Post of the Day
Is it in us to build a post-pandemic utopia?
Rutger Bregman says humans are made to pursue kind cooperation. Beware, though, our Hobbesian glitch.
On This Day
Coronavirus Watch
Confirmed cases:7920. Deaths: 104
Can the Government force you to take a COVID-19 test?
With a spike in locally acquired cases of COVID-19 across parts of Melbourne worrying authorities, could we see a situation where people are forced to take coronavirus tests?
Kristina Murphy et al
Coronavirus restrictions are tightening in some parts of Melbourne, while easing in other Australian states. So what makes us willing to play by the (new) rules?
The return of the virus which never went away. Whose fault isn’t it?
First Dog on the Moon
While we know who we want to blame, we are also not pointing the finger at a number of people
Climate Change
A global push for racial justice in the climate movement
Today’s global Black Lives Matter protests have amplified calls for institutions of all kinds — including environmental groups — to challenge and dismantle chronic systemic racism.
House Democrats’ climate plan embraces much of Green New Deal, but not a ban on fracking
Critics on the left wanted a faster retreat from fossil fuels. Some Republicans faulted House leaders for failing to forge bipartisan consensus.
Saharan dust plumes are a crucial part of Earth’s biology and climate
The Saharan dust plume is a supersized version of ones that cross the Atlantic all the time, ferrying particles that irritate lungs but also fertilize plant and ocean life.
Major new paleoclimatology study shows global warming has upended 6,500 years of cooling
Over the past 150 years, global warming has more than undone the global cooling that occurred over the past six millennia, according to a major study published June 30 in Nature Research’s Scientific Data, “Holocene global mean surface temperature, a multi-method reconstruction approach.” The findings show that the millennial-scale global cooling began approximately 6,500 years ago when the long-term average global temperature topped out at around 0.7°C warmer than the mid-19th century.
News Corp’s newest climate convert is a career contrarian [$]
Kishor Napier-Raman
The ‘energy expert’ (who has no formal scientific qualifications) says he wants to blow ‘hysteria and alarmism’ away — but with fans and followers like his, that’s blowin’ in the wind.
National
Steggall calls for conscience vote on zero carbon bill to kickstart Covid recovery
Independent MP calls for conscience vote on zero carbon bill as a pathway to stronger climate targets and to kick start green economy recovery.
Ernst and Young report suggests green stimulus to lift badly hit regional economies
A report has identified Australia’s local government areas worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic and modelled the impact of green stimulus measures, saying they could create 50,000 jobs nationally over four years.
The green recovery: what is it and will Australia miss a once in a lifetime opportunity?
As countries around the world begin restarting their economies after the coronavirus crisis, a growing chorus of prominent leaders have labelled this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tackle climate change by targeting post-pandemic stimulus toward areas that promote renewable energy. Will Australia take heed or continue to rely on fossil fuels?
Eden-Monaro benefits in new forests funding [$]
Scott Morrison will use the government’s Emissions Reduction Fund, described by Anthony Albanese last week as an “inappropriate use of taxpayer funds”, to support new forestry plantations across five states, including in the by-election battleground seat of Eden-Monaro.
Australia claims Kyoto success, but three decades as a climate wrecker is all it can boast
Michael Mazengarb
The Morrison government has claimed success in meeting Australia’s targets under the Kyoto Protocol, which came to an end on Wednesday, despite three decades of relative inaction and stalling from successive federal governments.
Shareholders helping to shift the dial towards principled profit
John Hewson
Shareholders, traditionally focused only by maximising profit, are now agitating for corporate social change. Governments need to read the room and get on board.
UniSuper take note: there’s no retirement on a dead planet
Adam Barsky and Michael Zyphur
The super fund for health workers plans to dump its shares in companies that mine fossil fuels. The super fund for university staff is a long way behind.
Victoria
Bunnings says it has ‘zero tolerance’ for illegal timber as it drops VicForests products
Major hardware chain Bunnings is dumping Victorian native timber products from its shelves after the Federal Court ruled timber was felled illegally, putting dozens of jobs in jeopardy.
Bunnings’ short-sighted decision will cost Aussie jobs and lead to environment-destroying imports
Bunnings’s short-sighted decision to stop stocking timber sourced from Victoria’s sustainably managed native forests and produced by local timber mills, is a knee-jerk reaction to pander to extremist activist groups that will only lead to more imported timber from less sustainably managed forests overseas, Australian Forest Products Association CEO Ross Hampton said.
Huge blaze at waste transfer station in Altona North [$]
Fire crews battled a monster blaze at a waste transfer station in Altona North late Wednesday night, black smoke billowing into surrounding areas.
28m ago
New South Wales
City of Sydney completes switch to 100 per cent renewable supply
City of Sydney now running on 100 per cent renewables, as power begins flowing from regional solar and wind projects.
Transgrid, Cornwall say new wind and solar needed quickly to lower prices in NSW
Transgrid says renewables key to cost falls in NSW, while research group says the pace of investment will need to accelerate significantly in coming years.
NSW farmers accelerate land-clearing rates, doubling previous decade
Farmers in NSW are increasing the rate they clear land, taking advantage of looser native vegetation controls to more than double the pace of deforestation of the previous decade.
