Date: 16 September 2019 at 8:54:36 am AEST
Subject: Daily Links Sep 16
Post of the Day
Why going green is the best way to fire up Australia’s economy
Rosalind Dixon and Richard Holden
We need to plan now so green spending is ready to go when needed.
Today’s Celebration-
Respect for the Aged Day in Japan
Independence Day – Papua New Guinea
Independence Day – Mexico
National Heroes’ Day – Saint Kitts and Nevis
Martyrs’ Day – Libya
Owain Glyndŵr Day – Wales
Juliet’s Birthday – Verona
International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer
Climate Change
Guardian joins major global news collaboration Covering Climate Now
The Guardian joins the Nation and Columbia Journalism Review in launching a new partnership among more than 250 news organizations to improve coverage of the climate crisis
The world has a third pole – and it’s melting quickly
An IPCC report says two-thirds of glaciers on the largest ice sheet after the Arctic and Antarctic are set to disappear in 80 years
Climate cartoons: an illustrated guide to a major new climate crisis poll
The Guardian’s comic artist Susie Cagle draws some conclusions from a major CBS News poll released today as part of Covering Climate Now
Jonathan Franzen generates heat with light, so what’s the big deal?
Carl Safina
His New Yorker essay provoked a rapid volley of criticisms and rebuttals. Thing is, I thought Franzen’s piece was the best thing I’ve ever read about climate change.
Kate Marvel
Climate change is real and things will get worse—but because we understand the driver of potential doom, it’s a choice, not a foregone conclusion
National
Labor flags complete overhaul of climate policy
Anthony Albanese has flagged a complete overhaul of the party’s climate change policies, including the likely scrapping of Bill Shorten’s 45 per cent emissions-reduction target by 2030.
Coalition’s ‘big stick’ energy laws a ‘backdoor to privatisation’, Labor says
Mark Butler signals ALP will continue to oppose legislation to break up power companies and refuses to recommit to a 45% emissions reduction target
Mining industry renews push for nuclear option
Australia’s mining sector has launched a fresh push to lift the prohibition on nuclear energy arguing new-look compact nuclear reactors could provide the “cheapest, zero-emissions” baseload power to replace retiring coal-fired power stations.
Environmental groups warn against push for nuclear power in Australia
Joint submission calls nuclear ‘a dangerous distraction’ from real action on climate as Zali Steggall backs 2050 zero-emissions target
NSW and Queensland bushfires: brief respite ahead of hot and windy week
Firefighters use cooler conditions to backburn before danger set to pick up in coming days
‘Going to the streets again’: what you need to know about Friday’s climate strike
Organisers expect a stronger presence from unions, workers and companies as student activists reach out to adults
‘Americans are waking up’: two thirds say climate crisis must be addressed
Major CBS News poll released as part of Covering Climate Now, a collaboration of more than 250 news outlets around the world to strengthen coverage of the climate story
Australia’s agricultural sector could face a cascade of potentially catastrophic impacts from climate change without a significant new focus on the issue, a report out today warns.
Pricing of big three energy retailers in ACCC’s sights [$]
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found it was smaller energy retailers who were offering the best deals.
Farmers and conservative voters adding to calls for federal government to declare climate emergency [$]
Chris Clarke points a finger out the window of the Landcruiser at a boggy patch of paddock just below the house on her property Baringa, south of Cooma. A few weeks ago water began to seep to the surface of the barren creek bed, a sign, she had hoped, of better things to come. It didn’t last long.
Solar tipped to power mines [$]
A growing portion of Australian mining executives believe renewable energy will be a major source of power for local mines.
Call to fast-track ‘demand response’[$]
Big energy users want demand response rules to be fast-tracked and extended into the wholesale market to thwart blackouts.
Don’t politicise the bushfires? The alternative is to sit back while more severe events happen
Greg Jericho
We’re told not to talk about climate change. I suspect this is because we might have to start wondering why we’re not doing anything about it
Why going green is the best way to fire up Australia’s economy
Rosalind Dixon and Richard Holden
We need to plan now so green spending is ready to go when needed.
Bushwalking and bowls in schools: we need to teach kids activities they’ll go on to enjoy
Vaughan Cruickshank et al
We need to keep active and exercise to stay healthy. So why not teach school kids some of the activities they’d go on to enjoy later in life?
Australia to attend climate summit empty-handed despite UN pleas to ‘come with a plan’
Frank Jotzo
Climate action will be on the world stage again at a meeting of world leaders in New York on September 23. The United Nations has convened the event and urged countries to “come with a plan” for ambitious emissions reduction.
‘Climigration’: when communities must move because of climate change
Tony Matthews
Climate change increasingly threatens communities all over the world. News of fires, floods and coastal erosion devastating lives and livelihoods seems almost constant. The latest fires in Queensland and New South Wales mark the start of the earliest bushfire season the states have ever seen.
Tim Blair
Children across Australia and the world will get down this week for a day-long festival of shouting, marching, singing and sign-waving, all for no serious reason.
