Post of the Day
Calls grow for war on millions of feral deer
Wild deer are running rampant in Victoria and Tasmania, destroying crops and natural habitats and prompting calls to change local laws and allow the animals to be classified as pests.
On This Day
National
Not cool: push for insulation in all Australian rental homes as study shows dangerous heat levels
People in social housing often face hottest conditions and struggle to pay for air conditioning, advocates say
Summer holidays see people queuing to charge electric cars for first time in Australia
‘I am not minimising the frustration … but this will allow us to do congestion modelling with real-life data to tell us where we should upgrade,’ Evie Networks boss says
Gas supply fear blamed on price cap [$]
Multiple energy retailers across the eastern seaboard have stopped taking new gas customers and others have raised prices due to a lack of supply from producers.
‘Fake coal’ test: how to get away with manipulating data [$]
It has emerged no regulator is watching over coal certification, even after one lab confessed to switching results for the multibillion-dollar export industry.
Charities call for tax tweak to divert food away from landfill and into homes
A simple tweak to tax rules could provide an additional 100 million meals a year for Australians struggling with rising costs, according to the nation’s largest food-relief organisation.
We’re continually dealing with flooding. Time for a new line of defence [$]
Peter Dunn
The floods are back, sooner than any of us had hoped or anticipated. And that means, once again, the Australian Defence Force is being called upon.
Population growth is not a good thing, it’s a bad thing [$]
Letters
Growth of both population and the economy is the cause of most of Australia’s problems, not a solution, and does not align with majority Australian opinion
Victoria
Why Melbourne Airport rail plan was quietly changed [$]
Designs for the Melbourne Airport Rail station have been quietly updated on the project website following concerns from transport advocates.
Melbourne runner’s staggering marathon record [$]
Erchana Murray-Bartlett is on the final leg of a record-breaking run from Cape York to Melbourne, raising money for the Wilderness Society.
New South Wales
Maximum security prisoners recycle 80 tonnes of waste bound for landfill
Inmates at the NSW prison are raising vital funds for charity through the initiative
Fears pumped hydro dam will ‘take away identity’ of culturally significant mountain
Wiradjuri people around Lithgow in New South Wales are concerned about plans for a 40-metre-high concrete reservoir on top of a mountain that holds great importance to them.
ACT
‘Landscape looked like Mars’: pain of 2003 fires lingers 20 years on [$]
Heaven’s right here in the mountains, don’t bother to take me away
South Australia
River Murray flooding causes new problems for Coorong after years of low flows
Scientists say the River Murray flood has been “disastrous” for the region’s bird species, prompting urgent calls for better management and intervention of the river system.
Three women arrested over partly naked climate protest at Tour Down Under
Three women aged in their late 60s and early 70s are charged with indecent behaviour after a protest against energy giant Santos’s sponsorship of Tour Down Under.
There is a source of hydrogen without all the downsides [$]
Alexander Downer
The big problem with hydrogen is having to make the stuff in the first place. But South Australia has the gas as a natural resource.
Tasmania
Businesses would save thousands by capping power prices: Labor [$]
The state government has waved off opposition claims that businesses would save thousands under Labor’s power price policy.
Bass Strait island enlists land and air response to feral cats
Almost a thousand cats have been trapped in a decade by a cat controller enlisted in the fight against feral cats on an island in the Bass Strait.
Northern Territory
‘There must be serious consequences’: Federal government investigates NT land clearing
The federal environment department is investigating allegations of unlawful land clearing in the Northern Territory, where satellite images obtained by the ABC suggest swathes of unique savanna have been flattened to make way for a cotton industry.
Green energy link ‘not viable’
A key executive of Andrew Forrest has described Sun Cable’s marquee project as ‘not commercially viable’ following the collapse of the billionaires’ joint
Western Australia
Electric vehicle sales have ‘exploded’ in this state. These Tesla owners have some thoughts on why
The membership of the Tesla Owners Club WA has grown to more than 2,500 as the state records Australia’s highest growth in sales for the past two years.
West Australian waters a ‘sentinel of climate change’, researchers say
Researchers say, as an ocean warming hotspot, WA provides a very clear and present warning about the dangers of long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.
Sustainability
Carbon is a climate change villain, but could be the hero of our green energy future
If we’re to transition to green energy, we need help from carbon. New research into carbon-based materials is improving lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels.
Toyota pushes zero-emission goals by converting old models
To accelerate the global move toward sustainable vehicles, Toyota is suggesting simply replacing the inner workings of vehicles already on the roads with cleaner technology like fuel cells and electric motors.
Ecuador moves to expand drilling in the Amazon
A novel idea to leave the country’s vast oil reserves in the ground fizzled for lack of international support. Now, struggling under painful debt, the government wants to expand drilling in the rainforest.
Regulatory rush job will be a disaster for advanced nuclear energy
Ted Nordhaus And Adam Stein
Efforts to modernize nuclear regulation in order to accommodate a new generation of advanced reactors are not going well. In 2019, Congress directed the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to produce a simpler, technologically neutral pathway to licensing advanced reactors that are smaller, safer and utilize different fuels and coolants than the large light water reactors that comprise the entirety of the current U.S. nuclear fleet.
Nature Conservation
One year after volcanic blast, many of Tonga’s reefs lie silent
One year on from the massive eruption of an underwater volcano in the South Pacific, the island nation of Tonga is still dealing with the damage to its coastal waters.
Meet te mokomoko a Tohu: a new species of New Zealand gecko hidden in plain sight
Lachie Scarsbrook et al
Aotearoa New Zealand is home to an incredible diversity of lizards (mokomoko) – more than 120 species are identified, and counting.
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