Daily Links Jul 27

Nature may explain North Atlantic circulation
Ocean circulation distributes the planet’s heat. If the North Atlantic circulation slows, is it because of global warming, or a natural cycle?
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/nature-may-explain-north-atlantic-circulation/

Glaciers in East Antarctica also ‘imperiled’ by climate change, UCI researchers find
A team of scientists from the University of California, Irvine has found evidence of significant mass loss in East Antarctica’s Totten and Moscow University glaciers, which, if they fully collapsed, could add 5 meters (16.4 feet) to the global sea level.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/uoc–gie072618.php

It’s a savage summer in the Northern Hemisphere – and climate change is slashing the odds of more heatwaves
Andrew King and Ben Henley
From Greece, to the UK, to Japan and even Sweden, a slew of places in the Northern Hemisphere are suffering extreme heat. And the chances of extreme heat records tumbling are growing all the time.
https://theconversation.com/its-a-savage-summer-in-the-northern-hemisphere-and-climate-change-is-slashing-the-odds-of-more-heatwaves-100582

Liberal MP Craig Kelly calls Frydenberg emissions deal a ‘double-edged sword’
Minister told states target could be reviewed, but backbencher warns they may not like the result
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/27/liberal-mp-craig-kelly-calls-frydenberg-emissions-deal-a-double-edged-sword

Hanson may sink NEG [$]
Pauline Hanson and David Leyonhjelm have warned Malcolm Turnbull they could sink his national energy guarantee.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/were-willing-to-sink-energy-deal-hanson-and-leyonhjelm-warn-pm/news-story/4ebf1fcf8d367f3d70ab4b2e96a27412

NEG worse than thought – penalising rooftop solar and large scale projects
Ric Brazzale
ESB modelling is false and misleading, claiming credit for projects already in pipeline. The latest NEG outline also penalises rooftop solar and large scale solar, does crazy things with offsets and will end up lifting prices.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/neg-worse-thought-penalising-rooftop-solar-large-scale-projects-97462/

NEG a bridge too far for Shorten [$]
Judith Sloan
Federal Labor opposes the national energy guarantee for two reasons: politics and pressure from renewable-energy rent-seekers.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/judith-sloan/neg-a-bridge-too-far-for-struggling-opposition-leader/news-story/865113cb56497dcbf9eaf895bfdca644

‘Reliable’ renewables roulette
Geoff Carmody
When trying to mix renewables with reliability, politicians face biased incentives. The consequences of not supplying enough capacity for a given reliability standard emerge after the event.
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=19863

ALP’s lurch left will force up bills [$]
Australian editorial
The opposition has no realistic alternative to the NEG.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/alps-lurch-left-on-power-to-force-up-bills-cost-jobs/news-story/30f8c68a898cacc9fdac281ecdbc9f53

Graph of the Day: What really causes the biggest price spikes?
Giles Parkinson
Answer: It’s not renewables, or the lack of them. Most are caused by network problems or failing fossil fuel plants.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/graph-day-really-causes-biggest-price-spikes-32400/

Drier, warmer conditions forecast
Much of eastern Australia has experienced a very dry first half of the year, and the likelihood of an El Nino developing is around 50-50.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/drier-warmer-conditions-forecast-20180726-56ran.html

‘No reusable cup, no entry’: Regional towns declare war on waste
A community centre in northern Victoria has banned people from entering the premises with plastic or takeaway cups in an effort to end single-use waste.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-26/war-on-waste-country-towns/9944718

Call to put AGL gas plant proposal under environmental microscope
Energy giant’s plan to build a huge natural gas terminal in Western Port Bay, and an associated pipeline, to be submitted to the Andrews government in days.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/call-to-put-agl-gas-plant-proposal-under-environmental-microscope-20180726-p4ztt8.html

Mine owners keep jobs plan [$]
New Hope Group is exploring options to prolong existing activities at its New Acland coal mine to keep hundreds of workers in their jobs.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/new-acland-mine-owners-hold-to-jobs-plan/news-story/e17e62700d92c9db4a87df99b57cdbb1

Renewables boom arrives [$]
More than $5.5bn in solar, wind and biofuel projects have been approved in the Western Downs alone, and will feed power into the national grid.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/renewables-boom-arrives/news-story/bea6bf1a644d1185d1725b815ff0a280

Leaked documents show reef charity directors ‘unavailable’ for Senate scrutiny
The directors have refused to face a Senate inquiry probing a $443 million grant to the organisation.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/leaked-documents-show-reef-charity-directors-unavailable-for-senate-scrutiny-20180726-p4ztr9.html

Green light for railway and bike trail [$]
The bitter battle over a disused rail corridor in the state’s North-East has been settled by the State Government, but the ruling has been met with disappointment.
https://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/treasurer-backs-railway-and-bike-trail-proposals-for-northeast-rail-corridor/news-story/416904dc3e14a83f1129e21d87eb242d

