Post of the Day
Climate hope: Fueling local adaptation measures around the world
Laurie Stone
Another IPCC report, another round of climate gloom. The findings of the latest IPCC report, released in February, are bleak. The report states that climate change is happening faster than expected and stressed the urgent need to accelerate adaptation measures. The window to take action is closing fast, causing U.N. secretary-general António Guterres to emphasize that “delay means death.”
On This Day
Feast of the Annunciation – Western Christianity
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
We have less than ten years to avert catastrophe
Carbon dioxide emissions increased by almost 5% last year, meaning that the world now has a two-in-three chance of reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming over pre-industrial levels within the decade, according to a new study published in the online journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.
Five walks to save the world – how ‘psychogeography’ can help you confront the climate crisis
In the face of reports that the impacts of climate change are worse than expected, what on Earth can you do?
The new reality of climate chaos is upon us
Richard Hil
The climate criminals are, of course, seeking to cover their tracks.
Climate hope: Fueling local adaptation measures around the world
Laurie Stone
Another IPCC report, another round of climate gloom. The findings of the latest IPCC report, released in February, are bleak. The report states that climate change is happening faster than expected and stressed the urgent need to accelerate adaptation measures. The window to take action is closing fast, causing U.N. secretary-general António Guterres to emphasize that “delay means death.”
National
An easy way for government to cut emissions and reduce cost of living is sitting in your lounge room
Some of Australia’s energy standards for household appliances are out of date or missing completely. Updating them could save households money and massively reduce emissions over time.
Energy security fears fuel ‘extremely concerning’ oil and gas exploration
Analysts say mounting energy insecurity concerns and high prices are behind increased investment in domestic oil and gas projects, sparking fears among environmentalists.
Government invests in infinite plastic recycling technology
The Morrison Government is supporting a new plastic recycling technology to help deliver a cleaner, greener Australia through better waste management.
Australia’s carbon credit scheme could take years to recover from price plunge, analysts say
Report finds intervention by energy minister Angus Taylor led to ‘mountain of oversupply’ and many projects will now be paused
Emissions reduction fund under scrutiny: What does it mean?
Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund is facing allegations of serious mismanagement, with claims millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been paid out as carbon credits with no benefit to the environment.
Fossil fuel industry shaped carbon capture and storage rules: report
The federal government sidelined independent experts and consulted “almost exclusively” with fossil fuel companies and big emitters on rules making carbon capture and storage projects eligible for emissions reduction credits, a new report claims.
Don’t rush the energy transition, Woodside urges
Woodside’s CEO Meg O’Neill urged critics to see the progress made by the fossil fuel industry in reducing emissions.
Push for eastern seaboard truck corridor to go green with hydrogen
Australia’s busiest freight corridor will go green under a landmark collaboration between NSW, Victoria and Queensland to establish a renewable hydrogen refuelling network for heavy trucks
The huge technology leaps that will lead to global renewables based grid, and Australia’s key role
Global shift to electrification and renewables will require a series of technology milestones, and Australia will play a key role, new report says
It’s nonsense for Angus Taylor to suggest Australia could face an energy crisis like Europe’s
Adam Morton
Australia already has energy independence and extracts more gas than it needs to meet domestic demand. Indeed three-quarters is exported as LNG
Drought-proofing Australia must be made a priority [$]
Courier Mail editorial
It is inconceivable to think that we have political parties that put snails and frogs ahead of drought-proofing Australia.
Victoria Fielding
Several months ago, Australia’s Murdoch media news outlets launched a new climate change campaign advocating a path toward net-zero emissions by 2050. The launch included a 16-page wraparound supplement in all of its tabloids supporting the need for climate action.
Peter Martin
Overwhelmingly, Australia’s top economists would rather the budget funds measures to cut carbon emissions than cuts income tax or company tax.
‘Soil magic’ may be the biggest rort of all — who could have guessed? [$]
Bernard Keane
The Emissions Reduction Fund was always a scam. Now one of the key figures involved in vetting it has confirmed that it’s a billion-dollar rort.
Australia’s carbon market is in crisis
Michael Mazengarb
The Morrison government faces a multi-level crisis impacting Australia’s carbon markets. Will it take responsibility for the mess?
