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Post of the Day
The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable
All life on Earth, and human civilization, are sustained by vital biogeochemical systems, which are in delicate balance. However, our species – due largely to rapid population growth and explosive consumption – is destabilizing these Earth processes, endangering the stability of the “safe operating space for humanity.”
On This Day
Maundy Thursday – Western Christianity
Ecological observance
National Tree Planting Day – Tanzania
Climate Change
More climate action needed during ‘make-or-break year’ for people and planet
The world needs “a major breakthrough” to slow the pace of climate change and build resilience to protect the most vulnerable from increasingly severe and frequent climate impacts, the deputy UN chief told a crucial high-level meeting on Wednesday, looking ahead to November’s COP26.
Future Fund: Supporting states and regions in Climate Decade
The Under2 Coalition’s Future Fund has now been running for four years thanks to generous contributions from governments such as Alberta, Baden-Württemberg, Ontario, Québec, Scotland, South Australia and Wales.
G7 should double help for poorer countries to cut CO2 emissions, says UN
Richer nations also urged to ensure make-or-break climate talks this year are a success
What would different levels of global warming look like?
A rise of a few tenths of a degree will have big consequences for the planet.
Explainer: What will happen to cities and beaches at 3 degrees of warming?
Jungle turning to savannah. Homes swept away by monster storms and rising seas. The world is on track for 3 degrees of warming by the end of the century. What does it mean and what can we do about it?
National
This is what will happen to Australia if the world warms by 3 degrees
Australians will be hit by blistering heatwaves, Black Summer-style bushfires every year and 250,000 flooded coastal homes, if global temperatures rise by just 3 degrees.
One sip of this herbicide could kill, but farmers don’t want it banned
Concern is growing over the use of a toxic herbicide containing the chemical paraquat that is banned overseas but still used here.
Plant emissions at five-year low: Data shows
The release of the latest NPI data reveals a drop in emissions from the energy industry, according to the Australian Energy Council.
Coal’s struggles ‘threaten value’ in AGL’s plan to split
Energy giant AGL is expected to face significant hurdles in its push to split off its coal and gas-fired power plants from its retail business as analysts warn investor appetite for the emissions-intensive generation fleet may be low.
Experts say 40 million reasons we must plan now for cities of 2060
By 2060, Australian cities and regional areas will need to house 40 million people and Griffith University planning experts say we must start preparing for this reality now.
AGL’s Redman: The gentailer model for utilities is breaking down
AGL CEO Brett Redman says the traditional gentailer model for Australia’s big energy utilities is breaking down, and they will have to find new ways of doing business.
Did you buy more plants last year? The whole of Australia did too
If you bought more plants last year you were not alone. Australians bought more than ever before, spending $2.6 billion on more than 2 billion plants.
Labor policy would give electric vehicles a ‘level playing field’ as fleet cars
Labor has revved up its attack on the government’s climate agenda with a new electric vehicle policy that could deliver significant growth in EV sales.
‘Embarrassing’: Anthony Albanese lashes Scott Morrison over electric vehicle ‘scare campaign’
After unveiling a key election plan, Anthony Albanese has accused the PM of an ‘embarrassing’ scare campaign dating back to the last election.
APS to go net-zero under Labor’s new climate action vision
The Commonwealth public service would aim to become a net-zero carbon emitter if Anthony Albanese topples Scott Morrison at the next election.
Labor is now explicitly supporting coal in its official policy platform, after earlier criticism it was conspicuously absent.
Angus Taylor will take five years of climate delay to COP26, and a plan for another 10
Ketan Joshi
Australia will take five years of climate inaction to COP26, with a plan for another ten. Its climate policy is flying off the rails.
Shell predicts free gas forever from Gorgon and Prelude LNG projects
Peter Milne
Shell’s accountants predict the Dutch giant will never pay Australia for gas extracted at the Gorgon and Prelude LNG projects that it can sell for up to about $4 billion a year.
It’s critical we update flood guidance
Conrad Wasko and Rory Nathan
There’s been some progress in incorporating climate change into engineering design, but flood guidance must keep up with our changing climate
Public investment in infrastructure would be a much needed boon to the Australian economy
Greg Jericho
While private investment remains down, the public sector needs to fill the hole, and right now there is little sign of that occurring
Time to get in the right lane on electric vehicles [$]
Tom Minear
Australia is stuck in first gear as the rest of the world accelerates the transition to electric vehicles.
