Nobody can deny that 9/11 was a watershed, but it’s too easy to speak in verities about what it meant and means, particularly to the generation born after it.Coming of Age in the War on Terroris based on face-to-face, in-depth interviews and writing workshops I conducted with ...
As a science writer, it’s easy to see science’s hand in all that we do. But 2020, perhaps more than any year in living memory, has thrust science to the fore. The pandemic and its rippling consequences have seen bathtubs-full of ink consumed, screens-full of pixels composed. Some ...
Upturn: A better normal after COVID-19 edited by Tanya Plibersek
In March, Australian satirical news websiteThe Chaserdeclared ‘Oh fuck’ the Word of the Year for 2020. ‘It now accounts for 50% of all words used in the English language’, they commented. And since it was already a clear winner, why wait until the end of the year to declare it ...
It feels like a threshold has been crossed. The staggering scale and depth of the devastation wrought in last summer’s bushfires, followed by a global pandemic with likely origins in industrial food chains and exploitation of animals, revealed - in visceral ways - nature in turmoil. And human activities are at ...
The 2020s have begun with a painful barrage of crises, and a storm of helplessness. Tragically, it comes after a year in which a collective drumbeat for climate action was beginning to form. What a hit to our will, and our strength. So many Australians were forced to flee from ...
Hysteria is a twisted snake of a word. It’s dated but used today. It’s gendered; it’s offensive. But in a way, it describes me.
Local ecologist Heather Meek fired the first broadside in support of the koala. Her report to Forestry appears in the local media under the heading ‘Koalas are here now’. In December 1986, in response to a request by the acting Eden District forester, she collected and reported on all evidence ...
