Date: 14 February 2019 at 09:23:18 AEDT
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Feb 14
Post of the Day
Coal plant closures need to be ‘radically accelerated’ to meet climate change, report finds
Coal plants can’t close fast enough to meet United Nations’ climate goals, according to a new report released Wednesday.
Today’s Celebration
Feast of Saint Tryphon – Bulgaria and Montenegro
Climate Change
Harrison Ford attacks leaders who deny climate change
Hollywood veteran Harrison Ford has criticised world leaders who deny climate change, saying they are “on the wrong side of history”.
Expert predicts more cases of deadly dirt disease as climate changes
A senior tropical disease researcher is warning that cases of the soil-borne infectious disease melioidosis, which has already claimed a life in Queensland this year, will increase due to climate change.
Explainer: If Pacific nations go under water what happens to maritime boundaries?
Scientists have long predicted climate change could pose an existential threat to the tiny island nations which dot the Pacific. What impact could this have on the political geography of the region?
Academics back UK schools’ climate change strikes
More than 200 sign letter to the Guardian saying pupils right to be angry at inaction
Coal plant closures need to be ‘radically accelerated’ to meet climate change, report finds
Coal plants can’t close fast enough to meet United Nations’ climate goals, according to a new report released Wednesday.
World on track to miss emissions ‘turning point’ for tackling climate change
‘Reaching many of the milestones is still technically feasible, but whether they are met will require exponential changes in policy, investment action and also mindset and behaviour’
Finding high-tech solutions to the Arctic ice meltdown
Despite cold temperatures and even snow in the Bay Area, climate change is happening.
Five ways behavioral science can transform climate change action
Eating less meat, flying less, or opting for renewable energy can accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Thousands of teens in the Netherlands and Belgium marched for political action on climate change
“This is really the climate generation.”
Babies now a climate change issue
Andrew Bolt
A NSW justice has banned a coal mine because it endangers the planet. Humans are more of a threat, so let’s ban babies as well.
National
New plan to keep Australian mining strong
The federal government wants to keep attracting resource investment, developing new markets and sharing the benefits of mining, according to a new plan.
Australia’s bushfire survivors demand government action on climate change
Janet Reynolds lost her home, and everything in it, during the NSW bushfires last year – now, she’s travelling to Parliament House, along with other bushfire survivors, to demand the government stops it happening again.
Australians join battle over brutal Japanese dolphin slaughter
Ten years after the film The Cove sparked global outrage over the annual dolphin hunts in Taiji, Australian and Japanese environmentalists are teaming up to outlaw the killings.
What gives tap water its taste, and which state has the best in Australia?
There are a couple of states that like to claim the right to having Australia’s best tap water — so what’s in it, and which city has the best drop?
Labor refuses to back PM’s Future Drought Fund
Labor says it will not back the Coalition’s Future Drought Fund — which it has labelled a ‘Nationals slush fund’ — and says it will adopt a different model if it is elected.
Electric car revolution predicted amid call for country-wide charging network
Infrastructure Australia has ranked as a high national priority the rollout of a country-wide electric vehicle fast-charging network
Electricity interconnector proposal between SA and NSW to ‘reduce bills’
A second electricity interconnector linking South Australia to New South Wales would improve power security and result in lower bills, the companies behind the project say.
Water flows at key sites in Murray-Darling are worse than before basin plan, report says
Wentworth Group finds the Murray-Darling Basin Plan’s environmental objectives are not being met
Shell carbon call riles Coalition
Energy giant Shell has reignited climate tensions after its call for a carbon price was slammed by the federal government.
Keep calm and carry on: managing electricity reliability
Grattan Institute
Increasing renewable generation does create challenges for managing the power system. But energy market authorities have taken significant steps since the SA blackout to ready the grid ready for a future with much more wind and solar generation. This report identifies further necessary reforms.
