Post of the Day
Greenhouse gas pollution trapping almost 50 percent more heat than 30 years ago
Planet-warming gases are trapping more and more heat in the atmosphere, holding in significantly more heat than they were in previous decades, a new assessment has found.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Arbor Day – Honduras
Climate Change
Greenhouse gas pollution trapping almost 50 percent more heat than 30 years ago
Planet-warming gases are trapping more and more heat in the atmosphere, holding in significantly more heat than they were in previous decades, a new assessment has found.
National
Labor would be foolish not to listen after Brisbane ‘Greenslide’, says analyst
Labor has secured 75 seats but needs one more to form government in its own right and a political analyst says if it does not, the Greens will have “all the power in the world”.
AGL demerger plan in doubt amid mounting opposition
AGL is considering walking away from its controversial plan to split up the company’s coal and retail divisions amid pressure from shareholders.
East West Link funds in firing line as Labor moves to repair battered budget
Tens of billions of dollars worth of infrastructure spending may be axed or delayed as the new government seeks to fix the budget bottom line.
New climate policy provides ‘huge opportunities’ for banks [$]
Australian banks are confident the new Labor government’s climate policies will help unlock more capital to finance the energy transition.
Beyond the headlines – Living on Earth podcast
This week, Environmental Health News Editor Peter Dykstra and Host Aynsley O’Neill discuss Australia’s election of a more climate-forward Parliament and the ousting of its former climate denying Prime Minister.
I’d trust a pyschic over Labor’s net-zero modelling [$]
Vikki Campion
The fruits of the Labor-Green-Teal government’s net-zero crusade will be a massive renewables footprint in regional areas, a spike in power prices and jobs going overseas.
Without Australian oil and gas, Asia will burn coal and wood [$]
Ian Davies
The Greens’ call for moratoriums on fossil-fuel projects would make integration of renewables into the grid more expensive and halt billions of dollars in funding for cleaner energy.
Renewable energy isn’t to blame for rising power prices
Age editorial
Australia needs a plan to balance the exit from coal with new sources of energy in the next few years, and families need targeted help during the transition.
A question of time – cartoon
Megan Herbert
Victoria
Big change sweeping Melbourne bike lanes [$]
One big change is sweeping Melbourne’s bike lanes as the popularity of an unusual mode of transport soared in recent months.
Council food waste plan hits a snag as the state’s bin overflows
Councils say they can’t introduce food waste collection because processing sites for garden organics and food are at capacity.
New South Wales
Independents warn federal election ‘course correction’ also message for NSW coalition
Independents based in regional New South Wales warn state government Nationals and urban Liberals not to underestimate voters’ interests in climate change, environmental management, and the need for integrity.
‘Right thing to do’: NSW takes first step to returning harbour island to Indigenous community
The iconic Me-Mel/Goat Island in Sydney Harbour will be returned to the Indigenous community, with the NSW government allocating $43 million towards its restoration.
What’s next for Me-Mel aka Goat Island [$]
Aboriginal people “will have 100 per cent possession and use of” Goat Island, known as Me-Mel in the Dharug language. Here’s what the new owners plan to do with it.
Divers on the NSW south coast are reporting more grey nurse sharks than ever before, but experts say they need more research to determine if the critically endangered species has made a significant comeback.
Queensland
Why software is being used to save the Reef [$]
Australia’s top science agency is teaming with Google to save the Great Barrier Reef in a project the CEO says is the first of many.
Bushland wiped, homes at risk: Fears over Straddie rezoning [$]
Homes would be built on land at risk of bushfires, flooding and erosion under a controversial residential rezoning which could demolish bushland and almost double the population of North Stradbroke Island.
Queensland climate change targets in doubt
Queensland has one of the hardest paths to net zero. Australia’s biggest carbon polluter depends on fossil fuel to keep the lights on and pay the bills.
Unlike snakes on the mainland, Magnetic Island death adders had never had to turn to frogs and toads as a viable food source.
‘A white elephant’: The $4m outback geothermal plant that’s never delivered power
It was touted as the beginning of a renewable energy boom in outback Queensland, but two years after the construction of a “game changing” geothermal power plant in Winton, the project has failed.
Tasmania
Tasmania’s ancient Huon pines are highly vulnerable to fire — and we don’t know exactly where they all are. These scientists are working to change that.
Northern Territory
The complex and fascinating history of Australia’s wild buffalo
Between British colonists, Aboriginal hunters and farmers, the complex mythology of Australia’s wild buffalo lives on in the Northern Territory.
Bilbies, bettongs return to Red Centre [$]
A patter of tiny feet will soon be felt over the arid plains of Central Australia as bilbies and burrowing bettongs return to Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary.
Tamboran fracking battle heats up [$]
Gas company Tamboran Resources looks set to become the first Beetaloo Basin explorer to begin fracking activities on a Northern Territory pastoral property without the pastoralists’ consent.
Western Australia
‘I’m so angry, I’m wild’: the never-ending wait to clean up asbestos town Wittenoom
The WA government has announced former asbestos mining town of Wittenoom officially closed. But will it get cleaned up? For one man, time is running out
Sustainability
Women block roads in protest as water crisis continues amidst India’s heatwave
Women in Maharashtra’s Nashik city have blocked roads to protest against a water crisis impacting thousands of people in the state as India continues to grapple with an intense heatwave. Several said they had to walk several kilometres each day to fetch water to meet their daily needs.
Do wood burners add to air pollution in cities? Yes, say citizen scientists
Pioneering Bristol study blames the solid-fuel burners in people’s homes for breaches of World Health Organisation guidelines
Climate warning over laughing gas used during childbirth
A new report says people should be made aware of nitrous oxide’s environmental impact when considering it as pain relief, but midwives and mothers have warned against “guilting” women.
How to address healthcare’s climate emergency
Is sustainability in healthcare the missing piece in the climate jigsaw? While the focus over the last few years has been on the corporate sector going green, have we all missed the opportunities that are emerging as the global healthcare community confronts the size of its carbon footprint?
Water Always Wins: “Quietly radical” book makes case for slow water
In this Q&A with author Erica Gies, Gies says our fixation on controlling water has failed and it’s time for collaborative approaches.
Xiujian Peng
China accounts for more than one sixth of the world’s population. Yet after four extraordinary decades in which China’s population swelled from 660 million to 1.4 billion, its population is on track to turn down this year, for the first time since the great famine of 1959-1961.
Mike Joy
Water scarcity and water pollution are increasingly critical global issues. Water scarcity is driven not only by shortages of water, but also by rendering water unusable through pollution. New Zealand is no exception to these trends.
Nature Conservation
Beautiful wildlife endangered by River Wye pollution
Many stretches of the River Wye are designated areas of outstanding natural beauty. Unfortunately, over the past two years, the intensive poultry industry’s mega farms, and the routine discharge of raw sewage, have transformed the Wye’s clear waters, aquatic plants and pristine pebbles into a suffocating greeny-brown slime.
Marine life in a South African bay is full of chemical pollutants
In a 1974 Scientific American article, the oceanographer Willard Bascom wrote that “the ocean is the plausible place for man to dispose of some of his wastes”. If done “thoughtfully”, he continued, “it will do no damage to marine life.” But it hasn’t been done thoughtfully.
The Guardian view on British butterflies: declining beauty
Guardian editorial
Victims of intensive farming and the climate emergency, butterflies are beautiful – and vital’
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