Post of the Day
Governments put ‘green recovery’ on the backburner
G20 countries aim their pandemic bailout spending at fossil fuel industries, leaving Paris climate change targets in doubt
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Coronavirus Watch
Confirmed cases: 10,487. Deaths: 111
Geographers don’t just look at maps of where COVID-19 is occurring, they ask why. Looking at the big picture and the factors driving trends can help us to better understand its impact
Australia’s Covid-19 face mask advice: can I reuse them, what’s the best to use and where to buy?
The health department now recommends masks where community transmission of coronavirus is occurring and physical distancing is difficult. From washable cloth face masks to reusable ones and how to wear them, here’s what you need to know.
Guns, leaf blowers and science – things we must remember for next pandemic
Next pandemic, and there will almost certainly be one, the Shooters Union wants people to be able buy guns and ammunition, while the Australian Medical Association recommends the end of leaf blowers.
Climate Change
This Al Gore-supported project tracks the world’s emissions using AI
“We intend to trace all significant manmade greenhouse gas emissions and assign responsibility for them.”
Tree planting does not always boost ecosystem carbon stocks, study finds
Planting huge numbers of trees to mitigate climate change is ‘not always the best strategy’ – with some experimental sites in Scotland failing to increase carbon stocks, a new study has found.
Should banks be forced to price in climate change?
An idea gaining global momentum could take hold in a Biden administration.
What the pandemic can teach the climate movement
A law professor explains three types of COVID-19 lawsuits she says climate attorneys should be paying special attention to, which could make the case for bolder action on climate.
National
Huge Origin write-down raises questions over Australia’s gas transition plan
Origin Energy set to wipe off $1.2 billion from the value of its gas investments, as it gets caught out by a collapse in global oil and gas prices.
What is the risk to my DGR or charitable status from advocacy work?
Neil Pharaoh
There is no barrier to charities participating in political activity where it is consistent with their charitable purpose.
Mark Butler
Coalition MP Craig Kelly has mounted an extraordinary attack on the Bureau of Meteorology in a Facebook post shared more than one thousand times in 36 hours.
Victoria
Cleaning blitz For Melbourne waterways
A small army of Victorians will clean up litter, remove weeds and help make local rivers and creeks more beautiful as part of the Victorian Government’s plan to keep Victorians working through the coronavirus pandemic.
The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) has applauded the announcement of a joint Commonwealth/Victorian Centre for Forest Products Innovation but criticised the Andrew’s Government for pretending the Centre will support the closure of the renewable native forest sector in Victoria.
Logging Victoria’s burnt forest would hurt 30 threatened species, study says
Conservationists say timber millers may be ‘subject to legal exposure’ if they accept logs from VicForests ‘salvage logging’
Bunnings: no one’s moral compass in timber retail
David Hutchens
Bunnings has announced they will stop selling Victorian native timber species after a Federal court decision against Vicforests – the state harvesting agency.
You’ve really got to wonder what we all thought would happen.
Mike Dowson.
We had a lot going for us in Australia. Global conditions favoured us for a long time. Now that tide has turned. The boom years are over, and we are on the frontline of escalating environmental risk. But COVID-19 could be the catalyst for renewal.
We now know gas is far from the clean fuel it’s claimed to be
Bob Carr
If the satellite evidence keeps firming, investors will class gas assets as risky.
Fast rail and high speed rail solve different issues for Australia’s regions
Phil Potterton, Anthony Ockwell
At the hearings of the parliamentary inquiry into financing of faster rail in June, Bob Bennett, co-convener of the Canberra-Sydney Rail Action Group, spoke of the “chilling effect” that the possibility of high speed rail has had, over years, on more modest upgrade proposals.
Step on the gas to keep our standard of living [$]
Stephen Bell
Safeguarding Australia’s living standards against the disruption of COVID-19 requires us to embrace and activate our economic strengths and comparative advantages as a national priority.
New South Wales
UNSW busts myth on energy returns, says renewables will boost economy
The federal Coalition’s interminable political scare campaign over the economic cost of shifting to renewable energy – one of the key planks of the Morrison government’s election campaign last year – has been debunked once again, this time by a University of New South Wales study.
UNSW secures $4.9m for new hydrogen research hub
University of New South Wales wins funding to host new research hub aimed at accelerating commercialisation of renewable hydrogen.
‘It could take years’: Slow recovery predicted for public transport
Public transport users in Sydney are slowly returning with a surge of 10 million commuters in June but experts warn it may take years before passenger numbers go back to pre-coronavirus levels.
