https://m.dw.com/en/conflict-and-climate-change-drive-water-crisis-in-syria/a-59999269
Date: 15 December 2021 at 8:56:37 am AEDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Dec 15
Post of the Day
Productivity Commission calls for new public transport fares and fees on cars
A discussion paper on the future of public transport has called for changes including higher peak fares, while supporting congestion charges and higher parking costs.
On This Day
Climate Change
Crucial Antarctic ice shelf could fail within five years, scientists say
Scientists have discovered a series of worrying weaknesses in the ice shelf holding back one of Antarctica’s most dangerous glaciers, suggesting that this important buttress against sea level rise could shatter within the next three to five years.
‘2.4C is a death sentence’: Vanessa Nakate’s fight for the forgotten countries of the climate crisis
She started a youth strike in Uganda – then just kept going. She discusses climate justice, reparations, imperialism and why the global north must take responsibility.
National
The east coast is sodden, towns have gone under and summer has only just started. But it will take a lot to beat the wettest summers.
How renters can benefit from solar power — no roof required
One-third of households are locked out of installing solar panels on their rooftop. Is buying a “plot” in a community “solar garden” a way to access cheaper renewable energy and lower your power bills?
Climate group backing independents hits back at Coalition calls to dob them in under donor rules
Liberals ‘impinging’ privacy of charity donors after demanding privacy for those who part-paid Christian Porter’s legal fees, says Simon Holmes à Court
Productivity Commission calls for new public transport fares and fees on cars
A discussion paper on the future of public transport has called for changes including higher peak fares, while supporting congestion charges and higher parking costs.
Reprieve for solar industry as inverter issue fixed for now [$]
The solar industry, which faced a virtual shutdown due to a red tape issue with inverter accreditation, has won a reprieve from state regulators.
Macquarie trains sights on green hydrogen [$]
The Green Investment Group has launched a 50-50 joint venture with a Dutch chemicals producer to develop renewables-based hydrogen at industrial scale.
States and federal government to streamline charities rules [$]
Ending costly regulation on the charitable and non-profit sector could save costs of as much as $13.3 million a year.
Union fury over cracked wind turbines [$]
Cracks have been found in wind turbines imported from China for Australia’s largest wind farm.
Victoria
‘Advice’, ‘Watch and Act’, ‘Emergency Warning’: Victoria adopts national warning system
Victoria has become the first state to adopt the new national emergency warning system, following a recommendation by the royal commission into the Black Summer fires.
Timber harvester wants logging phase out reversed [$]
Thousands of Australian guitars will no longer be made from Victoria’s native forest timbers, sparking an Otway supplier to start a petition.
New South Wales
Kerry Schott to head NSW climate change advisory board
Former Energy Security Board chair and Sydney Water chief executive Kerry Schott has been appointed chair of the NSW advisory body on climate change more than eight months after Malcolm Turnbull was controversially dumped from the role.
Temperatures to soar across NSW, bringing elevated bushfire risk
A hot summer blast will see temperatures soar across NSW and raise the bushfire concern as the country braces itself for the hottest week this summer.
Investors seek huge profits from MDB water market [$]
An offshore fund is urging investors to pour millions into the Murray Darling Basin’s water markets, pushing entitlement prices up by 53 per cent.
ACT
Neoen begin construction on 100MW Capital Battery in Jerrabomberra
Early work on Canberra’s Capital Battery project began on Tuesday with site preparation under way for the construction of the 100 megawatt large-scale battery.
Productivity report shows ACT ranks among worst in public transport costs
Ticket sales for public transport in the ACT are covering less of the operational costs compared to other major states, a new report has revealed.
Queensland
Drinking Qld dry? Dams dangerously low even as rain records fall [$]
A month of record rainfalls in southern Queensland has not translated to full dams, raising questions about whether the state’s population is growing to big for existing water supplies.
South Australia
Steeling for a renewable future
Whyalla is banking on the emerging hydrogen and renewable energy industries to turn around its declining population and help it reclaim the mantle of the state’s second largest city.
South Australia adds another wind farm as it moves towards 100 pct renewables
Second stage of what will be the biggest wind farm in South Australia – at least for a time – has begun sending power to the grid.
A flying start on future transport options
Mirjam Wiedemann
Air taxis could revolutionise transport and help revitalise SA regions.
Tasmania
Brushy Rivulet not the magic pudding!
Media release – Concerned Residents Opposed to the Westbury Prison Site
The eight former Tasmanian Government botanists, zoologists, ecologists and forestry researchers who sent a report detailing the importance of the Brushy Rivulet Crown Reserve from a conservation perspective to Premier Peter Gutwein recently, cannot be ignored.
Campfire restrictions for national parks & reserves
Media release – Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service
The Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) will be putting in place campfire restrictions from 2am on 18 December 2021 until further notice.
Northern Territory
‘Cutting-edge’ project to extract water from air in the outback. But is it safe?
A small town in the Territory outback will play host to a new technology that sucks water from the atmosphere to create hydrogen – and the government is backing it with action.
