Post of the Day
Tanya Plibersek on Labor’s plans for Australia’s environment – Australian Politics podcast
Australia’s environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, talks to Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, about how Labor will decide which mines get approval and which don’t, whether or not the Albanese Labor government will institute a climate trigger — and how do we prepare for an eventual drought in Australia?
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
UK declares drought in parts of England, carbon emissions from French wildfires hit record
Parts of southern, central and eastern England are now in drought status, as a major heatwave causes havoc across Europe.
Laws intended to protect the environment in European cities must be more flexible in order to protect residents from the climate emergency, experts have warned.
Young people drive climate and water action
More than 1,000 youth leaders from Asia and the Pacific region gathered this week in the Philippines for an international conference co-sponsored by WMO to increase youth participation in addressing global water and climate challenges.
Fact check: Facts splinter spurious ice sheet claim
A social media user has lashed out at ‘climate frauds’ by arguing Greenland’s ice sheet shows no sign of reducing.
‘This is HUGE!’ Major climate legislation will soon become law
House passes Inflation Reduction Act with $369 billion to supercharge clean energy, promote environmental justice, and cut carbon emissions. Biden will sign it within days.
Would there still have been climate change under socialism?
Market failure certainly delays aggressive climate action, but even had the whole world in the 20th century been socialist, the planet would still be heating up.
National
States make landmark energy agreement amid warning of more power shortages
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has given the energy market operator additional powers in a bid to avoid gas shortages next winter, as well as enshrining a landmark emissions-reduction objective for the industry.
Call for climate check on Origin Energy
Origin Energy has received a demand to look at climate change impact across its operations when reporting on financial performance.
Battling snapper more diverse than thought
New research on snapper reveals more genetically distinct populations of the prized Australian table fish than previously understood.
New faster charging hydrogen fuel cell developed
Researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have developed a new method to improve solid-state hydrogen fuel cell charging times.
IAG chief says climate change is adding to rising insurance costs
Insurance Australia Group chief executive Nick Hawkins says climate change is contributing to the upward pressure on premiums, alongside the La Nina weather pattern, as the company warned the price of home cover would jump by up to 10 per cent.
Revealed: How Mike Cannon-Brookes is spending his $1.5b green fund [$]
Eytan Lenko, the climate investor in charge of spending some of the fund, is urging better fuel efficiency standards to drive the uptake of electric vehicles.
The path to 43pc hinges on these three bets paying off [$]
Beyond the ambitious statements and big numbers, this is where the decarbonisation rubber hits the road.
Why electric vehicles could increase values on no-go roads [$]
Electric cars could signal the death of noisy neighbourhoods, increasing the value of properties once shunned for being on a busy road. Here is why.
Tanya Plibersek on Labor’s plans for Australia’s environment – Australian Politics podcast
Australia’s environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, talks to Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, about how Labor will decide which mines get approval and which don’t, whether or not the Albanese Labor government will institute a climate trigger — and how do we prepare for an eventual drought in Australia?
It’s time Australia recognised cats and their impact as a major environmental issue
Trent Zimmerman
Domestic cats destroy over one million native animals a day – but Australians still find it hard to accept their own cute little moggie could be a killer
Road to net zero passes through Australia’s gas fields [$]
AFR editorial
Labor gets it that gas is the global bridging fuel between coal and renewables. And markets are responding already.
Historic new deal puts emissions reduction at the heart of Australia’s energy sector
Madeline Taylor
Australia’s energy ministers on Friday voted to make emissions reduction a key national energy goal, in a major step forward in the clean energy transition.
Mission accomplished? Labor and the climate wars
Tristan Prasser: The Prime Minister is declaring the ‘Climate Wars’ over. But are they?
Sustainability bites as living costs rise [$]
Tara Cosoleto
Renters and people on lower incomes are finding it harder to make more sustainable choices as cost of living pressures rise across the country.
US climate legislation has big, positive implications for Australia
Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer
Joe Biden’s win on climate action and renewables this week is also good news for miners and mineral processors here at home.
Victoria
Why Teals won’t dominate Vic election [$]
Climate 200 convener Simon Holmes a Court has revealed why it will be harder for Teal independents to have an impact on the Victorian election.
New South Wales
Sydney Water found guilty of pumping 280,000 litres of sewage into creek used for fishing
Sydney Water is convicted for discharging hundreds of thousands of litres of untreated sewage into Prospect Creek in Western Sydney after an equipment failure.
Demand for bush foods is growing so much suppliers are having trouble sourcing ingredients locally
Bush food retailers in New South Wales say they are turning to other states to source local native ingredients as supply cannot keep up with increasing demand.
