I confess, I have been preoccupied by family matters and rather low key. This World Environment Day I found it hard to focus; the issues are crowding in. In particular, climate change weighs heavily. I looked up the hashtag on Twitter, finding more and more semi-hopeful messages, “we’re doing something” videos, and “let’s do something!” urgings. I feel a headache coming on.

Our Minister with responsibility for the environment, Senator Matthew Samuda, attended theStockholm Plus 50 conference – plenty of speeches, hand-shaking, and photo ops, no doubt – and probably a few more promises, too. Two of the