Post of the Day
The facts we need to face if Australia’s coastal towns are to survive devastation
Harry Creamer
Climate is changing rainfall, so we need to build to withstand more destructive floods.
On This Day
Saint David’s Day – Wales
Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) – Christianity
Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday? – video
MahaShivaratri – Hinduism
Lailat al Miraj – Islam
Ecological Observance
Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day – Marshall Islands
National Horse Protection Day – USA
National Pig Day – USA
National Invasive Species Awareness Week – USA
Climate Change
‘Managed retreat’ from coastal living could soon be reality, climate report warns
The world’s scientists declare climate change is now a threat to human wellbeing, warning we are about to miss the window to “secure a liveable and sustainable future for all”.
Climate change is expected to hit heritage sites across Africa
Climate change is poised to impact not just our present but our history as well. According to the IUCN, climate change has now become “the most prevalent threat” to heritage sites around the world.
United Nations climate change report reveals how much can still be saved
Drawing on the IPCC findings and analysis from outside experts, The Washington Post envisioned how three locations around the globe could be transformed depending on humanity’s emissions trajectory over the next 80 years.
Climate finance for poor countries is woefully short
Wealthy countries pledged $100 billion a year to help poorer countries adapt to climate change. They’ve broken that promise—and the costs of climate change are only growing.
5 things you need know about new IPCC WG2 report
Greenpeace
Here’s the 5 key takeaways we think you should know about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.
Mark Howden et al
Even if we manage to stop the planet warming beyond 1.5℃ this century, we will still see profound impacts to billions of people on every continent and in every sector, and the window to adapt is narrowing quickly. These are among the disturbing findings of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The IPCC climate report is grim – but there is still room for hope
Alice Bell
There is only a small window in which to mitigate the worst effects. So make a change now, and make it one you can stick to
‘We can’t wait to fix this’: Why the latest IPCC report should spur action
Greg Mullins and Lesley Hughes
In some ways, this latest report says much the same thing as the last report. The difference is that the impacts are happening even faster now.
Missiles, not emissions, the hotter threat [$]
Adam Creighton
The horrific events of the past week should be a wake-up call. Climate change is far from the greatest challenge facing the world, especially liberal democracies
Meet Rollie Williams, a climate comedian (yes, that’s a thing)
Mike Munsell
His YouTube channel Climate Town produces funny and informative videos tackling heavy topics.
National
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions: September 2021 quarterly update
Australia’s emissions continue to fall according to the latest Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
Renewable energy drives fall in Australia’s carbon pollution
Renewable electricity ensured Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions went down, but booming LNG exports and burping cows are a handbrake on further falls.
Australia risks ‘everything it values’
The Australian way of life could soon be at risk if greater action is not taken to stop one thing, according to a new report.
Shell grows green power business with Australian wind farms deal
Energy giant Shell is pushing deeper into Australia’s power market with a deal to buy a significant stake in wind-farm developer WestWind.
Rail key to Australia’s ‘green’ future: John Anderson [$]
Former deputy prime minister John Anderson says ‘rail offers environmental and social benefits that road so far cannot’ but governments are yet to see the light.
IPCC report finds global warming responsible for species’ extinction
Warming temperatures have caused mass mortality of plants and animals around the globe, including the first climate-driven extinction in Australia, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found.
Climate Group responds to latest IPCC Report
Helen Clarkson, CEO of non-profit Climate Group, said: “For those with any doubt, this report brings into focus the real world impacts of climate change. For many parts of our natural environment it is already too late, for many communities their lives have already been turned upside down. Support for them is non-negotiable. However, this is not an excuse to give up on delivering serious, systematic emissions cuts. This is bad, but it could get significantly worse.”
Brendan Mackey et al
Climatic trends, extreme conditions and sea level rise are already hitting many of Australia’s ecosystems, industries and cities hard.
UN warns Australia in danger of increased wildfires
Sue Arnold
Australia can expect an increase in catastrophic wildfires according to a recently released UN report.
Rising stakes in the battle for clean energy
Peter Boyer
February was a month for shocks, at home and abroad, but no real surprises. Like rubber bands stretched to breaking point, signs of approaching disruption were always there.
The facts we need to face if Australia’s coastal towns are to survive devastation
Harry Creamer
Climate is changing rainfall, so we need to build to withstand more destructive floods.
IPCC exposes Morrison government’s catastrophic failures on climate
Michael Mazengarb
The IPCC has urged governments to be proactive in adapting to climate change, but Scott Morrison’s climate failures have left Australia vulnerable.
How Australian uranium ended up in war-torn Ukraine
Dave Sweeney
With war raging in Ukraine, Dave Sweeney looks at nuclear threats in the region, including a worrying Australian connection.
Vladimir Putin makes renewable energy security an urgent no-brainer
Paul Bongiorno
For more than a decade Vladimir Putin has been using the billions of dollars Russia has earned from its oil and gas exports to rebuild the nation’s military capacity.
Electricity supply cannot be left to the private players [$]
Judith Sloan
It’s an essential service and governments must be involved.
