Date: 21 November 2022 at 8:47:18 am AEDT
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Subject: Daily Links Nov 21
Post of the Day
What happens when a cascade of crises collide?
Humanity faces a complex knot of seemingly distinct but entangled crises that are causing damage greater than the sum of their individual harms.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
COP27 agree on climate deal and historic compensation fund for vulnerable countries
The fund that aims to support countries vulnerable to climate change makes it on to the official agenda for the first time at the summit in Egypt.
Key takeaways from the COP27 climate summit in Egypt
This year’s U.N. climate summit featured visits by world leaders, proposals by business leaders, and negotiations by nearly 200 nations about the future of global action on climate change.
Final deal meets developing countries’ demand for funds but vulnerable islands lament lack of ambition in curbing emissions.
‘We couldn’t fail them’: how Pakistan’s floods spurred fight at Cop for loss and damage fund
With the deadly devastation fresh in the world’s mind, Pakistan pushed for damage funds with other frontline countries
‘We can do the impossible’: how key players reacted to end of Cop27 climate summit
World leaders, diplomats and activists respond to signing of ‘historic’ deal as climate talks wrap up
Climate change: Welsh river temperature increases by 1C
A project observing the climate change impact on streams and rivers in Wales has seen its average temperature rise 1C (1.8F) in the past 40 years.
Explainer: Who will pay for climate ‘loss and damage’?
The COP27 summit of nearly 200 countries agreed on Sunday to set up a “loss and damage” fund to support poorer countries being ravaged by climate impacts, overcoming decades of resistance from wealthy nations whose historic emissions have fuelled climate change.
The Guardian view on Cop27’s outcome: a real achievement, but too far to go
Guardian editorial
The creation of a loss and damage fund is a milestone, but a 1.5C limit to the global temperature rise looks even further out of reach
The big takeaway from Cop27? These climate conferences just aren’t working
Bill McGuire
Rather than a bloated global talking shop, we need something smaller, leaner and fully focused on the crisis at hand
Success came at the end of COP, but that depends on what you wanted from it
Nick O’Malley
Those determined to secure a fund to pay the poorest for climate damage will consider the sometimes bitter talks in Egypt to have been a resounding success.
COP27: Investors are the wrong people to address climate change
Michael Edesess
The leaders in the creation of the low-carbon infrastructure of the future must be those who will know how to build it, not those whose principal occupation is trading shares on the secondary market. This is why I believe that China, despite its current dependence on coal, is much more likely to achieve its future
This so-called ‘implementation’ climate conference felt like anything but
Nicki Hutley
There is a huge cognitive dissonance between messages of hope at COP27 and the reality of our fossil fuel sector.
The good, the bad, and a leave pass for fossil fuels at compromised Egypt COP27
Richie Merzian
COP27 made important advances on loss and damage, but the refusal to call out fossil fuels and backtracking on 1.5° target has left a bitter taste.
COP27: one big breakthrough but ultimately an inadequate response to the climate crisis
Matt McDonald
For 30 years, developing nations have fought to establish an international fund to pay for the “loss and damage” they suffer as a result of climate change. As the COP27 climate summit in Egypt wrapped up over the weekend, they finally succeeded.
The world votes for “climate hell”
Julian Cribb
The nations of the world voted to terminate human civilisation and commit all our grandchildren to bake and starve on an uninhabitable ruin of a Planet.
Loss, damage fund COP ‘success’ [$]
Graham Lloyd
Agreement was claimed on a ‘loss and damage’ fund: where rich nations assist developing countries cope with climate change.
America’s new governors and mayors: This is your Day One climate to-do list
Aimee Barnes and Dawn Lippert
The next eight years represent a critical window to prevent catastrophic climate impacts, and climate change will serve as the defining issue for officials across the country, including governors and mayors.
Putting science first in creating and using the social cost of carbon
Steven Rose
As nearly 200 countries are gathered at the UN climate summit COP27 in Egypt to discuss how to address climate change, the U.S. government is in the process of developing updated monetary estimates of the damages from emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.
National
Native fish suffocating as parts of Murray-Darling Basin turn toxic from unprecedented floodwaters
The unprecedented floodwaters have led to the highest water flows in years across the Murray-Darling basin, yet native fish are dying — and the situation is expected to worsen.
Electricians are leading the charge on renewables boom, but a tradie shortage could slow it down
Researchers say a crippling workforce gap could hinder the governments emissions reductions targets, as electricians prove to be a key ‘green’ job.
Australia eyes move to greener vehicles and fuels
Australians will be asked if they want to ban sales of the highest polluting vehicles by 2025 in the latest transport proposal from the federal government.
Australia’s ‘cleaner coal’ is a systematic export scam: MP
A revelation that lab tests are falsified to show Australian coal is “cleaner” is just scratching the surface, Andrew Wilkie will tell parliament.
Does switching from gas to electricity really save money? [$]
A new study has discovered some surprising truths on whether switching from gas to electric appliances saves costs and cuts carbon emissions.
Will global energy giants prevail as Australian gas prices soar even higher?
Ian Verrender
Sovereign risk is a term that surfaces almost every time a major corporation doesn’t fancy something, like government intervention to rein in surging energy prices
It’s time to add climate change and net-zero emissions to the RBA’s top 3 economic goals
Toby Phillips
Increasingly, climate change is at the centre of government decision-making.
