Post of the Day
Australia’s R&D spend too low to fund future climate change technology breakthroughs: experts
Australia’s scientific triumphs have a hard time entering the nation’s folklore. It may be why the passivated emitter and rear cell, or PERC, isn’t as widely celebrated as it should be.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
Egypt will host COP27. Expect criticism over fossil fuels, human rights
Egypt is the largest oil producer in Africa outside OPEC.
How to repair the world’s broken carbon offset markets
Markets that connect businesses hoping to offset their carbon emissions with climate change mitigation projects have been plagued by problems. But an economist and his co-authors argue that carbon markets can be reformed.
Hope old and new: COP26 focused on two largely unsung climate solutions
Indigenous stewardship of 960 million hectares of ancestral lands; along with rapid research and application of new methane removal technologies, could help curb global warming — if both approaches are fully backed by nations.
Health care and the UN climate talks
Some 50 nations committed at the recently closed UN climate talks to clean up the healthcare sector, but the most viral stories from the conference may surprise you.
“Earthshine” from the Moon shows our planet is dimming, intensifying global warming
Earth’s brightness, as seen from space, has dropped significantly over the past two decades. When the planet reflects less light, more sunlight reaches the ground and the sea, warming the atmosphere. A natural rise in Pacific Ocean temperatures in 2015-2017 made Earth even dimmer by reducing bright clouds over the western Americas, a new study concludes.
Antarctic ice sheet changed alarmingly quickly in past – and may be happening again now
Patterns of rapid ice loss in the past could predict style of future Antarctic ice sheet retreat.
Ocean scientists call for global tracking of oxygen loss that causes dead zones
Scientists from six continents say a monitoring system could help protect coral reefs and fisheries around the world
COP26 media-spin is a woke love-in to save the planet
Charles Essery
They will expect us to subsidise their: NZE carbon offset airline tickets; Tesla electric cars; the free infrastructure and electricity to charge them and; solar panels/batteries.
The moral case for destroying fossil fuel infrastructure
Andreas Malm
If someone has planted a time bomb in your home, you are entitled to dismantle it. The same applies to our planet
Climate extremists leave us feeling dazed and confused [$]
Greg Craven
Both sides of this polarising debate need to calm their farm and focus on the practicalities.
Treasury says Australia must engage with global shift to sustainable finance
Australia’s most senior treasury offical warns Australia must remain engaged in global shift to sustainable finance, whether it likes it or not.
Frustration as key energy market proposals delayed for another 18 months
AEMC delays consideration of operating reserve proposals as ESB hangs on to idea of capacity markets.
Australian researchers close in on low cost solar hydrogen tech, with no electrolysers
Australian researchers make crucial advance towards low cost, high efficiency, direct solar-to-hydrogen production, without the need for electrolysers.
Take on EVs? What Australia can learn from Norway and 80s synth-pop band A-ha
Norway is leading the world in EV adoption, while Australia seems stuck in first gear. How can we catch up?
Aussie forest industries can do more to fight climate change through increased bioenergy production
Australia’s potential as a bioenergy powerhouse has been unveiled in the Australian Renewable Agency’s (ARENA) Bioenergy Roadmap, which recognises the potential of industrial heat in Australia’s future renewable energy mix.
Creating sustainable Australian chemical manufacturing industry
A new Australian Research Council (ARC) Training Centre is leading the way in advanced manufacturing for the chemical industry – for the commercialisation and adoption of safer and more sustainable technologies and novel chemical products.
Australia open to charges of climate hypocrisy, says Julie Bishop
Australia risks not only fracturing relationships over climate but rendering itself mute and hypocritical in the all-important global debate.
Australia’s R&D spend too low to fund future climate change technology breakthroughs: experts
Australia’s scientific triumphs have a hard time entering the nation’s folklore. It may be why the passivated emitter and rear cell, or PERC, isn’t as widely celebrated as it should be.
Coal-killing fund to start buying power stations next year [$]
A plan to buy and prematurely shut the Asian coal-fired power stations that are driving demand for Australian coal could make its acquisition next year.
I’m tackling climate change for our kids, for sport and for the planet
Tom Hickey
One of my former teammates once dubbed me the “Eco Ruckman”, because I hassled everyone about using keep cups and separating their rubbish into the right bins. I wore the title with pride.
