Date: 5 September 2019 at 8:56:58 am AEST
Subject: Daily Links Sep 5
Post of the Day
Are we overestimating how much trees will help fight climate change?
By using imaging techniques to measure internal decay in trees, researchers are finding that forests may store far less carbon than we think.
Today’s Celebration
Mother Teresa Day – Albania
Climate Change
Millions to down tools and pens on September 20 for #ClimateStrike
On September 20, hundreds of thousands of school students and workers will join millions worldwide to down tools as part of the world’s largest #ClimateStrike.
Putting a price on carbon pollution alone unlikely to help reach climate goals
Researchers show that carbon taxes alone cannot reduce emissions enough to reach the Paris Agreement targets.
National
$3B economic opportunity whets the appetite for plant-based meats
Australians are already hungry for food with a lighter environmental impact but now research has shown there are compelling economic reasons to put plant-based meat on your plate.
Are Australians afraid of being seen as too ‘activist’ on sustainability?
While many Australians want to be more sustainable, we’re also quick to draw a line in the sand between what we’re willing to do and ‘activism’.
‘Misinformed’: Mining lobby hits out at Cannon-Brookes’ climate claims
The Minerals Council of Australia has hit out at tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes accusing the Atlassian founder of accepting without question what it calls misinformed claims about its approach to climate change.
Atlassian boss Mike Cannon-Brookes urged to follow Bill Gates on nuclear power
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes should go nuclear if he wants to save the planet, according to the Minerals Council of Australia.
A successful Brexit will render Australian flag redundant
If England and Wales are going to part company with the European Union, which now seems inevitable, the British national flag, the Union Flag, will suddenly become obsolete.
New nuclear power proposal needs public debate
Helen Caldicott
The prospect of thorium being introduced into Australia’s energy arrangements should be subjected to significant scrutiny
Health and sustainability market could be worth $25 billion to Australian producers by 2030
Katherine Wynn
Growth in demand for healthy and sustainable products could make Australia’s food and agribusiness sector more valuable than mining.
Summer’s coming, but we’re not ready for heatwave hazards
Liz Hanna
As we head into spring, the latest forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology forecast warns that we’re facing another hot, dry season, a prelude to what looks set to be yet another scorching summer of heatwaves.
We have the power to do better on energy
Age editorial
In the febrile atmosphere that passes for debate in this country on climate change, the supply of energy should be above politics.
Victoria
Solar Insiders Podcast: Solar’s stunning cost fall, and Victoria’s rebate hurdles
New data shows that the cost of solar PV continues to fall dramatically, while Victoria’s solar rebate program hits another hurdle just days after government broadened the program.
New South Wales
It’s advertised as ‘the sweet life’ — but toxic land means these apartment owners are locked out
The owners of a Sydney apartment complex locked out of their million-dollar apartments because of toxic land concerns look set to be barred from entering their homes until at least the end of the year.
‘We don’t just want anybody walking in’: Huge expansion for Indigenous lands
In 1983, a group of Aborigines blockaded Mutawintji park. Today, they’re celebrating a doubling of its size.
Power $200 dearer since re-regulation [$]
It’s gotten harder to find really cheap electricity since re-regulation — especially in Western Sydney and regional NSW
Queensland
How solar is changing the energy market: No pumping at night
For first time, Queensland’s biggest pumped hydro unit didn’t pump at night in August, it soaked up only excess solar. Meanwhile, Queensland hits the price floor.
Queensland government hit over Adani native title in science address
Dr Matt Finch says Australia is at front line of “the 21st-century human crisis”.
Albert Street section to close permanently this month for rail project
The street will permanently close at the end of September to vehicles before construction of an underground Cross River Rail station.
Electricity prices hit minus $1000 in Qld [$]
A collapse in the spot price for electricity in Queensland on Wednesday morning to as low as minus $1000 a megawatt-hour has rattled the industry, and raised questions as to who will bear the losses triggered by a flood of solar generation.
Residents told to ‘leave now’ in Qld bushfire scare
Residents of Queensland’s Scenic Rim, south-west of Brisbane, were urged to leave ahead of a fast-moving bushfire in dire conditions on Wednesday afternoon.
