Post of the Day
Australia: Climate policy harms rights record
The Australian government’s failure to take ambitious climate action and its support for the fossil fuel industry contributes to the global climate crisis and mars the country’s human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022.
On This Day
Thai Pongal – Hinduism
Maghe Sankranti – Nepal
Feast of the Divina Pastora – Venezuela
Ecological Observance
National Forest Conservation Day – Thailand
Climate Change
Nearly quarter of world’s population had record hot year in 2021, data shows
Last year was sixth hottest ever recorded, scientists find
World ‘warmer now than at any time in the past 2,000 years’
Germany has to triple reduction of its climate pollution, new economy and climate minister says
For Germany to become climate neutral by 2045, it has to reduce the amount of its greenhouse gas emissions three times, which is a massive task, but also a great opportunity, according to Germany’s new Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
India’s net zero journey to 2070 – Steps taken so far and the path ahead
Manas Majumdar
The target has been set and the focus starts now in charting out the trajectory to that – we have our work cut out for us.
Inaction on global warming amounts to racism – let me tell you why
Elise Yarde
Because the global south is bearing the brunt of climate breakdown, it’s people of colour who are suffering most
Why our secret weapon against the climate crisis could be humour
Adam McKay and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
When it comes to climate change, we are all in the writers’ room right now, deciding how the story unfolds and how it ends. And that story can be funny, dire, hopeful or all of the above.
Federal Labor pledges climate resilience funding, Nationals pledge allegiance to coal
Pre-election campaigning hots up in Queensland, where the federal opposition leader has promised a new $200m a year fund to build climate resilience. The National’s, meanwhile, are all about coal.
‘We are custodians’: the fights to save Australia’s eroding beaches
‘Snaking conveyer belts of sand’ are easily disrupted by human activities. Fixing them is no easy task
Australia: Climate policy harms rights record
The Australian government’s failure to take ambitious climate action and its support for the fossil fuel industry contributes to the global climate crisis and mars the country’s human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022.
Australia is nuts in agreeing to adopt Net Zero
Brendan O’Reilly
The political choice now seems to be between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Zero CO2 emissions, almost by definition, is an impossible target.
Five traps for those arguing in favour of Big Australia [$]
Shamit Saggar
The sudden halt to immigration is one way in which the global public health emergency has impacted Australia.
Labor will get on with vital works Coalition has ignored [$]
Catherine King
It tells you everything you need to know about the Morrison-Joyce government’s approach to infrastructure development that the biggest complaint they can make about Labor’s commitment to nation-building infrastructure is that we are beginning with the planning phase.
Fire management in Australia has reached a crossroads and ‘business as usual’ won’t cut it
Rachael Helene Nolan et al
The current wet conditions delivered by La Niña may have caused widespread flooding, but they’ve also provided a reprieve from the threat of bushfires in southeastern Australia. This is an ideal time to consider how we prepare for the next bushfire season.
Victoria
Revealed: Number of power poles to be replaced [$]
A major Victorian electricity distributor has moved to prevent its power poles and lines from sparking fires.
New South Wales
Koala quest in Australia aims to find hidden population of marsupials deep in the bush
Scientists are aiming to determine whether the marsupials are hiding in one of the country’s best-known wilderness areas.
ACT
How do we plan for a million-person Canberra?
When Ginninderra Drive was opened in 1976, Canberra had a population of 208,000. In the 45 years since, our population has more than doubled to around 450,000. Although growth has slowed in the COVID era, our population could conceivably hit the 1 million mark 50 years from now. So, it is important to start thinking: what will a million-person Canberra look like?
Queensland
ACF to appeal decision to keep Toondah Harbour meeting documents hidden
The Australian Conservation Foundation will ask the Federal Court to overturn an Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision last month that kept under wraps details of meetings between a government department and a company that wants to build a high-rise apartment complex on sensitive wetlands at Toondah Harbour, near Brisbane.
‘Beautiful’ rainbow-like octopus sighted off major Queensland tourist destination
When marine biologist Jacinta Shackleton spotted a rare blanket octopus she couldn’t stop “screaming” into her snorkel. It’s only the fourth time the octopus has been sighted off Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef.
Queensland coal generator’s green hydrogen pivot pays off in Palau export deal
Japanesegovernment-backed project will transport renewable hydrogen produced in Queensland to the Republic of Palau, for use in fuel cells and hydrogen fuel cell vessels.
Tapped out: SEQ set for weeks of drinking water that tastes like dirt
If you think the water coming out of your kitchen tap has tasted a bit off lately, you’re not alone.
Toondah Harbour development heads back to court on appeal
Environmentalists will head to the Federal Court in a bid to unlock the secret discussions between the Federal Government and the developers of the controversial Toondah Harbour development at Cleveland.
University deal moves Brisbane space company closer to ‘green orbit’
Hypersonix has teamed up with the University of Sydney to investigate the manufacture of key parts of its hydrogen-powered space planes.
