https://www.fastcompany.com/90395593/how-do-we-save-the-planet-solve-these-2-problems-first
Post of the Day
How do we save the planet: Solve these two problems first
If you’re daunted by the issues facing us, it can be helpful to boil it down. We asked an expert for help on where we should focus our efforts.
Today’s Celebration
Slovak National Uprising Anniversary – Slovakia
Arbor Day in Argentina
Telugu Language Day in India
National Sports Day in India
International Day against Nuclear Tests
Climate Change
Climate change affects floods in Europe
For a long time, scientists argued whether or not climate change is affecting floods. No clear trends seemed to be evident. Now, in a major international study, data from numerous measurement stations all across Europe have been evaluated. The data clearly shows that climate change is indeed influencing the magnitude of flood events. However, climate change has different consequences in different regions.
Europe warming faster than expected due to climate change
Climate change is increasing the number of days of extreme heat and decreasing the number of days of extreme cold in Europe, posing a risk for residents in the coming decades, according to a new study.
The Amazon is not earth’s lungs
Humans could burn every living thing on the planet and still not dent its oxygen supply.
This is the new face of climate change
By 2050, climate change will displace an estimated 150 to 300 million people worldwide.
Climate change melts billions of tons of ice in Greenland fifty years earlier than predicted
Billions of tonnes of ice in Greenland is melting 50 years ahead of climate change schedules, preventing inhabitants from moving around the country by sledge and leading to the surreal spectacle of children playing in the Arctic sea due to rising temperatures.
National
This year’s bushfire outlook is not good news, but will we heed the warnings?
The country’s top emergency officials today warned of the dangers of the impending bushfire season, but despite all the uniforms, the stern tone and sincerity of the warnings, many of us won’t take action.
Energy companies frustrated at slow progress on taxpayer underwriting deals
Power baron Trevor St Baker warns the Coalition not to be a ‘government of inaction’ on energy
‘A win-win’: Australia moving closer to killing off paper invoices
Business owners have been urged to ditch paper invoices for their own good.
Energy usage data to give consumers edge with power companies
Consumers will be able to demand their power usage data from energy companies under a federal government initiative aimed at helping customers shop around for better deals.
Australia’s failed gas policies are at the centre of a corporate stoush over plastic imports.
$50b super fund demands Woodside, Santos link exec pay to emissions
Superannuation giant HESTA has demanded Australian oil and gas companies explicitly link the pay of their top executives to their performance on reducing carbon emissions or risk an investor backlash.
Secret whistleblower trial will only add to Australia’s shame over spying cover-up
Anthony Whealy
A former senior judge says the prosecution of an ex-intelligence agent and his lawyer needs to be transparent, if not abandoned.
Small modular reactors and the nuclear culture wars
Jim Green
As another Australian journalist wades into the nuclear culture wars – this time spruiking small modular reactors – it’s a good time for a fact-check on this fabled technology.
Federal Coalition is white-anting Australia’s electricity governance
David Leitch
The Federal Coalition government is undermining its own executive and industry efforts by refusing to get behind the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan and refusing to call a COAG Energy Council meeting.
Victoria
Victorian Greens look to extend single-use plastic ban
The Victorian Greens will introduce an amendment to ban more than just single-use plastic bags in a bid to save the environment from further damage.
Ballarat ‘one of the best’ places for waste-to-energy in Australia, so why has it stalled?
Once touted as a $300 million solution to regional Victoria’s waste woes, plans to build a waste-to-energy facility have stalled, with some in the industry left scratching their heads.
Premier urges prosecutors to appeal after female paramedic’s attacker spared jail
The Victorian Premier has urged the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider appealing a magistrate’s decision not to jail a man who had assaulted emergency workers in Melbourne while in a “psychotic state” after taking a cocktail of drugs.
Shire joins pilot project with Environment Protection Authority
Mornington Peninsula will receive a helping hand to tackle local pollution problems thanks to a pilot project between Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) and the shire council.
City council changes mind on climate emergency
Five months after knocking back a plea to declare a “climate emergency”, Adelaide City Council has now endorsed a view that climate change is a “national emergency” that poses a serious risk to city ratepayers.
Vic government hoping for tree resolution
The Victorian government is trying to “find a way forward” on a highway upgrade, as local Indigenous Australians remain opposed to it.
Victoria government triples number of home solar rebates for September
Victoria Labor government yields to calls to fix troubled rooftop solar rebate, with raft of changes including almost tripling number of applications open for September.
