Post of the Day
How Buildings Can Cut 80 Percent of Their Carbon Emissions by 2050
Energy use in buildings — from heating and cooling your home to keeping the lights on in the office — is responsible for over one-third of all carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.
Today’s Celebration
National Science Day – Thailand
National Tree Planting Day – Pakistan
Virginia Dare’s Birthday – Roanoke Island
Children’s Day – Argentina
Vietnam Veterans’ Day (Long Tan Day)
Climate Change
Ice sheets impact core elements of the Earth’s carbon cycle
The Earth’s carbon cycle is crucial in controlling the greenhouse gas content of our atmosphere, and ultimately our climate.
Labor says PM has trashed Australia’s standing as former Kiribati president urges review of Australia’s membership
Fiji slams Australia’s Deputy PM for fruit-picking comments over climate change
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama accuses the Australian Government of taking a “big step backwards” in its relations with the Pacific, after the Deputy Prime Minister is captured on tape saying island nations affected by climate change will continue to survive by picking Australian fruit.
Let’s not fall for islands’ climate con [$]
Peter Gleeson.
Don’t waste Australian money on a Pacific Islands climate change hoax, ScoMo – there are more pressing matters to spend $800 million on here in Australia.
Pacific step up or stuff-up? The complexities behind Scott Morrison’s week in Tuvalu
Rob Harris
Like every Australian leader in the past decade, Scott Morrison found himself between a rock and a hard place on climate change.
How two prime ministers lost when Australia scuttled Tuvalu’s climate hopes
Melissa Clark
At the annual Pacific Islands Forum, Tuvaluan Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga hoped the leaders present would work together. And they did, until talks turned to climate change, writes
National
Alan Jones, the perfect symbol for the fragility of the Australian ego
Jacqueline Maley
The shock-jock urging Scott Morrison to “shove a sock” down Jacinda Ardern’s throat exposes a delicate matter for our PM: his climate policy black hole.
Fukushima Fish Are Doing Swimmingly. The ALP’s Contribution To Sensible Debate, Not So Much
Geoff Russell
Being smart and an expert in stuff like quantum physics is all well and good, until you try and mix politics with a debate around nuclear energy.
Seven reasons why small modular nuclear reactors are a bad idea for Australia
Noel Wauchope
There are several reasons why it would be a bad idea for Australia to jump aboard the bandwagon of small modular reactors.
Victoria
Regulator refuses renewal of Bendigo mine licences
Mining licences held by a Bendigo-based company have not been renewed by Victoria’s mining and resources regulator due to the company’s inability to provide surety of its finances.
North East Link: Council says 13ha could be saved from being paved
Up to 13 hectares of open space – seven times the playing surface of the MCG – could be saved from being paved over as part of the $15.8 billion North East Link toll road, a senior traffic engineer says.
Mornington beach and its beach boxes cannot be saved, government concedes
The state government has given up hope of trying to save a popular Mornington Peninsula beach and along with it, dozens of bathing boxes.
Residents urged to take responsibility for their own recycling
Victorian councils are urging residents to bring their own household glass, paper and plastic waste to collection points to be recycled and prevent it being sent to landfill, as the crisis gripping the kerbside collection system deepens.
City of Kingston in Melbourne’s southeast considers plan to add higher-density housing development
Deep in Melbourne’s suburban southeast, from the brick veneer homes of Moorabbin to the beachside commuter belt of Mordialloc and Mentone, substantial change could be ahead.
Recycler SKM says it can salvage operation [$]
Troubled recycler SKM says it is is ready to start receiving waste again after doing major maintenance to clean its Coolaroo and Laverton sites and that it is “now ready to go”.
Recycling is never a waste of our time [$]
Katie Bice
When China stopped taking our waste because it was too contaminated, it barely caused a ripple but now it’s piled high in factories around Melbourne. The problem is clearly down to a general ignorance about what actually happens to our rubbish.
Protecting the Djab Wurrung trees [$]
Lidia Thorpe
The cruel irony in this standoff for the protection of our cultural heritage is that it occurs against a backdrop of the Andrews Labor government’s current process to negotiate a treaty with Victoria’s First Nations. The way our concerns, elders and cultural values are being dismissed gives us no confidence they will undertake the current treaty negotiations with Traditional Owners in good faith.
