Date: 18 January 2023 at 9:02:12 am AEDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Jan 18
Post of the Day
The right words are crucial to solving climate change
Speaking to people’s priorities can build the will needed to implement climate solutions.
On This Day
Thaipusam – Tamil
Climate Change
How fossil fuel companies take climate change policies to court
Investor-state dispute settlements increasingly allow oil and gas investors to sue countries over their climate policies.
Tripping for the planet: Psychedelics and climate activism
With more states legalizing psychedelics, activists are interested in exploring their power. Is that a good idea?
Indigenous lands among the amazon’s last carbon sinks
Parts of the Amazon managed by Indigenous people removed more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they released, while areas not managed by Indigenous people saw widespread deforestation, producing more carbon dioxide than they removed, a report finds.
New measures to silence climate activists? They’ll only spur us on
Indigo Rumbelow
The UK government plans to give police even more power to lock us up. But it won’t stop us: this is about humanity’s future
National
What can Australia learn about recycling from the rest of the world?
South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom are innovating in their recycling industries, leaving Australia to play catch up.
Concerns over growing number of fires linked to lithium-ion batteries in e-scooters and e-bikes
Hundreds of e-scooters and e-bikes are catching fire in Australian homes, and firefighters fear without better education and stringent regulations, things could turn fatal.
Investors digging the ‘green’ mining sector, but is it boom time?
Investment in ‘green’ mining, including lithium and hydrogen projects, is on the up but analysts say it is not yet the start of a new mining super cycle, and gas and coal projects are still attracting the majority of funding.
Australia to plug clean energy gender gap
Australia has signed an international pledge to equal pay, leadership and opportunity for women in the clean energy industry.
Activists call for immediate halt to duck and kangaroo hunting after Murray Darling floods
Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia have increased kangaroo harvest quotas for 2023 but impact from floods yet to be assessed
ACCC to give more guidance to gas firms
The corporate watchdog will provide more guidance as gas companies struggle to implement the government’s new price cap.
Gas stove culture warfare hits the fan and is headed our way
Mounting evidence about the risks associated with gas cooking in the home have spilt into America’s endless culture warfare as an expert predicts the rhetoric will spread to Australia.
Green rejection of nuclear a load of garbage [$]
Nick Cater
The green mining boom is as gritty and dirty as every other boom but this time the wilderness campaigners don’t seem particularly bothered
Demographic advice for self-interested politicians
Simon Kuestenmacher
Last week our resident stats guy gave pollies some praise, this week he runs the numbers for our less community-minded representatives.
How the gas stove became a symbol of freedom
Gerard Baker
The Left framed its latest crusade — an attempted crackdown on the humble gas stove — as a ‘right-wing culture war’. We’ve seen this pattern many times.
Albanese’s gas mess just the first of many [$]
Terry McCrann
With a trainee treasurer and a PM who hasn’t a clue about the most basic interest rate in the economy, it’s no surprise that their scheme to cap gas prices is such a mess.
The confusing world of carbon offsetting
Peter Boyer
First the good news. After a functioning carbon price was killed off in 2014, and after then being allowed to pollute at will, big industry is again going to be made to account for the carbon it puts into the atmosphere.
Immigration is not the answer to our troubles [$]
Judith Sloan
Survey after survey has demonstrated the majority of Australians do not support high migrant intakes yet neither side of politics has shown any tendency to take this into account.
Weather ‘extremism’ fans fear in politics of climate [$]
Graham Lloyd
Mentions of selective weather data and historical ‘records’ have raced up the charts like an Apollo mission rocket launch, creating confusion and alarm.
Carbon market reform might not be perfect policy, but it will be effective
Raphael Wood
Carbon market participants have discovered what the federal government’s efforts to fight climate change will mean for them.
Australia connects 3GW of new capacity in 2022, must double that to reach renewable target
Giles Parkinson
AEMO says it connected 2.9GW of new capacity in 2022, mostly wind and solar, but will need to double that over next eight years to meet government renewable targets
Victoria
Controversial artificial engineering proposal for Murray River wetlands
Lower Murray Water began a ten-day hearing to propose artificial engineering at Murray River wetlands on Victoria and New South Wales border.
After a day of fires and scorching temperatures, Victoria’s cool change is here
The weather bureau has issued a squall warning for Port Phillip Bay and a severe weather warning for parts of central Victoria as thunderstorms bring relief from the heat.
‘What is the point?’: Anger over limited scope of Maribyrnong River flood inquiry
Melbourne Water’s review of devastating floods in the city’s west in October will deliberately exclude analysis of early emergency warning systems, flood planning and potential new policies.
New South Wales
Menindee flooding prompts installation of 20 water gauges to predict incoming flows
Installation begins at five sites in the northern Murray-Darling Basin, with authorities believing unmeasured water is in part responsible for a failure to predict the large flows into Menindee Lakes this summer.
