Post of the Day
Electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines — green technology relies on what can be a dirty industry. Why acting on climate change may require a massive increase in mining.
On This Day
Climate Change
Electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines — green technology relies on what can be a dirty industry. Why acting on climate change may require a massive increase in mining.
From India’s highs to Thailand’s lows, Asia’s weather is hitting extremes
As the heatwave in India and Pakistan starts to intensify again, Thailand and China are recording strangely cold May days
How climate scientists keep hope alive as damage worsens
How climate scientists or emergency room doctors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic cope with their depressing day-to-day work, yet remain hopeful, can offer help to ordinary people dealing with a world going off the rails, psychologists said.
The window of opportunity to address increasing drought and expanding drylands is vanishing
If the world overshoots its climate targets, drought could cause dryland areas to expand by a quarter and encompass half the Earth’s land area, threatening lives and livelihoods.
Age of climate disasters fuels anxiety around parenthood
Carla Pascoe Leahy
Every Mother’s Day we celebrate the tireless, often unacknowledged contributions mums make to all of our lives. But is motherhood as we know it under threat?
National
Flight path and aircraft noise is emerging as a key federal election issue in inner-Brisbane electorates, with residents in dozens of suburbs complaining of excessive noise pollution from Brisbane Airport’s new runway.
All sides should back National Climate Health Strategy: health peak bodies
All sides of politics should back a National Climate and Health Strategy to better protect the health of everyone in Australia, the Public Health Association of Australia has said.
Native species are in crisis, but you wouldn’t know it from the election campaign
Australia’s unique environment and biodiversity is facing an extinction crisis, but politicians’ are barely mentioning it. Why?
Billionaire Cannon-Brookes warns investors on AGL’s coal split risks
Mike Cannon-Brookes will step up a push to block the planned break-up of AGL this week, pointing to huge risks he says will destroy shareholder value.
We’ll be going nuclear, says Howard [$]
John Howard says the AUKUS pact to build nuclear powered submarines makes it ‘inevitable’ Australia will develop a civil nuclear industry.
Climate can set up Labor reform era: Chalmers [$]
The shadow treasurer says managing the energy transition in a way that does not abandon Australia’s traditional strengths would be the biggest determinant of whether the economy is sufficiently modern into the ’30s.
Urgent action needed to protect our threatened biodiversity
SMH editorial
More than 1900 Australian animals, plants and ecological communities are at risk of becoming extinct. We can and we must do more.
Shrieking climate ‘independents’ an insult to feminism [$]
Andrew Bolt
As the climate “independents” airily propose policies that are all pain for no gain, they wait for pet “experts” to tell them what to do and leave the bill on the table for someone else to pay.
Energy: hot topic no one wants to talk about [$]
Ticky Fullerton
Throughout this election battle, one subject has not had nearly enough scrutiny: energy and climate.
Let’s end the climate policy dishonesty [$]
Aaron Patrick
The election’s obsession with carbon emissions ignores the reality that greater subsidies aren’t going to transform the economy.
Wesley Morgan
Late last year, more than 100 former diplomats and officials called for a new Australian foreign policy — with climate action at the centre — to help cement Australia’s future in a world rapidly shifting to net-zero emissions.
Meet the territorial females and matriarchs in Australia’s backyard
Isabelle Onley
Social structure is an important aspect of species’ biology. Having a pecking order and male or female territoriality can help species thrive.
Victoria
Train order reveals Airport Rail Link on track [$]
The first trains have been ordered for the Melbourne Airport Rail Link in a sign of progress for the project despite fears a feud could send it off the rails.
City of Yarra pushes for chance to ban wood heaters [$]
Yarra Council wants tougher planning laws so they can ban wood heaters due to asthma risk, but it’s being slammed for being out of touch with ratepayer concerns.
A proposed LNG import terminal at Corio Bay in Geelong’s north could help solve a looming gas shortage for Victoria. But it faces strong opposition from environmentalists and community groups who say the project is at odds with the state’s goal to dramatically rein-in greenhouse gas emissions.
New South Wales
Wild summer sparks ‘extraordinary’ pelican breeding season as 30,000 birds look for mates
These 30,000 pelicans are eating up to 30 tonnes of food a day at a rare breeding event in the central west of New South Wales.
Thousands of EV chargers to be installed across regional NSW
More than 3000 electric vehicle chargers will be set up across NSW under a multimillion-dollar plan by the state government to boost regional tourism.
Delays to new bus shelters leave Sydney commuters waiting in the rain
The installation of hundreds of new bus-stop shelters, bins and other street furniture in central Sydney is running up to eight months late, leaving commuters frustrated at the delayed rollout.
Queensland
An as yet unpublished report warns the Great Barrier Reef is not coping with “escalating” climate change after its first La Niña mass bleaching event.
Green dream over as $300m Urban Forest tower scrapped [$]
Plans for a 32-storey apartment tower in Brisbane that was heralded as being one of the world’s greenest residential buildings have been scrapped, with the developer now looking to build something completely different.
South Australia
Nearly $10m to stop Mount Bold dam failing
A $9.5m upgrade for a dam in Adelaide’s south aims to stop another damaging flood, like one that hit Old Noarlunga in 2016.
Tasmania
Rally goers want people to vote for climate change action now
Tasmanians gather for Climate Rally to encourage people to use their vote this federal election for climate action.
Sustainability
‘Forever chemicals’ may have polluted 20m acres of US cropland, study says
PFAS-tainted sewage sludge is used as fertilizer in fields and report finds that about 20m acres of cropland could be contaminated
‘Forever chemicals’ found in nearly 60% of children’s ‘waterproof’ or ‘stain-resistant’ textiles
A study found PFAS substances in clothing, pillow protectors, bedding and furniture, some labeled ‘environmentally friendly’
Redefining ‘sustainable fashion’
At its heart, the term, which can leave us feeling as if we’re chasing an impossible ideal, is a contradiction.
Treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize efforts to save the climate
Countries have signed thousands of treaties that protect foreign investors from government actions. Some treaties protect fossil fuel projects—and they jeopardize global efforts to save the climate.
Looming nuclear plant closure may put Michigan climate goals out of reach
The looming closure of the Palisades nuclear power plant at month’s end may push Michigan’s short-term climate goals out of reach, both industry experts and energy regulators agreed.
Nature Conservation
Repeated mass emperor penguin chick deaths prompt dire climate change warning
Every emperor penguin chick born in the second-largest colony in Antarctica dies for three years running, sparking a serious warning from the researchers observing them
Kenya cites climate change as a threat to conservation
The Kenyan government has cited climate change as a key threat to wildlife conservation efforts in the country after a disclosure that a record 78 elephants succumbed to the ravaging drought that swept through the Tsavo Conservation Area in 2021.
The wolverine’s world is shrinking. But they’ve found a safe haven in B.C. mountains
Considered regionally extinct in parts of Atlantic Canada, climate change is making things worse for many populations of the animal, both nationally and internationally.
How worried should we really be about ‘insectageddon’?
Jane Hill
Insect decline is worrying, but we should be wary of the hyperbole of impending doom.
Salton Sea restoration must not worsen climate change
Chuck Parker and Feliz Nunez
If we’re not careful, the well-intentioned effort to restore the Salton Sea could have serious adverse consequences: large emissions of greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change.
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