Post of the Day
Portrait of a planet on the verge of climate catastrophe
As the UN sits down for its annual climate conference this week, many experts believe we have passed the point of no return
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/02/world-verge-climate-catastophe
Today’s Celebration
Hanukkah/Chanukah starts – Judaism
International Day for People with a Disability
Climate Change
Climate change threat ‘never been worse’: UN climate chief
With the direst environmental warnings yet still ringing in their ears, nations gathered in Poland for a UN summit aimed at heading off the “urgent threat” of runaway climate change.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/climate-change-threat-never-been-worse-un-climate-chief
Portrait of a planet on the verge of climate catastrophe
As the UN sits down for its annual climate conference this week, many experts believe we have passed the point of no return
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/02/world-verge-climate-catastophe
Emphasis on urgency as climate talks begin in coal city Katowice
Delegates from nearly 200 nations on Sunday began two weeks of talks to tackle deep political divisions at the most important U.N. meeting on global warming since the landmark 2015 Paris deal to shift away from fossil fuels.
As they meet in Poland for the next steps, nations are struggling to agree on how the ambitions of the Paris Agreement can be realised
Edward Morgan, Brendan Mackey and Johanna Nalau
As leaders and negotiators head to Katowice, Poland for this year’s round of UN climate talks, it is clear that there is still much work to be done to meet the goals set in Paris three years ago.
Climate-change sceptic says they should have right to ‘mislead public’ because of free speech
Chair of Commons Science Committee says: ‘Too often the clever practice of communications overshadows the true advice of experts, and the public are left bewildered, and not knowing who to believe’
Climate change report 2018: watch how these US cities could change by 2050
In some cities, it’ll be like moving two states south.
Waiting for two shoes to drop
Peter Dykstra
A year of hurricanes, wildfires, and a bombshell climate report has hardly budged two key groups.
https://www.ehn.org/peter-dykstra-waiting-for-two-shoes-to-drop-2621994054.html
National
Business community unites to urge Coalition to abandon energy ‘big stick’
Some of Australia’s highest solar takeup is occurring in the electorates of some of the Coalition’s strongest coal supporters, new analysis shows
Supermarket ban sees ‘80% drop’ in plastic bag consumption nationwide
Coles and Woolworths have prevented an estimated 1.5 billion bags being introduced into the environment
Two million Aust households on solar
More people than ever are eyeing solar to help reduce their power bills, the Clean Energy Council says, with two million households now using rooftop systems.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/two-million-aust-households-on-solar
Energy giants ‘rip cash from hardworking Aussies’
Energy Minister Angus Taylor has accused energy giants of recording soaring profits by taking cash from the “wallets of hardworking Australians”
Power price hike driven by coal [$]
A surge in the cost of wholesale electricity bills has been driven by a jump in thermal coal prices and demand for Australian exports.
States ‘absurd’ on natural gas [$]
Victoria, Tasmania and NSW have been labelled as among the worst places to invest in developing natural gas resources.
PM’s power play a ‘dangerous precedent’
Matthew Stevens
Ladies and gentlemen, enough is enough. Scott Morison’s trite and destructive fatwa on big business has to stop.
School strikers are going places but the dole queue isn’t one of them
Clive Hamilton
History suggests resources minister Matt Canavan is wrong about where student activists are headed.
‘I hate ScoMo’: Student protesters reject ‘mean’ signs
Cassandra Morgan
Of the thousands of students demanding action on climate change, most signs were ‘witty’. There was also nastiness.
Canavan says students should learn geology. It’s called earth & environmental science
Helen Pitt
Friday’s “Strike 4 Climate Action” student protests in capital cities and 20 regional centres made headlines across not just the nation, but also the world from New York to Stockholm. But when federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan criticised the students for walking out of class, perhaps he was not across the curriculum.
Climate change protest kids need to hit the books [$]
Andrew Bolt
The children who showed such guts and brains during last week’s student’s strike for “action” on global warming should be admired. That’s the vast majority who stayed at school. The ones who didn’t need to learn the facts.
