Post of the Day
Global Warming: Why the problem is worse – and solutions simpler – than you thought
How do you cut through the fog around climate change and get to a solution?
On This Day
St John’s Eve – Christianity
Climate Change
What happens when nearly 1 metre of rain falls on ‘the wettest place on Earth’?
South Asia is home to millions of the most vulnerable people in the world and this year has become the embodiment of climate extremes and weather records. Scientists fear it will only get worse due to climate change.
Global Warming: Why the problem is worse – and solutions simpler – than you thought
How do you cut through the fog around climate change and get to a solution?
Nigeria’s homes are vanishing into the sea from climate change
When an ocean surge washed away Mureni Sanni Alakija’s house in 2011, he took a loan to build a home farther away. But that too is no longer safe as the sea creeps inland in Okun Alfa, a neighbourhood in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos.
Saving the planet from climate change by simplifying money
Shann Turnbull
Stern concluded that Climate Change is ‘The biggest market failure the world has ever seen’.This failure could be removed by a simplified form of ‘ecological’ money.
Bowen presses ahead with capacity mechanism, plays down ‘coal keeper’ fears
Federal energy minister Chris Bowen wants to accelerate capacity mechanism introduction, while seeking to allay fears it will just prop up coal.
Electric cars are looming threat to the power grid, unless we change our behaviour
Energy retailers and distributors are preparing for a looming challenge from electric vehicles, with new research revealing they’ll add at least 30 per cent demand on the evening peak unless drivers change their behaviour.
Saltwater salads on the menu helps fix Australia’s damaged farmland
Rising salinity is a national crisis, destroying plant life and poisoning the soil. But one WA farmer says his one-of-a-kind saltwater greenhouse has the solution.
Renewables key to avoiding future energy price shocks and shortages, market operator says
The Australian Energy Market Operator will begin a staged approach to lift its suspension of the National Electricity Market from 4am on Thursday, citing a “clear improvement” in conditions.
Deputy PM Richard Marles pledges greater Indian ties on defence, climate change
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has pledged greater co-operation with India on climate change and defence and says China has a duty to reassure its neighbours that it is not a risk to their security.
Australia to launch new plastics innovation hub in Vietnam
Globally, 75 per cent of plastic produced is becoming waste. To help address this, the Plastics Innovation Hub Vietnam will aim to significantly reduce plastic waste in Vietnam by driving collaboration and using science and innovation to develop real-world solutions.
News that Australia’s first community-owned electricity retailer Enova Energy has been forced into voluntary administration is a damning indictment of the greed of the coal and gas companies which are at the heart of the energy crisis that is hurting Australian households and businesses, Greenpeace Australia Pacific says.
Why IFM’s new climate fund must buy fossil fuel companies [$]
Superannuation performance rules mean IFM Investors’ new climate transition fund has no choice but to invest in oil and gas companies.
Albanese government may join US push to cut global methane emissions by 30%
New resources minister also says ‘the pathway from coal to renewables goes only through gas’
Bridget Archer calls on all sides to end ‘ideological war’ on climate, integrity
Bass MP Bridget Archer has called on all sides to set ideology aside and work together on traditionally divisive issues, such as climate change and a federal ICAC.
Carbon credits for mine wastes on the agenda as BHP plots big sink [$]
The Clean Energy Regulator is considering making mine wastes eligible for carbon credits as BHP says one dam could offset its iron ore and nickel mines
Pressure mounts on corporates to detail green credentials [$]
Glenda Korporaal
The economies of carbon markets and carbon reduction are now moving into centre stage as players watch the evolution of a carbon market in Australia.
We can secure our energy and move to renewables [$]
Zali Steggall
It’s time to dispel the baseload myth with a fit-for-purpose transmission network and an incentive scheme for power storage.
Grape growers are adapting to climate shifts early – and their knowledge can help other farmers
Bill Skinner et al
It’s commonly assumed Australia’s farmers and cities are divided over climate issues. This is not true. After all, farmers are on the front line and face the realities of our shifting climate on a daily basis.
Rachel Withers
The energy market suspension will end tonight, but just how much of a political reset will this crisis prove to be?
Enova: How Australia’s best green retailer became victim of fossil fuel energy war
Giles Parkinson
Who killed Enova Energy? A market designed for big fossil fuel companies, and by rule makers who don’t understand that small can be beautiful.
4 ways to understand why Australia is so cold right now despite global warming
Michael Grose
It’s an offhand joke a lot of us make – it’s freezing, can we get a bit more of that global warming right about now?
While Coalition reheats its climate mess, Albanese government locks in Australia’s 43% emissions cut
Graham Readfearn
Sky News’s Rowan Dean also attempts a snow job on conflating climate with weather
How long, how long the climate blues
Keith Mitchelson
Chris Bowen has announced reconfiguration of the energy generation system will not ‘commence until 2025’. Can Labor and Australia wait that long?
