Understorey

Understorey brings the second part of Adrian Glamorgan's interview with Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John. Australia's youngest senator warns that a belligerent "white saviour" attitude is not the best way to ease international tensions in our region. Jordon argues we should close all foreign bases, conduct a Truth & Reconciliation Commission into our past, honour international treaties, and then our conversations beyond our shores might have more credibility. Climate change is ticking away while the Australian and US governments have distracted the world with their war talk. While the two major political parties and the mainstream media remain uncritical of our recent and longer history of war-making, Senator Steele-John is convinced that community grassroots action - and the ballot box - will be enough to turn around the Morrison government's "post-it note" agreement known as the Australia-United Kingdom-United States arms deal. Collage: Jordon Steele-John, Tuvalu drowning, and Virginia Class Submarine, collage by A Glamorgan, using photos sourced from Greens, Tuvalu Government and Creative Commons.

Australia's youngest Senator, Jordon Steele-John, is well known for his campaign which led to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. But apart from his concern about peaceful inclusion for people with disability, the Australian Greens Peace and Nuclear Disarmament spokesperson is very clear about the need for peace at an international level, and has been an outspoken critic of the AUKUS nuclear arms deal. How does the new Australian-United Kingdom-United States alliance highlight the democratic deficit in Australia, especially when it adds to what some sense as the rising militarism? Today Understorey's Adrian Glamorgan brings us the first part of an extended interview with Jordon Steele-John about Australia's engagement with AUKUS and why it is may be a dangerous and costly distraction from the real enemy ticking away at humanity: the urgent need for action on climate. Photo: Jordon Steele-John/Greens' peace sign, arranged by A Glamorgan

Only days after COP26 closed its doors in Glasgow, Woodside and BHP announced they will go ahead as joint venturers building one of the world's biggest fossil fuel developments, Scarborough gas field in the North West. The Scarborough Gas "abatement" plan involves increasing emissions until close to the 2050 net zero date. We'll let you know how that's going in 2046. But for those who were networking outside the COP26 inner sanctum, there's a very different approach to economic growth in the 21st century. Banks and fund managers are quietly switching away from coal, and dubious about gas long term, and don't give promises of carbon capture a thought. The bankers beyond Australia are funding new kinds of projects – the kinds that are about landscapes and climate action rather than expanding the burning of fossil fuels. This week Understorey's Adrian Glamorgan catches up with Paul Chatterton, the founder and lead of the Landscape Finance Lab based in Vienna. Paul's meetings at COP26 highlight the fact that not all the action in Glasgow was happening in the conference halls. The 21st century will belong to the innovators. Around the planet, from Microsoft to the European Union, a new world is being built and investors are finding profits in a zero carbon economy. Australia, selling coal and arguing gas is a transitional fuel, is in danger of being left behind. Photo: Landscape Finance Lab

On the last day of COP26, hundreds of people representing civil society walked out of the convention centre, wearing blood-red ribbons representing the red lines already crossed by COP26 negotiations. The whole civil society scene at COP was one of strong feelings about climate colonialism, an opportunity for environmental campaigners, trade unionists, young people, women, academics, farmers and faith groups to challenge an extractive, exploitative economic system. Today Understorey's Adrian Glamorgan brings you an interview with Grace da Costa, a political campaigner with Quakers, who attended COP26 for the first week, and who sheds a little light for us about what was behind the hundred thousand marching on the streets: people from civil society in all its forms, calling for the world to recognise climate justice, and for action on loss and damage. Photos: Michael Preston

Climate Justice addresses climate effects that are borne by peoples who have had no real connection with causing the problem, nor have they gained any special benefit from the historic exploitation of fossil fuels. Thus global warming has sometimes been called climate colonialism, while climate justice has been linked to racial justice, because the poorest of the poor tend to be people of colour. Because of this structural violence of climate consequences, there should be a systematic redistribution of resources, and differential policies and institutions, that would reduce global inequality, and pay for climate adaptation by poorer countries at the richer countries' expense. Today Understorey features women leaders of colour attending the first day of COP26, each separately calling on world leaders to make practical plans connected with their heart and their genuine will to act: we hear from Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, powerfully laying the call for action at the feet of the polluters; environmental advocate for Samoa, Brianna Fruean, speaking up for island states around the world; and Kenyan environment campaigner, Elizabeth Wathuti, daring world leaders to admit and face the consequences of climate disaster, not just in the future, but as it is happening in Africa right now. Photos: UN Climate Change

Yesterday Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was in Scotland, explaining to the world how Australia will stick to its 2015 targets in order to reduce even more carbon. But not everyone is convinced that recycling the Paris Agreement will keep temperatures rising no more than 1.5 degrees. The Understorey team brings us some of the young people protesting outside of the Western Australian Parliament a couple of weeks ago. But not just students and union organisers and grandparents are rising for climate. Understorey brings a British great-grandparent who yesterday addressed world leaders, and put everyone straight, including Scott Morrison, in the nicest possible way. Photo: A Glamorgan

