Post of the Day
Forests are becoming less resilient because of climate change
An analysis of two decades of satellite data shows that forests in arid, tropical and temperate regions are becoming less able to bounce back after events such as drought and logging.
On This Day
Beginning of Vassa (Buddhist Lent)
Ecological Observance
National Tree Day – Mexico
Climate Change
Kiwis face up to climate change, but way ahead remains unclear: 5-year trend
78% of New Zealanders agree that climate change is an important issue for them personally, with a whopping 91% expecting to see more frequent and extreme flooding events, according to the latest IAG-Ipsos Climate Change Poll, brought to you by NZI, State and AMI Insurance.
Climate adaptation bill for African countries to dwarf health spending
Eleven nations least responsible for global heating must spend up to 22% of GDP on dealing with effects of it
‘The ground has shifted’: Biden’s energy chief says climate reform getting tougher
Jennifer Granholm, charged with leading the US’s energy transition, says the Biden administration is still “all in”, despite new hurdles.
National
Climate target has broad support: Albanese
The prime minister remains adamant Labor’s new climate target has broad support, despite a push from some Pacific leaders for Australia to increase it.
Could Australia have a ‘teal independent’ as PM? Climate 200 thinks so
“Sky’s the limit” for what Climate 200 movement could do next, its chief says, including targeting state elections, or even an independent prime minister.
Viva puts in order for Australia’s biggest electrolyser to produce renewable hydrogen
Viva Energy orders electrolyser to produce “fuel cell grade” renewable hydrogen as part of the Australian oil refiner’s plans to green up its business.
Climate-related claims impact a widening range of businesses, report finds
A new report finds that a widening range of businesses is being targeted by climate-related litigation cases. It also sees novel strategies being used to impact emissions-producing businesses and supply chains.
Labor backing fossil fuel projects could scupper Greens support for 43% target
Adam Bandt vows to push Albanese government ‘further and faster’ on emissions reduction
CSIRO joins deep-sea mining project in Pacific as islands call for industry halt
Agency to lead consortium in scheme targeting battery materials while conservationists say Australia on ‘wrong side of debate’
Crossbench says parliament rule could gag them during climate debate
New MPs cannot contribute to debate until they have given their “first speech”, so independent MPs are asking to be prioritised in order to debate climate and other policy.
Clean energy builds self-reliance: Zibelman [$]
Australia can be a superpower in clean energy tech and must embrace the opportunity, says Audrey Zibelman, now heading up the grid moonshot at Alphabet’s X.
Greens told: don’t make us a pariah on emissions [$]
The Australian Conservation Foundation has warned the Greens not to block Labor’s bill enshrining a 43 per cent carbon emissions reduction target in law.
Rachel Withers
How can Labor placate the Pacific while admonishing the Greens, who are asking for the same thing?
‘Progress’ is killing Australia’s east coast
Keith Presnell
Deforestation and urbanisation have interrupted the natural rainfall cycle that gives Australia its lush, green east coastline.
The Greens should focus on all matters of environment
Letters
The position of the Greens towards parliament and the environment comes under scrutiny by readers.
Albo loves fighting Greens even more than Tories [$]
Cameron Milner
The PM put the Greens in their place this week. It shows you can take the lad out of Marrickville but you can’t take Marrickville out of the lad.
Albanese must reject Greens veto [$]
Australian editorial
Labor should strive for good policy that can find bipartisan support.
A darker world without fossil fuel security [$]
AFR editorial
Some say that a faster transition to renewables is needed to make the world safer. In reality, Australia’s gas industry has a critical role to play in preventing authoritarian regimes from weaponising energy.
John Mathews et al
Gone are the days when the federal government would cheer on Australia’s fossil fuel exports to the exclusion of all else, while seemingly doing everything in its power to hold back the switch to renewables.
Jonathan Holmes
An open letter to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC.
Victoria
Chug, chug, then eat your mug: Edible coffee cup passes taste test
Success is brewing for Melbourne company Good-Edi, whose edible coffee cup – which tastes “like a Weet-Bix waffle” – has been stocked by more than 50 cafes nationwide.
Go West: Experts in call to drop Suburban Rail Loop for ‘more urgent’ projects
The Andrews government’s flagship Suburban Rail Loop project risks monopolising public transport spending for decades and delaying other more urgent and beneficial infrastructure, transport experts have warned.
Greens-led council’s war on cars sparks backlash [$]
A Melbourne council’s long-term transport blueprint has been described as openly declaring war on residents who need to drive to work.
Aboriginal groups seek sole management of Vic water [$]
The Andrews government’s push for treaties with traditional owners includes proposals that risk allocations to local growers.
Take a peek inside this family’s off-grid home in regional Victoria
Paying his quarterly energy bill used to be something Michael Robinson would “dread”, but it is a distant memory since turning his off-grid fantasy into a reality.
New South Wales
EPA prosecutes Forestry seeking $18m fines
The government agency that manages NSW forests could be on the hook for $18 million in fines after the felling of trees in koala habitat on the Mid-North Coast.
Kean’s $15m sweetener for electric cars
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean will commit $15m towards incentives for councils and businesses to switch to electric vehicles.
‘New normal’: Project Phoenix reveals future of Sydney public transport
The biggest influence over Sydney’s movement patterns will be the number of people who continue to work from home, internal NSW government papers reveal.
