2020

Our 2020 content highlights

Articles

Strategic ignorance: Rio Tinto’s destruction of sacred Juukan caves

How can we excuse mining giant Rio Tinto’s unconscionable destruction of a 46,000 year old Pilbara Aboriginal Heritage site on the grounds of “not knowing”, asks Rebecca Lawrence, when the communication process with Traditional Owners is designed to fail?

Corona and climate: one planet, one health

Recognising the complex interconnections between environmental, human and non-human health, Irus Braverman explores One Health, an integrative, multidisciplinary approach to understanding and conserving health across disciplines, species and scales.

We’re in this together: working towards a new food culture

FoodLab Sydney doctoral student Eva Perroni finds businesses, individuals and community organisations rising to meet compounding environmental, public health and economic challenges through potent acts of social solidarity.

Nature in culture: aboriginal aquacultural science and sustainability

Exploring oyster farming, dugong hunting and Indigenous sustainability, June Rubis reflects on Mitchell Gibbs’ conversation with Dr Christine Winter in Episode 2 of The Re-(E)mergence of Nature in Culture Multimedia Series.

Corona and climate: bushfire smoke exposure, COVID-19 and respiratory health

SEI editor Liberty Lawson speaks with epidemiologist Dr Geoff Morgan about his research on the impacts of smoke exposure from the summer bushfire crisis, and the disproportionate health effects of air pollution and respiratory viruses on already vulnerable populations.

Hope, grief, anger and change: imagining futures with James Bradley

SEI editor Liberty Lawson sits down with the Institute’s new Honorary Affiliate, Australian author and critic James Bradley, to talk about the role of fiction and non-fiction in imagining and communicating change.

Corona and climate: governing global health versus climate health

Following on from last week’s World Health Assembly, Charlotte Owens considers the role of politically convenient science in comparing the unprecedented international response to COVID-19 with decades of haphazard and stagnating climate crisis governance.

Corona and climate: the pandemic has changed everything and nothing

As the ash has settled and a nation bunkers down, Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO David Ritter reflects on the shift in social conscience and the growing challenge to political corruption and inaction.

The re-(e)mergence of nature in culture multimedia series

Lead by Dr Christine Winter, this series of podcasts and articles brings together leading Indigenous scholars across a range of disciplines to explore Indigenous thinking and practice in facing environmental loss.

Oil and water: on collaboration and complexity

Nicole Endacott reflects on complexity, action and uncertainty in co-designing an all-day workshop hosted by SEI last month, which brought together a diverse group of experts to discuss the issues surrounding Norwegian oil company Equinor’s proposal to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.