Tasmania
Tassie teen saves native animals from feral cat menace [$]
A 14-year-old Tassie ‘bush expert’ has been trapping feral cats around the state in order to save native animals from falling prey to the moggy menace.
People power culls overpass plans [$]
After a year of campaigning and worry, homeowners in the village of Leith have been told a controversial overpass – that would have claimed two properties – has been canned.
Northern Territory
Seagrass habitats more diverse and expansive than expected; survey reveals 13 January 2022
Vital seagrass habitat is more widespread and diverse than previously thought, according to new research that is surveying the habitats across Marra and Yanyuwa sea country.
Bushfire burning south of Yuendumu [$]
A large fire is currently active south of the Central Australian community of Yuendumu.
Western Australia
Top temperature at Onslow Airport WA’s hottest day on record, equal hottest ever in Australia
Oodnadatta in South Australia long held the title of recording the nation’s most sweltering temperature. That’s now been matched.
Sustainability
Is it a miracle material or just burnt wood? And what is biochar anyway?
Nature helps us cope with body image ‘threats’
Study first to show how natural environments keep negative feelings at bay
Tiny reactors could spark a ‘nuclear revolution’ to fight climate change
As the demand for energy rises, miniaturized nuclear power plants could be a climate-friendly new source. But some critics aren’t so sure.
These windows are see-through solar panels
What if solar panels weren’t just on the roof?
Berlin is planning a car-free area larger than Manhattan
The citizen-driven plan that the city is considering now would create the largest car-free area in a city anywhere in the world.
Reducing air pollution: Policies that pay off
Based on a study of the city of Grenoble (France), a multidisciplinary research team has drawn up various scenarios that would reduce the mortality caused by fine particles by two thirds over the entire conurbation, and has shown that the benefits obtained would exceed the costs of the policies implemented.
The speed by which electric vehicles have taken over Norway has stunned even the cars’ enthusiasts.
It’s the end of politics as we know it
Julian Cribb
Paralysis. Atrophy. Inertia. Perplexity. These terms describe the state of mind of governments around the world, grappling with an existential crisis they do not understand and whose course they appear impotent to change.
Increasing investment focus on companies’ green goals [$]
Glenda Korporaal
If there is a colour to mark the financial world of 2022, it is going to be green.
Plants at risk of extinction as climate crisis disrupts animal migration
Heating and habitat loss drive birds and mammals to cooler areas where plants can not follow, study shows
New study shows the toll industrial farming takes on bird diversity
A new study looking into the impacts that large industrial farming has on biodiversity found that increased farm size causes a decline in bird diversity.
World’s largest fish breeding area discovered in Antarctica
Near the Filchner Ice Shelf in the south of the Antarctic Weddell Sea, a research team has found the world’s largest fish breeding area known to date. A towed camera system photographed and filmed thousands of nests of icefish of the species Neopagetopsis ionah on the seabed.
Tiger shark migrations altered by climate change
New migration patterns leave sharks more vulnerable to fishing
New study shows the toll industrial farming takes on bird diversity
Researchers found that increased farm sizes resulted in a 15 per cent decline in bird diversity.
Bald eagle rebound stunted by poisoning from lead ammunition
A new study finds that despite increasing numbers of bald eagles, poisoning from eating dead carcasses or parts contaminated by lead shot has reduced population growth by 4% to 6% annually in the Northeast.
An Amazon defender stands up for her land and her people
Amazon Indigenous leader Juma Xipaia has fought against massive dam projects and the incursion of illegal loggers and miners onto her community’s lands. She explains why what’s at stake is the survival of her people and their millennia-old way of life.
Deciding when to stop learning and take action is a common, but difficult decision in conservation. Using a new method, developed by researchers at The University of Queensland, The University of British Columbia and CSIRO (Australia’s national science agency), this trade-off can be managed by determining the amount of time to spend on research at the outset.
Drop in rain forest productivity could speed future climate change
Tropical forests host a rich diversity of plant and animal life and process vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Therefore, researchers have been particularly interested in how these ecosystems might be affected by climate change.
What to expect from the world′s sixth mass extinction
Humans alive today are witnessing the beginning of the first mass extinction in 65 million years. What does biodiversity loss mean for us and the environment?
Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations globally affect photosynthesis of peat-forming mosses
Scientists at Umeå University, Sweden, and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have developed ways to decipher effects of the CO2 rise during the past 100 years on metabolic fluxes of the key plant species in peatlands, mosses.
Forest conservation policies must safeguard indigenous peoples’ rights, researchers urge
Global policy commitments on conservation such as the recent COP 26 declaration on Forest and Land Use are a step in the right direction but policy-makers must be inclusive of indigenous peoples and ensure that any initiatives learn from the long and problematic history of forest conservation, argues an international consortium of indigenous scholar activists and social, cultural, environmental, and behavioural scientists
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