Daily Links Jan 23

Stacking panels with resource shills is bad and then they they rub our noses in it!

Post of the Day

Will ‘green hydrogen’ live up to the hype, or is it all a load of hot air?

It’s been identified as the clean energy source that could help bring the world to net-zero emissions, but green hydrogen’s future is not yet assured.

 

On This Day

January 23

 

Climate Change

The Paris climate agreement: What you need to know

President Biden’s decision to return to the climate pact fulfills a campaign pledge, but the United States has some catching up to do.

 

Climate challenge needs a very different approach [$]

Bjorn Lomborg

Let’s get real. Climate is a man-made problem. But Biden’s climate alarmism is almost entirely wrong.

 

Down to earth on carbon: why soil quality could make a difference [$]

John Durie

A solution to better climate change protection is to ensure we look after our soil better, according to a study to be released shortly by earth scientist Phil Mulvey.

 

National

Australia is about to see a rabbit ‘surge’ thanks to La Niña rainfall

More rain means more vegetation and an explosion in rabbit numbers, described by some experts as the “most costly feral pest in the country”.

 

Coalition quietly adds fossil fuel industry leaders to emissions reduction panel

Critics ask if some appointees to the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee have a potential conflict of interest

 

Twiggy Forrest talks up “green steel” plant

Fortescue Metals founder Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has revealed a plan to start building an environmentally-friendly steel pilot plant in Australia, doing away with coal.

 

Government sceptical of Forrest’s green steel vision [$]

Andrew Forrest says the nation must exit fossil fuels by using environmentally friendly technology and the vast iron ore reserves of his Fortescue Metals Group.

 

Australia cannot shirk ‘moral obligation’ to tackle climate change: Brian Schmidt

Australian National University Vice-Chancellor and President Brian Schmidt.

Australia has an “urgent moral obligation” to help lead international efforts on climate action, Australian Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt has told an international summit.

 

More Aussies want home among the gum trees

The popularity of regional Australia is predicted to increase in 2021, putting strain on housing supply and increasing prices in the most desirable locations.

 

‘I’ve failed very gradually upwards,’ says actor Ben Lawson [$]

The Australian thespian’s impassioned cry for climate awareness following last year’s bushfires has taken on a life of its own.

 

Politics of carbon has ended, Scott Morrison declares [$]

Scott Morrison says the political debate about reaching a carbon-neutral future is over but he will not take a new 2030 or 2035 emissions reduction target to a key UN climate conference in Glasgow this year.

 

Cheap gas, but at what cost? [$]

Nick Evans

Announcing a gas agreement with big producers in a quiet news week was a solid bit of retail politics from the Prime Minister. But his announcement has angered manufacturers, and potentially opens a new front in trade tensions with China.

 

Zali’s minute’s silence an empty gesture [$]

Vikki Campion

Zali Steggall’s call for a minute’s silence on Australia Day will have no impact on the real issues being faced by Indigenous Australians.

 

Victoria

Fish, yabbies and aquatic life dead after ‘toxic’ herbicide treatment in irrigation channel

Cohuna farmer Mal Johnson is cleaning up dead fish and plants from an irrigation channel on his property days after the herbicide Acrolein was used to kill weeds blocking the system, which provides water to more than 100 farming properties in the region.

 

New South Wales

Draft horse riding plan for south east Wollemi National Park

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is encouraging people to have their say on proposed horse-riding opportunities in south east Wollemi National Park before submissions close on 14 March 2021.

 

ACT

ESA chief ‘had not seen’ images taken from helicopter of Orroral Valley bushfire

The head of the ACT’s Emergency Services Agency says she had not seen the photos of the start of the Orroral Valley fire, which destroyed 80 per cent of the Namadgi National park, before the ABC published them yesterday.

 

Environment Comissioner Sophie Lewis says understanding Orroral Valley fire essential to protect environment in future

Understanding what led to the bushfire which destroyed critical eco-systems in Namadgi National Park is pivotal to better prepare the ACT’s environment for inevitable bushfire crises in a changing climate, the sustainability comissioner says.

