Tag Archives: Australia

Last month was officially the hottest November our planet has seen. As a direct result of climate change, this decade we are about to leave, 2011-2020, will be known as the warmest decade in history, according to the World Meteorological Organization. So what were the key events that fueled this record breaking year? As for the United States, we tied …

One barrier to people making the switch from conventional to electric cars is cost, mainly because batteries are still expensive. But Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, senior economist at the University of Michigan Energy Institute, says that’s changing. Firefighters in Australia have succeeded in saving a secret grove of prehistoric trees belonging to a species that dates back to the time of the …

On April 22nd 1970, Democratic Senator Garland Nelson, originator of the idea of Earth Day, proclaimed: Winning the environmental war is a whole lot tougher challenge by far than winning any other war in the history of Man. It will take $20 to $25 billion more a year in Federal money than we are spending or asking for now. Our …

Last week, Aren Aizura guided us through the history of colonialism in Australia, including racist measures to control non-white immigration, and later, in the 1980s, the implementation of mandatory detention for refugees. He focused on his experiences in an occupation outside the remote Woomera Detention Center, and the way that supporters on the outside grew in numbers, intensifying pressure on …

In the second episode of our series on the mass escape from the Woomera refugee detention center in Australia, Aren Aizura parses out the stakes of the protest camp, its participants, and the escalation to the breakout.  From there, Aren moves to the escape itself, the emotional meeting between refugees and outside supporters, and the complicated choices they each faced …

In 2002, imprisoned refugees inside Australia’s Woomera immigration prison coordinated with 2500 outside supporters who had pitched camp outside the facility.  Their coordination allowed them to stage a mass breakout.  This is the first of three episodes dedicated to telling this story, from an interview with a participant in the solidarity camp. It’s a vital reminder than in an age …