Post of the Day
A wave of infrastructure projects to cause widespread deforestation in coming decades, report finds
A slate of new mega-projects in development around the world will open up vast tracts of land to natural resource extraction and deforestation, derailing government and private sector pledges to curb forest loss, according to a new report.
On This Day
St George’s Day – Georgia
Climate Change
On thin ice: Climate change is making winter more dangerous
A new study found that winter drownings are increasing sharply in warmer parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
Arizona’s net-zero plan unites Democrats and Republicans
‘In a sane and normal world, this is what our energy politics could be like,’ one expert said, noting jobs and fighting climate change could be bipartisan goals.
EU eyes tax as tool in climate change fight
Taxation will not escape the European Union’s plans to curb planet-warming emissions, and levies should be revamped to reflect climate and environmental costs, the head of EU climate policy says.
These are the 10 countries most at risk from the effects of climate change
While the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the globe, a far more insidious enemy lurks in the background — climate change. It’s a reality that some continue to deny, but as once-glacial landscapes slowly recede and waterside destinations such as Venice, Italy, threaten permanent submersion, the menace of climate change becomes ever-harder to ignore.
National
‘Threatened species’ push as report shows up to a third of platypus population wiped out
Australia’s platypus population has declined so drastically that scientists now say the elusive egg-laying mammal should be classified as a threatened species.
‘Line in the sand’: koala census to identify key habitat for protection
A new koala protection policy to be launched on Monday by federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley may put the Morrison government on a collision course with state leaders and project developers.
‘Disgrace’: Calls for Indigenous voice in water management
Indigenous representatives in the Murray Darling Basin, federal politicians and irrigators are demanding the Morrison government deliver on its overdue promise of a First Nations representative to lead national water management.
Environmental guru warns bushfire control won’t work [$]
From chopping down pine trees, to his famous cat hat, John Wamsley is no stranger to controversy. Now he has taken aim at Australia’s bushfire management.
Labor mines for votes in coal and gas [$]
Senior Labor Left faction powerbroker Murray Watt will reset the party’s approach to coal and gas and declare the ALP “treasures” every job created in the mining sector, in a major speech on Monday.
How to put foot down on gas investment [$]
A renewed focus on Australia’s oil and gas sector could help create tens of thousands of jobs and see as much as $350 billion in new economic activity, a report has found.
Tax on electric vehicles in South Australia and Victoria would slam brakes on sales
Trent Zimmerman
New road user charges sends a very strange signal and will set back efforts to reduce emissions from the transport sector
Cheap, abundant gas cooks the green guilt industry [$]
Nick Cater
The conviction that global warming requires us to find new ways to burn other people’s money is hard-baked into the narrative of environmentalism.
Summit seeks energy and climate policy convergence [$]
AFR View
Australia is no closer to a settled energy policy that will encourage the private investment needed to transform the nation’s coal-based electricity system.
Mark Kenny
Labor’s primary vote nationally is stuck in the low-to-mid 30% range. In the resources states, it sits even lower. That’s too low to win a majority, prompting some in Labor to suggest a Liberal/National-style partnership with the Greens.
Victoria
Mixed reactions to Victoria’s proposal to tax electric vehicle users
The Victorian Greens says a plan to tax electric vehicle owners a road usage fee is a “lazy” alternative to wider reform, but a think tank says it is essential for ensuring governments can fund transport infrastructure as income from the fuel excise dwindles.
Delivering cheap and reliable energy in Victoria
The Commonwealth Government and Victorian Government are announcing the first stage of a part agreement, with the first part supporting a key transmission project that will deliver more affordable and reliable electricity for Victorians.
Push for Yarra water taxis to get city moving again [$]
Fast-tracking a water taxi network along the Yarra River could be key to reducing traffic congestion in Melbourne.
New South Wales
Green gas to be produced at Sydney Water plant in an Australian first
Australia’s first biomethane-to-gas project will see thousands of NSW homes and businesses using renewable gas for cooking, heating and hot water.
