Earth Matters

Over the last twelve months, scientists have been documenting a string of record breaking temperatures. The global average between May 2023 and April 2024, reached a new record of 1.61 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. While Australia has avoided some of that heat the last month, south east Asia has been in the grips of an extreme heatwave. Jacob speaks to climate scienti...

   Land rights and fight for environmental justice for PalestineProfessor Mazin Qumsiyeh is a scientist, author, activist and academic at Bethlehem University and Director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability. He's in Australia on a speaking tour on land rights and environmental justice in Palestine. Mazin tells us about the work of protecting biodiversity in the context...

Reconnecting with nature; the living world,  through Deep Ecology workshops is taking off in Australia.   John Seed and his colleagues are helping people all over this country and overseas  find their ecological self. The Deep Ecology workshops are booked out and participants  are  much more mainstream than in the past.   Plus:  John gives practical suggestions on how to find direction in life. Mu...

Right now in Brunswick Heads in northern NSW, hundreds of activists are fighting to save an important ecosystem. Property developers have been given the greenlight to build apartment blocks across Wallum, a coastal landscape home to over a dozen threatened species of flora and fauna, and trees that predate British colonisation. Activists are calling the project a ‘zombie development’, with environ...

We take a look at how the campaign to stop fracking and unconventional gas mining in WA is going. The long running campaign has had many successes along the way, and has managed to keep the industry at bay in the resource industry captured state. We talk with Claire McKinnon from Lock the Gate WA for the update. Check out and support their great work at frackfreewa.org.auMusic: End of the World Du...

Bid for World Heritage listing for the Nullarbor and the Great Australian Bight Mirning Elders supported by the Wilderness Society of South Australia are calling for the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor to be World Heritage listed to protect this iconic place for good. Peter Owen outlines the Wilderness Society's work to protect the area going back almost 20 years. Mirning Elders describe...

Peter Dutton has threatened to reduce access to the Environmental Defenders Organisation; the independent legal representation for community groups attempting to enforce the law against the climate crimes of  the fossil fuel industry. Dutton made this threat when he was speaking to an event organised by the Council for Minerals Energy in Perth to an audience including some of the Liberal Party's b...

On Saturday March 23, Tasmanians headed to the polls in an early election – but one issue seemed to be absent in the public debate: the environment. With the Liberals likely to govern for a fourth term in a minority government, most likely with the Jacqui Lambie Network, the future of issues such as native logging, climate change, and marine conservation remains uncertain. So what’s next for the i...

Whalers Way is a peculiar choice for a new orbital rocket launch complex. The remote conservation area is one of the last remnants of uncleared land on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. We speak with Patrick O'Connor from the University of Adelaide about the proposed site and why it is in the wrong place. Produced by Phil Evans on palawa, Kaurna, and Barngarla Land. Earth Matters #1445 Music: LTJ...

On today’s program, you'll hear a selection of conversations from and about this year's Anti-colonial Student Environment Network (ASEN) Training Camp, featuring zinemaker and ASEN organiser Willow, veteran environmental justice and Indigenous rights activist Uncle Winiata Puru, and Kokatha Mula Elder and anti-nuclear resistance leader Aunty Sue Coleman-Haseldine. Our thanks to Rochelle Humphrey a...

Humanity is at a  cross-roads for reducing carbon emissions to secure the climate. At COP28 women played a significant role in bringing greater ambition to the fore. And the international women's movement around climate action is gathering strength with new allies in the Global North and South, and increased advocacy for the interconnections of climate change, human rights, food and water security...

In celebration of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras this weekend, Jacob delves into the relationship between queer identities and the natural world.'Queer ecologies' is a school of thought that rejects binary, rigid, and heteronormative approaches to environmentalism. To unpack this juicy topic, we are joined by Professor of Environmental Arts and Justice, Cate Sandilands, and the co-founders...

Stopping Seismic: The Great Ocean Rescue Tour The Great Ocean Rescue Tour to stop seismic blasting in the Otway Basin rolled out across the southwest coast of Victoria over January, organised by OCEAN the Otway Coastal Environment Action Network. From Ocean Grove to Portland people marched, attended film screenings and signed petitions to protest against three proposals for seismic blasting off th...

