Daily Links Mar 31

Post of the Day

The climate crisis will be just as shockingly abrupt

The coronavirus isn’t a reason to put climate policy on hold. It’s a warning of the calamities ahead.

 

On This Day

Mar 31

World Backup Day

 

Coronavirus Watch

Confirmed cases: 4,245. Deaths: 18

 

Employer or employee, here’s what the Government’s JobKeeper program means for you

The JobKeeper program was the centrepiece of the Government’s $130 billion package to try to help employers and employees weather the coronavirus storm. Here’s how it works.

 

Ten questions about the $1500 wage subsidy people need answered

Scott Morrison will unleash an unprecedented $130 billion of taxpayers’ money with one mission in mind: Putting the Australian economy on life support and protecting jobs.

 

Australia coronavirus shutdown: what is open, closed and banned under the current rules?

These are the latest restrictions in place as part of the Australian government’s emergency response measures to the Covid-19 outbreak

 

Climate Change

Campaigners attack Japan’s ‘shameful’ climate plans release

Proposals criticised amid fears countries may use coronavirus crisis to rein in commitments

 

‘Very un-Antarctic’: When the icy continent was not very cold at all

Temperatures soared over much of Antarctica this past summer, prompting researchers to declare the first heatwave ever recorded at Australia’s Casey station.

 

The climate crisis will be just as shockingly abrupt

The coronavirus isn’t a reason to put climate policy on hold. It’s a warning of the calamities ahead.

 

Intensity of past methane release measured with new, groundbreaking methods

A novel approach to geochemical measurements helps scientists reconstruct the past intensity of the methane seeps in the Arctic Ocean. Recent studies show that methane emissions fluctuated, strongly, in response to known periods of abrupt climate change at the end of the last glacial cycle.

 

National

Gas in eastern Australia – clearly, a declining industry

Tim Forcey

A look at the numbers shows that in eastern Australia, gas demand is going nowhere – for a whole bunch of reasons, including costs, climate and competition.

 

Obsessively consuming every morsel of information about coronavirus? Or trying to avoid the news completely?

First Dog on the Moon

You’ve probably missed everything else going on!

 

New South Wales

NSW approves coal mine expansion under drinking water catchment

NSW Berejiklian government quietly waves through planning approvals for coal mine expansion under Sydney drinking water catchment, ignoring criticism from environmental groups.

 

Queensland

Upgrade for Queensland-NSW transmission link waved through by regulator

AER says NSW-Queensland interconnector upgrade stacks up economically, will address system security problems and help lower wholesale electricity prices.

 

Australia’s first pumped hydro project in 40 years gets green light

The first pumped hydro project in Australia’s main grid in nearly 40 years – and the first outside public ownership – looks almost certain to go ahead after the listed Genex landed a revised off-take agreement with utility EnergyAustralia for its 2,000MWh Kidston storage project.

 

Greens celebrate record swings in Brisbane wards

While the final results for Brisbane City Council’s election are still days away, the Greens are already celebrating a powerful swing towards them in several LNP-held wards, as well as a strong boost in incumbent Jonathan Sri’s ward, The Gabba.

 

South Australia

Time on Crows’ side for Aquatic Centre proposal

The COVID-19 pandemic looks set to put the Adelaide Crows’ plans for the Aquatic Centre on the backburner for now, but the club has six years to complete its visionary project through its Federal Government funding arrangement.

 

Tasmania

Fisherman cops $93,900 in penalties for longline fishing in Flinders marine park [$]

An experienced southern bluefin tuna fisherman and his company have been penalised $93,900 with $34,000 in court costs for shooting a longline into a marine national park off Tasmania’s North-East coast.

 

Sustainability

The perfect virus: two gene tweaks that turned COVID-19 into a killer

If you were to hold a horseshoe bat in your hand, it would barely fill your palm, and weigh little more than a ballpoint pen.

 

Mandatory building energy audits alone do not overcome barriers to energy efficiency

A pioneering law may be insufficient to incentivize significant energy use reductions in residential and office buildings, a new study finds.

 

Air pollution linked to dementia and cardiovascular disease

People continuously exposed to air pollution are at increased risk of dementia, especially if they also suffer from cardiovascular diseases, according to a new study. Therefore, patients with cardiovascular diseases who live in polluted environments may require additional support from care providers to prevent dementia, according to the researchers.

 

Plastic-eating bacteria could be small step toward tackling world’s pollution crisis

Scientists have discovered a strain of bacteria, the first of its kind, that can degrade the harmful compounds in polyurethane products — a positive step toward reducing the amount of plastic pollution in the environment.

 

Mumbai’s daily peak air pollution falls 80% amid coronavirus lockdown: CSE study

The pollutant-measuring indicator – air quality index – in Mumbai has remained in the ‘satisfactory’ category for the past one week now due to the lockdown in view of coronavirus pandemic, but researchers have now assessed improvements using a more focused approach.

 

EPA appears to be using coronavirus to make concessions to polluters

The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced a freeze on enforcing environmental regulations due to the coronavirus pandemic that is so sweeping in scope that critics have begun to argue the change is actually a bid to advance the Trump administration’s long-standing deregulatory agenda.

 

Extreme, high temperatures may double or triple heart-related deaths

In Kuwait, a country known for hot weather, death certificates reveal that on days when the temperatures reached extremes of an average daily temperature of 109 degrees Fahrenheit, the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease dramatically increased. With unprecedentedly high temperatures, people living in inherently hot regions of the world may be at particularly high risk of heat-related cardiovascular death.

 

Coal exit will benefit health, wealth and nature

Human economies still depend on hydrocarbon fuels. But there are ways to achieve a coal exit, cut emissions and protect health.

 

‘The Triumph of Doubt’ digs into how dark money fuels mistrust of science

This new book outlines how this manufactured doubt for the science showing adverse impacts to things like beryllium, opioids and diesel exhaust is hurting public health and environmental policy.

 

Using fiber optics to advance safe and renewable energy

Fiber optic cables, it turns out, can be incredibly useful scientific sensors. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have studied them for use in carbon sequestration, groundwater mapping, earthquake detection, and monitoring of Arctic permafrost thaw. Now they have been awarded new grants to develop fiber optics for two novel uses: monitoring offshore wind operations and underground natural gas storage.

 

Revealed: Monsanto predicted crop system would damage US farms

Monsanto and the German chemical giant BASF were aware for years that their plan to introduce a new agricultural seed and chemical system would probably lead to damage on many US farms, internal documents show.

 

Coronavirus is a wake-up call: our war with the environment is leading to pandemics

Fiona Armstrong et al

COVID-19 is the latest new infectious disease arising from our collision with nature.

 

Nature Conservation

Heirloom plants: Saving the nation’s seeds from extinction

The incredible history of the UK’s heirloom plants and why they’re set to make a comeback.

 

New maps of Malaysian Borneo reveal worsening carbon losses along forest edges

Tropical forests are heavily fragmented as they are cleared for agricultural expansion and logging. Forest fragmentation leads to declines in carbon storage beyond just those trees that are cleared — the remaining forest at the edge of each clearing experiences environmental alterations such as increased sunlight and decreased soil moisture that can impact growing conditions for trees. These ‘edge effects’ describe habitat disturbances that can lead to decreased tree growth and increased mortality, which change forest structure over time.