Post of the Day
With so much disillusionment, this is the movie we all need right now
Today’s Celebration
National Maritime Day – United States of America
National Unity Day – Yemen
Abolition Day – Martinique
Royal Ploughing Ceremony – Cambodia
Arbor Day – Guatemala, Ecuador
Harvey Milk Day – USA
Republic Day – Sri Lanka
Nuzul Al-Qur’an – Islam
International Day for Biological Diversity
Climate Change
Scientist warn about sea level rise
A team of international scientists says global sea levels could rise in excess of two metres – causing catastrophic consequences for the world.
‘Panic is setting in’: Jayda G brings climate crisis home to fans
DJ and producer wants to banish ‘disconnect’ between climate issues and daily life
Climate crisis: Satellites to monitor air pollution generated by every power station in the world
Air pollution monitoring is to be revolutionised with the launch of a new satellite system capable of tracking the damaging greenhouse gas emissions coming from every large power station in the world in real time.
Carbon pricing: how it could help tackle climate change
The challenge of tackling climate change is a huge one but could a carbon pricing strategy help efforts?
Europe’s striking climate kids show how to defeat the far right
Fighting climate change now polls as a top priority among European voters – while most far-right leaders are climate denialists.
Tropical Pacific variability key for successful climate forecasts
The warming of the Earth by the human-caused greenhouse effect is progressing. But predictions for the next decades still show relatively large uncertainties. A German-Australian research team headed by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel identified the large natural variations in the tropical Pacific region as the key reason.
What Changed My Mind About Climate Change?
Jerry Taylor
As Cato’s director of Natural Resource Studies (and later, as a senior fellow and eventually vice president), I maintained that, while climate change was real, the impacts would likely prove rather modest and that the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions would greatly exceed the benefits. I changed my mind about that, however, because (among other things) I changed my mind about risk management.
National
Labor urged to back lower emissions goal
Energy Minister Angus Taylor is calling on Labor to support the coalition’s 26 per cent emissions reduction target, instead of its 45 per cent goal.
Energy Insiders Podcast: What’s the future for renewables in Australia?
Is Australia’s clean energy transition about to come to a crashing halt, or just hit a pause as the Coalition turns focus to coal?
Redflow cracks China battery market, with deal on EV charging station
Australia’s Redflow tapped to supply 100kWh of its ZBM2 zinc bromine flow batteries for a solar and electric vehicle smart grid project in China.
‘One person’s extra is another person’s essential’
A game-changing partnership between the not-for-profit sector and the business world is substantially lifting up thousands of Australians in need while simultaneously reducing waste in our community.
Oil majors prepare to dominate solar landscape [$]
Shell, BP and other European oil and gas giants are using Australia’s vast solar power potential to green up their portfolios.
Power supply reliability a priority
Sanjeev Gupta has called on the government to ensure power supply during the transition to renewables.
“Climate emergency”: It’s time to call a spade a spade
David Spratt
Declaring a “climate emergency” – and developing a climate emergency plan – is the only strategy that matches ambition to the scale of the problem.
Talk is cheap. Climate policies are not.
Tristan Prasser
The utopian renewable future promised by Labor and the Greens is based on more fiction than fact, underpinned by faux moralism and will come with an undetermined price tag for little environmental benefit.
Victoria
Eden Project plans $150m ecotourism site for Victorian coalmine
Joint venture aims to turn Alcoa’s open-cut mine site into Anglesea project near Great Ocean Road
RiverConnect and local community went fishing for rubbish on weekend
RiverConnect, the Shepparton Canoe Club, Shepparton Mooroopna Urban Landcare Group, Veolia and a handful of passionate residents headed out on the Goulburn on Saturday morning for another clean-up mission.
Council demands a Container Deposit Scheme from state government
At its Council Meeting on Tuesday 15 May 2019, Mornington Peninsula Shire Council demanded the state government implement a Container Deposit Scheme as soon as practical.
Why Dan Andrews turned down $4b from Scott Morrison [$]
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is refusing to accept $4 billion in funding from the Morrison government to build the East West Link.
The future Melbourne street is coming faster than you think
It’s the peak-hour evening commute, sometime in the future. The train pulls up at Pakenham station. A driverless shuttle bus is waiting to take you home.
New South Wales
Sydney air quality poor due to fire smoke
Sydneysiders have been warned of “poor” air quality as smoke from planned hazard reduction burns blankets much of the city.
How a timber mill is using sawdust to generate energy and reduce its gas bill
A softwood mill in the Snowy Mountains turns waste into wealth with the launch of a $10-million boiler to convert excess sawdust into bioenergy.
NSW cotton grower faces more charges over water pumped from Barwon river
Peter Harris charged with two counts of extracting water when his metering equipment was not working
Trams to start running as far as Central Station along new line
In a milestone for Sydney’s troubled light rail project, a tram will run through Surry Hills to Central Station for the first time as part of night-time testing
ACT
Solar panel feed-in tariff under scrutiny
Participants in the ACT’s feed-in tariff scheme may have been paid the wrong rate for their solar electricity, with a system-wide audit underway to determine the scale of the problem.
Queensland
‘We want to see Adani given a fair go’: Mayor says mine must go ahead after election
Adani must get a “fair go” and be allowed to open up the Galilee Basin for “jobs to flow” in the central Queensland region, Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow says.
Why Adani is a proxy war and campaigners need to focus on transition
In the wake of the election result, the Adani mine is being labelled a proxy war, and a failed campaign to engage rural Queensland voters about the future.
Adani’s flagship solar project in Australia stalled over connection issues
Adani’s flagship solar project in Australia effectively mothballed because of issues meeting generation performance standards.
