Post of the Day
New policy design needed to tackle global environmental threat, according to report
A pioneering new report has devised a seven-point plan to help policymakers devise new, coherent and collaborative strategies to tackle the greatest global environmental threats.
Today’s Celebration
Defenders of Freedom Day – Lithuania
Democracy Day – Cape Verde
Korean American Day – United States
Liberation Day – Togo
St. Melania’s Day – Ukraine
Russian Press Day – Russia
Maghi – Sikhism
Climate Change
Integrated pathways for meeting climate targets and ensuring access to safe water
IIASA researchers have led work to develop new pathways showing how the world can develop water and energy infrastructure consistent with both the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) — ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
National
Waste crisis looms as thousands of solar panels reach end of life
Thousands of ageing rooftop solar panels represent a toxic time-bomb and major economic waste unless Australia acts swiftly to keep them out of landfill, conservationists and recyclers say.
Enough of the climate blame game
Age editorial
Bipartisan decisions are needed on climate change – now.
Labor and Greens riding on back of rogues in GetUp! [$]
Piers Akerman
The destructive foreign-funded Green-Left activist organisation GetUp! has demonstrated its irrelevance to mainstream Australia through the publication of its electoral goals, including stopping the Adani mine.
Victoria
New Victorian windfarm could provide 10% of state’s energy
Golden Plains approved by Andrews government and awaits federal consent to proceed
Melbourne’s water at lowest level since drought [$]
The city’s water supplies have plummeted to the lowest January level since the end of the Millennium Drought, as the government looks at turning on the desal tap.
New South Wales
Experts warn rotting fish could trigger more deaths if not cleaned quickly
Contractors have a window of only five days to get rid of up to a million rotting fish in a far west NSW river as experts warn their continuing presence could trigger a second wave of deaths.
‘Animal welfare crisis’: The fate of creatures trapped in Menindee bog
Wildlife authorities have moved swiftly to deal with a mix of animals trapped in mud near dried-out lakes at Menindee amid calls for more action to ease an “animal welfare crisis”.
‘A dead fish rots from the head down: heads must roll’
Peter FitzSimons
So, are we really asked to believe that no-one is at fault for the reported million dead fish now clogging up the Murray Darling, some of them a hundred years old?
Queensland
Queensland swelters but heatwave won’t topple records
The heatwave in western Queensland is business as usual for residents and unlikely to topple records, a weather forecaster says.
Fashion brands join Adani protest [$]
Trendy urban fashion brands are joining the battle against Adani, encouraging customers to fund the campaigns of ecowarriors trying to stop the coal mine.
South Australia
Growers and chefs prepare to get more farmed Murray cod on the menu
The sustainably-farmed fish is in high demand and farmers are ramping up production, even as it made headlines this week with up to a million killed in their natural habitat.
The SA plastic bag ban: Revolutionary or rubbish? [$]
A decade on South Australians could be forgiven for looking down on those who succumbed to “bag rage” at supermarkets across Victoria and NSW last year — but in the decade since our own ban was introduced, what have we achieved? The answer isn’t as clear cut as it seems.
Final straw: Minister’s push to ban single-use plastics [$]
Single-use plastics including coffee cups, straws, cutlery and shopping bags should be banned, Environment Minister David Speirs says.
Tasmania
TFS: Very high fire risks in North, East Coast, Midlands
Northern Tasmania Fire Service crews are gearing up for a big day on Saturday.
Doubts cast over oil rig testing
The Greens say serious questions remain about the potential biosecurity risks posed by an oil rig moored in the Derwent River.
Western Australia
The Liberal Party in WA is broke and this looms as its biggest challenge
They already face a monumental task of unseating 11 Labor seats to have any hope of winning the next election. But without a serious injection of cash, any hopes of the Liberals forming government are fanciful
Sustainability
As we adapt to global warming, our air conditioners are making the problem worse
An explosion in demand for air conditioners around the world is alarming climate change experts and now a treaty has come into effect to limit the environmental damage.
‘Realistic’ new model points the way to more efficient and profitable fracking
A new computational model could potentially boost efficiencies and profits in natural gas production by better predicting previously hidden fracture mechanics. It also accurately accounts for the known amounts of gas released during the process.
A pair of researchers at Case Western Reserve University have come up with a new way to create ammonia from nitrogen and water at low temperature and low pressure. They’ve done it successfully so far in a laboratory without using hydrogen or the solid metal catalyst necessary in traditional processes.
Discovery adapts natural membrane to make hydrogen fuel from water
Scientists have combined two membrane-bound protein complexes to perform a complete conversion of water molecules to hydrogen and oxygen.
A new way to measure solar panel degradation
Clustering-based computation may streamline the inspection of photovoltaic panels
New policy design needed to tackle global environmental threat, according to report
A pioneering new report has devised a seven-point plan to help policymakers devise new, coherent and collaborative strategies to tackle the greatest global environmental threats.
Kids: Connection to nature lessens distress, hyperactivity and behavioral problems
A new 16-item parent questionnaire (CNI-PPC) to measure ‘connectedness to nature’ in very young children has been developed by Dr. Sobko and her collaborator Professor Gavin Brown, Director of the Quantitative Data Analysis and Research Unit at the University of Auckland. The results revealed that parents who saw their child had a closer connection with nature had less distress, less hyperactivity, and fewer behavioral and emotional difficulties, and improved pro-social behavior.
We can’t drive off and leave wreck behind [$]
Peter Goers
Having stuffed up our planet we can’t go somewhere else and stuff that up too. Not while we’re collectively so inhumane to the people we already have.
Nature Conservation
Kent State ecologist part of global collaboration to answer global change questions
The work of 153 ecological researchers from 40 countries, including Kent State University Assistant Professor Dave Costello, Ph.D., from the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, has revealed new findings on the effect of climatic factors on river-based ecosystems.
New mathematical model can help save endangered species
One of the greatest challenges in saving endangered species is to predict if an animal population will die out. Accurate and reliable models are crucial for conservationists.
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