COVID-19 provides challenges for coming fire season, royal commission hears
The NSW Rural Fire Service is warning the upcoming bushfire season could be severely undermined by the coronavirus threat, with potentially hundreds of volunteers at risk from the virus.
Queensland
Queensland moves to ban single-use plastic straws and plates in bid to save marine life
Plan to stamp out ‘lethal’ plastic, which gets stuck in airways of wildlife and pollutes waterways, follows South Australia’s proposal
Queensland’s whales and turtles to benefit from plastics ban
Australia’s leading ocean conservation group has congratulated the Queensland government for tabling laws that will ban some single use plastics and save marine wildlife like whales and turtles.
Support for Reef jobs welcomed
The Palaszczuk Government’s $10million to support jobs and Reef catchment work is a good start in stimulating regional economies and benefiting the environment at the same time according to the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS).
Pesticide mixtures a bigger problem than previously thought
New research has provided the first comprehensive analysis of pesticide mixtures in creeks and rivers discharging to the Great Barrier Reef.
QFES ramps up bushfire preparations in south west Qld
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) is ramping up preparations for the upcoming bushfire season and is urging south west residents to do the same.
Birriah elders accuse Shine Energy of using Indigenous links to promote coal-fired power
Shine Energy, which has proposed a new plant at Collinsville in north Queensland, describes itself as a ‘traditional owner company’
Land council purchased for koala habitat still not open to public
More than a year since Brisbane City Council spent $6.2 million of its bushland acquisition fund purchasing a block of land without any bush on it, residents still cannot access the newly created park in Mount Gravatt East.
Queensland’s $4.4b trains failed to meet standards. Only one is fixed
Only one of the 75 new Queensland trains that failed to meet modern disability access standards has been modified to meet the requirement, eight months into a $335 million contract.
South Australia
Kangaroo Island builds back better with new desalination project
The Australian and South Australian Governments have today announced an extra $15 million for Kangaroo Island’s new desalination plant, which will create 500 jobs in a community devastated by the Black Summer bushfires.
Solar pay-to-play plan aims to benefit everyone [$]
Rooftop solar owners should pay to use the grid when they earn feed-in tariffs, SA Power Networks says. It would fund a better system, make more money for solar owners and power cheaper for all households.
Dumping ‘disgrace’ alongside conservation park [$]
An illegal dump next to a conservation park – with rubbish piles stretching hundreds of metres – must be shut down and those responsible prosecuted, a Riverland Council says.
Jess Marsh
The story of the Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor spider offer insight into the challenges ahead for invertebrates – the tiny engines of Australia’s biodiversity – after this year’s cataclysmic fires.
Tasmania
Clifftop toilet plan poo-poohed by opponents as a stinker of an idea
A Tasmanian council is pushing ahead with a plan to build a “loo with a view” overhanging a spectacular coastline in an effort to draw tourists — but not everyone is sold, with one councillor saying she does not want the area to become “famous for a toilet”.
Assistant Forestry Minister Jonathon Duniam said the closure paper mills because of COVID-19 had caused the glut of woodchips affecting Tasmanian exporters.
Tasmanian forestry industry handed small lifeline [$]
The state government will extend a $500,000 program by six months to help forest contractors hit by a downturn in the demand for woodchips and COVID-19.
Extinction Rebellion activists face court
Climate activists arrested in October last year for blockading the Parliament House car park in Hobart faced court today. The action was led by the Extinction Rebellion group.
For duck’s sakes: MP ignores advice on open season [$]
Explosive documents have revealed Minister for Primary Industries and Water Guy Barnett ignored the expert advice of his own department that he should massively curtail this year’s duck hunting season.
Long path to iconic track repair [$]
Some of the state’s most iconic wilderness walks remain closed after they were devastated in bushfires the summer before last — and no date has been set for their reopening.
Western Australia
The fight is on to save one of the world’s rarest birds, which lost most of its WA habitat in a series of devastating bushfires.
Woodside stalls project plans amid oil market rout
Energy giant Woodside will hold off making final decisions on multibillion-dollar growth projects and use the time to explore ways to make them more competitive after slashing future oil and gas price forecasts in the wake of coronavirus.
WA’s Premier was quick to condemn “depraved, disgusting and disgraceful” images of a game hunter and his kills, but some people are asking why Jewell Crossberg was stood down because of his African adventure 10 years ago.
Rio Tinto files environmental approval request for Winu copper mine in WA
Rio Tinto has given the first glimpse of the scale of its proposed Winu copper mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara, filing environmental approval documents for a 7 million tonne a year operation after pumping $122m into Winu, as the resources giant pushes to get the discovery into construction by mid-2021.