Another word on the sadness and madness of the language of the ‘one-in-100-years’ flood
Chas Keys
Not even the Premier of New South Wales understands the meaning of the term the ‘one-in-100-years’ flood. Nor does the Prime Minister, who this week repeated the Premier’s misguided words on it.
ACT
European street feel for Canberra part of new active travel plan
An ambitious program of infrastructure improvements will lay the foundation to encourage more Canberrans to take up walking and cycling for their commute and leave their cars at home, the ACT government believes.
Annika Reynolds, Peta Bulling
As young people, our futures are painted in fraught tones. Spiralling costs of living, an inaccessible housing market, climate change, and a global extinction disaster.
“13 Olympic pools of fat and waste”: Queensland to burn food for power
Queensland proposes to burn up to 13 Olympic swimming pools worth of organic liquid food and fat, oil and grease waste from restaurants and supermarkets in new power facility.
Massive Queensland wind farm strikes land use deal with traditional owners
Gugu Badhun agree to take a lead role in the delivery of Windlab’s new 600MW wind farm – and give it a traditional language name.
Annie Cannon-Brookes buys Dunk Island with plans to develop
Annie Cannon-Brookes, wife of tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, strikes a deal to buy the beleaguered Dunk Island, off the coast of Far North Queensland.
Queensland to install batteries at coal plants
Queensland will install renewable energy components at coal-fired power plants, but the state government is ambiguous about future plans for using fossil fuel electricity generation.
Mine ‘not to blame for high lead levels’ [$]
Heightened levels of lead in the blood of a Mount Isa toddler rose even after she was prevented from playing outside and could not have been caused by emissions from the town’s smelter, the mine operator says.
K’Gari (Fraser Island) inundated with 30 tonnes of rubbish after Queensland floods
One of Australia’s most famous World Heritage-listed islands has been turned into a tip by the Queensland floods, but locals have a few ideas about how to tackle the problem.
Queensland rooftop solar a windfall for power companies, Conservation Council says
Queensland’s abundant rooftop solar is saving power companies about $30 million a month, according to the Conservation Council. Many home owners would like to be paid money for that power, but the Australian Energy Council says they are already getting enough.
South Australia
Electric car battery demand fuels SA miners
Two Adelaide-based companies seeking to export large volumes of refined lithium and graphite to fuel electric car battery production have announced expansion plans.
Tasmania
An energy economist says the Marinus Link is economically not viable and cannot happen without Tasmanian taxpayers footing the bill.
Jazz the spaniel helps find fugitive fox making Phillip Island fox-free once more
After nearly two months of sniffing and searching, Phillip Island Nature Parks has found and euthanased the predator of bandicoots and penguins that made it onto the once fox-free island some time before May.
GE eyes Australian project for critical minerals key to offshore wind turbines and EVs
GE targets massive rare earths mine and processing facility in Northern Territory for minerals critical for offshore wind turbines and electric vehicles.
NT government makes federal funding pitch for Beetaloo Basin oil and gas projects
Infrastructure necessary for oil and gas companies to reach production in the Beetaloo has been added to a national list of priority investments.
Western Australia
Using Keystart to curb Perth’s urban sprawl is a start – but a slow one
Why not simply stop allowing development on the urban fringe to stop urban sprawl? That wouldn’t be “sensitive” to the market, the state government says.
Native rat that builds houses made of sticks takes 2160km plane ride
The air transfer of 60 greater stick-nest rats has marked the halfway point for an ambitious project to send one Australian island back in time.
Wind, solar and battery supply chains vulnerable to geopolitical crises, experts warn
The emerging dominance of clean tech supply chains by countries like China could pose new forms of energy security risks, experts warn.
Longer lasting sodium-ion batteries on the horizon
A new longer-lasting sodium-ion battery design is much more durable and reliable in lab tests. After 300 charging cycles, it retained 90 percent of its charging capacity.
Former Fukushima nuclear power plant bosses ordered to pay over $139b in damages
A Tokyo court says former executives from the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant involved in the 2011 disaster must pay around $139.96 billion in damages.
Halt use of biofuels to ease food crisis, says green group
RePlanet calls on EU to ditch organic targets and for governments to lift bans on genetically modified crops
NIH: Common chemicals linked to preterm births
Exposure to a common group of chemicals used in plastics and a broad range of personal care products leads to an uptick in preterm births, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Putin’s best chance for an energy knockout blow is right now [$]
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Vladimir Putin has prepared the ground for a drastic cut in supplies of both oil and gas at any moment, giving him the means to strike a psychological hammer blow against the Western democracies.
Karen Scott
Ocean plastic pollution was a focus at the recent UN oceans conference, which issued a declaration in support of an earlier decision by the UN Environment Assembly to start negotiations for a global plastics treaty.
Nature Conservation
The controversial plan to unleash the Mississippi
Our long history of constraining the river through levees has led to massive land loss in its delta. Can we engineer our way out? And at what cost?
How demand for twigs is bringing down a rainforest
In the Congo River Basin, people who collect bundles of wood to make charcoal are playing a surprisingly large role in the deforestation of a region that rivals the Amazon in importance.
Forests are becoming less resilient because of climate change
An analysis of two decades of satellite data shows that forests in arid, tropical and temperate regions are becoming less able to bounce back after events such as drought and logging.
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