Post of the Day
No miracle tech needed: How to switch to renewables now and lower costs doing it
Mark Z. Jacobson
The world is experiencing unprecedented fuel price increases, energy blackmail between countries, up to 7 million air pollution deaths per year worldwide and one climate-related disaster after another. Critics contend that a switch to renewable energy to solve these problems will create unstable electricity grids and drive prices up further. However, a new study from my research group at Stanford University concludes that these problems can be solved in each of the 145 countries we examined — without blackouts and at low cost using almost all existing technologies.
On This Day
Feast of Saints Peter and Paul – Western Christianity
Ecological Observance
International Day of the Tropics
Climate Change
How climate change is impacting the world’s cyclones
Cyclone numbers have dropped around the world, according to new research from an Australian-led team of scientists who say the storms are becoming more intense.
National
Blockade Australia intends to take climate action protests nationwide
The climate activists responsible for bringing large parts of Sydney to a complete standstill in recent days intend to take their protests nationwide
Could a storage target or a capacity incentive provide a lifeline for solar thermal?
The renewed focus on dispatchable power and long-term energy storage could help jumpstart an Australian solar thermal industry.
“Unreliable and dirty:” CEC urges storage target over capacity mechanism
Clean Energy Council joins growing chorus rejecting capacity mechanism in favour of an energy storage target.
The green banking trend that could save you $6000
Charlotte Grieve
Worried about rising interest rates, record energy prices and worsening climate change? This loan product might help.
‘Nothing to see here’: ASX-listed companies under-report climate risk
John Collett
A study of ASX-listed companies on their sustainability reporting finds many are understating their climate change or other ESG risks, claiming there is ‘nothing to see here.’
Ethical fund ‘transparency and trust paramount’
John Collett
The financial regulator is stepping up efforts to rid the superannuation and fund management industries of so-called “greenwashing”, where claims to invest in an environmentally responsible manner often cannot be substantiated.
Beware existential angst of the climate alarmists [$]
Richard Alston
Weaponising words such as ‘existential’ to drive an emotional response is part of the catastrophists’ armoury.
How the government can unlock the electric car market [$]
Monique Ryan
There is no shortage of demand for electric vehicles. The key in Australia is to improve the supply.
How offshore wind could influence AEMO’s 20-year green energy blueprint
David Leitch
The ISP will go down as the pivotal model for the energy transition, the one that irreversibly moved the dial. Here’s how it might accommodate offshore wind.
Victoria
Is a cultural management plan for a Victorian highway duplication project a ‘win’?
Marjorie Thorpe, the woman behind the fight to protect culturally significant trees along the route of the Western Highway duplication project, hopes the new plan will protect the community’s rights and “remains of this precious heritage”.
Cheap power, net-zero emissions: with a commonsense plan we can have both
Matthew Guy
The truth is that the current energy crisis gripping Victoria is the result of years of mismanagement and politically motivated policy under the Andrews Labor government.
New South Wales
As Snowy Hydro ramps up production amid power crisis, nearby farmers fear discharge flooding
Further water releases from the Snowy Hydro and the Tumut River channel already at capacity have farmers downstream concerned, one saying there should have been better planning before now.
Climate protesters target Sydney streets for second day
Twelve climate protesters have been arrested after a radical activist group resumed its mass disruption campaign in Sydney’s central business district.
Renewable gas can satisfy our energy hunger
Right now, at this very instant, NSW produces enough waste biomass every year to provide the entire state with all the carbon-neutral gas we need to cater for our eight million residents.
Why Blockade protesters are taking today off [$]
They promised to wreak havoc on Sydney’s streets this week, but climate activists have run out of steam two days in, calling on supporters to skip today’s planned mayhem.
Blockade activists are alienating the rest of us [$]
Letters
If anyone is going to create violence and mayhem for a worthy cause, it should be the opponents of the cause, not the adherents
Blockade a city and open the door to the right: zealots do Dutton a favour
Mark Sawyer
The Blockade protests have been an exercise in bloodymindedness. Ironically, most of their commuter victims on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the morning peak are likely to be voters who supported climate-action candidates in North Sydney, Mackellar and Warringah.
Queensland
Deadly varroa mite outbreak raises concerns for Queensland’s native bee population
Authorities are closely monitoring any impact on Queensland’s bee populations amid a “worrying” interstate detection of the deadly honey bee parasite, varroa destructor.
South Australia
SA wind farms, big Tesla battery fined more than $4 million over separate breaches
The owners of four wind farms in South Australia and the state’s big Tesla battery have been fined more than $4 million over two separate market breaches identified during major grid disturbances.
How to turn your roof into a power plant – and earn money [$]
It’s not all bad news for solar. With a little time, you can set your home up as a virtual power plant – here we compare which operators pay back the most.