Elizabeth Farrelly
They lived on a dirt floor in Vietnam while pursuing thier dream to change the world, but now investors are beating a path to the door of Lyndal Hugo and her wife Amanda Cornelissen.
Scotty the school captain is out of his depth
Sam Leckie
Australia is lagging behind significantly where climate policy and action is concerned, and high school level leadership just won’t cut it anymore.
AFL hypocrisy over climate change hard to stomach [$]
Steve Price
Woke virtue signalling on issues such as climate change has no place in footy and smacks of hypocrisy. The Tigers, AFL and sport in general have gone mad.
Climate critical to Labor’s election hopes [$]
Jacob Greber
The focus this week has been on the Morrison government’s flimsy climate plan, but it’s what Labor does next that matters now.
Australia turned Glasgow into fossil fuel ‘coffee shop’ [$]
Tim Flannery
At ‘humanity’s last chance’ Australia was notorious for the prevalence of its talks and displays supporting fossil fuels.
Australia’s climate change interference [$]
Mike Seccombe
Beyond its efforts to frustrate action at the Glasgow climate summit, Australia has been using international forums to ensure there will still be foreign funding for fossil fuel projects.
Victoria solar rebate delivers an extra 1GW of rooftop installations
Victorian government’s Solar Homes program notches up new milestone, with the rooftop solar capacity installed under the scheme passing 1 gigawatt.
The assault, by stealth, on Melbourne’s suburbs
Michael Buxton
The Victorian government has almost finalised a suite of new powers to impose major projects and higher-density development onto large sections of Melbourne.
NSW clears $3 billion Hydrogen Strategy through parliament
The NSW Hydrogen Strategy wins parliamentary approval, unlocking up to $3 billion in government incentives to build out the green hydrogen industry.
High country brumby debate rages on
Wild horse numbers throughout Kosciuszko National Park are estimated at more than 14,000.
National parks to receive $91 million funding boost amid new bill controversy
As the NSW government moves to unveil a record funding boost for national parks amid a visitor swell, activists and MPs have criticised a new bill that could shift how the parks are managed.
‘Bike boom’: National parks to welcome cyclists
Cycling in national parks has gain popularity over the years, prompting the NSW Government to draft a new strategy to build a network of trails suitable for biking.
ACT
Feeling exo-anxiety in the jungle capital [$]
Ian Warden
My garden’s usually manageable hollyhocks are this spring so freakishly soaringly tall they are a danger to aviation. My normally only single-flower-headed artichokes are suddenly become herbaceous gargoyle hydras, each bristling with nine ugly flower heads.
Queensland
From fashion back to farm: Trial spreads unwanted cotton clothing back on paddocks
What if unwanted cotton clothing could be ploughed back into cotton farms instead of clogging up landfill where it is an environmental catastrophe?
QRC welcomes third basin plan to support gas-fired recovery
The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has welcomed the release of the Australian Government’s basin plan for the Cooper and Adavale basins to support Australia’s gas-fired recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Australia
‘Get off our grass’: Good old Adelaide’s word on parklands war [$]
A roll-call of Adelaide’s most prominent citizens has joined forces to speak out against plan to plonk buildings on Adelaide’s parklands.
Tasmania
It’s been a very wet spring in Hobart, but water restrictions could be next
The garden is groaning and the kids are cranky after what seems like non-stop spring rain, but water restrictions could be ahead for southern Tasmania because ageing water treatment systems can’t keep up.
Western Australia
2021 Western Australia Landcare Awards celebrate outstanding landcare champions
Winning landcare projects were announced yesterday at the 2021 Western Australia Landcare Awards at the Kalamunda Community Centre, where community landcarers from across the state came together to celebrate their impressive achievements.
Unfair access to energy plaguing solar uptake in schools
After an announcement yesterday, Western Australian schools are now able to apply for grants for the McGowan government’s $44.6 million Schools Clean Energy Technology package.
The radical plan to ‘green’ iconic Perth precincts – and how it could still become a reality
Former Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi’s 2010 vision could have positioned Perth as a world leader in sustainability and greening solutions, as these concepts show.
