Daily Links May 16

Post of the Day

Fact check: We fact checked Josh Frydenberg on emissions reductions compared to NZ, Canada and the OECD. Here’s what we found

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says Australia has achieved a reduction in emissions of 20 per cent on 2005 levels, which he says is greater than New Zealand, Canada and the OECD. RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates.

 

On This Day

May 16

Feast of Saint Isidore – Madrid

National Volunteer Week

 

Climate Change

Turkey drafting long-term strategy to combat climate change

The Turkish government is working on a long-term climate change strategy and action plan that will help the country meet its targets in line with the Paris Agreement

 

National

Greens’ shopping list for hung parliament

The Greens have firmed up their wishlist for the likely event Labor comes looking for a deal should they fail to form majority government.

 

Fires, floods and food security: how climate change became a local issue this election

The climate crisis is at the forefront of Guardian Australia readers’ concerns, and we put their questions to local candidates

 

How a chemicals tycoon shaped Australia’s ‘gas-fired recovery’

Andrew Liveris is one of Australia’s most successful businessmen with close links to former US presidents Trump and Obama. He also has a stake in Queensland’s future, as the head of the organising committee for the Brisbane Olympics. But it is his influence on the nation’s gas policy that has most upset critics.

 

Calls for electric cars to face a tax [$]

Experts say the end of the fuel excise discount in September was a chance to consider whether taxing fuel was still “the smartest way to pay for our roads”.

 

Farmers federation digs in behind Coalition on policy [$]

The National Farmers Federation has endorsed the Coalition over Labor on an overwhelming majority of its policy priorities ahead of the federal election on Saturday.

 

Fact check: We fact checked Josh Frydenberg on emissions reductions compared to NZ, Canada and the OECD. Here’s what we found

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says Australia has achieved a reduction in emissions of 20 per cent on 2005 levels, which he says is greater than New Zealand, Canada and the OECD. RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates.

 

Independents may be our only shot at helping the environment

Gerry Georgatos

Our governments should be ashamed of decades of neglect in scaling back carbon and methane emissions. In the upcoming Federal Election, we must vote to erode monopoly politics.

 

No, Mr Morrison. Minority government need not create ‘chaos’ – it might finally drag Australia to a responsible climate policy

Kate Crowley

Labor might be leading in the national polls, but a hung parliament after the May 21 election remains a distinct possibility.

 

Major parties must do better on protecting climate

SMH editorial

Australians have the chance to cast a vote that will have enormous consequences for this urgent issue.

 

Labor’s climate policy easily beats Coalition’s

Age editorial

The climate and environment policies of the two major parties are very different, even if neither party goes far enough.

 

Power price politicking trivialises the net zero energy challenge

Tony Wood

Credible plans for achieving an industrial revolution to a 2050 timetable should be the election focus, not arguing over forecast power prices in 10 years’ time.

 

Political leaders ignoring the biggest threat to our national security

Robert Glasser

 In a rapidly warming climate, geo-strategic competition between China and Australia will be like trying to manoeuvre chess pieces on a toppling chessboard.

 

Victoria

Labor backs landmark Yarra River project [$]

A major riverside project touted as a major reimagining of the heart of Melbourne will receive a $20m kickstart if Labor wins the election.

 

Council plan to hand back Aboriginal land [$]

A Melbourne council’s plan to lead the nation in handing back “stolen” land to indigenous people – inspired by the Uluru example – has been labelled “unhinged”.

 

New South Wales

Pointing to the sacred: How a tribal elder harnessed photography in a groundbreaking land rights battle

The tribal elder, the sacred mountain, and the photos that helped secure one of the first Aboriginal land rights victories in NSW.

 

The day one person was left to monitor nine river systems as floods swept the state

Communities were left stranded by floods because a lack of resources meant the SES missed crucial flood triggers, an independent review into the agency’s response to the deadly March 2021 floods has found.

 

Sydney public transport revenue ‘stagnating’ as costs mount

One option to increase revenue includes changes to public transport fares to “reflect the true cost of trips”.

 

ACT

Federal Labor promises to help improve inner-north cycle routes [$]

A federal Labor government would chip in to fund an improved inner-north bicycle route for Canberra.

 

Queensland

Greater Brisbane asked to save water as Gympie assesses flood damage

The request came after rain affected a treatment plant in the south-east, while in Gympie, floodwaters were expected to recede after the Mary River peaked at 15.56 metres.

 

‘Jet super highway’: The flashpoint that could turn Brisbane seat Green [$]

Airport noise has become a flashpoint issue for a marginal Labor seat, with some residents considering leaving the major parties to vote Greens for the first time.

