The Carr government has announced that it will build a desalination plant to help resolve the water supply shortage, unless there is enough rain in the next few months to raise storage levels to a 'safe' level. Desalination is an energy intensive process. Because electricity in eastern Australia is mostly generated by coal-fired power stations...

When the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act was passed in June 1999, the federal government and several environment groups promised it would revolutionise the Commonwealth's involvement in environmental issues and improve conservation outcomes. Andrew Macintosh and Debra Wilkinson analyse whether the environmental assessment and approval process under the Act is fulfilling its environmental objectives...

Despite being well off by any objective standards, most Australians believe that their incomes are inadequate to meet their needs. A Newspoll survey for the Institute found that 62 per cent of Australians, including 48 per cent of the richest 20 per cent, believe that they cannot afford to buy everything they really need. Clive...

The Western world is in the grip of a consumption binge that is unique in human history, argue Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. Rates of stress, depression and obesity are up as we wrestle with the emptiness and endless disappointments of the consumer life. The preface and first chapter of Affluenza are available online.

This question is rarely posed in Canberra because almost all of the voices heard in public suggest that more growth must be a good thing. The recent debate in the local media about how the government should respond to the slowing of Canberra's growth rate illustrated the uncritical acceptance of this assumption. Clive Hamilton and...