Stop renewing subsidies for the sake of Aussie families [$]
Telegraph editorial
Australian families pay at least $68 extra on their electricity bills to subsidise rooftop solar and wind farm projects. Unfortunately, Energy Minister Angus Taylor declines to hear calls to wind back subsidies.
Victoria
A blueprint for Melbourne’s public transport future
To meet Melbourne’s expected population of more than eight million people by 2050, the Rail Futures Institute has a comprehensive plan for developing public transport.
Calls for major City Loop upgrade the equivalent to a ’10-lane freeway’
Two short sections of underground track added to the City Loop could provide the equivalent of a 10-lane freeway through the heart of the city, an influential transport group says.
Green wave traffic signals used to give cyclists easier ride in CBD [$]
Cyclists cruising down a busy thoroughfare into Melbourne’s CBD will be given green light priority for riding at safer speeds under new technology introduced by the City of Melbourne.
New South Wales
NSW water situation ‘critical’ amid warning towns could run dry by November
New projections show that under a worst-case scenario, some NSW rural towns could run out of drinking water as soon as November.
Brad leaves home at 6.30am to avoid the crush. Is it early enough?
An extra 1.3 million people in Sydney by 2030 is an enormous load on our roads and transport system.
Global design competition to transform Olympic Park into ‘green space’
The NSW government has launched an international design competition to refresh the Sydney Olympic Park precinct as the 20-year anniversary of the 2000 Olympic Games draws near
We need new dams now, and that’s no joke [$]
John Barilaro
Does it matter if we put the budget into deficit for a period to build dams? If we as a state, in the midst of the worst drought on record, can’t use this crisis, and yes, it’s a crisis then we might as well give it all away.
ACT
Residents fear Canberra Airport plans will subject homes and school site to more noise
Residents near Canberra Airport fear new plans for expansion and changes to flight paths may mean more noise.
Queensland
Police say bushfire which destroyed Queensland homes may have been deliberately lit
A bushfire that erased almost a dozen homes in southeast Queensland and went on to destroy the historic Binna Burra lodge may have been deliberately lit.
Why storms could spell bad news for the bushfire crisis
Meteorologists say a trough is expected to blow over the state on Tuesday.
Mining industry insider reveals she’s leaking information to anti-Adani activists
Sue*, a worker at a company bidding for an Adani contract, tells the ABC she is leaking information to environmental activists so they can target her employer, saying it’s the “ethical, moral thing to do”.
‘It was left to rack and ruin’: Rainforest revived on land once owned by Christopher Skase
An oil palm plantation once owned by the failed tycoon has been replanted by hand and transformed into a lush rainforest on the edge of the World Heritage-listed Daintree National Park.
Lord mayor wants Brisbane Metro as alternative to ‘not affordable’ Airtrain
The Brisbane Metro project will see a 200-metre bus tunnel under Adelaide Street.
Tourists can catch a taxi, Uber or the Airtrain to the airport but for people working there every day those options are “not affordable”, lord mayor Adrian Schrinner argues.
Nitrate buster trialled on far-north Queensland farms to avoid run-off to Great Barrier Reef
Farmers build bioreactors on their farms to reduce run-off of fertilisers that have been blamed for declining coral health.
Koala deal reaps council $750k [$]
The Brisbane City Council pocketed more than $750,000 in bushland buyback levies for its koala corridor purchase.
South Australia
Dozens of used syringes found in southern suburbs [$]
More than 50 dangerous syringes – most of them used – have been stopped from polluting the Onkaparinga River by environmental clean-up groups in Adelaide’s southern suburbs.
Tasmania
Tasmanian Government boosts fines for wildlife slaughter
Dog owners whose animals kill sensitive wildlife, including penguins, now face fines of up to $5,040, after more than 170 little penguins die in dog attacks since June 2018.
Northern Territory
Out-of-control bushfires threaten dozens of properties south of Darwin
Out-of-control bushfires have prompted the highest level of alert for residents in Humpty Doo and Milne in the Northern Territory.
Alice Springs Sewage Ponds offer home away from home for migratory birds
A foul-smelling oasis in outback Australia is providing a crucial refuelling stop for migratory birds born in the Arctic Circle.
Western Australia
Perth scientists crack the code to crops resilient to climate change
Researchers have used the discoveries of a 19th century monk to decode a complex legume genomes, planting the seed for climate change resilient crops.
Sustainability
Russia’s floating nuclear plant delivered
Russia’s first seaborne nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, has arrived at its base in the Far East and will supply 50,000 people with electricity.
Are you ready for some good news?
Peter Dykstra
After years of promise and halting progress, wind and solar energy have simply, undeniably, irrefutably arrived.
Nature Conservation
Frontline fight: Indonesia locked in epic battle against jungle blazes
Indonesia has become the latest site of out-of-control wildfires in recent weeks, raising questions over local farming practices.
Tigers die after Thai temple rescue
More than half the tigers confiscated from a Thai temple have died in state sanctuaries because inbreeding weakened their immune systems, media reports say.
On a remote island, mice are taking down endangered seabirds 300 times their size
On a dot of land halfway between South America and South Africa, scientists are racing to save some of the world’s biggest seabirds from a tiny but persistent predator.
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