Post of the Day
Research finds nearly all of protected habitats are ‘disconnected’
More than 90 per cent of the world’s protected wildlife habitats are “disconnected”, new research has found, greatly reducing their ability to support the plants and wildlife they were established to protect.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Carl Garner Federal Lands Cleanup Day – USA
Coronavirus Watch
Think you might have ‘COVID brain’? You’re not alone
So, you’ve become more acquainted with Netflix than showering and all those well-meaning self-improvement ventures have been collecting dust since April. It’s understandable. But there are ways to beat your lockdown slump.
Coronavirus saliva test promises results in 20 seconds, but can it replace current tests?
A 20-second COVID-19 tests that uses cameras and microscopes to determine if someone has the virus has been described as “ground-breaking”, but experts say it is not a replacement for current tests.
Climate Change
Wild weather this year shows growing impact of climate change, scientists say
Ferocious wildfires in the U.S. West, torrential rains in Africa and record heat waves in the Siberian Arctic are all wild weather consistent with climate change, scientists say. And the world can expect even more extreme weather and higher risks from natural disasters as global emissions of greenhouse gases continue.
Removing carbon from air, which increases water use, is no simple climate fix
Certain ways of drawing carbon out of the atmosphere come with substantial tradeoffs for water use, water quality, and food production, study finds.
Biden’s radical climate change plan could overturn the world’s efforts
Nick O’Malley
It appears clear that Biden is seeking to use his climate policy as a vehicle to unite his party before the election and tackle compounding social, environmental and economic crises after it.
Hana Shafi
Climate change is stealing their future. But their activism gives me hope.
The problems climate activists still worry about are already solved
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Environmental rebels appear not to have noticed, but the free market is cracking climate change with a speed and efficiency that they could never achieve.
National
‘Electrify everything’: Cannon-Brookes calls for east-west solar cables to power Australia
Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes says massive investments in renewable energy initiatives like the $22 billion Sun Cable project could lift Australia out of recession by creating jobs, lowering power prices and generating new export revenue streams.
Victoria
Surf Coast Shire Council will open the mouth of the Anglesea River on Monday 14 September to prevent localised flooding in the area.
Transport increases under lockdown with warmer weather
Train, tram and bus use on the weekend has doubled in inner Melbourne during stage four lockdown, as more people get out in improving weather.
Mixed-Use waterfront project set to transform West Melbourne
A new mixed-use waterfront development is set to start construction in 2021 after receiving approval by the City of Melbourne’s Future Melbourne Committee.
New South Wales
‘Mud and dead trees’: the dire environmental effects of raising Warragamba dam wall
Plan to raise the dam wall will see some 6,000 hectares of world heritage land inundated by flood waters
Raising dam wall risks Indigenous sites in ‘Sydney’s Juukan Gorge’
The inevitable inundation from raising the Warragamba Dam wall would wreak destruction on thousands of Aboriginal sites, Gundungurra traditional owner Kazan Brown says.
Koala tiff just the latest clash between Libs and Nats over nature
Nationals leader John Barilaro’s abandoned threat to bring down the Berejiklian government over koala habitat protections was just the latest in a series of clashes involving environmental issues.
A gobsmacking dummy spit, a humiliating backdown and the koala’s no good, very bad year
Laura Tingle
The thinking behind John Barilaro’s humiliating backdown over environmental planning laws has betrayed yet another sign of the Nationals’ struggle for relevance
Antony Green
The Coalition’s cannibalism in NSW over the past 24 hours is extraordinary, not because of koalas, but for the fact Australia’s most populous state has seldom seen a split like this before
Rob Oakeshott
Let’s compare the pair. This week, 20 former chief Australian veterinary officers and biosecurity experts, including Nobel prize winner Professor Peter Doherty, wrote to the Prime Minister.
The NSW koala wars showed one thing: the Nationals appear ill-equipped to help rural Australia
Tanya M Howard
This morning, NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro capitulated on a threat to tear apart the state government over new koala protections. For now, the government remains intact. However the Nats’ campaign to loosen environmental protections that affect farmers will continue to destabilise the Coalition in the longer term.
Why the NSW government almost self-destructed over koalas [$]
Aaron Patrick
Country voters worry the NSW Environment Department has engaged in regulatory land grab that will give Green-controlled councils more power.