Drinking water can be a dangerous cocktail for people in flood areas
Ian Wright
Parts of south east Queensland and northern NSW have been experiencing what has been called a “rain bomb”. Despite the heavy falls, south eastern Queenslanders in Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and the Lockyer Valley have been asked to conserve drinking water.
Don’t go wading in flood water if you can help it. It’s health a risk for humans – and dogs too
Simon Reid
Floods are devastating communities in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales and have pushed emergency services to their limits.
How can I maximise opportunity from the federal election?
Neil Pharaoh
Neil Pharaoh and Rory Parker share a checklist of things to tick off to make sure your organisation is maximising your government engagement opportunities.
Victoria
‘Rightly angry’: Duck harvest bag limit cut [$]
Victorian duck hunters’ bag limits have been cut back to just four birds a day, well down on the legislated maximum of ten – and less than other states.
City of Melbourne offering up one dumb idea after another
Rita Panahi
One cannot overstate the sheer absurdity of City of Melbourne’s planning to introduce more bike paths as struggling traders plead for the opposite.
New South Wales
‘Unprecedented’ disaster hits north-eastern NSW, with fears for lives
A natural disaster of “unprecedented proportions” has wreaked havoc across north-eastern NSW, with hundreds still trapped or missing late on Monday and at least one man feared dead.
NSW gov’t attempt to privatise floodwaters refuted a third time
The NSW government’s third attempt to expand the privatisation of water has been averted.
New stormwater system installed to prevent 50 tonnes of pollution entering waterways each year
As part of its commitment to improving the health of the Parramatta River and conserving water, the City of Canada Bay has installed a top-of-the-range Gross Pollutant Trap (GPT) at Nullawarra Avenue in Concord.
A Juukan Gorge in NSW? NSW Planning supports Glencore coal mine expansion
Mining giant Glencore wants to expand open-cut coal mining in the Hunter Valley despite objections from the Plains Clan of the Wonnarua People and the New South Wales Heritage Council.
‘Ray of hope’: fresh doubt for controversial waste incinerator [$]
A draft ban of certain waste to energy tech in the Sydney basin has thrown a “dark cloud” over controversial plans to build a waste incinerator next to thousands of residents.
Kean ‘doesn’t know’ power station’s job losses [$]
Treasurer Matt Kean said he does not know how many people will lose their jobs after a grilling on the early closure of Australia’s largest coal fired power station.
Super battery will help coal power stations: Kean [$]
NSW Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean has hit back at federal minister Angus Taylor’s criticism of the state government’s planned Waratah super battery.
Council on Sydney’s fringe calls for halt to plans to create homes for up to 50,000 people
The project at Appin has been described as a solution to Sydney’s housing crisis, but locals are worried the government will rush through rezoning without delivering water and transport infrastructure.
Origin strikes out at News Corp misinformation and “woke cowboy capitalist” slur
Origin takes unusual step of slapping down Murdoch media claims it refused to sell Eraring in an article slamming “woke cowboy capitalists.”
Origin teams with Orica to propose Hunter green hydrogen hub
Origin and Orica consider a 55MW hydrogen electrolyser using recycled water sources and renewable electricity in NSW coal country.
Disaster planning must improve, to mitigate risk of future catastrophe
SMH editorial
Natural disasters continue to torment the people of NSW. But despite a spate of bushfires and floods, experts say our emergency strategies must change.
Eraring effect on future prices is a damning indictment of transmission planning
David Leitch
A huge wedge between electricity futures in the northern and southern NEM states suggests the market continues to see transmission constraints stuffing up prices.
ACT
Release Canberra’s heritage listing advice, nominator Dr Ed Wensing says
The ACT government is being disingenuous to suggest placing the city of Canberra on the national heritage list would limit the future development of the capital, one of the original nominators has said.
Queensland
Flow blow: Thousands of homes inundated, schools closed, highways cut
Thousands of homes have been swamped, pontoons and watercraft torn from their moorings, and schools and major roads blocked off as Queenslanders anxiously wait to see the extent of the damage caused by severe weather.
Wivenhoe Dam keeps Brisbane on knife’s edge [$]
The operator of Queensland’s Wivenhoe Dam will continue to release huge volumes of water into the swollen Brisbane River, extending the flood emergency.
South Australia
Planning mistakes ‘threaten state’s liveability’ [$]
Authorities are failing to deliver suburbs and communities that protect South Australia’s liveability a business leaders says as his organisation pushes for a new city plan.
City might hit the brakes on e-scooters [$]
E-scooters could be banned from certain parts of Adelaide as a way to protect rider and pedestrian safety, a new report to be tabled to council says.
New era of prosperity for Moomba thanks to CCS [$]
Kevin Gallagher
The carbon capture and storage project in Moomba is going to be world-leading and will bring the area great prosperity.
Tasmania
It awakened an environmental movement, but could it now be time to drain Lake Pedder?
The damming of a pristine alpine lake adorned by pink quartzite beach 50 years ago ignited some of the first big environmental protests in Australia, but some say it is not too late to restore the lake to its former glory.