Australia’s carbon price is coming, one way or another
Jessica Irvine
The world is about to drag Australia kicking and screaming into a lower emissions future. The sooner we accept this, the less economically damaging it will be.
Humpback whales may have bounced back from near-extinction, but it’s too soon to declare them safe
Olaf Meynecke
The resurgence in humpback whale populations over the past five decades is hailed as one of the great success stories of global conservation. And right now, the federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment is considering removing the species from Australia’s threatened list.
Victoria
Keen ear leads scientist to elusive giant burrowing frogs and sparks mission to save them
It’s rare to see or hear this secretive frog, but the species’ future might just have been saved by the well-honed senses of a PhD student with a love of amphibians.
A new rehabilitation guideline for Victoria’s quarries
Preparation of Rehabilitation Plans: Guideline for Extractive Industry Projects aims to provide more certainty about the future rehabilitation of quarries.
Poisonous mushrooms in full bloom across Victoria after heavy rains spur growth
Health authorities are warning people not to gather wild mushrooms around Melbourne or in rural Victoria
Love on Phillip Island: Bumper breeding season for penguins
Researchers say the warming climate is the reason Phillip Island penguins are breeding in record numbers.
New South Wales
Epuron submits plans for 300MW wind farm in NSW coal country
Plans to build a 300MW wind farm in the New South Wales Hunter region have been lodged with the state’s Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
Malcolm Turnbull backs moratorium on new coalmines in NSW
Former PM says Upper Hunter Valley mines are devastating the landscape and shortening life expectancy, and jobs focus should be on clean energy, tourism and wine
John Barilaro attacks Turnbull over ‘war on Coalition’ and says NSW ‘firmly committed’ to coal
NSW deputy premier says ‘there will be no moratorium on coal in the Upper Hunter or anywhere else in the state’
Mount Panorama go kart track blocked over Aboriginal cultural heritage concerns
A go kart track proposal at iconic Mount Panorama, which has been compared to the destruction of Juukan Gorge, is set to be blocked.
More than 900 trees razed in Sydney’s inner west under council policy
Trees in Sydney’s inner west are being chopped down at twice the rate they were two years ago and canopy cover is shrinking under a local council policy that makes it easier for landholders to raze trees on their properties.
Byelection an acid test for Berejiklian … and McKay
Alexandra Smith
Misogyny, sleaze, coal, climate change, political leadership: they will all be issues in the byelection triggered by the resignation of disgraced Nationals Upper Hunter MP Michael Johnsen.
Queensland
Police brought in after claims protestor ‘run over’ at Adani rail site
Queensland Police have been brought in to investigate more heated exchanges between activists and workers at Bravus’s (Adani) Carmichael mine rail project in central Queensland.
Barrier Reef doomed as up to 99 per cent of coral at risk, report finds
Coral bleaching near Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef during 2016.
Unless immediate “transformative action” is taken to drastically reduce global warming, the reef will be destroyed and Australia will face more storms and floods, the Australian Academy of Science says.
European Union official sounds alarm over threats to Great Barrier Reef
EU commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius urges Australia to sign Leaders’ Pledge for Nature that promotes a green recovery from Covid crisis
Green steel threatens to leave Dalrymple Bay coal port stranded
Michael West
BHP mulls an exit from coal. Iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest goes headlong into green steel and, by floating a large coal port on the sharemarket, the financial alchemists from Brookfield have dumped their stranded asset onto unsuspecting retail investors.
South Australia
$20m offer to buy KI plantations on the table [$]
An offer to buy the fire-damaged bluegum plantations on Kangaroo Island and return them to farmland has been put to the owners.
People power halts Witton Bluff coastal path [$]
Port Noarlunga conservationists have secured an eleventh-hour stop-work order on the Witton Bluff coastal walkway.
Tasmania
Seven Aboriginal place names approved for North East, to be officially registered
The Tasmanian Government has approved seven Aboriginal place names for geographical areas in the North East and eight for elsewhere in the state.
Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania proposes creation of new national park in state
The Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania has requested the government consider future forestry land in the Great Western Tier be made into a national park to be managed by the state’s Aboriginal population.
Concern at presence of masked owl roost on Northern prison site
There are concerns within the Justice Department that a masked owl roost may be present on a “critical” part of the preferred site for the Northern prison.
