Post of the Day
Labor outlines $1b environment package
Fresh after winning the second leaders’ debate, Labor leader Bill Shorten will outline his $1 billion environmental initiatives plan in Brisbane on Saturday.
Today’s Celebration
Casinga Day – Namibia
Crown Prince’s Birthday – Tonga
Kokumin-no-Kyujitsu / National Holiday – Japan
National Youth Day – China
Proclamation of Independence – Latvia
Remembrance Day for Martyrs & Disabled – Afghanistan
Remembrance Day – Netherlands
Bird Day – USA
Saint Florian Day – Austria
Greenery Day – Japan
Dave Brubeck Day – United States
International Respect for Chickens Day
International Firefighters’ Day
Climate Change
Four charts that show how the UK stacks up on climate change
Emission of greenhouse gases has fallen, but environmental issues are still ‘an emergency’
Barclays targeted by climate change protest ahead of activist showdown
Barclays provided the most financing among European banks for fossil fuel-related projects in 2018, according to a report by campaigning group BankTrack.
Is giving up flying the best way to stop climate change?
Lise Floris
I start sweating nervously every time I read about how air travel impacts the environment. I don’t want to stay grounded
Are humans making droughts worse?
Kate Doyle
A new scientific paper suggests humans have had their fingerprints all over droughts for the past century, both in making them better and making them worse.
The methane gas bomb — a climate emergency
David Shearman discusses the dangers that methane gas is having on our environment and ways we can prevent further damage.
How will the Global South pay for climate change damage?
Harpreet Kaur Paul and Harjeet Singh.
Using market mechanisms will just push the burden onto those least responsible.
National
Labor outlines $1b environment package
Fresh after winning the second leaders’ debate, Labor leader Bill Shorten will outline his $1 billion environmental initiatives plan in Brisbane on Saturday.
Tears outside PM’s office as students skip school to demand climate action again
Thousands of students skip school — again — to protest inaction on climate change. The biggest crowds were in Melbourne while in Sydney, one student broke down in tears outside the Prime Minister’s office.
‘He’s defying scientific fact’: Striking students confront Tony Abbott on climate change
Students have once again taken to the streets, two weeks out from the federal election, to make sure climate change remains front and centre of political debate.
What should you believe? Fact Check runs the rule over the second leaders’ debate
The Prime Minister and Opposition Leader clashed over climate change and taxation, among other things. Here’s what RMIT ABC Fact Check found on some of the debate’s key issues.
Fact Check: Does Australia have the lowest uptake of electric vehicles in the OECD?
Labor’s Mark Butler says Australia has the lowest uptake of electric vehicles in the OECD. Is he correct? RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates.
‘Move to higher ground’: Liberal MP’s climate advice to Fijians
John Alexander, the sitting Liberal MP for Bennelong, has sought to downplay his comments that Australia’s climate policy priority in the Pacific should be helping people “move to higher ground” rather than curbing coal.
Emissions plan to cost taxpayer $300m, says Shorten [$]
Bill Shorten has declared the cost of Labor’s ambitious emissions reduction policies to the taxpayer will be “practically nil’’ as he fended off questions about the impact of his climate change plan in a tough debate with Scott Morrison in Brisbane last night.
CEFC targets transport emissions with investment in Australian freight technology
CEFC Clean Energy Innovation Fund makes $4m equity investment into patented Australian carbon fibre portable container technology that can cut transport emissions, costs.
A Cleaner Environment For All Australians
Liberal Party media release
A re-elected Morrison Government will invest $203 million to increase recycling and reduce waste, protect Australia’s unique threatened species and restore our waterways and coasts.
Coalition support for recycling welcome, but fails to tackle tide of plastic pollution
AMCS media release
The Coalition’s policy to grow Australia’s recycling industry will not be enough to stem the tide of plastic pollution on our beaches and in our oceans, the Australian Marine Conservation Society has said.
Coalition environment announcement does little to reverse its deep budget cuts to nature protection
ACF media release
Most of the package is repurposed money and it will do little to reverse the half a billion dollars the Coalition has cut from environment programs since 2013.
Shorten finds his voice on climate change – and even Warren Entsch sings along
Katharine Murphy
The Labor leader’s message is that climate change is the ultimate symbol of Australian politics being broken
Only the stupid think the cost of climate change is simple
Ross Gittins
The more you know about modelling, the less it impresses you.
Coalition is to blame for uncertainty over climate costs
SMH editorial
For the fifth election in a row, Australia is facing a campaign in which the Coalition is demanding the ALP come clean about the cost of its policies to fight climate change.
