https://www.miragenews.com/budget-throws-loose-change-at-environment-and-558079/
Date: 12 May 2021 at 7:54:46 am AEST
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Subject: Daily Links May 12
Post of the Day
Humanity’s challenge of the century: Conserving Earth’s freshwater systems
From Tripoli to Phoenix, the world’s thirst in great desert cities is deepening, even as agribusiness guzzles more water to feed them. Humanity’s arid urban places are colliding with a key Planetary Boundary, scientists warn.
On This Day
Saint Andrew the First-Called Day – Georgia
St. Joana’s Day – Portugal
Ecological Observance
Environmental Education Day – Russia
Climate Change
The climate crisis solutions we need are already here
Steve Trent
The technologies required for a transition to a sustainable world are already known, and new, profit-making tech is not necessary. What is needed is a profound shift in political will and a framework of environmental justice.
Greta Thunberg and her young warriors
Peter Boyer
As Greta Thunberg emerges into adulthood, her indelible legacy will be the global “school strike for climate” movement
National
Budget 2021: How rural and regional Australians will benefit
The federal government hopes that by extending tax incentives, and spending big on soil management and biosecurity, it will help Australian farmers to recover from drought and the industry will be worth $100 billion by 2030.
Budget throws loose change at environment and climate
Budget 2021-22 misses the wave of change sweeping the world, sticking with false hopes that fossil fuels will drive growth, but leaving a mounting cost in lost economic activity and jobs, not to mention environmental damage, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said.
Infrastructure, roads and rail projects get $15.2bn over 10 years in Australia’s 2021 budget
Questions remain about Coalition’s ability to deliver on an ambitious agenda, which it says takes the total infrastructure spend to $110bn in a decade
Cash for gas and big emitters in another miserly budget for clean energy and EVs
Clean energy and electric vehicles again ignored in a federal budget focused on propping up fossil fuels.
Australian researchers show next gen solar cells can beat the heat
Australian researchers show that next-generation solar cells run cooler, last longer, while delivering more useful electricity.
Protesters block pollies at parliament
Protesters have chained themselves to politicians’ cars on budget day in a dramatic push to get the government to address climate change.
Video: Batteries and big bananas
Some politicians struggle to understand the difference between a big battery and a big banana. One of them is not edible, the other will lay the path to a renewables grid.
‘Boys and their toys’: how overt masculinity dominates Australia’s relationship with water
Anna Kosovac
In Australia over recent months, the fury of women has been hard to ignore. The anger, much of it directed at the toxic masculine culture of Parliament House, has sparked a national conversation about how these attitudes harm women.
Batteries not included: Coalition’s stunning hatred of new technology
Giles Parkinson
It was bad enough when Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey were railing against wind farms, but it’s now getting beyond a joke.
Did renewable forecasts really fail? Checking skeptic Vaclav Smil’s latest graphic
Ketan Joshi
A widely-shared graphic claims to show “overly ambitious” forecasts of renewables. We decided to check the sources.
Australia’s fossil exports are on increasingly shaky ground
Ketan Joshi
Australia’s major fossil fuel export customers are getting cold feet. What does that mean for the country’s fossil-reliant economy?
Exposing Australia’s biggest climate polluter
David Ritter
Planning to get around to doing something in 2048 is not “hard work” – it is obscene corporate laziness for which we will all suffer
A stoush over a fire study and a chilling glimpse of the future
Liam Mannix
A story about bushfires, the climate crisis, logging and contested science that shines a light on the very difficult climate choices we now face.
The carbon footprint of Airbnb is likely bigger than you think
Mingming Cheng et al
In its 13 years of existence, Airbnb has grown from a minnow to a whale in holiday accommodation. Today, it offers more than 5.6 million active listings across 220 countries and regions. In Australia, Airbnb lists 346,581 spaces — that’s 4% of Australia’s total housing stock.
Council backs solar and battery proposal for Victorian coal country
A 70MW solar and battery project proposed for Morwell in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley has won the unanimous – but conditional – support of the local council.
Bigger blackout risk with Yallourn shutdown [$]
The early retirement of the Yallourn power station will mean bigger blackout risks across two states unless something can be found to fill the gap, say energy regulators.
