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Liz Hicks

@lizhicks.bsky.social
2.6K followers 957 following 540 posts

Lecturer @ Melbourne Law School, Advisory board @verfassungsblog.de | comparative constitutional law, environment & animal protection, democracy & protest

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Reposted by Liz Hicks
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 01/10/2026
Nice @lizhicks.bsky.social piece theconversation.com/nsws-largest...
theconversation.com
NSW’s largest coal mine project is set to expand. Here’s what authorities got wrong about the trade-offs
A coal mine in the Hunter Valley region has sparked debate among politicians, environmental advocates and local residents.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 01/10/2026
Doing the math Australian media can't seem to do on Australia's massive new coal mine extension Support @youth4climate.bsky.social www.aycc.org.au
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Greenpeace EU @greenpeace.eu · 30/09/2026
Greenpeace Aotearoa has joined a @bothends.bsky.social complaint to the European Commission over New Zealand's failure to comply with the climate clauses of the EU-NZ trade deal When trading partners undermine EU climate goals, there must be consequences More: www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/pre...
greenpeace.org
Greenpeace joins complaint to EU over NZ climate policy reversal - Greenpeace Aotearoa
The complaint addresses Government reversal of climate policies, which Greenpeace has labelled a 'race to the bottom on environmental regulation'.
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Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Brazil should ban X. In fact, every country would be better without it.
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Valentenya the climate policy strategy cat 🍉 🐈‍⬛ @valentenya.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Most "climate aware" people I know vacillate between head in the sand denialism about the seriousness of the crisis and doomism. Very few people are actually advocating for the policy changes required to stop AGW. Somehow the notion of rapidly winding down fossil carbon burning has become something
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J. Offir, PhD @joffirphd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thank goodness for (these) unintended consequences - a favor Trump did not intend to bestow. The world is consuming less oil & gas, thanks to Trump's war. That comes with its own costs (higher prices on goods, for ex.), but it's a gift to the planet. .... www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
Trump dismantled U.S. climate policy. But his war is cutting emissions.
While the president remains a climate-change denier, the war with Iran has triggered an unforeseen benefit in the fight against global warming.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 24/09/2026
Mass sardine die-off pits survival of South Africa’s penguins against fishers’ livelihoods
theguardian.com
Mass sardine die-off pits survival of South Africa’s penguins against fishers’ livelihoods
Known as the ‘energy bars of the sea’ the fish are a key food source for many species, but closing fisheries to allow numbers to recover would cost millions
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Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"It’s not the result of a single direction made in some secretive ABC backroom: it’s the accumulation of thousands of reporting decisions made over the past 12 months, filtered through the national broadcaster’s attempts to skate through impartiality with mindless both-sides thinking." 🙏 C Warren
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
so macklemore saying “free palestine” is violence, but ed sheeran saying the situation in gaza is “catastrophic and unjustifiable” is totally fine? this whole thing is so fucking stupid.
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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Nice to see some of the analysis featured in this cool Financial Times piece on the AfD’s latest surge across Germany and its causes. www.ft.com/content/ef6d...
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robin celikates @robin-c.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
„Es ist die Pflicht der Wissenschaft im demokratischen Verfassungsstaat, demokratiefeindlichen Konzepten wie ‚Ethnopluralismus’ und ‚ethnokulturelle Gemeinschaft’ keine wissenschaftliche Legitimation zu verschaffen.“ @fmichl.bsky.social im @verfassungsblog.de verfassungsblog.de/zur-verantwo...
Der „demokratische Pluralismus", den Stecker hier beschwört, liegt wohlgemerkt außerhalb der Grenzen, die das Grundgesetz der Politik zieht. Erinnert sei an die klare Positionsbestimmung im NPD-Urteil, wonach das Konzept der ethnischen Volksgemeinschaft
- nichts anderes ist „ethnokulturelle Gemeinschaft" - mit Menschenwürde und Demokratieprinzip unvereinbar ist. Es ist gerade die Pointe des demokratischen Verfassungsstaates, auch den Pluralismus, wie er für freiheitliche Demokratien konstitutiv ist, in die Schranken zu weisen, wenn politische Konzepte darauf hinauslaufen, die Fundamente der freiheitlichen Demokratie zu beseitigen. Und es ist die Pflicht der Wissenschaft im demokratischen Verfassungsstaat - der Rechts-, der Politik- und jeder anderen Wissenschaft gleichermaßen -, demokratiefeindlichen Konzepten wie „Ethnopluralismus" und „ethnokulturelle Gemeinschaft" keine wissenschaftliche Legitimation zu verschaffen.
