Date: 21 September 2022 at 6:45:05 am AWST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Sep 21
Post of the Day
Exotic disease threat on the rise as climate change alters habitats, scientists say
Climate change isn’t just expanding the environments were deadly diseases can occur, it’s also making their spread more likely as weather events become more extreme, researchers say.
On This Day
Nativity of the Theotokos – Eastern Christianity
Ecological Observance
Arbor Day – Brazil
Climate Change
Hundreds of Global South climate organisers gathering ahead of COP27
In the lead-up to COP27, the 27th UN climate summit, in Egypt, about 400 young climate mobilisers and organisers from across the Global South will gather at a Climate Justice Camp in Tunisia to co-create strategies and demand an equitable and just response to the climate crisis.
‘I dare you to shape our fate’: Amanda Gorman recites powerful new poem at UN to urge climate action
The 2022 UN General Assembly has opened in New York with climate change, human rights, rising food costs and massive displacement and dislocation topping the agenda.
Climate change may impact marine environments more than anything else
Promoting the sustainable development of marine environments requires planning, just as we have long had spatial planning for land-based activities. Now researchers are showing that marine planning must take climate change into consideration.
Global heat waves are fossil fuel-driven climate chaos
Greenpeace media release
Unprecedented danger caused by heat waves and extreme weather will continue to be the new normal if we don’t take urgent action to stop fossil fuel-driven climate change.
National
Attenborough’s ‘innovative genius’, award-winning wildlife cinematographer Jim Frazier, dies
One of Australia’s most decorated cinematographers, who spent years working with Sir David Attenborough, is being remembered as an “extraordinary” photographer, inventor and naturalist.
Heavy rain forecast for Australia’s east coast as third La Niña brings fears of renewed flooding
Widespread thunderstorms will make Thursday the ‘wettest day’ for NSW during public holiday honouring the Queen’s death
Labor faces electric vehicle roadblock over inclusion of hybrid cars
Greens and David Pocock say government bill amounts to a fossil fuel subsidy and will slow uptake of zero emission vehicles
Emissions from Australia’s oil and gas industry rose 20% in first five years of safeguard mechanism
Scale of rise prompts warning Australia will struggle to cut emissions if Labor revamp allows new coal and gas
‘Australia is back’: Chris Bowen spruiks climate agenda on world stage
The energy minister warns that the energy crisis caused primarily by Russia’s “illegal and immoral actions” against Ukraine has made the shift to renewables all the more urgent.
Consumer watchdog to crack down on fake green claims by business
“Biodegradable”, “recyclable” and “compostable” declarations were problematic areas, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Delia Rickard says.
Major polluters put on notice as Labor mulls shakeup of major emissions scheme
Major polluters have been put on notice to commit to real emissions cuts this decade, rather than rely on “questionable” carbon offsets and “special treatment” from government to reach abatement targets.
AGL insists it will decarbonise as it seeks reset [$]
AGL has clashed with major shareholders in recent months, but the new chairman has urged unity. Any truce, however, may be short-lived.
Coalition split over Labor’s climate target [$]
The Coalition is divided over whether to back Labor’s 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030, with investors warning a lower commitment will divert capital to other countries.
Don’t exempt coal, gas, smelters in carbon rules, ACCI says [$]
Exporters should be pressed to contribute “their share of national abatement” through the safeguard mechanism, says the business chamber, which opposes exemptions
Time to ditch the windfall mentality about minerals and energy [$]
Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer
The budget is set to benefit from ‘windfall’ tax revenue from energy and mining. But it’s time to see those sectors as core to tax policy.
Report underscores “abject failure” of safeguards mechanism, calls for big polluters to pay
Joshua S Hill
Report on Coalition government-era safeguard mechanism underscores what happens when big polluters set the rules on emissions.
Unthinkable news calls for unthinkable decisions
Peter Boyer
Australians have seen enough storms and floods, droughts and fires to make climate change a top-order political issue, a survey for the World Economic Forum has revealed.
Beetaloo gas field: Resurrect health impact assessments to save lives
David Shearman and Melissa Haswell
Our new government walks both sides of the street on fossil fuels.
More than a quarry: How Australia can grab share of $100 trillion in new global landscape
Tim Buckley & Matt Pollard
Around $100 trillion will be spent on the global energy transition. Australia is well placed with many of the critical minerals, but it must be more than a quarry.
Victoria
Victoria urged to shoot for net-zero by 2034, after 2020 emissions target “smashed”
New data shows Victoria beat its 2020 emissions reduction target by nearly 10%. Separate modelling says that, on this trajectory, it could reach net-zero 16 years early.
It’s been a while since visitors have been able to watch the daily procession of little penguins near the St Kilda pier in Melbourne, but volunteers have been working hard on new projects to support a healthy penguin colony for years to come.
New South Wales
NSW Land Council urges end to ‘traumatic’ prosecution of cultural fishing
The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council has urged the State Government to stop prosecuting Aboriginal people for cultural fishing, following the withdrawal of a charge against Yuin Elder Kevin Mason.
Why a proposal to ban fossil fuel advertising in NSW could face pushback from sporting codes
Greens MP Sue Higginson says she will introduce a bill to New South Wales parliament to ban fossil fuel advertising, similar to the one placed on tobacco companies.