Last year's destruction of the 46,000 year old rock caves at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara was felt around the world. Those concerned with protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage in Western Australia say Juukan Gorge wasn't the first event of this kind, and it won't be the last. Hundreds of sites are at risk of harm or destruction right now. Defenders of this cultural heritage are alerting Western Australians to the Jawaren and Garnkiny sites in the East Kimberley; Mt Richardson and Lake Wells in the Goldfields; Burrup and Harding Dam in the Pilbara; and Munday Swamp. But these are just a few. Protectors of Aboriginal heritage here in WA are pointing to the sites that intersect sacred waterways, cave systems, songlines and sites of significance, many with irreplaceable engravings, paintings and artefacts that are tens of thousands of years old. These precious places identified by traditional owners can be legally destroyed, right now, if the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs signs off on it - and it seems this will continue. Traditional owners want to see the Minister's bill, which has been withheld from circulation to all but a few; they want these new laws to give Traditional Owners the final say over sites of significance; and also to meet with the Minister. The Understorey team has requested an interview with Minister Dawson - and have asked for a copy of the proposed legislation... Photo: Aboriginal Martu (Western Desert) Elder Bruce Thomas & Nyamal (North Pilbara) Elder Doris Eaton speak to the Walk, by A Glamorgan

WA Climate Leaders want the Minister for Climate Action, Amber-Jade Sanderson, to set clear climate targets that honour the 2015 Paris agreements, and to lead the whole community in the face of our new climate realities. That includes explaining why we mustn't allow warming of our climate more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, but also recognising the business opportunities that are waiting for us to become renewable global leaders. WA Climate Leaders is a network that came out of the 2020 visit to Perth by UN negotiator Christiana Figueres, who managed the impossible - bringing the leaders of 195 countries into a global consensus at COP21, creating the 2015 Paris Agreement. Last year, Figueres came to Perth, but not one representative from the state government was able to find time to share a public stage with her, to talk about their action on climate. That lack of leadership from the state government (and the reluctance of oil and gas to talk about the issue) shocked facilitator Meri Fatin into action. Since March 2020 she has been working independently to create a Climate Leaders' network in Western Australia, comprising business and industry leaders working across diverse networks to strongly encourage our state political leaders into action. Meri Fatin supports Brad Pettitt's Climate Action Bill introduced to state parliament last week because it is consistent with the Paris Agreement, and similar initiatives in other states and territories, and thus deserves cross-party and mainstream support. Meanwhile she calls on Western Australians to educate themselves about the issue, speak to politicians about their concerns, think carefully about their vote and, where appropriate, move their money. Photo Collage: Meri Fatin, Christian Figueres, Amber-Jade Sanderson

COP26 opens in Glasgow in 18 days, with at least 120 world leaders turning up to show their commitment to a transformed world. Our own Prime Minister might even make it. But back home, not since Geoff Gallop's 2003 State Sustainability Strategy has any Western Australian government offered a climate plan worthy of its name. With Western Australia leading the world in carbon pollution, tomorrow Greens MP Brad Pettitt will introduce a Climate Action Bill in the state parliament, to challenge successive government's under-ambition. Advised by some of Western Australia's leading scientists, the former Mayor of Fremantle hopes to pragmatically shake, nudge or coax Labor into investing in the renewable energy revolution. Understorey asks the single Greens' member in the state parliament for details of his plan. And he's talking real targets, public accountability, and an independent Climate Experts Panel. Photo: Brad Pettitt montage, A Glamorgan

Today on Understorey we meet Mandurah's Junior Mayor Tamsyn Hill and Deputy Junior Mayor Zoe Thompson, to find out about the Mandurah Junior Council and their role in the city, and particularly their active concerns about the environment. The last part of the program features an inspiring young person from the northern hemisphere, who thinks there is reason to hope for action on climate - but only if the adult leaders abandon blah blah blah on promises and, you know, take courage and do something... Photo: Deputy Junior Mayor (left) and Junior Mayor (right) of Mandurah, addressing the Australian Association for Environmental Education conference, 2021: A Glamorgan

Understorey discovers more about how young people are seeking a better environment, and with that a more conscious democracy. At this week's Australian Association for Environmental Education national conference, Adrian Glamorgan catches up with two Millennium Kid alumni: Mandurah Mayor Rhys Williams, and deliberative democracy and Federal Court claimant Bella Burgemeister We find out what it takes to engage the community, the law, and those in charge of government, as both the Mayor and the teenage environmental campaigner share ways they have found to embrace the realities, responsibilities and practicalities of climate change - and they are inviting you to do the same. (Photo: Bella Burgemeister, by A Glamorgan; Mayor of Mandurah, Rhys Williams, by E PO' - AAEE national environmental education conference 2021)

The natural world is essential for the healthy development of children, yet many screens compete for their attention in this Information Age. As young people grow older it may dawn on them that this world of nature is having its habitats torn down while its atmosphere is being heated up and plastics are being emptied into the oceans. All this raises the question: How can we prepare young people for the changes ahead of us, whilst not overwhelming them? How can we give them a childhood connected to nature, and yet also prepare them for a life of active citizenship,? Adrian Glamorgan speaks to an eleven year old adept at Minecraft, with his ecologist dad Steve McCabe, about ways to engage primary school students; and to uni student India Aniere, about the [Millennium Kids Youth Climate Deliberation](https://www.millenniumkids.com.au/citizen-assembly-youth-climate-deliberations/) being held during next week's Australian Association for [Environmental Education National Conference](https://aaeeconference.org.au) in Mandurah. Each young person speaks with care and insight of a world still rich with green hope. Photo: India Aniere, Facilitating (Millennium Kids)