Rose Bay golf course proposal ‘would remove entire urban forest’: planner
Royal Sydney Golf Club has put in a DA to Woollahra Council to remove 569 trees, which would decrease the canopy cover, even with its plan to plant 700 more, critics say.
We know how to save NSW’s koalas from extinction – but the government must commit
Christine Hosking
The Berejiklian government must step up to the challenge of saving koalas in NSW from their predicted fate: extinction in the wild by 2050.
ACT
Virus crisis creates a light rail opportunity
Canberra Times editorial
It is inevitable some of the light rail project’s many critics will seize on news contract signings for stage 2A may be delayed due to COVID-19 to call for the project to be abandoned.
Queensland
Brisbane’s ‘safe’ levels of pollution still raise death risk, research finds
A study of more than 240,000 deaths in Queensland over more than a decade has found even low levels of air pollution raises the risk of dying.
South Australia
Vestas lands big wind turbine contract in Australia, most likely Port Augusta
Vestas says it has won a 210MW contract for a wind farm to be built by late 2021 – almost certainly the big wind-solar hybrid planned for Port Augusta…
Nine new solar farms and two big batteries proposed for South Australia
Nine new solar farm proposals and two new big batteries unveiled in flood of applications to South Australia energy regulator.
Green light for Green Triangle [$]
Planting more trees is an obvious way to help cut carbon pollution. But worries about water have made it hard for forestry to get into government funding schemes. That’s about to change.
Charge homes to send solar back to grid – regulator [$]
Solar panel owners are used to getting paid for sending power back to grid but now energy authorities say they may be made to pay instead.
Tasmania
Call for preventive action on bushfire threat [$]
A leading university climatologist has warned preventive action must be taken against the threat of bushfires in Tasmania, ahead of a virtual roundtable discussion to plan and prepare for worsening conditions in the state.
Reveal Hydro dealings as government takes on Marinus cable risk [$]
John Lawrence
Marinus seems a project in search of a large government subsidy
Lessons in soul from Lake Pedder [$]
Bill Handbury finds no humans — but plenty to keep him company
Northern Territory
Onshore gas industry ‘critical to the Territory’s future’: Liveris [$]
An onshore gas industry and its successful development has never been more critical to the Northern Territory, says the man who is an adviser to US presidents, Australian prime ministers and international businesses, and now head of the Chief Minister’s Economic Reconstruction Commission.
More popular Kakadu spots to reopen this Friday [$]
Popular spots at Kakadu National Park including Jim Jim Falls and Maguk will finally reopen to visitors on Friday.
Western Australia
WA records hottest start to winter on record as late rain fails to fill gauges
WA records its warmest start to winter on record while Perth records its equal-hottest June — two degrees above average — with below-average rainfall to boot.
Sustainability
Solar mini-grids smarter, cheaper option for many global communities with no power
Solar-powered mini-grids can play a “critical role” in delivering universal electricity access across the globe, as they present smarter, cheaper options to main grid.
Global transition from coal to clean energy has reached a financial tipping point
Report reveals new-build renewable energy is already cheaper than already operating coal plants across much of the planet, and sets out a plan for a just transition.
Bayer forges ahead with new crops resistant to 5 herbicides
Despite lawsuits and regulations, the agrichemical company is developing new genetically engineered corn designed to work with five herbicides, including glyphosate and dicamba.
Water firms discharged raw sewage into England’s rivers 200,000 times in 2019
Untreated effluent flowed into waterways for more than 1.5m hours, data shows
‘Extraordinary’ effort from Kiwis sees plastic bags cut by a billion, one year on from ban
The Government is now looking at new ways to phase out hard-to-recycle plastics.
Nuclear ‘power balls’ may make meltdowns a thing of the past
Triso particles are an alien-looking fuel with built-in safety features that will power a new generation of high-temperature reactors.
Russia′s nuclear play for power in Africa
Russia is pushing nuclear technology to African nations to both turn a profit and expand its political might on the continent.
Is it in us to build a post-pandemic utopia?
Rutger Bregman says humans are made to pursue kind cooperation. Beware, though, our Hobbesian glitch.
I believe Roundup gave me cancer. The Monsanto settlement is a slap in the face
Christine Sheppard
I have to inject myself with needles just to stay alive. Still, Bayer will continue to sell Roundup, and refused to label it as carcinogenic
James Higham
The travel crisis caused by COVID-19 is also an opportunity to end the worst excesses of international tourism for good.
Global heating will make it much harder for tropical plants to germinate, study finds
Temperatures will be too hot for the seeds of one in five plants by the year 2070, Australian researcher says
Europe losing forest to harvesting at alarming rate, data suggests
Rise in harvesting could affect ability to combat climate crisis due to carbon absorption capacity reducing
Hundreds of elephants dead in mysterious mass die-off
More than 350 elephants have died in northern Botswana in a mysterious mass die-off described by scientists as a “conservation disaster”.
Alarming long-term effects of insecticides weaken ant colonies
Scientists have shown how even low doses of neonicotinoid insecticides, as they may realistically occur in contaminated soils, adversely affect the development of black garden ants (Lasius niger). This study highlights the need to overthink current deployment and management of chemical pest control for more sustainable agriculture.
Microplastic pollution accumulates heavily in coastal areas such as fjords and estuaries
Microplastic pollution in marine environments is concentrated most highly in coastal habitats, especially fjords and estuaries, according to a new review article published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.
Maelor Himbury
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