Remaking our suburbs’ 1960s apartment blocks: a subtle and greener way to increase housing density
Guillermo Fernández-Abascal and Urtzi Grau
As cities grow, new buildings gradually replace the older ones. Ideally, the new buildings are higher quality, more sustainable and better suited to today’s needs. But there’s a risk current approaches to urban renewal will produce poorer amenities and buildings that are less flexible and more environmentally damaging than those they replace.
Labor leverages international momentum to domestic effect [$]
Jennifer Hewett
Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen return to Australia confident of the government’s momentum. Now for the harder part: dealing with domestic energy prices.
This man is building the green energy superhighway [$]
Ticky Fullerton
Transgrid boss Brett Redman is working to upgrade the infrastructure that will connect new renewables with users. In an increasingly unstable grid, it is mission critical.
Victoria
Could these off-roaders make you think differently about four-wheel drives and the environment?
A group that is part off-road driving club, part cross-country clean-up team is helping bush communities with jobs that need heavy-duty support.
Victorians care about the environment. Here’s how the parties stack up
This is the first state election where both major parties in Victoria have agreed we should cut emissions by 50 per cent. So what are the rest of their policies?
Council worker takes shire to court over alleged illegal dumping of toxic waste
A council worker at a northern Victorian shire is taking his employer to the Federal Court after accusing it of illegally dumping toxic waste and punishing him for speaking up.
Alarm at scale of cruel wildlife smuggling [$]
The growth in online marketplaces such as Gumtree has led to many Victorians unintentionally buying illegally sourced animals.
ALP gas plan to leave families counting cost [$]
Daniel Andrews’ signature gas policy will see Victorian households out of pocket for more than a decade, and only result in a household greenhouse gas emission reduction of about 3 per cent.
Of the major parties, Labor provides most realistic path to clean energy
Age editorial
Our government needs to urgently enact policies that make deep cuts to greenhouse pollution, reduce emissions and restore the natural world.
New South Wales
‘The Great Wall of Condo’ is holding back floodwaters for now, but the flood peak is coming
Rescue workers are shifting their focus to Euabalong and Condobolin, where a makeshift levee is keeping water away from the CBD, as floodwater slowly recedes at Forbes in central west NSW.
The neighbours who gave up on the government and funded a solar farm themselves [$]
There was a collective pride and shared energy amongst the group who met recently at an unremarkable block of industrial land on the outskirts of Goulburn.
Gold mine expansion on hold after vent shaft emits 18 times the regulatory limit of carcinogen
Newcrest’s Cadia Valley Operations near Orange will have its expansion approval revoked after failing to meet a key condition of its production increase.
South Australia
Blackout for thousands of SA properties after more storm damage
Work is underway to fix power outages across South Australia after severe weather on Saturday as more strong winds are predicted.
Creating jobs, lowering power bills and making their town proud. It all comes down to firewood
A group of previously jobless men are going to work each day to not only benefit themselves, but their whole community.
‘Sitting on their hands’: Murray farms face ruin if SAPN cuts them off
SA’s power utility has hit back at claims it’s been caught unprepared as farmers say they face ruin if their electricity is turned off during flooding.
Northern Territory
How an NT community tackled youth crime [$]
A remote Northern Territory community has reduced youth crime by a staggering 95 per cent.
Western Australia
Auditor raises red flag over mysterious foreign company at centre of WA energy crisis
The auditor of an Indian-owned company at the centre of Western Australia’s growing energy crisis says it’s “unable” to verify the firm’s accounts.
Perth’s most unusual backyard subdivision shows how cool our suburbs could be
Four homes, four car bays and forty trees, all on a traditional quarter-acre block. It’s suburbia – but a shady, new kind for our hot sprawling Perth.
Ancient Perth aquifer makes space-age computer one of world’s greenest
In Perth’s southern suburbs an immensely powerful supercomputer is taking shape. Thanks to some ingenuity, it is also among the world’s most energy-efficient.
Argonne releases small modular reactor waste analysis report
Small modular nuclear reactors, which offer greater flexibility and lower upfront cost than large nuclear reactors, have both some advantages and disadvantages when it comes to nuclear waste generation.
The wastewater draining from massive pools of sewage sludge has the potential to play a role in more sustainable agriculture, according to environmental engineering researchers at Drexel University
Engineers solve a mystery on the path to smaller, lighter batteries
A new discovery could finally usher the development of solid-state lithium batteries, which would be more lightweight, compact, and safe than current lithium batteries.
Corporate pledges to recycle or reduce plastics aren’t translating into less plastic use
Plastic pollution is overwhelming landfills, littering Earth’s coastlines, and affecting the health of animals, including humans, while also contributing to environmental degradation and climate change. As public expectations for corporate responsibility grow and an increasing number of businesses pledge to reduce plastic use, researchers publishing in the journal One Earth on November 18 detail how the world’s largest and most powerful companies’ focus on recycling rather than virgin plastic reduction makes their commitments less meaningful.
Environment: 1.5 degrees is still alive (just)
Peter Sainsbury
The bad news: more evidence of humanity’s callous disregard for the environment and our own future. The good news: sex in the moonlight is not yet dead.
Nature Conservation
How big is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
An uncharted island entirely made of trash, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an enigma. And reducing its size is an even bigger mystery.
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