Post of the Day
These three circular economy principles can help combat the climate crisis
Forty-five percent of global emissions come from making things and managing land. Addressing those emissions will require rethinking how we make and use products, according to a new report.
Today’s Celebration
Constitution Day – Niue
Arba’een (Martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali) – Iran
Peruvian-African Friendship Day – Peru
SIEV-X Anniversary (anniversary of the death by drowning
of 353 asylum seekers on SIEV-X in 2001)
Climate Change
Climate protester scales London’s Big Ben
A climate protester apparently dressed as Boris Johnson has climbed the Big Ben clock tower in London and draped two Extinction Rebellion banners.
Extinction Rebellion aren’t the usual activists [$]
Here’s how economic school dropout and failed farmer Roger Hallam founded and grew a global protest organisation in just 18 months.
These three circular economy principles can help combat the climate crisis
Forty-five percent of global emissions come from making things and managing land. Addressing those emissions will require rethinking how we make and use products, according to a new report.
The stark inequality of climate change
To survive the climate crisis, Jedediah Purdy argues that we will need to establish “commonwealth” values to animate a way of living and relating to one another that’s not zero-sum.
Jane Fonda arrested with Sam Waterston in climate change protest
Jane Fonda was arrested again on Friday for protesting climate change in front of the U.S. Capitol. This time, she was joined by her “Grace and Frankie” costar Sam Waterston, who was also arrested.
Why ‘doomism’ is part of the latest frontier in the climate wars
Deborah Snow
The idea that taking action to reduce the threat of climate change is pointless because it’s already too late is being exploited by those resisting change in the way the world does business.
Greta strikes fear in fuming fogeys
Ian WardenIan Warden
Marvelling at and still trying to understand why Greta Thunberg has so knotted so many knickers (the white-hot, foaming-at-the-mouth hostility and/or condescending misogyny shewn to her by so many commentators is astonishing for those of us who admire the well-intentioned teenager) I’ve just received some assistance from the American writer Marissa Korbel.
National
Australia’s new battery installation standard – what does it mean for you?
Last week, Standards Australia finally published its new standard for household battery installations, including strict new rules designed to minimise fire risk.
Taylor’s underwriting scheme could choose first six projects ‘by Christmas’
Federal energy minister Angus Taylor has said he expects the first six projects under the Underwriting New Generation Investments (UNGI) program will be approved before the end of the year, giving the green light for what is expected to be a mix of new gas and pumped hydro energy storage projects.
Renewable industry rejects AEMC new pricing proposals, fears investment halt
The complex new market signals proposed by the Australian Energy Market Commission to deal with transmission pricing have not gone down well with the renewables industry, with around 90 per cent rejecting the idea at a formal briefing on Thursday.
Calls for more funding to be spent on biosecurity, as African swine fever spreads
Farmers are still waiting on a Federal Government commitment to boost biosecurity funding.
Irrigators slam Murray-Darling Basin Authority for releasing satellite images
Irrigators slam the Murray-Darling Basin Authority for releasing images of farm dams filled with water in drought-affected parts of the state, likening the move to the controversial “Aussie Farms” activist website.
AWU pushes Labor to back Coalition on carbon targets
Australian Workers Union national secretary Daniel Walton has urged Labor to adopt Scott Morrison’s 2030 emissions reduction target, declaring “you can basically pack up manufacturing in this country” unless a political consensus is reached on climate change and energy policy.
Penny Whetton: A pioneering climate scientist skilled in the art of life
John M Clarke
Penny Whetton made the lives of those around her richer, more interesting and more human. Her death leaves a massive void.
The Coalition’s drought funding has dried up
Belinda Jones
Belinda Jones reveals the economic mismanagement behind the Coalition’s promised $7 billion drought funding.
Guy Rundle
What’s needed now is a bold plan for rural Australia, sold with a bit of very tough love.