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Peter Murphy @peterwmurphy1.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
When will our Australian govts and news media realise that focussing their reporting on the Australians affected in a catastrophe overseas is racist, nationalistic, and devalues the lives of the people indigenous to the region? In every disaster event, I find this approach obscene. 😔 #auspol #media
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
An estimated 15 million people around the world are threatened by floods from glacial lakes, and the danger is growing as Earth heats up due to our continued burning of fossil fuels. Check out this report from @rhersher.bsky.social and colleagues at @npr.org from a few years ago.
apps.npr.org
Living in the shadow of a dangerous shrinking glacier
Melting glaciers are leaving behind large, unstable lakes around the world. Millions of people live downstream, in places increasingly threatened by deadly flash floods. What will it take to protect t...
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Great turn out for the Unimelb @nteuvictoria.bsky.social strike!
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PIK_climate @pik-potsdam.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
OUT NOW! Part 4 of our video series “Core research topics of PIK”: @rahmstorf.bsky.social explains how #ClimateChange is putting the very important Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation #AMOC at risk, and what this could mean for Europe and the world. 👇 youtu.be/sNOSCWxrc3Q
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pmf @clearlight.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Labour *are* taking decisive action on climate change bsky.app/profile/clea...
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
So why is Andy Burnham talking about opening up the North Sea for drilling then www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
UK to warn citizens to stock up on food amid threat from climate crisis and hostile states
Government resilience campaign aims to ensure people can cope in a national disaster, in order to free resources for most vulnerable
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 12/08/2026
One really huge problem is that the point-in-time target (rather than the save-as-many-lives-as-possible-by-preventing-as-much-pollution-as-possible) headspace is prevalent in technocratic, professional and eNGO spaces in climate, meaning 'compromises' to reach net zero proliferate too readily
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
“To adapt a phrase from Animal Farm, we are all responsible, but some are more responsible than others. In this case, the US is the beast more responsible than all the rest: it has emitted more than one-fifth of all historical emissions…” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Europe is burning – and if Trump’s war on the climate is not met with sanctions, things will only get worse | Alexander Hurst
The White House seems committed to ecocide. The EU should harness the power of the single market to force it to change course, says Guardian Europe writer Alexander Hurst
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
More traffic for the implied freedom ahead www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Protesters launch high court challenge to Queensland ban on ‘from the river to the sea’
Lawsuit filed on behalf of seven protesters alleges ban amounts to ‘a direct, content-based restriction’ on speech, effectively targeting pro-Palestine movement
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Hey @mark-carney.bsky.social say that part again about climate action not being economical? "It would have been too expensive for Canadians. Canadians who are already struggling with affordability."
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Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
The fires in Ontario - like so many others - demonstrating viscerally how climate change perpetuates the displacement and dispossession of Indigenous peoples, who have least contributed to emissions and over and over again put their bodies on the line to prevent fossil fuel development.
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Me on the PM’s speech: wonderful, just completely devoid of any reason why AI or these data centres are needed or will be of benefit.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 15/07/2026
I mean - gas turbines are getting expensive **because they're being deployed so much**. That isn't something to celebrate. Data centres are "helping" batteries here thanks to a country-sized carbon cost. Remember why we're doing this: to stop fossil fuels. reneweconomy.com.au/chart-of-the...
reneweconomy.com.au
Chart of the Day: How batteries are beating gas at its own game, with a little help from data centres
CSIRO says data centre demand in US has helped inflate cost of gas turbines, and accelerated the crossover point on capital costs with battery storage.
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I guess we’re all Spain fans now.
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Alan Greene @alangreene.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
No offence under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 committed here. That's only for pensioners protesting a genoicde in Gaza, or for rappers allegedly waving flags on stage.