Calls by NT’s sacred sites authority to reassess NT’s biggest ever water licence
In a letter obtained by the ABC, the head of Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority says the body is “concerned” about the impact the NT’s largest groundwater licence has on more than 90 sacred sites, but it could be three years before the request is reviewed.
‘It makes us sick’: remote NT community wants answers about uranium in its water supply – podcast
Laramba’s Indigenous residents fear they are at risk of long-term illness and say they need to know who is responsible for fixing the problem. Features editor, Lucy Clark, introduces this story about contaminated drinking water
Western Australia
Decade-long plan for sea turtle and dugong conservation launched in the Kimberley
The Indigenous Salt Water Advisory Group (ISWAG) have launched a 10-year-plan for turtle and dugong conservation. The plan has been created and will be led by Indigenous saltwater managers across the Kimberley region.
Australian firm signs off on designs for $10.7bn green hydrogen project in Pilbara
Developer says it has signed off on designs for a $10.7 billion green hydrogen facility in Karratha, starts search for investors.
Rockingham renews energy commitment [$]
Taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint, the City of Rockingham has joined the Western Australian Local Government Association’s sustainable energy procurement program.
Woodside to invest billions into emerging energy [$]
Gas giant Woodside has revealed plans at its annual investors update to invest $7 billion in emerging energy markets.
Andrew Forrest’s big challenge: convince Fortescue shareholders to go green [$]
If there’s one thing that’s raised the hackles of long-term Fortescue Metals Group investors it is the slick marketing campaign run by its green energy subsidiary.
Sustainability
China, India solve local coal supply, but seaborne prices stay high
The two Asian countries are the world’s largest producers, consumers and importers of coal and their domestic dynamics tend to drive the seaborne market for the polluting fuel.
Plastic-degrading enzymes increasing in correlation with pollution
The number of microbial enzymes with the ability to degrade plastic is growing, in correlation with local levels of plastic pollution. That is the finding of a new study from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, that measured samples of environmental DNA from around the globe.
Conflict and climate change drive water crisis in Syria
Northeastern Syria is experiencing its worst drought in nearly 70 years, with rising temperatures and erratic weather exacerbated by tensions with Turkey.
Germany approves billions for climate, modernization fund
The German government on Monday approved 60 billion euros ($68 billion) in funding to be used for combating climate change and modernizing the country, a move that the new finance minister described as a “booster” for Europe’s biggest economy.
Climate change agricultural impacts to heighten inequality: Study
The largest and most accurate set of simulations done to date project dramatic crop productivity declines for low-latitude staples like corn in the next ten years and through 2100.
Elon Musk has been named Time magazine’s 2021 ‘Person of the Year’
Time editors have previously defined the title as recognising people who “embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse”.
Nuclear waste excavation plan in Armstrong County promises to add jobs
In Armstrong County, 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, a nuclear waste dump has sat for decades, waiting to be removed from underground trenches.
‘What is pollution?’ How bad air and neglect is slowly killing our children
Oblivious to how pollution was harming them or even what it is, these children continue to live on the roads of Delhi with their faces covered in dirt and eyes blinded with smoke from passing vehicles.
Our fractured state of nature: environment, emancipation, economy – video
Christopher Watkin
This paper argues that there are two contradictory modern Western understandings of nature, vividly captured in the social contract theories of Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau respectively.
Why it’s vital to put people at the heart of the energy transition
Hedda Ransan-Cooper
Before stopping to ask people what sort of energy system they would like, the industry is moving forward with a technology vision that risks leaving many people behind.
How we can use the law to make the fashion industry fairer to women and the earth
Mark Liu and Ramona Vijeyarasa
In March 1911, in a garment factory in Manhattan, over 100 people, mostly Jewish and Italian women migrants, some as young as 14, were trapped inside and died as the factory burnt to the floor. Management had locked the doors.
Sri Lanka takes steps to prevent mass scale marine pollution
The Sri Lankan government has taken steps to prevent mass scale marine pollution similar to the massive environment and marine pollution caused by the inferno aboard the cargo ships Express Pearl and New Diamond in Sri Lanka waters.
Ask a DNA expert: What would it take to bring back the dinosaurs?
Scientists have cloned an endangered species. Some wonder if there could be a real-life Jurassic Park.
Sadiq Khan leads ambitious plans to rewild Hyde Park
London mayor releases £600,000 funding to help create green rooftops and reintroduce lost species
Plastic straw ban not helped improve ocean environmental health
The little plastic tubes with which we have traditionally – and quite efficaciously – sipped our drinks are ending up in the oceans, polluting the environment and causing horrific damage to beautiful and vulnerable creatures like sea turtles.
Banned decades ago, PCBs still posing threat to wildlife
The presence of PCBs on a lake in the shadow of the White Mountains demonstrates how heat-resistant chemicals once used widely in electrical equipment and other industrial applications continue to pose a threat to wildlife more than four decades after being banned in the United States.
Trees get sunburnt too – but there are easy ways to protect them, from tree ‘sunscreen’ to hydration
Gregory Moore
We all know how hot and damaging the summer sun can be in Australia and most of us are only too willing to take sensible precautions, and slop on sunscreen.
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