Farmers will suffer while the Libs try being green [$]
Vikki Campion
It’s ridiculous to suggest koalas should live in and eat native pine trees. A tree a koala may walk past is not a reason to protect it, more than a culvert a funnel-web lives in makes it a sacred site.
Koala crisis strengthens Premier’s leadership in the face of Nationals threats
SMH editorial
At a time when NSW is battling a pandemic and a recession, the last thing we needed was the crisis manufactured by Deputy Premier John Barilaro.
Nats’ bluff falls flat as Gladys calls it out [$]
Telegraph editorial
The Premier is now operating in a new normal — a pandemic-ravaged political landscape that leaves no time for irritations. And she sent a clear message to Nationals leader John Barilaro and his party that there is no place for unhelpful histrionics, dummy-spitting and empty threats.
Yoni Bashan
This crisis is not about koalas. It was never about koalas, or noxious weeds, or farmers who couldn’t pave a driveway without fretting over the eucalyptus trees on their property.
Barilaro keeps Nationals in the tent; koalas stay in limbo
Michelle Grattan
Several premiers presently find themselves at war with the federal government. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, by contrast, suddenly found herself locked in battle with her deputy premier, John Barilaro, and his bolshie band of Nationals.
Logging after the Black Summer bushfires [$]
Drew Rooke
Despite warnings from environmental experts, logging has recommenced in NSW forests ravaged by the Black Summer bushfires. Now, the EPA is investigating alleged regulation breaches by logging contractors, with habitats and wildlife at risk of irreparable damage.
ACT
Capital Recycling Solutions savages Labor government over handling of Fyshwick plant
The proponents of a controversial Fyshwick recycling plant have savaged the Labor government, saying its decision to publicly oppose their proposal on the eve of the ACT election shows an “utter contempt for due process” and will frighten investors and developers looking to do business in the nation’s capital.
Queensland
Adani granted injunction to stop activist using ‘confidential material’
Mining giant Adani is granted an injunction ordering an activist to stop using “confidential material” it claims is frustrating the development of its mine and rail network in the Galilee Basin.
Why Elon Musk is in the driver’s seat for future of $5 billion Qld mine
The fate of a major north Queensland metals mine in north Queensland that would generate about $5 billion in free cash flow over its 30-year life is resting on a strategy from the mercurial businessmen Elon Musk.
‘We need a public sex register to protect kids’
Bruce Morcombe
As a community, we have a duty of care to protect each and every child. But how can we do that if the locations of convicted paedophiles are kept secret.
South Australia
Permanent transport corridor planned [$]
Planners will look at turning Grenfell and Currie streets into a “public transport boulevard” for easier access – and a Hindley St revamp also appears on the cards.
Dreaded predators leap across SA border [$]
The owner of the Truro post office initially thought the call from PIRSA about two cane toads being reportedly spotted in the town was an April Fool’s joke. But then they asked her to help distribute a flyer warning of the toxic pests.
Tasmania
Pulling the plug on Pedder [$]
Charles Wooley
OPINION Given the current environmental disinterest on both sides of Tasmanian politics I am not confident the natural jewel of Tasmania’s south-west will ever be restored to its former glory, but we can live in hope, writes
Northern Territory
Boaties banned from Kakadu river after ‘unusual’ appearance of whales
Kakadu National Park staff have monitored there humpback whales since they arrived early in the week and just one whale remains in the river.
Western Australia
Scientist fears Abrolhos seabird populations are at risk from tourism
The scientist behind one of Australia’s longest-running seabird studies warns the birds he studies at the Houtman Abrolhos Islands are at greater risk than ever before.
From explosion to implosion: How Rio Tinto blew up the Juukan Gorge – and itself
James Fitzgerald of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility says the RIo Tinto-Juukan Gorge crisis is both a public relations crisis and a legal crisis. He says it’s been a teaching moment for mining investors.
