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O'Gorman notes how the options for a revisioning of the MDB landscape are shrinking because of climate change, while Hamilton and Kells describe how, perversely, water scarcity plays in favour of corporate water traders. Hamilton and Kells state in their conclusion that "The story of our water market is a story about the failure of our public administration and government" (p. 264). Water trading as we know it today is the result of the whole-sale adoption of "libertarian economic values" that were "rampant in the capitalist West" during the 1980s and 1990s (Hamilton and Kells, p. 51). This begins in Beresford's account of the widespread corruption that occurred in the land selection era, and ends with Hamilton and Kells' detailed description of how water trading went so wrong. [Extracted from the article]

Associations between escape behaviours of birds approached by humans and life history traits differ between continents. This suggests environment and history have shaped the evolution of escape at the continental scale. We compared the escape behaviour of birds between eastern Australia (relatively low density and shorter history of human presence) and eastern Africa (high density and substantially longer history of human presence), in relation to life and natural history traits known to influence escape behaviour. We examined associations between flight initiation distance (FID) and life and natural history variables, using phylogenetically controlled analysis and model selection procedures, for 9372 FIDs from 516 bird species. Overall, African birds had shorter FIDs than Australian birds; however, this difference was only observed among nonmigratory (resident) species. Migratory birds showed no continental level differences in FIDs. Across continents, birds in 'wetland' and 'treed' habitats both had significantly longer FIDs than birds in 'scrub' habitats. Diet and social traits (cooperative breeding and flocking) did not significantly influence FID. The relationship between body mass and FID was positive for Australian birds but not so for African birds. This study (1) suggests that resident eastern African birds are more tolerant of humans and (2) supports the contention that some principles regarding escape behaviour of birds might represent universal patterns (e.g. longer FIDs in open wetland habitats), others (e.g. longer FIDs in larger birds) vary geographically or with habituation, perhaps in relation to the history of cohabitation between humans (and other predators) and birds. • We analyse 9372 avian flight initiation distances (FIDs) in Africa and Australia. • Resident African birds had shorter FIDs than resident Australian birds. • No difference in FIDs in migratory species occurred between continents. • Longer FIDs were associated with larger body mass in Australia but not Africa. • Birds in wetland and treed habitats both had longer FIDs than birds in scrub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has been a leader in the recent emergence of ‘the environmental humanities’. One of the core disciplines of the new field is environmental history, which has developed a distinctive style in Australia since the 1970s. Understanding the continent's unusual human and natural histories has elicited a peculiarly intimate relationship to deep time, and settler Australians have been required to learn a very different ecology and to comprehend the last ice age as a human experience. An understanding of anthropogenic climate change urgently requires these longer-term historical and environmental analyses, as well as century-scale histories of science and philosophy, and studies of human and social resilience from both the ancient past and the unfolding present. This article argues that Australia, with its remarkable Indigenous inheritance, unique natural history and compressed settler revolution, offers striking parables for a world facing transformative environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]