Blog

I write about climate, human rights, biodiversity, and uncomfortable truths. From the wisdom of First Nations caring for Country to the global action needed to protect ecosystems and ensure intergenerational equity, these stories are personal, political, and urgent. They aim to inspire hope.

Explore my Yeah But... series for sharp takes on deflection, denial, and double standards. And scroll through Climate Conscious Man's reflections on what it means to live responsibly on a heating planet.

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Sentinels of the skies: what disappearing birds are telling us

BirdLife International’s new State of the World’s Birds report has delivered a warning about the health of our planet - and how we should respond. When I’m out birding, I’m paying attention to more than the names and calls of the birds. Which species are there? What are they feeding on? What habitat is supporting them? What might be missing? These questions are all inseparable. Because birds tell us about Country. Their presence, behaviour and seasonal movements help us under

Gregory Andrews

1 hour ago3 min read

The Sound of the Australian Bush at Night

There are some sounds that instantly tell you where you are. Magpies warbling at dawn, cicadas screaming on a hot summer afternoon, kookaburras laughing from the trees. And for me, one of the great sounds of the Australian bush at night is the quiet, haunting call of a Boobook Owl: boo-book … boo-book. Or, as generations of Australians have also heard it, mopoke … mopoke. The Australian Boobook (Ninox boobook) is our smallest and most widespread owl. Most of us are probably f

Gregory Andrews

3 days ago3 min read

Australia As Trump’s Minion

Donald Trump is posting maps showing Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Iceland, Central America and the Caribbean under the American flag. This isn't normal. It's not funny. And it shouldn't be brushed off as just another outrageous social media post from a man who thrives on outrage. Other countries are looking at what the US is becoming and asking serious questions. Can it still be trusted? Does it respect the sovereignty of its allies? Will it follow international law, or simply

Gregory Andrews

4 days ago3 min read

The Quiet Disappearance of Winter

Australia’s winter didn’t disappear in one spectacular heatwave. The cold simply didn’t arrive. In Sydney this winter, not one day failed to reach at least 15 degrees - the first winter since observations began in 1859 without a day below 15°C. Canberra had just one day below 10°C. Brisbane had only two below 20°C. These weren’t isolated bursts of unseasonable heat. They were the disappearance of the cold days that once defined the season. Nationally, winter 2026 was Australi

Gregory Andrews

Sep 34 min read

Collapsing Glaciers, Climate Change and Human Security

For the people of Nepal, climate change isn't just an environmental issue. When a glacier collapses, it's a question of who lives, who dies, who has water, who has a home and whether an entire community remains habitable. That's human security. This week’s catastrophic flooding in Nepal is an appalling illustration of what that means. A huge mass of ice, rock and debris collapsed high in the Himalayas, generating a devastating surge through valleys and settlements below. Hund

Gregory Andrews

Aug 283 min read

Branching Out in Namadgi: connecting people with Country at Nursery Swamp

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of leading a group into one of the ACT’s most remarkable, and perhaps least appreciated, natural places: Nursery Swamp in Namadgi National Park. The walk was part of Branching Out, an ACT Conservation Council initiative designed to help more Canberrans get out into nature, learn about the landscapes around us and build stronger connections with Country. And Nursery Swamp is a pretty extraordinary place to do it. Nestled high in Namadgi Nationa

Gregory Andrews

Aug 252 min read

Godzilla El Niño Is Here - and It Isn’t Even the Biggest Problem

Something's badly wrong when ski resorts run out of winter before winter does. Selwyn Ski Resort just closed early because there simply isn't enough snow. And here in Canberra, it's still winter and I’m wearing a sleeveless shirt. One warm day is weather. But when the local warning signs are lining up with extraordinary changes and data from across the planet, we should pay attention. Out in the Pacific, Godzilla is stirring. Scientists call it a very strong or “Super” El Niñ

Gregory Andrews

Aug 243 min read

Our Native Forests are worth more standing

For today’s #FloraAndFaunaFriday, the iconic species isn’t a single animal or plant. It's the entire forest. Spotted gums rising like pale columns above an ancient under-storey of burrawangs. Between and among them are hollows, fallen timber, leaf litter, fungi, insects, orchids, birds, bats and marsupials. Beneath them, roots and soil organisms hold water, store carbon and keep the whole living system functioning. This isn't simply a collection of trees waiting to become tim

Gregory Andrews

Aug 213 min read

80% of Australians Are Not Antisemitic

A NSW Supreme Court judge has demolished the politically convenient lie that criticism of Israel is hatred of Jewish people. Almost four in every five Australians view Israel unfavourably. Are we all antisemites? Of course not. And now a NSW Supreme Court judge has said so with a clarity that many Australian politicians, officials and media commentators conspicuously lack. In State of NSW vs Farhat, Justice Desmond Fagan rejected the dangerous conflation of criticism of Israe

Gregory Andrews

Aug 202 min read

The Evolution of Climate Denial: And Where Australia Sits

Climate denial used to be easy to recognise. It told us global warming was a hoax, scientists were conspiring for grant money and a day of snow disproved decades of evidence. It sounds just like Donald Trump or Pauline Hanson. Of course that kind of denial remains alive and dangerous. But it’s no longer the only - or even the most politically effective - way to obstruct climate action. Climate denial has evolved. It's learned to accept the science while denying what the scien