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Willem Huiskamp @willemh.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
It's worth stressing that the *magnitude* by which some of these records are being broken is nothing short of astonishing
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Willem Huiskamp @willemh.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
5.7km/h!!! I never again want to hear about the dangers of legal Ebikes
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Germany’s hottest weekend on record followed by an electrical storm now ripping through Berlin. I’m becoming used to climate change summers in 🇦🇺 but it’s weirdly more confronting experiencing it in Europe. Media here reporting on it without linking it to climate change discussion - just like home 🇦🇺
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 27/06/2026
‘At present, Andy Burnham is a retail product: someone who appears relaxed around ordinary people and on camera, and although he has spent plenty of time in Westminster, hasn’t (yet) become reassociated with that much loathed place.’ @will-davies.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
William Davies · Burnham’s Political Economy
Whatever rash remarks he may have made about the bond markets or spending commitments, Andy Burnham understands...
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David Milner @davemilbo.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
How come all the NIMBY weirdos who never shut up about wind turbines 5km off the coast have nothing to say about these gargantuan noisy data centres that are springing up in the middle of suburbs, contaminating water, destroying liveability and property prices? It's weird.
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
How might H5N1 (bird flu)—now in at least two Australian states—affect native wildlife and ecosystems, and compound Australia's extinction crisis? Some thoughts from me 👉 theconversation.com/bird-flu-has...
theconversation.com
Bird flu has spread to two Australian states. Here’s how it could accelerate our extinction crisis
The arrival of the H5N1 strain may threaten our most vulnerable species.
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Christian Stöcker @christianstoecker.de · 18/06/2026
Well, at least they‘re honest: Screw the planet, screw your children‘s future, our loss-making, billions-burning business model is more important. Quick! More gas! Like a con man creating time pressure. Meanwhile the heat is escalating like never before. #AI #Climateemergency
AWest Antarctica Is Missing Way Too Much Ice
Temperatures have climbed up to 45 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, stopping ice from forming in the dead of Antarctic winter.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
As heat warnings are issued for England and Wales, please remember that there is no sound empirical basis for claiming that more people die of cold worldwide than of heat. Just because something is recited like a mantra doesn't make it true. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
There’s a catastrophic black hole in our climate data – and it’s a gift to deniers | George Monbiot
Climate sceptics tell us that more people die of extreme cold than extreme heat. What’s the truth? asks Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Louise, Prof/Dr @louiselocock.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Mistaking Suffragists for Suffragettes. Not that I don't also admire the Suffragists. Millicent Fawcett was a terrific campaigner. But Suffragette Annie Kenney grinning as she's arrested time after time should be unforgettable inews.co.uk/light-relief...
inews.co.uk
The forgotten suffragette who was arrested 13 times
As people go to the polls all over the United Kingdom, many will remember the sacrifices of the suffragettes who […]
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Alan Greene @alangreene.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The CoA Palestine Action judgment is just dripping with disdain and throwing shade at every opportunity. Art 10 and 11 don't actually say "law abiding individuals"; they say "EVERYONE".
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 15/06/2026
The British government acted lawfully when it banned the pro-Palestinian protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, the Court of Appeal in London said on Monday, overturning a lower-court ruling that found the ban had breached free speech rights.
nyti.ms
U.K. Ban on Pro-Palestinian Protest Group Is Lawful, Court of Appeal Rules
The decision overturned a lower-court ruling that found that banning Palestine Action as a terrorist group had breached free speech rights.
