Climate Tasmania

A Tasmanian take on the thorniest global issue since the dinosaurs. Based on Peter Boyer’s newspaper column in the Hobart Mercury.

Carbon pricing: a poor excuse for doing nothing?

Will Australia’s much-heralded carbon pricing scheme turn out to be an excuse to turn our backs on much-needed complementary measures? [17 April 2012 | Peter Boyer]
Five months ago many Australians, including me, gave qualified applause to the passage of the Gillard government’s carbon pricing legislation, due to enter into force on July 1.
We applauded as [...]

The state of our climate

Australia’s national climate research agencies have issued their direst warning yet about the state of the climate, but who’s listening? [20 March 2012 | Peter Boyer]
The most remarkable thing about last week’s deceptively-brief “State of the Climate” report is not what it had to say — shocking though that is — but the political context in [...]

Ruminations on extreme nature

The Murray-Darling floods may seem like an anomaly, but they fit within the IPCC pattern for climate change in Australia. [13 March 2012 | Peter Boyer]
The long-suffering people of the Murray-Darling basin don’t need to be told that Australia’s biggest river system is now awash with water.
Two years ago the system looked broken, barely alive [...]