http://news.trust.org/item/20190613114234-4tuw0/
Post of the Day
The Great Insect Dying: How to save insects and ourselves
In the fourth and final story of this exclusive Mongabay series, entomologists around the world offer far ranging solutions to curb and reverse the great insect die-off.
Today’s Celebration
Day of National Salvation – Azerbaijan
National Flag Day – Armenia
Valdemars Day – Denmark
Arbor Day – Costa Rica
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
Climate Change
Carbon pricing essential for climate: Pope
The Pope has criticised those who deny human-induced climate change and called carbon pricing “essential” for stemming its impacts.
Development banks’ climate funding at all-time high in 2018
Financing from six multilateral development banks to boost projects addressing climate risks and cutting emissions topped $43 billion in 2018, up 22% from 2017
Trump official consults climate deniers
US President Donald Trump doesn’t believe in climate change, and one of his officials has been liaising with a think tank that doesn’t believe in it either.
National
Batteries the winner, as 5-minute rule promises to end gas market gaming
The days of gas power generators deliberately “gaming” Australia’s electricity market are numbered, an expert has warned, with the market rule maker set to introduce new spot price settlement settings in 2021.
Sussan Ley: I’ll be an environmentalist as minister
MP says she’s prepared to fight for her portfolio – and a priority will be cutting ‘green tape’ for big projects
Environment Minister floats ‘lending’ Murray Darling environmental water to farmers
New Environment Minister Sussan Ley says farmers in the Murray Darling Basin should be allowed to “borrow” water reserved for maintaining the river’s health, and federal approval for major developments must be streamlined to “give proponents more assurances” and reduce delays.
Private capital, government subsidies and foreign investment have combined to ensure Genex will build the country’s first pumped-storage hydro project in more than 30 years.
Cannon-Brookes and the new climate guard [$]
As the Coalition stalls on emissions reduction, moneyed climate activists are turning to direct investment, led by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.
A disorienting sight to an Australian: How the UK got on with the climate change challenge
Nick O’Malley
This week Theresa May’s government set a target of zero net emissions by 2050. By Australian standards, the response was staggering.
An easy-breezy idea for the Minister for Emissions Reduction
Andrew Bray
If Angus Taylor wants to cut emissions, boost regional economies and build a stable electricity grid, then the answer to all three is blowing in the wind.
Goodbye energy consumers, hello energy citizens
Mark Byrne
Power is literally shifting to the people, and we have only just started to conceptualise what that might mean for consumers as energy citizens.
Nothing new in Coalition’s nuclear awakening. No wait, perhaps there is
Katharine Murphy
Could this be the catalyst for the Coalition of 2019 to reconnect itself with the position it adopted in 2007 for sound reasons?
Taylor-Price spoke at the former PM’s memorial at the Sydney Opera House. Here is her speech
Store that thought: Batteries enter the energy mainstream
David Leitch
Battery storage is entering the mainstream: in households and streetscapes, and with renewables and as “virtual” transmission lines.
Hope and dust [$]
Patrice Newell
After 200 years of bullying the land into submission, we must now reimagine the future of farming in Australia.
Often wrong, yet they carry on [$]
Chris Kenny
News Corp could teach discredited green-left analysts a thing or two about getting it right.
The green movement is in crisis [$]
Noel Pearson
The last thing the environment portfolio needs is a progressive from an inner-city seat.
Victoria
This is Australia’s largest solar and battery farm
Australia’s largest integrated battery and solar farm in Victoria’s north can power 16,000 homes. It was officially opened today.
The Melbourne suburbs where reports of termites are soaring
As the city’s housing sprawl continues, an increasing volume of the ruinous critters are being forced to forage for food indoors.
A new approach to carbon-free investing [$]
AllianceBernstein’s Sydney office has come up with a new investment concept called “green alpha”, which refers to the outperformance of a carbon-neutral portfolio.
Why platypuses are choking in this Melbourne suburb [$]
A shocking Melbourne Water audit in Diamond Creek has uncovered the ‘distressing’ reason why so many platypuses are choking and dying in the suburb’s waterways. And the culprit is a household item you’d probably never think of.