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Aarne Granlund @aarnegranlund.eurosky.social · 09/06/2026
"The surge in new fossil fuel lending, up $64bn or nearly 8% on 2024, shows that the world’s largest 65 banks are making decisions incompatible with international agreements to restrain rising global temperatures." www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
World’s largest banks pledged $906bn to fossil fuel companies in ‘unfathomable’ increase in 2025, report finds
JPMorgan Chase leads 65 banks making decisions incompatible with restraining rising temperatures, researchers say
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Greenpeace EU @greenpeace.eu · 09/06/2026
It's rare that you get to say "told you so", and rarer still that you get to say it about something positive In 2015, some laughed at Greenpeace projections of how much solar power there would be by 2025 10 years later... Greenpeace: on the money 🎯 International Energy Agency: way, WAY off
Table 1: comparison actual solar power generation (in TWh) in 2025 with E(R) and WEO2014 projections

Actual (IRENA): 2,778 

WEO2014 : 670 (Difference to actual: +315%)

E(R)2015 : 2,551 (Difference to actual: +9%)
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 09/06/2026
Australia's state-owned broadcaster did a story on AI and this is one of the guys they chose to interview for it Honestly, the number of academics and experts who work on *actual* real risks who never get interviewed, and the platform goes to guys like this:
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Excellent investigation here in the Guardian into the weapons being rolled out in Australian protests - increasingly dangerous and increasingly used www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Revealed: the ‘less lethal’ weapons Australian police don’t want you to know about
Launchers that shoot ‘bullet-like missiles’, chemical irritants and stinger grenades: experts say these weapons can cause serious injury or even death. But they are deployed by police against crowds w...
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 08/06/2026
Hong Kong protests and the erasure of the individual – in pictures
theguardian.com
Hong Kong protests and the erasure of the individual – in pictures
How Was Your Dream? is a documentary project by Thadde Comar, a Franco-Swiss photographer, created during the extradition bill protests in Hong Kong between June and October 2019
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ECIU @eciu.net · 08/06/2026
The UK food imports most at risk from El Nino heat stress this summer UK food imports are under pressure as climate driven heat stress leaves farmers in poorer nations unable to work, threatening staples like rice, coffee and chocolate. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/hom...
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Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
“Published research from the University of Vienna and ETH Zurich now establishes that human activity has pushed the planet's rotation into territory unlike anything in 3.6 million years — and the engineers who keep GPS working are already watching the numbers.” www.techtimes.com/articles/317...
techtimes.com
Earth Rotation Climate Change Rate Unseen in 3.6 Million Years: GPS Precision at Stake
Earth rotation climate change is altering our planet’s spin at a rate unmatched in 3.6 million years, a new study finds. Melting polar ice is lengthening days by 1.33 milliseconds per century — a pace...
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
“Ordinarily all this would be none of my business but these methods are being advocated for in Australia. This has made it my business and it has made it your business as custodians of the law; we are all interested in this, whether we like it or not.” 👏👏 www.theguardian.com/law/2026/jun...
theguardian.com
A high court justice warned of US-style judge ‘stacking’ and created a new front in Australia’s culture wars
Justice Robert Beech-Jones has accused the Samual Griffith Society of a US-style attempt to stack the high court with conservatives, exposing a partisan rift in the process
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
This is something the Victorians understood: that democracy is dangerously vulnerable to plutocracy, and that it needs to build defences against that. Our defences are in tatters. Rebuilding them is one of the most urgent tasks facing our politics.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 02/06/2026
For the Australians, but also others interested in this issue: Australia's emissions data just saw its *biggest ever* land-use data revision. Except this time, it's UPWARDS: the same amount as power sector GHGs fell 2018->2026 (!!!!!) A thread on that + other updates from the data!
a chart showing revisions to land use data in Australia
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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
“We either will need to massively increase our use of renewables and batteries or datacentres will effectively destroy our ability to reduce emissions to net zero.” www.theguardian.com/business/gro...
theguardian.com
Australia’s GDP figures are meaningless when the boom in datacentres means destroying jobs and the climate | Greg Jericho
In the March quarter Australia’s economy grew 0.3%. But the real issue is what drove that growth
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
"How we manage, discipline and organise fossil and electricity capital in the next decade will define the rest of the century. Energy transitions of the past were characterised by upheaval... We should expect the transition from fossil fuels to electricity to be no different" ht Gareth Fearn
break-down.org
Electro-Capitalism
In the transition from fossil capital to electricity capital, the future that emerges will be determined by the fierce struggles of the present.
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 01/06/2026
‘I thought I didn’t use ChatGPT because I was too clever. I thought that not using ChatGPT made me cleverer. It turns out, though, that it made me very bad at spotting when a text was written by or with the assistance of AI.’ Malin Hay on AI detection, new on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...
lrb.co.uk
Malin Hay | Chattiness
Several people I know now refer to ChatGPT as ‘Chat’. They give it human pronouns (Chat is usually a he) and ask it...
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