Post of the Day
Six shocking climate events that happened around the world this week
Heat waves, melting glaciers, and wasp “super nests.”
Today’s Celebration
Independence Day – Solomon Islands
Saba Saba – Tanzania
Tanabata Festival – Japan
Battle of Chesma Day – Russia
Ivan Kupala Day – Belarus, Russia, Ukraine
Youth Day – Singapore
Climate Change
‘Biggest compliment yet’: Greta Thunberg welcomes oil chief’s ‘greatest threat’ label
Activists say comments by OPEC head prove world opinion is turning against fossil fuels
‘Radical’ historian Blainey challenges climate-change orthodoxy [$]
Professor Geoffrey Blainey is no stranger to controversy. Now he’s challenging the view that today’s climate change is either unique or largely the result of human behaviour.
‘It’s happening now’: Climate change threatens public health, and we’re seeing its effects already
It’s been dubbed “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century”. But how does a warming climate pose risks to our physical and mental health?
Six shocking climate events that happened around the world this week
Heat waves, melting glaciers, and wasp “super nests.”
Global warming led to scorching heat in Europe. Leaders must take it seriously.
Scientists conclude that climate change makes such extreme weather more likely.
National
Frydenberg defends decision to query if he had power to weaken grasslands protections
Former environment minister says Angus Taylor made inquiries on behalf of farmers in his electorate
Fact Check: Can you drive from Sydney to Melbourne in an electric car? [$]
Former Labor minister Stephen Conroy says that it’s not possible to drive between Sydney and Melbourne easily in an electric vehicle.
The man who helped re-imagine Melbourne
In 1985, when Swanston St was a car-clogged thoroughfare, David Yencken covered it in turf. That’s not all he did.
Australia’s national parks are reaching an environmental tipping point, rangers warn
Former rangers, traditional owners and conservationists say Australia’s national parks are reaching an environmental tipping point, with funding cuts at both a state and federal level leaving them in poor condition.
Support for reallocating water from irrigators to Indigenous communities
A random survey of people living in the Murray-Darling Basin shows support for reallocating water from irrigators to Indigenous communities.
Big solar boom continues, as half-year tally draws equal with HY 2018
Australia’s large-scale solar market shaping up to have as big a year as the record-smashing 2018, according to the latest data from solar consultants SunWiz.
Farmers have nothing to fear by embracing Aboriginal heritage listings, experts say
Experts say landowners can open up new income and community opportunities by learning about and embracing the Aboriginal history on their properties.
Call for national plastic ban in Australia after South Australia’s move
South Australia’s move to ban plastic cutlery, straws and drink stirrers from next year has prompted calls for a similar measure to be adopted at a national level.
Koalas on the decline — Dangerous new threats, emerging solutions
The Australian icon could lose its fight against climate change, disease, habitat destruction and cars — but not if dedicated conservationists get the tools they need to protect the species.
Why is Australia in the middle of a recycling crisis? [$]
Amber Schultz
Every week Australians wheel their yellow recycling bins to the curb. But as more and more countries refuse to deal with our “contaminated” plastics, it’s clear we need to rethink our approach.
Why we’re sick of teaching women how to quit plastic
Louise Williams and Clara Williams Roldan
As we’ve run talks and workshops on how to reduce plastic use, we’ve found ourselves looking out at a sea of women and wondering, “Where are all the men?”
Why Australia sends its waste overseas, and what we should do about it
James Massola
Misna sits in a mountain of rubbish in her village of Ploso, East Java, holding a ripped and faded Australian $20 note.
Victoria
Budj Bim Aboriginal site in western Victoria added to World Heritage list
Budj Bim Aboriginal site in western Victoria makes World Heritage list.
More transport misery to hit Melbourne commuters in July and August
Commuters should brace for several weeks of public transport misery in and around Melbourne as the state government embarks on another school holidays “building blitz” on its transport upgrade projects.
The tipping point: why councils are leading the fight against plastic
Just Falafs might have a funny name but one thing the Fitzroy North falafel joint takes seriously is eliminating plastic.
Victorian wind farm to power massive new recycling plant
A massive plastic recycling plant being built in Victoria will be powered by locally generated wind energy, in a deal with Goldwind Australia’s 321MW Moorabool wind farm.
