Post of the Day
From the Amazon to Australia, why is your money funding Earth’s destruction?
George Monbiot
Fossil fuels, fisheries and farming: the world’s most destructive industries are protected – and subsidised – by governments
On This Day
Indigenous Faith Day – Arunachal Pradesh
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
Why climate litigation against states is proving so effective
Lawyers Weekly spoke with Lucy Maxwell, co-director of the Climate Litigation Network in the United Kingdom and co-founder of the Rights Advocacy Project in Australia, to get insight into current trends in climate litigation and what the future may hold.
Wind and solar only hope if world is to cap global warming at 1.77°C
Wind and solar must account for 75 per cent of global electricity generation if the world has any chance of capping global warming below 2°C, new report says.
Major fires an increasing risk as the air gets thirstier, research shows
Greater atmospheric demand for water means a dramatic increase in the risk of major fires in global forests unless we take urgent and effective climate action, new research finds. Researchers have examined global climate and fire records in all of the world’s forests over the last 20 years.
Fertilizing the ocean to store carbon dioxide
Iron-based fertilizer, engineered into nanoparticles, could help store excess carbon dioxide in the ocean
Dormant microbes can ‘switch on’ to cope with climate change
Dormant strains of bacteria that have previously adapted to cope with certain temperatures are switched back on during climatic change, according to a new report.
Fact check: Tree coverage claim leaves out the facts
A social media post conflates urban tree loss with how global temperatures are measured.
COP27: The case for more fossil fuels in developing countries
Should coal, oil, and natural gas still be part of the answer for the world’s poorest in an era of climate change?
Covid lockdowns helped fuel a methane surge, study finds
When pandemic-related lockdowns grounded planes and brought car traffic to a near standstill in early 2020, transport emissions plummeted. But the slump in traffic helped fuel a spike in methane.
National
Would you serve feral pig at the dinner table? The game meat industry thinks you should
Wild boar meat is a popular dish in overseas restaurants but in Australia it suffers from poor public perception, something stakeholders want to change in an effort to reduce the country’s growing feral pig population.
Can a chorus of Aussie frogs knock Taylor Swift off the top of the charts?
Scientists hope the hottest new album to drop this year will be a cappella croaking, bleating and barking to raise awareness of Australia’s declining frog populations.
Time to turn crops ravaged by wild weather into energy?
Calls are growing for Australia to follow Europe’s lead to invest in technology that turns agricultural waste into power.
Albanese confident Queensland and NSW premiers will back plan to cut power prices
PM tells business leaders his government is ‘working around the clock to deliver a solution’ and flags collaboration with states
Power bill debts soar as states brawl over coal, gas price caps
The number of customers with a debt over $2500 for more than 24 months has risen by 39 per cent under the strain of higher energy bills.
Safeguard credits bill lands in parliament, but devil will be in design and baseline
New bill creates credits under the Safeguards Mechanism, but the devil will be in the design, which could pose problems for getting the legislation passed.
Climate change ‘unlikely to cause severe stress to the banks’: APRA [$]
Australia’s five biggest banks are well-placed to absorb the costs of a warming planet, with the results of the prudential regulator’s “climate vulnerability assessment” declaring modelled increases in loan losses arising from climate change “would be unlikely to cause severe stress to the banks”.
Can Australia make solar panels? Renewable manufacturing to share $3bn in new funding
New National Reconstruction Fund to allocate up to $3 billion to support manufacturing of wind, solar, battery and hydrogen components in Australia.
First Nations Clean Energy Network: How renewables can avoid the mistakes of the past
Two new guides aim to help renewables projects avoid the mistakes of the fossil fuel past and get the best outcomes for First Nations communities.
Why Labor’s gas price cap will just blow up the energy future [$]
John Kehoe
Energy is an essential service for households, but the case is less compelling to intervene on gas prices for manufacturers without unintended consequences.