Coal-powered politics fires up [$]
Jennifer Hewett
The frenzy over asylum seekers demonstrates how the political cycle always turns – but with repetitive echoes. These days it’s banks rather than miners desperately fighting against the full weight of political and community opprobrium, for example.
A proposal for real change in rural Australia
Guy Rundle
We don’t need any more proof the system is broken. It’s time for a total renegotiation of relations between city and country.
Victoria
Sky rail to replace congested Toorak Road level crossing in Melbourne’s inner east
A controversial sky rail is announced by the Victorian Government in Melbourne’s inner east, in order to remove a notoriously congested level crossing next to the Monash Freeway.
Failure to boost Melbourne rail capacity ‘may hit national economy’
Infrastructure Australia has called for urgent capacity upgrades to some of Melbourne’s busiest rail lines to avoid a significant hit to the Australian economy.
Householders can now tap in to Labor’s $60m solar hot water scheme
Homeowners will be able to apply for $1000 rebates to install solar hot water systems from next week under a government scheme to slash power bills.
Labor’s ‘sea to summit’ hike trail being clearfelled before it’s built
Remote Victorian forest the Andrews government promised just days before the state election would become home to a future “world-class hiking trail” is already being cleared for timber, with the state’s forestry corporation insisting it was not told about the pledge.
‘Shhhh. I’m reading’: the radical new activity in our parks
A new social group invites people to shut up and read a book, in public.
New South Wales
Charge over NSW bushfire as battle rages
A woman has been charged with lighting a fire that destroyed homes in northern NSW as residents battled multiple erratic bushfires overnight.
The cotton grower, the water minister, the pumping ban and the broken meter
Irrigator Anthony Barlow pleads guilty to water offences, but maintains the former water minister told him he could pump.
NSW Bar shuts down ‘judicial overreach’ claims
The NSW Bar Association has expressed its concern around claims alleging judicial overreach in a recent NSW decision to disallow the development of a Hunter Valley mine.
NSW ‘accounting trick’ lets miners dodge appropriate rehabilitation costs
Exclusive: Lock the Gate accuses state government of placing interests of mining sector over those of taxpayers
I’ll raise you a million trees: Labor pledges to uproot Coalition’s target
Two million trees would be planted in Sydney to make it more “liveable” over the next four years under a Labor government if it wins the March election.
‘That is not how you plan a growing city’: Labor moves to combat developers
NSW Labor has vowed to shut a backdoor in the planning system that allows developers to take rezoning applications rejected by a council to the state government, but developers warn this will potentially expose the process to corruption.
Fire causes major power outage across Sydney’s upper north shore
A fire in the cable basement of the Hornsby zone electrical substation has caused a mass power outage leaving thousands of properties without power across Sydney’s upper north shore and Hills district, with “no estimated restoration time” on the horizon.
B&Bs for bees: the bid to save Sydney’s pollinators
An airborne highway with rest stops for birds, bees and other insects will be created across Sydney in a bid to help food security and biodiversity.
Urban greenies waging a pointless war on regions [$]
Stephen Galilee
Mega-economies like China are responsible for more emissions in a few days than all of NSW generates in an entire year. Yet a small regional coking coal mine in NSW has been refused partly because emissions generated overseas from using its coal to make steel would apparently have “dire consequences” for global warming.
Queensland
Adani to be issued with ‘show cause’ notice over coal-laden floodwaters at Abbot Point
The Queensland Government is poised to act against Indian energy giant Adani over the release of coal-laden floodwaters from its coal port at Abbot Point in the state’s north.
Finch threat latest test for Adani [$]
Queensland’s Labor government has flagged a further delay to final approvals for Adani’s Carmichael coalmine.
Lime’s scooters squeeze out more than half a million rides in Brisbane
More than half a million rides have been taken using Lime’s electric scooter hire scheme in Brisbane, even as concerns persist about injuries and riders not wearing helmets.
