Daily Links Apr 24

There’re many articles here with a similar message to that given by Katharine Murphy with her usual wit – The Happy Clapper was on a continuum of just dissembling right across to telling Pinnochio-like lies at the Biden virtual summit. We had a country once in which we could have pride, currently we’re embarrassed.

Post of the Day

Scott Morrison’s climate summit speech was littered with downright dodgy claims

Richie Merzian

I have sat through countless speeches on climate change from world leaders, both working for the government and outside it, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s rant at President Joe Biden’s climate summit last night was one of the worst performances I have ever seen.

 

On This Day

April 24

 

Ecological observance

Save The Frogs Day

 

Climate Change

Elon Musk offers $US100m to inventors who can remove CO2 from Earth’s atmosphere

The entrepreneur will gift the “largest incentive prize in history” to the inventor who uncovers a viable way to remove carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

Fact sheet: President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate

On Day One, President Biden fulfilled his commitment to rejoin the Paris Agreement. Days later, he took executive actions to ensure we tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad – all while creating jobs and strengthening our economy. This week, he held a historic summit with 40 world leaders to show that America is back.

 

Biden’s pledge to slash US emissions turns spotlight on China

World leaders will be unable to halt climate breakdown without strong action from biggest emitter

 

Which country has made the biggest climate commitment?

The US, EU and UK are leading the race to cut emissions targets among the world’s biggest economies

 

Satellites reveal ocean currents are getting stronger, with potentially significant implications for climate change [$]

Navid Constantinou

Scientists already know the oceans are rapidly warming and sea levels are rising. But that’s not all. Now, thanks to satellite observations, we have three decades’ worth of data on how the speeds of ocean surface currents are also changing over time

 

National

‘No movement’ between Australia and China to end ongoing log ban

Australia’s forestry sector claims there are no signs of any movement by Chinese officials to end the ongoing log trade deadlock, with China “not returning the minister’s calls”.

 

Australia has been talking up its climate credentials – but do the claims stack up?

The government is under pressure to do more to tackle global heating but critics say the PM has instead employed ‘Trumpian misrepresentation’

 

‘Leading by example’: Heavy industry moves ahead on climate targets as Morrison waits

Australia may set an ambitious emissions reduction target by year’s end, but major Australian industries are already moving ahead with their own targets.

 

Morrison’s long walk to net zero

Since the deadly bushfires raged during the summer of 2019-20, the Prime Minister’s language on all things climate has week by week, subtly yet obviously, shifted.

 

Australia’s green partnership with US, UK [$]

Scott Morrison says he wants Australia to stay ahead of the curve on low emissions technology and will spend $500 million doing so.

 

Scott Morrison’s speech to the Leaders Summit on Climate

(annotated)

The Prime Minister told world leaders Australia would commit to practical results not empty targets but how straight was he really talking?

 

Protest in a pandemic: voices of young climate activists – video

From flooding the streets with thousands of activists to mass Zoom calls, Twitter storms and isolation, young protesters have had to adapt to a global pandemic and find new ways to push forward their calls for action on the climate crisis.

 

Morrison tells climate summit future generations will ‘thank us’ despite no emissions pledge – video

Scott Morrison has told world leaders that future generations will ‘thank us not for what we have promised but what we deliver’ in his contribution to a virtual summit on climate action convened by the US president, Joe Biden.

 

Can Australia keep up with the world’s climate progress? – Australian politics podcast

This week Katharine Murphy speaks with Erwin Jackson, the policy director at Investor Group on Climate Change, to discuss the Biden administration’s pressure on Australia to cut greenhouse gas emissions faster than planned. With the global summit of 40 world leaders held this week, how will Australia face up to the challenge of transitioning to a net zero world?

 

The reason the Morrison government struggles with the idea of targets

Laura Tingle

Australia talks the language of competitive advantage when discussing reducing carbon emissions. But it doesn’t actually have a comprehensive strategy to achieve it

 

Scott Morrison’s climate summit speech was littered with downright dodgy claims

Richie Merzian

I have sat through countless speeches on climate change from world leaders, both working for the government and outside it, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s rant at President Joe Biden’s climate summit last night was one of the worst performances I have ever seen.

 

Global reset on climate action leaves Scott Morrison looking like yesterday’s man

Katharine Murphy

At Joe Biden’s virtual summit, achieving net zero by 2050 was considered a given, not something you might do, possibly, if Matt Canavan lets you

 

The US climate target blows Australia’s out of the water

Frank Jotzo

Australia’s 2030 target of a 26%-28% reduction is totally inadequate compared with those from our best friends and allies

 

PM goes for broke, three idiocies in one statement

Terry McCrann

The PM has just ‘done 26,950 Cartíer watches’ in one day wasting taxpayer funds on his new climate change initiatives announced this week.