Victoria
Melbourne Metro Tunnel’s budget blowout
Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel project may need more money from the government, having used up almost all its risk contingency funds.
Victorian election will have profound significance [$]
Robert Gottliebsen
Victorian voters have the chance to bring rationality to the energy market and lock in federal emission targets.
New South Wales
$206 million NSW Sustainable Farming Program to benefit biodiversity, climate and community
Farmers for Climate Action has welcomed the $206 million investment by the NSW Government into a Sustainable Farming Program.
Greens MP calls for inquiry into botched NSW police operation against Blockade Australia
Sue Higginson says ‘even inconvenient’ protesting is important for democracy and labels police response ‘extreme’
Labor promises to dismantle state’s scandal-ridden rail corporation
The state’s controversial rail corporation will be dismantled if Labor wins government at the next state election, and control of billions of dollars’ worth of trains and other rail assets returned to NSW’s transport agencies.
Fines don’t faze Forestry Corp’s lust for logging
James Tremain
The EPA is urging the Government to order an independent review of Forestry Corporation NSW, which is facing new allegations after having just been fined for wiping out significant koala habitat.
Cyclists and pedestrians don’t want to share in Sydney – we want our own paths
Harold Scruby
The NSW government’s plan for a walking and cycling path from Parramatta to the Sydney CBD is long on distance and very short on detail, but London to a brick it will be mostly a shared path.
ACT
Rattenbury’s energy concession is timely
Canberra Times editorial
ACT Energy Minister Shane Rattenbury’s willingness to accept at least a partial degree of electricity generation agnosticism as part of the long-awaited energy capacity mechanism reflects the fact he is the only Greens politician in the country who is under an obligation to keep the lights on.
Queensland
Binna Burra ready to rebuild after grabbing lion’s share of $22m ecotourism funding
The bell of the iconic Bina Burra lodge, razed in the devastating 2019 Black Summer bushfires, will ring again with a rebuild of the lodge near the Gold Coast absorbing the lion’s share of $22 million in the state budget for priority ecotourism and cultural attractions.
Coal royalties: Queensland wins where NSW’s renewable energy superstar fears to tread
Tim Buckley
The difference between Queensland’s new coal royalties and the lack of them in NSW is a staggering $10-20 billion, in a single year.
‘Sucker-punched’: Royalties hike major risk to coal industry [$]
Warren Pearce
It beggars belief that the Queensland government would promote the state as a mecca for new investment and in the same breath deter investors by blindsiding existing industry.
South Australia
Electric vehicles are increasingly being viewed as sources of power, not just users of it, and Adelaide Hills winemaker James Tilbrook says one of today’s options might have helped when he confronted an inferno.
The changes needed to save tiny bats from extinction
The race is on to save the critically endangered bat which weighs no more than a 50-cent piece. Here’s how researchers hope to boost their numbers.
Why were missiles being tested 50 metres from trees sacred to Aboriginal people?
After SBS News and NITV revealed a missile casing was found inside an Aboriginal heritage area in South Australia, fresh concerns are now being raised about weapons testing at another sacred site.
Zero surprises: Shock power bill prediction blasts net cost [$]
A right wing think tank says coal power data – including from two SA stations – paints a costly picture for household energy bills.
Tasmania
Motion before Legislative Council for first Aboriginal Protected Area in Tasmania
The Legislative Council will soon debate a motion for Crown land in the Western Tiers to be turned into an Aboriginal national park.
Amendments foreshadowed by Liberals, Labor as protest bill debate starts
The government foreshadowed a reduction of proposed penalities under its anti-protest bill as debate started in the Legislative Council on Wednesday.
Protesters say green energy dream will cost local communities [$]
Protesters say Tassie communities will pay the price for the State’s push to be a renewable energy powerhouse.
Webb moves kooparoona niara disallowance in LegCo
Media release – Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania
A Legislative Council motion to ‘disallow’ low-grade reserve proclamations in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) will extend Parliamentary debate on the Government’s failure to honour the Aboriginal community’s claim to land in what would be a first for lutruwita/Tasmania, an Aboriginal-owned national park.
What are salmon farms doing about shark danger?
Mick Lawrence
Winter’s a good time to have a project and this year mine has been researching a Surfing Tasmania submission to the state government on Draft Aquaculture Standards.
Northern Territory
Station fracking win ‘would lead to absurd consequences’, court hears [$]
Overturning a ruling in favour of a cattle station owner opposed to a gas company conducting fracking activities on its land would ‘lead to rather absurd consequences’, a court has heard.
Western Australia
WA First Nations must avoid being ‘victims’ in ‘settler state’ mining projects: Muir
Western Australia is known as the engine room of the Australian economy, but how sustainable is this business for Country?
Infinite Green lays out wind, solar and battery plans for renewable hydrogen project
Infinite Green Energy lays out plans to build up to 235MW of wind and solar to produce green hydrogen at its Arrowsmith project in Western Australia.
