Post of the Day
‘Keep it in the ground’: what we can learn from anti-fossil fuel campaigns
Fergus Green
What makes targeting fossil fuels so attractive for activists, and can we learn anything from them?
Today’s Celebration
King’s Birthday – Belgium
Peace Day – Ivory Coast
Proclamation of “T. R. Northern Cyprus” – Cyprus (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus)
Proclamation of the Republic – Brazil
America Recycles Day – United States of America
Shichi – Go – San (Seven – Five – Three) – Shinto
World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day
Climate Change
The climate protesters ready to go to prison for the planet
With only 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, according to a UN report, a group of activists called Extinction Rebellion have launched a campaign of civil disobedience across London in an attempt to provoke action.
G20 nations still led by fossil fuel industry, climate report finds
Coal, oil and gas subsidies risking rise in global temperatures to 3.2C, well beyond agreed Paris goal
Climate change is making hurricanes even more destructive, research finds
Hurricane rainfall could increase by a third and wind speeds boosted by up to 25 knots if global warming continues
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/14/climate-change-hurricanes-study-global-warming
Climate change may cause mass extinctions, new report shows
New research has found that extreme climate change risks an extinction effect that could annihilate all life on earth.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/climate-change-may-cause-mass-extinctions-new-report-shows
Analysts: fast-growing African cities at ‘extreme risk’ from climate change
Researchers at UK-based Verisk Maplecroft find 84 of world’s 100 fastest-growing cities are at ‘extreme risk’ from impacts of a warming planet, including 79 in Africa.
Overlooked trends in annual precipitation reveal underestimated risks worldwide
A reanalysis of worldwide annual trends in precipitation demonstrates that risk to human and environmental systems has been underestimated.
https://phys.org/news/2018-11-overlooked-trends-annual-precipitation-reveal.html
Natural solutions reduce global warming: Clark University + The Nature Conservancy
The new study highlights natural solutions in the United States that offer the most promise to help limit warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade (approximately 3 degrees Fahrenheit).
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/cu-nsr111418.php
Lyme disease is thriving thanks to climate change
Climate change is expected to cause a 21 percent rise in Lyme disease cases in the United States.
https://www.popsci.com/lyme-disease-climate-change#page-2
California wildfires, climate change, and disaster capitalism
What will climate adaptation look like?
The climate is basically doomed if we build the fossil fuel infrastructure that’s already in the pipeline
Boiled down, climate change is a simple math problem.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-climate-is-basically-doomed-if-we-built-the-fossil-1830410731
The WIRED Guide to Climate Change
The world is getting warmer, the weather is getting worse. Here’s everything you need to know about what humans can do to stop wrecking the planet.
https://www.wired.com/story/guide-climate-change/
Climate control of Earth’s critical zone
New research by University of Colorado Boulder geoscientists shines a light on this hidden world from ridgetops to valley floors and shows how rainfall shapes the part of our planet that is just beyond where we can see.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/uoca-cco111418.php
Carbon emissions will start to dictate stock prices
Companies that fail to curb their carbon output may eventually face the consequences of asset devaluation and stock price depreciation, according to a new study.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181113144231.htm
The forsaken children strike back: 21 young people sue to save planet
Joseph Stiglitz
By their failure to act on climate change, the Trump administration and other governments are condemning future generations to catastrophe, but a brave group of children is fighting back, writes the winner of both the Nobel Prize and the Sydney Peace Prize.
National
Why eating more sharks won’t make beaches safer this summer
Sharks are supplied to fresh fish markets but the species that pose a risk to swimmers are not being targeted by commercial fishers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-11-14/would-eating-more-shark-reduce-risk-attacks/10493736
Melissa Price denies being ‘L-plate minister’ but is unable to say when emissions will fall
Environment minister says she is ‘deeply wounded’ by Concetta Fierravanti-Wells’s remarks during tense ABC interview
Carbon price not needed: energy minister
The energy minister has rejected industry calls for a carbon price, insisting Australia has one of the best credentials in the world on reducing emissions.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/carbon-price-not-needed-energy-minister
Angus Taylor hates the ‘loyalty tax’ on energy. But favouring marginal seats is the same thing
Richard Denniss
Aquisition is an expensive business whether your target is new customers or swing voters
China’s waste ban is a blessing in disguise [$]
Paul Klymenko
Amid the doomsday prophesising that followed China’s recent announcement, it’s time to start telling a different story about Australia’s waste industry.
