Post of the Day
Current proposals to plant trees to fight climate change are badly misguided
William John Bond
Reforestation and afforestation can play a role in reducing carbon emissions — but “what” and “where” are critical considerations.
Today’s Celebration
State Flag Day – Azerbaijan
Allama Iqbal Day in Pakistan
Independence Day in Cambodia
National Tree Day in Luxembourg
Day of the Skulls in Bolivia
Schicksalstag (Fateful Day) in Germany
Ukrainian Writing and Language Day
International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism
Climate Change
Glacier geoengineering proposed to mitigate sea level rise
Approximately 40 per cent of the world’s population lives along coastlines and millions will be impacted by rising sea levels due to rapid ice melt in polar regions.
‘Greta Thunberg effect’ driving growth in carbon offsetting
NGOs report fourfold increases in investments in carbon-reducing projects in developing countries
National
Australia silent about climate talks that will discuss its “dodgy” credit plans
Much at stake for Australia at upcoming UN climate talks, but no word on who will lead the small negotiating team tasked to defend its use of Kyoto credits.
‘Uncharted territory’: Dozens of out of control bushfires burn across New South Wales and Queensland
Hot, windy conditions are wreaking havoc across New South Wales and Queensland.
Liberal MP Katie Allen says emissions have fallen since 2005. Is she correct?
Liberal backbencher Katie Allen says that emissions in Australia have fallen since 2005, and that they’re the lowest they’ve ever been. RMIT ABC Fact Check runs the numbers.
Ministers to schedule waste export ban
Australia’s environment ministers have decided on a draft timeline for the national waste export ban, but the question remains – how will it work?
Ambitious and expensive’: Export bans on waste prompt pleas for funding
Export bans on a range of waste products will be introduced in 2020.
Activism and secondary boycotts [$]
Although the Coalition is talking tough about criminalising consumer advocacy, legal experts say any attempt to do so will be hamstrung by reality.
Feral-pig boss to be appointed amid threat of swine fever
A new feral-pig supremo will be appointed to tackle Australia’s growing wild pig population as the threat of African swine fever creeps closer to the nation’s borders.
Electric scooters are coming to a city near you [$]
Trials of for-hire dockless e-scooters are already underway in Brisbane and Adelaide, set to start in Darwin early next year, and local councils in Sydney and Melbourne are keen to follow.
Review of Labor’s 2019 federal election campaign
Australian Labor Party
This ALP 2019 election campaign analysis concludes that Labor lost the election because of a weak strategy that could not adapt to the change in Liberal leadership, a cluttered policy agenda that looked risky, and an unpopular leader.
Nature strategy acknowledges scale of biodiversity crisis, but lacks detail on how to fix it
ACF media release
We need bold action and national leadership to address our growing extinction crisis.
Are drought-stricken farmers really getting ‘handouts’?
Kath Sullivan and Lucy Barbour
Australian farmers receive some of the lowest levels of government support in the world — and sceptics will argue this week’s $700 million drought stimulus package does little to change that
If politicians ignore this issue – and the polls – get set to fry
Paula Matthewson
Essential Poll had already found last month that ‘effects of climate change’ was one of the top three concerns for personal safety nominated by survey respondents, rising from 7 per cent in 2017 to 20 per cent this year.
Want more jobs in Australia? Cut our ore exports and make more metals at home
Michael Lord
We can use renewable energy to turn raw ore into higher-value processed metals, and that’s good for jobs and exports.
Beware unintended consequences, Prime Minister
Tom Switzer
Our conservative government needs to be careful about where it meddles, from foreign influence laws to cracking down on environmental protesters.
Chris Kenny
Most of the fatal flaws exposed by the internal review of Labor’s emphatic electoral repudiation were so obvious that many of us had been pointing them out before, during and after the campaign.
Victoria
The big corporate heavyweight buying up Murray-Darling water and farmland
Corporate business goFARM, which is buying farmland and water across the southern Murray-Darling, plans to work the land and says it is not a speculator.
VicForests running out of timber and out of money before Andrews’ logging halt
Only increasing direct payments by taxpayers have kept VicForests’ accounts in the black in recent years.
Black oil spill in Melbourne’s west seeps into marine sanctuary
An oil spill in Williamstown has seeped into a protected marine sanctuary that is home to coral, sharks, rays and octopus.
Forestry union lashes ‘stupid, heartless’ logging ban [$]
Daniel Andrews’s native timber logging ban has sparked a Labor war, with the CFMMEU declaring it is an “embarrassing, motley, half-baked, rag-tagged, mishmash of talking points”.
EPA slams group for stockpiling waste [$]
A recycling group has come under fire from the EPA after they were found to have stockpiled contaminated waste from an exclusive South Yarra development at a clean fill site.
