Daily Links Jul 19

Post of the Day

Climate-friendly Cooling Could Cut Years of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Save US$ Trillions: UN

Energy-efficient cooling with climate-friendly refrigerants could avoid up to 460 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas equivalent being added to the atmosphere through 2060 – roughly equal to eight years of global emissions at 2018 levels. To meet all needs by 2050, cooling appliances worldwide would almost quadruple in number from 3.6 billion now to 14 billion, contributing greatly to higher world temperatures, according to a report by UNEP and the International Energy Agency.

On This Day

Jul 19

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus – Armenia

Coronavirus Watch

Confirmed cases: 11,441. Deaths: 119

Global report: WHO reports record daily increase of coronavirus cases

Iran’s president estimates 25m could be infected; mass health screenings in Xinjiang; Australian parliament suspended

Climate Change

Climate-friendly Cooling Could Cut Years of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Save US$ Trillions: UN

Energy-efficient cooling with climate-friendly refrigerants could avoid up to 460 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas equivalent being added to the atmosphere through 2060 – roughly equal to eight years of global emissions at 2018 levels. To meet all needs by 2050, cooling appliances worldwide would almost quadruple in number from 3.6 billion now to 14 billion, contributing greatly to higher world temperatures, according to a report by UNEP and the International Energy Agency.

National

‘We can’t blame animals’: how human pathogens are making their way into vulnerable wildlife

Australian scientists have found evidence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in about a dozen species, including bats, penguins, sea lions and wallabies

Victoria

State’s COVID-proof public transport plan

Almost 1000 buses and 100 trains will be added to the state’s transport fleet next month to allow for peak hour social distancing, with the Transport Minister declaring “public transport is safe”.

New South Wales

NSW Forestry Corporation accused of felling giant trees in state forest

The state government-owned Forestry Corporation of NSW has been ordered to stop its operations in a forest on the NSW North Coast after it allegedly felled two giant trees in violation of native forestry regulations.

‘Riding roughshod’: Clover Moore clashes with councillors, residents over cycleways

Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore has shocked residents by saying that anyone who objects to the installation of temporary cycleways in the inner city “doesn’t care about saving lives”.

Children and young people’s experience of disaster 2020

Advocate for Children and Young People (NSW)

In recent times NSW has experienced prolonged drought, an unprecedented bushfire season and floods. These disasters have directly or indirectly impacted hundreds of thousands of children and young people across NSW.

ACT

Coronavirus: ACT government delays single-use plastic ban [$]

Plans to ban certain types of single-use plastic in the ACT as early as mid-2020 have been put off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Australia’s great waste challenge

Katie Burgess

The money for Canberra was the first grant to come from a $190 million Recycling Modernisation Fund revealed by the federal government last week.

Queensland

How hard will the LNP try to wedge Labor on coal?

Peter McCutcheon

A stalled Darling Downs coal mine expansion has the potential to harm Labor in the 2020 Queensland election campaign, but it also poses risks for the Opposition

Tasmania

The woman on a mission to save the giant freshwater crayfish

Fiona Marshall is rarely out of her gumboots these days. She spends her time scouring waterways in a bid to improve the habitat of the giant freshwater crayfish — a threatened species that only lives in Tasmania’s north.

Parks and Wildlife are investigating alleged land clearing at Bicheno last Saturday [$]

The Parks and Wildlife service has confirmed it is investigating an incident in which penguin habitat was allegedly cleared at Bicheno last weekend.

Experts have their say on Tasmania’s environmental laws

Since Tasmania began to enter the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions around environmental laws and protections for conservation areas have again risen to the fore.

Northern Territory

NLC boss says Kakadu should not be handed back to NT [$]

Kakadu National Park should remain in federal control and not be handed to the Gunner government, Northern Land Council chief executive officer Marion Scrymgour says

Sustainability

Researchers create a roadmap to better multivalent batteries

Lithium-ion batteries power everything from mobile phones to laptop computers and electric vehicles, but demand is growing for less expensive and more readily available alternatives. The top candidates all hold promise, but researchers report that steep challenges remain.

COVID-19 lockdown reduced dangerous air pollutants in five Indian cities by up to 54 percent

The COVID-19 crisis and subsequent lockdown measures have led to a dramatic reduction of harmful air pollutants across major cities in India, finds a new study from the University of Surrey.

‘Blinking” crystals may convert CO2 into fuels

Imagine tiny crystals that “blink” like fireflies and can convert carbon dioxide, a key cause of climate change, into fuels. A Rutgers-led team has created ultra-small titanium dioxide crystals that exhibit unusual “blinking” behavior and may help to produce methane and other fuels, according to a study in the journal Angewandte Chemie. The crystals, also known as nanoparticles, stay charged for a long time and could benefit efforts to develop quantum computers.

Nature Conservation

Rebels are trying to ‘blackmail the world’ with this explosive ghost ship

An abandoned oil tanker floating off the coast of Yemen could explode and cause one of the world’s worst environmental disasters, but a bitter conflict is preventing anyone from fixing the problem.

Predicting the biodiversity of rivers

Biodiversity and thus the state of river ecosystems can now be predicted by combining environmental DNA with hydrological methods, researchers from the University of Zurich and Eawag have found. Using the river Thur as an example, the approach allows areas requiring conservation to be identified in order to initiate protective measures.

A call to arms: Enlisting private land owners in conservation

In 1872 the United States created Yellowstone, the first National Park in the world. Since then many more parks, monuments, preserves, wildernesses and other protected areas have been created in the USA. Protected areas, like Yellowstone, are invaluable, but are they actually effective at preserving endangered species? And if not, how can future protected areas do better?

Clear strategies needed to reduce bushmeat hunting

Extensive wildlife trade not only threatens species worldwide but can also lead to the transmission of zoonotic diseases. An international research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research shed new light on the motivations why people hunt, trade or consume different species. The research shows that more differentiated solutions are needed to prevent uncontrolled disease emergence and species decline.