Gregory Andrews

Aug 173 min read

Bird Flu Has Landed - and Australia’s Wildlife Has Nowhere Else to Go

The virus is unavoidable. But an extinction crisis should not be. This is me on Christmas Island back in 2014, when I was Australia’s Threatened Species Commissioner, meeting an endangered Abbott’s booby. Sorry about the name. This Abbott has done nothing wrong! But joking aside, that photograph now carries a significance I couldn't have imagined at the time. The Abbott’s booby nests in only one place on Earth: the rainforests of Christmas Island. It's long-lived, slow to mat

Gregory Andrews

Aug 146 min read

One Nation’s Target Changes. But It’s Politics Of Hate Doesn’t.

Pauline Hanson is trying to distance One Nation from homophobia following remarks by a former One Nation candidate who described homosexuality as a “mental illness” and blamed parents for their children’s sexual orientation. Homosexuality hasn’t been classified as a mental illness in Australia for more than half a century. And even back then, that was wrong. Hanson says the comments don’t reflect her views and his profile has been removed from the One Nation website after the

Gregory Andrews

Aug 133 min read

Climate Warming Faster Than We Planned For?

Will 2026 be the hottest year ever recorded, or merely the second hottest? The answer will depend on which global temperature dataset is used. Some datasets place the projected 2026 temperature just above the 2024 record; others put it a few hundredths of a degree below. That distinction matters to climate scientists. But it means little to us, the communities confronting heatwaves, fires and floods, nor to ecosystems already being pushed towards collapse. A more important wa

Gregory Andrews

Aug 133 min read

Weather Whiplash: Fasten Your Seatbelts

Climate disasters often reveal something unexpected. Not just how vulnerable our landscapes have become, but how easily we mistake the real story. I was yarning with someone this week about the catastrophic fires sweeping through France. Their immediate response was, "Oh yes... this is really going to wreck French wines." I don't blame them. In fact, I suspect many of us would instinctively reach for the same sort of observation. We relate to climate change through the things

Gregory Andrews

Aug 13 min read

Help shape the future of Gang-gang Cockatoos

This week's #FloraAndFaunaFriday post is about Australia's endangered Gang-gang Cockatoo, one of our most iconic and distinctive birds. For many people living in the Canberra region like me, its creaking call is the sound of autumn. For Aboriginal people, including my own D'harawal community, Gang-gangs are more than that. They’re a part of Country. But sadly, Gang-gang populations are declining across most of their range due to the combined impacts of habitat loss, climate c

Gregory Andrews

Jul 312 min read

Four Dollars for Fossil Fuels. One for Renewables.

How often do we hear that renewable energy survives only because of government subsidies. Well the facts tell a very different story. A new report by WWF-Australia has found that Australia's Federal and state governments provide around four times more financial support to fossil fuels than to renewables. They put a total of $14.9 billion into fossil fuel subsidies in 2024-25, compared with $3.5 billion for renewable energy and energy storage. Think about that for a moment. Th

Gregory Andrews

Jul 263 min read

The Wallabies We're Losing

For #FloraAndFaunaFriday this week, let’s talk about the Wallabies. Not Australia's rugby players. I'm talking about the small, cute, fury ones. Most people think a wallaby is simply a small kangaroo. That's broadly true, although the distinction isn't as scientifically tidy as you'd imagine. “Wallaby” is not a formal taxonomic category. It's a common name generally given to the smaller and medium-sized members of the macropod family, while “kangaroo” is reserved for its larg

Gregory Andrews

Jul 173 min read

Another Antarctic warning shot: the “Doomsday Glacier” is losing its last shield

Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is almost the size of Victoria, and more than two kilometres thick in places. It holds enough land-based ice to raise global sea levels by around 65 centimetres when fully melted. Now scientists believe its remaining eastern ice shelf - the floating extension that protects the glacier’s front - could break apart as early as this year. “The last bit of ice shelf in front of the glacier is poised to disintegrate,” British Antarctic Survey scientist

Gregory Andrews

Jul 163 min read

Wait, Koalas Can't Offset Coal and Gas?

If you follow climate policy then you'll have heard of carbon offsets. The idea sounds logical enough. Rather than reducing all of its own emissions, a company can pay for emissions reductions somewhere else and claim those reductions against its own pollution. Supporters say offsets provide flexibility, lower costs and help with the 'transition' to 'net zero'. And in an ideal world perhaps they might. But the reality is that offsets allow major polluters to keep polluting wh

Gregory Andrews

Jul 153 min read

The Yellow Line

How Gaza is being divided, enclosed and transformed while the world looks the other way Most Australians have heard of the Berlin Wall which separated Germany during the Cold War. And many know of the Green Line that delineated Israel and the Palestinian Territories back in 1967. But few have ever heard of the Yellow Line. And if history judges our generation harshly over Gaza, it may very well be this line - more than any speech, resolution or ceasefire - that comes to symbo

Gregory Andrews

Jul 126 min read