Brutality checks on activists [$]
Anthony Kelly
For those who have watched the evolution of public-order policing in Victoria over recent years, the sort of police violence we saw at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) protests in Melbourne would’ve come as no real surprise.
New South Wales
Firefighters to assess damage amid unprecedented emergency
NSW is in uncharted territory as bushfires burn across the state, with nine emergency warnings issued for blazes and footage showing “widespread” property damage and destruction.
Queensland
Queensland fire threat to lower on Saturday but fires still burning
After a scorching day with tinderbox conditions in south-east Queensland on Friday, temperatures were expected to ease on Saturday.
Lack of backburn contributed to Sunshine Coast bushfire hazard
The ember storm and bushfire that forced an evacuation at Peregian Beach last month, destroying one house and damaging others, followed a similar blaze at the other end of the Sunshine Coast two years earlier.
Wasted police resources, small fines and little deterrence. It’s time to rethink how law-breaking activists should be punished
South Australia
Secret lagoon found to be bringing Murray hardyhead fish back from the brink
Deep in a secret lagoon in South Australia’s Riverland, still kept under wraps by wetlands officers, a nationally endangered freshwater fish has been found spawning.
Knoll refuses to bolster tree laws in planning overhaul [$]
SA’s planning laws are making it easier for developers to destroy trees but the State Government insists there will be no changes to make felling harder for developers.
Northern Territory
Stonemason sacked for boasting about smashing Uluru cairn [$]
A stonemason indirectly employed by the federal government to help close the world-famous Uluru climb is understood to have been sacked for boasting about smashing the “ugly” summit cairn and rebuilding it inside out.
Western Australia
X
Minister’s tower choice could make or break Perth’s million-dollar views
Emma Young
This will be among one of only a handful of inner-suburban developments that will have prominence in views from Perth CBD and Kings Park.
Sustainability
Green cement? Captured carbon may fuel new markets and help climate
Turning climate-changing carbon dioxide into products from fuel to fertilizer could make climate action pay – but obstacles remain, researchers say.
The false promise of green housing
One designer is challenging the conventional wisdom about environmentally friendly construction.
A new study finds air pollution can make you fat
No surprise that air pollution is bad for your lungs and heart. But how about your waistline?
One suffocating city is a harbinger of health crises around the world.
Taking a different approach to fighting climate change
The research of Narasimha Rao, a Yale professor, shows that reducing inequality could improve our ability to mitigate some of the worst effects on the environment.
China’s plan: Beat America (and everyone else)
When it comes to electric vehicles, no nation has matched China’s audacious plan. It wants to beat the world.
Bangladesh seen as climate threat by boosting coal reliance
About 3% of the country’s power comes from coal, but plans to build 29 coal plants in the next two decades would increase this to 35%, government data shows.
Tuvalu heads for 35% renewables with $6m solar and storage grant
ADB grant to install rooftop solar, storage and ground mounted PV across Tuvalu promises to take daytime electricity supply to 35%, and 100% at times.
‘Everything is possible’: The tech companies bringing farming to the inner-city
From vertical farms to micro-algae and bio-reactors, the future of food is looking very high-tech. It promises to be more sustainable — but can it live up to the hype?
Pollution bad for children: UNICEF
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore who has just returned to New York after a visit to New Delhi and Kathmandu has said air pollution levels in South Asia were at a crisis level and needed urgent action.
Pollutionwatch: Africa increases its reliance on fossil fuels
Many European countries including the UK and Germany are decreasing their dependence on coal, but this is not the case everywhere.
Wind and solar kill coal and nuclear on costs, says latest Lazard report
The cost of wind and solar continue to decline and are now at the point where they beat, or at least match, even the marginal costs of coal-fired generation and nuclear power, according to the 13th and latest edition of Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis, one of the most highly regarded assessments in the world.
Beyond vegan burgers: next-generation protein could come from air, methane, volcanic springs
Products in development combine cutting-edge technology and age-old fermentation processes with the aim of reducing agriculture’s massive carbon footprint.
Don’t shoot the messenger: Environmentalism and hypocrisy
Nick Pendergrast
It’s easy to find fault in some people trying to help save the planet, but there is a grey area when it comes to hypocrisy,
Nature Conservation
Considering the nuclear option in controlling invasive species
Rotenone: when you absolutely, positively have to kill every last fish in the lake.
Poorly planned Amazon dam project ‘poses serious threat to life’
Operator faces choice of weakening 14km barrier or potentially devastating a biodiversity hotspot
Current proposals to plant trees to fight climate change are badly misguided
William John Bond
Reforestation and afforestation can play a role in reducing carbon emissions — but “what” and “where” are critical considerations.