New South Wales
‘Unprecedented pressure’: One Sydney suburb tripled in size in just a decade
The east coast urban fringe is bulging outwards and inner-city suburbs are soaring skywards to cope with exploding population growth. But creaking infrastructure has failed to keep up.
This protest 40 years ago was a watershed moment in the environmental movement
In 1979, protesters blocked the path of bulldozers to stop the logging of a rainforest on the New South Wales north coast, the first blockade of its kind in Australia.
ACT
Giving Canberra back to the unicorns
Ian Warden
Readers, knowing your secret will be safe with me (trust me, for I am a journalist) I ask if you derive a stealthy pleasure from watching and reading “human-extinction porn”?
Queensland
Queenslanders can expect a hot spring and another hot, dry summer
Hopes are slim for farmers in the two thirds of the state that is drought declared and in increasingly desperate need of good rain.
Extinction Rebellion: Diary of a wimpy rebel
He was tough enough to protest with Extinction Rebellion in Brisbane but when he found himself arrested, this rebel didn’t have a clue, Renee Viellaris reports.
Prickly acacia disaster looms in aftermath of North Queensland floods
Graziers fear an environmental disaster with prickly acacia spreading since the North Queensland floods in February.
South Australia
Line drawn in sand on coast erosion toll [$]
Semaphore’s loss could be West Beach’s last chance to survive as one premiere tourist attraction is set to spend years donating sand to another.
Spending $5.4bn on South Rd is just a big waste [$]
Matthew Abraham
There’s a simple business case for the South Rd conundrum — just don’t do it, Matthew Abraham writes. Instead he presents a few counter-proposals to fix our increasingly congested road system.
Tasmania
Does Tassie have a wild deer problem?
The Government is trying to strike a balance between the impacts of deer on Tasmania’s agriculture and conservation areas, with the animals’ value in recreational hunting.
Tasmanian councils under fire for handling of recycling crisis
Tasmanian councils are urged to stop charging recycling fees while they try to find a replacement for the liquidated recycling operator SKM.
Sustainability
How Buildings Can Cut 80 Percent of Their Carbon Emissions by 2050
Energy use in buildings — from heating and cooling your home to keeping the lights on in the office — is responsible for over one-third of all carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.
Research suggests glyphosate lowers pH of dicamba spray mixtures below acceptable levels
A study found that mixing glyphosate with formulations of dicamba consistently lowered the pH of the spray solution below 5.0 — a critical value according to the latest dicamba application labels.
Discovery could pave the way for disease-resistant rice crops
Researchers have uncovered an unusual protein activity in rice that can be exploited to give crops an edge in the evolutionary arms race against rice blast disease, a major threat to rice production around the world.
Fracking has less impact on groundwater than traditional oil and gas production
The amount of water injected for conventional oil and gas production exceeds that from high-volume hydraulic fracturing and other unconventional oil and gas production by more than a factor of 10, according to a new report. Conventional methods of oil and gas production have been used since the late 1800s. An assessment of the environmental impacts of the petroleum industry should examine the conventional production methods, as well as fracking.
Nature Conservation
Beloved baby dugong dies in Thailand with plastic in stomach
A sick baby dugong whose fight for recovery won hearts in Thailand and cast a spotlight on ocean conservation has died from an infection exacerbated by bits of plastic lining her stomach, officials said Saturday.
Climate change ‘disrupts’ local plant diversity, study reveals
Researchers have discovered that the numbers of plant species recorded by botanists have increased in locations where the climate has changed most rapidly, and especially in relatively cold parts of the world.
Warmer winters are changing the makeup of water in Black Sea
Warmer winters are starting to alter the structure of the Black Sea, which could foreshadow how ocean compositions might shift from future climate change, according to new research.
Now for something completely different …
Anti-sex toilets plan for UK seaside town
A UK town is planning to install anti-sex public toilets that would spray occupants with water and sound an alarm.
6 Florence St Niddrie 3042
93741902
0432406862