Opinion
Read the latest opinion articles inspired by science.
As climate change worsens, bushfires are likely to become more intense and frequent. We must find new ways of managing bushfires to prevent catastrophic events. Satellite data can help in this task.
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23 Jul 2020
The climate won’t warm as much as we feared – but it will warm more than we hoped
We know the climate changes as greenhouse gas concentrations rise, but the exact amount of expected warming remains uncertain.
17 Jul 2020
Australian cities are quiet during lockdown. Earthquake scientists are making the most of it
Our responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have dramatically changed human activity all over the world. People are working from home, schools are closed in many places, travel is restricted, and in some cases only essential shops and businesses are open.
14 Jul 2020
Fire-ravaged Kangaroo Island is teeming with feral cats. It’s bad news for this little marsupial
The wild western end of the island, once a vast mallee woodland peppered with wildflowers and mobs of roaming roos, had been completely erased. An immense dune field covered with sharp blackened sticks now stretched beyond the horizon, to the sea, hollow and quiet.
10 Jul 2020
Intensive farming is eating up the Australian continent – but there's another way
It's painfully clear nature is buckling under the weight of farming's demands. There's another way – but it involves accepting nature's limits.
10 Jul 2020
Our field cameras melted in the bushfires. When we opened them, the results were startling
After the bushfires, we went looking for endangered corroboree frogs. Normally, they respond to our calls. But at some sites, the ponds were silent.
7 Jul 2020
How COVID-19 undermines sustainability
Amid the dire consequences of COVID-19, some consider the pandemic to the best news the environment has received in a long time.
6 Jul 2020
Why outer space matters in a post-pandemic world
Australia's space industry is booming despite the impact of coronavirus.
9 Jun 2020
We dug up Australian weather records back to 1838 and found snow is falling less often
Snow was once a regular feature of the southern Australian climate, but it has become less common because of climate change.
9 Jun 2020
Love the parasite you're with - the entertaining life of unwelcome guests from flea circuses to Aliens
In fiction and popular culture, parasitic characters appear as a metaphor for the threat and spread of disease.
21 May 2020
After the bushfires, we helped choose the animals and plants in most need. Here’s how we did it
No other event in our lifetimes has brought such sudden, drastic loss to Australia’s biodiversity as the last bushfire season. Governments, researchers and conservationists have committed to the long road to recovery. But in those vast burnt landscapes, where do we start?