Shorten reinvents climate politics [$]
Paul Kelly
Refusing to play by orthodox rules, Bill Shorten — if he wins — will transform the politics of climate change in Australia.
Come clean on policies now [$]
Australian editorial
A mandate means no nasty climate surprises after the poll.
We crunch the numbers, and find costs of Labor’s emissions target are not that big
David Leitch
The costs of Labor’s emissions reduction targets are not big, and the cost of its renewables target will be about zero. The Coalition still doesn’t get it.
Global emissions from Australian carbon exports dwarf any domestic cuts
Lucy Percival
Global emissions from Australia’s exported carbon are now more than double our total domestic carbon emissions from all sectors.
Fixing the gap between Labor’s greenhouse gas goals and their policies
Mark Diesendorf
Switching to 100% renewables, and focusing on energy efficiency, will play key roles in meeting ambitious greenhouse gas targets.
Wesfarmers dumps coal and turns to electric cars: Australia should follow
Giles Parkinson
Just months after selling the last of its thermal coal assets, Wesfarmers – one of Australia’s leading business conglomerates – has made a $776 million play to enter the lithium market and tap into the opportunities of the global switch to electric vehicles.
Australians want leadership on climate [$]
David Ritter
Where once ‘the environment’ was just one political issue among many, years of inaction have brought on a state of paramount urgency. As David Attenborough put it recently, ‘If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.’ Change is coming. Every election is now a climate change election.
Saturday Paper editorial
There is a nuanced debate playing out over Brian Fisher’s analysis of the cost of Labor’s climate policy. In the corner of Twitter where economists and climate pundits squabble, opinions fly back and forth – on cost curves, on the assumptions of Fisher’s model and even on his professional standing in the field. What is likely to stick with voters, though, are the numbers pulled from Fisher’s report, published on the front pages of papers around the country.
Victoria
Inquiry digs into dirty side of Vic waste
Victorian lawmakers have called on environmental authorities to do more to prevent toxic fires and warned of the emerging “huge beast” in waste storage.
A smart route to fewer cars in the city
Melbourne’s new transport strategy is likely to further reduce the unsustainable demand by motorists on CBD space.
Wildlife shelters inundated, as drought pushes native animals into harm’s way
Wildlife carers in Victoria say more native animals are being injured or killed as prolonged dry weather drives them to seek food and water closer to urban areas.
New South Wales
Cane Toad Discovered in Parramatta LGA
A large cane toad was found early this morning at Stevens Street Reserve in Ermington by a City of Parramatta Council bush regeneration contractor.
LNG import terminals ‘not the answer’ for manufacturers [$]
Industrial gas users in NSW are increasingly frustrated at governments’ lack of support for developing onshore gas.
Climate of Fear: Activists accused of exploiting protesting kids [$]
Hundreds of children wagged school on Friday to protest about climate change outside the offices of federal MPs across Sydney as experts warned they had been “manipulated” for political gain.
ACT
Baby poop and homemade toothpaste: The realities of zero-waste living
This Canberra family has only put out the garbage twice in the past year, and they want to make it less. This is what living waste free looks like for them, a university student, and a single mum.
Queensland
One of the world’s most invasive alien turtle species found in Bundaberg backyard
The red-eared slider turtle, which is known to be aggressive and to carry diseases that threaten Australia’s native turtles, is found in a backyard in Bundaberg in southern Queensland.
Adani working to meet Qld govt demands
Indian mining firm Adani says it is working to meet a new list of requirements from the Queensland government needed to get approval for a coal mine.
How is a tiny bird such a big problem for Adani?
What precisely is so important about a tiny seed-eating bird that it can stall the roll-out of a massive coal mine in central Queensland? Birdlife Australia says the reasoning is actually quite clear-cut.
In Adani country voters have had a ‘gutful’ [$]
Support for “straight-talking” Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson runs deep in country Queensland, despite the scandals that have engulfed their parties.
Adani boss says mine delays ‘reek of political interference’ [$]
Adani says extra hurdles are being imposed by Queensland on its $2 billion Carmichael mine, which won’t be approved before the May 18 federal election.
Adani project faces five-year delay [$]
Strict conditions put forward by the DES may delay coalmine construction but company’s resolve “continues to harden”.
Adani delay blow to federal Labor prospects [$]
Labor insiders said yesterday federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s camp was livid, while regional figures said the party had abandoned campaigns to win marginal Coalition electorates in regional Queensland in favour of city seats.
