Post of the Day
3 big takeaways from the major new US climate report
Climate change is here, it’s expensive, and it’s deadly, according to a dire new report.
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/24/18109883/climate-report-2018-national-assessment
Today’s Celebration
Anniversary of Cerro de Pasco – Peru
National Flag Day – Sri Lanka
Climate Change
China vows to improve climate change policies [$]
China says it can “do better” on policies to tackle climate change after hitting its existing carbon emission targets early, but stopped short of committing to new goals.
The Hunt for Sky’s “Detergent” Begins in Antarctica
Ice records pre-industrial levels of a chemical that scrubs the atmosphere of greenhouses gases
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hunt-for-skys-detergent-begins-in-antarctica/
3 big takeaways from the major new US climate report
Climate change is here, it’s expensive, and it’s deadly, according to a dire new report.
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/24/18109883/climate-report-2018-national-assessment
Americans Will Pay Billions More For Climate Change, and That’s the Best Case
A grim U.S. government assessment of global warming’s economic impact gives a whole new meaning to Black Friday.
New insight into ocean-atmosphere interaction and subsequent cloud formation
Organic compounds undergo drastic variations in their chemical composition as they transfer from the ocean’s surface to atmospheric aerosols which act as nuclei to form clouds.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181126123358.htm
Six feet under, a new approach to global warming
A Washington State University researcher has found that one-fourth of the carbon held by soil is bound to minerals as far as six feet below the surface. The discovery opens a new possibility for dealing with the element as it continues to warm the Earth’s atmosphere. One hitch: Most of that carbon is concentrated deep beneath the world’s wet forests, and they won’t sequester as much as global temperatures continue to rise.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/wsu-sfu111918.php
I’m striking from school to protest inaction on climate change – Australian students should, too
Greta Thunberg
Every Friday, I miss classes to sit outside my country’s parliament. I will continue to do so until leaders come into line with the Paris agreement
National
Scott Morrison tells students striking over climate change to be ‘less activist’
Prime minister is labelled ‘out of touch’ after he says let the politicians not schoolchildren deal with the issue
How climate change could be causing miscarriages in Bangladesh
Rising sea levels mean women in Bangladesh are drinking ever saltier water, threatening unborn babies.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45715550
#MyClimateQuestions: young Australians ask about their climate future
On Tuesday 27 November, Guardian Australia will be running a live Q&A on our site, allowing school students and young Australians to ask experts about climate science, policy and what action young people can take.
Bishop calls for energy deal with Labor
Former Liberal frontbencher Julie Bishop has encouraged her federal parliamentary colleagues to come to a bipartisan agreement with Labor over energy policy.
ACCC moves to block trademarks making biodegradable claims about plastic bags
The watchdog has stepped in to a trademark application making biodegradable and recycling claims about plastic bags.
AGL builds its own solar power trading market
New energy trading platforms are being created to let more Australians sell their excess solar power and pass on the power bill savings beyond their own households to friends and family.
Top health official waters down warning to flush taps over lead concerns
Advice to flush household taps before drinking from them made headlines over the weekend, but the nation’s chief medical officer says the health risk is low.
ALP masters anti-Greens strategy [$]
Labor is planning to unleash a nationwide negative campaign against the Greens in the federal election.
Brown coal generation hits record low, as black coal units trip in Queensland heatwave
Brown coal generation hits record low, as coal units in heatwave affected Queensland and NSW experience multiple trips.
Rio Tinto reshapes to lure Millennials [$]
Matthew Stevens
Climate change is the “greatest long-term threat” to Rio Tinto and that is why its asset portfolio will continue to be reshaped, chairman Simon Thompson says.
https://www.afr.com/business/rio-tinto-cuts-esg-cloth-to-lure-millennials-20181126-h18db5
Labor hates heavy industry [$]
Judith Sloan
Butler’s plans will kill off energy-intensive employers and punish low-income earners.
Know your NEM: Cause for optimism – in politics and in rooftop solar market
David Leitch
Victoria election shows positive stance on renewables wins elections, even if right wing proud to martyr colleagues for the cause. Meanwhile, there’s fantastic optimism about rooftop solar and batteries.
Labor’s policy can smooth the energy transition, but much more will be needed to tackle emissions
Frank Jotzo
The Labor Party’s newly announced energy policy could finally set Australia’s electricity sector on the path to a renewables-driven future. But policies are still needed to cut emissions elsewhere.
