What would it take for antivaxxers and climate science deniers to ‘wake up’?
Published by The Guardian, 13 September 2021 Facts are puny against the carapace of denial when people’s sense of self is at stake. However, in the case of Covid deniers, imminent death seems to do the trick In 1927, an article in the venerable medical journal the Lancet commented on the opposition to smallpox vaccination […]
The Nationals’ climate position has become symbolic posturing and no longer represents Australian farmers
Published in The Guardian, 20 October 2021 The narrative of the beleaguered farmer runs deep in the national psyche. It’s one often weaponised to berate pampered city-slickers who don’t understand what life in the bush—what real life—is about. The National Party has come up with a new twist on the old grievance—farmers have been paying […]
Barilaro’s ‘brumby bill’ has been a catastrophe for the high country
Sometimes sheer bloody-minded politics overrules hard science. A good example is Deputy Premier John Barilaro’s “brumby bill”, passed by the NSW Parliament three years ago. Scientists had been raising the alarm about the destruction of Kosciuszko National Park caused by the explosion in the feral horse population, but Barilaro’s bill vetoed culling. Since then, numbers […]