Brisbane River to be treated as an infrastructure asset in SEQ City Deal
Federal Brisbane MP Trevor Evans said future Brisbane River care will be part of the future SEQ City Deal, while announcing three Brisbane River restoration projects.
Plans to clear koala bushland at Belmont shelved
The Queensland government’s plan to clear 5.4 hectares of koala habitat to allow an expansion of the Belmont Shooting Complex has been scrapped.
Aurizon’s coal deadlock ends in peace accord [$]
A peace treaty between Queensland rail group Aurizon and 11 Queensland coal miners is set to generate hundreds of millions of dollars of additional value for Aurizon while paving the way for a lift in coal exports.
ACF backs rejection of Adani’s finch plans – new analysis shows land disturbance of proposed mines
ACF media release
Analysis shows six proposed mines – including Adani’s Carmichael project – would disturb 155,491 hectares of land, 81,493 hectares of which would be completely cleared.
Adani’s Carmichael mine is unlikely to go ahead, and most people know it
John Quiggin
When the project was launched in 2010, the prospects for thermal coal looked rosy. Today it is hopelessly uneconomic
Adani move smacks of sabotage [$]
Courier Mail editorial
The latest State Government move on Adani smacks of sabotage and will threaten $60 billion worth of resources projects working their way through approvals process.
Up against the coalface of unrest [$]
Michael Madigan
Activists The pro-mine tribe are camped on one side of the council grounds, the anti-mine tribe on the other. Union supporters laud right wing politicians. Farmers sit with the Greens. What’s next?
South Australia
Reversing the course of climate change [$]
Climate change will impact every facet of South Australian lives — from energy to transport, environment to agriculture — here’s what our best and brightest are doing to improve the situation.
Tasmania
On the mind and in the works: Fixing the Tamar River estuary
Attention is not new to kanamaluka/Tamar River. With a catchment covering about 15 per cent of Tasmania’s North, many interact with it directly or indirectly each day – and have done so for thousands of years.
Tamar River clean up a high priority for readers, according to federal election survey
The results are in from The Examiner’s Northern Agenda federal election survey. Cleaning up the Tamar River came in as our readers’ top priority, with 79 readers voting the issue as their first preference. A massive 264 readers listed it as their third.
Attorney-General Elise Archer is seeking to intervene in the appeal against the Central Highlands Council’s decision to reject a luxury tourism development at Lake Malbena.
Western Australia
‘Climate change is real’: WA schoolkids in new protest
Schoolchildren who gathered in hundreds in Perth today to protest climate change inaction say they are afraid for their future and “don’t want to die in their 50s”.
WA ditches Collie solar and biomass plans in favor of “trail adventures”
Plans to develop biomass and utility-scale solar generation facilities in the WA coal town of Collie have been swept aside, in favour of other “future industries.”
Sustainability
Anti-nuke protesters heckle Prince William
Activists from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament have heckled Prince William’s as he entered Westminster Abbey.
Climate change wreaking havoc on the world’s hydropower plants
“The general trend all over the world is areas that are dry become more dry and areas that are wet become more wet,” Rynning-Tonnesen, chief executive officer of the renewable electricity generator Statkraft AS, said in an interview in New York on Thursday.
U.S. cracks down on Iran uranium production, nuclear plant
The United States acted on Friday to force Iran to stop producing low-enriched uranium and expanding its only nuclear power plant, intensifying its campaign aimed at halting Tehran’s ballistic missile program and curbing its regional influence.
City of Amsterdam to ban polluting cars from 2030
Gasoline and diesel fueled cars and motorcycles will be banned from Amsterdam from 2030 in an effort to clean up the city’s air, the Dutch capital’s council said on Thursday.
Much of the food we eat today may impact our great-grandchildren, a prominent WSU researcher said. Bayer, the company that owns the chemical in question, is fighting that assertion.
Faceless killer: the invisible threat of air pollution
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat of our times. The latest State of Global Air report, released on April 2, finds that toxic air contributed to the deaths of nearly 5 million people in 2017.
Nature Conservation
Illegal logging poised to wipe Cambodian wildlife sanctuary off the map
Experts working on the ground say corruption is fuelling the widespread destruction of Cambodia’s forests, and is deeply entrenched in many different sectors including the federal government and local forest protection agencies.
Invasion of the biosphere by synthetic polymers
Algalita Founder Captain Charles Moore, the man known for sparking “The Great Plastics Awakening” 20 years ago, strengthens the case for revolutionary change in a recent article published in the official journal of the Chinese Society of Oceanography: Acta Oceanologica Sinica.
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