http://southwind.com.au/2021/03/02/whats-important-and-what-isnt/
Date: 2 March 2021 at 8:48:09 am AEDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Mar 2
Post of the Day
JobSlayer: gas giants grab $300m subsidy then axe 3000 workers
Elizabeth Minter
The Government touts gas as a key plank of JobMaker, its Covid-19 recession recovery plan. To help “support jobs” the government has given the gas industry $300 million of taxpayers’ money in subsidies. In return, the industry has cut about 3000 workers, more than 10% of it workforce, in a boom production year.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
“Not even close:” UN slams Australia and other rich countries for weak climate efforts
UN review of emissions targets finds countries “nowhere near” on track to keep global warming to safe levels, and countries like Australia must do much more.
World Meteorological Organization might start hurricane season 2 weeks earlier
Since 2000, about every other year, tropical storms have formed earlier than the official start date of June 1. So should the season open two weeks earlier?
Health risks to babies on the front line of climate change
Extreme rainfall associated with climate change is causing harm to babies in some of the most forgotten places on the planet setting in motion a chain of disadvantage down the generations, according to new research. Researchers found babies born to mothers exposed to extreme rainfall shocks, were smaller due to restricted fetal growth and premature birth.
Global warming poses threat to food chains
Rising temperatures could reduce the efficiency of food chains and threaten the survival of larger animals, new research shows.
The Paris Agreement is already outdated
Kate Aronoff
Countries’ pledges to meet climate goals are nowhere near what they need to be.
Plastic is part of the carbon cycle and needs to be included in climate calculations
Xia Zhu
Plastic has become a major part of the carbon cycle, a discovery that has implications for how we tackle climate change.
National
Taylor offers $50 million for CCS projects, despite technology’s troubles
The Morrison government opens applications for $50M in funding for CCS projects, despite higher costs and high profile project failures.
These dairy farmers are leading the charge on climate action
We hear why climate change is front and centre of these farmers’ thinking and break down what creating more sustainable dairy farms and a greener future looks like in practice.
Miners begin divorce from mega union that vowed to topple governments
Born in the early 1990s to champion the builder, the sawmiller and the miner before adding the mariner and stevedore three years ago, the CFMMEU formally began to break apart amid bitter internal divides on a hot afternoon in the Hunter Valley town of Cessnock on Monday.
Labor support warms gas industry but cost remains key [$]
Labor’s backing of gas as a fuel to reach carbon neutrality should give explorers and producers more confidence to invest, but cost and price will still be critical.
Ningaloo Nino: The climate phenomenon worrying scientists
It never used to happen, then it was every decade. Now climate watchers are concerned about a damaging weather event around Australia.
JobSlayer: gas giants grab $300m subsidy then axe 3000 workers
Elizabeth Minter
The Government touts gas as a key plank of JobMaker, its Covid-19 recession recovery plan. To help “support jobs” the government has given the gas industry $300 million of taxpayers’ money in subsidies. In return, the industry has cut about 3000 workers, more than 10% of it workforce, in a boom production year.
Renewables need land – and lots of it. That poses tricky questions for regional Australia
Bonnie McBain
Renewable energy capacity in Australia is expected to double, or even triple, over the next 20 years. There is one oft-overlooked question in this transition: where will it all be built?
The end of the NEM as we know it
Andrew Mears
As coal generators exit the grid, Australia is going to have to focus on flexibility in the market, and harnessing distributed resources.
Leaders foolhardy to shun teen climate fears
Age editorial
Those who will be most affected by a warming planet, the younger generation, are not happy.
What’s important, and what isn’t
Peter Boyer
The failure of today’s power-players to see the fundamental importance of a healthy environment is costing us dearly.
Water markets aren’t perfect, but they are vital to the future of the Murray-Darling
Neal Hughes
Water markets have come in for some bad press lately, fuelled in part by the severe drought of 2019 and resulting high water prices.
Stuck in the past: why Australian heritage practice falls short of what the public expects
James Lesh and Kali Myers
If communities don’t understand and support local heritage protections, perhaps that’s a reflection on how the system works and not just evidence of a need for public education.
Victoria
Labor to support gas and CCS alongside zero carbon target in new policy platform
Labor balances commitment to zero emissions with support for gas and CCS in a proposed policy platform, ahead of a looming federal election.