For the first time we’ve looked at every threatened bird in Australia side-by-side
Stephen Garnett et al
Success with conservation of Kangaroo Island’s Glossy Black-Cockatoos can now be compared with other bird conservation efforts around the country.
Victoria
Victoria votes for solar, batteries and climate action, as Labor wins in a landslide
State poll delivers a crushing defeat to Liberal-National Coalition, and a clear endorsement of strong policies on climate change and renewable energy.
Road plan out, energy target in [$]
A re-elected Daniel Andrews has hailed his stunning victory as an endorsement of Labor’s 50 per cent renewable energy target and a rejection, for the second time, of the East West Link road project.
New South Wales
‘Conflict of interest’: what’s behind Marrickville stoush over The Bower
The Bower Reuse and Repair Centre in Marrickville is an inner-west institution, so its eviction from its home in the Addison Road Community Centre was always going to shock the community.
Cotton grower pleads guilty to illegally pumping Murray-Darling water
Cotton farmer Anthony Barlow pleads guilty in Sydney’s Land and Environment Court to charges sparked by an ABC Four Corners report earlier this year.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-26/cotton-grower-pleads-guilty-to-mdb-illegal-pumping/10553990
Credit cards now accepted on NSW trains
Sydneysiders are now able to tap on and off the city’s train network using their credit cards under an expansion to the existing Opal card system.
Falling dams trigger desal [$]
Sydney’s falling dam levels are set to activate the city’s $1.8 billion desalination plant for the first time.
ACT
ACT government rejects call for road tolls in Canberra
The ACT government has rejected a call for tolls on future major Canberra highways, but stayed mum on potentially further boosting public transport funding.
Shared path aggro needs government attention – and some commonsense
Canberra Times editorial
It’s not up to only the ACT government to find a solution, but it has a role to play responding to reports of rising conflict between cyclists and pedestrians.
Queensland
‘Mother of native title’ Bonita Mabo dies just days after human rights accolade
The prominent Indigenous and South Sea Islander activist and wife of Eddie Mabo is remembered as “one of the greatest matriarchs of all time”.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-26/bonita-mabo-dies-days-after-human-rights-accolade/10555496
Crews battle central Queensland inferno
Emergency crews are still battling an inferno that has claimed homes and farmland in central Queensland.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/crews-battle-central-queensland-inferno
‘Toxic’ fumes from plastic factory leaving locals sick, itchy and inflamed
For years locals have complained about a plastic factory that’s caused a “cat p**s” stench to waft through their homes — but now they say it’s making them sick.
Public consultation opens for Mt Coot-tha zipline
The short consultation period has led to criticism over the project’s development.
Brisbane resident says density is not a dirty word
The YIMBY – Yes in My Backyard co-founder said the movement was about getting people to think a different way about development.
Grow a backbone, jail the greenies [$]
Peter Gleeson
It’s time our politicians grew a backbone and faced the reality that coal production is good for Australia’s economy and renewable energy targets will send us broke.
South Australia
Optimistic SA environmental report card issued
South Australia’s greatest environmental challenges are managing people, their choices and behaviours, rather than scientific measures to ensure greater biodiversity conservation, according to the Matthew Flinders Fellow in Global Ecology Professor Corey Bradshaw.
Great Australian Bight survey discovers 400 new marine species, catalogues biodiversity before oil drilling
With oil exploration looming on the horizon for the Great Australian Bight, stakeholders felt it was an important time to learn more about the species that call the rough waters off Australia’s southern coastline home.
Lead levels put smelter on notice [$]
Monitoring of lead levels among Port Pirie’s children show an alarming rise that has serious health ramifications.
Tasmania
Step aside, fungi, slime moulds are Tasmania’s newest star microbes
Tiny organisms known as slime mould are catching the eyes of citizen scientists, defying their ugly name with dazzling colours and shapes.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-26/slime-mould-tasmania-fungi-hunting/10554338
Luxury camping plans for remote sacred site outrages Aboriginal groups
Tasmanian Aboriginal groups say they have been “sidelined” by both the state and federal governments’ decision to greenlight a fly-in-fly-out luxury camp in the heart of Tasmania’s remote World Heritage Area.
Federal government ignores own advisers on World Heritage resort
The Morrison government waved through approval despite three official expert bodies lashing the proposal.
