Post of the Day
Pollution kills nine million people a year. How is that okay?
Pranav Reddy
Recent studies put the vast human and economic toll of global pollution into sharp relief. Will lawmakers respond?
On This Day
Holy Saturday – Eastern Christianity
Ecological Observance
Environment Day – Ukraine
Coronavirus Watch
Confirmed cases: 6,523. Deaths: 65
If we find a vaccine for COVID-19, it will be the first time ever for coronaviruses
For those pinning their hopes on a COVID-19 vaccine to return life to normal, an Australian expert in vaccine development warns the quest poses unique challenges.
Climate Change
Climate Week NYC to go ahead in September 2020
The Climate Group announced that Climate Week NYC will not be postponed and will take place as scheduled on September 21-27, 2020.
The parched West is heading into a global warming-fueled megadrought that could last for centuries
Warmer temperatures and shifting storm tracks are drying up vast stretches of land in North and South America.
Global warming: 2020 expected to be warmest year on record, NOAA said
Federal scientists announced Thursday that 2020 has nearly a 75% chance of being the warmest year on record for the planet Earth.
US to have major floods on daily basis unless sea-level rise is curbed – study
New Orleans, Honolulu and Miami expected to be vulnerable as research shows advancing tides will ‘radically redefine the coastline of the 21st century.’
National
The review was an olive branch extended to thousands of angry irrigators last year, but it hasn’t uncovered any new water for them.
‘Massive’ funding boost needed to stop animal extinctions
A “massive” funding boost is needed to address the threat of extinction for more than 100 plants and animals that had habitat wiped out in the catastrophic summer bushfires, scientists and conservation groups say.
Covid-19 pandemic could delay up to 3GW of Australia wind and solar projects
Rystad says up to 3GW of new wind and solar projects may be delayed due to Covid-19 impacts on currency, debt and financing.
Australia’s big battery market set to add “at least” 500MWh in 2020
Australia’s grid-scale battery market had record 2019 and on track to sail past 500MWh in 2020 – at least double the new capacity of residential sector.
ARENA future clouded as Taylor fudges on board appointments
New questions have been raised over the potential future of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency after federal energy minister Angus Taylor opted to extend the appointments of ARENA’s board members by just three months.
Gas industry’s emissions intensity is getting worse, new report finds
New analysis suggests the emissions intensity of Australian gas sector is worsening, raising new questions around its suitability as a transition fuel.
Shell sets more ambitious emissions goals
Royal Dutch Shell agreed Thursday to set bolder carbon-emissions goals after engaging with a group of investors representing $40 trillion in assets under management.
The Great Lockdown is a sledgehammer busting dreams that won’t bounce back
Elizabeth Farrelly
I was reading a friend’s description of chemotherapy, a compelling read that detailed his sense of being poisoned in every cell, his dread of each worsening day and his fear that the terrible, iterative loss might never end. Things might never get better. The parallel was obvious.
Joseph Schubert
“I arrived in Perth and bought a foam mattress for the back of my car – my bed for half of the trip. I stocked up on tinned food, and I headed north in search of these tiny eight-legged gems.”
No water, no leadership: new Murray Darling Basin report reveals states’ climate gamble
Daniel Connell
There’s little transparency or clarity about how much water states are allocated. This failure in communication and leadership across such a vital system must change.
United we stand: Urban trees face an existential crisis
Peter Fisher
It’s important to get a clearer perspective of the role our urban trees play before sacrificing them in the name of progress.
Getting business ready for a post-crisis world [$]
Graham Bradley
Lower corporate taxes, freezes on wages and executive salaries and a less-zealous approach by regulators would all help get the nation back to work.
Victoria
Calls to rethink Victoria’s most expensive road project during pandemic
Doubts are emerging about the viability of the $16 billion North East Link, as experts warn the coronavirus pandemic undermines key assumptions underpinning the project.
New South Wales
Baby owls hatch new hope for one of world’s rarest species
The Norfolk Island morepork owl was all-but extinct in the 1980s with only one female left. Now their numbers have grown to 50 and, for the first time in almost a decade, a pair of chicks have been located.
People visiting local national parks urged to do their bit in fight against COVID-19
Authorities are urging people to apply common sense and do the right thing by following the COVID-19 rules when visiting local national parks.