Loosening China’s grip on critical minerals warrants decisive action
Colin Kruger
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently turned his gaze on the threat of China controlling critical minerals, crucial to the green energy revolution, and …
Coastal property prices and climate risks are both soaring. We must pull our heads out of the sand
Tayanah O’Donnell and Eleanor Robson
Australians’ well-documented affinity with the sun, surf and sand continues to fuel coastal property market growth. This growth defies rising interest rates and growing evidence of the impacts of climate change on people living in vulnerable coastal locations.
Victoria
Inspired to regenerate industrial sites through art, this couple bought an abandoned quarry
Artists, designers and civil engineers are buying into a growing push to reimagine and rehabilitate the many unloved and unused locations across the country, with some intriguing ideas to bring them back to life.
New South Wales
Cross went nuclear to blow up Ward’s preselection for NSW Liberals
The new NSW Liberal candidate for Davidson has used his preselection to advocate for nuclear reactors as an alternative energy source.
Towns face harsh water restrictions despite major flooding across NSW
Some customers at Goldenfields Water are being asked to cut their consumption to 100 litres per person, per day, and there is no indication when that will end.
ACT
Carp herpes could save our lake – but may also poison it, too
It is the fish that Canberra loves to hate
Queensland
Concerns capsized trawler is polluting major regional waterway
A sunken trawler that has leaked pollutants in Bundaberg’s main river could pose a danger to people’s safety and the environment, a commercial fisherman and environmentalist says.
Environmental groups ‘deeply concerned’ by new gas exploration permits, but locals welcome news
Pure Energy gets the green light for a new gas exploration project north of Eromanga in outback Queensland.
Area the size of Tasmania handed back to Far North Queensland traditional owners
The first joint native title claim from traditional owners on the Australian mainland and in the Torres Strait will cover land and more than 2 million hectares of water.
Australia targets green fuel take-off
Australia is swooping in for a larger share of the green aviation industry with the Queensland Government confirming it is seeking to dominate the market and has already held talks with airlines, energy firms and suppliers to secure its position.
Qld recycling partnership to turn shirts into shrubs
Two Qld companies have partnered to turn textile waste into greenery at major infrastructure sites – and they hope more companies will follow suit.
Greens unleash as ‘non-lethal’ shark program claims 700 [$]
The Greens have slammed the state government’s “non-lethal” shark control program as the true environmental impact emerges.
Dirty little secret: What’s behind Brisbane’s surge in household waste [$]
Brisbane is churning out household waste at an alarming rate, and there’s a clear reason behind the new trend.
Activists may be charged over parliament protest [$]
A group of climate change activists who infiltrated and disrupted Queensland parliament on Wednesday may face criminal charges, with claims a wheelchair was used so metal detectors would not pick up cameras used to film the protest.
State-owned energy companies deliver $5b bonanza for Palaszczuk [$]
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said keeping the electricity generators in public ownership was the only way to deliver rebates to households.
South Australia
Run on generators as South Australians brace for Murray flood peak
Power has already been cut off to hundreds of properties in the Riverland and that number could become thousands in the coming weeks.
Warnings as powerful River Murray flood water sweeps fridges, BBQs in its surge
Apricot grower Peter Conrick spotted two fridges, a lounge chair and a gas bottle still attached to a barbecue perilously racing along River Murray flood waters this week at Murbko.
Two huge, unanswered questions about the Riverland floods [$]
Michael McGuire
We’ve know for about a month that River Murray is going to flood an estimated 4000 properties. But there are still two massive questions.
Tasmania
‘Chainsaws already operating’: Tasmanian farmer battles sudden logging of native forest
A Tasmanian apple farmer says he was told forest next to his property was safe from logging but then out of the blue, bulldozers started to roll in.
TasWater warns of Mac Point plant relocation cost blowout
The relocation of Hobart’s Macquarie Point wastewater treatment plant will cost more than the current estimate of $140m, according to TasWater, which could jeopardising the proposed stadium.
Northern Territory
Petrochemicals still part of Middle Arm environmental impact assessment despite Fyles’s denial
Petrochemical production at Middle Arm is still part of an environmental impact assessment for the proposed industrial precinct, despite a scrub of government websites and Chief Minister Natasha Fyles’s recent denials that it would be part of the project, government documents show.
