Post of the Day
Just 25 big cities, mostly in China, driving majority of urban greenhouse gas emissions
Just 25 big cities — almost all of them in China — account for more than half of the climate-warming gases pumped out by a sample of 167 urban hubs around the world, an analysis of emissions trends shows.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
Just 25 big cities, mostly in China, driving majority of urban greenhouse gas emissions
Just 25 big cities — almost all of them in China — account for more than half of the climate-warming gases pumped out by a sample of 167 urban hubs around the world, an analysis of emissions trends shows.
The impact of El Nino on East Asian climate under a warmer climate will be dominated by the change in El Nino decaying pace.
Humans can learn from animals and insects about impact of climate change
If we pay closer attention to how birds, rabbits and termites transform their local living spaces in response to varying climate conditions, we could become much better at predicting what impact climate change will have on them in future
US-Russia say climate talks a springboard to ease tensions
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have expressed hope that climate change talks could act as a springboard to help reduce escalating tensions between the two rival nations.
Rebecca Priestley et al
Following a recent storm surge in Wellington, some media coverage expressed surprise that 30cm of sea-level rise – an unavoidable amount projected to happen by the middle of this century – would turn a one-in-100-year coastal flood into an annual event.
How do you know if a climate policy is good? Here’s the test
David Roberts
Clean electrification at warp speed for the next decade is the most important thing of all.
Our climate change turning point is right here, right now
Rebecca Solnit
People are dying. Aquatic animals are baking in their shells. Fruit is being cooked on the tree. It’s time to act.
Climate change is a global challenge that requires a global perspective
Jay Hakes
The race to solve climate change is a race to develop new affordable technologies that allow us to move away from fossil fuels.
Billionaires’ Eleven – cartoon
David Pope’s view
National
Why lawn is secretly bad for your backyard
Home owners are being urged to take advantage of the winter months to make their backyards more environmentally friendly in time for summer by moving away from the perfectly manicured lawn.
Crunch time looming for Morrison on climate as the world looks to Australia to act
The need for China, India and other big emitters in the developing world to ramp up their ambition explains why the US and Britain are so exercised about Australia’s 2030 target.
Chart of the Day: Australia’s ageing coal plants are not so reliable
Number of forced outages from Australia’s feet of ageing coal fired generators jumped sharply in the last financial year.
Peter Burnett and Michael Vardon
Let’s say a new irrigation scheme is proposed and all the land it’ll take up needs to be cleared — trees felled, soil upturned, and habitats destroyed. Water will also have to be allocated. Would the economic gain of the scheme outweigh the damage to the environment?
Are the Nationals now the party for mining, not farming? If so, Barnaby Joyce must tread carefully
Geoff Cockfield
The return of Barnaby Joyce to the federal National Party’s top job has highlighted tensions within, and dilemmas for, the broader party – particularly on climate change policy and coal.
How years of Coalition interference left AGL with no option but to split in two
Michael Mazengarb
After years of Coalition interference – and attempts to depose its CEO – AGL has been forced to undertake emergency measures to save its business.
Wind, solar and battery hybrids desperately need a change in market rules
Giles Parkinson
“The technology allows for it, but the rules are getting in the way.” Why Australia’s hybrid wind, solar and battery facilities can’t work together.
Victoria
How riding on Melbourne’s roads made me one of ‘those’ cyclists
Alice Clarke
Why are cyclists so intense? To answer this question, all I had to do was become one of them.
New South Wales
Biggest NSW irrigators breaking the rules on water take
Nearly half of the state’s biggest irrigators have made no effort to install meters contrary to new laws designed to prevent water theft, an audit has found.
Greater urgency is needed in learning lessons from 2019 bushfires
SMH editorial
One of the most destructive blazes of the 2019 Black Summer bushfires began as a backburn lit by the NSW Rural Fire Service. It came after a last-minute change in strategy. We still have no clear answers as to why the fire was lit on December 14, contrary to the advice of Mount Wilson fire service captain Beth Raines.
Queensland
Queensland police regret making Indigenous leader leave Adani mine site during protest
Police recognise incident was traumatic for Adrian Burragubba, who was pressured to leave at the request of Adani
Australian environment groups urge UN to put Great Barrier Reef on ‘in danger’ list
Letter to world heritage committee comes as minister embarks on week of lobbying against change
Albo’s secret QLD coal mine visit
Anthony Albanese has secretly visited a Queensland coal mine, with accusations the opposition leader was dragged ‘kicking and screaming’ to the site.
Peter Garrett
When Unesco recommended the reef be placed on the ‘in danger’ list, the Coalition’s response was to shift the blame. We must do better
South Australia
Students’ ‘CuttleCam’ streams congregation of giant cuttlefish
The majestic world of giant cuttlefish is opened up to living rooms worldwide as a student-led project to stream their underwater habitat in South Australia goes live.