‘Keep it in the ground’: what we can learn from anti-fossil fuel campaigns
Fergus Green
What makes targeting fossil fuels so attractive for activists, and can we learn anything from them?
Victoria
Exxon’s $120m Dory gas bet fails [$]
ExxonMobil’s search for a giant gas field at the Dory prospect in Bass Strait has come up dry.
New South Wales
Dozens of brumbies found dead in national park
Almost 40 horses have been found dead amid claims the population of brumbies in Guy Fawkes River National Park in northern NSW is being mismanaged.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/brumbies-at-the-mercy-of-drought-and-mismanagement/10495374
Blue Mountains’ heritage listing at risk
An international organisation which works with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre has warned the NSW government about its plan to raise Warragamba Dam wall.
CBA gets 65% renewable energy from January
Commonwealth Bank will get 65 per cent of its energy from renewables after signing an agreement with the largest wind farm in New South Wales.
Mark Lathan’s 8-point plan to cut state’s immigration [$]
Slashed NSW’S immigration intake would be slashed by two-thirds to 35,000 a year with all newcomers subjected to “national interest” selection criteria to save Sydney “suffocating” from overpopulation and overdevelopment, One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham has said.
ACT
ACT wants more information on federal immigration idea
The ACT government has welcomed a proposal from the federal government for states and territories to set their own immigration intakes, but said more information is needed on how the plan would work.
Canberra’s emergency water pipeline makes short-lived debut
The ACT’s $141 million Murrumbidgee pipeline was forced to shut off a month after it was fired up for the first time because of low levels of water in the river.
Queensland
Miners forced to pool millions towards rehabilitating any future abandoned mines
Instead of a site-by-site approach, companies will be forced to contribute into to a pool of money to be used for rehabilitation for abandoned sites if the owner goes bust. But the new rules don’t apply to existing mines.
Brisbane River at an ecological ‘tipping point’
From its environmental state to its economic challenges, Brisbane Times has taken an in-depth look at the Brisbane River for this special series of reports, 30 years since the Year of the River was declared.
Authorities warn electric scooter users could be fined $10,000
Transport and Main Roads has warned against a planned trial of “illegal” Lime electric scooters in the Brisbane CBD.
Vast gasfield to be unlocked [$]
A massive Darling Downs resource development will potentially guarantee gas supply for east coast manufacturing.
South Australia
NSW backs $1.2bn power link plan [$]
New South Wales has backed a billion dollar power plan to link its grid to our state via new interconnection, as SA pushes to fast track a project it says will cut bills and secure the system.
South Australia’s $38m Tesla battery site on track to charge in 2019
A $38 million Tesla battery storage facility in South Australia is on track to be up and running by May, becoming one of the state’s biggest battery sites behind Jamestown’s plant built by Elon Musk.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-15/sa-tesla-battery-site-on-track-to-charge-may/10496282
Beach reopens after waste plant break-in ‘sludge’ spill [$]
Christies Beach will reopen this afternoon after a break-in at a nearby wastewater treatment plant that caused an overflow that forced authorities to close the beach.
Tasmania
Timber mill linked to Asian logging giant
The company behind a proposed timber mill in the state’s North has been revealed as having links with a Malaysian logging and palm oil giant accused of environmental and human rights abuses.
Northern Territory
Letter from Scott Morrison raises questions about why the NT received a financial windfall
A Freedom of Information request raises more questions about whether the Federal Government’s decision to give the NT $260 million extra in GST was linked to removing its fracking moratorium.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/gst-fracking-government-morrison-moratorium/10497850
Northern Territory fishing permit system could be delayed, says amateur fishing group
A plan to impose recreational fishing permits on Northern Territory anglers remains in muddy waters, with doubts raised as to whether the rollout will meet the previously pegged launch date of January 1, 2019.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/fishing-permits-delay-native-title-blue-mud-bay/10494138
Western Australia
Newcrest open to Telfer offers [$]
Newcrest Mining is willing to consider offers for its underperforming Telfer gold mine in Western Australia.