Smart use of air-conditioners can avoid blackouts this summer
Forecast blackout threats for this coming summer in Victoria could be avoided with a highly targeted, aggressive demand reduction air conditioning upgrade program.
Miners push for exploration deduction
The Victorian government has been urged to consider an exploration deduction to offset the impact of its new royalty on gold miners.
New South Wales
‘Fish Armageddon’ expected this summer as government invests in fish breeding program
The NSW Government has announced a $10 million initiative to combat what the Agriculture Minister has described as a looming “fish Armageddon”.
‘Important constitutional test case’ looms for NSW coal mine
A Gomeroi woman has filed proceedings in the Federal Court challenging a decision not to protect areas of “immeasurable” cultural value at the site of an open cut coal mine.
NSW plan to stave off ‘fish Armageddon’ a Band-Aid solution, experts warn
Agriculture minister hopes ‘Noah’s ark’ plan will prevent severe fish kills, but critics accuse Nationals of tending to ‘self-inflicted wound’
‘Tree massacre’: Inner West councillors’ warning after ‘ambush’
Residents across inner west Sydney will be free to raze trees on their properties with few restrictions from council, under a new policy.
‘Nuclear power is inappropriate for Australia’
Former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, the country’s foremost climate scientist, received rapturous applause as he addressed a council meeting to warn against nuclear power as a ‘climate emergency’ was declared for the region.
NSW could reap $1b from forests sell-off [$]
The NSW government is looking to reap up to $1 billion from the sale of its commercial softwood plantation business, as the next stage of its asset recycling strategy.
Attack the science: Nationals’ strategy to protect big irrigators
SMH editorial
The classic tactic for an industry confronted with evidence that its products are harmful is to criticise the work of the scientists who exposed it.
Queensland
Scientists looks to history for solutions to widespread pasture dieback
Scientists believe they have identified what is killing thousands of hectares of pasture in Queensland
‘Protesting is not an illegal activity’: Brisbane Greens councillor leads CBD march
Protesters march through Brisbane’s CBD, protesting a lack of action on climate change and the Government’s attempt to crack down on their right to block streets.
Australia pressures Unesco over impact of climate change on Great Barrier Reef
Two government reports are expected to project a poor outlook for the reef
Councillor defends $1m blow out on bushland buy [$]
Ratepayers have paid an extra $1 million on a controversial piece of bushland, as emails reveal the clout the owner held in negotiations with Brisbane City Council – but the councillor for that ward says it was ‘money well spent’.
Flood mitigation backflip costs council $1.7m [$]
Flood mitigation plans for a controversial Brisbane tunnel changed three times – the last just six months before it opened when the plans were heavily scaled down – and now council is paying the price.
Fury 900km upriver over reef laws [$]
New laws to improve Reef water would force farmers to change their practices or face fines.
No, this island of pumice will not help save the Great Barrier Reef
It’s a stunning picture: a raft of pumice the size of a city floating along the Pacific Ocean. But it’s not the solution for the dead and dying coral of the world’s reefs, as some have suggested.
Green overkill no help to reef [$]
Australian editorial
Pointless over-regulation harms agricultural production.
South Australia
SA Government to proceed with plans to privatise back-up power stations
Plans to privatise two back-up power stations in South Australia will go ahead next year, but the SA Government says the generators will no longer just be used in emergencies and will also regularly contribute to the grid.
Infigen, Nexif lease S.A. back-up generators to pair with wind farms and batteries
Nexif, Infigen agree to lease S.A. government’s back up diesel generators, convert them to gas and pair with their wind farms and battery storage units.
Electric motorbike to be designed and built in SA [$]
Australia’s first electric motorcycle – the Fonzarelli NKD – is on the way and it’s going to be made in Adelaide.
Protests fail to deter Bight drilling plans [$]
SA Representatives of Norwegian oil company Equinor have arrived in Ceduna, where it would be partly based if its application to drill the Bight is approved.
$12.8m recycling plan as councils go it alone [$]
Two Adelaide councils will join forces to build their own multimillion-dollar recycling plant in an effort to turn a growing rubbish crisis into a money-making opportunity.
Western Australia
Almost wiped out, an enormous pen is marsupials’ last hope
Inside an enormous enclosure bound by electric fences somewhere in the Western Australian desert, a remarkable ecological experiment is unfolding.
New plans reveal changes for Rotto in next five years [$]
A privately-operated marina, which was proposed five years ago to attract commercial development, has been scrapped — in favour of a wide range of smaller developments.
