Raising Hell: Issue 94: New year, New Newsletter

Regular readers of this newsletter may recall that sometime ago I announced a one-month hiatus in order to transition Raising Hell away from Substack onto a new platform. You may also have noticed it has been an amount of time since that pledge was made. In the intervening period, the US has bombed several countries, history has been made and we're all another year old, another year wiser and certainly more exhausted.

There are two reasons for this delay. The first is exhaustion – last year was two sizes too small by any measurement, and I ran myself ragged attempting to grapple with it. This holiday period was the first extended time off I've had in years, and so I finally found myself in a position to work through the detail needed to make this happen. The other is that I didn't quite know what I wanted from Raising Hell. In the past, I always harboured an ambition to turn it into something more, some kind of standalone product where I could publish original reporting. The reality is, I have come to conclude, that was perhaps always too ambitious.

The true value of this newsletter, in a world of social media bans, book burning and age verification, is to act as a central clearing house for people to follow and support my work outside the social media ecosystem. It is my way to say that I am alive, I am here and I am working. This is incredibly valuable as a precariously employed freelancer who publishes with multiple publications, across different issues and who, since the publication of Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship With Big Oil, has been increasingly focussed on reporting the biggest story of our times: climate change. In addition, it remains an excellent way to stay accountable by forcing me, every two weeks, to review what I have done.

In light of this, the goal going forward will be to keep Raising Hell short, sharp and clean. There'll still be some caustic commentary here and there, a book review or two, the occasional missive on something I have been thinking about, or a behind-the-scenes look at how a story came together. I will also try to share the results of any Freedom of Information or archival work here, too, as this is public information obtained with the help and support of my readers. For the most part though, the role of this newsletter will be to support my journalism rather than detract from it, so there may be periods where it becomes inconsistent.

On that note, I would like to say a big thank you to the financial supporters of Raising Hell who have stuck around. Your small contribution goes into a war chest that not only pays to maintain this newsletter – unlike Substack which is free to publish on, Ghost requires you to pay – and which I continue to use for investigations. A recent example is my ongoing efforts to look at the response of the federal and South Australian government response to the devastating algal bloom off the state's coast, a consequence of climate change. The South Australian Environment Protection Authority took several months to issue a determination and then sought to charge me $1508.80 for the privilege owing to the consultation they had to undertake on the process. That charges decision is with the Ombudsman, but the financial support through this newsletter allowed me to pay the sum in full to gain access to the documents while awaiting the result of the appeal. That would not have been possible otherwise.

To catch you up on what I have been doing, you will find a list of the significant reporting I have been involved in over the last year below – it includes some pretty deep investigations and on-the-ground reporting from COP30 in Belém, Brazil last November. With a new year underway and a new list of projects on the boil, I look forward to the fun we will have together.

"Many books about climate change are worthy but dull. Slick, however, is as readable as it is shocking." - Richard Denniss, The Australia Institute, writing in The Conversation.

Reporting In

It's been a while. Here are some of the more significant projects I have worked on that I can share so you know I’m not just using your money to stimulate the local economy …

• "Mystery pink slime on secluded Tasmanian beach prompts fears of potential algal bloom" (The Guardian AU, 3 January 2026).
• "We Don't Deserve This": Survivors of Super Typhoon Odette File Claims Against Shell (Drilled, 15 December 2025).
• "Selling Seaweed: An Australian Green Startup's Chemical Insurance Policy" (Drilled, 10 December 2025).
• "'We miss having a dog but it's the price you pay': the village that banned pets to save wildlife" (The Guardian, 5 December 2025).
• In November 2026 I travelled to Belém, Brazil to help cover international climate negotiations. You can read some of my coverage here:
  • In Renew Economy
  • "COP-tastrophe: How the COP of implementation Truth, Forests and Indigenous Peoples Failed on All Counts" (Drilled, 22 November 2025).
  • "COP30 So Far: Protesters, Polluters and the Carbon Market Takeover" (Drilled, 15 November 2025).
• "COP30 and the Paris Agreement" (The Saturday Paper, 15 November 2025).
• "Woodside Energy's Partnership With Monash University to End after protests by staff and students" (The Guardian AU, 13 November 2025).
• "'Not an eligible disaster': FOI reveals Commonwealth resisted new aid for SA after algal bloom killed 250,000 marine animals'" (The Point, 12 November 2025).
• "In an Attempt to Spam Climate Information Integrity Investigation, Australia's Climate Skeptics Score an Own Goal" (Drilled, 2 November 2025).
• "A geoscientist shortage could undermine U.S.-Australian deal on critical minerals" (Science, 29 October 2025).
• "Isabelle Boemeke Isn't Trying to Spread Conspiracy Theories in her New Pro-Nuclear Book, But She Is" (Drilled, 14 October 2025).
• "Secrecy over leaking gas tank sinks Santos deal" (The Saturday Paper, 27 September 2025).
• "Trump is Trying to Kill Renewables Everywhere" (Drilled, 8 September 2025).
  • Also check out the audio interview with Brown University Professor Mark Blyth that was released through the podcast.
• "There Was So Much Death." A Toxic Algal Bloom is Ravaging Australia's Southern Coast – Warming Waters Are to Blame." (Drilled, 25 August 2025).
• "Australia's Courts Say Climate Change is a Political Problem. The ICJ Just Made it a Legal Issue" (Drilled, 27 July 2025).
• "'Ideological Sludge': How New Zealand Is Quiet Quitting Climate Action" (Drilled, 8 July 2025).
• "From a rectal kit to a Berlin Wall-era transmitter: the artefacts of Australia's spy museum which doesn't exist – yet" (The Guardian AU, 22 June 2025).
• "Inside the Fight to Get Australia's Monash University to Divorce Fossil Fuels For Good" (Drilled, 16 June 2025).
• Monash staff say Woodside-backed climate conference highlights concerns about energy partnership (The Guardian AU, 12 June 2025).
• "The Day The Mountains Won" (Drilled, 11 June 2025).
• "Bad Maths: How economic modelling paved the way for AI on climate change" (Drilled, 1 June 2025).
• I also spent parts of last year helping out with Al Jazeera English's live Gaza coverage. You can find some of my contribution here.

Before You Go (Go)…

• Want to get in touch? Message me on Signal at username RoyceK.11. Alternatively you can send hard copies to: PO Box 134, Welland SA 5007
• And if you’ve come this far, consider supporting me further by picking up one of my books, leaving a review or by just telling a friend about Raising Hell!