Rising tide, erosion a threat to Port Phillip Bay’s beachside suburbs
With the glittering Port Phillip Bay at its doorstep, Brighton is among Melbourne’s poshest and most expensive suburbs.
The WWII adage resurrected in war on waste [$]
A tried and trusted adage has been resurrected to help deal with Victoria’s throwaway society, which is needlessly sending tonnes of material to landfill. Here’s what you can do to fight the war on waste.
When Victoria tosses its discarded junk right across the river
Tony Wright
Before poker machines began cluttering clubs and pubs across Victoria, a reliable stream of cash-laden buses flowed to cities and towns on the northern banks of the Murray River, from Albury in the east to Wentworth in the west.
New South Wales
‘More than middle-aged men in Lycra’: Labor eyes bikes to beat congestion
Cycling isn’t just for “middle-aged men in Lycra,” according to Labor MP Jo Haylen, who says it’s a key part of the solution to fixing Sydney’s congestion.
Anti-Adani protesters cause peak-hour delays in Sydney CBD
Hundreds of anti-Adani protesters flocked to the Sydney and Brisbane CBDs for co-ordinated rallies on Friday evening where they stalled traffic, and handed out chocolate and flyers to motorists.
Plastics-to-oil waste firm faces ‘tremendous’ hurdles to set up in NSW
Technology developed in NSW to convert waste plastics into reusable materials such as fuel could be commercialised overseas or interstate first because of “massive” hurdles facing such firms in the state, the co-inventor of the pioneering process says.
Dams, flight paths? Ask UN first [$]
Graham Lloyd
A UN committee will oversee key decisions on Sydney’s future water supply and flight paths.
Australian editorial
Dams and aircraft noise are none of the UN’s damn business.
NSW Nationals court coal, abandon farmers in latest rejection of climate science
Michael Mazengarb
The NSW Nationals have further positioned themselves as a party that fails to recognise the threat climate change poses to farmers, passing motions at its state conference that call for the abolition of climate funding and for the protection of coal companies from legal challenges.
ACT
Endangered frog eggs released into wild
A critically endangered frog could return to a national park near Canberra after conservationists released hundreds of their eggs into parkland.
Queensland
Anti-Adani activists say Brisbane peak-hour march was ‘minor inconvenience’
The protesters closed George, Adelaide, Edward and Charlotte streets on Friday.
Pilot program to get communities to compost together digs in
A new community south of Brisbane is being used as the testbed for a program to create a more sustainable food supply, using a “circular food economy”.
Reef lays bare World Heritage sway [$]
Graham Lloyd
The Great Barrier Reef has been a big learning curve on the ups and downs of what a World Heritage listing can mean.
In reality, you don’t really care about the Great Barrier Reef
Tony Fontes
Australians can’t claim to care about the Great Barrier Reef unless words are backed up with action.
South Australia
‘Leading the country’: South Australia to ban plastic cutlery, straws and stirrers
State government also has polystyrene containers and cups in its sights, and more single-use items could follow
Get paid to drive an electric car in Adelaide [$]
Fed up with getting stung to park in the city? Drive an electric vehicle and you’ll get paid if Adelaide City Council gets it way. And there’s cash for landlords who rev up the idea.
Beachside shopping strip to be plastic-free pioneer [$]
Finding a plastic straw or spoon on this beachside shopping strip could be an impossible task by the end of the year — as the seaside suburb puts its hand up to trial a single-use plastic ban.
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Tasmania
Out of the box: Reckoning with a global species shift
From all corners of the world, they came. It was to be a small international conference in Hobart. The overarching topic: a planetary shift not seen since the last glacial maximum, about 25,000 years ago. Organisers expected maybe 100 attendees – certainly not nearly three times that.
PFAS contamination: what is it and why should we be concerned it’s been found in Launceston
Chemical compounds might not sound like a newsworthy topic but PFAS is one that has been recently in the spotlight.
Aircraft access to wilderness ‘essential’ says tourism council [$]
Tasmania’s tourism industry says aircraft access to the state’s protected wilderness areas is “essential” to “facilitate human activity”.