 

South Australia

From the beach to the hills, congestion, climate change and jobs are top of mind for Boothby voters

South Australia’s only marginal seat in the federal election stretches from Adelaide’s coast, across the plains and into the Adelaide Hills. Voters have a range of concerns and not all have made up their mind about how to cast their ballot for.

 

‘Giving the sad demise of majestic creatures another purpose’: When it’s your job to wade through dead whale blubber and guts

Some days David Stemmer wades through blubber and rotting flesh to piece together a world-class cetacean collection that could help save the world’s largest marine mammals.


Tasmania

How a campaign to save an Australian lake led to the world’s first green party

In rugged Tasmanian wilderness lies one of the most controversial, and perhaps consequential, bodies of water in Australia.

 

Draining the well: can Tasmania’s water supply survive Battery of the Nation?

Tasmania’s largest river, the South Esk, temporarily stopped flowing in 2020, after low seasonal rainfall and large-scale industrial use placed undue pressure on the river’s ecosystem and experts fear the the state faces environmental failure on the scale of the Murray Darling Basin if political ambition pursues the expansion of competing industries such as “green hydrogen” and the Battery of the Nation/Marinus Link projects.

 

‘Park for the people’: Debate over Cradle Mountain’s future heats up [$]

As Tasmania marks the centenary of one of its oldest national parks, conflict is escalating over competing visions for its future.

 

Rally says no to toxic salmon in Bass Strait

Media release – Bob Brown Foundation

A large crowd of 300 turned out to Burnie’s West Beach today, calling out to ‘Save Bass Strait’ from toxic salmon expansions.

 

Vale Melva Truchanas, champion of Tasmania’s wilds

Media release – Lake Pedder Restoration Inc

Tasmania has lost a great champion of the wilderness and a stalwart of the campaign to restore Lake Pedder with the death of Melva Truchanas, last Wednesday, following a stroke, aged 92.

 

Up the Tamar without a paddle, it’s time for a river barrage

Jacqui Lambie

Every time I walk along the Tamar, I’m shocked by the state it’s in.

 

Northern Territory

Remote NT community not told about $5m contract to fix uranium in water supply

Laramba residents have no details of when treatment system will be ready and are forced to pay for bottled water while they wait

 

Project could unlock billions in hydrogen, create thousands of jobs [$]

The NT government has green-lit the first stage in a major project that could unlock billions-of-dollars in green-hydrogen and create thousands of jobs.

 

Sustainability

In the Philippines, a landmark finding moves fossil fuel companies’ climate liability into the realm of human rights

In a damning and lucidly-written report, the Human Rights Commission found that the world’s largest fossil fuel companies had “engaged in willful obfuscation and obstruction to prevent meaningful climate action.”

 

California is in a water crisis, yet usage is way up

California is facing a crisis. Not only are its reservoirs already at critically low levels due to unrelenting drought, residents and businesses across the state are also using more water now than they have in seven years, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to encourage just the opposite.

 

When sand mining alters a river, flooding farmlands in India

Illegal extraction of sand in the Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh affects the course of the Spiti river and in turn, people’s lives.

 

How air pollution can affect COVID-19 risks

More studies conducted during the pandemic have found links between air pollution exposure and the chances of contracting the coronavirus, developing a severe infection or dying.

 

The steal of the last century and a half

Peter Dykstra

The General Mining Law of 1872 turned 150 this month. It hasn’t changed a bit.

 

Nature Conservation

In a warming world, trees aren’t a climate change cure-all

The future of forests is on a knife’s edge, with a tug of war between two very important forces: the benefits trees get from increasing levels of carbon dioxide and the stresses they face from the climate, such as heat, drought, fires, pests, and pathogens.

 

Foresters urged to adapt woodlands to minimise climate change risks

Future-proofing forests and woodlands to be more resilient will ensure they continue to provide environmental, social and economic benefits and play a key role in achieving net-zero by 2045.

 

Bald and golden eagles suffer from lead poisoning, study finds

Nearly half the eagles sampled had what researchers called “unexpectedly high frequencies of lead,” experts wrote in the study, published earlier this year in the journal Science.

 

Kenya: Climate change and water sports join growing list of sea turtle threats

Sea turtles in Kenya are classified as protected by legislation that prohibits any form of direct exploitation of the animal or its products. Illegal harvesting is declining, but conservationists say their preservation is still an uphill task.

 

Biodiversity solutions also fight climate change

New research highlights ways to tackle our two greatest environmental challenges — at the same time.

 



Maelor Himbury
6 Florence St Niddrie 3042
0432406862 or 0393741902
If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by 
return email, delete it from your system and destroy any copies.