Sustainability
Closing nuclear plants risks rise in greenhouse gas emissions, report warns
Fresh division among environmentalists over nuclear energy, the single largest source of low-carbon electricity
Social media influencer urges young people to protest over environment
Jack Harries was at protest by Extinction Rebellion aiming to bring London to a standstill
China’s ‘artificial sun’ reaches 100 million degrees in milestone for nuclear fusion
Chinese nuclear scientists reach an important milestone in the global quest to harness energy from nuclear fusion, heating plasma in a tokomak device to a temperature more than six times hotter than the core of the sun.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-15/china-attempts-to-create-an-artificial-sun/10495536
Next step on the path towards an efficient biofuel cell
Fuel cells that work with the enzyme hydrogenase are, in principle, just as efficient as those that contain the expensive precious metal platinum as a catalyst. However, the enzymes need an aqueous environment, which makes it difficult for the starting material for the reaction — hydrogen — to reach the enzyme-loaded electrode. Researchers solved this problem by combining previously developed concepts for packaging the enzymes with gas diffusion electrode technology.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/rb-nso111418.php
Your heart hates air pollution; portable filters could help
The fifth-leading risk factor for mortality worldwide, air pollution presents a major heart health risk. A simple intervention could help people breathe easier at home.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181113143601.htm
Recycling old almond orchards could increase productivity, trial shows
Almond growers across the globe could reduce their carbon footprint and boost soil health by recycling their old trees back into the ground, a research trial in the United States shows.
What we do and don’t know about Santa Susana Nuclear site after the Woolsey Fire
Officials say they’ve taken “measurements of radiation and hazardous compounds” but won’t reveal exactly what they measured.
http://www.laist.com/2018/11/13/santa_susana_nuclear_site_woolsey_fire.php
Competition for shrinking groundwater
Groundwater, which has been used to irrigate crops, satiate livestock and quench thirst in general for thousands of years, continues to be a vital resource around the world.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/uoc–cfs111418.php
The bitter lesson of the Californian fires
David Bowman
The California fires are just the most recent in a series of major wildfires. Together, they suggest we need to look at alternative ways of living with fire.
https://theconversation.com/the-bitter-lesson-of-the-californian-fires-106842
Why is everyone talking about natural sequence farming?
Ian Rutherfurd
The farming system, lauded as a solution to drought, involves slowing water flow in streams using ‘leaky weirs’.
https://theconversation.com/why-is-everyone-talking-about-natural-sequence-farming-106232
Nature Conservation
The simple reason that humans can’t control wildfires
“The fire, to me—it’s like an ocean. It’s so strong that we don’t really stand a chance of doing much to it.”
Using the plant microbiome to restore native grasslands
The BioScience Talks podcast features discussions of topical issues related to the biological sciences.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/aiob-utp111418.php
Tropical trees in the Andes are moving up — toward extinction
In the most comprehensive study of its kind, biologists have found that tropical and subtropical forests across South America’s Andes Mountains are responding to warming temperatures by migrating to higher, cooler elevations, but probably not quickly enough to avoid the loss of their biodiversity, functional collapse, or even extinction.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181114132022.htm
Large areas of the Brazilian rainforest at risk of losing protection
Up to 15 million hectares of the Brazilian Amazon is at risk of losing its legal protection, according to a new study.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181114132017.htm
Salmon are shrinking and it shows in their genes
Male salmon are maturing earlier and becoming smaller, and it shows in their genes. This was the discovery of a study that examined scale samples from salmon over a 40-year period, and looked at the population genetic profile of a gene that determines salmon’s age of maturity and size. The results show that the ‘big salmon gene version’ has become rarer in the population over time, and has been replaced by the ‘small salmon gene version’.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/uoh-sas111418.php
Jonathan Franzen: ‘Climate change isn’t the only danger to birds’
‘The two things I love most are novels and birds, and they’re both in trouble,’ says The Corrections author, one of the world’s most famous birdwatchers
Taxonomy, the science of naming things, is under threat
Nic Rawlence
Taxonomists are becoming as rare as some of the species they work on, and this puts museum collections and conservation efforts under threat and increases the risk of biosecurity incursions.
https://theconversation.com/taxonomy-the-science-of-naming-things-is-under-threat-106691
6 Florence St Niddrie 3042
93741902
0432406862