$65m wastewater project turns septic [$]
A metropolitan council is facing years of rate increases over a $65m government project to move thousands of properties with septic tanks to mains sewerage.
Tasmania
takayna protests enter 8th week
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation
Bob Brown Foundation’s campaign against Chinese state-owned mining company MMG’s plans for a toxic tailings dam that would flatten Tarkine rainforest now enters week 8. After sixty-four arrests the groundswell of opposition just keeps building.
TNPA on Cradle Mountain Master Plan
Tasmanian National Parks Association
The Cradle Mountain Visitor Experience Master Plan was released in March 2016. It does not deserve to be called a plan – it’s an ambit claim from the tourism industry written on the premise that Cradle Mountain needs the gimmick of a cable car to attract even more visitors.
Michael Bode and Zoe Nay
Tasmanian devil populations have been devastated over the past 25 years due to devil facial tumour disease, an infectious cancer. But the Tasmanian government does not support relocating uninfected wild devil populations to the Australian mainland.
Western Australia
Annual environmental reporting system changes
The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) has simplified its online annual environmental reporting (AER) system to streamline the information requested from proponents and improve system performance.
Plans for world’s biggest renewable energy hub in WA [$]
The world’s biggest renewable energy hub — capable of nearly doubling the entire country’s generation capacity — is being planned for the southern coast of WA.
A microgrid powered only by solar and batteries points the way to bigger all-renewable grids
Jeff St. John
In May of this year, Onslow, a town of 848 people on the coast of Western Australia, did something no town of its size has ever done before. For 80 minutes on a sunny day, it ran its power grid entirely on solar and battery power.
Sustainability
‘Should we be having another?’: Parents repent in the zero-waste baby movement
For Veronica Milsom, zero waste meant a ban on disposable nappies, single-use plastic, a clothes drier, wet wipes and, as she got older, squeezy pouches.
Are heat pumps the most climate friendly way to heat homes?
The typical heat pump system will leak 12 pounds of HFC-410a over the course of its lifetime. Those emissions, the majority of which come when the device is destroyed at the end of its useful life, equal the near-term climate impact of 23 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Massive Georgia plant to turn plastic into fuels, chemicals
A San Francisco company says it will build the nation’s largest plastic waste processing plant outside of Macon, a facility that eventually could offer a solution to one of the country’s most visible and pressing environmental problems — plastic pollution.
Toxic metals studies add to frustrations surrounding Swiss-owned mine in Peru
Health concerns over toxic metals in remote communities near a mining complex in the Peruvian Andes are increasing.
Why Jane Goodall still has hope for us humans
“Traveling the world I’d see so many projects of restoration, people tackling what seemed impossible and not giving up.”
The transportation sector is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and a lot of attention has been devoted to electric passenger vehicles and their potential to help reduce those emissions.
When a single tree makes a difference
A single tree along a city street or in a backyard can provide measurable cooling benefits, according to a new study from American University.
Can plastic-eating cows help us reduce waste?
Mary McMillan
New research from a team in Austria has found that microbes living in the rumen (one of the four stomach compartments of a cow) do indeed have the ability to breakdown at least some types of plastics.
3 more clean energy SPAC updates you should know about
Julian Spector
Clean energy startups are going public at a rate I’ve never seen in my years covering this sector.
Zooming versus flying: The net climate impacts of internet use
Alan Pears
One hour spent on Zoom generates less CO2 than driving a car a kilometre. Going virtual is actually a good thing for emissions.
Why burning trees for energy makes no sense
Camilla Carraro & Chelsea Baldino
Burning roundwood and stemwood for power actually emits more CO2 than coal per unit of energy generated. The practice must be stopped.
Pollution blamed for killing off Florida’s manatees
More manatees have died in waters around Florida this year than at any previous time on record, according to conservationists.
Goldfish dumped in lakes grow to monstrous size, threatening ecosystems
Minnesota pet owners warned not to release fish into wild, where they wreak havoc on native species
UN sets out Paris-style plan to cut extinction rate by factor of 10
Ambitious draft goals to halt biodiversity loss revealed, with proposed changes to food production expected to ‘raise eyebrows’
Rise in Southeast Asia forest clearance increasing greenhouse gases
Forest clearance in Southeast Asia is accelerating, leading to unprecedented increases in carbon emissions, according to new research.
Every spot of green space counts
An international study of parks and gardens finds even the humble roadside verge plays an important role in the environment and for our health.
Study shows forests play greater role in depositing toxic mercury across the globe
Researchers led by a UMass Lowell environmental science professor say mercury measurements in a Massachusetts forest indicate the toxic element is deposited in forests across the globe in much greater quantities than previously understood.
In a New Zealand estuary, I closed my eyes and floated. It turned out the water was toxic
Ingrid Horrocks
Ingrid Horrocks learned to swim in the wild – but no river or lake in the region she grew up in is ‘swimmable’ any more
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