Cassowary mystery cracked: Nature gifts giant bird an inbuilt ‘airconditioner’
Scientists have long been puzzled by the purpose of the giant tropical birds’ distinctive ‘helmets’ – now a team of researchers say they’ve cracked the case.
A big deal in any stretch of the imagination [$]
Chris Mountford
This is a big deal. The Prime Minister’s endorsement of a southeast Queensland City Deal this week completed an extremely rare feat: cross-jurisdictional and bipartisan support behind a long-term initiative.
South Australia
Calls for giant pandas to stay in Adelaide
The Adelaide Zoo wants giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni, who are visiting from China, to stay in Australia.
FOI documents reveal mental health concerns arising from potential nuclear waste facility
FOI documents also reveal the Federal Government knows the process is creating division in small towns and causing some businesses to be boycotted.
Speirs’ own letters undermine his Murray-Darling claims
The Marshall Government’s claims that embattled Environment Minister David Speirs was denied “procedural fairness” are undermined by letters he sent both the Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission and a separate Productivity Commission inquiry, opposing any new strategy for recovering 450 gigalitres of environmental flows under the basin plan.
The day they burnt orchids to save them [$]
A daring experiment to save the naked sun orchid from extinction in SA has paid off for the ecologists who set fire to it.
Tasmania
‘Not at all ideal’: Tasmanian Government overrides Hobart Council on cable car permissions
The Tasmanian Government has granted an authority to override a Hobart City Council block on a cable car company investigating land near the city tip for its kunanyi/Mt Wellington cable car proposal, with the Lord Mayor warning the final decision on land use will be the council’s.
Guy Barnett dismisses concerns about energy storage levels
The government has dismissed as “reckless fear-mongering” concerns by Labor about Tasmania’s energy storage levels.
Residents launch ‘Save Blackmans Bay Bluff’ bid [$]
Blackmans Bay Bluff is at risk of being overdeveloped, say concerned local residents as they prepare to battle a new housing plan.
Northern Territory
Larrakia call on governments to return Little Mindil to TOs [$]
Larrakia Nation chairman Richard Fejo says the Little Mindil beach site should be handed back to traditional owners
Western Australia
Firefighters contain Albany bushfire, emergency warning downgraded
A bushfire emergency warning issued for the northern part of Yakamia, in the city of Albany on Western Australia’s south coast, is downgraded to an advice level.
24/7 shark alarms to be installed at two popular beaches later this year
Shark alarms will be installed at two popular Perth beaches after successful trials in the state’s South West.
Sustainability
A global trade in recycled metal body parts has become a financial windfall for charities
As cremation continues to increase in popularity, it gives rise to an uncomfortable question — what happens to the gold fillings, stainless steel plates and titanium hip replacement parts that are left in the ashes?
Plastic pollution: One town smothered by 17,000 tons of rubbish
One small town has become a dumping ground for the world’s plastic waste and it’s causing a stink.
Citing waste and economic concerns, a group of environmental advocates is opposing a resolution moving through the state Legislature.
Nature Conservation
Buy organic food to help curb global insect collapse, say scientists
Urging political action on pesticide use is another way to help stem ‘collapse of nature’
‘Uniquely American’: Senate passes landmark bill to enlarge national parks
Bill sets aside more than 1m acres of new wilderness and conservation areas including rivers in California and Utah
Migratory birds face multiple threats from climate change
Several recent studies suggest that climate change could make the trip tougher for many migratory birds, with shifts in the arrival of spring affecting their ability to fuel up for migration.
Drought and beetle epidemic killed 18 million trees in California in 2018
Following years of drought, continued low precipitation in California has slowed the recovery of surviving trees.
It’s fish on ice, as frozen zoos make a last-ditch attempt to prevent extinction
Nicola Marie Rivers
Ecosystems can collapse suddenly and totally. Frozen zoos are trying to create archives of genetic material to prevent total extinctions.
Politicians are complicit in the killing of our insects – we will be next
Molly Scott Cato
If policymakers don’t act now, we’re all in trouble
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