Measures to break Perth’s gridlock ‘not sustainable’
Perth’s congestion busters say they are winning the war on gridlocked streets, with significant improvements in peak-hour traffic flow over the past five years.
https://thewest.com.au/news/perth/measures-to-break-perths-gridlock-are-not-sustainable-congestion-busters-ng-b88873859z

This is the story of how Australia went to war with emus and lost
First Dog on the Moon
When 20,000 emus arrived in Campion, Western Australia in 1932, local farmers requested help from the military. Here’s what happened next
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/26/this-is-the-story-of-how-australia-went-to-war-with-emus-and-lost

The world’s first “high-tech eco village” will reinvent suburbs
ReGen village, in the Netherlands, will collect and store its own water and energy, grow its own food, and process much of its own waste. Also: no cars.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90207375/the-worlds-first-high-tech-eco-village-will-reinvent-suburbs

Tepco probe to directly touch melted fuel debris at Fukushima plant
Tepco plans to survey melted fuel debris at the No. 2 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in a bid help it determine the best removal method.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/07/25/national/tepco-probe-directly-touch-melted-fuel-debris-fukushima-plant/#.W1kkv9hKhao

United States to improve water security for river basin communities
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday announced Resilient Waters,a five-year, $32.4 million.
https://reportfocusnews.com/2018/07/26/united-states-to-improve-water-security-for-river-basin-communities/

New two-dimensional material could revolutionize solar fuel generation
International group of researchers including Brazilian scientists obtain from hematite a new material with application as a photocatalyst, christened ‘hematene.’ The three-atom thick hematene is a ferromagnetic material, as opposed to the iron ore from which it was created from.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/fda-ntm072618.php

Common agricultural plastic is biodegradable, study finds
In rare good news on the plastic front, researchers have conclusively proved that soil bacteria break down the polyester PBAT.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/common-agricultural-plastic-is-biodegradable-study-finds

Europe may thrive on renewable energy despite unpredictable weather
Researchers have shown how long-term weather patterns affect wind and solar renewable energy technologies across Europe. The work suggests that despite the unpredictable nature of wind and solar energy, the European power system can comfortably generate at least 35 percent of its electricity using these renewables alone without major impacts on prices or system stability. The paper appears July 26 in the journal Joule.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/cp-emt071918.php

Guilt-free solution to plastics problem is hard to find
Louise Williams
If the grisly images of marine life maimed and killed by plastic aren’t enough to get your attention, new research linking plastics to smaller penises probably is.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/sustainability/guilt-free-solution-to-plastics-problem-is-hard-to-find-20180726-p4zttc.html

Technology is making cities ‘smart’, but it’s also costing the environment
Mark Sawyer
As cities become ‘smarter’, they need more and more objects fitted with technology. We need to think about designing these objects to accommodate computers, which often break down and create e-waste.
https://theconversation.com/technology-is-making-cities-smart-but-its-also-costing-the-environment-99296

Inside the mission to find 50 reefs that could survive climate change
Last year, a bold initiative set out to locate coral reefs most likely to survive global warming.
https://www.newsdeeply.com/oceans/articles/2018/07/26/inside-the-mission-to-find-50-reefs-that-could-survive-climate-change

Mountaintop mining is destroying more land for less coal, study finds
Using satellite images, researchers tracked the scars spreading across Appalachia. They found 3 times more land being stripped per ton of coal than in the 1980s.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072018/appalachia-mountaintop-removal-coal-strip-mining-satellite-maps-environmental-impacts-data

Forest communities pay the price for conservation in Madagascar
Local and indigenous communities seem to hold the key to protecting both forests and the massive amounts of carbon that they contain — and on which we all depend.
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/forest-communities-pay-the-price-for-conservation-in-madagascar/

Top Interior officials ordered parks to end science policy, emails show
Former parks director Jonathan Jarvis said he thinks the Trump administration objected to the policy because it stressed the precautionary principle.
https://www.revealnews.org/blog/top-interior-officials-ordered-parks-to-end-science-policy-emails-show/

Previously overlooked ‘coral ticks’ weaken degraded reefs
A previously overlooked predator — a thumbnail-sized snail — could be increasing the pressure on coral reefs already weakened by the effects of overfishing, rising ocean temperatures, pollution and other threats.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/giot-po072618.php

And then there was (more) light: Researchers boost performance quality of perovskites
In a paper published online this spring in the journal Nature Photonics, scientists at the University of Washington report that a prototype semiconductor thin-film has performed even better than today’s best solar cell materials at emitting light.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/uow-att072518.php

Night-time lighting changes how species interact
Night-time lighting from streetlights and other sources has complex and unexpected effects on communities of plants and animals, new research shows.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180726162653.htm

The last wild ocean
The world’s marine wilderness is dwindling, according to research from UCSB and the University of Queensland.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/uoc–tlw072618.php

Tropical treetops are warming, putting sensitive species at risk
New research from FSU scientists show that tropical forest canopies are warming significantly faster than air temperatures. That could mean major consequences for overall forest health.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-07/fsu-tta072618.php