Post of the Day
Red Cross to world’s cities: here’s how to prevent heat wave deaths
The disaster relief agency issued new guidlines to help city leaders cope with rising global temperatures.
Today’s Celebration
Constitution Day – Uruguay
Nelson Mandela International Day
Climate Change
July on course to be hottest month ever, say climate scientists
If global trends continue for another fortnight, it will beat previous two-year-old record
Climate change threatens human rights and democracy, UN official warns
It reads like the pages of a dystopian novel – a world stuck in a “climate apartheid” where only the rich can escape the worst of global warming while hundreds of millions battle disease, food insecurity, forced migration and monster storms.
Climate change is very real. But so much of it is uncertain
A new study brings much-needed clarity to a key measure of climate change.
Correcting historic sea surface temperature measurements
Research corrects decades of data and suggests that ocean warming occurred in a much more homogenous way
Christians care about climate change if it’s about saving ‘God’s creation’
A new study shows that climate change can be more of a Christian issue—if we speak their language.
What counts for our climate: Carbon budgets untangled
Different analyzes have come up with different estimates of how much CO2 humankind can still emit if we want to hold global warming to the internationally agreed 1.5 and well below 2 degrees Celsius limits, but a lack of clarity of the reasons causing these variations has created unnecessary confusion, a new study shows.
National
Environment groups tell shoppers to reject return of plastic Little Shop
Conservation groups are urging consumers to fight back against the relaunch of a Coles promotion which saw millions of small plastic toys given away for free.
More Australian councils declare a climate emergency
Millions of Australians are living in areas facing a “climate emergency” as a rising number of councils advocate action.
Big energy users could sell power back to grid in peak periods under proposed rule change
The rule change, a substitute for extra power generation, would be restricted to large industrial and commercial energy users, with households and small customers excluded because of consumer protection concerns.
Australia urged to move away from oil dependency or risk fuel supply crisis
Submission to government review calls for urgent uptake of electric vehicles, a boost to public transport and tightening of efficiency standards
Bush Summit: Building a $100b industry by 2030 [$]
Agriculture, fisheries and forestry will become a $100 billion industry by 2030 under a Morrison government plan to drive jobs in regional and rural communities.
Busting the myth on energy returns: Renewables to beat fossil fuels
New research blows away myth of “energy returned on investment” and says wind and solar will soon offer a better EROI than fossil fuels.
New demand response rule to erode market power of generator cartel
Demand response finally allowed in wholesale markets, but like the switch to 5-minute settlements, will be delayed at behest of retailers, while households won’t be allowed to play.
Investors asked to support accelerated retirement of AGL’s coal fleet
Market Forces seeks the support of super funds for its shareholder resolution pushing AGL to accelerate its transition out of coal.
Five years after carbon price repeal, Australia remains in policy abyss
Remember the date, July 17, 2014. It is five years ago to the day, when Australia became the first nation in the world to abolish an effective price on carbon emissions.
Future Super partners with RateSetter to provide solar and battery loans
Future Super will partner with RateSetter to expand the availability to affordable finance for residential solar and storage systems.
Renewables fixation limits [$]
David Byers
Intermittent energy sources can’t do it all but carbon capture and storage is proven.
Bernard Salt
Across our vast and affluent nation there is a need in communities big and small to consider how they intend to develop.
Hypocrisy-fuelled ride of Greens activist [$]
Chris Kenny
The sneering superiority of a climate warrior is hard to top. Until cold, hard reality steps in.
Victoria
Australia’s biggest producer of green fuel bounces back to life
Australia’s largest renewable biodiesel producer restarts operations at Barnawartha, in north-east Victoria, just three years after it was driven to closure.
Contamination fears hit West Gate tunnel project [$]
Delays could hit the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel project after contaminated soil was found, prompting crisis talks. But the increasingly volatile CFMEU is moving to a war footing over the issue.
Car share changes will tackle congestion, boost sustainability
Yarra Council media release
We are expanding our support for car sharing to reduce traffic congestion and increase sustainable transport options for locals and visitors to our city.
