Post of the Day
What would Australia look like powered by 100% renewable energy?
Nicky Ison
Our electricity system of the future could be powered by sun, wind and waves
Today’s Celebration
Democracy Day – Rwanda
Army Day – Armenia
National Heroes’ Day – Cayman Islands
International Mobilization Day against Nuclear War
Global Community Engagement Day
Climate Change
U.N. warns climate change impacts security, U.S. ignores link
More than 80 U.N. member states spoke at the day-long council meeting and virtually everyone except the United States agreed that climate change was happening.
Q&A with Al Gore: ‘Time is running out’ to fight climate change
“The five hottest years ever measured have been in the last five years,” the former Vice President tells Christiane Amanpour. “Donald J. Trump has become the global face of climate denial.”
National
Shorten pledges $200m for river clean-ups
A Labor government would make $200 million available to environmental groups for projects to help clean Australia’s waterways, leader Bill Shorten has promised.
Climate key in Olympian’s bid for NSW seat
Former prime minister Tony Abbott insists he’s unfazed by Olympian Zali Steggall’s announcement to contest his seat of Warringah in the federal election.
The ‘Gas Hunger Games’: Four predictions for gas in 2019
Gas is forecast to have a tumultuous path ahead in 2019.
Why exporting feral animal meat could relieve tensions on front line of pest crisis
Exporting more pest animals as meat overseas could help in the fight against invasive species, which have been labelled the single greatest threat to Australia’s native flora and fauna, experts say.
What would Australia look like powered by 100% renewable energy?
Nicky Ison
Our electricity system of the future could be powered by sun, wind and waves
Weather facts blow hot and cold [$]
Chris Kenny
When alarm is fuelling the climate debate, we ought to put as much information as possible into the public domain.
Bill’s big questions just part of a climate of fear [$]
Tim Blair
Bill Shorten believes Australian governments have magical planet-altering powers. “How hot does it have to get,” the Labor leader tweeted the other day, “before the current government does something on climate change?”
No one is buying the Coalition’s neoliberal message
John Passant
Despite tax cuts and an ongoing fear campaign, the Coalition Government is gone.
Victoria
Smelter and 60,000 Victorian homes face power cuts
AEMO has ordered mandatory load shedding of about 100 megawatts from the Portland smelter and 200 MW from about 60,000 customers across Melbourne as temperatures hit 42 degrees.
Firefighters brace for worse conditions as bushfires continue to burn across state
At least 14 fires continue to burn across Victoria as emergency services attempt to get the upper hand during mild weather, ahead of increasing fire danger later this week.
Blackout victims ‘collateral damage’ [$]
About 200,000 Victorian customers who lost power on Friday were collateral damage in a market with a failed technology mix.
Power plants back after heatwave outages
Half of the energy generators which were out of action during last week’s power nightmare are expected to be back online by Monday.
Victorians cop brunt of poor power decisions [$]
Rita Panahi
Neglecting the biggest sources of energy while pouring billions into unreliable sources has had some undesirable consequences, and last week’s heatwave delivered them.
Australia’s power sabotaged by climate zealots [$]
Andrew Bolt
As Victoria sweltered through a heatwave last week, the state ran out of electricity, just like a third-world country. But it’s climate mania that really left us sweating in the dark
New South Wales
Sydney’s desalination plant is turned on — so what does that mean?
With dam levels dropping, the desalination plant in Kurnell is fully operational for the first time. So how does it work, what will it cost and most importantly how will the water taste?
Desal plant to raise water bills [$]
Sydney water bills are set to rise up to $35 a year after the city’s desalination plant was switched on.
‘Invest now to unlock power’ [$]
Snowy Hydro has called for urgent investment in NSW’s transmission network to unlock 1000 megawatts of power.
Shenhua coalmine planning works ‘could desecrate Indigenous sacred sites’
Native title applicant says NSW’s change to planning conditions has given Chinese company permission to drill and excavate before a mining lease for Watermark has even been granted
‘Buying time’: the pilot behind world’s first Boeing 737 water bomber
Hikers in Kosciuszko National Park over the past week would have been treated to an unusual aerial display if they happened to be any where near Possum Point.
Miners’ poll warning to parties [$]
The NSW Minerals Council has warned that mining communities could determine who wins government.
A doctor’s prescription for beating the heat
Sujata Allan
A western Sydney doctor confronts the health challenges of climate change, but her prognosis involves a referral to politicians.
ACT
Rural Fire Service fighting bush fire near Corin Dam
The fire is about 10 hectares in size and being controlled. It is burning at a slow rate and heading in a south-westerly direction.
Queensland
Roads cut, power down throughout Daintree after torrential rain, flooding
Torrential rain in Far North Queensland causes landslips, flash flooding, and prompts a warning for some residents to consider leaving their homes after the Daintree River reaches major flood levels.
Cane toads wouldn’t have made it: inside CSIRO’s biocontrol program
In tightly controlled Queensland laboratories, scientists are testing foreign bugs as a way to manage invasive species
South Australia
Countdown on for Murray commission report
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan royal commission’s report will be handed to the SA government on Tuesday and includes “adverse assessments” of decisions.
Protest demands vital river’s rescue [$]
Up to 200 people have converged on Parliament House to demand urgent action to improve the health of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Thousands of chickens and bats drop dead in Adelaide’s extreme heat
In the wake of Adelaide reaching a top of 46.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday, temperatures have cooled across SA — but the change has come too late for a local chicken farm as well as a bat colony in the city.
Tasmania
Tasmanian anti-protest law update released for consultation [$]
Building and Construction Minister Sarah Courtney will today release draft amendments to the Workplaces (Protection from Protestors) Act
Statewide fire ban lifted but alerts in place [$]
Five bushfire emergency warnings remain in place in the Huon Valley this morning.
Mountain bike tracks pose dangers to threatened species [$]
Rare plants and marsupials are among nature at risk from tracks,
Western Australia
Safety focus after drum line death
Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly insists his shark drum line program is safe after the death of a Queensland Government contractor who drowned last week while running similar baited lines.
Is public transport off the rails?
Perth’s five-year decline in public transport use has been arrested but the result masks worrying trends.
Sustainability
Will the Green New Deal work? Here’s what the research says.
The Green New Deal that some Democrats are now championing is unlike anything this country has ever done before. But scientists have been studying policies like these for decades, and their research can tell us a bit about what might happen should we pass this sweeping new vision for climate action and economic equality.
Trump’s deregulatory agenda has a dismal 5 percent success rate in courts
Last week we talked about how the Trump administration is going to keep getting tripped up in courts by facts and reality. Seems like we dropped the ball: last week also saw the release of a new report by the lawyers at EarthJustice detailing their litigation efforts over the past two years.
Life in a tiny house: what’s it like and how can it be made better?
Heather Shearer
Mention “tiny house” in any social gathering and people almost always say, “Oh I love tiny houses.” The enthusiasm for tiny houses isn’t matched, however, by the take-up of tiny house living. Very few people actually live in tiny houses. So, why the discrepancy?
The ‘sharing economy’ simply dresses up our consumerist tendencies in a more palatable ideology
Marianna Sigala
Studies have shown that people perceive, select and evaluate shared experiences in a similar way to commercial offers.
Fear and loathing in San Francisco: The public transport system
Binoy Kampmark
San Francisco’s public transport is a perfect example of the failure of modern infrastructure.
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