McGowan sets ‘ambitious’ target for greenhouse gas emissions [$]
All State Government agencies will be required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 80 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030 under a policy to be released on Thursday.
Cameras attached to tiger sharks
Researchers at the Ningaloo Reef off the West Australian coast have attached fin cameras to tiger sharks to find out more about the dynamics between them and their prey, sea turtles, in the World Heritage Listed ecosystem.
Global clean energy investment “finally” starts to increase, says IEA
IEA says clean energy investment is “finally” starting to rise again and is expected to exceed $US1.4 trillion in 2022, but there are problems ahead.
Is US solar ready to prove its panels aren’t made with forced labor?
A new federal law meant to combat mistreatment of Uyghurs in China means that importers of solar panels must demonstrate a clean supply chain.
Investments in green infrastructure projects help to build sustainable and resilient communities in healthy and environmentally responsible living environments. They also make it possible to find adapted solutions to tackle climate change, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and create jobs while expanding opportunities for a green economy which will help drive the transition to a green economy that will help communities prosper.
Here’s your A-to-Z guide to choosing the best electric car [$]
From the mighty Porsche Taycan to the not-so-humble Mini Cooper SE, there’s an EV on the market for you.
How much water can be saved by switching grass to artificial turf?
Salt Lake County plan would convert playing fields to artificial turf and get rid of grass parking strips.
Supreme Court rejects appeal from Roundup maker over cancer claims
The decision by the justices not to intervene has implications for thousands of similar lawsuits against the company Bayer.
Why China just can’t seem to quit coal
China is a renewable energy powerhouse. The country unfortunately still relies on and continues funding coal.
E-bike batteries can kill. Here’s what you need to know
Lithium ion batteries used in e-bikes, scooters and electronics are a growing cause of more fires.
Reducing air pollution can support healthy brain development
A new study finds that having a portable air cleaner in the home can reduce the negative impacts of air pollution on brain development in children.
How washing your clothes with cold water could help save carbon emissions and ocean pollution
On the last regular episode of this climate-theme season of ‘World Changing Ideas’—here’s something you can easily do at home to help save the environment.
World leaders work towards nuclear weapons ban – podcast
The organisers of this week’s first-ever meeting of States Parties to the Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna say nuclear war is still a possibility
Timo Rissanen
Today we make more clothing than ever before. And the driver for this is primarily economic, rather than human need. Over the past decade, the term “circular economy” has entered the fashion industry lexicon, wherein materials are made to be reused and recycled by design.
Cities are banning new gas stations. More should join them
Nathan Taft
Gas stations are environmental liabilities and hugely expensive to remediate. Electric cars are making gas stations obsolete
Petra Marschner
In his new book Regenesis, journalist and environmental activist George Monbiot describes problems associated with agriculture now and into the future. He also gives examples of how agriculture can be improved to produce healthy food sustainably. He does this in an engaging manner by combining his own experiences with an impressive knowledge of the literature.
Indoor farming is a ‘no-brainer.’ Except for the carbon footprint
William Alexander
Why greenhouses might be the future of vegetable agriculture.
Nature Conservation
Great Lakes levels are likely to see continued rise in next three decades
Lake levels in many of the U.S.’ Great Lakes are projected to rise steadily over the next few decades, with the Lake Michigan-Huron system potentially rising by well over half a meter by 2050, according to new research to be presented at the Frontiers in Hydrology meeting this week
EU plan to halve use of pesticides in ‘milestone’ legislation to restore ecosystems
Proposals – the first in 30 years to tackle catastrophic wildlife loss in Europe – include legally binding targets for land, rivers and sea
Scientists unveil bionic robo-fish to remove microplastics from seas
Tiny self-propelled robo-fish can swim around, latch on to free-floating microplastics and fix itself if it gets damaged
Tree species diversity under pressure
A new global study of 46,752 tree species shows that many of them are under substantial pressure and poorly protected. The research team has also studied how this situation can be improved by ambitious and smart designation of new protected areas.
New open-access kelp forest database and platform
A new open-access database and community platform for kelp restoration projects worldwide renews hope in the fight to protect our underwater forests.
Protecting Mexico’s iconic salamander means saving one of the country’s most important wetlands
In February, a crowd gathered around Mexico City’s Lake Xochimilco to witness the release of endemic salamanders called axolotls, culturally revered amphibians at risk of extinction because of the lake’s pollution.
Forest research links carbon uptake and water use
New research links the amount of carbon dioxide taken in by land ecosystems, such as forests, to the availability of water, which is in short supply during droughts.
Era of pandemics shows need for global wildlife action
Iris Ho and Tanya Sanerib
Even as COVID-19 cases persist unabated, a frightening string of monkeypox outbreaks has spread globally in recent months. Both pathogens are likely of zoonotic origin. One is new and the other is not, yet both viruses should give policymakers reason to act to end this “era of pandemics.”
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