Post of the Day
Polystyrene packaging is being phased out. Here’s how you can help alternatives gain traction
By the middle of next year, your online purchases could come wrapped in materials like wool as environmentally harmful plastic products like expanded polystyrene are phased out.
On This Day
The First Sermon of Lord Buddha – Bhutan
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
Mapping how sea-level rise adaptation strategies impact economies and floodwaters
By 2100, sea levels are expected to rise by almost seven feet in the Bay Area. New research shows how traditional approaches to combating sea-level rise can create a domino effect of environmental and economic impacts for nearby communities.
Let crop residues rot in the field — it’s a climate win
Plant material that lies to rot in soil isn’t just valuable as compost. In fact, agricultural crop residue plays a crucial role in sequestering carbon, which is vital for reducing global CO2 emissions.
National
Angus Taylor appoints founding chair of major gas and oil producer to clean energy regulator
Environment minister Angus Taylor names former Quadrant Energy boss Katherine Vidgen a member of the body supporting Australia’s emissions reduction goals
100pc renewables by 2025: Grid operator pushes clean energy revolution
Australia could be ready to lead the world and power its energy grid with 100 per cent renewables by 2025, the new head of the energy grid operator says.
Australians fight for the right to repair their phones and gadgets
Consumer advocates are pushing for Australia to adopt broad right-to-repair laws to give consumers choice around how and when they repair or replace their devices.
Kathy Ann Townsend and Dominique Potvin
When we opened a box supplied by museum curators, our research team audibly gasped. Inside was a huge Australian magpie nest from 2018.
Could bringing back its love song save one of Australia’s rarest songbirds? – Full Story podcast
The regent honeyeater is an endangered native Australian songbird, with only a few hundred left in the wild. A few years ago scientists noticed something odd – they were mimicking other birds, and unable to sing their own song. Environment reporter Graham Readfearn and Dr Joy Tripovich explain how this bird lost its song, and whether teaching it how to sing again could help save it from extinction
New AEMO boss wants Australian grids to handle 100 pct renewables by 2025
Giles Parkinson
The newly appointed head of the Australian Energy Market Operator says he wants the country’s main grids to be able to handle periods of 100 per cent renewable energy penetration by 2025.
Victoria
Rare frog could put brakes on East Gippsland mine plan [$]
A controversial $200 million mineral sands mine proposed for East Gippsland — which would generate hundreds of jobs — may be stalled over a rare species of frog.
Monash team boosts solar and wind generation forecast accuracy by 45%
Research led by Monash Uni says accuracy of wind and solar forecasts boosted by 45%.
Australia’s biggest wind farm finally obtains partial registration after long delay
Australia’s biggest wind farm finally obtains registration – at least for part of the project – after a long delay, and can now begin production.
New South Wales
Family of Aboriginal man who died in custody say Covid restrictions prevented them visiting him
Frank ‘Gud’ Coleman’s family and the Aboriginal Legal Service are demanding answers after his death in Sydney’s Long Bay jail
Snowy Hydro rejects modelling showing Kurri Kurri gas plant will lose $3b
Plans for the $600 million publicly-funded gas plant are facing fresh doubts as new modelling questions its profitability.
‘Throw the book at them’: Irrigators’ council wants crackdown on rule breakers
The peak irrigation body in NSW has endorsed a crackdown on irrigators who are breaking the rules, but claimed that only a handful of companies or individuals are at fault.
ACT
ANU Distributive Energy Resources Lab to power renewable energy research
More renewable technology will be able to be integrated into Australia’s energy grid, thanks to a new state-of-the-art laboratory in Canberra.
Queensland
Palaszczuk asks PM for more reef clean-up funding as UNESCO discusses ‘in-danger’ proposal
With a UNESCO committee set to discuss a proposal to declare the Great Barrier Reef “in danger”, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk asks Prime Minister Scott Morrison to match state funding on projects to improve reef water quality.