Climate change protest kids should not be praised
Tim Blair
Ridicule not praise would be a better response to the school-children skipping study to protest about an issue for which they clearly have little understanding. Even worse, the adults at Friday’s infants-against-plant-food demonstrations seemed even more doctrinaire and less well-informed than the kids themselves.
Labor voters face dole queues
Nick Cater
Bill Shorten’s energy policy is a disaster for the many unionists sure to lose out.
New South Wales
Wild horses are a ‘key threat’ to delicate ecosystems: science panel
Feral horses constitute a “key threatening process” that pushes dozens of species at risk closer to extinction, according to an independent scientific panel set up by the Berejiklian government.
Labor’s free transport policy blows out [$]
The independent parliamentary budget office has exposed a massive financial shortfall in Labor leader Michael Daley’s pledge to give free public transport to children. It shows the policy would will outstrip the $132 million over three years flagged by Labor.
How Labor’s infrastructure plans could cut 24,000 jobs [$]
More than 20,000 jobs would be ripped from Sydney under new Labor leader Michael Daley’s plans to cut major infrastructure projects, The Daily Telegraph can reveal. Exclusive polling today also shows voters believe Gladys Berejiklian will more likely invest in infrastructure.
ACT
Bike barometer stats ‘proof of enormous savings’
Almost 500,000 cyclists delivered an estimated $5.67m in benefits to the ACT economy in one year, Pedal Power says.
New species are being discovered in the ACT – the question is how many
Just outside Canberra, there’s a place that is home to creatures we know nothing about.
The cost on your power bill of the ACT’s switch to renewable energy
The ACT’s move towards 100 per cent renewable electricity added almost $72 to the average power bill last fiscal year, a new government report has shown.
Queensland
Queensland bushfires to get ‘angry’ today as smoke haze reaches Brisbane
Residents in bushfire-affected areas of Queensland are being reminded to stay alert, with temperatures in parts of the state set to soar into the mid-40s today, as smoke from the fires reaches Brisbane city.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-02/queensland-bushfires-temperatures-risk-heat-bom/10575036
Scientists urge action to protect habitat of endangered ancient skate
Researchers say environmental changes in Macquarie Harbour — from fish farming and changes to river flows — are putting pressures on the endangered maugean skate.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-02/skate-study-endangered-fish-waters-tasmania/10572918
There will soon be thousands more seats available on Brisbane’s trains
Commuters will be less likely to need to stand up on their journey to and from work, with more than 40,000 extra seats to be available from Monday.
Nothing can stop Carmichael mine: Adani boss [$]
Adani Mining boss Lucas Dow has lashed out critics of the mine, saying the controversial project has been the victim of “myth-making and hysteria”.
Soaring profits could spark power price rise [$]
Queensland households are set to shell out more for power, with two of the state’s biggest energy companies on track to lift their profits by 18 per cent to $2.41 billion in the next two years.
South Australia
Reversal of power: Vics now rely on SA for energy [$]
Green-powered South Australia is now sending Victoria more electricity than it takes back as wind production surges — the first time this has happened in nine years.
Tasmania
Feathered friends
A Tasmanian edition of a Pocket Field Guide by well-known birdwatcher Michael Morcombe has hit the shelves.
Western Australia
Most West Aussies not prepared for bushfire
A new survey has found just 16 per cent of WA residents have a plan ready to enact in the event of a fire.
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/most-west-aussies-not-prepared-for-bushfire-ng-b881037949z
Forrest eyes court over fracking
None of eight onshore licences held by Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy can be fracked under new regulations.
Sustainability
US ‘flirting with new nuclear arms race’
A former senior nuclear policy official in the US government has urged the Trump administration against scrapping too hastily a critical arms control pact with Russia.
Slovak court orders detained Greenpeace activists to stay in custody
A Slovak court ordered 12 Greenpeace activists, who were detained after protesting against a coal mining company, to remain in custody on Sunday until a trial.
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