Produced by the 2026 Sydney University Environment Officers, Aria Nadkarni & Lucas Pierce
This edition of Combust comes at a tipping point. Bleak statistics flood the news decrying missed global warming targets - a promise that irreversible ecological destruction is now inevitable. Meanwhile, multinational corporations, unchecked, continue their warpath of extractive capitalism. Pillaging Indigenous land for rem eartli; tracking oceanbeds; illegal chemical waste dumping; deforestation and habitat loss; and the callous expansion of fossil fuel projects describe the scope of what is a worsening crisis of unsustainable greed. Where we once stood on the precipice of catastrophe, we have fallen headlong into it. A real existential threat reveals itself, disproportionately targeting disabled, working class and Indigenous people.
All the while, our institutions remain complicit. The Labor government opens its warm arms for war criminals, welcoming them onto stolen land. They cross the floor, going to bed with the