SA Power Networks embroiled in $19m lawsuit [$]
As SA’s electricity provider is in court over $19m worth of allegedly faulty parts it says rusted, melted and failed.
Tasmania
Canadian seafood giant fishing for Tasmania’s last locally-owned salmon producer
Hot on the heels of Brazilians snapping up a Tasmanian salmon company, the last locally owned producer is in the sights of a Canadian seafood giant, news that has been welcomed by the island state’s Premier, Jeremy Rockliff.
Does Australia need Tasmania to become a multi-billion-dollar ‘Battery of the Nation’?
As coal-fired power stations close down, there is a push for the renewables-rich state of Tasmania to become the “Battery of the Nation”. The problem is, no one knows who will foot the multi-billion-dollar bill.
Tassie town wants to build country’s largest passive solar greenhouse [$]
The Great Lake Community Centre in Miena, central Tasmania, has raised nearly $1 million to build the country’s largest passive solar greenhouse to help feed their community.
Mining Company ‘spying’ facilitated by LegCo
Media release – Bob Brown Foundation
The covert but apparently facilitated listening-in to Legislative Council hearings on the anti-protester legislation by mining company MMG, without witnesses being told of the arrangement, requires a public explanation, former Tasmanian parliamentarian Bob Brown said today.
Northern Territory
Traditional Owners say sacred sites damaged by fracking operations
A gas company is accused of damaging sacred sites as it begins clearing land for fracking operations in the gas-rich Beetaloo basin.
Western Australia
Where to watch whales along WA’s south coast this winter
Western Australia’s southern coastline offers some of the country’s best whale watching each winter as humpbacks, southern rights and blue whales travel to warmer waters.
Gas plants expand while ancient Murujuga art waits on modern science
The creation of the engravings on Murujuga – known today as the Burrup Peninsula – was art, but their survival is a question of commerce and science.
When public opinion overrules science: the case of the 200 doomed Baldivis kangaroos
Perth’s rapid urban sprawl means more refugee ’roos, but the next council to face the problem says one translocation failure does not make culling the answer.
WA targets more than 1,000 standalone power systems, with $37m funding boost
WA tips another $37m to deploy 180 standalone power systems across the state, as it aims for 1,000 over four years.
A citizen science project has received funding in an effort to save the declining population of the south-western snake-necked turtle.
Native tree seeds are desperately needed to regrow bushland and offset emissions, and Aboriginal farmers want to fill the void.
The true cost of Woodside’s climate bomb
Peter Boyer
Most informed people have long accepted the science that says human use of fossil fuels is destabilising Earth’s climate. Many who once said this was rubbish now seem to have caught on too.
Sustainability
Sustainable blue economy critical to small countries and coastal populations
With the livelihoods of about 40 per cent of the world’s population living at or near a coast, the second day of the UN Ocean Conference under way in Lisbon focused on strengthening sustainable ocean-based economies, managing coastal ecosystems.
BHP vows to tackle biodiversity loss in ‘social value’ push
Mining giant BHP has made a new pledge to conserve or rehabilitate 30 per cent of the land it owns or manages around the globe by 2030 and gain greater feedback from Indigenous groups as part of a strategy designed to strengthen its “social value” credentials.
Bigger and better wind turbines to overcome climate caused wind droughts
A shift to bigger and better wind turbines could significantly boost capacity factors, overcoming climate change driven reductions in wind availability.
Court finds France negligent in Caribbean pesticide case
A court in Paris found the French government guilty of wrongful negligence involving the former use of a banned pesticide in the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique but denied compensation to those affected, officials announced Monday.
Strategies beyond recycling to bolster circular economy for solar and battery technologies
In a new comprehensive literature review, researchers have discovered that alternatives to recycling may have untapped potential to build an effective circular economy for solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery technologies.
No miracle tech needed: How to switch to renewables now and lower costs doing it
Mark Z. Jacobson
The world is experiencing unprecedented fuel price increases, energy blackmail between countries, up to 7 million air pollution deaths per year worldwide and one climate-related disaster after another. Critics contend that a switch to renewable energy to solve these problems will create unstable electricity grids and drive prices up further. However, a new study from my research group at Stanford University concludes that these problems can be solved in each of the 145 countries we examined — without blackouts and at low cost using almost all existing technologies.
Nature Conservation
United Nations chief says ‘egoism’ preventing global deal to protect oceans
Some countries will not accept the world’s oceans belong to everyone and are holding up a global agreement to protect them, according to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.
Cop15: lack of political leadership leaves crucial nature summit ‘in peril’, warn NGOs
Nairobi biodiversity talks end in stalemate, prompting open letter to world leaders calling for action before Montreal conference
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