Fears ‘flawed’ plan will lift power prices [$]
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor has fired a broadside at NSW counterpart Matt Kean, taking aim at his renewable energy plan.
Electricity road map will power prosperity [$]
Matt Kean
In a low-carbon world, renewable energy is an economic opportunity NSW is seizing by supporting investments that keep prices down and the lights on.
ACT
Woden light rail stations to be used as bus stops [$]
Light rail stations for the second stage of the transport project to Woden will be in use years before a light rail vehicle even services the route.
Climate change policy the healthy choice
Alison Verhoeven
But anyone who experienced the horrific impacts of Canberra’s 2019 Christmas season, where we had the worst air quality in the world for weeks on end, will remember the very real impacts of climate change on our health and how this all brought our plans to celebrate to an abrupt halt.
South Australia
How green is your council? [$]
Tree and shrub cover across metropolitan Adelaide is increasing but some traditionally leafy areas are not as green as they once were.
Tasmania
Big orange-bellied parrot return signals good breeding season [$]
Supporters of the endangered orange-bellied parrot are celebrating with the number of birds arriving at Melaleuca in Tasmania’s South West the highest seen since the 1980s.
There are worse things than minority government [$]
There’s few phrases that offend Tasmanians more than ‘minority government’ or ‘hung parliament’. And for that we have no-one else to blame but our politicians.
Alice Workman
Grrreat big cat news. Scientists have created a way to test for Tasmanian tigers.
Northern Territory
More than 220,000 jobs will be created over the next two decades and national economic output is estimated to increase by more than $350bn if key oil and gas projects currently in the pipeline, including the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin, are unleashed, according to new Ernst & Young research.
NT electricity system ‘running on luck’ as government fails to plan for the future: Alan Langworthy [$]
The recent widespread blackout in the Top End should be a “warning bell” that the network is becoming increasingly vulnerable, the solar tsar who wrote the Territory’s Roadmap to Renewables has said.
Darwin eScooter trial set to be extended for another 12 months after successful first year [$]
Darwin Council’s eScooter program is set to be extended by 12 months following its first year in the CBD.
Darwin alderman Justine Glover to lead push to green over the Esplanade’s Cenotaph carpark
Darwin Council alderman Justine Glover will try to gain support for greening over the controversial Bicentennial Park carpark at tomorrow night’s council meeting.
Western Australia
Critically endangered turtle found on same beach decades after first tagging
A critically endangered hawksbill turtle, more than 60 years old and tagged three times, has returned to nest again 30 years after being first sighted on the Pilbara coast.
Sustainability
Electric car batteries: the facts
Driven by lithium – Electric vehicles, or EVs, have an electric motor rather than an internal combustion engine. They may be powered by fuel cells that generate electricity from hydrogen or a lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack
The first step to bridging the urban ‘canopy gap’? Counting and mapping trees
A new project uses “tree equity” to promote environmental justice.
What Biden’s agenda on the environment could mean for the Pacific Northwest
Here’s a roundup of potential key policy changes that a Biden Administration could usher in for the Pacific Northwest, from endangered species listings to pollution rollbacks to dam removals.
A wave of infrastructure projects to cause widespread deforestation in coming decades, report finds
A slate of new mega-projects in development around the world will open up vast tracts of land to natural resource extraction and deforestation, derailing government and private sector pledges to curb forest loss, according to a new report.
Tabulating the victims of plastic pollution
Hundreds of sea turtles and marine mammals have been choked, snared, and hooked by plastic debris.
From rewilding to forest schools, our attitude to nature is changing for the better
Melissa Harrison
The statistics may be terrifying – but the UK’s approach to natural habitats is undergoing a quiet transformation
Humans are changing fire patterns, and it’s threatening 4,403 species with extinction
Luke Kelly et al
In a major new paper published in Science, we reveal how changes in fire activity threaten more than 4,400 species across the globe with extinction. This includes 19% of birds, 16% of mammals, 17% of dragonflies and 19% of legumes that are classified as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable.
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