Post of the Day
Greens and climate independents: a true test of this country’s political carrying capacity?
Mark Sawyer
The Australian Greens had the environmental vote sewn up. But the 2022 election may be the one where the tide went out for the party after 40 years of passion and picketing and manoeuvring. It may be the election where parliamentary activism on clean energy is entrusted instead to a breed of reassuring, female ‘’climate leaders’’ who better reflect the aspirations of middle Australia
On This Day
Nowruz – Persian New Year
Ecological Observance
Arbor Day – Belgium, Portugal and Lesotho
Climate Change
Heatwaves at both of Earth’s poles alarm climate scientists
Antarctic areas reach 40C above normal at same time as north pole regions hit 30C above usual levels
There’s a messaging battle right now over America’s energy future
Climate scientists and fossil fuel executives use the same terms when they talk about an energy transition. But they mean starkly different things.
What environmental racism looks like
“Economic justice, racial justice, environmental justice — all these things are connected.” Communities of color are disproportionately affected by negative climate impacts.
National
Budget $100m for green farmers [$]
The Morrison government will cut taxes for farmers who generate revenue from carbon credit and biodiversity programs in a bid to drive down emissions.
PM sends coal, arms to ‘power’ Ukraine [$]
Scott Morrison is sending coal and more arms to Ukraine as he warned Russia must pay a high price for its brutality.
Flooding victims ‘do not blame climate’ [$]
Just 11 per cent of people in flood-struck Brisbane, northern NSW and western Sydney blame climate change for soaring home insurance costs, a survey shows.
Demand for electric and hybrid vehicles is at an all-time high. Why aren’t more on the roads?
Sales of electric vehicles in Australia have almost tripled in the past year and carsales.com.au is reporting a surge in searches for EVs since the start of 2022.
Recycling Modernisation Fund boost will focus on hard-to-recycle plastics as carbon credit tax cuts aim to encourage farmers to cut emissions
At last election, just one of 71 Coalition promises worth $100m or more based on approved business case, says Grattan Institute
Chemical from tyres linked to mass salmon deaths in US found in Australia for first time
Scientists find 6PPD-quinone in Queensland creek and call for urgent research to see if local aquatic life was harmed
Brown: Morrison soft on Russian wood imports
Bob Brown Foundation is raising grave concerns about the Australian government’s ‘selective’ sanctions after the logging industry has revealed timber importers want the Morrison government to go easy on sanctions that would affect wood imports.
Woodside contradicts CSIRO report debunking key climate claims
Australia’s largest energy producer Woodside continued to claim that gas produced from its biggest gas project would reduce global emissions despite the claim being undermined in research commissioned by the national science agency.
Cats and foxes kill almost 7 million animals every day in Australia
Kylie McKendry loves cats, but she doesn’t want her six-year-old chocolate Burmese cat, Marla, to bring home any injured or dead wildlife. Instead, McKendry has installed an outdoor enclosure that her cat roams around.
Carbon credit crunch sees some companies cash in on a multi-billion-dollar public windfall
Private companies are set to receive a multi-billion-dollar windfall, after being allowed to break long-standing government supply contracts to cash in on a booming carbon credit market.
Environment laws inefficient, failing to protect threatened species, audit finds [$]
Kishor Napier-Raman
The ANAO report found that environment administration was failing Australia’s unique, threatened wildlife.
Environment: Emissions rising and no green recovery visible
Peter Sainsbury
Despite endorsing the IPCC’s findings, and rising emissions, Morrison still supports coal development.
Angus Taylor’s $3.5 billion carbon blunder [$]
Mike Seccombe
A decision by Angus Taylor to open up the market for carbon credits has made it cheaper for companies to pollute and has transferred billions in value to the private sector.
Growing economy’s fiscal dividend cuts nation’s debt [$]
Australian editorial
Cost-of-living help must be targeted, proportionate and temporary.
Saturday Paper editorial
The original judgement was described as novel but only by lawyers. To anyone else it seemed self-evident that a minister should consider the wellbeing of children when making her decisions.
Putin’s action a wake-up call on managing activists [$]
Nick Cater
Energy security must become the goal that trumps every other consideration, since without it we will be unable to stand up to tyranny.
Putin, Xi profit from media’s climate myopia [$]
Chris Mitchell
Much of the Western world’s media is so tied up in environmental campaigning it can’t even see the trap many democracies are sleepwalking towards.
Tim Nelson and Joel Gilmore
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is happening half a planet away from Australia. But the ripple effects are plain to see at every petrol station and, potentially soon, your electricity bill.
Geoff Hanmer
Thirteen years ago, during the global financial crisis, Australia announced what became a A$16 billion program called Building the Education Revolution.
Greens and climate independents: a true test of this country’s political carrying capacity?