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New South Wales
Why storage is key to NSW government plans, in race to clean energy
NSW government to use money collected through consumer electricity bills to help bring new, large-scale generation and storage capacity into its changing grid.
Premier makes case for federal funding to help fast track projects
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she will continue to push upon the Morrison government the state’s ability to fast-track congestion-busting transport projects if the Commonwealth injects funds.
The recycled home built to last
Mark Van Laarhoven utilises beer bottles, car tyres and other discarded materials to build homes that won’t require heating or cooling and will run off solar power.
ACT
Anti-Adani protests continue in Canberra
Despite the Carmichael mine being given its final approvals, anti-Adani protesters are continuing to highlight their concerns with the coal project.
ACT slams Coalition’s “Alice in Wonderland” climate and energy policy
ACT energy minister slams Federal Government on climate and energy, joining NSW minister and ESB chair Kerry Schott calling for a coherent approach to clean energy transition.
ACT govt rejects call to send water levy directly to infrastructure
The ACT government won’t use its water levy to directly fund water infrastructure despite a recommendation by the environment commissioner.
Queensland
‘I’m watching you’, Palaszczuk tells Adani
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she’ll be making sure mining company Adani keeps its promises to create local jobs and protect the environment.
Federal MP hasn’t asked Adani about jobs
A federal MP who has spruiked the jobs Adani’s mine will create in her Queensland electorate admits she’s never asked for a precise figure.
Campaigners criticise ‘reckless’ approval of Adani mine in Australia
Environmentalists say opening up Queensland’s Galilee Basin ignores global climate goals
Adani mine ‘just’ viable, other Galilee ventures less so
Carmichael mine is barely economic and other projects in the Galilee Basin may be less so, analysts say.
Adani mining project: Court asks Australian govt to look into public concerns
A local court in Australia has asked Federal Govt to listen to public grievances on Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme. It spells fresh trouble for Adanis and their billion dollar coal mining project
Adani cleared for mega-pit ramp-up [$]
The Adani group has been certified to expand its new Carmichael coalmine into a mega-pit, producing six times the volume of ore.
Adani pushes Trad voters to Greens [$]
The Palaszczuk government’s approval of the Adani mine could spell the end of Deputy Premier Jackie Trad’s run in her seat.
The ‘new’ species Indigenous locals always knew was there
It highlights how little is known about the remote parts of Queensland.
New Environment Minister says crown-of-thorns starfish is the ‘most imminent threat’ to the reef
The federal government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says climate change “is the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs worldwide”.
Stanthorpe will soon run out of water [$]
In southern Queensland’s food bowl, farmers warn they won’t be able to plant a crop this spring.
So many plans for so many dams but still so little water
Like four generations before them, members of the Perkins family tirelessly work some of the best soil in the country, southern Queensland’s Granite Belt, to produce the finest, freshest food to grace the tables of city folk.
Where to for Adani and Galilee coal?
Margaret Gleeson
The Environment Defenders Office Queensland (EDO QLD) announced on June 12 that in a huge win for its client the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), the federal government has conceded the case brought against it over Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme — the plan to pump up to 12.5 billion litres of water a year from the Suttor River to Adani’s Carmichael mine site.
The cost of the Adani mine on the planet’s health and our own
David King
Coal mines are toxic to both people and the planet (Screenshot via YouTube – edited)
Continuing the use of coal as an energy source will not only further cripple the environment but also impact our health.
No barrier to Cairns’ revival [$]
Peter Michael
Floods, fickle airlines and greenies spruiking doom and gloom about the Reef have hit tourism in the far northern city. But there’s optimism an injection of big money and big ideas will pay big dividends.
Adani: It all looks dodgy as hell and none of it has been explained properly
First Dog on the Moon
You deserve better, Queensland, even though you don’t seem to think you do
South Australia
Record wind output in South Australia, thanks to “butterfly” effect of failed coal plant
Wind generation hits record levels in South Australia as wind farms enjoy a rare “butterfly effect” from the failure of a unit at Loy Yang A’s brown coal generator.