Victoria’s rapid rise in renewables to slash prices, threaten coal
Victoria is experiencing an influx of new wind and solar farms after a rapid four-fold increase in applications for generation licences since 2017, slashing daytime power prices and adding to the pressure engulfing coal-fired power stations.
Showcasing Victoria’s minerals opportunities globally
Geological Survey of Victoria (GSV) will be presenting information about Victoria’s geology and minerals potential an international online conference between 8 – 11 March 2021.
Council joins fight to protect vulnerable platypus
Whittlesea City Council is doing its part in the nation-wide fight to save the iconic platypus from becoming an endangered species.
New South Wales
Wyangala and Dungowan dam upgrades put WaterNSW’s credit rating at risk
Agency seeks guarantee it will be reimbursed for the estimated $250m already spent if the dams are not built
NSW lifts ban on genetically modified crops
Lifting the ban on the use of genetically modified crops is expected to boost the agricultural sector by $4.8 billion over the next ten years.
‘The product is dangerous’: New South Wales moves to ban toxic firefighting chemical
Australia remains one of the only countries in the world not to have introduced a ban at a federal level.
My father built the Snowy, but his heart would break at Snowy 2.0
Greg Pritchard
Recently I drove through the Snowy Mountains, from Tumut to Cooma, for the first time since last summer’s mega-fires devastated the area. Some sections are regenerating with too-green epicormic growth, while in others the earth has been completely cooked and nothing will grow for many years. You can see where rains have eroded gullies on the barren hillsides. All the tussock around Kiandra has burned, and all that remains of the heritage buildings are brick chimneys.
ACT
New inquiry to examine ACT renewable energy sector
Plans to potentially expand renewable energy industries in Canberra will be examined as part of a new ACT government inquiry.
Queensland
As prices jump, Mt Isa at head of the queue for green-led recovery
Mt Isa could lead the economic recovery for Queensland after a new report points to big increases in commodities out of the north west as the world transitions to clean energy.
Daily trips on Centenary Highway to soar by 400 per cent
Traffic on the Centenary Highway west of Brisbane will explode by more than 400 per cent over the coming decades, forcing Ipswich authorities to explore options to improve road and public transport routes.
Labor deputy’s admission on Queensland coal [$]
The Labor Party might not enjoy being associated with pro-coal politics, but its deputy federal leader has made a frank concession.
Renewed calls for croc cull as annual sightings triple [$]
A staggering increase in croc sightings has prompted calls to kill, but the state’s environment department has other ideas.
Poo-loving superbug grown to treat sewage water in Australian first
They’re the poo-loving superbugs that are greening Queensland’s sewage systems with their big appetite. Now a Brisbane wastewater plant has farmed enough Anammox bugs to fill 10 swimming pools.
Hopping mad ferals over the hump
Sally Gall
Last week was a particularly feral one in my part of the world. The Queensland Country Life front page headline ‘Pestilence’ summed it up – the destruction posed by cats, fall armyworm, and grasshoppers were all in the limelight, and a story on the control of rabbits followed later in the week.
Life on the hidden doughnuts of the Great Barrier Reef is also threatened by climate change
Mardi McNeil et al
Mention the Great Barrier Reef, and most people think of the rich beauty and colour of corals, fish and other sea life that are increasingly threatened by climate change.
South Australia
Push for smarter grid reaches under rooftops and into South Australia homes
South Australia to seek new standards to allow smarter control over major household appliances and hot water systems, including EV charging, air-con and pool pumps.
SA single-use plastics ban kicks in
South Australia’s ban on single-use plastics comes into force today, with cutlery, drinking straws and stirrers all prohibited from sale and distribution across the state.
New allegation of problem behaviour in SA politics
South Australia’s Public Sector Employment Commissioner has revealed authorities have investigated the behaviour of a state MP or one of their staffers.
Stepping in to save mangroves [$]
The government will speed up the pumping of acidic brine in the St Kilda mangroves, to save even more of the area from dying.
Festival rubbished over ‘disgusting’ square
Cardboard boxes, takeaway containers, plastic bottles and more – Victoria Square has become a “rubbish dump” following a weekend event.