Greens say business case for billion-dollar dam ‘just doesn’t stack up’
The proposed $1.3 billion Dungowan Dam near Tamworth would only produce 27 cents for every dollar invested, according to a summary of the business case obtained by the NSW Greens. Water Minister Kevin Anderson disputes the claim.
Plastic bags are banned in NSW so why are some businesses still using them?
When is a “thicker” plastic bag not thick enough? When is a fine merited? The move away from disposable bags and single-use cutlery items is not proving to be an easy transition.
WIRES allegations of poor practices grow as carers speak out
When it comes to wildlife rescue, there are few organisations better known than WIRES. But it stands accused by some of the very people who are its bedrock – its volunteers – of causing harm.
Councils want shark nets removed as soon as this summer
Beaches north of Sydney want to be the first to ditch shark nets after almost 100 years in favour of newer technology that will have less impact on marine animals.
ACT
Soap from fat? Art from plastic? Circular economy thriving ahead of waste strategy [$]
Used cooking oil from cafes in Canberra and Queanbeyan is filtered and cleaned and turned into soap then returned to the counters to be sold alongside coffees. It’s the circular economy at work.
National Capital Authority to increase monitoring of Lake Burley Griffin [$]
The National Capital Authority has committed to increased monitoring of Lake Burley Griffin during extreme weather events, following a recommendation from the ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment.
Queensland
A new ferry will soon take more visitors into the Daintree. But how many can it handle?
There will soon be a new, bigger Daintree River ferry but conservationists and traditional owners warn the wilderness area can’t cope with more visitors.
Is the answer to high electricity prices blowing in the wind?
A $160 million promise to connect a Queensland wind farm to the national power grid means the future of power will be cleaner and cheaper, according to conservationists
Traditional owners and scientists have restored this coastal wetland. But other areas are missing out
Academics and traditional owners teamed up to nurse a former pastoral property back to health. But a new paper identifies the barriers stopping similar restoration projects from taking place nationwide.
K-gari (Fraser Island) has a rubbish problem
K’gari (Fraser Island) may become a victim of its own success as millions of tourists leave behind piles of rubbish in their wake.
What’s killing big barramundi in central Queensland waterways?
It is a confronting sight, but water authorities say there is a simple explanation behind the phenomenon.
Council scoped out new Brisbane underground with suburban stations
A rail tunnel with stations at Everton Park and Bridgeman Downs was included in a business case sent to Infrastructure Australia to help solve the congestion crisis.
South Australia
Like e-scooters, these cups and takeaway containers are being dropped off and reused
Would you drink out of someone else’s cup? Cafes in a coastal town have joined a project to cut down on the waste their food and drinks create.
It’s been five years since the construction of Elon Musk’s giant battery in rural SA. But for then-premier Jay Weatherill, the tweets that triggered the Tesla project were a double-edged sword.
Tasmania
Where the turbines will go for $2.7b wind farm [$]
A $2.7 billion wind farm declared a major project by the state government will be located in two areas in Dorset and will inject 400 jobs during construction and 65 jobs once operational.
Sustainability
‘The problem is enormous’: Chemical spill suspected in massive German fish die-off
Polish and German environmental detectives are attempting to trace the origin of a suspect chemical spill that has already killed tonnes of fish in the Oder river.
Johnson & Johnson to stop selling talcum baby powder globally
Thousands of lawsuits claiming that Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based powder products contain carcinogens have been filed against the company.
Young Fijians work with older generation for sustainable future
On the island nation of Fiji, young people are working in solidarity with their elders, benefiting from their knowledge and experience to protect the fragile ecosystem.
Learning the right nuclear lessons from Ukraine
Ramesh Thakur
The Hiroshima gathering affirms the importance of nuclear arms control and disarmament.
As minutes TikTok to midnight, environmental collapse draws closer
David Shearman
We accept death but we avoid thinking about it which isn’t difficult in a society easily distracted and addicted by so many irrelevancies.
Environment: More aquaculture to feed a silent world
Peter Sainsbury
Sustainable aquaculture to boost fish supplies. Rich nations fund poor’s fossil fuel industries. Extinctions silence nature.
Nature Conservation
Climate change and overfishing threaten once ‘endless’ Antarctic krill
Antarctic krill — tiny, filter-feeding crustaceans that live in the Southern Ocean — have long existed in mind-boggling numbers. A 2009 study estimated that the species has a biomass of between 300 million and 500 million metric tons, which is more than any other multicellular wild animal in the world.
‘Protection too small, pressure too high’ for tree species globally, study finds
Researchers looked at the distributions of more than 46,000 tree species around the world and found that more than 13% have no protection. For all species examined, at least half of their distribution lacks protection
—
return email, delete it from your system and destroy any copies.