Coowonga east of Rockhampton – bushfire fire
Multiple Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) crews are on scene at a bushfire burning north of Coowoonga Road between Ranglewood Road and Hoys Road, Coowonga.
Takilberan north-west of Gin Gin- bushfire fire
This fire broke out yesterday and is posing no threat to property at this time.
Mount Larcom near Gladstone – grass fire
This fire broke out around 1.15pm and is posing no threat to property at this time.
Milford south of Boonah bushfire
Currently as at 2.50pm Wednesday 4 September, a bushfire is burning in the vicinity of Wimmers Hill Road, near the intersection with Green Hills Road and Betts Road at Milford.
South Australia
New plan: Corral the cull-proof corellas [$]
Guns, lasers and drones couldn’t clear destructive flocks of parrots from riverside parks. Now one SA council hopes ‘sacrificial’ sanctuaries can succeed where hardware failed.
Tasmania
Huon pine trees live for 3,000 years but climate change could wipe them out in the next 50
The rare Huon pine, which has existed on Earth for thousands of years, could go extinct due to the effects of climate change, experts warn.
‘We’re losing our penguins’: With 170 birds dead, there are fears colonies will be wiped out
More than 170 little penguins have been mauled to death by dogs in Tasmania in the past year. Experts say the attacks are leaving the state’s population in a “tenuous” position.
‘We love our animals’: Passionate hunters handfeed hungry wildlife
When raging fires devastated Tasmania’s Central Plateau, the native wildlife was left without food and shelter. So Wayne Turale rallied a group of his local hunting mates to help.
Warning of higher power bills if plant closes [$]
The closure of a smelter that is one of the state’s biggest electricity consumers would have a dire effect on households’ power bills, Labor has warned.
Staggering toll of native wildlife cull [$]
A shocking number of native animals are being culled each day under crop protection permits, new documents reveal.
Northern Territory
Darwin could host country’s only methanol plant
A $500 million methanol plant with the capacity to produce 1,000 tonnes a day of the chemical could begin operating by 2024 in the Darwin Harbour.
NT’s biggest ever land-clearing bid at Maryfield Station delayed in court
A judge finds “extraordinary” flaws in the environment watchdog’s decision not to require a formal impact assessment on a bid to clear 20,000 hectares of native vegetation on a cattle station south of Darwin, but steers clear of arguments over climate change.
Environmentalists win bid to halt Top End logging [$]
Environmentalists have succeeded in a bid to overturn a decision to clear more than 20,000ha of land they say will release up to three million tonnes of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere
Western Australia
Camping costs to rise as WA national park fees surge [$]
Lucky Bay, Le Grand Beach Campground and Fitzgerald River National Park’s Four Mile Campground all fall into the new category, which will cost up to 30 per cent more than before.
Sustainability
Natural ways of cooling cities
Scientists have been researching the effect of precipitation and population size on rising temperatures in cities compared with the surrounding countryside. They have found that more green spaces can help to lower temperatures in urban zones — but not everywhere.
Climate concerns: It is best not to fly to conferences
A political scientist has developed a climate-friendly concept for international conference tourism.
Plastic will be the shameful artifact our descendants dig up
Sediment samples show microplastics have been accumulating on the sea floor since the 1940s, the deposition rates doubling every 15 years.
How the plastic bottle went from miracle container to hated garbage
The evolution of the plastic bottle from amazing to scourge of land and sea has played out inside of a generation.
Russian nuclear blast debris is still emitting radiation, reports say
Background radiation levels several times above the norm were measured near two boats that washed ashore following the Aug. 8 blast.
City where Chernobyl was filmed fears real-life nuclear disaster
A nuclear-power facility opening in Belarus has the nearby Baltic city of Vilnius on edge.
Moving Indonesia’s capital city won’t fix Jakarta’s problems and will increase fire risk in Borneo
Luca Tacconi
The government has reportedly set aside 180,000 hectares of land for construction of a new capital in East Kalimantan.
Coal is still best for poor nations
Bjorn Lomborg
Hooking the developing world up to off-grid solar power sources is proving a failure on both cost and environmental grounds, and they’re better off sticking with coal, argues Bjorn Lomborg.
Nature Conservation
Are we overestimating how much trees will help fight climate change?
By using imaging techniques to measure internal decay in trees, researchers are finding that forests may store far less carbon than we think.
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