Claire Smith et al
The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape in south-west Victoria is the first Indigenous Australian landscape to be gazetted on the World Heritage List purely for its cultural values.
New South Wales
NSW remaps old-growth forests to open up reserves to logging
‘Sneaky’ rezoning exercise now under way to address timber shortfall
Farming families forced to spend hundreds on clean water [$]
Clean drinking water is one of the biggest concerns for farmers with some “seriously bad” water quality in many western towns. Some families are spending hundreds of dollars on clean water that lasts only three weeks — another expense they don’t need.
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ACT
Ainslie IGA’s paper bags likely to stay after plastic-free July success
Ainslie IGA could extend a trial removal of plastic bags at its checkouts, making paper bags a permanent fixture and winning praise from Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
‘We’re the forgotten people of the south’: bus changes opposition heats up
Tuggeranong residents say they have been left stranded by the recent bus network changes that have created a “tale of two cities”.
Queensland
Hundreds Of Artists Are Fighting Adani With Heartbreaking Works Of Art
Over the past few weeks, hundreds of Australian artists have taken part in a collective demonstration, rallying around a single, fragile symbol that highlights with heartbreaking clarity what is at stake in this fight.
Nine climate protesters arrested after blocking Brisbane traffic, gluing themselves to road again
Climate change protesters disrupt Brisbane traffic again, causing delays for commuters after blocking CBD roads and gluing themselves to the bitumen.
Howard Smith Wharves shared pathway still needs upgrade, cyclists say
The shared gravel pathway is a key link between the New Farm Riverwalk and the city.
State won’t pay to fix Queensland cladding crisis
The owners of buildings clad in potentially lethal combustible material have been left the bill after the Queensland government rejected pleas to help cover the repair cost.
Koala council promises ‘black and white’ orders to protect SEQ habitats
Queensland’s last-chance plan to protect threatened koalas will not be “some grey utopian report” but have precise recommendations, the chair of an advisory council says.
Adani faces more legal pressure over Carmichael mine
A community environmental lobby group is considering independent legal action against Adani over claims it provided false or misleading information in regards to its Carmichael coal mine.
Bushfire warning over land clear laws [$]
The Queensland government is under attack over land clearance laws which critics say increase the severity of bushfires.
Tourism operators fear visitor numbers are at their lowest since 1989. But is the reef fighting back?
Adani has set a dangerous precedent in requesting scientists’ names
Samantha Hepburn
A freedom of information request has revealed Adani sought the names of CSIRO and Geoscience Australia scientists involved in reviewing groundwater management plans related to its proposed Carmichael mine.
What if protesters were blocking the road when Pa’s heart stopped?
Madonna King
Just how do the activists in Brisbane think they are going to win people over to their cause by holding them up in traffic?
Adani pirates hold Australia hostage
Michelle Pini
It’s hardly surprising that Adani may have lied to ensure government approval for its mine,
South Australia
Controversial Kangaroo Island ecotourism project gets the green light
A contentious ecotourism project on Kangaroo Island has been approved — and could lead the way for similar projects that will open up South Australian national parks currently “under lock and key”.
Islanders poised for legal fight over KI lodges [$]
A legal battle is brewing over Flinders Chase National Park, after the State Government announced plans for new accommodation to service the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail had passed their last major hurdle.
Flying start for SA machine that goes Ping
An Adelaide startup that has developed an acoustic listening device for monitoring the health of wind turbines has raised AU$850,000 to support the commercialisation of its world-first product.
NSW water crisis a wake-up call for SA [$]
As NSW towns face running dry, the state’s Deputy Premier John Barilaro calls on SA to take action on curbing the massive water losses from its Lower Lakes.
Mid North solar farm locks in power sale [$]
If you’re generating heaps of electricity from your $480 million solar power farm, you need someone to buy it. Who better than the company which knocked over the Port Augusta coal plant?