 

‘Persistent shortcomings’ in ACT’s bushfire preparedness: report [$]

A high-level government advisory body has warned of “persistent shortcomings” in the territory’s bushfire preparedness and criticised reviews into last year’s fires it says glossed over the concerns of firefighters.

 

 

Commonwealth Place is Canberra architect Nathan Judd’s favourite ‘modest’ ACT building

Commonwealth Place is half building, half green space. It’s a grassed-covered square with a walkway, a restaurant and a gallery. Canberra architect Nathan Judd said it’s one of his favourite places in the city, he even got married there.

 

Queensland

Don’t green light Palmer’s Reef damaging coal mine

A proposed Queensland coal mine which scientists say could bring devastation to areas of our Great Barrier Reef should not be given the green light, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) say.

 

Forests under fire: Black Summer recovery still in wilderness, says report

Queensland’s subtropical rainforest destroyed by the Black Summer bushfires can only recover with human intervention, a new report has found.

 

COVID trash choking our wildlife. New rubbish trend

The RSPCA is reporting an increase in call-outs to wildlife tangled in disposable medical masks.

 

South Australia

Scientists try to learn from KI’s devastating fire [$]

The Kangaroo Island fires of 2020 were its most severe ever, but climate change will bring more in future. These scientists are finding out how we can prepare.

 

Pressure mounting for action on mangrove die-off [$]

Concern over the future of St Kilda and its long-term tourism prospects is driving mounting pressure for greater action on the mangroves die-off.

 

Tasmania

Banding together to protect vulnerable species

An effort to protect one of Australia’s most vulnerable bushland species is being taken into Hobart backyards.

 

Northern Territory

Bizarre desert shrimp appear after long hibernation [$]

Wet weather across Central Australia has brought about the hatchings of the most strange looking and distinctive of all desert crustaceans.

 

Western Australia

Stop at Settler’s for more than a pie: $15m Indigenous tourism destination planned for Perth’s holiday highway

One of Perth holidaymakers’ best-known landmarks en route ‘down south’ will transform from basic pit-stop to Indigenous tourism destination under a $15 million development application lodged after a three-year, $500,000 design process “for Aboriginal people, by Aboriginal people.”

 

Sustainability

Treaty banning nuclear weapons hailed as it takes effect without signatures from major powers

The occasion was marked by praise from the United Nations and Pope Francis, despite a lack of signatures from the world’s major nuclear powers.

 

UN warns most will live downstream of ageing large dams by 2050

Global study calls on governments to step up maintenance efforts to prevent failures, overtopping or leaks

 

Nel says ‘green’ hydrogen could be as cheap as fossil alternative by 2025

Nel makes electrolysers used to make so-called green hydrogen from water rather than from fossil fuels, and also hydrogen fuelling equipment

 

China doubles new renewable capacity in 2020, but continues to builds thermal plants

China’s 2020 figure is ahead of the 60.4 GW of new wind capacity added globally in 2019, according to data from the Global Wind Energy Council

 

Will ‘green hydrogen’ live up to the hype, or is it all a load of hot air?

It’s been identified as the clean energy source that could help bring the world to net-zero emissions, but green hydrogen’s future is not yet assured.

 

Biden’s first 100 days: What’s coming on energy

President Biden took executive actions yesterday repealing the Keystone XL pipeline permit, rejoining the Paris climate accord and reviewing energy rules across federal agencies. What’s next?

 

Building climate-resilient power infrastructure

Indu K Murthy and Priyavrat Bhati

In addition to adaptation measures, increasing the awareness and capacity of utilities to identify short-term and long-term climate risks, vulnerabilities in systems, and the impact on different points along the power system chain is needed.

 

Nature Conservation

Quarter of known bee species have not been recorded since 1990

Global study finds that species numbers reported in the wild fell sharply between 1990 and 2015

 

Building a green economy could stop ‘nightmare’ degradation of Amazon

The Amazon will be transformed into a “highly degraded nightmare” unless a sustainable biodiversity-based economy develops which properly values ecosystem services and products produced by the rainforest, a leading scientist has warned.



Maelor Himbury
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