There is a harsh lesson hiding in the drought debate
Michelle Grattan
Scott Morrison likes to be in control but he’s now at the mercy of two forces he can’t keep in check
Traffic congestion will continue until we summon the courage to tax it
Ross Gittins
The governments of NSW and Victoria lost zero time in rejecting the Grattan Institute’s proposal that all state governments introduce “congestion charging” in their capital cities. But don’t imagine this unpopular idea will go away. It will keep coming back until we buy it.
When we looked to the mountains to build confidence in the future
Tony Wright
Nation-building once meant turning big ideas into world-beating reality. Have we lost our imagination and courage?
Voters pay for climate posturing [$]
Chris Kenny
For my sins, I have fallen victim to an expensive family hobby: snow skiing. It has cost us a bomb but thankfully, because we don’t indulge in climate change virtue-signalling, we’ve been spared the angst of hypocrisy.
Labor in grip of its own climate debate emergency [$]
Judith Sloan
I don’t really know what declaring a climate emergency even means. Should I rush out the back door and panic? Should I start constructing a concrete shelter so the family can bunker down until the emergency lifts? When will I know the emergency is over?
New South Wales
Indigenous community say they’ve lost their culture to water mismanagement
This is the final part in a series of reports from communities along NSW’s Darling River that have been impacted by water mismanagement and drought.
Big smelters act as a ‘battery’ for the energy grid [$]
The chief executive of the Tomago aluminium smelter – which consumes 10 per cent of NSW’s power each year – has hit back at claims energy-intensive smelters were a drain on the energy grid.
This dam filled up during a drought pumping embargo – authorities want to know how
Investigations will begin into how a number of dams in drought-ravaged parts of NSW came to be filled during a ban on pumping water along parts of the Murray-Darling earlier this year.
ACT
Why nine rural land deals continue to haunt the ACT government
The Land Development Agency might be gone, but it is certainly not forgotten.
South Australia
Hey kids – got a fix for our planet? [$]
The search is on for SA high school students who have what it takes to find climate change solutions. The University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and The Advertiser Planet Fix competition asks Year 8-12 students to write about their idea.
Blank Cheque for a Bad Plan: Canberra’s Nuclear Waste Problem Council is South Australia’s Nightmare
Dave Sweeney
The process for establishing a national nuclear waste repository in remote South Australia is deeply flawed on numerous fronts.
The ideology train could derail Labor at election [$]
Daniel Wills
State politics Labor has put an ideological signpost in the ground over SA’s train and tram privatisation. It now has to hope that the deal does actually do off the rails,
Western Australia
Fortescue signs up to Alinta plans to use solar to power huge iron ore mines
Power utility Alinta Energy and resources giant Fortescue Metals have won federal government backing for their plans to help power the miner’s Pilbara iron ore operations solar and battery storage.
Aboriginal group triumphs over billionaire Andrew Forrest as native title challenge thrown out
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group loses its bid to overturn a Federal Court ruling granting native title to the Yindjibarndi people over a huge tract of iron-ore-rich Pilbara land.
Dung beetles, poo and charcoal help this farmer tackle effects of climate change
An innovative West Australian farmer uses charcoal and exotic dung beetles to boost soil fertility and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from his cattle, and international researchers are taking note.
Sustainability
Plastic bottles vs. aluminum cans: who’ll win the global water fight?
Global bottled water giants are ramping up trials of easily recyclable aluminum cans to replace plastic that pollutes the world’s seas. Sound like a slam-dunk for the environment? Not entirely.
Nature Conservation
Amazon watch: What happens when the forest disappears?
Brazilian and American scientists are keeping watch for a critical tipping point – the time when the Amazon ceases to be a carbon sink and turns into a source of carbon emissions.
Study shows world’s most common pesticide a danger to deer
A groundbreaking study conducted by scientists in South Dakota has found that the world’s most widely used family of pesticides — neonicotinoids — is likely causing serious birth defects in mule deer. And the Centers for Disease control finds it widespread in people.
Violence against indigenous peoples explodes in Brazil
Brazil’s Indigenous Missionary Council has published its annual report on violence against indigenous peoples, showing a sharp rise in murders and land grabs.