$12.5 million upgrade coming to Victoria Park [$]
The south-eastern parklands are set to get a $12.5 million upgrade — with a new butterfly garden, picnic areas and viewing decks all part of a plan to stop thousands of properties from flooding.
Controversial KI lodging wins approval [$]
A contentious plan for high-end accommodation on Kangaroo Island has won planning approval — but its opponents will keep fighting to save their precious park.
The environmental threat of tailings dams
Dave Sweeney
BHP has applied to expand the Olympic Dam mine in SA, but with the recent failure of tailings dams, caution must be taken.
Dam reality muddies the waters of key poll pledge [$]
Adam Langenberg
The State Rather than being a political black eye, an SA Health-approved auditor’s report warning of safety risks of opening reservoirs to recreation activities, could be an opportunity for the Government.
Tasmania
Launceston will be the home to the largest research centre in the country with the fledgling Blue Economy research centre taking its first steps from its head office at the Newnham campus.
Old-growth trees cut down for windfarm [$]
Rainforest trees 200 years old have been cleared to make way for a windfarm transmission line in Tasmania’s Tarkine.
Campaign takes aim at off-road hoons [$]
A council is stepping up the fight against off-road drivers who damage tracks, dunes and sites of Aboriginal significance.
Review after storm over climate emergency [$]
Hobart City Council is reviewing the ability of elected members to bring on urgency motions in the chamber.
Northern Territory
Battle to bring back controversial Uluru blimp flies into court
For the 300,000 people who visit Uluru each year, the 2009 plan to stop tourists climbing the rock spelt the beginning of the end of an iconic Australian climb. But for a group of enterprising Sydney businessmen, it presented an opportunity that just months after its inaugural liftoff has now landed in the NSW Supreme Court.
Western Australia
Harvey ditches Western Power sale plan that helped lead Liberals to landslide election loss
Liza Harvey rules out selling state-owned electricity utility Western Power on her second day in the job as Opposition Leader, a shift away from the policy her party took to the last state election and which was retained under Mike Nahan.
Sustainability
The feminist, anti-colonialist scientific approach to micro-plastics and pollution
A Canadian lab that conducts research on microplastics interrogates the scientific method.
Deposit scheme could dramatically reduce plastic waste – report
Analysis says DRS would stop thousands of tonnes of waste entering English rivers and sea.
Renewable energy capacity now exceeds coal in US
Renewable energy now generates more electricity in the United States than coal.
Zero Waste movement grows in France
What does the future of food packaging look like? With nearly all of the planet’s natural spaces touched by plastic pollution, many consumers hope the answer to that question is: nothing at all.
German pilot project produces kerosene from sunlight, water and CO2 for first time
German pilot project has made kerosene using concentrated sunlight, water and CO2 for the first time.
Cooling the worsening urban heat island
Meet the people trying to cool off the urban jungle even as the globe warms.
Renewable energy industry employed 11 million people in 2018
At least 11 million people around the world held jobs across the renewables sector, from manufacturing and trading to installation.
U.S. green groups ramp up legal attacks on federal oil leases
Green groups aim to slow fossil-fuel development with legal challenges over planned oil and gas leases on public land.
‘Chernobyl‘ holds a chilling lesson for us and it isn’t just the nuclear meltdown
Cameron Williams
The best historical dramas work as fables and as an allegory for our times, Chernobyl couldn’t be more fitting. We ought to heed this warning.
Nature Conservation
The Great Insect Dying: How to save insects and ourselves
In the fourth and final story of this exclusive Mongabay series, entomologists around the world offer far ranging solutions to curb and reverse the great insect die-off.
Climate change to reduce ocean wildlife by 17%
Climate change is set to empty the ocean of nearly a fifth of all living creatures, measured by mass, by the end of the century, researchers have calculated.
Despite a decade of zero-deforestation vows, forest loss continues: Greenpeace
The report concludes that not a single company could demonstrate “meaningful effort to eradicate deforestation from its supply chain.”
Proposal to mine fossil-rich site in New Zealand sparks campaign to protect it
Foulden Maar formed 23 million years ago and contains tens of thousands of fossils of extinct plants and animals.
Now for something completely different …
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