Date: 1 August 2020 at 9:03:44 am AEST
Subject: Daily Links Aug 1
Post of the Day
Study: Environmental injustice is rampant around the world
The history of disproportionate environmental impacts on Black, Indigenous, and people of color often goes back for centuries.
On This Day
Aug 1
Saint Dominic Day – Managua
Lughnasadh – Celticism
Ecological Observance
Water Quality Month – USA
Coronavirus Watch
Confirmed cases: 16,905. Deaths: 197
Everything you want to know about coronavirus testing, but don’t want to ask
Australia is hitting a new phase in its fight against coronavirus and a big part of that is getting lots of people tested. Still got questions about the process? This could help.
Billionaire businessman Clive Palmer, who has launched legal action against the WA Government’s border closure, says COVID-19 has claimed very few West Australian lives, while hepatitis B results in thousands of deaths a year. What are the facts?
Going viral: five of the most important things we’ve learned about Covid-19 so far
Hassan Vally
The past few weeks in Victoria highlight how quickly things can turn. We have a long way to go
Climate Change
Climate change hits back, Svalbard coal mine flooded by melting glacier
After days with record heat at Svalbard, the penetration of water from the above melting glacier is now flooding Norway’s only operating coal mine that supplies the country’s only coal-power plant.
Are we doomed if we don’t curb carbon emissions by 2030?
Robert McLachlan
Humanity is not doomed, not now or even in a worst-case scenario in 2030. But avoiding doom – either the end or widespread collapse of civilization – is setting a pretty low bar. We can aim much higher than that without shying away from reality.
Patrick D. Nunn and Roselyn Kumar
Western solutions to Pacific Island issues often end in failure. These countries must build their autonomy to survive climate change.
Sherina Harris
Climate change can feel impossible to solve. But, as monarchs show, small actions can have world-altering results.
Bill McKibben
In the twenty-first century, when survival depends on an ability to handle chaos, the damage that comes from rising temperatures will ultimately be less telling than our collective capacity to respond.
Rising global flood risk demands action
Andrew Trounson
By the end of the century tens of millions more people and trillions of dollars more of the world economy will be at risk of being flooded as sea levels rise
National
X
Murray–Darling Basin water markets inquiry: interim report
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
This interim report draws upon analysis of comprehensive water market data from 2012 onwards, and the views of a broad range of people with interests in the use and trade of water in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Australia’s trilemma of providing good, fast and cheap energy finally has a clear solution
Simon Holmes à Court
We now know that we can have an affordable, reliable and low emissions power system – and it needs a lot less coal and fossil gas
Australia’s ‘black summer’ bushfires showed the impact of human-wrought change
Tim Flannery
Non-native predators and pests, forestry and farming mean our recovery is faltering. Here’s what we need to do
Crude reality: Oil giants split on fossil fuels’ future
Nick Toscano
Australia’s big producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – the nation’s second largest commodity export – have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and the story of the stranded British Mentor is far from isolated.
New power source for nation’s renewable energy agency
Peter Hannam
If solar and other clean energy supplies are so cheap, is there still a case for government support for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency?
There aren’t enough batteries to electrify all cars — focus on trucks and buses instead
Cameron Roberts
Electric vehicles can have a positive impact on the climate and air pollution levels, but governments should rethink how they electrify the transportation network.
Ebru Kirezci and Ian Young
In Australia, coastal flooding is expected to be worse along the northern coast in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Kieran Pender
In the face of the government’s inaction on the climate emergency, activists are turning to ‘world first’ lawsuits in an attempt to bring about change.
Swamped by rising climate of alarm [$]
Bjorn Lomborg
It wasn’t that long ago when much of the global elite had decided conclusively that climate change was our world’s top priority.
Victoria
Victorian emissions reduction target delayed again by virus crisis
The Andrews government has again delayed a critical decision on how deeply it will cut climate emissions over the next decade because of economic upheaval created by the coronavirus pandemic.