Apart from air quality, a paramount environmental issue for the South Asia is the state of the "Third Pole". That's the area with the third largest endowment of snow, ice and glaciers on earth - the Hindu Kush and Tibetan Plateau . There's 600 billion tons of ice at stake, and apparently it's now melting at twice the speed of two decades ago. With 47 glacial lakes on alert within river basins of Nepal, Tibet and India, and several major rivers of Asia taking the flow and the floods, regional cooperation seems needed. But can action on climate change across borders be achieved in such a complex region, across its eight countries? Thanks to Joydeep Gupta from the Third Pole online platform, Understorey brings you edited highlights from a few of the speakers at a midyear online discussion including Ken O'Flaherty, regional COP26 ambassador to Asia-Pacific and South Asia; Jairam Ramesh, former environment minister of India, MP, and chair of parliamentary committee on science, technology & environment; Malik Amin Aslam, the current environment minister of Pakistan, and climate change envoy of the prime minister ; and Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International. Photo: [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) Historic Eco Pad Yatra in the Himalayas in 2009, near Gumbok Rangan

The world watches as Afghanistan falls disastrously under Taliban rule, while this week the United States commemorates the twentieth year since 15 Saudi Arabian nationals (and a few others) attacked the twin towers in New York. Three thousand civilians died in the 9-11 bombings, but up to 4.5 million people have died in America's endless wars since then. Australia has joined these wars of choice that have cost national budgets, caused vast environmental damage, and shattered the lives of tens of millions. Our occasional series Understorey Asia begins with David Vine, author of "[The United States of War,"](https://www.davidvine.net/unitedstatesofwar.html) accounting for the damage done by the American empire: the recurrent wars of choice (carefully engineered by corporate, congressional and defence interests); the environmental and human jeopardy involved in hundreds of US bases in our region, including those in Darwin, Pine Gap and North West Cape; and the military exercises which also engage us in this militarised view of foreign policy. Apart from disaster abroad, these wars have drained the people's wealth. Foreign policy is generated by arms corporations, selling to the military, while politicians receive generous donations from the same arms manufacturers they publicly finance: it's a complex but endless cycle that further militarises foreign policy - all for nothing but to making problems worse. David Vine reminds us of the urgency for allies of the US, like Australia, or at least our civil society, to head off ill-advised talk of an "inevitable" war against China, which would outweigh the mistakes already made in countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq and Afghanistan. Photo: Detail, "The United States of War" cover, University of California Press.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has three working groups preparing reports in the leadup to COP26 in Glasgow in November. [Working Group I](https://www.ipcc.ch/working-group/wg1/) deals with the physical science basis of climate change, and has just released its contribution. Their key message, that the world has failed in its bid to keep to 1.5 degrees warming by 2050, allows for a chance - just a chance - that we can bring it back to 1.5 degrees warming if we take low emissions seriously. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres sums up the report bluntly as “code red for humanity” with the additional warning that “this report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet… Countries should also end all new fossil fuel exploration and production, and shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy. By 2030, solar and wind capacity should quadruple and renewable energy investments should triple to maintain a net zero trajectory by mid-century.” Among others, we hear from Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC, and Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai, Co-Chairs of Working Group 1, and Inge Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme. Picture: Changing by the artist Alisa Singer. "As we witness our planet transforming around us we watch, listen, measure … respond." Supplied by IPCC.

Last week Ngalia elder Kado Muir addressed the United Nations expert mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, speaking about Western Australia's outdated Aboriginal Heritage laws, and the state government's failure to redress the problems that allowed Juukan Gorge to be destroyed. Kado Muir's voice joins the Kimberley Land Council, the WA Alliance of Native Title Representative Bodies and Service Providers, the Australian Archaelogical Association, and the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists, who are all concerned about what has been called a “façade of modernisation”. Today on Understorey, Adrian Glamorgan brings you ANTAR's John McBain, who adds to these many voices by calling for the McGowan government to act on our shared cultural and human rights obligations. Will Aboriginal people be allowed to speak freely, "straight up," and able to say no? Photo: Juukan Gorge, by Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation (arr. A Glamorgan)

After the global outrage at Rio Tinto's intentional destruction of Juukan Gorge, the state Labor government promised new Aboriginal Heritage legislation. Indigenous cultural rights would be respected. But the "new" heritage legislation may say all the right things except where it matters: amounting to no more than the repackaging of the old rights to mining companies. Aboriginal groups may remain effectively gagged. Thus far the Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Stephen Dawson, has declined to meet with the environment movement to listen to these heritage concerns. Archaeologist and heritage specialist Robin Stevens speaks frankly about how we got here, and what we need to do if our state is to genuinely support Aboriginal communities and respect and appreciate their cultural values. Photos: supplied

As our planet faces more anthropogenic-initiated emergencies, civil society actively seeks governments to act locally and globally. The world's religions represented in our diverse Australian population are actively expressing their deeply felt urgency for corporate and political change to reduce the worst outcomes from eventuating. Many faiths will be active at COP26, scheduled for Glasgow in November, calling for genuine action on climate. To get a sense of how different faiths are talking about climate, earlier this year Understorey went along to the Sacred People, Sacred Earth event at Wesley Corner in Perth's CBD on March 11 this year. It was an opportunity to interview some of those present, including passersby, to understand more about what they are calling the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC).