Great Artesian Basin at risk of ‘toxic water’ if Narrabri Gas Project goes ahead
Opponents of the Santos coal seam gas project in NSW’s west say there is a threat of catastrophic contamination to their main water source, while the Gomeroi people want an “overhaul” of the native title laws that approved it.
Major bin change coming to 290k homes
Nearly 290,000 households will be eligible for an upgraded bin service under a $6.2m push from the NSW government.
At this price, these wallabies could play for Australia [$]
The state government will build a massive fence to protect three endangered wallabies – with a price tag akin to the pay packets of some players on our Wallabies rugby side.
ACT
20 years ago, vast bushfires razed Canberra’s suburbs – and bushfire science was never the same
Andrew Gissing
It has been 20 years to the day since bushfires burst out of the Brindabella Ranges and into the suburbs of our nation’s bush capital. Four lives were lost, many people were injured and more than 500 homes were destroyed.
Tragic lesson still to be learned
Vivien Thomson
It has been 20 years since major fires swept through the ACT, NSW and Victoria, causing unprecedented damage and imposing a toll on communities and the economy which took many years to understand.
Queensland
Native rats in their ‘millions’ invade North Queensland sugar cane crops
A single pair of native rats can produce “460 offspring” a year. With their population exploding, they’re causing havoc for sugar cane farmers, decimating valuable crops.
Millions of taxpayer dollars pour into the toxic mess at Mount Morgan
The rehabilitation and exploitation of the Mount Morgan mine has turned into a taxpayer money magnet after the Federal Government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility threw another $66 million at the project.
Brisbane’s northside needs new rail line, says minister
Population growth means a second rail corridor is needed in the medium term to service the city’s north, Transport Minister Mark Bailey says.
Sweet scientific breakthrough to fuel your jets using sugar cane
Queensland researchers say making sustainable fuels, cosmetics, solvents, and paints in Australia is a step closer after developing a way to quickly convert sugar cane into a renewable chemical.
The green paradox: How the rush to fast-track renewable projects may be destroying habitat
John McCarthy
If a wind farm project has the potential to wipe out 925ha of koala habitat is it still green?
South Australia
State Govt seeks private sector ideas to limit power price hikes
The Malinauskas Government is asking for advice from the energy industry about how to protect South Australian households from a forecasted 56 per cent rise in power prices over the next two years.
Tasmania
Conservationists demand end of duck hunting in Tasmania
Hunters call it a centuries old, sustainable way of life but conservationists claim 50,000 ducks were killed in last year’s Tasmanian duck hunt — and say it should be banned this year.
Does Hobart need another bridge, or more public transport?
A transport expert believes Hobart needs another bridge over the Derwent River to reduce the impact of incidents like Monday’s truck rollover, but others say the city is too dependent on cars.
On traffic chaos and solutions …
Media release – Kristie Johnston MP, independent Member for Clark
“The traffic chaos yesterday caused by an accident on the Tasman Bridge is stark proof that a rail service from Hobart’s CBD to the northern suburbs is desperately needed,” Ms Johnston said.
Western Australia
Ten new WA gas projects to cost nation’s other industries $8 billion
Labor’s signature policy to cut climate pollution from heavy industry does nothing to stop new high-emissions projects like Woodside’s $17 billion Scarborough
WA government eyes shark hunting restrictions after campaigner threat
Acting Fisheries Minister Reece Whitby said those who made the threat against activist and scuba diver Lisa Hill were “knuckleheads”.
Perth Basin proves gas has a big future [$]
Ticky Fullerton
WA’s Perth Basin is the best on-land gas discovery in at least a decade and the battle for Warrego Energy is a sign of things to come.
Sustainability
Greta Thunberg detained protesting demolition of entire coal village
Greta Thunberg was among climate activists detained while protesting against the demolition of an entire village in Germany.
The foam used in car seats and mattresses are hard to recycle—we made a plant-based version
Polyurethane foams are the world’s sixth-most-produced plastic, yet among the least recycled materials. These scientists are working on an alternative.
New study of Marshall Islands fish highlights peril of using oceans as dumping grounds
Widespread pollution was found in fishes across six atolls in the Marshall Islands in a new study from researchers at the University of Hawaii and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
New study links urban pollution to more asthma attacks in children
Children who live in low-income urban areas are more likely to suffer asthma attacks brought on by outdoor pollution, researchers found.
Inside the successful push for Ohio to define gas as ‘green energy’
Conservative, pro-gas groups waged a covert campaign for Ohio to redefine natural gas as a source of “green energy.” They hope other states follow suit.
Nature Conservation
‘Extinction crisis’ of sharks and rays to have devastating effect on other species, study finds
Almost two-thirds of sharks and rays living on world’s coral reefs at risk, with 14 of 134 species reviewed critically endangered
Climate change likely to uproot more Amazon trees
A new study connecting extreme thunderstorms and tree deaths suggests the tropics will see more major blowdown events in a warming world.
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