‘Every measure’: New plan to protect Sydney water supplies
The National Parks Association says the announcement is encouraging but fears it may be mere “window dressing for business as usual”.
ACT
The ACT’s national parks came about due to careful planning, not happenstance
Matthew Higgins
Many of us might take our high-country national parks for granted. These conservation areas have been with us for decades.
Queensland
Can cloud brightening protect the Great Barrier Reef?
Using a device like a snow cannon to shoot microscopic saltwater droplets into the air, scientists are hoping to reduce heat on the reef and slow the impacts of coral bleaching.
Rebuild it, shade it, breed it: three tactics to buy time for the Great Barrier Reef
While emissions reduction is the only long-term solution, scientists are testing ways to keep the reef going in a warming world
Shell greenlights Qld Surat gas project
Royal Dutch Shell says it will move forward with the first phase of its large Surat Gas Project in Queensland in a joint venture with PetroChina.
South Australia
Thousands rush to S.A. home battery scheme before subsidy winds back
More than 5,000 solar households apply for battery subsidy in just five weeks, in a last-minute rush to access a $6000 discount via state government home storage scheme.
SA leads way in River Murray water control [$]
South Australia‘s river management is the best in the land, a long-awaited new report into the Murray-Darling says, but it’s also found the truth about water is far too murky.
KI fires: Battle to save our threatened species [$]
As the green shoots of regrowth gradually bring a charred Kangaroo Island landscape back to life, a dedicated band of nature lovers is working hard to ensure a wildlife population decimated by fires follows suit.
Koala boom fears drive calls for KI to drop bears [$]
Kangaroo Island’s koala population needs drastic management to make sure it doesn’t balloon out to pre-bushfire numbers, some conservationists say, and they are pushing for us to move the animals interstate.
New call for alternative freeway truck route [$]
Burnside Council has long had an issue with truck traffic on the South-Eastern Freeway. Now, a new report, is calling for a solution.
Western Australia
WA bus services to be partly reinstated from May
The State Government will reinstate some of the public transport services in Perth, which were reduced due to the COVID-19 outbreak, to support the reopening of WA schools.
Sustainability
100 jobs up for grabs with Darwin council’s new ‘Green Army’ [$]
Darwin council has started recruiting for the city’s Green Army – a new program aimed at putting newly unemployed Darwinites into work beautifying the city
PA plants say they’re working to prevent outbreaks during refueling outages at nuclear facilities
Pennsylvania’s nuclear operators said they are taking extra steps to safeguard the health of workers involved in springtime shutdowns for refueling, following the positive testing of two workers for COVID-19 at Exelon’s Limerick plant.
Indonesia’s miners exploit loopholes to avoid restoring mining sites
Abandoned mining pits litter the landscape across Indonesia, posing both environmental and public health problems.
Pollution kills nine million people a year. How is that okay?
Pranav Reddy
Recent studies put the vast human and economic toll of global pollution into sharp relief. Will lawmakers respond?
How the laws that Earth Day inspired have benefited us all
The rules the Trump administration loves to criticize have made life better and healthier for millions of Americans.
Nature Conservation
Will climate change threaten Earth’s other ‘lung’?
Phytoplankton produce half of the oxygen in our atmosphere, but understanding how they respond to climate change is complicated and critically important.
Earth Day began here with a disaster, but a tiny island fox tell a bigger story
Earth Day began after a catastrophe off California. Leadership and science restored nature—and hope—through years of despair and controversy.
Human quarantines are helping wild animals. Conservationists want more protections
“The goats absolutely love it,” one Wales resident says as coronavirus empties streets.
Brazilian indigenous chiefs act to halt illegal logging in historical landmark area
A valuable Atlantic Forest reserve and historical site, Pataxó is suffering from the illegal logging of fine woods used to produce handicrafts.
‘There’s No More Water’: Climate Change on a Drying Island
A delicate ecosystem was disrupted in the Comoros, off East Africa, when forests were cleared to make way for farmland. The consequences offer lessons for other parts of the developing world.
Coronavirus: Fears of spike in poaching as pandemic poverty strikes
Conservation groups say poaching is on the rise as tourism income dries up at wildlife reserves.
Maelor Himbury
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