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Date: 29 January 2023 at 8:04:49 am AEDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Jan 29
Post of the Day
Miki Perkins
How urgently we respond to the climate crisis this decade will change will be hugely consequential for thousands of years to come. Here’s what Australia needs to do.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
International Mobilization Day against Nuclear War
Climate Change
Looming El Niño could push us into a new era of global heating
Nick O’Malley
The quest to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels helped secure the Paris Agreement – so what happens when we cross the line?
The Fed is out of touch on climate
Akiksha Chatterji and Jennie C. Stephens
On Jan. 10, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell explained that if the U.S. central bank is to maintain its independence, it cannot “and will not be, a climate policymaker.”
National
Of fumes and freight: why Australian cargo is increasingly being sent on trucks, not trains
The nation’s ageing and neglected railways are one reason trucking has seen major growth in spite of rising fuel costs and carbon emissions
No sunlight, no soil – no worries as vertical farming looks stacked with promise
Stacked Farm can produce perfect-looking strawberries, tomatoes and baby cos all year round. But will high energy inputs be its achilles heel?
Australian period underwear makers deny using ‘forever chemicals’ after Thinx settles suit in US
Modibodi and Bonds say they avoid using PFAS chemicals, which break down slowly over time and have unclear health impacts
Compost: Magic or mess? (And how to tell the difference)
Jackie French
Theoretically, anything that has once lived can be composted i.e. returned to become one with the soil where it began. This has included friends, both human and otherwise. It’s where my body will finally rest too.
Victoria
Melbourne’s famous coffee culture is moving towards a plastic-free future
Edible takeaway cups and library-style mug-borrowing schemes are on the menu at a growing number of cafes as possible solutions to Australia’s addiction to plastic convenience.
New South Wales
How small businesses are overcoming the challenge of going green
When Matt Burns opened his golf store, he wanted to ensure the clothing he sold stood out from what else was on the market. His solution? Going green.
Queensland
Baby turtles battling flood debris to reach the ocean, but volunteers clear the way
It is hard enough for turtle hatchings to make it safely to the water, but try negotiating mounds of washed up flood debris stretching for kilometres along Queensland’s beaches.
‘Everything’s gone’: eerie silence on Enid Street provides a glimpse into Australia’s climate future
Flood buybacks in Goodna, west of Brisbane, have emptied homes and disrupted lives. Now the bulldozers are moving in
Tasmania
In Tasmania’s western wilds, climate change is threatening a tree with its roots from Gondwana times
Unusually dry weather is leaving the state’s Wilderness World Heritage Area sensitive to fire. It’s a prospect that threatens a living fossil that traces its history to the ancient super-continent Gondwana.
Northern Territory
Tassie home to 4000 abandoned mining operations
The rescue of a dog earlier this week has put a spotlight on the thousands of abandoned mines working across Tasmania, and the risk they pose to the public.
Sustainability
Spinning food processing waste into ‘gold’
Study proposes profitable ways to repurpose industrial waste
Artificial photosynthesis uses sunlight to make biodegradable plastic
Synthesis of fumaric acid by a new method of artificial photosynthesis, using sunlight
Anesthesiologists can play a role in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming by decreasing the amount of anesthetic gas provided during procedures without compromising patient care, suggests new research being presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ADVANCE 2023, the Anesthesiology Business Event.
MSU discovery advances biofuel crop that could curb dependence on fossil fuel
Michigan State University researchers have solved a puzzle that could help switchgrass realize its full potential as a low-cost, sustainable biofuel crop and curb our dependence on fossil fuels.
Stability of perovskite solar cells reaches next milestone
Perovskite semiconductors promise highly efficient and low-cost solar cells. However, the semi-organic material is very sensitive to temperature differences, which can quickly lead to fatigue damage in normal outdoor use. Adding a dipolar polymer compound to the precursor perovskite solution helps to counteract this. This has now been shown in a study published in the journal Science by an international team led by Antonio Abate, HZB. The solar cells produced in this way achieve efficiencies of well above 24 %, which hardly drop under rapid temperature fluctuations between -60 and +80 Celsius over one hundred cycles. That corresponds to about one year of outdoor use.
Temperature-sensing building material changes color to save energy
Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have designed a chameleon-like building material that changes its infrared color—and how much heat it absorbs or emits—based on the outside temperature. On hot days, the material can emit up to 92 percent of the infrared heat it contains, helping cool the inside of a building. On colder days, however, the material emits just 7 percent of its infrared, helping keep a building warm.
Environment: It’s a wonderful world …
Peter Sainsbury
… as Louis Armstrong famously croaked. Well, perhaps: The temperature’s going up. The rich are getting richer. Wetlands are disappearing. Gas is officially green.
Nature Conservation
California zoo clones critically endangered horse using 42-year-old DNA
The foal, named Kurt, was born to a surrogate mother, a domestic quarter horse.
Ancestral variation guides future environmental adaptations
The speed of environmental change is very challenging for wild organisms. When exposed to a new environment individual plants and animals can potentially adjust their biology to better cope with new pressures they are exposed to – this is known as phenotypic plasticity. New research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, shows that early plasticity can influence the ability to subsequently evolve genetic adaptations to conquer new habitats.
DiCaprio and Sheth name new species of tree-dwelling snakes, threatened by mining
Five new drop-dead-gorgeous tree-dwelling snake species were discovered in the jungles of Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama. Conservationists Leonardo DiCaprio, Brian Sheth, Re:wild, and Nature and Culture International chose the names for three of them in honor of loved ones while raising awareness about the issue of rainforest destruction at the hands of open-pit mining operations.
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