Understorey brings one report on five reports, all to do with the climate. The news is not good, but there is a glimmer of hope - if only Australia will join with it. There is the [Sustainable Development Report](https://www.sustainabledevelopment.report/reports/sustainable-development-report-2021/) for 2021, gives Australia 10 marks out of a hundred for its climate policies, plunging us into equal last place. There's the [Climate Change Performance Index](https://ccpi.org/), identifying Australia as a climate laggard, hooked on fossil fuels, rich, and wilfully ignorant about the climate action needs of the poorest nations to survive. Out only yesterday was Jubilee Australia Research Centre's ["Hot Money"](https://www.jubileeaustralia.org/resources/publications/hot-money-2021) report on Export Finance Australia's gift to fossil fuel companies - maybe $1.69 billion of finance credit, 2009-2020, when renewables only managed $20 million over that time - or one eightieth of the coal, oil and gas level of financing. Report 4 is the [leaked IPPC Report](https://www.sciencealert.com/someone-leaked-the-next-ipcc-report-here-s-how-experts-are-reacting), due out in 2022, warning that the worst is yet to come, a future world beset by species extinction, widespread disease, unliveable heat, ecosystem collapse, and inundated species. And so we finish with Report Number 5: in February 2021 the fifth United Nations Environment Assembly met, encouraging countries to be "[Making Peace with Nature](https://www.unep.org/resources/making-peace-nature)" to stave off species extinction, climate collapse and global pollution. So there are steps we can take. Understorey this week listens in to former Liberal opposition leader Dr John Hewson (speaking in Bowral in 2019 for a [Climate Action Now Wingecarribee public forum](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guLj_gZIFR8)); Stephan Singer, from Climate Action Network International, shares the latest Climate Change Performance Index in December 2020; and UN Secretary-General António Guterres urges us to act, at the time of the 5th United Nations Environment Assembly, in February 2021. No one can say Australia hasn't been warned - or shown a way out. Image: A Glamorgan

Right now might be an excellent time to bring play and playfulness to the Earthcarers' ethos. Lisa Wriley has received the rights to reinvent her favourite New Zealand board game from the 70s, hoping to make it available to all those who love a good sit round the table in the spirit of environmental cooperation. "Earthcare" the board game, rolls the dice on a more sustainable future, for those keen to close the circle on material waste and to embrace some family and friend time too. To find out about playability, Understorey also speaks to two fans of "Earthcare": Sue Martin, national coordinator of Catholic Earthcare Australia; and Julian Bowker, a cyber security expert. So to find out if it's a game for your kitchen table, or your camp by the billabong, Understorey explores more about the art of making board games, and the newer skill of running a Kickstarter campaign (as an all-or-nothing venture by July 11) .

The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association held its national conference in Perth last week. Extinction Rebellion climate activists tried to draw attention to the climate emergency and the industry's own International Energy Agency calling for a stop on all new major projects if humanity is to meet 2050 carbon targets. Inside the Perth Conference Centre, oil and gas industry delegates were being warned about looming carbon tariffs placed by other countries on Australian energy exports, the full impact of shareholder activism, and how oil and gas must reach out to consumers if they are going to succeed in their "fighting retreat".

Last week, Understorey met with sustainability professor Peter Newman to hear his alternative energy vision for Western Australia - a world-leading, thriving, decarbonised, renewable energy economy. Since then, newly appointed State Labor Minister for Environment and Climate Action and Commerce, Amber-Jade Sanderson, has opted for the old energy road. Anderson has given the go-ahead for Australia's most carbon polluting project, Woodside's Scarborough Gas in the North West. Last weekend in Cornwall the seven largest economies, the G7, called for a "green revolution". Understorey's Elizabeth PO' speaks with Conservation Council's Piers Verstegen about what the state government's refusal to act to address the climate emergency this decade means for our longer term future, the integrity of Burrup rock art, and post-Juukan consultation with Aboriginal people. Montage: A Glamorgan, using images by Marius Fenger, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Burrup), G7 (Cornwall family photo), Legislative Assembly (Minister), Conservation Council (Gas)

Woodside's proposed Scarborough Gas Project off the Burrup Peninsula will outdo Adani's coal mine for greenhouse gas emissions. Newly appointed WA Environment Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson is due any day to release her decision about what greenhouse offset conditions she will require should this mega project proceed. Depending on her sign-off, Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson will either show her credentials as Environment Minister, and Minister for Climate Action, reflecting a Western Australian commitment to the Paris Agreement, or we will get business as usual, meaning Western Australia will continue to be one of the world's worst carbon polluters. Professor Peter Newman thinks there's a better way. Adrian Glamorgan asks what such a new Western Australian economy might look like, and how soon we can get there. (Photo: Professor Peter Newman, by A Glamorgan)

Recent articles in [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/26/court-orders-royal-dutch-shell-to-cut-carbon-emissions-by-45-by-2030) and [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/four-seismic-climate-wins-show-big-oil-gas-and-coal-are-running-out-of-places-to-hide-161741) have highlighted the legal and market pushback that board directors now face if they ignore their obligations to humanity by harming the environment. Two weeks ago Rio Tinto became the first board in Australia to accept a shareholder resolution to align with the 2015 Paris Accord on Climate Change. This recommendation arose from a proposal put by the Friends of the Earth subsidiary Market Forces and the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility. Understorey this week focuses on this new shareholder revolt against companies ignoring the climate emergency. Understorey speaks with one of the three authors of the Conversation article, Associate Professor Ben Neville, from the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne, about why “Big Oil, Gas and Coal are running out of places to hide.” Montage: A Glamorgan

