Post of the Day
Coalition has an energy vision: No more renewables, or emission cuts, before 2030
Coalition says new wind and solar will allow it slash electricity emissions by 26% by 2022, after which it expects emissions to rise and new investment to stop.
Today’s Celebration
Separation Day – Anguilla
St. Nicholas Day (Orthodox) – Ukraine
Sveti Nikola – Serbia
Climate Change
The full story on climate change requires the long view
A new study shows what nine different world regions have contributed to climate change since 1900, and what will happen moving forward
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181217151531.htm
We finally have the rulebook for the Paris Agreement, but global climate action is still inadequate
Kate Dooley
Three years after the Paris Agreement was struck, we now finally know the rules – or most of them, at least – for its implementation.
National
Australian wildlife set to become recording stars
Hundreds of audio recorders are about to be installed in regional Australia to create the country’s first soundscape, which will provide scientists with important insights into different animals and their habitats.
Turning wilderness into theme parks: the great national parks debate
Governments hail nature-based tourism as a win-win but conservationists say Australia’s wild places belong to everyone and shouldn’t be sold out
Intensifying climate change protests ‘could rival Vietnam War activism’
Mass protests of the scale held during the Vietnam War are just around the corner for people concerned about climate change, environmentalists have warned, as a growing number of activists turn their attention to those who fund fossil fuel industries.
Coalition has an energy vision: No more renewables, or emission cuts, before 2030
Coalition says new wind and solar will allow it slash electricity emissions by 26% by 2022, after which it expects emissions to rise and new investment to stop.
Grid connection biggest concern for wind, solar and storage projects
Concern about delays and change to rules for grid connections has emerged as the major concern for developers of wind, solar and storage projects in Australia, overtaking the perennial issue of long term investment certainty.
Energy ministers to talk power prices
Energy Minister Angus Taylor will meet with state and territory counterparts to talk about lowering electricity prices and ensuring more reliable power.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/energy-ministers-to-talk-power-prices
Another big stick policy comes bit unstuck
The federal government is facing another failure of its ‘big stick’ policy to force power bills down as the energy market commission rejects its proposal for a regulated electricity price.
There’s enough gas to go around, at a price
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s core conclusion in its latest review of the east coast gas markets, that there is sufficient gas to meet the available demand next year, comes with some significant caveats and question marks.
Afterlife of the mine: Lessons in how towns remake challenging sites
The question of what to do with abandoned mine sites confronts both regional communities and mining companies in the wake of Australia’s recent mining boom.
States connect on power needs [$]
Moves by NSW and South Australia to build a direct $1.3 billion link to share excess electricity is a step closer.
AGL chief keen to mend bridges [$]
New AGL chief Brett Redman believes resolution of energy issues is the key to a harmonious relationship with the government.
MYEFO rips A$130 million per year from research funding despite budget surplus
Margaret Gardner
The shockwaves of this cut will be felt for years to come at Australian universities. https://theconversation.com/myefo-rips-a-130-million-per-year-from-research-funding-despite-budget-surplus-108919
We say we love our national parks. The evidence suggests otherwise
Kelly O’Shanassy
Australia leads the world in extinction rates and now our protected habitats are at risk. That’s neglect
Highs and lows: Australia’s year in energy policy left a lot to be desired
Chris Woods
The NEG died and Adani didn’t. Crikey reviews 2018 in energy policy.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2018/12/18/australia-energy-policy-2018-review/
Australia needs to take a leadership position on climate change
Kate Dooley
The new Paris Rulebook offers a common reporting framework on climate targets. Yet there’s little compelling countries to up their game to the level needed.
Introducing the Tim Blair Carbon Offset Scheme [$]
Tim Blair
It’s an offset program with a difference. Instead of offsetting carbon emissions by planting trees, this program offsets sanctimonious greenoid carbon reductions by vastly increasing your own carbon footprint.
Victoria
Flesh eating ulcers in city’s west as mystery infection creeps north
Victoria’s worsening flesh-eating ulcer epidemic may have spread into the heart of Melbourne, with two infections confirmed in residents of the city’s western suburbs.
New South Wales
Vales Point coal plant owners sign deal with new 275MW solar farm
Owners of Vales Point coal generator sign up for 275MW Darlington solar farm in NSW, as a hedge against future emissions and a display of how coal and solar…
https://reneweconomy.com.au/vales-point-coal-plant-owners-sign-deal-with-new-275mw-solar-farm-50819/
‘Filling holes in budget’: state accused of diverting climate cash
The Berejiklian government has been accused of diverting money from the state’s Climate Change Fund to cover projects unrelated to its original mandate – even as its underspending approaches half a billion dollars.
Feds ‘out of touch’ on climate: NSW govt
The NSW government says the federal government’s stance on climate and energy policy is preventing new investment and stopping prices from falling.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/feds-out-of-touch-on-climate-nsw-govt
ACT
Speed limits could drop to 40km/h under new transport strategy
The default speed limit on residential streets could drop to 40km/h and it could be come more expensive for people to use their cars under the ACT government’s long-term transport strategy.
Queensland
Toxic turtles may force Reef authority to change water testing
High levels of cobalt found in sea turtles and their food in reefs off north Queensland may force the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to change its testing of chemical run-off.
South Australia
Radioactive waste contractors ‘damaged’ cultural sites, allege traditional owners
Traditional owners in South Australia have launched a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission over the federal government’s plans for a nuclear waste facility.