Recycling to become a boom industry in Queensland
Queensland is set to scale up its waste recycling infrastructure with an $80 million combined investment that will scale up, transform, and grow the state’s waste and recycling industries.
Australia to fly ambassadors to Great Barrier Reef ahead of ‘in danger’ list vote
Representatives from nine voting nations among guests on snorkelling trip as Morrison government lobbies against Unesco recommendation
‘Worse than not going’: Labor figures puzzled by secret mine visit [$]
Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese’s secret visit to a Queensland coalmine has confused Labor figures.
Paradise bulldozed: Straddie uproar over traditional owner’s brazen land clearing [$]
Legal proceedings could be launched against a Straddie traditional landholder after dozens of trees were inexplicably bulldozed.
Tasmania
Rosalie Woodruff calls out DPIPWE after 5000 animals culled by golf clubs
The Tasmanian Greens have teed off on the government after revelations were reported by The Examiner showing Tasmanian golf clubs had culled over 5000 animals since 2016.
Bulldozers should be removed from tailings dam site, the Greens say [$]
The state government needs to monitor mine lease to ensure machines are removed in the wake of Canberra’s tailings dam project ruling, the Greens say.
Order to keep cats indoors, nothing but left-wing stateism
Letters
I have noticed more left-wing police stateism from those insisting that domestic cats must be kept indoors for the duration of their natural life in case they breed or capture a bird.
Western Australia
World’s biggest green energy hub proposed for south coast of WA
The 15,000 square kilometre renewable energy hub planned for the south coast of Western Australia could produce up to 50 gigawatts of power.
Petroleum environmental planning guidance open for comment
The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) is seeking comment from stakeholders on the revised draft Guideline for the Development of Petroleum, Geothermal and Pipeline Environment Plans in Western Australia.
Adani says it wants kids to take climate action, while it grows fossil fuel empire
Adani says it wants kids to take personal responsibility for climate action, while new research shows the depth of its fossil fuel ambitions.
Polystyrene packaging is being phased out. Here’s how you can help alternatives gain traction
By the middle of next year, your online purchases could come wrapped in materials like wool as environmentally harmful plastic products like expanded polystyrene are phased out.
Air pollution exposure linked to poor academics in childhood
Children exposed to elevated levels of air pollution may be more likely to have poor inhibitory control during late childhood and poor academic skills in early adolescence, including spelling, reading comprehension, and math skills. Difficulty with inhibition in late childhood was found to be a precursor to later air pollution-related academic problems. Interventions that target inhibitory control might improve outcomes.
Childhood lead exposure may adversely affect adults’ personalities
A study sampled more than 1.5 million people in 269 U.S. counties and 37 European nations. Researchers found that those who grew up in areas with higher levels of atmospheric lead had less adaptive personalities in adulthood — lower levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness and higher levels of neuroticism.
Dire impacts downstream of Nile River dam: Study
The research forecasts water supply and economic risks as tensions mount over Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
Raze paradise to put in a biofuel crop? No, there are far better ways to tackle climate change
Michelle Lim
We all know action on climate change is urgently needed. But that doesn’t mean a forest should be razed to build a wind farm. Nor should vast fields of a single crop be grown year after year – reducing the number of other species that can live there – even if the plant is used to produce renewable bio-fuel.
How much renewables expansion is needed for a global green hydrogen economy?
Jason Deign
And is a massive wind and solar build-out of that scale even feasible?
7 billion trees outside forests in Africa reported for first time in new data survey
A data collection and analysis initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC) has revealed 7 billion trees outside forests for the first time, among other findings.
Global study reveals effectiveness of protected forests
Scientists have published a global study on the effectiveness of protected areas in preventing deforestation. The study explored the success of country-level protected areas at reducing forest loss, and used machine learning to uncover some of the factors that contribute to differences in effectiveness.
Is New Zealand losing or gaining native forests?
Sebastian Leuzinger
New Zealanders have planted just over a quarter of a billion trees, about half of it native species, as part of an effort to increase carbon storage.
—
return email, delete it from your system and destroy any copies.