Climate Tasmania

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

What is really needed to address climate change?

Address to the 15th International Environmental Forum, Hobart, 10 and 11 December 2011. Conference theme: Ethical Responses to Climate Change [11 December 2011 | Peter Boyer]
I’ll start at the beginning. Or about 56 million years ago, when the dinosaurs had only recently been extinguished and mammals were in the early stages of their evolution. There [...]

Tasmanian forests: a growing carbon bank?

A forum in Hobart last week revealed the big transformation currently under way in our forest industries. [6 December 2011 | Peter Boyer]
Ah, the rich tapestry of life! Trees large and small, spaced and crowded. Crops and weeds, fungi and bacteria. Animals and their waste, wriggling worms, teeming maggots, rotting logs, leaf litter, compost. Conception, [...]

Climate alarms from the cryosphere

The state of the world’s sea ice is one of the most telling indicators of a warming planet. The news from the poles is not good. [20 September 2011 | Peter Boyer]
While Federal Parliament debates the merits of carbon pricing to deal with climate change, out there in the real world the climate really is [...]