Any builder in Western Australia must contend with building codes which have been slow to promote sustainability. The rating code we have does not consider nor value sustainable materials, embodied energy, choice of hot water systems and lighting, electricity sources, collection of rainwater, the presence of cooling vegetation or even more contextual questions about walkability, bike rideability, and access to public transport. We still have housing estates built without consideration of their orientation for best use of and protection from the sun, nor which consider the end use of building materials. The ‘first home owner grants’ ignore the disadvantages to young families and other first time builders about the environmental costs of things like living too far from the city centres. There are no opportunities for house owners or renters to borrow money from WA’s local or state governments to place energy and waste saving measures in their homes, loans which would end up paying back to everyone. Instead we are being offered little or big boxes, air-conditioners throughout, less suited to the environmental conditions that they could be. Add to that the fact that Western Australia has one of the highest waste levels per capita in the country. More than half the waste is from construction and demolition projects so it’s more than WA’s municipal and commercial waste streams combined.construction and demolition waste, about three quarters ends up in landfill. As we build more houses and apartments and offices, and knocking others down, most of the rubble goes into the more than 30 landfills in the Perth region – and we’re rapidly running out of places to put this construction and demolition waste. But good news is at hand, if we search for it there are some who are thinking about these questions and acting on the solutions. Roy Lewisson is encountering the practicalities of how WA owner builders can build houses mindful of the environment. He's creating a small building project in the Fremantle suburb of White Gum Valley using sustainable energy design. Understorey gleans some of his best insights, which if adapted more widely, could bring our city into the second decade of the 21st century. Photo: E. PO'

While it's standard practice for nuclear power plants to discharge radioactive tritium (H3O) into the sea, Japan's own plan to pour Fukushima's radioactive water reserves into the Pacific Ocean has garnered international concern. With a million and a half tonnes of tritium-contaminated water in leaky storage, as well and 150 tonnes of irradiated water being added every day, citizen scientists groups in Japan like the [Citizens' Nuclear Information Center](https://cnic.jp/english/) (CNIC) say that environmental alternatives need to be found. Understorey speaks with long-term Japanese resident, Dr Caitlin Stronell, from CNIC, about the dangers and various ways [TEPCO](https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/hd/responsibility/index-e.html) has lost trust from community stakeholders, ever since that day on 3 March 2011 when the earth shook, the nuclear power station stopped cooling its nuclear reactor, and the country was changed forever. Montage: A Glamorgan

How can we protect what we don’t know? In WA there is no data on illegal native vegetation clearing, and that threatens precious specialised flora and fauna across the state. We simply don’t understand the key drivers and true extent of the problem. How to change that? One small word: data. A Wilderness Society report launched last week reveals the declining state of WA’s native vegetation, and the need for transparent and accessible information to be collected and shared. Scientists, First Nation elders and environmental campaigners are calling for urgent and bold reform, arguing that data investment and transparency are the keys to system transformation. With the recent memory of the state government’s controversial autumn “controlled” fires in mind, Understorey went along to last week’s launch held in Kings Park to hear more about this clarion call for survival and support for our state’s environment, focusing on seven actions, including adopting a long-term, shareable, sustainable, whole-state monitoring program. This appeal for systematic data collection is a first step in protecting what we most depend on. [Report available at https://www.wilderness.org.au/western-australias-native-vegetation] Photos: supplied by Wilderness Society

The Peel-Yalgorup System Ramsar site is the most important area for waterbirds in south-western Australia, a great draw for bird enthusiasts and nature conservationists seeking refuge from urban overload. Dr Vicky Stokes, WA's Program Manager with BirdLife Australia, outlines our shorebirds' remarkable qualities and requirements, including international visitors who can travel to the moon and back in equivalent lifetime journeys between here and the Arctic. Brave birds with simple needs. Protecting their habitats means seeing and recognising them first. Vicky Stokes was participating at the recent 2021 Wetlands Conference. (Photos: Shorebirds with Dr Vicky Stokes, by A Glamorgan)

Thirty five years ago the world's worst nuclear disaster contaminated large parts of Europe, and single-handedly rendered uninhabitable a large area intersecting Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Understorey speaks to a Russian scientist who lives and works a few hundred kilometres from the Chernobyl exclusion zone, about her experiences in 1986, and the impact of the explosion of the nuclear power plant on her community, right up to the present day, with ongoing concerns for the health of local children, families, and noting unusual impacts on the natural environment. With Europe planning a megaproject E40 Waterway, connecting trade between the Baltic to the Black Sea, right through Chernobyl's exclusion zone, there is the risk that [radioisotopes stirred up from silt by dredging and shipping](https://www.wwf.mg/?740511/E40-Chernobyl) could irradiate more than 2000 km of rivers in Eastern Europe. The legacy of Chernobyl is no cause for optimism, and yet citizen scientists continue to work to improve understanding and a degree of protection for the children and adults, while encouraging us to find safer alternatives to meet our energy needs. Montage: A Glamorgan; featuring WA People for Nuclear Disarmament Banner by Judy Blyth

Just an hour south of the Perth CDB, the Peel Harvey Estuary is a world renowned waterway, celebrated through its Ramsar listing, the international framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The 26,530Ha of Ramsar site 482 listed wetlands in the Peel Yalgorup system includes the largest and most diverse estuarine complex in south-western Australia, and is a promise to the world to protect these precious ecological habitats, alongside urban development, fisheries and tourism. To monitor progress and provide wise guidance, scientists from various disciplines, alongside citizen scientists and environmental groups, pour over their assiduously collected data. The annual Wetlands Conference, held last month in Mandurah, was an invaluable opportunity to share information between communities, as well as showcasing the many activities in conservation, protection and remediation. Emeritus Professor Philip Jennings, chair of the Wetlands Conservation Society introduces the event, and Dr Steve Fisher, Program Manager Science and Waterways with Peel Harvey Catchment Council introduces Ramsar 482, and the black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri), leading into an inspiring enhancement project by students and teachers from John Tonkin College 'surf science' program. Photo design: A Glamorgan, E PO'. Music: George Walley "Raining on Djilba" by permission.

