Post of the Day
World is finally waking up to climate change, says ‘hothouse Earth’ author
Report predicting spiralling global temperatures has been downloaded 270,000 times in just a few days
Today’s Celebration
Bad Poetry Day – https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/bad-poetry-day/
World Honey Bee Day – https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/world-honey-bee-day/
Serendipity Day – https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/serendipity-day/
Break The Monotony Day – https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/break-the-monotony-day/
International Geocaching Day – https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/international-geocaching-day/
More about Aug 18 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_18
Climate Change
World is finally waking up to climate change, says ‘hothouse Earth’ author
Report predicting spiralling global temperatures has been downloaded 270,000 times in just a few days
Key factor may be missing from models that predict disease outbreaks from climate change
A new study suggests that computer models used to predict the spread of epidemics from climate change — such as crop blights or disease outbreaks — may not take into account an important factor in predicting their severity.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180816090430.htm
National
Barnaby Joyce accused of tilting Murray-Darling authority towards irrigators
Former farmers’ federation head says authority’s ‘direction changed’ when Joyce became agriculture minister.
The majority of people who see poaching in marine parks say nothing
Brock Bergseth, Georgina Gurney and Joshua Cinner
What would you do if you saw a fisher breaking the law? Would you report the offender to the police? Confront them? Or would you do nothing? These choices affect the future of marine protected areas.
Malcolm Turnbull dumps plan to legislate Paris emissions targets
Malcolm Turnbull capitulates to rebels in the Coalition party room, dumping a plan to embed 26-28 per cent emissions reduction targets in Commonwealth legislation.
Turnbull loyalists call out colleagues for ‘hyperventilating’ over energy policy
Christopher Pyne sounds warning shot to conservatives as Peter Dutton declines to publicly support the NEG.
Big Stick for Big Power may not be ready for party room [$]
The plan aims to end the games power companies play around discounts that sees almost one in five households and small businesses in NSW and Queensland paying a ‘loyalty tax’.
Turnbull has his work cut out for him if he wants another rare moment of unity
Laura Tingle
It has been a week of victories and defeats all wrapped up in each other in federal politics, on race, and on the conjoined issues of energy and climate
Drought, wind and heat: Bushfire season is starting earlier and lasting longer
Owen Price
Current dry conditions throughout much of Australia mean we’re looking at a torrid upcoming fire season, and it’s time for people to brace themselves and get prepared
Malcolm Turnbull’s NEG remains in snake-infested territory
Michelle Grattan
The Prime Minister is not “in crisis”, but things are quite a serious mess as those who hate him, plus others who don’t, sharpen their attack in another round of the climate wars.
The federal government is trembling on the brink of a violent upheaval
Peter Hartcher
There is little pleasure ahead for Turnbull as MPs wrestle to control energy policy.
After first skirmish in NEG war, omens are not good
Jack Waterford
The showdown in the government party room exposed the pro-coal, climate denying or otherwise NEG-ative feeling.
The costs of climate change will hit everyone’s hip pocket
Bob Brown
Until Australia’s energy plan accounts for the cost of worse bushfires, for example, talk of prices going down are economically fraudulent.
Transforming Australia’s energy system should not be beyond us
Tony Wood
It is an unprecedented economic, political, social and technical challenge, but there are grounds for optimism.
It’s time for politicians to put the national interest ahead of energy ideology
Stephen Galilee
Some energy producing technologies are being been ruled out for ideological reasons, rather than be allowed to compete on their own merits.
Power politics are playing out behind closed doors of Coalition
Sharri Markson
Party-room disquiet over the National Energy Guarantee is more than just agitation from the so-called ‘Abbott camp’ and the PM must watch the NEG is not his undoing.
New South Wales
Sydney ‘not ready’ to talk about removing shark nets, Minister says
Sun and sand is a way of life in the Harbour City, but NSW Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair says its residents are “not ready” to talk about removing shark nets, despite the concept being scrapped in other parts of the state.
Native, domestic animals in a life or death tussle for food during drought
Wildlife carers are having to keep the release of rehabilitated kangaroos secret to avoid the animals being shot, as tensions rise between primary producers and native animals.
NSW Minister Ray Williams accused of political interference over illegal dam
Mr Williams wrote six letters to the Water Minister and demanded his constituent be given a free water licence.
ACT
Parliament House architect says tram should be wire-free to Adelaide Ave
The National Capital Authority says it is still waiting for detailed plans on stage 2 of the project.
Queensland
My beloved Reef: Four tales of love, loss and hope
As this year’s Science Week focuses on the Great Barrier Reef, we hear from four Australians why they love the reef — what fears they hold for it and their hopes for the future.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-08-18/my-beloved-great-barrier-reef/9748398
The Great Barrier Reef’s annual business ‘love-in’ [$]
It’s the elite club which costs members $20,000 a year, but it’s all meant to be about saving the Great Barrier Reef.