Mark Sawyer
The Australian Greens had the environmental vote sewn up. But the 2022 election may be the one where the tide went out for the party after 40 years of passion and picketing and manoeuvring. It may be the election where parliamentary activism on clean energy is entrusted instead to a breed of reassuring, female ‘’climate leaders’’ who better reflect the aspirations of middle Australia
Like the climate itself, climate denial is changing
Dave Milner
This week, Sussan Ley, the federal environment minister, successfully appealed against a high court ruling that found she had a duty of care to protect young people from environmental devastation.
Local child excited to know it’s only 3 more disasters till Christmas – satire
The Chaser
Scientists are inspired by her optimism in thinking it will only be three
The coal truck problem – cartoon
Kudelka
Locked, loaded and ready for anything – cartoon
Megan Herbert
Victoria
Council of war: how much should local government stray from roads, rates and rubbish?
Calls for Victorian councils to forego social issues and focus on their core business are misguided, say local government representatives
Fearful swans abandon their nests at start of duck-shooting season
Black swans have flown off, leaving their eggs behind, after being scared away by the sound of gunfire on the opening day of Victoria’s duck-hunting season.
Green groups worried new ‘unchecked powers’ will lead to more logging
The state government says it is changing forestry laws to make regulations clearer, but a host of environment groups fear the move will increase logging and pose a threat to vulnerable species.
Public transport patronage on rise as COVID fears ease
Melburnians are back on public transport in numbers not seen since the state of emergency was first declared, as experts weigh the risks of catching coronavirus in a carriage.
‘Bill shock’ warning after $155 gas price surge [$]
The cost of gas skyrocketed in 12 months, but a new report reveals cheaper deals could be out there — and how to snag a bigger saving.
Victoria short-changed on transport projects [$]
New analysis shows a glaring problem Victorians face when it comes to political parties making promises about transport projects at elections.
Anti-car council has made a mess of Melbourne [$]
Steve Price
A left-dominated council determined to ban cars has turned our city into an inaccessible jumble of useless bike lanes and jumbo-sized tram stops.
Victoria dudded by federal government on transport spending
Marion Terrill
The states that do better are Queensland and NSW – which just happen to be the states where federal elections are usually won and lost.
New South Wales
Households battling toxic mould after record rains [$]
Rain in Sydney has led to an outbreak of mould, particularly in cheaper rental properties, with profound and insidious impacts on health.
Plastic nest box innovation aiming to help species threatened by decline of natural tree hollows
The decline of natural tree hollows vital as habitat for wildlife has inspired innovators to make up for the shortage.
Most Sydney councils losing urban forest cover – how green is your neighbourhood?
More than half of Sydney’s councils have lost urban forest cover since 2013, as experts warn that suburbs lacking sufficient trees may become unliveable.
After the flood: Lismore’s future in doubt with 4000 homes uninhabitable
There are more than 4000 uninhabitable homes across NSW as people begin to wonder what to do amid the mammoth clean-up effort.
ACT
Bluetts Block battle underway as activists recruit for development debate [$]
The build up or out discussion looks set to continue, with a community campaign under way to prevent a site west of Stromlo from development.
Denser suburbs with the same bush capital character? A young Canberra architect says it’s achievable [$]
They are the streets that give Canberra its bush capital identity: generous blocks for suburban family homes with dappled sunshine through leafy, mature trees.
Queensland
‘It smells like money’: Would you use treated sewage to fertilise your crops?
A groundbreaking trial which started 20 years ago fertilising Queensland cotton farms with treated human sewage now has more than 100 farmers on its waiting list.
Great Barrier Reef hit with widespread and severe bleaching event
The Great Barrier Reef is being hit with a widespread and severe bleaching event, just three days before a UN delegation is due to arrive to assess the health of the world heritage area.
How the Singaporean Army may derail Clive Palmer’s precious coal mine plans
Goldman Sachs has called the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the biggest upheaval in commodities since 1973 and it has direct implications for Queensland’s biggest export – and climate change
South-east Queensland City Deal to deliver $1.8 billion in infrastructure
Details of south-east Queensland’s long-awaited City Deal between all three levels of government have finally been agreed, with the $1.8 billion infrastructure pact to be signed in Brisbane on Monday.
‘Flip the funding model’: Industry groups say flood recovery not enough
Two major industry groups are asking the Australian and Queensland governments to financially support flood mitigation projects in the Greater Brisbane region that have been proven to work since the 2011 floods.
What does a ‘once-in-100-year’ weather event actually mean?
After the recent floods in south-east Queensland were labelled a “one-in-100-year” event, another such natural disaster shouldn’t happen for another 99 years, right? Turns out, not so much.
Labor returned in South Australia landslide, but questions loom over hydrogen future
Giles Parkinson
Labor’s landslide win in South Australia, which saw energy minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan lose his seat, has implications for the grid leading world’s transition to renewables, and national policy.
