Tag: environment

The end of Australia’s last free river?

Arena Online

Martin Pritchard

11 Jun 2026

The Martuwarra is still alive: culturally, ecologically and politically, as a site of resistance to the idea that every river must submit to extraction. In an age of climate instability, protecting a free-flowing river is a test of whether we can act with restraint, learn from past damage and share power with those who know a river is more than water moving downhill

Logging by Other Means?

Arena Quarterly no. 24

Steve Meacher

Dec 2025

Fire management and Culture Wars over National Parks could well mean business as usual for the industry.

Into the Heat: Extreme fire events and contestation over the future of forests

Arena Quarterly no. 20

Cam Walker

Dec 2024

The next twelve months will be critical for forested landscapes as First Nations custodians, regional communities, forest campaigners and scientists all contribute to a vision of how to interact with our forest landscapes.

Summoning Up the Furies

Arena Quarterly no. 19

Christine Milne

Sep 2024

Championed by the establishment, Tasmania’s Robbins Island project is the first large windfarm to attract major green opposition. The battle will define the movement’s values in our time.

Damned Rivers: Chronicling the Murray-Darling Basin Region

Arena Online

Scott Robinson

13 Mar 2024

The whole frame of the region as a Basin system may need to dissolve; it has been too caught in the lingering perception that the Murray is a ‘purposeful’ river, a gathering force that can be harnessed for the nation and capital.

The Metaphysics of Planetary Hope: Exploring texts on faith and practice in a technocapitalist world

Arena Quarterly no. 13

Ian Barns

Mar 2023

A new consciousness cannot be built solely on a better scientific understanding of the world; it must be rooted in a different ontology, a different conception of reality.

On Sundressed: Fashion, Farming and Sustainability

Arena Online

Emma Wilkins

18 May 2023

By replacing its ‘take, pollute, discard’ model with one based on regenerative farming and clothes consumers can—and want to—wear every week for years, this self-destructive industry could do less harm—even good.

Fighting for the World-Forest: Left movements and deforestation in South America

Arena Quarterly no. 13

Freg J. Stokes

Mar 2023

The best hope for the Amazon is that Lula’s return and the strengthening of the environment ministry will hinder the destructive powers of other branches of the Brazilian state.

‘Your Lives Are Nothing to Me’: Political responses to the rise of climate as super-actor

Arena Quarterly no.12

David Ritter

Dec 2022

It was not only the scale of social and material destruction of the world wars but the collective experience of suffering that enabled the post-conflict remaking of societies.

Hope in a Tailspin: Why we need different conversations in the midst of ecological crisis

Arena Online

Richard Hil

23 Sep 2022

I’m edgy when writing about the limits of hope. I’ve read many accounts that more or less insist that without this emotion there is nothing but bottomless despair. I don’t buy that.

Gaslit Futures: How Gas Giant Woodside Gets What It Wants

Arena Quarterly no.10

David Ritter

Jun 2022

At a time when the International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for a total moratorium on opening any new coal, oil or gas projects to avoid climate disaster, Woodside is hell-bent on locking in increasing greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come.

Experiencing the Floods: Counting the Costs, Preparing for a Hostile Climate

Arena Quarterly no.10

Hilary Bambrick

Jun 2022

We must get better at communicating risk so that communities have the best chance to prepare for the coming onslaughts—to make good decisions and take the best actions they can, whether in fires or floods, heatwaves or severe storms.