Australia’s first compressed air energy storage system gets development approval [$]
S.A. government awards planning approval for compressed air energy storage system, a national first and another big step forward for clean energy in Australia.
Can we cull koalas while they’re threatened elsewhere?
Shaun Hollis
The rest of the world is worried about the survival of one of the world’s cutest creatures, but here there’s talks of culling the population. What do we do with all our koalas?
Tasmania
Taller, faster, better, stronger: wind towers are only getting bigger
Con Doolan
Former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown made headlines this week after he objected to a proposed wind farm on Tasmania’s Robbins Island. The development would see 200 towers built, each standing 270 metres from base to the tip of their blades.
Northern Territory
Uluru is not yours to climb [$]
Michael Bradley
Even if you put aside basic cultural and spiritual respect, a look at the raw legal fact will tell you Uluru is as much public land as Pauline Hanson’s house is public land.
It’s right to ban tourists from climbing Uluru. This is why
Janne Apelgren
For years I’ve been saying it to friends and fellow travellers: Climbing Uluru is one of the shallowest, most unrewarding experiences in Australian tourism. I know because I’ve done it twice.
Western Australia
Green groups accuse Chevron of ‘deliberate mismanagement’ of its own carbon storage project
The Conservation Council of Western Australia says Chevron has deliberately mismanaged a taxpayer subsidised carbon sequestration project, resulting in millions of tonnes of CO2 being released to the atmosphere.
Traditional owner fracking veto won’t extend to WA exploration
On Friday an 18-month roadmap outlining the regulations companies must meet before they can begin fracking was released.
Shell boss pushes Browse partners towards NWS pipeline
The call comes just two weeks after one unnamed North West Shelf shareholder threw plans to use the Karratha plant into disarray.
Sustainability
Cambodia will return 1,600 tonnes of waste to the US and Canada
Cambodia plans to send 83 shipping containers packed with plastic rubbish back to the United States and Canada, with the delivery called a “serious insult”.
Trump drilling leases could create more climate pollution than EU does in a year
US has offered close to 378m acres of public lands and waters for oil and gas leasing since Trump took office through April 2019
US judge slashes Roundup jury award to $25.3 million; Bayer still plans to appeal
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco said evidence against the former Monsanto Co, which Bayer bought last year, supported the $5.27 million in compensatory damages that a jury awarded Edwin Hardeman. He also said the jury acted reasonably in awarding punitive damages.
The big fashion fight: Can we remove all the toxic, invisible plastic from our clothes?
More than half of all textiles produced each year include plastic. Now the urgent search is on for a more sustainable way to clothe the world.
Are bioplastics better for the environment than other plastics?
Many people assume all bioplastics are made from plants and can break down completely in the environment. But that’s not the case.
The seriously scary problem with the black plastic all around us
It’s one of the biggest challenges facing recycling today—but researchers have discovered a breakthrough technique that turns it into a precious commodity.
Red Cross to world’s cities: here’s how to prevent heat wave deaths
The disaster relief agency issued new guidlines to help city leaders cope with rising global temperatures.
Young people who live in cities may have billions of toxic air pollution particles in their hearts
A new study shows air pollution particles can cause damage in the cells of the heart’s critical pumping muscles, even in children as young as three-years-old.
This 22-part plan is how can we feed the world by 2050
We need to slash emissions from agriculture while at the same time feeding billions more people. It’s a difficult task, but there’s a path forward to make it work.
Massive potential health gains in switching to active transport — Otago study
Swapping short car trips for walking or biking could achieve as much health gain as ongoing tobacco tax increases, according to a study from the University of Otago, New Zealand.
Harvesting energy from the human knee
Imagine powering your devices by walking. With technology recently developed by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and described in Applied Physics Letters, that possibility might not be far out of reach. An energy harvester is attached to the wearer’s knee and can generate 1.6 microwatts of power while the wearer walks without any increase in effort. The energy is enough to power small electronics like health monitoring equipment and GPS devices.