SA election: call of the board
William Bowe
The finer points of Labor’s South Australian election win, and a closer look at the seats still in doubt.
Tasmania
Tassie tourism wild about parks ‘underfunding’ [$]
Tasmania’s tourist industry has demanded political parties commit to a massive boost to world heritage funding ahead of the federal election.
‘Greenies were the enemy’: Greens political movement marks 50 years
The Franklin Dam debate divided a state 40 years ago. It was a turning point in a political environment movement that is marking 50 years of impact far beyond its genesis in Tasmania.
‘Emotionally horrific’: Plea for more action to stop wedge-tailed eagle electrocutions
A raptor sanctuary operator wants more action to prevent endangered birds from being electrocuted on power lines, saying it is also taking an emotional toll on rescuers.
Public transport needed to ease pain of rising petrol prices
Media release – Josh Willie MLC, Shadow Minister for Transport
With petrol prices now over $2.30 a litre in some parts of the state the Gutwein Government must take immediate action to ease this cost of living pressure.
Northern Territory
Red tape on the agenda for parliament [$]
The Gunner government will enter sitting weeks with an agenda to cut red tape for businesses.
Western Australia
Broome’s dry, dusty plains have been transformed as rains arrive
Fish are jumping out of the water where cattle usually graze on the Roebuck Plains in the Kimberley, and thousands of birds, frogs and insects are teaming around the watery landscape.
After months of consultation with locals, plans for two marine parks off Christmas Island and Cocos Islands are set to proceed.
‘Cockatubes’ credited with threatened Carnaby’s cockatoo having best breeding season on record
A threatened cockatoo species is in decline, but a breeding ground north of Perth has had its best year on record, with an artificial breeding tube being credited for the success.
Perth’s summer sent previous heat records tumbling, leaving residents scrambling to adapt. And it is people on low incomes who do it the toughest when it gets hot.
Woolworths to stop selling reusable plastic bags [$]
WA is the first State where one of the big two supermarket chains will stop selling reusable plastic shopping bags.
Sustainability
Energy agency: 10 steps would save 2.7M barrels of oil a day
The Paris-based agency said in a report released Friday that “practical actions by governments and citizens” could significantly reduce oil demand.
Recycled plastic bottles leach more chemicals into drinks, review finds
More chemicals being released by reused plastic could indicate need for ‘super clean’ recycling process
South African court orders government to clean up air in coal belt
A South African court upheld a complaint by activists that poor air quality in the coal belt is a breach of constitutional rights, giving the environment minister a year to enforce a clean air plan drawn up a decade ago.
Chernobyl: Nuclear power plants weren’t built to survive wars
Military strategists commonly target the enemy’s electrical grids. That’s a problem when the combat is in a nuclearized country like Ukraine.
Unsettled – Another Monsanto Roundup case heads to trial
Monsanto argues jury should see evidence of company’s “good character”
Why we need to ‘electrify everything’ according to Saul Griffith
Australian American inventor Saul Griffith has a plan to combat climate change while creating millions of new jobs.
What to know about hydrogen in the fight to curb climate change
Proponents say hydrogen could be key in the fight to curb climate change. Others warn that using hydrogen as fuel could do the opposite.
Where should ships go when they die?
A pop-up vessel recycler in BC’s biggest shellfish production area draws attention to our lack of ship breaking regulations.
From fish waste to community wealth
A grassroots project in India is turning fish guts that once polluted beaches into a useful commodity.
Oregon is turning sewage into an endless supply of green energy
Converting poop into heat and electricity offers a tantalizing proposition: more waste equals more clean power.
Are Americans willing to risk nuclear war?
Nate Hagens
An important dialogue with Chuck Watson on why the U.S. public is naïve about nuclear war and how bad one could be.
Massive study shows urbanization drives adaptive evolution
A massive study on a tiny roadside weed shows urbanization is leading to adaptive evolution at a global scale. Scientists from 160 cities across six continents collected more than 110,000 samples of white clover plants in urban, suburban, and rural areas to study urbanization’s effects on the plants.
The livelihoods of thousands of fishermen remain uncertain due to a large crude-oil spill in Peru, in what has been categorised as the region’s “worst ecological disaster.”
Extend life of key climate sensor that maps world’s forests, Nasa told
Experts say the $150m project, due to be de-orbited next year, provides vital data on forests and the carbon stored in them
Journey yields sad truth about Earth’s oceans
Freshly returned from his journey, Reid Harlocker discusses the devastating amount of garbage and plastics he and his team observed while sailing the northern Pacific Ocean.
Can India clean up its holiest river? It will take a village
Ridding the Ganges of thousands of tons of plastic trash is a complex puzzle. India is starting to put the pieces together.
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