‘Massive missed opportunity’: NSW could make $23bn with tiered tax on record coal profits
‘Small number of fossil fuel-exporting companies are making windfall gains,’ says analyst advocating for Queensland system
Why Aussies aren’t riding their bikes to work [$]
Opinion
Wollongong has been named a world cycling city and the sport is a popular pastime but we have a long way to go to encourage Australians to use bikes as a regular form of transport.
Queensland
Mining industry says Queensland’s coal royalty hike ‘wildly’ underestimates revenue
The Queensland Resources Council wants the state to scrap its 40 per cent royalty hike on some coal exports, saying the new rates put the industry’s viability at risk.
The energy Queenslanders want to invest in [$]
Residents in Queensland’s largest electricity-producing region have spoken. This is what energy source they want the government to invest in.
South Australia
Wearing a solar backpack, one of these Storm Boy pelicans flew to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and back
Solar-powered trackers are helping researchers determine what areas of SA’s Coorong need to be better protected for bird habitats.
Call to suspend work on SA nuclear waste site
The federal government is facing pressure to suspend work on a planned nuclear waste dump near Kimba while the disputed project is before the courts, as the government reveals it has spent three times more than Traditional Owners on legal fees.
Tasmania
Fly-in fly-out camping plan for national park back to seek fresh federal approval
It has faced appeal and counter-appeal, but the man behind a Tasmanian wilderness camping proposal is not giving up the fight, despite years of opposition to the tourism venture.
Mystery as 14 dead sperm whales wash ashore on King Island
At least 14 dead sperm whales have washed up on King Island, north of Tasmania.
Northern Territory
How Tamboran became Beetaloo’s biggest player in just a few hours
It’s been a big week in the Northern Territoy’s Beetaloo Basin as Tamboran Resources made a series of significant business moves.
Lily O’Neill and Ben Neville
What a difference six months makes. Before the federal election, the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory was to have spearheaded Australia’s “gas-led recovery”. But Origin Energy this week announced it would sell its share of the basin project ahead of a wider exit from new gas ventures.
Fortescue to spend $9.2bn on wind, solar, batteries and hydrogen to reach net zero by 2030
Andrew Forrest details $9.2 billion spend to reach net zero for his mining giant by 2030, most of it to be spent over next five years
Musk v Forrest: The clash of eco-titans and their enormous egos
Elizabeth Knight
Elon Musk’s dismissal of green hydrogen has sparked a war of words between the Tesla founder and Australia’s richest man.
Sustainability
UN expert calls for global ban on mercury trade and use in small-scale gold mining
A UN expert* today urged States to address human rights violations related to the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining and protect the environment by prohibiting its trade and use in such mining.
A better understanding of crop yields under climate change
Research solves long-standing mystery of how water impacts agricultural production
New evidence finds current policies not working to end plastic pollution
The results showed an overwhelming lack of evidence and monitoring of policy effectiveness, which means that the development of effective plastic policy-making often happens in an evidence vacuum.
Plastic degradation in ocean contributes to its acidification
A new study led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona has revealed that the sunlight plastic degradation contributes to the ocean acidification due to the release of dissolved organic carbon compounds from both, the plastic itself and its additives, and the CO2 production.
EU wastes 153m tonnes of food a year – much more than it imports, says report
Bloc must halve its food waste by 2030 to tackle climate crisis and improve food security, say campaigners
Experts call for overhaul of aviation industry’s response to climate change
Despite some companies’ pledges to transition to carbon neutrality in the coming decades, experts warn not nearly enough is being done to combat the aviation industry’s toll on the planet.
A potential connection between dementia and air pollution
Air pollution is only one of many factors that influence cognitive decline and dementia, researchers agree.
The 6 key elements of a just energy transition – video
Produced with The Solutions Project and narrated by Mark Ruffalo, our new video breaks down the basic elements of a very complex concept in just 2 minutes.
What does ‘just transition’ really mean?
Alison F. Takemura
Here’s a primer on the term advocates use to describe the shift to a clean energy economy that benefits everyone.
Fixing the blind spot in nuclear inspections
Trevor Findlay
A blind spot in safeguards culture led to a ‘that’s the way we do things around here’ approach at the IAEA – but lessons have been learned since Iraq
Should taxpayers gamble on blue hydrogen and carbon capture?
Shanti Gamper-Rabindran
Americans have an important decision to make: Do we fully embrace renewable energy, or do we divert scarce public funding to explore unproven technologies like blue hydrogen (hydrogen produced using natural gas ) and carbon capture that can double down on fossil fuel dependency?
The trouble with King Charles’ unorthodox views on modern farming
Bill Wirtz
The policies that Charles supports would fundamentally change the global farming system, causing significant disruptions.
Nature Conservation
Irrational war on drugs, destruction of Amazon, expose humanity’s failures, Colombia’s Petro tells UN
During his first speech at the General Assembly as the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro said that the world’s addiction to money, oil and carbon is destroying the rainforest and its people under the excuse of a “hypocritical” war against drugs.
Malaria spike linked to amphibian die-off
Dozens of species of frogs, salamanders and other amphibians quietly disappeared from parts of Latin America in the 1980s and 2000s, with little notice from humans, outside of a small group of ecologists. Yet the amphibian decline had direct health consequences for people, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
‘This is what a river should look like’: Dutch rewilding project turns back the clock 500 years
Europe’s largest river restoration is making changes across the entire landscape, bringing benefits to wildlife and people.
Young cold-blooded animals are suffering the most as Earth heats up, research finds
Patrice Pottier
Climate change is making heatwaves worse. Many people have already noticed the difference – and so too have other animals.
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