Western Australia
Alert level for bushfire on WA’s south coast downgraded
Favourable weather conditions have seen the alert level for a bushfire that had been threatening lives and homes near Albany downgraded.
WA’s largest river is being considered for a massive Aboriginal heritage site
Much of the Gascoyne and Lyons rivers could soon be listed as an Aboriginal heritage site, but there are concerns from primary producers about the level of consultation taking place.
Kimberley pastoralists first in line for government land degradation overhaul
Pastoralists and farmers from across Western Australia will soon have to comply with tightened land management standards as the state government boosts efforts to reverse degradation.
Historical fish collection catapults Aboriginal fishing methods onto international stage
This 180-year-old fish is among the first Australian fish of its kind ever to be known to western science, and a refresh of its nomenclature to reflect its Aboriginal name at both the Natural History Museum in London and the National Museum in Scotland will recognise the contribution of traditional owners to fish science.
Chaney throws support behind bill to improve fuel standards [$]
Curtin independent Kate Chaney has thrown her support behind a private member’s Bill to legislate standards to improve fuel standards.
Gina Rinehart trumps Kerry Stokes in battle of billionaires for Perth Basin gas
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Energy has offered $281 million for ASX-listed Warrego Energy, 15 per cent more than Kerry Stokes controlled Beach Energy’s offer in a battle for a half share in a promising onshore gas development north of Perth.
Woodside secures landowners agreement for first 50MW solar project in Pilbara
Woodside secures traditional landowner agreement for first 50MW solar farm in Pilbara, with up to 500MW planned depending on customer demand.
Sustainability
Team recycles previously unrecyclable plastic
Researchers have discovered a way to chemically recycle PVC into usable material, finding a way to use the phthalates in the plasticizers — one of PVC’s most noxious components — as the mediator for the chemical reaction.
Do voluntary corporate pledges help reduce plastic pollution?
A new analysis finds that while 72 percent of the top 300 companies on the Fortune 500 list have made voluntary pledges to reduce their plastic footprints, most are overwhelmingly focused on downstream waste-reduction strategies centered on recycling and packaging rather than on finding ways to reduce their use of virgin plastic, which is a main cause of the global plastic pollution problem.
Engineers use quantum computing to develop transparent window coating that blocks heat, saves energy
Scientists have devised a transparent coating for windows that could help cool the room, use no energy and preserve the view.
‘Earth’s empty quarter’: many Pacific nations now have falling populations
John Connell
In 1989, distinguished Australian geographer Gerard Ward wrote that the Pacific was emptying out. As people on smaller islands left to seek opportunity elsewhere, the region risked becoming Earth’s empty quarter.
What the media gets wrong about the new world population numbers
Paul R Ehrlich and Peter Raven
The essay the Washington Post’s editorial board recently published downplaying the population disaster is itself a disaster — a misrepresentation of the implications of a global human population that recently reached 8 billion people.
Nature Conservation
Antarctica is changing, for good. Here’s what scientists say it’s going to look like by 2100
Between now and the end of the century, thousands of square kilometres of permanently ice-free habitat is going to spread out across Antarctica, unlocking new habitats for natives and pests.
Mangroves: Environmental guardians of our coastline
They are the salt-tolerant shrubs that thrive in the toughest of conditions, but according to new UniSA research, mangroves are also avid coastal protectors, capable of surviving in heavy metal contaminated environments.
Tropical wildlife follow the same daily patterns worldwide
Isolation no barrier as rainforest animals follow the daily dictates of time and temperature
Forests benefit from tree species variety and genetic diversity
The variety of tree species and the degree of genetic diversity within individual species both affect forest productivity.
The importance of springs and why humanity needs to protect them
A new book explores why springs are critical for humanity and ecosystems, the threats they are facing, and how we can act now to protect and restore them.
Lakes growing globally as ice melts and reservoirs expand
Over the last four decades, the area covered by lakes globally has grown by close to 18,000 square miles, an expanse nearly twice the size of Lake Erie.
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