Juukan Gorge: an avoidable disaster that must never happen again
Ernst Willheim
The destruction of sacred Aboriginal sites by Rio Tinto was an egregious example of how heritage protection laws have sh…
Sustainability
Bill Gates’ vision for next-generation nuclear power in Wyoming coal country
An innovative reactor could help slow climate change and bring employment to the struggling coal town selected for the project this week, if it works.
Phthalates’ regulatory standards may not protect people’s health, new study
“Safe” limits on human exposure to phthalates set by national and international regulatory authorities may not adequately protect public health, according to a new analysis published in the journal Environmental Health on Monday.
What was fashion doing at COP26?
Trading buzzwords, talking circularity and grappling with the role of clothes in the climate crisis.
Despite dirty air, India struggles to move on from coal
Choked in toxic smog, New Delhi has shut down schools and workplaces. Though nations pledged to move away from coal at the UN climate summit, India is reluctant to replace the polluting fuel source.
‘Gas station in space’: new plan to make rocket fuel from junk in Earth’s orbit
Australian company joins global effort to recycle dangerous space debris
Cement is responsible for 8% of global emissions, but there’s a fix
A new startup, backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is producing the ubiquitous building material in a way that doesn’t release huge amounts of CO2.
Yes, plant-based meat is better for fighting climate change
Animal agriculture contributes around 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions, and experts agree that without a major shift away from meat in our diets, we won’t be able to meet the global community’s climate targets.
Climate change could leave millions of miles of US roads ‘inoperable’ in 30 years
How safe is your street from flooding? A new national study looked at every road in America to figure out if climate-change related flooding may make a road impassable in the coming years – and it found millions of miles of roads will be affected in both coastal and inland counties.
Speaking of Water: “How do we consider mass resettlement of the world population?”
Human civilization is moving and with climate change and shifting water supplies, we face the greatest migration in human history. What’s that mean for nations and communities today? Author Parag Khanna discusses his new book.
Natural steps such as planting trees can fight climate change
Stephen Perkins
If you’re concerned about climate change and its effect on our state, the power to make a difference is in your hands. Federal legislation and advocacy is important, but it’s equally important — or more so — to remind ourselves what we are fighting for.
Will Iván Duque protect environmental defenders?
Blanca Lucía Echeverry, Andrew Miller
Colombia’s president wants to convince the world he is a champion for the environment. But his country is deadly for those guarding the rainforest.
A winter energy crisis looms for Europe as Putin tightens his grip
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Europe’s energy crunch has returned with a winter vengeance. We are back to warnings of power rationing and industrial stoppage, a looming disaster for the European Commission and the British government alike.
It will take more than a Green New Deal to save a planet in peril
Ted Trainer
As the climate crisis worsens, some progressives have seized on a way to save capitalism from itself. But that task is impossible.
Gabon is the last bastion of endangered African forest elephants
African forest elephants are critically endangered, but a new study has found that the heavily forested central African nation of Gabon is a last stronghold, with 95,000 animals identified.
A deadly disease is wiping out coral in Florida and the Caribbean
A silent killer is spreading throughout the waters of the Caribbean. Known as stony coral tissue loss disease, it afflicts at least 22 species, including some of the largest, oldest, and most important reef-building corals.
Europe’s butterflies are vanishing as small farms disappear
Industrial farms and abandoned ones are both bad for butterflies. Researchers in Spain are trying to combat the trend, one “micro-reserve” at a time.
Monarch butterflies return to California after a year of record low numbers
Though it’s not a full recovery, scientists are optimistic.
Deforestation in the Amazon hits 15-year high as illegal logging continues
A new report undermines Brazilian government claims it’s curbing illegal logging in the Amazon, suggesting deforestation has jumped by almost a quarter.
Sunday is World Fisheries Day; it is a day for us to think about how important the ocean and our fisheries resources are to the world’s food supply, economies and the health of our environment.
The Guardian view on urban rewilding: when nature takes over
Guardian editorial
The plan to turn a Derby park over to wildlife is a sign that the messages about the benefits of biodiversity are getting through
Dana M Bergstrom and Shavawn Donoghue
We tend to think Antarctica is isolated and far away – biologically speaking, this is true. But the continent is busier than you probably imagine, with many national programs and tourist operators crisscrossing the globe to get there.
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