Indigenous leaders say Rio Tinto dumping executives must be beginning of genuine transformation
The departure of three Rio Tinto executives after the detonation of an Aboriginal sacred site should be the beginning of genuine consultation with traditional owners, say super funds. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Australia’s biggest superannuation funds also demand the miner guarantee the protection of culturally important sites
Rio has no real links with the Pilbara: Ben Wyatt [$]
The cull of senior Rio Tinto executives over the destruction of the ancient Juukan Gorge caves does nothing to address the key problem of a London-based company board with no connection to the remote Pilbara communities where the miner makes most of its billions, says Western Australia’s Indigenous Affairs Minister and Treasurer Ben Wyatt.
Inside the mismanagement that saw heads roll at Rio Tinto — and priceless caves destroyed
Andrew Hopkins and Deanna Kemp
Outraged investors have forced Rio Tinto’s chief executive to resign over the destruction of Indigenous cultural heritage in the Pilbara. The reason why is multi-layered
Rio’s slow action on Juukan is part of the problem [$]
Sarah-Jane Tasker
The fact it took the Rio Tinto board this long to make someone accountable for the destruction of ancient Pilbara rock shelters tells you there is a lot of improvement that must be made.
Rio Tinto’s executive cull shows ‘profit at all cost’ cultures no longer cut it
Adele Ferguson
The days of companies getting away with blaming systemic failures on a few bad apples and other lame excuses PR teams dreamt up are all but over.
Rio made a fateful miscalculation, and it isn’t over yet
Elizabeth Knight
The Rio board figured it could snuff out the embers of dissent with an internal review. Instead it just added more fuel.
Something better from the rubble of Juukan Gorge [$]
AFR View
Rio Tinto once led the way in community and Indigenous relations. With a revived Australian identity, it could do so again.
Rio Tinto execs feel the pain of destruction [$]
John Durie
Four months after blowing up 46,000 years of cultural heritage, the Rio board has finally taken the first step towards restoring its social licence to operate in Australia by showing the door to three senior executives led by chief JS Jacques.
Rio Tinto and the anatomy of corporate culpability
Elise Bant and Jeannie Paterson
Heads have finally rolled over the mining company’s shameful destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelter, but what are the legal implications and how does corporate culture matter?
Sustainability
Is plastic recycling a lie? Oil companies touted recycling to sell more plastic
An NPR and PBS Frontline investigation reveals how the oil and gas industry used the promise of recycling to sell more plastic, even when they knew it would never work on a large scale.
With a new pipeline in East Africa, an oil company flouts France’s leadership on climate
Bill McKibben
Total’s oil imperialism in Africa is giving the lie to President Emmanuel Macron’s soaring climate rhetoric.
The best news of 2020? Humanity may never hit the 10 billion mark
Jeremy Hance
A population slowdown will pose challenges, but it could also give us a better chance of avoiding ecological collapse.
David Farrier
The plastics industry is responsible for close to a billion tons of carbon emissions each year.
Climate change is ravaging California. it’s time to electrify
Jonny Kocher Leah and Louis-Prescott
COVID-19 isn’t the only crisis taking a toll on California this summer. Record-breaking heat has helped fuel the largest wildfire season on record, with more than two million acres already burned. Smoke from the fires has blanketed much of the state, causing some of the worst air quality in the world.
There is no business as usual: decarbonizing industry must start now
Thomas Koch Blank
We know that a higher-than-1.5°C pathway will result in severe natural disasters, including flooding, rising sea levels, hurricanes, drought, and lethal temperature exposures.
Towns burned to the ground as ‘unprecedented’ wildfires scorch USA west coast
Towns have been wiped out and hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes as wildfires continue to burn across the USA’s west coast, killing dozens of people.
‘We lost everything:’ Wildfire survivor
Wildfires are raging across the US West, shattering lives like Phoenix, Oregon resident Julio Bryan Flores. He lost his home and everything inside as his entire neighborhood went up in flames. Climate experts predict more damages to come due to climate change.
Research finds nearly all of protected habitats are ‘disconnected’
More than 90 per cent of the world’s protected wildlife habitats are “disconnected”, new research has found, greatly reducing their ability to support the plants and wildlife they were established to protect.
Carbon offsets, explained
Could philanthropy prevent the next pandemic by stopping zoonotic diseases?
COVID-19 is likely zoonotic in origin, meaning it “jumped” from other animals to humans. While such diseases present a dire threat, few funders are paying attention. We explore the key players and where philanthropy can have an impact.
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