Victoria
For the first time in Australia’s history, a truth-telling commission has begun investigating the nation’s brutal history since colonisation, to lay bare systematic abuses against Aboriginal people.
Coalition went ‘directly’ to Liberal donor Whitehaven to purchase coal for Ukraine
Keith Pitt denies donations played a role while another coalminer says it wasn’t contacted regarding 70,000-tonne shipment
First Australian electric motorcycle wins Victorian design award
Electric motorcycle, an ankle brace that grows as children age and a town hall among winners
Bid to save timber jobs lost [$]
Victoria’s native forest timber industry is not due to be phased out until 2030, but green group legal action could end it within months.
New South Wales
NSW South East to become unofficial renewables hub after wind and solar farms bid
Despite already being home to one of Australia’s largest renewable energy projects, Snowy Hydro, the South East of NSW could also soon see the sector expand to include large-scale wind and solar farms.
Deputy PM ‘not interested’ in business case for half a billion dollar dam in his electorate
Tamworth councillors, including two former Nationals heavyweights, want more detail on the proposed new Dungowan Dam, but Barnaby Joyce says he just wants the project built.
German students to be deported after ‘attention seeking’ Sydney climate protest
The federal government cancels the visas of two German students who were arrested after blocking traffic at Port Botany, in Sydney’s south, this morning.
Activists slam new anti-protest laws as ‘knee-jerk’ after three days of protests
Calling itself Blockade Australia, the group claims to be concerned not just about climate change but about the “colonial and extractive systems of Australia”.
NSW begins tender process for Waratah battery that will help replace biggest coal plant
NSW kicks off tender process for Waratah Super Battery that will help replace Eraring coal plant and will be largest of its type in southern hemisphere.
Greenpeace statement on new NSW anti-protest laws
Greenpeace Australia Pacific has condemned knee-jerk new anti-protest laws introduced by the NSW State Government as anti-democratic, and indicative of a worrying trend of suppression of protest activity in Australia.
Mayors demand climate change support
Kiama Mayor Neil Reilly has joined his counterparts from flood-damaged regions in calling on the Australian Government to do more to protect communities from tragic and costly extreme weather.
Why new Parramatta trams need to be built in Australia [$]
NSW Transport Minister David Elliott wants rolling stock for the Parramatta Light Rail extension to be Aussie-made because he is fed up with Sydney’s troublesome foreign-made trams and ferries.
Broken Hill to get big battery to provide system strength at edge of grid
ARENA backs AGL’s Broken Hill battery to include advanced inverters and provide system strength at the edge of the grid.
Crackdown on protests is an overreaction
SMH editorial
Australia is a country with a culture of political protest. Yet the depth of our commitment to the right to protest is in question after a few days of protest at Port Botany.
ACT
Greens push for car-free days, slower speed limits in some areas
Canberrans should be given the option to ride a bicycle without a helmet and the government should try out car-free zones in different parts of the city this year in an effort to promote more active travel, a member of the Greens has said.
Queensland
Queensland Government $65 million commitment to address Reef water pollution welcomed
The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) has welcomed today’s statement from the Queensland Government to allocate over $65 million to tackle reef water pollution, from the $270 million Reef package they announced in August 2021.
Conservation won’t save the Great Barrier Reef from climate, scientists say
Climate change is such a big threat to the health of the Great Barrier Reef its damaging impact outweighs the benefits of other conservation measures.
PM ‘has stolen our thunder’ over dam [$]
Nationals MPs are furious Scott Morrison has taken the glory over the government’s $5.4bn pledge to build the Hells Gate dam in Queensland.
Adani’s promise of jobs doesn’t add up
Steve Bishop
Despite being subsidised by the Queensland Government, it appears the Adani mine in central Queensland could be employing as few as 300 production staff.
South Australia
Shipyard’s massive boost to meet Adelaide’s nuclear ambitions
Osborne’s submarine shipyard will more than triple in size as the federal government moves to secure the space needed for nuclear-powered submarines.