Crumb rubber funds expected to reduce Tasmanian tyre waste
The prospect of Tasmania gaining a tyre recycling facility has received a boost after the state government announced millions in funding to bolster the use of crumb rubber in the state.
Tasmanian hunters hold animal welfare concerns about government’s fallow deer management strategy
The head of a deer hunting advisory committee says he holds some animal welfare concerns regarding the government’s new five-year plan for fallow deer management.
Western Australia
Tim Winton says Australia’s climate change approach a ‘dumpster fire of business as usual’
Tim Winton is the latest Perth Festival artist to denounce Woodside’s Scarborough gas project in WA, as well as the fossil fuel company’s sponsorship of an arts festival event.
For the record books: Perth’s history-making summer
Perth and most of WA’s south have officially experienced their hottest summers on record, plagued with rolling power blackouts and fierce bushfires.
Sustainability
Russia has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons, but what does putting them on ‘high alert’ mean?
Russian President Vladimir Putin is talking about nuclear “deterrent forces” being on “high alert”. But what does that mean, and what does he have in his arsenal?
The 75th anniversary session of the Inland Transport Committee (ITC) concluded at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), after a week of forward progress in the fields of inland transport connectivity, road safety, accessibility, and sustainability.
Plastic labelling needs ‘sustainability scale’
Labelling of plastic products needs a drastic overhaul including a new “sustainability scale” to help consumers, researchers say.
A potential breakthrough for production of superior battery technology
Micro supercapacitors could revolutionise the way we use batteries by increasing their lifespan and enabling extremely fast charging. Manufacturers of everything from smartphones to electric cars are therefore investing heavily into research and development of these electronic components. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a method that represents a breakthrough for how such supercapacitors can be produced.
New, nature-inspired concepts for turning CO2 into clean fuels
Researchers have developed an efficient concept to turn carbon dioxide into clean, sustainable fuels, without any unwanted by-products or waste.
Accelerating bus electrification toward achieving carbon neutrality
Isuzu Motors Limited (Isuzu), Hino Motors, Ltd. (Hino), and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) announced today that they plan to strengthen their efforts to electrify buses toward the achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050.
Plastics could be creating a surge in waste-to-energy plants’ emissions
Incineration of plastics could be generating potent greenhouse gas emissions, but testing methods are not yet in place.
Metasurface-based antenna turns ambient radio waves into electric power
In Optical Materials Express, researchers report that lab tests of a new metasurface-based antenna that can harvest 100 microwatts of power, enough to power simple devices, from low power radio waves.
Hydrogels containing a hygroscopic salt can harvest freshwater from dry air
New, nature-inspired concepts for turning CO2 into clean fuels
Researchers have developed an efficient concept to turn carbon dioxide into clean, sustainable fuels, without any unwanted by-products or waste.
War heroes: How four women destroyed 1,200 tons of Syria’s poison gas
An obscure Defense Department team had nine months to make a stockpile of Syria’s chemical weapons disappear. In doing the impossible, they helped avert a global showdown and saved untold lives.
Russia’s Ukraine invasion raises questions about energy policy
Daniel Yergin, the author of several books about geopolitics and oil, talked with DealBook about the complicated relationship between renewable energy and energy security.
Chernobyl plant is unharmed despite Russian invasion of Ukraine, scientists say
The nation’s 15 operating reactors have also been assessed as safe — at least for the moment.
How AI could help bring a sustainable reckoning to hydropower
Dams wreak environmental and greenhouse gas havoc. Researchers are grappling with the task of making them environmentally sustainable.
New research points to Wuhan market as pandemic origin
Two new studies say the virus was present in animals at the Huanan seafood market in 2019.
Africa faces tough job not to become world’s plastic ‘dustbin’
What can be done to prevent Africa from becoming the world’s biggest dumping ground for plastic? That’s one of the big questions facing United Nations members at a stock-taking on Earth’s environmental woes.
Will advanced reactors solve nuclear’s problems? – Catalyst podcast
Startups are testing new technologies to solve the challenges facing conventional nuclear. Will they succeed?
As Putin puts nuclear forces on high alert, here are 5 genuine nuclear dangers for us all
Tanya Ogilvie-White
Russian president Vladimir Putin overnight ordered the defence minister and the chief of the military to put nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty”, possibly referring to readying tactical nuclear forces.
Vladimir Putin has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. But will he use it?
Stan Grant
Nuclear weapons were used against civilians when the US bombed Hiroshima in 1945. Could destruction on such an appalling scale happen again? Only Putin can answer that
Deforestation emissions far higher than previously thought, study finds
Carbon emissions from felling of tropical forest doubled in just two decades and are accelerating, research says
As of November, nine major mining companies considered key players in the extraction of rare metals for electric vehicle batteries had 225 active applications to expand operations into or near Indigenous territories in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.
US EPA renews effort to protect endangered species from pesticides
US EPA begins to take the issue seriously after years of litigation.
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