. We talk to Dr John Beardall and Dr Martino Malerba of Monash University about their research into phytoplankton.

Will Lidia Thorpe be the first Aboriginal person in the Victorian Parliament? In this Earth Matters episode we take you inside Lidia Thorpe's official Greens campaign launch held in Thornbury, Melbourne ahead of the 18th November Northcote by-election. Deadly strong Gunnai Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe is hoping to create real change and make history for the very first time by being the first Abo...

2017 marks the centenary of the October revolution in Russia that ultimately brought the Bolsheviks to power and lead to the formation of the Soviet Union. When we think of the USSR we often think of environmental and human tragedy. But 100 years on from the 1917 revolution it is perhaps more important than ever to re-assess the environmental record of the Soviet Union and learn from the radical t...