 

Carbon cash making a difference for Bush Heritage [$]

John Durie

Bush Heritage is a not-for-profit conservation fund relying on donations, but carbon farming has opened a potential new area of funding that just happens to support one of its aims, which is to protect the environment.

 

The world is cooling to Morrison’s Australia

Peter Hartcher

While leading nations doubled their ambitions to cut carbon emissions, Scott Morrison delivered a message of Australian timidity and complacency. It will cost us diplomatically – and economically.

 

Cities might yet have their revenge on a Prime Minister who belittled them

George Megalogenis

The Prime Minister’s graceless dig at the inner city was also counterproductive.

 

The feds have ditched us on climate change, it’s time we ditch them too

Jan Fran

Australian businesses and state governments (perhaps even wine bars) have plans and targets to tackle emissions. Let’s face it, they are fast making Canberra obsolete.

 

Australia left behind as global climate action gathers pace

Nick O’Malley

The US has proven it has returned to international leadership with its climate change summit, while Australia remains a reluctant partner.

 

It’s time for Australia to be a leader on climate, not an outlier

Age editorial

Scott Morrison has shifted on the language but is yet to move on the policy substance.

 

As Morrison struggles with 2050, climate leaders up the ante for 2030

Michelle Grattan

We shouldn’t be surprised at the Kevin Rudd/Malcolm Turnbull bromance. After all, we saw the same with Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam.

 

Australia’s climate reputation is in tatters after leaders summit

Emma Aisbett, Christian Downie

At US President Joe Biden’s climate summit, on Thursday night Australian time, world leaders made a series of stunning announcements. The world is on the move, yet Australia is not even trying to catch up.

 

Climate summit: As the world gets ambitious, Morrison get defensive [$]

Dan Jervis-Bardy

The contrast could not have been more striking, on a stage which could not have been bigger.

 

With Australia’s climate criminal status on global display, what fate awaits? [$]

Bernard Keane

With the world waking up to Australia’s climate criminality, work is underway to ensure our free-riding on climate action doesn’t cost jobs elsewhere.

 

APRA tells banks to upgrade climate risk reporting. We are waiting for the Nationals to start making threats [$]

Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane

It’s not so long since Nationals minister David Littleproud threatened the stability of the financial system because banks were acknowledging climate risks. So where is he when the prudential regulator demands banks lift their climate risk management?

 

Energy policy key to maintaining vibrant steel industry [$]

Ticky Fullerton

The fate of several steel businesses in Australia is uncertain: the Whyalla steelworks is under threat of falling into administration once more, and manufacturer Infrabuild could also be drawn into the crisis.

 

Go with gas to build support for emissions strategy: Paul O’Malley [$]

Ticky Fullerton

Paul O’Malley, one of Australia’s most respected and influential company directors, says boards should have two priorities: to get the basics right on governance and behaviour and to have a five to 10 year strategy. After 10 years as chief executive of BlueScope Steel, Mr O’Malley now sits on the boards of two top 20 companies, Commonwealth Bank and Coles.

 

Morrison’s failure on the global stage

Canberra Times editorial

Has Australia ever put in a more depressing and shameful performance at a major international forum than during President Biden’s climate summit on Thursday night?

 

Morrison off target on climate [$]

Max Opray

Hosting a global climate summit this week, Joe Biden plans to reduce US emissions by more than 50 per cent by 2030. Scott Morrison’s focus on unproven technology, experts warn, will not achieve our climate goals.

 

Don’t make the poor pay for climate change [$]

Bjorn Lomborg

To tackle climate change, rich nations are promising to end fossil fuel use in 29 years. As this becomes excruciatingly costly, the G7 is now thinking about making the world’s poor pay for it. That will go badly.

 

Tamed Estate: Nine’s ‘Exclusive Survey’ by Liberal lobby associates as credible as Angus Taylor’s ‘clean coal’

Elizabeth Minter and Michael Tanner

And all guns saluted the PM’s climate announcements. But while other countries are targeting green hydrogen production, Energy Minister Angus Taylor spruiks clean hydrogen, which keeps fossil fuels in the game. And the Oz found room for an Op-ed claiming that Australia’s and America’s policies are “not far apart”.

 

Biden’s climate summit is all about the green [$]

Graham Lloyd

More than anything else, Joe Biden’s much-hyped virtual climate change summit has demonstrated the enduring currency of American exceptionalism and confirmed the power of money.

 

Joe Biden’s climate summit always promised to be a taxing time [$]

Graham Lloyd

Joe Biden’s climate summit has confirmed the global divide under which developed countries pledge action and pay for others to watch from the sidelines.

 

Spot the difference: As world leaders rose to the occasion at the Biden climate summit, Morrison faltered

Lesley Hughes and Will Steffen

Prime Minister Scott Morrison overnight addressed a much anticipated virtual climate summit convened by US President Joe Biden, claiming future generations “will thank us not for what we have promised, but what we deliver”.