Bob Brown and five supporters in court for anti-logging protests
Environmentalist Bob Brown is calling on Tasmanians to use their vote at the upcoming election to end logging in the island’s native forests.
Giant wind farm backs black turbines to save eagles [$]
One of the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farms is poised to become the first in Australia to trial a potentially groundbreaking — and simple — method of reducing bird deaths from turbines.
Northern Territory
Santos signs off on NT gas project labelled a “carbon emissions factory”
Santos signs off on an NT gas project, set to produce so much emissions, it has been described as a “carbon dioxide factory”.
Sun Cable submits plans for gigawatt-scale solar manufacturing plant in Darwin
Sun Cable lodges application for manufacturing and assembly plant for 5B’s Maverick solar array systems, that will eventually supply its own 14GW solar plans.
‘We’ve gotta have some control’: Indigenous push for famous Kakadu site to close
A powerful land council is urged to call a special meeting to discuss the closure of one of Kakadu’s most well-known tourist sites amid a court battle over a sacred site.
Santos carbon capture storage an opportunity for Australia to lead globally
Santos Santos managing director and CEO says Australia has an opportunity to get ahead of the pack globally in the carbon capture space.
Sustainability
Google Maps to start directing drivers to ‘eco-friendly’ routes
The eco-friendly routes feature will be launched in the US later this year, with expansion to the rest of the world on the way.
Water firms discharged raw sewage into English waters 400,000 times last year
Data published for first time by Environment Agency shows 27% increase on previous year
The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable
All life on Earth, and human civilization, are sustained by vital biogeochemical systems, which are in delicate balance. However, our species – due largely to rapid population growth and explosive consumption – is destabilizing these Earth processes, endangering the stability of the “safe operating space for humanity.”
Carbon labels on meat items may influence people to care about climate change, finds study
While many of us want to reduce our carbon footprint and help reverse climate change, many simply don’t want to bother. But a new study finds that even the most botherless kind of people may actively choose products with a lower carbon footprint if the information was printed on the label.
Is telecommuting really greener? It depends
Telecommuting can save energy and reduce emissions — unless it doesn’t. A new tool can help companies measure workplace carbon emissions, and figure out if going remote is easier on the planet.
Why Russia has so many oil leaks
With an oil leak occurring somewhere in the country almost every half hour, Russia records many more spills than other oil-rich states. One hotspot is the Komi Republic in the far north.
Why better bioplastics can’t end the plastic crisis
Plastic products made from corn, wheat stubble, and other plants could soon become more common on Canadian farms and supermarket shelves.
COVID isn’t the only reason business people like Kristin plan to fly less
Domestic business trips are back on the schedule but it’s not just the pandemic that’s leaving international corporate trips up in the air.
Flying drones find trash in rivers and send sailing drones to pick it up
Together, flying drones and sailing drones are helping to clear rivers of plastic waste and oil spills.
Scientists design ‘smart’ device to harvest daylight
A team of researchers has designed a ‘smart’ device to harvest daylight and relay it to underground spaces, reducing the need to draw on traditional energy sources for lighting.
Floating gardens as a way to keep farming despite climate change
Bangladesh’s historic farming systems could offer a way forward
Why a net-zero vision should drive India’s climate strategy
Shweta Srinivasan
The world’s second most populous nation should prioritise sectoral visions that are backed by analytical and evidence-based assessments.
Used soup bowls and worn shorts among the joys of op-shopping
Cat Woods
Second-hand clothing is a vote against fast fashion and a protest against the “buy more” marketing mantra.
Nature Conservation
Japan’s cherry blossoms reach their flowery peak earlier this year than at any time since formal records started being kept nearly 70 years ago. Experts say global warming is a likely cause.
Damage from invasive species ‘trebling every decade’
Mosquitoes, rats and termites among species that have hitched ride on trade routes, causing at least $1.3tn of damage
Impacts of sunscreen on coral reefs needs urgent attention
More research is needed on the environmental impact of sunscreen on the world’s coral reefs.
What can we learn from a coral’s smell?
Gassy chemicals may tell tales of coral health and climate change.
5 ways fungi could change the world, from cleaning water to breaking down plastics
Mitchell P. Jones
Fungi — a scientific goldmine? Well, that’s what a review published today in the journal Trends in Biotechnology indicates. You may think mushrooms are a long chalk from the caped crusaders of sustainability. But think again.
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