Post of the Day
Brenton Zampatti
This year marks a decade since the end of the Millennium Drought, when flood waters reached the mouth of the River Murray in 2010. For 1,200 days prior, Australia’s most iconic river had ceased flowing to the sea, causing populations of fish and other aquatic animals to plummet.
On This Day
Climate Change
2020 Election May Determine Climate’s Future: State and business climate
The 2020 US election is not just about the next four years of US policy, this election will also determine the role of the United States in the Climate Decade. As one of the biggest polluters in the world, eliminating emissions in the US is paramount to alter the course of the climate crisis.
IMAS researchers want Antarctic Treaties tied to the Paris Climate Agreement to protect Blue Carbon
Ecosystems around Antarctica are becoming increasingly important in tackling climate change and thus should be protected by international treaties, researchers say.
Students develop tool to predict the carbon footprint of algorithms
Within the scientific community, it is estimated that artificial intelligence — otherwise meant to serve as a means to effectively combat climate change — will become one of the most egregious CO2 culprits should current trends continue. To raise awareness about the challenge, two students have launched a tool to calculate the carbon footprint of developing deep learning models.
National
CSIRO says only a major overhaul of biosecurity can keep up with increasing threats
Even a tripling of investment in protective measures over the next decade will fail to keep pace with the threat of severe biosecurity events like coronavirus, say scientists.
Fact check: We fact checked Adam Bandt on whether gas is just as dirty as coal
Greens leader Adam Bandt has attacked the Government’s plan for a gas-led recovery, claiming that gas is just as dirty as coal. Is he correct?
Australia agrees to review human rights complaint against Rio Tinto over Bougainville mine site
The Australian government will now mediate talks between Bougainville landowners and Rio Tinto to resolve alleged human rights and environmental violations caused by waste pollution from the abandoned Panguna mine.
Scott Morrison pressured by Britain, France and Italy to announce ‘bold’ climate action
Organisers of global climate summit tell Australian PM ‘there will be no space for general statements’
Climate lawyer who sued super fund sets sights on federal government over bond risks
The lawyer who sued $57 billion super fund Rest over its climate change disclosures now has the Australian government in his sights, with a world-first lawsuit over Commonwealth bonds set to begin next week.
‘Disturbing’ lack of detail: Rex Patrick won’t support environment bill [$]
Plans to speed up approvals for major projects could hit major delays as two crossbench senators pledge to block a Morrison government bill that would hand Commonwealth responsibilities for environmental assessments to state governments.
Brenton Zampatti
This year marks a decade since the end of the Millennium Drought, when flood waters reached the mouth of the River Murray in 2010. For 1,200 days prior, Australia’s most iconic river had ceased flowing to the sea, causing populations of fish and other aquatic animals to plummet.
We need to talk to our kids about the climate crisis. But courage fails me when I look at my son
Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery has been speaking about climate change for decades – but he’s finding it harder and harder to be the bearer of bad news
We are all being duped but not doomed
Eric Abetz
“We’re doomed!” so said, Dad’s Army’s James Frazer and today’s environmental alarmists.
We should stop backing losers in the Climate Change Cup
Ross Gittins
Selfish cynics used to ask why we should get serious about climate change when no one else was. Today the question is, ‘How can we fail to act when everyone else is?’
Victoria
An open letter from 1,200 Australian academics on the Djab Wurrung trees
Peta Malins and Crystal McKinnon
In an open letter, more than 1,200 academics from universities and institutes across Australia have written to the Victorian government to protest against the destruction of Djab Wurrung country as part of a highway duplication in the west of the state.
New South Wales
Pop-up-stalls to help improve recycling habits
Improving our recycling habits will be a focus of this year’s National Recycling Week with Snowy Monaro Regional Council’s Resource and Waste Education Team hosting a series of information displays to boost our community’s recycling efforts.
Support for cycling fails to bridge Sydney divide over loss of car parks
Sydney residents have a strong appetite for new bike paths although opinion is divided when cycleways come at the expense of car parking spots.
Recycling guru from Queanbeyan helping farmers enrich soil
There is a verge in Queanbeyan which is sending a lesson to the world about how agriculture might be better done.
$2.4bn electricity line has ‘more costs than savings’ [$]
NSW consumers are set to pay 80 per cent of the rapidly rising bill for a link to SA’s wind and solar energy. Some experts want the project halted.
Minister’s clean power push for NSW [$]
Environment Minister Matt Kean has thrown his support behind a paper which calls for a carbon tax to “decarbonise” NSW’s electricity system.
Rats have infested Sydney’s richest suburbs after the COVID lockdown [$]
Brazen and famished “super-rats” are venturing into some of Sydney’s richest waterfront suburbs and CBD businesses desperate for scraps as the state emerges from lockdown.