WA moves to muzzle emissions watchdog [$]
WA’s Labor government reveals new greenhouse gas policy for major projects amid industry fears Environmental Protection Authority will set investment-killing targets.
Sustainability
Mitsubishi invests in UK company to bring off-grid solar to Asia
Japanese conglomerate backs solar utility BBOXX to expand service in south Asia and Africa
Nuclear winter would threaten nearly everyone on Earth
Second study of its kind confirms extreme impacts from US vs. Russia nuclear war
Germany to spend up to $44 billion to cushion coal exit
Germany’s Cabinet has approved a plan to spend up to 40 billion euros ($44.4 billion) by 2038 to cushion the impact on coal-mining regions of abandoning the fossil fuel.
How our lifestyle is driving the climate crisis and how we can change it
A Q&A with Tatiana Schlossberg, author of ‘Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have.’
How do we save the planet: Solve these two problems first
If you’re daunted by the issues facing us, it can be helpful to boil it down. We asked an expert for help on where we should focus our efforts.
The all-electric home: Tackling air pollution by cutting off natural gas
Soleil Lofts is on the front lines of low-pollution housing: 12,000 solar panels will eventually cover the roofs, delivering most of the community’s energy needs and feeding power to batteries in each home that can be used as a backup source in case the power goes out.
Climate change – make the right choice
Donna Campbell
It’s difficult to understand how a change to energy use will impact our daily lives, but embrace it or not, we must change.
This is why nuking a hurricane will not work, Mr Trump
Liz Ritchie-Tyo
At best, nuking a hurricane will do nothing, and at worst it will spread radioactive fallout around the world.
US to ‘drown the world’ in oil
Nicholas Cunningham
A recent report from this organization says that to avoid the worst effects of climate change, ‘we can’t afford to drill up any oil and gas from new fields anywhere in the world.’
The threat of a new infectious world
Peter Curson
Our failure to recognise that microbes are the dominant species on our earth possessing the ability to mutate change and adapt to anything we might level at them remains a major hurdle.
Nature Conservation
Brazil indigenous tribe speaks out over Amazon fire
A tribe of indigenous people in Brazil says the government’s poor forest fire management is to blame for major fires hitting the Amazon.
The eyes of nations around the globe are currently focused on the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, where wildfires are wreaking havoc.
A vet in Bolivia is in a race against time to save scores of wildlife from forest fires
Amazon’s native species are fighting to survive from the heat and smoke coming from major forest fires.
Wall of fire consuming Bolivia’s forest
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales called for cooperation and unity in order to combat raging wildfires in his country as well as in neighbouring Brazil.
Amazon wildfires illustrate dangers of deforestation for meat production
Seventy percent of previously forested land in the Amazon is now used for raising cattle, with animal feed crops covering a large part of the remainder.
‘Save Amazon, burn Bolsonaro’: Angry protest in India over Brazil forest fires
Protesters in India’s eastern Kolkata city have staged a demonstration outside the city’s Brazilian consulate against President Jair Bolsonaro, demanding protection for the Amazon rainforest.
Insecticide effect on wild bees
Neonicotinoids, one of the most popular insecticides in agricultural use worldwide, has often been claimed as a major factor in commercial bee colony collapse.
New Zealand bans swimming with bottlenose dolphins after numbers plunge
Conservation research shows humans are ‘loving the dolphins too much’ in Bay of Islands region
Great white sharks vanish from Cape Town, and no one knows why
Great white sharks, which support South Africa’s shark-diving industry and have been responsible for a number of fatal attacks off Cape Town, haven’t been seen in the region for 18 months.
Grassland biodiversity is blowing in the wind
Temperate grasslands are the most endangered but least protected ecosystems on Earth. A new study found that milkweeds and other plants that have seeds carried by the wind are an important source for enriching the diversity of plants in these valuable ecosystems.
Climate change, human activity lead to nearshore coral growth decline
Declining growth of Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System corals predicts trouble for worldwide reefs
To clean up Everest, Nepal is banning single-use plastics on the mountain
Earlier this year, volunteers collected three metric tons of garbage from the famed landmark.
Taming fire let humans thrive. Now man-made flames in the Amazon threaten us all.
Shannon Stirone
Maybe our ability to look away from disasters like this is a symbol of our own ambivalence about doing anything to fight the climate crisis in general.
Why we need to protect the extinct woolly mammoth
Zara Bending
Melting Siberian permafrost is exposing long-dead mammoths, creating a new trade in mammoth ivory.
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