Indigenous challenge to Adani mine agreement dismissed by Federal Court
The Federal Court has upheld an Indigenous Land Use Agreement over the Adani mine site in central Queensland, paving the way for the State Government to extinguish native title over the site.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-17/adani-federal-court-traditional-owners-native-title/10131920
Great Barrier Reef grant risked delaying action, government was warned
Giving $444m dollars to small foundation could delay on-ground work, documents reveal
Evacuation warning downgraded for bushfire north-west of Brisbane
The fire service has downgraded its evacuation warning, despite a bushfire continuing to burn north-west of Brisbane.
“No need for new coal:” Sun Metals formally opens solar farm in “George” town
Premier Palaszczuk officially opens Sun Metals solar farm, the first large-scale solar farm built directly by major energy user.
Accounting trick frames reef grant [$]
Mike Seccombe
The government’s surprise $444 million grant to a private foundation is allegedly being used to fudge its commitment to UNESCO on Barrier Reef protection.
The Great Barrier Reef has been bleaching for at least 400 years, but it’s getting worse
Nicholas Kamenos and Sebastian Hennige
Scientists have used ‘tree rings’ in coral to identify centuries of stress.
South Australia
Mega lawsuit clouds weedkiller’s future [$]
South Australian councils and State Government agencies could be open to legal claims from the fallout over a landmark US court ruling involving Australia’s most popular herbicide, a national law firm is warning.
Federal government ‘colludes’ to nobble Walker inquiry [$]
The South Australian government’s refusal to extend the royal commission into the Murray–Darling finds it accused of collusion with the federal government.
Tasmania
How you can help save our endangered species [$]
Tasmanian conservationists and scientists are calling for public submissions for the Senate inquiry into threatened animal species to make it worthwhile.
Reverse Alchemy … STT turns forest gold into more chips and debt
Ted Mead
Even after the 2017 fire sale of the state’s hardwood plantations, it is without doubt that STT will incur a net debt again over the past financial year.
Reviewed! Eroding the Edges of Nature
Geoff Holloway
“… But tourism can be a double-edged sword. The quest for money that might be earned from tourism has the same potential to result in excess and over-reach as can occur in any other form of commercial enterprise.”
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/reviewed-eroding-the-edges-of-nature/
Did you know … ?
Rob Walls
How many people know that in mid-summer the very first light of each new day that touches the continental land mass of Australia, does so on the pinnacle of Mount Wellington?
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/did-you-know-/
Norfolk Bay Salmon Farm Shock Galvanises Locals
Rosalie Woodruff
Huon Aquaculture’s installation of salmon pens in Norfolk Bay, without public consultation or independent assessment of social and marine impacts, has angered and frustrated Southern Beaches and Tasman Peninsula residents.
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/norfolk-bay-salmon-farm-shock-galvanises-locals/
Sustainability
Blow for US EPA as court blocks bid to slacken safety rules for chemical plants
‘Capricious’ EPA forbidden from delaying the enforcement of chemical safety rule drawn up by Obama administration
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/17/epa-setback-court-chemical-safety-environment
China’s ‘nuclear element’ in the South China Sea [$]
The Pentagon has sounded a warning over China’s plans to introduce floating nuclear power plants on disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
In the future, will people have enough water to live?
By 2050, half the world’s population may no longer have safe water to drink or grow food. What then?
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/future-will-people-have-enough-water-live
Nitrogen pollution is a problem as big as climate change. Science might have a fix.
Bad news: Nitrogen pollution is huge, honking problem. Good news: We might have a fix.
We’re in a world plagued by ‘short-termism’
James Adonis
We live in a world of short-termism, do we not?
‘Recyclable’ is a word, not a promise — most plastic goes to landfills
Monica Wilson
We need bold, innovative solutions to the plastic pollution crisis at the global level, not tired, recycled promises.
The future of the “other Australia” within our smart cities
Peter Fisher
Dr Peter Fisher explores the relationship between the environment and urban tech and how nature imprints on our major cities
Nature Conservation
Older than dinosaurs: last South African coelacanths threatened by oil exploration
Just 30 of the prehistoric fish known to exist, raising fears oil wells will push it to extinction
Environmental group seeks to join algae lawsuit
A fourth entity has filed a brief in U.S. District Court seeking legal standing so it can help two groups in a lawsuit seeking a comprehensive remedy for western Lake Erie algal blooms.
Something’s fishy: UW research shows pollution negatively impacts a fish’s sense of smell
Pollutants may be putting fish, including salmon, at risk by hurting their sense of smell, according to researchers at the University of Washington.