Post of the Day
Bees dropped dead before they reached the other side: How a gas company cleared the Kimberley
One company has cleared more than 14,000 kilometres in a straight line of native Kimberley bush without needing a permit – the equivalent of the distance between Perth and London.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
French protesters demand more action on climate change
Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Paris and other French cities to call for more ambitious measures in the fight against climate change.
Action for climate empowerment: new drive for society-wide climate action
A new project to empower all members of society to engage in climate action, particularly non-Party stakeholders such as youth or gender-based stakeholders, has been launched by a partnership led by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action.
Tea-growing areas to be badly hit if global heating intensifies
Your morning cup of tea may never taste the same again if global heating increases and the climate crisis intensifies, according to research.
David Attenborough warns climate change poses bigger threat than Covid
Sir David Attenborough has warned world leaders of the ‘crippling problems’ which could be caused by climate change, ahead of a crucial summit being hosted by the UK.
Carbon border taxes mostly unnecessary, climate guru says [$]
Influential climate economist Nicholas Stern says any EU or US carbon tariffs should be limited to a handful of sectors like steel.
Resources minister Keith Pitt refuses to say battery storage is dispatchable
Keith Pitt refuses to say whether he thinks battery storage is dispatchable, after blocking a government loan to a North Queensland wind and battery project.
AEMO says Australia “well ahead” of 90 per cent renewables scenario for 2040
AEMO says record installations and growing pipeline of wind, solar and storage mean Australia is well ahead of “step change” scenario.
Australia’s ‘largest sustainability linked loan’ completed
Property fund ISPT had been advised on a restructured bank facility for its flagship fund, in what the advising law firm has called the largest sustainability linked loan facility in Australia to date.
Climate change has species on the move
As the oceans warm, many marine species are on the move to keep pace with their preferred environmental conditions – and it’s having a profound effect on the structure and function of the ecosystems they leave behind and those they move into.
Fact Check: We fact checked the climate-change claims of two former prime ministers
Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull warn Australia is “at risk of the economic and environmental consequences” of carbon-border taxes, given more than 70 per cent of the countries it trades with are committed to net-zero emissions. Were they correct?
Time to revisit Australia’s golden goose
Paul Cleary
Mines in Australia should be renamed Money Printing Operations because the cash they make has become truly astronomical.
Why Macquarie’s not as green as you think [$]
Chanticleer
Macquarie Group’s record profit came with lots of talk about environmental credentials. But scratch below the surface and the moneymaker is infrastructure.
Pandemic proves ‘Big Australia’ is a mistake [$]
Judith Sloan
Telling everyone that I told you so can be a tad churlish, but I’m sure many readers will forgive me if I say I told you so. Among a very short list of other commentators, I have been pointing out the downsides of our rapid population growth based on very high rates of immigration for years.
Victoria
Victorians have been promised a $3 billion budget bonanza. Here’s the fine print
Two-thirds of $3 billion worth of federal infrastructure cash earmarked for Victoria to help the COVID-19 recovery is for a project that is yet to find a home.
Possum protection group looks to High Court after losing logging battle with VicForests
A court finds Australian logging companies do not need to abide by state-based laws in order to remain exempt from federal environmental laws. But a environment group vows to appeal against the decision.
Burning way forward as hazard reduction tool
Wodonga Council and Burraja Cultural Centre staff participated in a planned burning training in Baranduda. The training is an important tool for reducing fire hazard and keeping the environment healthy. Aboriginal cultural burning practices are increasing being recognised as having an important role to play in environmental and fire hazard management.
Truck protesters doubt new freight rail link’s congestion-busting benefits
Anti-diesel truck lobby groups in Melbourne’s inner-west warn the federal government’s $2 billion investment in a freight rail terminal will do little to remove trucks from their pollution-choked streets.
Melbourne spends $45m buying land for third runway
Melbourne Airport has spent more than $45 million on buying up land near its border in preparation to build a third runway – despite the project not being greenlit by the federal government.
No more solar, pass the scones: CWA votes to stop solar projects on prime farm land
Country Women’s Association NSW votes overwhelmingly to oppose large-scale solar on prime agricultural land, and rejects call for urgent action on climate.
CEP taps RACV Solar to kick off massive battery-backed solar network in NSW
CEP.Energy signs up RACV Solar as EPC partner on installation of 2.62MW solar, 4MW/10MWh battery storage at Narellan Town Centre in south-west Sydney.
Knitting Nannas protest ‘zombie’ gas licences
The Sydney Knitting Nannas and Friends organised a protest on May 5, complete with music, to demand the NSW government cancel gas export licences across the state.
‘It makes me feel sick’: 300 complaints about Sydney suburb that stinks like ‘rotten eggs’
A Western Sydney recycling facility is fined $577 after hundreds of residents across two suburbs complain about a constant smell of rotten eggs.
Climate change – not forestry – behind Black Summer bushfires: Scientists
Extreme drought conditions and fire weather – not logging – were the key drivers behind the record-breaking Black Summer bushfires in New South Wales, say scientists.
‘Secondary wave’ of tree deaths post-fires
Hundreds of hazardous trees along Eurobodalla roadsides are being removed following a second wave of impacts from the Black Summer bushfires.
Sydney to spend $24 million to accelerate net-zero goal by five years
The City of Sydney will bring forward its net-zero emissions goal by five years to 2035, making it the first council in the state to set such an early target.
Goldminer in talks to convert 192-megalitre water licence for new pit
The proponent of a new gold mine in the state’s Central West is pressing the NSW government to hand over a large water licence that opponents say would damage the environment and farming.