New South Wales
Fire curbs begin in state’s north-east as grassfire threats loom
Dry conditions in the state’s north-east have prompted the NSW Rural Fire Service to start the official bushfire danger period from August 1 for six local government areas.
Erosion risks ‘underestimated’ as more wild weather forecast
Coastal NSW faces the possibility of a third bout of wild weather in less than a month as insurance advisers warn the risks from multiple storms are being underestimated.
Pandemic ‘a smokescreen’ to ram through controversial mining projects like Santos gas in Narrabri
Callum Foote
The independent hearings into one of the most controversial projects in NSW history, Santos’ coal seam gas dream for Narrabri, are wrapping up. Meanwhile, new NSW guidelines to fast-track developments look set to turn into a nightmare for community groups
Queensland
Power dilemma: Costly upgrade or jobs go begging [$]
Queensland faces a huge bill to upgrade its high-voltage power lines or risk watching renewable energy projects like solar and wind farms become white elephants and jobs disappearing.
Land clearing green light for massive river estate [$]
More lots will be cleared to make way for the next stage of Riverbank in Caboolture South.
South Australia
Millions of litres of expired beer used to create renewable energy at sewage plant
The Glenelg Wastewater Treatment Plant is turning beer that expired due to reduced sales in restaurants, pubs and clubs during coronavirus restrictions into electricity.
‘Forensic audit’ into native title group welcomed in Port Augusta
As calls mount for a judicial inquiry into Australia’s Native Title industry, a corporation representing an indigenous clan in South Australia’s Port Augusta is set to undergo a “forensic audit”.
‘Pay more rates if you have no trees’ [$]
Do you have any trees in your yard? Under an Unley Council plan, rates could increase as much as 15 per cent if your property is not green enough.
Tasmania
Marinus death knell for wedgies
BirdLife Tasmania today described the fast-tracked approval for the Marinus cables as the death knell for Tasmania’s Wedge-tailed Eagles.
Putting Tasmanian species on the fast track to extinction [$]
Eric Woehler
Handing environment responsibility to Tasmanian governments is a disaster for our flora and fauna, says
Northern Territory
Targeted Kakadu bureaucrats step aside [$]
All three federal bureaucrats whose heads traditional owners demanded in a dispute over the management of Kakadu National Park have left their roles.
Western Australia
Former Rio Tinto employees condemn destruction of 46,000-year-old sacred site at Juukan Gorge
Senate inquiry told mining company was in ‘serious breach of its own standards’ and destruction ‘was waiting to happen’
Rio Tinto: ditch the colonial baggage and get with a 21st-century program
Stephen Mayne
Astronomical profits on the back of continued exploitation of Indigenous-owned land in WA. It’s time Rio upped the royalties it pays, moved its HQ to Australia, hired Indigenous Australians in senior roles, and ditched its colonial British establishment attitude.
Sustainability
Study: Environmental injustice is rampant around the world
The history of disproportionate environmental impacts on Black, Indigenous, and people of color often goes back for centuries.
This prof is shedding light on energy injustice — and how to fix it
Not every household has the same access to clean, efficient energy. Professor Tony Reames has a plan to correct that.
Why the U.K. is investing big in cycling and walking
The new push to promote and fund active travel is as much about improving health as it is about curbing pollution.
We can’t beat the planet into submission. We can retreat
Elizabeth Farrelly
As beachfront homes teeter, as lost properties are rebuilt in fire zones, consider the human folly of presuming dominion. It recalls a Tony Abbott climate speech that cited our biblical obligation to dominate nature.
Nature Conservation
Mystery behind death of hundreds of elephants in Botswana may have been solved
At least 281 elephants are reported to have died in Botswana in recent weeks but their cause of death remained unknown sparking an investigation to take place.
Common crustacean ‘can break down microplastics in days,’ alarming scientists
A species of small crustacean is able to break down microplastics into tiny particles in just a matter of days – much faster than previously estimated, scientists have said.
Maelor Himbury
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