Daily Links Aug 17

Australia’s mercury emissions from coal – fired plants are double the global average while in NSW they are 666 times the US limit on emissions. Is dealing with the consequences of mercury in the environment factored into the business cases for coal vs renewables? And then 666 times? Hmmm, I see the work of the devil here?

Daily Links Aug 16

While China’s carbon market still has some detail to be developed, this is clearly where we are (almost all) headed. Why isn’t our free-market government on the right side of history with an Australian carbon market?

Daily Links Aug 15

The Axis of Climate Evil, in large part is a creature of the Republican Party. Unfettered big business, slavish adherence to small government, a dodgy education system, fundamentalist religion, cult of the vacuous celebrity and almost universal reality television – that’s an axis to worry about.

Daily Links Aug 14

The eco guide to optimism is still a bit ‘change the light-globes, wear hemp and save the world’ but there are grounds for a degree (1 1/2? 2?) of optimism. It’s hard to see, when we are in the middle of the transition, change occurring around us but step back, think what was happening on climate policy ten years ago, and you can see how far we have come. Clearly we have much further to go and we cannot let recalcitrant governments off the hook. How much quicker could transition be if government used power wisely and determinedly?

When I hit the town with Bobby Kennedy Jr.

Robert F Kennedy Jnr, then President of the Waterkeeper Alliance, treated us to oratory as we rarely hear it. His message on the importance of being organised for protecting the environment, particularly riverine and marine environments, was the basis for the formation of Waterkeepers Australia

Daily Links Aug 11

Adani avoids multi-million dollar fine over Abbott Point discharge, NSW EPA fails to regulate waste disposal, Phoenix companies become a management tool for escaping sanctions – we have a limp lettuce response to corporate malfeasance. A twelve thousand dollar fine to Adani would come out of petty cash and they’d reckon this was a pretty minuscule cost for doing business.

Daily Links Aug 9

DGR status, where charities including environmental organisations are tax deductible gift recipients, is again under attack. The Philanthropy Australia article sets out the latest attempt. The Minerals Council, the IPA and their front organisations such as the Australian Environment Foundation, keep trying – and we must keep resisting.

Daily Links Aug 8

Censoring use of the term ‘climate change’ has already been tried by two Victorian Liberal Premiers and that didn’t stop it. This is as useless as Turnbull claiming that Australia’s laws trump the laws of mathematics or that Abbott can fly.