Firefighting chemical found in sea lion and fur seal pups
A chemical that the New South Wales government has recently partially banned in firefighting has been found in the pups of endangered Australian sea lions and in Australian fur seals. The finding represents another possible blow to Australian sea lions’ survival. Hookworm and tuberculosis already threaten their small and diminishing population, which has fallen by more than 60 percent over four decades.
South Australia
Call for new cycling plan after bikeway debacle
An Adelaide City councillor who helped vote down the east-west bikeway has called on Town Hall to spend up to $20,000 on a plan for new CBD bike routes.
Tasmania
TLC kicks-off fundraiser for Kelvedon Hills
The Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) has announced a campaign to protect a spectacular piece of land on the east coast, Kelvedon Hills.
Federal Member for Lyons Brian Mitchell says the Prime Minister’s funding announcement for Tasmanian roads has been “reheated more times than a dodgy takeaway.”
Inappropriate commercial development of small Bass Strait islands
Celia Beeton
This article is to draw attention to an emerging issue of inappropriate commercial development for small shearwater bird breeding islands offshore of Flinders Island, as proposed by Victorian Clem Newton-Brown.
Island tourism plans will restore, regenerate fragile environments
Clem Newton-Brown
For over 15 years I have been a Tasmanian tourism operator, first with Sawyers Bay Shacks on Flinders Island and in more recent times Picnic Island.
Northern Territory
Strange desert patterns revealed in historic aerial photos show masters of fire at work
Images intended to help open up the outback to mining following World War II instead deliver a lesson from the last generation of Indigenous people to live in the Great Sandy Desert on how to protect life and the land.
Call for Kakadu annual funding to be doubled ahead of federal budget [$]
The yearly operating budget for Kakadu National Park should be doubled ‘at the very least’ even before a $276m masterplan is implemented, according to the region’s peak tourism body.
The entrepreneurial children and the bright green beetle tackling a serious ecological threat
School students from Darwin’s rural area find an unlikely solution to a destructive introduced species — a bright green beetle that feeds on one of northern Australia’s most serious weeds.
Western Australia
Bees dropped dead before they reached the other side: How a gas company cleared the Kimberley
One company has cleared more than 14,000 kilometres in a straight line of native Kimberley bush without needing a permit – the equivalent of the distance between Perth and London.
Indonesia begins first slow steps towards ditching coal, to stop new plants
Indonesia has announced a moratorium on new coal after 2023, but plenty more work must be done for the country to align with climate targets.
Bolivian companies team up for fully eco-friendly deliveries
Companies have teamed up in Bolivia, to offer a completely green delivery chain service in one of South America’s most polluted cities.
Chill out: Advanced solar tech runs cooler and lasts longer
New mechanisms for converting sunlight to electricity more efficiently are also beneficial for extending the lifespan of solar panels.
Cooking a curry? Your rice could be hiding micro-plastics, warn scientists
Australians who love curries and risotto could be unknowingly eating one kilogram of micro-plastics every year, warn Queensland researchers.
Geoscientists find that shallow wastewater injection drives deep earthquakes in Texas
Geoscientists have found that shallow wastewater injection — not deep wastewater injections — can drive widespread deep earthquake activity in unconventional oil and gas production fields.
Wastewater treatment system recovers electricity, filters water
A dual-function electrode in a microbial fuel cell combines two previously separate functions
At least 1m people facing starvation as Madagascar’s drought worsens
Madagascar will produce less than half its usual harvest in the coming months because of low rains, prolonging a hunger crisis already affecting half the Grand Sud area’s population, the UN estimates.
Electric cars ‘will be cheaper to produce than fossil fuel vehicles by 2027’
Ask professional acquaintances about acting EPA air chief Joe Goffman, and adjectives like “smart” are accompanied by qualifiers like “careful,” “cautious” and “strategic.”
How the shipping industry can go from global polluter to carbon neutral
From hydrogen to sails to green ammonia, the shipping industry is rethinking how it moves the massive amount of goods that undergird the global economy.
Installing solar panels over canals could yield water, land, air and climate payoffs
Roger Bales and Brandi McKuin
Building smart solar developments on canals can make power and water infrastructure more resilient while saving water, reducing costs and helping to fight climate change.
As global climate shifts, forests’ futures may be caught in the wind
Forests’ ability to adapt to the disruptions wrought by climate change may depend, in part, on the eddies and swirls of global wind currents, suggests a new study. The study compared global wind patterns with previously published genetic data of nearly 100 tree and shrub species collected from forests around the world, finding significant correlations between wind speed and direction and genetic diversity throughout our planet’s forests.
Could wider use of gene reserves protect rare species?
UK landowners and conservationists welcome wider-spread use of Gene Conservation Units (GCUs) to help protect some of the rarest plants and insects, research has shown.
Climate change threatens species, especially some with small homes
If the pandemic has made you think your home is too small, pity the Canadian species with tiny homes which could be wiped out by climate change.
Sharks in protected area attract illegal fishers
Thousands of sharks have been illegally caught in a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Indian Ocean, new research shows.
The outlook for coral reefs remains grim unless we cut emissions fast — new research
Christopher Cornwall
The twin stress factors of ocean warming and acidification increasingly threaten coral reefs worldwide, but relatively little is known about how various climate scenarios will affect coral reef growth rates.
Nobody cares about ugly flowers. Scientists pay more attention to pretty plants
Kingsley Dixon
We all love gardens with beautiful flowers and leafy plants, choosing colourful species to plant in and around our homes. Plant scientists, however, may have fallen for the same trick in what they choose to research.
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