The State government’s Protection Plan for Binjareb Djilba, Peel-Harvey Estuary, was published four months ago as a beautiful collaborative production between Noongar and western ways. It also chronicles the ecological collapse of this precious Estuarine System. Understorey went along to the recent WA Wetlands Conference in Mandurah to learn more about this special place from Bindjareb elder and educator George Walley. George welcomed us all to country, guided us in the storytelling about the importance of wetlands, of culture, and of holding strong to our shared living heritage, and hosted delegates on an estuarine tour of part of his homeland, the Djilba. George kindly gave permission for us to use his song "Raining on Djilba" - and we were especially pleased that RTRFM and WAM were able to track down a copy of the lost 2003 version which won George Walley a WAMI Award, and return it to him. Photo: George Walley, by A Glamorgan

Understorey explores the apparent absence of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals from various environmental campaigns with Dr Sukhmani Khorana, from Western Sydney University. Her research, done along with Claudia Sirdah, entitled "Young Australian Migrants and Environmental Values," points to the fact that migrant communities are involved in doing environmental actions, like recycling, home-growing vegetables, and being thrifty - they just haven't called it environmentalism. With Western Australia now the third largest state numerically for overseas born individuals, environmentalists may need to think about how they are going to reach out to include more diverse members of the community in their frameworks and campaigns. Montage: A Glamorgan, photos supplied WSU

Action on climate change is not a spectator sport. Yesterday, the first group of those arrested for civil disobedience actions in last week Extinction Rebellion actions faced court. They each received a fixed penalty of $100, with $130 in court costs. More cases from their autumn rebellion are on the way. Today's Understorey examines the autumn actions of Extinction Rebellion through the lens of the public health emergency highlighted in the [Climate Health WA Inquiry report](https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/Improving-WA-Health/Climate-health-inquiry), as well as the concerns of a number of older people about what they will leave their grandchildren. They are motivated by, and committed to, circles of love. (Photo: Uncle Ben, Aunty Mingli, ER Protests 20210322, by A Glamorgan)

Understorey goes behind the scenes before Monday's "die in" at St Georges Terrace, to find out more about how Extinction Rebellion prepares for protests. The diversity of activities suggests a movement for change far bigger than any one protest, with a new orientation to community and decisionmaking that could challenge the ancien regime ways of doing business and governance. Photo: A Glamorgan

In the past, Premier Mark McGowan has said he doesn't believe there is a climate emergency, and doesn't want to scare young people. Labor's remarkable victory in Saturday's state election suggests business-as-usual in Western Australia will continue for four more years: and that means gas and fracking can be expected to emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; and despite far off promises about emissions reduction there will be no cogent climate plan. Since 19 ecosystems in Australia are reported by scientists to be already collapsing (Bergstom & Wienecke, Glob Change Biol. 2021;00:1–12), and environmentalists' lobbying, postcards, and street corner campaigning have not changed the Premier's mind, what is to be done? Understorey's Adrian Glamorgan interviews Ewan Buckley about Extinction Rebellion's conviction that nonviolent direct action alone is left to challenge political and social complacency. This coming Monday lunchtime, ER will stage a "die-in" on St Georges Terrace, disrupting traffic outside the offices that Buckley says make up the "fossil fuel capital of the southern hemisphere." But will their action on the Terrace change hearts and minds? [Note: since making the program, ER advises that because of dieback concerns, its gathering at 10am Monday has been moved from Stirling Gardens to Supreme Court gardens] Montage: A Glamorgan

This week another 12 Australian native animals have been declared extinct (total now 34), also there are more finds of industrial plastic waste along our Swan River, ongoing cultural vandalism to Aboriginal sites, and less-than-thorough environmental licensing and regulation. So what should be our leadership priorities? Understorey brings more highlights from "Climate, Energy and the Environment Forum" (a webinar on February 10, 2021) with the overall message that protection, mitigation, and remediation is essential for us to hold on to our treasured environmental values. All that is needed is real commitment from those entrusted with the governance of this state. Speakers are Martin Pritchard, Environs Kimberley director; Jess Beckerling, WA’s Forest Alliance convenor and campaign director; Paul Gamblin, of Protect Ningaloo; Patrick Gardner, from WA Wilderness Society; and Piers Verstegen, WA’s Conservation Council executive director. Photo: Elizabeth PO'

For 2021 World Wildlife Day, as more reports emerge of ecosystems collapsing around us, the Conservation Council of WA, with its 100+ member organisations, shows the way forward in their policy document, “A Bold Vision For Conservation, Climate and Communities in WA.” The WA environment movement is collectively seeking to inspire the next state government to achieve • 350,000 clean jobs by 2025 • Halved carbon pollution by 2030 • 700% renewable energy by 2040 • 2,500 conservation partnerships by 2025 • 1% of Gross State Product invested in conservation • Zero loss of endangered wildlife habitat by 2022 • 10 million hectares of revegetation and carbon farming by 2025 • one million hectares of forest protected for nature and climate by 2025. We hear Piers Verstegen, the Director of WA’s Conservation Council; Jess Beckerling the convenor and campaign director of WA’s Forest Alliance; Paul Gamblin from Protect Ningaloo; and Patrick Gardner from WA’s Wilderness Society. Photo: Elizabeth PO'