New South Wales
Worsening NSW mouse plague now an ‘economic and public health crisis’
NSW farmers call for a $25,000 government rebate to help pay for bait, as the plague puts winter crops in doubt and affects the mental health of those battling the pests.
‘A success rate of 97 per cent is amazing’: 107 turtle hatchlings released
More than 100 loggerhead turtle hatchlings are released after being rescued from their nest as eggs.
‘Painting them green does not change that reality’: NSW Minister’s electric car warning
Planning Minister Rob Stokes has warned Sydney risks being enslaved to cars as he becomes the third senior minister to offer a view on how best to spur the take-up of electric vehicles.
Bruce Mountain
The announcement makes a mockery of the government’s much praised new energy law.
Queensland
Meet Harry the hairy ghost pipefish — an underwater photographer’s ‘Holy Grail’
John Magee says getting the chance to spend an hour capturing photos of this rare marine creature on the Great Barrier Reef was “a bit like winning the lottery”.
South Australia backs plan for bigger big battery at Aurora project
State government extends support to plans to double the storage capacity of the big battery component of 1414 Degrees’ Aurora Energy Project.
Carp ‘em all: Torrens pests to get zapped [$]
An ambitious bid to reduce the Torrens Lake’s carp population by two thirds involves stunning the fish so they float to the surface and can be euthanised.
Where’s the rest of our $3.2bn for roads? [$]
SA was promised $3.2bn in major road project funding. Just two-thirds of it is actually in the Federal Budget – and only $130m this year.
Tasmania
The ‘invasivore’: Meet the woman who eats invasive weeds every day
Kate Spaulding works in a takeaway food store but her passion is foraging for wild foods, especially edible, invasive weeds. And she wants others to try them.
‘Condoms, bongs’: Locals furious over rubbish strewn at scenic lookout [$]
The Rosny Hill reserve has stunning views of the city and surrounding suburbs, but the view has been marred by scraps and discarded items.
Hobart City Council planning committee votes on unpopular 20-dwelling housing proposal in Sandy Bay [$]
Hobart City Council has rejected plans for a Sandy Bay housing development that Alderman Marti Zucco claimed was the worst project he’d seen in 30 years.
Northern Territory
Commonwealth offers cash injection to NT rare earth project [$]
Nolans rare earth mine A $1.1bn mine planned for the Territory has had an offer of a multi-million-dollar cash injection from the Australian Government.
proposal The Federal Government is considering a bold proposal that would see part of a disused remote refinery transformed into a strategic fuel storage facility.
Traditional Owners concerned protection for sacred sites being left behind [$]
Traditional Owners across the Territory have united in Darwin to meet with politicians and organisations who they say have given mining companies permission to do work that is “destroying their country” and sacred sites.
Sustainability
Humanity’s challenge of the century: Conserving Earth’s freshwater systems
From Tripoli to Phoenix, the world’s thirst in great desert cities is deepening, even as agribusiness guzzles more water to feed them. Humanity’s arid urban places are colliding with a key Planetary Boundary, scientists warn.
Greenland’s new government reiterates its opposition to uranium mining
At the same time, the new leadership is taking pains to emphasize that it welcomes other mining projects.
China’s population grows at slowest rate since 1961 famine
It is the long tail of the now-abolished One-Child Policy that has driven the result in the world’s most populous country. The coronavirus also played its part.
Gas flaring declined in 2020, study finds
A new report offers a detailed picture of flaring around the world, with steep declines in some areas and surprising increases in others.
Asian Development Bank declares coal exit in Asia Pacific, but gas remains in play
As the climate crisis bites, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has unveiled its ambitious plan to scrap funding for coal mining and power plants, and ban support for oil and natural gas field exploration or extraction activities in the Asia-Pacific region.
China looks to shift steel production, and carbon emissions, offshore [$]
Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane
A new Chinese policy to cut domestic steel production threatens to shake up the market for Australia’s most valuable export.
The last iMac you’ll ever need? Thinking beyond endless product cycles
Matthew Cockerill
Many of our technology products have form factors that don’t change year to year. Instead of making new ones, we could just keep updating the old ones.
We need to talk about spider conservation
Despite their ecological values, new research reveals we don’t understand how most arachnid species are faring — or do much to protect them.
Forest the size of France regrown worldwide over 20 years, study finds
Nearly 59m hectares of forests have regrown since 2000, showing that regeneration in some places is paying off
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