Beekeepers feeling the sting of ‘frustrating’ honey season
The honey season is more bitter than sweet for Australia’s honey producers as cool, dry weather and the ever-present challenge of climate change take a toll.
Tasmania
Reptile Rescue Incorporated still searching for funding support
Reptile Rescue Inc. is waiting to hear back from the City of Launceston council and state government on whether the organisation will receive funding to support its operations.
Why we need to let the water run free from the Gorge
Letters
I remember when before the dam when waters in winter were rushing down the Gorge, standing on the bridge getting wet from the spray of water.
Northern Territory
‘The right of any land owner’: Access to NT Aboriginal waters now requires registration as anglers push back
Recreational anglers call for government intervention as the Northern Land Council unveils a new registration requirement to fish Aboriginal waters in the Top End — and some spots will also for now be off-limits on the wishes of traditional owners.
Cultural heritage protection in NT under spotlight as Juukan inquiry looks at Top End
The Top End’s heritage protection laws to come under scrutiny as the work of the ‘Juukan Inquiry’ continues.
Sustainability
China’s coal consumption share falls to 56.8% at end-2020
China cut its coal use to 56.8% of energy consumption at the end of 2020, maintaining its target of below 58%, but overall coal consumption continued to rise amid record industrial output and the completion of dozens of coal-fired power plants.
Can pollution regulations help an industry’s bottom line?
A new study shows that certain industries in the right circumstances can benefit from air pollution regulations to boost their profits, running counter to the notion that all regulations are burdensome and costly to industry.
Fractured: The body burden of living near fracking
It’s been 12 years since fracking reshaped the American energy landscape and much of the Pennsylvania countryside.
Huge, global study of plastic toys finds over 100 substances that may harm children
The potential health risks of chemicals used in plastic toys have had scientists concerned for years, but new research reveals just how widespread the risk of harm to children remains.
True cost of the planet’s energy and transport systems
The hidden social, environmental and health costs of the world’s energy and transport sectors is equal to more than a quarter of the globe’s entire economic output, new research reveals.
Metal whispering: Finding a better way to recover precious metals from electronic waste
With a bit of ‘metal whispering,’ engineers have developed technology capable of recovering pure and precious metals from the alloys in our old phones and other electrical waste. All it takes is the controlled application of oxygen and relatively low levels of heat.
Hotter, drier, CRISPR: editing for climate change
Just 15 plant crops provide 90 per cent of the world’s food calories. A review of genome editing technologies states gene editing technology could play a vital role to play in climate-proofing future crops to protect global food security. The review recommends integrating CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing into modern breeding programs for crop improvement in cereals.
Environmental collapse: It’s time economists put the planet on their balance sheets
David Shearman
Planet’s natural systems are on the verge of breakdown, after being ignored by economic theory and policies. That must change.
Bitcoin will neither destroy, nor save the environment.
Will Dayble
There is a huge debate about the environmental impact of Bitcoin, but everyone is debating the wrong things
As many corals growing in the Pacific as trees in the Amazon, new study finds
Analysis suggests the risk of extinction of some species may not be as high as previously thought, but researchers warn local depletion has a devastating impact
Bolsonaro wants mining in the Amazon. An indigenous leader agrees
By teaming up with some indigenous people, activists say he is exacerbating tensions within tribes through divide-and-conquer methods that historically helped destroy native lands worldwide.
How the loss of soil is sacrificing America’s natural heritage
A new study points to a stunning loss of topsoil in the Corn Belt — the result of farming practices that have depleted this once-fertile ground.
How to bring life to dying soils
Around the world, soils are in trouble. And unless we take action, so will be the farmers and consumers who depend on them. But some growers can see a way to save the ground beneath our feet.
Scientists describe ‘hidden biodiversity crisis’ as variation within species is lost
The rapid loss of variation within species is a hidden biodiversity crisis, according to a new study looking at how this variation supports essential ecological functions and the benefits nature provides for people. The study highlights the need to better understand and conserve variation within species in order to safeguard nature’s contributions to people.
Half a trillion corals: Coral count prompts rethink of extinction risks
Scientists have assessed how many corals there are in the Pacific Ocean — half a trillion — and evaluated their risk of extinction at the same time.
Climate change threatens European forests
Well over half of Europe’s forests are potentially at risk from windthrow, forest fire and insect attacks
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