ACT
Women dominate new-look ACT cabinet as Labor-Greens coalition prepares to govern
Two of the ACT’s new ministers have not yet sat in the Legislative Assembly, and one has been given the relatively senior portfolio of environment.
Rattenbury’s Greens have enormous power. How will they use it?
Dan Jervis-Bardy
To understand the power Shane Rattenbury’s Greens now have in the ACT, it’s useful to strip away the bureaucratic titles and consider what these portfolios actually entail.
Queensland
Fears more trade bans to come as China halts imports of Australian timber, lobsters, barley
Australian food, wine and resources exporters fear they may soon be hit by a wave of further Chinese sanctions after Beijing banned Queensland timber imports and suspended trade with another Australian grain exporter.
South Australia
Leigh Creek pushes huge $2.6 billion brown coal gasification plant for fertiliser
Leigh Creek Energy pushing brown coal gasification plant, that will target fertiliser and fossil hydrogen production.
Beach Energy expands Cooper Basin footprint with $87.5m buy
Oil and gas producer Beach Energy has struck a deal to expand its operations in South Australia’s Cooper Basin, wrapping up an $87.5 million acquisition of smaller listed rival Senex Energy’s acreage.
Tasmania
Parliamentary inquiry into TasWater’s operations starts
A parliamentary inquiry into the operations of TasWater has heard the company needs to review its pricing schedule.
WildTracker project is calling farmers and landowners in the Northern Midlands
Farmers and landowners are giving a helping hand to the Eastern-barred bandicoot with technology’s help.
Tas doctors call to end native forest logging
Today 250 Tasmanian doctors and medical students launched an open letter (included below) calling for an end to native forest logging to help address climate change induced harm to the health of their patients.
EPA says moving Mac Point not a priority [$]
The cost of moving the Macquarie Point waste water treatment plant could far exceed government predictions and the relocation is not a priority, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
Western Australia
Renewables overtake coal and gas for first time in Western Australia
Renewables output in month of October beats both coal and gas for the first time in Western Australia as three major new projects come on line.
Curtain falls on Rio’s famed Argyle diamond mine [$]
The mining giant has begun the five-year plus process of decommissioning, dismantling and rehabilitating the site in the East Kimberley after ending mining operations today.
Sustainability
Want a more sustainable food system? Focus on better dirt
Regenerative agriculture is new way of growing food that’s designed to enhance soil health. Proponents say the practice benefits farmers and food production, while helping to mitigate climate change
Increasing the efficiency of organic solar cells
Organic solar cells are cheaper to produce and more flexible than their counterparts made of crystalline silicon, but do not offer the same level of efficiency or stability. Researchers demonstrated that increases in efficiency can be achieved using luminescent acceptor molecules.
‘Transparent solar cells’ can take us towards a new era of personalized energy
Scientists design novel transparent solar cells using thin silicon films, with efficient power generation
Conservative court to consider four key upcoming environment cases
One legal doctrine that courthouse reporters are eyeing closely currently authorizes the EPA to control greenhouse gas emissions.
How to fix the movement for fossil fuel divestment
Bankers and environmentalists alike are increasingly calling for capital markets to play a bigger role in the war on carbon. In the absence of a meaningful global price on carbon, however, capital continues to flow freely toward fossil fuels and other carbon-intensive industries. The movement for fossil fuel divestment has been trying since 2012 to reverse this trend.
‘Peak oil’ set to arrive sooner than we think if Biden wins
Stephen Bartholomeusz
Big Oil has seen the writing on the wall as demand continue to slide. A Biden victory would likely make the moment of “peak oil” arrive even sooner.
Nature Conservation
Coral reefs are hotspots of biodiversity. As they can withstand heavy storms, they offer many species a safe home. A team has now discovered that a very specific type of ‘cement’ is responsible for the stability of coral reefs – by forming a hard calcareous skeleton, coralline red algae stabilize the reefs, and have been doing so for at least 150 million years.
Drones that patrol forests could monitor environmental and ecological changes
Researchers have created drones that can attach sensors to trees to monitor environmental and ecological changes in forests.
Urban forests springing up around the world as cities battle heat, pollution
From Phoenix in the United States to Mumbai, India, and Paris, France, as cities try to combat pollution and improve air quality, urban forests are mushrooming.
From nitrate crisis to phosphate crisis?
The aim of the EU Nitrates Directive is to reduce nitrates leaking into the environment and to prevent pollution of water supplies. The widely accepted view is that this will help protect threatened plant species which can be damaged by high levels of nutrients like nitrates. However, an international team has discovered that many threatened plant species will suffer because of this policy.
—
return email, delete it from your system and destroy any copies.