Post of the Day
$8 billion and counting: the growing cost of Australia’s droughts
The federal government has spent $8 billion on direct drought relief this century with the bill likely to grow as conditions worsen.
Today’s Celebration
Culture Day in Japan
Independence Day in Panama
Independence Day in Dominica
Independence of Cuenca in Ecuador
Victory Day in the Maldives
Independence Day in Micronesia
Flag Day in the UAE
Climate Change
Greta Thunberg, Leonardo DiCaprio unite in climate crusade
The Hollywood star said the pair has made a commitment to support one another in their fight for climate action.
National
The rural Australians trying to stop the bottled water industry trucking out groundwater
Bottled water is big business, but a growing number of residents close to the source say ‘water mining’ is draining a precious resource and adds to plastic pollution
$8 billion and counting: the growing cost of Australia’s droughts
The federal government has spent $8 billion on direct drought relief this century with the bill likely to grow as conditions worsen.
Blocking people from a conference won’t win hearts and minds
Karen James
You need to have a dialogue with the resource sector to air grievances and establish activities that will drive the changes needed.
Wrong side of the chasm: Australia can still cross the bridge to a low-carbon world
Ross Garnaut
If we all understood the economic value of a transition to renewables, we could move from policy incoherence to hope
Forget climate panic. The energy emergency is here [$]
Peta Credlin
The climate zealotry that the Morrison government was meant to stop is getting out of control, putting Australia’s energy supply at risk, and with it, the economy.
Victoria
Volunteers call for help to protect St Kilda penguin colony
Volunteer guides fear they can no longer protect St Kilda’s penguin colony in the face of burgeoning tourism and fishing.
New South Wales
Canine confusion: NSW ‘wild dogs’ found to be dingoes or dingo-hybrids
Researchers say study dispels belief that state no longer has ‘real dingo’ populations
Desperate farmers lock horns with state over bores [$]
Bore applications have doubled as desperate farmers look for ways to access water to survive the coming summer. But the state government has warned there will be ‘winners and losers’ in the race to save drought-stricken farms.
Water Minister Melinda Pavey ignored the state’s own water releases
NSW actually provided one third of environmental flows sent down the Lachlan River since July despite the minister’s attack on such water use amid the drought.
Loved to death? Canyoners put pressure on Blue Mountains’ fragile landscape
The sport of canyoning is growing in popularity, but the number of adventurers exploring canyons in the Blue Mountains is putting pressure on the spectacular but fragile environment.
John Barilaro’s ‘people before the environment’ plan puts politics before the Murray-Darling
Anne Davies
The NSW deputy premier wants to rip up the basin plan, but that would put irrigators’ rights at risk, as well as endangering the health of the river system
ACT
ACT Wildlife reaches ‘breaking point’ amid increased calls, volunteer shortage
ACT Wildlife will be unable to reliably man its 24-hour phone “into the foreseeable future”, with the charity stretched to its limits by a shortage of volunteers and a 570 per cent increase in calls for assistance.
Queensland
Mt Warning next on climb chopping block [$]
Activists who’ve campaigned for years to end climbing at Mt Warning saying the recent closure of Uluru has given them the momentum they need to make it happen.
South Australia
NSW Deputy Premier’s Murray Darling ‘brain fart’ [$]
The NSW Deputy Premier has suggested ripping up the Murray Darling Basin Plan — but it’s a thought which is nothing more than a “brain fart” according to a SA senator.
Tasmania
Occupy Halls Island protest planned for Lake Malbena
Opponents of a premium tourism proposal for Lake Malbena in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park are planning an “Occupy Halls Island” protest for December.
Police, TFS warn Tasmanians to be prepared for 2019-20 bushfire season
Police are working with the Tasmania Fire Service to keep Tasmanians safe this bushfire season and they need your help.
Northern Territory
Northern voyages offer a chance to widen a huge dataset of sea birds in Australian waters
With 11 voyages and 300,000 recorded observations under his belt, population ecologist Eric Woehler has dedicated his life to building a dataset to help monitor and track bird populations in a changing world.
Western Australia
Minister steps in to push through South Perth’s most controversial tower
The state government is stepping in to force a resolution to Perth’s most controversial apartment tower stalemate after multiple redesigns have once again failed to pass through the local planning assessment panel.
Minister steps in to push through South Perth’s most controversial tower
The state government is stepping in to force a resolution to Perth’s most controversial apartment tower stalemate after multiple redesigns have once again failed to pass through the local planning assessment panel.
Sustainability
Britain bans fracking due to earthquake fears
The British Government is imposing an immediate moratorium on fracking, saying the industry risks causing too much disruption to local communities after a magnitude-2.9 tremor shook houses near a mining operation in August.
Rice yields plummet and arsenic rises in future climate-soil scenarios
Research combining future climate conditions and arsenic-induced soil stresses predicts rice yields could decline about 40 percent by 2100, a loss that would impact about 2 billion people dependent on the global crop.
PNG’s Ok Tedi mine disaster money locked in new legal fight
A fresh legal dispute has erupted over control of a fund set up to benefit the tens of thousands of villagers affected by BHP’s Ok Tedi mine disaster in PNG.
Nature Conservation
Authorities are describing the spill as one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters, in the wake of oil washing ashore on some 2,100 kilometres of the country’s coastline for two months without explanation
Urgent call for global leadership after Antarctic protection bid fails again
The bid to protect a million square kilometres of eastern Antarctica again fails to win unanimous backing from the 26 country members attending a conference in Hobart.
Online tool speeds response to elephant poaching by tracing ivory to source
A new tool uses an interactive database of geographic and genetic information to quickly identify where the confiscated tusks of African elephants were originally poached. It matches genetic sequences from poached ivory to those in the database. It relies on genetic information from a small, highly variable region of mitochondrial DNA from African elephants. This allows a more precise picture of the origin of the ivory. It also takes only about six days, researchers said.