James Paton Gilmour
They’re more used to taking visitors to the reefs, but COVID-19 gave tour operators time to help check the condition of the corals. What they found doesn’t bode well.
Sustainability
World population to peak at 9.7 billion by 2064, before falling
The global population may peak at around 9.7 billion in 2064 before falling to 8.8 billion by the end of the century, a new study suggests.
‘Icing on the cake’: Native Americans hail ruling that east Oklahoma is tribal land
Oklahoma no longer has legal authority to prosecute cases involving Native Americans across about 3m acres
Governments put ‘green recovery’ on the backburner
G20 countries aim their pandemic bailout spending at fossil fuel industries, leaving Paris climate change targets in doubt
How much plastic do you actually throw away every year?
This month is #PlasticFreeJuly, a global movement which asks us to think about how much plastic waste we’re responsible for. But how can we calculate how much plastic we throw away?
Space to grow, or grow in space — how vertical farms could be ready to take-off
Vertical farms with their soil-free, computer-controlled environments may sound like sci-fi. But there is a growing environmental and economic case for them, according to new research laying out radical ways of putting food on our plates.
Trump to weaken environmental rules to speed infrastructure permits
President Trump is set to unilaterally weaken one of the nation’s bedrock conservation laws, the National Environmental Policy Act, limiting public review of federal infrastructure projects to speed up the permitting of freeways, power plants and pipelines.
Is Biden’s 100% clean electricity plan doable?
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden released a $2 trillion plan yesterday calling for 100% clean electricity in 15 years. Is that possible with existing technology and utility targets?
Sun and rain transform asphalt binder into potentially toxic compounds
Chemists show that asphalt binder, when exposed to sun and water, leaches thousands of potentially toxic compounds into the environment.
Children exposed to Deepwater Horizon oil spill suffered physical, mental health effects
A recent study has found that the Deepwater Horizon disaster was harmful to the mental and physical health of children in the area.
Customizable smart window technology could improve energy efficiency of buildings
Scientists combined solar cell technology with a novel optimization approach to develop a smart window prototype that maximizes design across a wide range of criteria.
What COVID-19 can teach tourism about the climate crisis
The global coronavirus pandemic has hit the tourism industry hard worldwide. Not only that, but it has exposed a lack of resilience to any type of downturn, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden. While the virus may or may not be temporary, the climate crisis is here to stay – and tourism will have to adapt, says Stefan Gössling, professor of sustainable tourism.
City-as-a-service — a new business and investment model
Paul Budde
A mutually beneficial system between councils and private companies should be in place for investment in large-scale smart city platforms.
Biomass and the ‘renewable-sustainable’ con: greens fiddle while global forests burn
Geoff Russell
Burning ‘biomass’ to create electricity and reduce your carbon footprint is a fancy way of saying you’re chopping down forests to tackle climate change.
Trinity nuclear test brought peace in 1945 and proliferation in decades to follow [$]
Warren Kozak
Seventy-five years ago today, the world’s first atomic explosion, codenamed Trinity, jolted the New Mexico desert just before dawn.
Increase in invasive species poses dramatic threat to biodiversity – report
Tourism, transport and the climate crisis found to be major drivers of rise in alien plants and animals, which can decimate ecosystems
Biodiversity blooms in cities when green spaces go wild
Cities are leaving once manicured green spaces to rewild with native flowers and grasses that attract more diverse insects, birds and wildlife.
UN’s grand plan to save forests hasn’t worked, but some still believe it can
The world’s tropical forests are in serious trouble, with deforestation worsening and the sixth mass extinction accelerating faster than scientists previously thought.
Urban bees: Pollinator diversity and plant interactions in city green spaces
With the right mix of plants, urban green spaces can be a rich habitat to support diverse pollinators, according to a new study.
Team Lioness: The Kenyan women rangers risking their lives for wildlife
There are eight rangers in the all-female International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Team Lioness, a patrol unit among 76 rangers from the local Maa community. Their job is to protect wildlife from poaching, trafficking in bushmeat and human-wildlife conflict.
New models detail how major rivers will respond to changing environmental conditions
From the Nile to the Mississippi and from the Amazon to the Yangzi, human civilization is inextricably linked to the great rivers along which our societies developed. But rivers are mutable, and the benefits they bestow can quickly become disasters when these waterways change course.
Humans are encroaching on Antarctica’s last wild places, threatening its fragile biodiversity
Rachel Leihy and Steven Chown
Protecting the continent’s remaining pristine wilderness areas is urgent, but achievable.
Maelor Himbury
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