Zero waste hero hasn’t put out bin since 2011 [$]
It has been nearly eight years since Peter McGlone last filled his garbage bin and put it out for collection – a feat of waste reduction that has required a radical retail re-think.
Northern Territory
Could hydrogen energy be Australia’s future? This village might show us how
Hydrogen’s huge potential has long been known. But will the buzz translate into a real energy revolution?
Northern Territory gardeners using native plants to fight animal extinction
Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world. But experts say residents can help by creating a habitat for native wildlife in their own backyards.
Aerial shoot targets Arnhem Land’s feral animals
Traditional owners are ramping up efforts to control thousands of feral animals in southern Arnhem Land, with the region’s first aerial shoot to begin within weeks.
Darwin finally has a new floodwater basin. Will it withstand the wet and bring down premiums?
The $10 million stormwater detention basin is meant to stop a repeat of the flooding post-Cyclone Carlos. Residents say their premiums keep rising, and are anxious to see that turned around.
What Australia’s most northern capital city could look like as climate change takes hold
A new short film about what Australia’s most northern capital city could look like in 2049 is using virtual reality to try to inspire people into action.
Western Australia
Priest says cathedral at risk of burning down if flock of destructive corellas not culled
A historically significant cathedral in Western Australia is at risk of burning down if the corellas that flock to it daily are not culled, its priest says.
Fortescue opens $1.85bn mine [$]
The Eliwana mine will produce 30 million tonnes a year and employ 1900 people in construction and 550 when operating.
‘Complete disregard for ecosystems’: Tougher penalties plea over Kimberley land clearing
Conservation groups want harsher penalties for illegal land clearing, as the WA Government investigates a Chinese-owned company over the mysterious clearing of 120 hectares at a cattle station.
Sustainability
Electric bikes lead the charge to short circuit big cities’ congestion cycle
Electric bikes are extending the range of commuters wanting to pedal to work and may be a cheap and easy solution to ease the squeeze on capital city roads.
The unsettling similarities between fallen civilisations and the world today
There are unsettling similarities between collapsed societies from the past and modern society as we know it. To continue existing, here’s what we need to know.
Australia can learn from German coal exit
Australia has no plans to transition from coal but if it does, it could learn from the experience in Germany, an expert says.
Melting Greenland is awash in a newfound commodity – sand
Danish scientist Mette Bendixen thinks the island could become a global provider of sand, which is being released in large quantities as its glaciers recede.
Electric cars ‘will not solve transport problem,’ report warns
Car use will still need to be curbed, even when all vehicles use clean electricity, a report warns.
Can methane burps be bred out of cows?
A study of more than 1,000 cows throughout Europe found that the microbes in their guts responsible for methane are inherited.
Call for green burial corridors alongside roads, railways and country footpaths
A leading public health expert is calling for a strategic initiative to develop green burial corridors alongside major transport routes because British graveyards and cemeteries are rapidly running out of room. With 500,000 deaths annually in England and Wales, it is likely that there will be no burial space left within five years.
Singapore plans huge 50MW floating solar project
Singapore’s national water agency will work with Norwegian technical consultancy DNV GL to develop what they are calling “Southeast Asia’s largest public tender for floating PV”.
Solar cell efficiency could get a dramatic boost, MIT team finds
MIT team led by an Australian researcher discovers way to extract more energy out of solar cells – with potential to take efficiencies as high as 35%.
Sure, there are downsides to public transport, but lots is right on track
Jo Stanley
Some days you hate it. But at its best, public becomes community.
Nature Conservation
This past winter saw the highest honeybee colony losses on record
On top of colony collapse, beekeepers are now facing unprecedented losses from extreme weather.
Land thieves ramp up deforestation in Brazil’s Jamanxim National Forest
Many of those living in protected areas believe that the political climate under President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration is encouraging the invasions by loggers into Brazil’s protected areas.
Now for something completely different …
A very inconvenient truth: alcohol isn’t good for us
Simone Pettigrew
It’s unfortunate but true – alcohol is a carcinogen and there is no safe dose. Alcohol use increases the risk of mouth, throat, liver, bowel and breast cancers, and is estimated to be responsible for one in 20 deaths around the world.
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