Tasmania
Shrub snubbed as road upgrade threatens historic hedge
A battle is underway to keep a near-200-year-old hedge in Tasmania’s north from being torn down and replaced with an overtaking lane on a busy stretch of road.
Tasmania’s forests are burning more as climate change dries them out
David Bowman and Jenny Styger,
The summer of 2021-22 will be remembered for the extraordinarily destructive flooding across eastern Australia. At the same time, however, western Tasmania was experiencing extreme drought, with some areas receiving their lowest rainfall on record.
Northern Territory
Rare earths miner says NT separation plant could supply 5pc of world’s processed product
Arafura Resources says its planned facility near Alice Springs will be pivotal in reducing Australia’s reliance on China for materials essential to the production of renewable energy technology
’45 years of unfinished business’: Traditional owners celebrate Kakadu handback in historic ceremony
Kakadu National Park has been officially returned to traditional custodians, after a long fight for formal recognition.
Return of Kakadu land not just symbolic for traditional owners
The return of nearly half of Kakadu National Park to traditional owners isn’t just symbolic, it’s set to create hundreds of business opportunities for Aboriginal people.
Western Australia
’45 years of unfinished business’: Traditional owners celebrate Kakadu handback in historic ceremony
Kakadu National Park has been officially returned to traditional custodians, after a long fight for formal recognition.
Bill to deter ‘idiotic’ influencers from asbestos-riddled town passes parliament
The West Australian government hopes the final closure of an asbestos-riddled town will at last deter social media influencers and ‘danger tourists’ from visiting.
Indigenous elders in WA say ‘gag clause’ denies them a say in industrial developments on their land
Murujuga traditional custodians call for changes to government agreement from 2003 that restricts opposition to developments
Unusually hot water puts Ningaloo Reef at risk of coral bleaching in the coming weeks as climate change exacerbates the problem, with authorities predicting bleaching will occur annually by 2049.
Bill to deter ‘idiotic’ influencers from asbestos-riddled town passes parliament
The West Australian government hopes the final closure of an asbestos-riddled town will at last deter social media influencers and ‘danger tourists’ from visiting.
Sustainability
South African court urges action on deadly air pollution
On March 18 a South African court issued a landmark judgment declaring that Mpumalanga province’s unsafe level of air pollution is in breach of residents’ section 24(a) constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being, along with other constitutional rights.
These next-gen solar cells could make single-use batteries obsolete
Billions of batteries are thrown out every year. Ambient Photonics and Exeger say their low-light solar cells can help end that waste.
Every single country is failing the WHO’s new air quality standards
No country in the world met the new air quality standards established in September by the World Health Organization, or WHO, according to a new survey that analyzed 117 countries’ air last year.
Towards a Sustainable Battery Manufacturing Industry: The case for effective reuse and recycling
RMI
India has outlined an ambitious target of 500 GW of in-country energy generation from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 — and to reduce the total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tons in the same period. To attain these targets, India needs a significant amount of grid storage and a large increase in the number of electric vehicles (EVs).
Karly Burch
At least seven forest fires continue to burn around the Russian-held Chernobyl nuclear site in Ukraine, raising fears radionuclides could spread from the defunct facility.
Atomic disruption: how Russia’s war on Ukraine has rattled the nuclear world order
John Quiggin
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has upended all kinds of certainties, created new possibilities and closed off old ones. This is certainly true for the world’s use of nuclear power.
The building industry takes aim at “this whole other chunk” of emissions
John Matson, Rebecca Esau
The building of the future doesn’t burn natural gas or use coal-powered electricity. It harnesses renewable electricity, efficiency, clean heat, energy storage, and other technologies to keep the lights on and keep occupants comfortable without putting any more planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Biodiversity loss threatens economic stability: Central banks report
Central banks have underestimated the significant threat posed by biodiversity loss, a new report said Thursday, warning that financial institutions and businesses were destroying the natural assets that they depend on.
By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans, a study reports. Experts say the corporations that make and use it should be held accountable.
The African swamp protecting Earth’s environment – video
Vera Songwe
The peatlands of Africa’s Congo Basin are a vast expanse of swamp and greenery that act as one of the world’s most effective carbon sinks — and they’re under threat of environmental destruction.
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