Julian Cribb
Julian Cribb AM is an Australian science writer and author of six books on the human existential emergency. His latest book is “How to Fix a Broken Planet” (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
Julian's articles (104 total)
2 April 2026
A ‘small’ nuclear war would still be global catastrophe
There is no such thing as a “small” nuclear war. Even limited use would trigger mass death, famine and global collapse.
30 March 2026
Plastic is poisoning the planet – and us
Plastic pollution is no longer just an environmental issue – it is entering the human body at scale, with growing evidence of serious health risks.
27 March 2026
Does Iran already have a nuclear deterrent?
Iran may already have the materials and delivery systems to deter a nuclear strike – raising the stakes in an escalating conflict.
26 March 2026
The greatest danger is not war – it is planetary breakdown
Human activity is pushing Earth beyond safe planetary limits, raising the risk of climate breakdown, ecological collapse and systemic global failure.
14 March 2026
The Age of Lies and the threat to civilisation
A global surge of misinformation – amplified by social media, AI fakery and organised disinformation campaigns – is corroding the foundations of democratic decision-making and public trust.
10 March 2026
Rising seas could menace a billion people this century
Accelerating sea level rise driven by warming oceans and melting ice threatens coastal cities worldwide, placing up to a billion people at risk before the end of the century.
6 March 2026
As the planet warms, more girls are being born
New research suggests rising temperatures may be skewing birth ratios towards females in overheated regions. At the same time, declining fertility and male-dominated industries driving climate change raise deeper questions about leadership and humanity’s future.
27 February 2026
Is algae smarter than politicians?
The world’s coral reefs are undergoing a fourth mass die-off, driven by rapidly accelerating global heating. As Julian Cribb explains, the science is clear – and the political failure to respond is not defensible.
25 February 2026
Water bankruptcy is no longer a future threat
Across large parts of the world, water demand now permanently exceeds supply. This is not a temporary crisis but a condition of irreversible scarcity driven by overuse, climate change and population pressure.
6 February 2026
When ecosystems fail, civilisation follows
A new UK security assessment warns that ecosystem collapse is no longer an environmental issue alone – it is a direct threat to global security, prosperity and human survival. Without urgent action, the consequences will intensify well beyond climate change.
30 January 2026
Why the Doomsday Clock still underestimates the risk of civilisational collapse
The Doomsday Clock has moved closer to midnight than ever before, but its latest warning still leaves out many of the forces pushing civilisation towards collapse.
21 January 2026
De-icing the Earth: a fatal decision
Global ice is melting fast, with major sea level rise and extreme heat locked in unless emissions fall sharply. The window to act is closing.
22 December 2025
Ten threats, one emergency: how to become Earth Citizens
Humanity is facing a compounding crisis driven by population growth, consumption, pollution and power. These interconnected threats cannot be addressed one by one if civilisation is to endure.
28 November 2025
Welcome to BunkerWorld – home of the rich and fearful
From luxury bunkers to billionaire boltholes, the world’s richest are planning for collapse rather than preventing it. Julian Cribb argues this fear reveals a deeper failure of our economic system – and a stark choice for humanity’s future.
25 November 2025
The wisdom of the elders, the greed of the rich
As the planet spirals toward environmental collapse, elders like Attenborough, Earle, Hansen and Suzuki have spent decades warning us – and offering hope. But the billionaires in bunkers aren't listening. They are too busy getting rich off our destruction.
13 November 2025
Stealing the breath of life
When you suffocate or drown, every fibre of your being cries out for the breath of life, oxygen. It is the body’s ungovernable response to the extinguishing of your flame.
11 November 2025
The black work of big oil
Now is the sinister time of year when the Barons of Big Oil gather together, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the blessing of most world leaders, to celebrate the 350 million needless deaths they plan to cause between now and 2050 in the name of profit.
4 November 2025
Death by plastic
“Mummy...Daddy, what are clouds made of?” Almost every parent has fielded the innocent, eager question, perhaps explaining about mist, fog, water vapour, raindrops. Today, if you said that, you’d be wrong.
19 October 2025
Tipping, tipping, tipping... the dominoes fall
Dying reefs, shrinking icesheets, withering forests and collapsing currents are the latest symptoms of an Earth system enduring dangerous trauma, according to the Global Tipping Points Report 2025.
17 October 2025
Climate change causing oceans to decline at alarming rate
Climate change and human activity are causing the health of the world’s oceans to decline at an alarming rate, the UN has warned.
10 October 2025
The Earth uncloaked – A catastrophe in slow motion
Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough! In youth it sheltered me, And I'll protect it now. – GP Morris 1837
7 October 2025
World water in crisis
Almost two-thirds of the world’s rivers are in a dire condition, either drying up or supercharged with floodwaters, according to the latest report on the emerging global water crisis by the World Meteorological Organisation.
1 October 2025
'Died of a delusion' – the fate of modern civilisation?
