Pascale Hunt

While the country revises coal-based plans for power generation, a youth-led movement is calling for foreign energy financiers to back a “just transition” to renewable energy. At a significant time for the global climate movement and Bangladesh’s energy trajectory, the country has the opportunity to instead lead a renewable energy revolution for the region and in the process tackle the twin crises of inequality and climate change. 

social movements | renewable energy | story

Seafarms Group Limited’s newest aquaculture endeavour, Project Sea Dragon, is set to become Australia’s largest tiger prawn farming operation and one of the world’s largest prawn farms. The facility is projected to produce 150,000 tonnes of tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon) per annum when fully operational — approximately half of which will be exported overseas. While aquaculture offers significant promise for addressing increasingly serious global food insecurity issues, demand for farmed seafood is increasingly tied to demand for greater transparency and proof of ethics and sustainability.

investigation | indigenous rights | corporate responsibility

In recent weeks, international news outlets have presented the return of some Balinese to seaweed farming as a potential turning point for the island’s workforce – an opportunity to dilute an overreliance on foreign tourism and, in the process, alleviate some of the negative environmental externalities that tourism development has contributed. Despite these benefits, seaweed cultivation’s sustainability and suitability as a viable long-term livelihood alternative for many Balinese is impacted by access limitations, supply chain obstacles, and evolving socio-environmental dynamics.

analysis | seaweed | tourism

Thousands of kilometers of undisturbed coastlines, a longstanding culture of aquatic farming, steadily increasing demand for sustainable, plant based products and significant potential for environmental regeneration make Australia primed and well-positioned to host a robust seaweed industry – one which experts estimate could be valued at $100 million by 2025.

analysis | aquaculture | climate

In September, India’s BJP-led central government enacted three controversial agricultural laws that critics say threaten the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers and those who rely on the agricultural sector to meet their basic needs. At a time of unprecedented, multidimensional crises in the country, both the substance of the laws and the process by which they were passed will have real ramifications for human security in India for years to come, constituting matters of existential concern for the country’s working class.

analysis | social movements | inequality

The enormity of the challenges we face in ensuring the survival and integrity of our environment can often feel overwhelming, the will and action required to address multifaceted crises daunting and paralysing. My Octopus Teacher is a reminder that a narrowed focus can be just as impactful as a wide one, and that a child-like awe for our magical and fragile world is rewarding at any age. The film simply and powerfully expresses the inexplicable sentiment that unites us all in our quest for meaning and reminds us to keep our eyes open to unexpected teachers in all forms.

feature | ocean | philosophy

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to disrupt our everyday lives, discussions are underway about what our economic path forward could look like. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen drastic policy changes swiftly enacted in what has been praised as a ‘non-political’ approach – an effort to adjust to evolving circumstances based on scientific evidence. However, when it comes to the discussion of Australia’s COVID-19 economic recovery plan, there is an increasingly polarised perspective on what the future should hold. The Federal Government’s ‘gas-fired recovery’ proposals are steaming along with plans to unlock major fossil fuel projects around the country, including right off the coast of Sydney with the PEP 11 proposal. 

analysis | climate | ocean

Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Outlaw Ocean, award-winning investigative journalist, and previous Ocean Impact Podcast guest Ian Urbina has published a gripping new investigation that highlights the dire human impacts of resource conflict and climate-driven biodiversity loss in the Sea of Japan – a highly contested area of ocean surrounded by the Koreas, Japan and Russia. According to the joint investigation by The Outlaw Ocean and NBC, North Korean fishing boats carrying only a deceased crew on board have reportedly been washing up on Japanese shores.

news | illegal fishing | ocean

Anti-racism protests across Australia amassed tens of thousands of supporters over the weekend. The murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a police officer in the United States on May 25 provided the catalyst for a global wave of solidarity with the black community to condemn police brutality and demand meaningful change. But neither Floyd’s murder, nor the anti-racism movement that it has sparked, should be considered surprising or spontaneous deviations from the circumstances found in local communities the world over. In Australia, the glaring issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody has become the obvious parallel drawn – 432 deaths since the Royal Commission in 1991, and not a single conviction. As in the United States, these crimes have occurred against the backdrop of centuries of structural and cultural violence.

analysis | social movements | colonialism

There are major challenges associated with environmental conservation when it comes to reconciling the protection of natural resources with the needs and rights of local and indigenous peoples. The richness of biodiversity in this area is not indicative of the prosperity of the local population, who are counted among the poorest communities in Indonesia. Communities here have been marginalized by national politics, a fragmented governance structure, and low access to information, so that the preservation of their rights in conservation efforts is as much of a challenge as enforcing the conservation programs themselves.

blog | eco-tourism | conservation

Under the rallying call “Bali Tolak Reklamasi” (Bali Rejects Reclamation), groups and organizations around Bali have banded together to protest a proposed tourism mega-development in the Badung Regency of Bali’s Benoa Bay. The movement has now been active for five years and expresses concerns about environmental and cultural integrity, economic inequality, democratic participation in development trajectories, and evidence of political-economic corruption.

analysis | social movements | colonialism

Violence in Cambodia has escalated in recent months with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s attempts to quash competition ahead of the upcoming elections on July 29, 2018. Security and surveillance measures have been strengthened, media outlets have been closed down, protests have been met with violence and mass arrests, and human rights and environmental activists have been victim to violent persecution and at times, murder.

analysis | democracy | human rights