This week we look at the best ways that humans can interact with nature, errr when nature calls. We talk to Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick about the Poo Project which looked at the ecological impact of human faeces in nature, as well as a hiker who explains the what and how of a poo tube, and a camper with a portable composting toilet. Produced by Phil Evans on palawa, Kaurna, and Barngarla Land. Ear...

Drug policy reform: The missing link to climate justice The International Coalition on Drug Policy Reform and Environmental Justice has published its first report, Revealing the Missing Link to Climate Justice:  Drug Policy here This episode of Earth Matters looks at how the war on drugs and international prohibition regime support organised crime, encourage corruption and, as Clemmie James puts i...

The 2020s have been a story of fire, floods, and natural disasters. Communities are still recovering from 'once in a lifetime' natural disasters, and preparing for the next one. This week, we speak with bushfire survivor and climate activist Jack Egan, flood survivor and resilience leader Kate Coxall, researcher and sociologist Fiona McDonald, youth peer worker Cherrie Byrne, and disaster speciali...

This amazing First Nations panel responds to the questions: “How can the environment and climate movement best show solidarity with first nations people?”“What does First Nations justice have to do with climate justice?”Featuring Awabakal elder Aunty Tracey, Ngemba elder Aunty Caroline, Bundjalung and Worimi saltwater woman Phoebe McIlwraith, and Ngemba, Wangan and Jagalingou protector of country...

Deep thinking Grant Howard, who works in the  coal industry, shares his realisation that politicians:“deliberately lied; not to protect mine workers but lied and used mine workers to protect their own jobs”, A large, happy crowd of sun-hatted people sitting on the sand of a  coal port beach, listening to their friends on the stage tell them why coal exports from Australia must be stopped. Next, th...

This episode was inspired by a recent a Nyamat Yarkeen Karween - Southern Ocean Dreaming Gunditjmara Ceremony that host Phil Evans attended recently in Narrawong, VIC. Audio from the ceremony is heard throughout. First they blast. Then they drill. American oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips has announced plans to explore for gas in commonwealth waters as close as 8km from the coast of Warrnambool. B...

Transcript and Reference ListWhen most Australians can access all the water they could ever want with the simple twist of a tap it’s easy to think that water is a common resource. But even in our own backyard, Indigenous people are legally entitled to less than 0.1% of the Murray Darling Basin by the Australian government. Building on the concept of the “tragedy of the commons,” guest producers co...

What we need in Australia's new nature laws  The Federal government is overhauling the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act or EPBC Act (1999) after a damning review published in 2020. The public is encouraged to have their say via the following website:https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/australias-new-nature-positive-laws Euan Ritchie, Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation...

Summer is here again and for many people - it is festival season! But when you hit the dancefloor, what will be the environmental impact? And what are festivals doing about transport, trash and toilets to lower that impact? We talk to Berish Bilander from Green Music Australia, whose mission it is to green the music and festival scene, and have us all party for a purpose, and the planet. We also h...

Thousands of climate activists took to the water on the weekend of November 25-26, blockading the coal port in Muloombinba Newcastle. Jacob spoke to blockade organiser Zack Schofield, and school striker Niamh Cush, about the protest. We also hear a First Nations panel discussion featuring Awabakal elder Aunty Tracey, Ngemba elder Aunty Caroline, Bundjalung and Worimi saltwater woman Phoebe McIlwra...

“If we don’t end war, war will end us.”H.G. WellsAs true as it was back in 1936, it is still true today. And whilst the human cost of war is undeniable, not often considered is the environmental damage that comes with it. Today we draw from a recently run forum, which looked at how the climate movement can show solidarity for the Palestinian cause, particularly with the latest round of violence, d...

Dee and Bec respond to the  Earths urgent screaming; the luscious, living system all around us and really try to help. Global boiling activists Dee Mould and Bec Horridge met on the ground at the inspirational fireside conversations of the Maule’s Creek coal mine blockade. A decade later they reflect how painful old injuries and life on the unemployment scrap heap can free up time to respond to th...