Cable car zoning snag flagged [$]
The Mount Wellington Cableway Company may have hit another hurdle in its bid to build a cable car.
Lake Malbena development application lodged [$]
The Central Highlands Council has received the development application for the Halls Island standing camp at Lake Malbena in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.
We’re not radical greens, say anti-Malbena fishers [$]
The Wilderness Society has released a report which found the proposed Lake Malbena development would lead to “significant loss” of wilderness character in the area.
Northern Territory
School, rainforest in Muirhead North plans [$]
Blueprints for Darwin’s newest suburb show a school, an urban forest and 273 residential lots will be put to Darwin council at tonight’s meeting.
Western Australia
New Perth study urges gardeners to pass on the grass
Maintenance of lawns negates any environmental positives they have according to a new study but the turf industry says the authors didn’t consider the wider benefits enough.
McGowan ready for fracking fight [$]
The West Australian Premier is bracing for a protracted war with green groups, celebrity activists and farmers over fracking.
Sustainability
We could feed billions more people if we used water more sustainably
We could feed an extra 2.8 billion people if we sustainably doubled irrigation across the world’s croplands, a new study posits.
Stop worrying about buying carbon offsets for your flights
Many airlines must offset all their emissions to meet a United Nations agreement, so they’re no longer relying on individuals to tick that box. Of course, that’s nothing more than good PR if the money doesn’t go to projects that are worth their while.
https://www.wired.com/story/airline-emissions-carbon-offsets-travel/
Drinking water sucked from the dusty desert air
An inexpensive hydrogel-based material efficiently captures moisture even from low-humidity air and then releases it on demand.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/kauo-dws112618.php
Coordinated development could help wind farms be better neighbors
New research highlights a previously underexplored consequence: A wake effect from upwind wind farms that can reduce the energy production of their downwind neighbors.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181126134317.htm
Making it crystal clear: Crystallinity reduces resistance in all-solid-state batteries
Scientists at Tokyo Tech examined the mechanisms behind the resistance at the electrode-electrolyte interface of all-solid-state batteries. Their findings will aid in the development of much better Li-ion batteries with very fast charge/discharge rates.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/tiot-mic112218.php
Trump says US needs coal for grid security – military proves otherwise
Locally sourced renewables – not coal – promise the most resilience in times of catastrophe. The US military has embraced clean energy in the name of national security.
Smartphones: Live longer, be greener
The huge number of smartphones in the world, combined with their short lifespans, make the ubiquitous devices a major environmental problem. Could modular designs be the solution?
https://www.dw.com/en/smartphones-live-longer-be-greener/a-46423527
New biocontainment strategy controls spread of escaped GMOs
Researchers successfully developed a biocontainment strategy for GMOs. Their new method prevents genetically modified microalgae from surviving outside of their test environment, enabling ways to more safely research the effects of GMOs.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181126123317.htm
Air pollution: are you more at risk than you think – even in your home?
The average Londoner is losing an estimated 16 months of their life due to the air pollution they inhale every day.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/air-pollution-risk-think/
Oil is the poison that burns Paradise, kills Kashshoggi, inflames Paris. When will we quit?
Will Bunch
Wildfires, riots, even immoral politics are drenched in oil. This needs to change … or else.
Nature Conservation
California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfires have been contained
The fires that destroyed about 20,000 homes and buildings and killed at least 85 people across California have finally been contained, but the rains that helped firefighters are complicating the search for remains.
More than 140 whales die after washing up on remote New Zealand beach
A mass stranding of pilot whales in New Zealand is the latest in a series of cases, with the Department of Conservation making the “heartbreaking” decision to euthanase many.
Scientists prepare for ‘the most detailed whale poo expedition ever’
Team will collect samples in the Antarctic to prove role of mammal in function of the oceans
Combined local and global actions could lessen impacts of change in marine environment
Increased oil and gas activities could combine with ocean warming and acidification to have a significant negative impact on marine organisms, a new study suggests.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/uop-cla112618.php
World’s fastest shark speeding toward extinction
The shortfin mako is at risk due to failure to halt overfishing, with EU ‘most to blame’
‘It’s very easy to save a species’: how Carl Jones rescued more endangered animals than anyone else
Without Jones, the world might have lost the Mauritius kestrel, the pink pigeon, the echo parakeet and more – but the biologist’s methods are controversial
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