Scotland’s wind farms generate enough electricity to power nearly 4.5 million homes
Wind turbines in Scotland produced enough electricity in the first half of 2019 to power every home in the country twice over, according to new data by the analytics group WeatherEnergy.
Radiation in parts of Marshall Islands is higher than Chernobyl
Radiation levels in parts of the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, where the United States conducted nearly 70 nuclear tests during the Cold War, are still alarmingly high. Researchers tested soil samples on four uninhabited isles and discovered that they contained concentrations of nuclear isotopes that are significantly higher than those found near Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Britain shows the uselessness of wind power [$]
Terry McCrann
No blow It’s feast or famine when it comes to Britain’s wind turbines, yet many Australian business leaders think it’s a good idea to follow in their footsteps.
Nature Conservation
‘Overwhelming joy’: birth of California condor chicks marks soaring comeback
The birds, whose numbers once dropped to just 22 in the wild in the early 1980s, have two new chicks: Nos 1,000 and 1,001
Study bolsters case that climate change is driving many California wildfires
A new study combs through the many factors that can promote wildfire in California, and concludes that in many, though not all, cases, warming climate is the decisive driver.
Plant viruses may be reshaping our world
A new review article appearing in the journal Nature Reviews Microbiology highlights the evolution and ecology of plant viruses. Arvind Varsani, a researcher at ASU’s Biodesign Institute joins an international team to explore many details of viral dynamics. They describe the subtle interplay between three components of the viral infection process, the virus itself, the plant cell hosts infected by the virus and the vectors that act as go-betweens — an intricate system evolving over some 450 million years.
Sea level rise requires extra management to maintain salt marshes
Salt marshes are important habitats for fish and birds and protect coasts under sea level rise against stronger wave attacks. However, marshes themselves are much more vulnerable than previously thought. Stronger waves due to sea level rise can not only reduce the marsh extent by erosion of the marsh edge, but these waves hamper plant re-establishment on neighboring tidal flats, making it much more difficult for the marsh to recover and grow again.
Protected area designation effective in reducing, but not preventing, land cover changes
The designation of protected areas in Europe has been effective in reducing, but not completely preventing, land cover changes associated with human activity, according to a study published July 17, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Niels Hellwig of Potsdam University and Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and colleagues.
Climate change and overfishing threaten Lake Malawi
For years, fish stocks have been dwindling in Lake Malawi and now climate change is playing its part in further damaging livelihoods in this impoverished country.
The loss of biodiversity comes at a price
A University of Cordoba research team ran the numbers on the impact of forest fires on emblematic species using the fires in Spain’s Doñana National Park and Segura mountains in 2017 as examples
Limits on pot fishing can result in win-win for fishermen and marine wildlife
The first major study into the impact of inshore potting for crab and lobster within a Marine Protected Area has found that in areas of low potting intensity the industry is operating in a way that had little impact on seabed species or economically-important shellfish.
Plant probe could help estimate bee exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides
Bee populations are declining, and neonicotinoid pesticides continue to be investigated — and in some cases banned — because of their suspected role as a contributing factor. However, limitations in sampling and analytical techniques have prevented a full understanding of the connection. Now, researchers describe a new approach to sample neonicotinoids and other pesticides in plants, which could explain how bees are exposed to the substances.
Do marine protected areas work?
A study describes how to use data collected before and after Marine Protected Areas are created to verify that they work.
Are nature documentaries the greatest art of our time?
Sebastian Smee
Like marvellous churches and and museum pieces, we don’t yet view these important contributions as art. But with the Earth’s impending peril, that may soon change.
Whaling feeds Japan’s pride [$]
Richard Lloyd Parry
Tokyo’s decision to resume commercial hunting sends a message to critics around the world.
Now for something completely different …
There’s no link between drinking coffee and getting cancer, research finds
Drinking coffee does not change a person’s risk of being diagnosed with or dying from cancer, a new Queensland study finds, with researchers saying the results could have public health implications worldwide.
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