 

Australian Government quiet over Japan’s nuclear waste condemnation

Dave Sweeney

While Japan faces international backlash over its decision to dump contaminated wastewater, Australia remains quiet due to its part in the Fukushima disaster.

 

Tonight I do want to address the elephant in the ballroom – climate change

First Dog on the Moon

It will be dealt with by salt of the earth scientists and farmers – the sort of Australians people like you only ever have to think about when you fire them

 

David Pope’s view: We’ve already been captured

 

Victoria

Climate is king in blue-ribbon Liberal electorate with a green heart

As Scott Morrison faced the world at US President Joe Biden’s online climate summit, it seemed front and centre of his pitch: the adage that all politics is local. But it’s more complicated than that in the Melbourne electorate of Higgins, a rusted-on Liberal seat that is also one of the city’s more progressive.

 

E-Scooters could share roads with cars, bikes [$]

Electronic scooters could make their way onto Victorian streets, as a new road rule between cars and cyclists begins next week.

 

New South Wales

Floodwater breathes new life into Menindee Lakes

Floodwaters from northern New South Wales reaches the lakes in the state’s far-west, filling some of them for the first time in five years.

 

Queensland

Hungry rats costing Brisbane car owners thousands in repairs

Brisbane’s cooler months have prompted warnings that rats may be looking for a cosy place to wine and dine — such as your car engine

 

Rare snapping turtle given helping hand in fight to boost numbers

A rare snapping turtle estimated to have lost more than 70 per cent of its juvenile and sub-adult population over the past 20 years, has been given a helping hand through a national a recovery plan.

 

Recycled water back in the pipeline in new push for Wivenhoe water grid

The Lockyer Valley region, regarded as Australia’s “salad bowl”, plans to supercharge its agricultural and horticultural industries by resurrecting the state’s mothballed recycled water plant and using a 300km network of pipelines connected to south-east Queensland’s existing water grid.

 

Super Queenslander could stop Mother Nature’s worst

Is the humble Queenslander house the key to making Australian homes disaster proof? Scientists and architects think so. Take a look at Australia’s most resilient house.

 

South Australia

Bold plan to restore biodiversity in Adelaide’s south [$]

Land in Adelaide’s south would be rezoned for restoration as part of a conservationist’s bold plan.

 

Tasmania

Tamar Bridge plan opposed by Labor and Greens ahead of election

Labor and the Greens are united in their opposition to the Liberal’s plan for the Tamar Bridge project which was announced on Thursday.

 

GPS tracker on wedgies gives us a bird’s eye view

When Dr James Pay began researching Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles six years ago, little was known about these charismatic birds. So he used a GPS tracking system attached to their backs to create mesmerising videos of their flight.

 

Spend $65m restoring Lake Pedder not propping up dams

Restore Lake Pedder Committee calls on all political candidates to commit to reallocating the $65m earmarked for maintenance of the Edgar and Scotts Peak dams in the next four years to decommissioning them and restoring Lake Pedder.

 

Public Forum – Robbins Island Wind Farm & Marinus Project

Transcript of public forum on Robbins Island Wind Farm and Marinus Link project, Hobart Town Hall, 22 April 2021. The event was organised by Circular Head Coastal Awareness Network and moderated by Leanne Minshull.

 

Northern Territory

NT land council demands review of controversial water licence [$]

‘Fraught with problems’ An NT water licence which means to extract 40,000 megalitres of water a year is being formally challenged by native title holders in Central Australia.

 

Water security plan ‘does not touch the surface’ of NT’s remote community ‘water crisis’: NLC boss [$]

The Northern Land Council has criticised the NT government’s water security plan as not “not even touching the surface of this crisis” as members of the remote community of Laramba are taking legal action against the Department of Housing boss over their uranium-contaminated drinking water.

 

Beetaloo Basin timeline questioned as NT government quietly terminates $1.3 million contract

The gas-rich region is a key part of the federal government’s blueprint for economic recovery but an anti-fracking group says the timeline for its development is in doubt after a contract for key work was torn up.

 

Western Australia

Urban streets need more trees, straighter footpaths and less traffic

Perth’s residential streets are noisy, scary and uncomfortable according to one Perth urban planner, who is calling for a rethink to design our suburbs with people — not cars — in mind.

 

WA mining lobby says no new project would be approved under Graeme Samuel reforms

Critics say Chamber of Minerals and Energy is effectively admitting it is comfortable with degradation of environment

 

Sustainability

Electric car battery demand puts lithium in pole position

Waves of investment in battery factories across the world is driving up demand for lithium.

 

As voters seek ‘common sense’ solutions, Germany’s great green experiment nears maturity [$]

Guy Rundle

Germany’s Green Party is within reach of the country’s highest office. If and when it takes power, will it be necessary to create a party beyond green?

 



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