Urban design, wild nature meets human dwellings, lasting interdependence in our biodiversity hotspot - Understorey interviews Tuan Ngo, a Perth architect who focused on biophilic design in his Masters research at Curtin University, and wishes to see this nature-embracing concept in all future planning considerations; and we meet Rachel Pemberton, who's been participating in the nuts and bolts of foundational processes of biophiliac design at the council level of government in Fremantle the last ten years. How can we develop our capacity for change and adaptation, and help plan urban landscapes that will weather coming climate events much better than before? And can our urban design even improve things beyond our human requirements, to support the wellbeing our non-human neighbours? Listen in, and connect with Understorey, weekly at 10.30am Wednesdays on RTRFM. Photo: Adrian Glamorgan and Elizabeth PO' (Check out related On The Record [program here)](https://rtrfm.com.au/story/the-unexpected-challenges-of-greening-our-buildings/)

Peace is an environmental issue: armies are notoriously environmentally destructive in battle, but also they take vast sums of money away from sectors generating far more jobs in health, education, and the environment. This week Understorey’s Adrian Glamorgan speaks with Canberra researcher and writer Michelle Fahy, who became interested in stories about the overly cosy relationship between government, and arms manufacturers. As someone with financial services expertise, Michelle Fahy could see that mainstream journalists were just not equipped to see what was being rendered opaque. Michelle Fahy’s well-researched stories appear on the [Michael West Media](https://www.michaelwest.com.au/?s=michelle+fahy) website. Photo: Nick-D, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons; Facebook

As people urgently readied themselves for Western Australia's surprise pandemic lockdown on Sunday 3rd February, the Environment Protection Authority quietly posted on its website several contentious gas emission approvals, without fanfare or press release from the Minister for Environment's office. The Minister charged with responsibility for addressing climate change and species loss, Stephen Dawson MLC, had waved through projects including the Waitsia onshore gas development in the Mid-West, potentially opening the way for fracking, and a new gas-fired power station for FMG. Apart from the fugitive emissions and carbon costs of these projects, the end-use emissions will add up to the release of almost 50 million tonnes of carbon. If Western Australia hopes to reach its promised target of zero emissions by 2050, it won't be through these announcements, it seems. Understorey's Adrian Glamorgan speaks with Conservation Council of WA's director, Piers Verstegen, about the environment sector's relationship with the Minister for the Environment; how campaigners' are now resorting to expensive court cases (with all their limitations); and the lost opportunities for job-creation in sunrise industries. It's a tour of the peculiar processes that are Western Australia's democratic workings, where the evidence of scientists, farmers, environmentalists and the government's own policies can be easily swept aside by a Minister's decision.

Dr Brad Pettitt may have worked his last day of active mayoral duties at the port city. We wondered, what does it take to run a city as if the triple bottom line of environment, society, and economics really matters? From electric bicycles to working with the chamber of commerce, from homeless people to height restrictions, from striving for just relationship with the Whadjuk Noongar people to creating a new way to celebrate Australia’s day, from renewable energy to getting more young people involved in politics, it’s been a busy period in Fremantle’s history. Just before Brad Pettitt handed over his long-held role on Friday, Understorey's Adrian Glamorgan sought some final mayoral reflections on how Western Australian local councils can lead with sustainability. [Extended version 22'49"] Photos: A. Glamorgan

Retiring Greens MLC Robin Chapple took the long way round to become Upper House member for Mining and Pastoral: starting off life in Blighty working on a pirate radio station with Kenny Everett, and... well, to find out more, join this reflection of Robin Chapple's time serving the people and environment of one of the largest electorates in the world: a valedictory of sorts. Our final episode of Understorey for 2020. Image: Portrait supplied; Robin Chapple's hats and montage: A Glamorgan

Robin Chapple is retiring Greens Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region of the Legislative Council. His electorate is huge, covering much of the mining that occurs in this state. As an environmental campaigner, Robin Chapple has focused on the community impacts of mining, as well as anticipating the needs for a sustainable future for generations to come. Understorey explores the Greens MLC's delight in the natural and cultural wonders to the electorate, his understanding of how heritage damage has come through mining, and his concerns about new economy opportunities being lost through the major parties' business-as-usual approach to mining and energy. Photo: supplied

In 2010 Premier Colin Barnett told the Chamber of Commerce that Perth was headed for a "decade of light rail." Ten years on, the city transport planners have a full desk of tram routes announced, reformulated, abandoned, promised and now quietly delayed. Understorey's Adrian Glamorgan takes us through the early warnings of Senator Scott Ludlam in 2011, and the hopes in 2016 prior to the last state election by Labor's Shadow Transport Minister Rita Saffioti that light rail would be an equal Stage 1 priority. But with Labor's heavy focus on the heavy rail component of Metronet, by 2019 the department had only lodged a light rail "problem identification" with Infrastructure Australia, short of a business plan. But there may be hope for Metronet's missing links. Tom Griffiths from the Southwest Group (an alliance of six councils southwest of the river, from Melville to Rockingham) discusses the "proof of concept" case the councils have made for a Murdoch to Fremantle dedicated public transport corridor, possibly for light rail or the trackless tram. In Victoria Park, once home of Perth's tram depot, Greens candidate Tim Young calls for a range of transport responses, to ensure urban infill supported by an array of transport responses build a convivial city towards 2050. (Photo: collage from wikimedia commons: Canberra light rail By Bidgee; Jpatokal Sydney Light Rail both CC BY-SA 3.0; Gold Coast light rail David Ansen CC BY-SA 2.0)

Understorey’s Adrian Glamorgan speaks to Tristy Fairfield about her journey from community climate change campaigner to climate solutions corporate consultant.