Queensland solar rules head to Supreme Court, as developers fight back
The developers of a new 35MW solar project in south-east Queensland – backed by software billionaire Mike Cannon Brookes – is taking the Palaszczuk government to court over the state’s new rules that govern large-scale solar installations and effectively ban unskilled labourers from carrying and loading thousands of solar modules.
New plan is boost for river health
Logan City Council has endorsed the Albert River Vision (2019-22) Implementation Plan.
The Plan provides a framework to guide actions and drive investment to deliver Council’s Albert River Vision 2017-2067.
Brisbane City Council commits to no plastic wrap at polling booths
Brisbane City Council has committed to banning single-use plastic wrap at polling booths in future council elections, after lord mayor Adrian Schrinner moved a widely-supported urgency motion in Tuesday’s council meeting.
Queensland Government Drops Court Action Against Adani on Reef Stormwater Discharge
AMCS media release
A Queensland Government order that Adani must install new stormwater discharge monitoring equipment at its Abbot Point coal port won’t change the port’s risk to the state’s precious Great Barrier Reef, says the Australian Marine Conservation Society.
North Queensland is just at the sharp end of what’s happening across Australia
Jason Wilson
All of us have benefited from theft and environmental degradation, all of us have depended on new mines
Thanks, Bob Brown, You Helped Labor Lose The Unloseable Election
John Mikkelsen
Queenslanders don’t like being told how to vote, and even less how to think,
Tasmania
Hobart councillors resort to name calling over climate change walkout
A row erupts inside the walls of Hobart City Council over a motion to recognise climate change as a global emergency, with three members staging a walkout.
Northern Territory
Charges over Darwin harbour pollution
The Northern Territory EPA has charged a local businessman over illegal dumping of waste.
Western Australia
Health of the Swan River hangs in the balance
Signs along the banks of Perth’s main waterway warning people against fishing raise fresh concerns about the river’s health and what’s being done to protect it.
‘Pave paradise and you lose’: Call for a toll road at remote, fragile tourist spot
Visitor numbers at one of Australia’s most remote tourist destinations are expected to soar once its notoriously rough 4WD track is sealed, prompting calls to protect it.
Sustainability
Acciona trials organic solar PV on wind turbines
Spanish renewables group Acciona adds organic solar PV panels to towers of wind turbines and may add batteries too.
Policy, economics and resilience: Why Hawaii is dumping fossil fuels
In the first article of this series on Hawaii, we described some of the projects that have been built. This article looks at the three key drivers of renewable energy
Malaysia begins sending scrap back to its source, and Australia could be next
Malaysia, which has become a dumping ground for the world’s plastic waste, has begun returning non-recyclable scrap to developed countries of origin, its environment minister says.
UC studies links between air pollution and childhood anxiety
A new study from researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center looks at the correlation between exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) and childhood anxiety, by looking at the altered neurochemistry in pre-adolescents.
Flying cars are real – and they’re not bad for the climate
They might even be greener than electric ones.
Farmers have less leisure time than hunter-gatherers
Hunter-gatherers in the Philippines who adopt farming work around ten hours a week longer than their forager neighbors, a new study suggests, complicating the idea that agriculture represents progress. The research also shows that a shift to agriculture impacts most on the lives of women.
Experts call for pollution to be recognised as an occupational health hazard
Safety experts have called for air pollution to be recognised as an occupational health hazard.
Here’s what you should be doing to protect your health in polluted places
Air pollution is responsible for 4.2 million deaths yearly and as the Earth warms there’s only more cause for concern. Liz Langley lists the steps you can take to protect yourself, in case the skies at your destination are not so friendly
Iran has reportedly quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium amid tensions with the US over the nuclear accord.
Is the world really overpopulated?
We reached out to a number of experts—in sustainability, environmental studies, economics, geography, and more—to find out, once and for all, whether the Earth is overpopulated.
Revealed: 1.6m Americans live near the most polluting incinerators in the US
Lower-income and minority communities are exposed to majority of the pollution coming from waste-burning plants, report finds.
Toward zero hunger: More food or a smarter food system?
When thinking about ways to end global hunger, many scholars focus too narrowly on increasing crop yields while overlooking other critical aspects of the food system.
A vision of 2040: everything we need for a sustainable world already exists
Damon Gameau
There are real obstacles to environmental progress, but we must focus on what we are for, not just what we are against
Green Activists are Fighting the Great Fight—But are Being Dragged Down by Petty Lawsuits
Marcos Orellana
Despite the global environmental crisis confronting our planet, environmental activism has become a dangerous activity. In many countries, environmental defenders are harassed, attacked or even killed for speaking out and mobilizing against projects that threaten the health and livelihood of communities.
Investing in sustainable fashion is investing in our future
Susan Stevens
If we can focus less on keeping up with the latest trends and instead buy fewer, better quality pieces, it will not only be better for our bank balance but also for our planet
Nature Conservation
Tiny plastic trash killing seabirds: study
Tiny pieces of plastic littering the ocean are killing the most endangered species of seabirds – petrels, new research has found.
Scientists left feeling ‘helpless’ as French Polynesia’s reefs bleach
Widespread coral bleaching is underway in Tahiti and Moorea, despite no El Nino event this year.
Killer whale cull felt 20 years later
Culling killer whales in the Southern Ocean 20 years has had a lasting effect, according to a Deakin University study.
New method to predict the vulnerability of ecosystems
The susceptibility of ecosystems to disruption depends on a lot of factors that can’t all be grasped. A new method provides good results with only limited information about the properties of predators. The model confirms that a large body mass index between predator and prey creates stable systems. It can also predict which predator species play a key role.
Now for something completely different
Australians inundate New Zealand’s immigration website after election
Australian interest in immigrating to New Zealand has increased sharply since the Federal Election.
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