The collapse of modern human civilisation is inevitable. Anyone who doesn’t accept that knows no history.
24 September 2025
Devouring the earth may decide our future
Every day, the food you eat and resources you use cost the planet at least 12 kilos of lost topsoil.
17 September 2025
Australia issues ‘terrifying’ climate warning
More intense global warming will bring terrifying impacts to human health, infrastructure, the environment, national security and the economy, the Australian Government has warned.
13 September 2025
Can we save a 'livable Earth'?
In reshaping the world for prosperity, humanity has undermined the very foundations of progress.
4 September 2025
Military experts warn of climate wars
“Accelerating climate disruption is the greatest threat to the human future: our safety and well-being, our homes and communities, and how and where we live and work,” a group of leading Australian military and security experts says.
1 September 2025
The next pandemic is 'an epidemiological certainty'
The next pandemic disease outbreak is already on the way. Only its identity remains a surprise.
29 August 2025
The Earth is under chemical attack
The largest of the 10 catastrophic threats now facing humanity is global poisoning, yet it receives less attention from science, government and society than all the others.
26 August 2025
The great dying
The heedless march of man has now laid waste to 60% of the planet’s land surface area, putting humanity’s own future at risk, the latest science reports.
20 August 2025
The great waste
Each person on the planet now uses an average of 12 tonnes of materials a year. The problem is, Earth can only renew about seven tonnes of that prodigious consumption in a 12-month period.
14 August 2025
The great human brain fade
Evidence is piling up that the human brain can no longer keep up with the overshoot crisis which human greed has engendered.
7 August 2025
The end of jobs?
By the 2040s, half to three-quarters of human society may be out of work, replaced by AI and sleepless robots.
26 July 2025
When technology enslaves humans
The future of humanity will no longer be determined by humans – that much is already clear. Technology has taken charge of our destiny. The question is: can anything be done?
16 July 2025
Humanity is ‘risking catastrophe’: UN
The full spread of the impending crisis facing humanity is, at long last, emerging into daylight with the publication by the United Nations of its 2025 Global Risks Report.
14 July 2025
Why the world needs renewable food
The future well-being and survival of civilisation rests upon a single, fragile assumption: that there will always be enough food.
30 June 2025
A distracted world marches steadily towards catastrophe
As the nations bicker, squabble and fight among themselves, their ultimate disintegration becomes more certain and more imminent with each passing day.
11 June 2025
Go-ahead for new carbon bomb marks Australia as enemy of the region
In planning its future release of up to 80 billion tonnes of planet-heating carbon, Australia has committed itself to the destruction of nations and wrecking of big cities throughout the Indo-Pacific Region.
4 June 2025
Merchants of death
In extending the life of Australia’s North West Shelf gas project till 2070, the federal and WA Governments have knowingly signed the death warrants of four million human beings.
11 April 2025
A statement by the minister for the environment in the new Australian Government
My fellow Australians: you cannot exist, and your grandkids will not exist without a safe, healthy, habitable Earth for us all to dwell upon.
31 March 2025
Delete the Earth
Day by day, species by species, landscape by landscape, the world in which humanity arose is being deleted. Eventually, what remains will be unfit for the survival of either humans or large animals.
11 March 2025
Noicide: advent of a new Dark Age
Something far more sinister than mere genocide is unfolding in the United States and other advanced nations around the world: the forces of darkness have declared open war on human knowledge.
12 February 2025
Here comes the human tsunami...
This year, more than 400 million people are in search of new homes, of food, water and family security.
30 January 2025
Lies, damned lies and catastrophic risks
For the second year running, lies have emerged as the primary risk facing humanity, in the Global Risks Survey 2024-25 conducted by the World Economic Forum of 900 experts worldwide.
28 January 2025
The end of freedom
Freedom, the dream that has inspired countless individuals, cultures, beliefs and civilisations over millennia, will soon be gone. Forever.
30 December 2024
2024 – a dire year for Human Survival
In 2024, humanity - as a whole - took a purposeful stride towards engineering the collapse of modern civilisation.
27 November 2024
A triumph for greed over commonsense and humanity
For the third year in a row the nations of the world, meeting in solemn climate conclave, have vowed to cook their children and grandchildren alive.
22 November 2024
The gods look on aghast, as human calamity unfolds...
From atop Mount Olympus, Zeus peers in perplexity through fumes of fire, dust and vehicle exhaust, toxic chemicals, roiling tempests and raging floods, idly wondering what those darned mortals are up to now...
29 October 2024
When the oceans run amok: “We ought not to ignore such clear indicators of an imminent collapse”
By disrupting the Earth’s main heat transport system, humans risk creating a new Ice Age in Europe – while the rest of the planet overheats to intolerable levels.
15 October 2024
The deafening silence in the eye of the hurricane
In the eye of the hurricane is a moment of calm and silence, before wild chaos and destruction resume. Symbolically, the world now stands in such a place.