Post of the Day
We are the 1%: the wealth of many Australians puts them in an elite club wrecking the planet
Alex Baumann and Samuel Alexander
Among the many hard truths exposed by COVID-19 is the huge disparity between the world’s rich and poor.
On This Day
Saint Devota’s Day – Monaco
Feast of Saint Nino – Georgia
Feast of Saint Sava – Serbia
Climate Change
ESCWA Executive Secretary Urges International Community to Increase Funding for Climate Adaptation
The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Ms. Rola Dashti, today participated through a video message in the Inaugural Ministerial Dialogue on Adaptation Action convened by the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) during the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021, in which she urged the international community to increase funding for climate adaptation.
Stark reminder of our fragility’: Pandemic prompts global surge in climate action
Rather than distract markets and industry from the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic appears to have accelerated climate action.
Biden shows we don’t have to choose between climate action and jobs
Michele O’Neil
Every time we look like making progress on emissions, we are told we can have jobs or a healthy environment but not both.
National
Australia could take massive economic hit from climate-fuelled extreme weather, report warns
Extreme weather events linked to climate change could cost the Australian economy $100 billion every year in the not-too-distant future, according to a new report.
Nats’ uncosted coal plan flies in face of Budget [$]
An ambitious Nationals plan to use gas and coal power to drive manufacturing jobs has failed to set the Coalition on fire.
Business Council of Australia backs Zali Steggall’s climate change bill for 2050 net zero target
Group hails ‘science-based, risk-management’ approach as world heads towards net zero emissions
No climate pressure expected from the US, government says [$]
The Morrison government believes it will not come under pressure from the United States to do more on climate change.
City Liberals fire back at Nationals over coal [$]
City-based Liberal MPs have criticised the Nationals for proposing the construction of new coal-fired power stations, as Coalition divisions on climate change re-emerge in what could be an election year.
Nationals’ coal crusade an expensive political fantasy
Mike Foley
Nationals senator Matt Canavan has again called on the federal government to dig out some funding to build a coal power plant, but the Morrison government’s new energy policies mean new coal power is dead, if not buried.
Technology-first approach best to cut carbon dioxide [$]
Australian editorial
Scott Morrison was putting on a brave face when he declared the climate wars were over as regards a carbon-neutral future.
Saving coal-fired power stations will only make Australia worse off [$]
Jason Falinski
The idea of saving failing firms and sectors through protectionism is older than economics itself, and so are the inevitable outcomes.
We are the 1%: the wealth of many Australians puts them in an elite club wrecking the planet
Alex Baumann and Samuel Alexander
Among the many hard truths exposed by COVID-19 is the huge disparity between the world’s rich and poor.
A new 3D koala genome will aid efforts to defend the threatened species
Parwinder Kaur
Today, many koala populations across Australia are in decline, due to habitat destruction caused by agriculture, urbanisation, droughts and bushfires intensified by climate change, and diseases such as chlamydia and koala retrovirus.
Gregory Moore
Australia is sweltering through another heatwave, and there will be more in the near future as climate change brings hotter, drier weather. In some parts of Australia, the number of days above 40℃ will double by 2090, and with it the tragedy of more heat-related deaths.
Mitigation, adaptation or do nothing: Responding to climate change
Amanda McLeod
Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison both ignore the urgency of the climate emergency (image via YouTube)
When U.S. President Joe Biden declared climate change the “number one issue facing humanity” during the 2020 campaign, concerned citizens breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Bushfire Rorts: Coalition targets bushfire recovery funds for Coalition seats Elizabeth Minter
Federal and state funds for bushfire recovery have been heavily skewed in favour of Coalition seats with NSW State Labor picking up just 1% of $177 million handed out.
New South Wales
‘Remain vigilant’: Out of control fire burns through South Coast national park
Beaches near Jervis Bay have been evacuated and an Aboriginal community put on alert as an out-of-control bushfire burns through the Booderee National Park on the NSW South Coast.
ACT
The hurt to Namadgi National Park one year after the great Orroral Valley fire
One year after the vicious fire which devastated 80 per cent of the Namadgi National Park, greenery is creeping back to the Orroral Valley.
Queensland
Climate cost: State’s disaster bill to hit $60b a year [$]
As a cyclone brews in the Gulf, a report finds unchecked climate change will cost Queensland $60 billion a year in disaster recovery.
Tasmania
Challenge put out to gas seeking company [$]
Seismic testing Tasmanian politicians are backing the King Island Council’s call for a moratorium on seismic testing until there is proof it will not damage the local rock lobster fishery.
Let there be dark for our night life [$]
Peter McQuillan
Leave some dark hilltops for creatures of the night, because artificial light turns the lives of insects and other creatures upside down.
Northern Territory
Burnt ancient nutshells reveal the story of climate change at Kakadu — now drier than ever before
S. Anna Florin et al
Archaeological research provides a long-term perspective on how humans survived various environmental conditions over tens of thousands of years.
Sustainability
Air pollution linked to higher risk of sight loss from AMD
Air pollution is linked to a heightened risk of progressive and irreversible sight loss, known as age related macular degeneration (AMD), reveals a large long term study.
Satellite data reveals bonds between emissions, pollution and economy
Burning fossil fuels has long powered world economies while contributing to air pollution and the buildup of greenhouse gases. A new analysis of nearly two decades of satellite data shows that economic development, fossil-fuel combustion and air quality are closely linked on the continental and national scales, but can be decoupled at the national level, according to Penn State scientists.
Yes, unfortunately, sometimes it does take a global crisis to force you to wake up to climate change
Meghan Loneragan
This is why I’ve swapped unease for action, and am taking control by being greener in ways I never knew I could.
Fears of another Juukan Gorge incident as Rio Tinto seeks to mine sacred Apache site with BHP
Rio Tinto promised “never again” after the destruction of ancient Aboriginal rock shelters at Juukan Gorge, but now it wants to mine sacred Apache land in the US and investors are concerned little has changed within the company since it appointed an insider as its new boss.
Dramatic increase in microplastics in seagrass soil since the 1970s
Large-scale production of vegetables and fruit in Spain with intensive plastic consumption in its greenhouse industry is believed to have leaked microplastic contaminants since the 1970s into the surrounding Mediterranean seagrass beds.
Global goals for biodiversity must apply to all member states of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) also at national level. This is one of four recommendations for improving the global strategy for biodiversity made by researchers at Nanjing Institute for Environmental Research, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). The researchers analyse why the goals have been largely missed so far and present concrete policy options.
There are markedly different outcomes for different species of coral reef fishes under climate change – scientists are now another step closer to uncovering the ‘winners and losers’.
Mangroves threatened by plastic pollution from rivers, new study finds
Mangrove ecosystems are at particular risk of being polluted by plastic carried from rivers to the sea. Fifty-four per cent of mangrove habitat is within 20 km of a river that discharges more than a tonne of plastic waste a year into the ocean, according to a new paper published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Mangroves in southeast Asia are especially threatened by river-borne plastic pollution, the researchers found.
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