For most of history, the total human population number has remained somewhere under 1 billion. Today in 2020 we find ourselves 7.8 billion people. Yet to speak environmentally about population is a difficult issue, because different people have different understanding as what the problem exactly is. For some, it is simply a matter of too many people. Other people point out differential consumption. And then finding an answer may have directly dystopian results. Writer and activist Sangeetha Thanapal hopes the environment movement can see behind the chimera of overpopulation, avoid the entanglements of inadvertent racism, and spot the central role played by corporations in damaging the earth.

Market Forces identifies institutions that may be financing environmentally destructive projects, and helps furnish market information so that Australians can enter into more informed discussions with these companies and funds. They help investors, those saving money for their retirement, like Chilla Bulbeck, to make informed choices. This may make these companies and super funds more responsive to community concern, environmental damage, and better calculate the risk of investing in assets which may no longer be in demand, or deemed a risk to the climate. It may lead to the divestment of billions of dollars of assets invested in fossil fuel companies. But critics such as federal Attorney General Christian Porter and Prime Minister Scott Morrison characterise this as the work of radical progressivists, damaging the mining and resources sector, and together they have pledged to prevent this kind of secondary boycott "lawfare," once a way can be found. In the light of the Paris Agreement, Market Forces' Will Van de Pol speaks to Understorey about the billions of dollars of fossil fuel investment that is yet to walk the climate target talk, and what the everyday consumer can do about it. (Extended version)

Nuclear weapons are being banned by the international community, consigned to the same place in international humanitarian law as other weapons of mass destruction. On United Nations Day, October 24th, Sunday our time, Honduras became the 50th country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, meaning that the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will enter into force on 22 January 2021. What is Australia's next step? Understorey speaks to Gem Romuld, from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; City of Fremantle (on the Executive of Mayors for Peace) Mayor Dr Brad Pettitt; and Josh Wilson, Federal Member for Fremantle, about this historic environmental and humanitarian breakthrough.

Australia’s native species are disappearing at an alarming late, with already more than 1800 plants and animals formally listed as threatened with extinction. The Australian government’s own report to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity in March 2020 revealed the government failed to meet or measure the majority of its targets. Graeme Samuel's interim report for his review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act has highlighted the lack of resources being given to the department of the environment, and the need for an independent authority to audit and report on approvals processes. However, before Samuel's final report has been written, federal minister Sussan Ley has shown her readiness to shed federal environment approval powers and give them to the states and territories. Understorey speaks with Fremantle MP Josh Wilson, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Environment, about how the government's reduced resourcing strategy and "streamlining approvals" amendments will affect biodiversity across the continent, and impact the rule of law.

In this reprise episode, Understorey speaks with former army intelligence Clinton Fernandes, who is raising important questions about Australia’s sovereignty and capacity to manage its own affairs, because of our narrow economic base which has given the United States enormous influence over our military and foreign policy. This means spending an extra $279 billion on military hardware that will fit in with the US fighting approach. It means Pine Gap, and the potential for Australia to be complicit in drone war crimes for anywhere between Yemen to the Sea of Japan. It means North West Cape, which could drag Australia into a nuclear conflict, or play a part in an American first strike in the South China Sea, without Australia having much say over it. Remarkably, there is the lack of proper oversight over intelligence and security in our own country. And there is also the issue that currently the Australian parliament has no say about when Australia goes to war. The environment movement in Western Australia has campaigned vigorously for habitats, species, and the climate emergency. Yet there is still a leap to be made about the confluence of environment with peace. The Australian government’s commitment to spending hundreds of millions of dollars on warmaking may change that. Either way, Clinton Fernandes, now Professor at Australia’s prestigious tertiary institution for the defence forces at ADFA, is showing us all the Pine Gap and Harold Holt in Australia’s defences. (Photos: creative commons)

In this reprise episode, Bidyadanga musician John Bennett sings of country - the Kimberley red dirt and blue sea, the wild places he grew up in and loves. When we think of the land as important, of our country, wherever we are, as pre-eminently precious, we are laying a kinder path for whoever comes after us, and that includes all creatures. When the current global pandemic eases, and with it our social distance, we might develop better habits with and draw closer to the planet, a renewed chance to listen deeply and respond differently. Understorey spoke to John Bennett at the National Folk Festival in 2018. As a first in Australia, Western Australia’s parliament is considering a “Rights of Nature and Future Generations Bill”, moved by Diane Evers, MLC for the South West, a Bill that would secure the Rights of Nature to “exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve,” and have its own legal standing to defend and enforce these rights. The Bill also recognises the rights of First Nations Peoples to speak for and defend their ancestral lands. A Rights of Nature and Future Generations Act would also recognise the rights of present and future generations to a healthy environment, and establish the “precautionary principle” by stating that “lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for denying or postponing the implementation, defence, or enforcement” of these Rights of Nature. Photo: E PO', A Glamorgan