Akuo Energy to build solar farm at Renmark [$]
French renewable energy company Akuo Energy is investing $12 million in a solar farm at Renmark — its second project in Australia.
Bore water off limits for 100 years [$]
Glenelg is the latest suburb hit with a ban on bore water, which is likely to remain in place for a century, and it won’t be the last, because Adelaide is littered with contaminated sites.
Tasmania
Oil rig owners refused EPA access to conduct biosecurity inspection
Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority is considering its “legal requirements” after the owners of an oil drilling rig moored in Hobart’s River Derwent refused it access to inspect for marine pests.
Exploring Australia’s ‘other reefs’ south of Tasmania
Nic Bax and Alan Williams
Off southern Tasmania, at depths between 700 and 1,500 metres, more than 100 undersea mountains provide rocky pedestals for deep-sea coral reefs.
https://theconversation.com/exploring-australias-other-reefs-south-of-tasmania-108986
Northern Territory
Controversial water bottling company enters into administration despite $10m taxpayer boost
NT Beverages, which received $10 million of taxpayer’s money from an infrastructure fund that has since been abolished, was granted a water extraction licence just hours before entering into voluntary administration.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-18/nt-beverages-enters-voluntary-administration-water/10631964
Groote Eylandt communities plan native title sea rights claim
The Anindilyakwa indigenous people of Groote Eylandt want to better protect their waters, and early next year, they plan to lodge a native title claim over 17,000 square kilometres of ocean to help them do it.
Why can’t the Top End pipe its abundant water south to drought-stricken states?
Northern Australia is soaked by monsoonal rains each year and has more water than residents know what to do with. But just how plausible is the idea of pumping its excess water to ease the dry soils of pastoral properties in Queensland, NSW, and Western Australia?
Western Australia
Readers left in dark on state daily’s fracking interests
Emma Young
The West Australian has repeatedly failed to disclose its owner’s billion-dollar investments in the oil and gas industry in its coverage of the state government’s mining policies.
Sustainability
Christmas shoppers warned to avoid plastic toys due to toxin levels
Toys feature in more than half of EU alerts for products containing banned chemicals
Greener days ahead for carbon fuels
A discovery by researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis shows that recycling carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels can be economical and efficient — all through a single copper catalyst.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/dbnl-gda121818.php
An epidemic is killing thousands of coal miners. Regulators could have stopped it
More than 2,000 miners in Appalachia are dying from an advanced stage of black lung. NPR and Frontline have found the government had multiple warnings and opportunities to protect them, but didn’t.
London’s black cabs ‘up to thirty times as toxic as personal cars of same age’, research reveals
Mayor of London welcomes ‘damning report’ and calls for faster uptake of electric vehicles.
Upwind wind plants can reduce flow to downwind neighbors
New National Science Foundation and Department of Energy-funded research highlights a previously unexplored consequence of the global proliferation of wind energy facilities: a wake effect from upwind facilities that can reduce the energy production of their downwind neighbors.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/drel-uwp121818.php
EU agrees deal to cut greenhouse emissions from cars
The European Union agreed on Monday to a goal of cutting carbon emissions from cars by 37.5 percent in a decade.
Building a better weapon against harmful algal blooms
Research focuses on improving predictive models for farmers, others
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181217101801.htm
Why we should ban glitter, just like we banned microbeads
Made of plastic and metal, it harms our oceans just like microbeads.
https://www.mnn.com/health/healthy-spaces/blogs/ban-glitter-plastic-pollution-like-microbeads
Flexible thermoelectric generator module: A silver bullet to fix waste energy issues
Researchers developed an inexpensive large-scale flexible thermoelectric generator (FlexTEG) module with high mechanical reliability for highly efficient power generation. Through a change in direction of the top electrodes at the two sides of the module and the use of high density packaging of semiconductor chips, the FlexTEG module has more flexibility in any uniaxial direction.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181218100416.htm
Wrong to deny poor what we take for granted [$]
Bjorn Lomborg
The world’s poor shouldn’t have to do without electricity because activists want to eliminate fossil fuels.
Nature Conservation
Only albino orangutan released into wild
The world’s only known albino orangutan was released into a protected forest in Indonesian Borneo.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/only-albino-orangutan-released-into-wild
Record 32,000 badgers shot in annual cull
Scientists accuse officials of cherry-picking data to defend disease-control scheme
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/18/record-32000-badgers-shot-in-annual-cull
Salmon may lose the ability to smell danger as carbon emissions rise
New research shows that the powerful sense of smell Pacific salmon rely on for migration, finding food and avoiding predators might be in trouble as carbon emissions continue to be absorbed by the ocean.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/uow-sml121718.php
Indigenous peoples denounce ongoing land rights violations in Ecuador
Indigenous people in Ecuador say their territorial rights are being systematically violated, according to a top United Nations official.
The importance of ‘edge populations’ to biodiversity
More than two-thirds of Canada’s biodiversity is made up of species that occur within the country’s borders only at the very northern edge of their range. Biologists have long debated how much effort should be dedicated to conserving these ‘edge populations.’ One argument in their favor is that they may be especially well suited to lead northward range shifts for their species as the climate warms.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-12/mu-tio121818.php
Blind creature that buries head in sand named after Donald Trump
A newly discovered blind and burrowing amphibian is to be officially named Dermophis donaldtrumpi, in recognition of the US president’s climate change denial.
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