https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-17/australias-unquenched-thirst-for-costly-water/102110514
Date: 18 March 2023 at 9:01:43 am AEDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Mar 18
Post of the Day
What can we expect from the final UN climate report? And what is the IPCC anyway?
Nerilie Abram
After all the talk on the need for climate action, it’s time for a reality check. On Monday the world will receive the latest United Nations climate report. And it’s a big one.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
National Biodiesel Day – USA
National
Australians are among the top consumers of bottled water globally and we are paying the most for it, a new UN report shows.
Gas customers urged not to panic despite shortfall risk
Anthony Albanese has denied the government raised a false hope of falling energy bills, as gas customers are warned to brace for possible shortfalls in the coming winter.
Why electric car batteries may go round and round again
By 2030, more than 1.7 million electric vehicles are expected to be roaming Australian roads, each fuelled by a powerful lithium-ion battery.
‘End renewable subsidies, target all emissions’ [$]
A major expansion of Australia’s safeguard mechanism to cut emissions is needed to help the nation meet net zero goals, the Productivity Commission said.
How solar and storage developers got their market forecasts completely wrong
Owner of biggest solar farm in Australia says industry is being battered by rising costs for both PV modules and battery storage. But it’s not all bad news.
Australia is facing gas shortages. We shouldn’t be here, but there is a way out
Tristan Edis
Curtailing the inefficient use of gas to heat our homes will help bridge the supply issue expected in 2027
The Penny finally drops on nuclear energy [$]
Vikki Campion
Penny Wong’s new-found faith in nuclear capabilities, gives hope to every person battling to pay their skyrocketing power bills.
Australia takes stand for climate justice
Cynthia Houniuhi
Australia has joined a campaign for the International Court of Justice to issue an opinion on climate change and human rights.
The science of solutions with the CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation
Kelly O’Shanassy
Arm Australians with valid information, and we just might save the planet.
How Tanya Plibersek can become a great Environment minister [$]
Bob Brown
Tanya Plibersek is well placed to be one of Australia’s best ministers for the Environment, but she has to stand up to powerful rivals in cabinet who are so far pushing the agenda in favour of fossil fuels and environmental destruction.
Will Australia lead the green industrial revolution, or get left behind?
Tim Flannery
From Newcastle to the Pilbara, and from Gladstone to Whyalla, Australia is a proud and successful industrial nation. For decades, mining, manufacturing, minerals processing, and construction have been a major pillar of our economy, but these sectors now stand at a critical crossroads.
If it can power our defence, it can power our nation too [$]
Chris Kenny
Our nation’s prohibitive stance on nuclear energy has long been an absurdity. The AUKUS initiative strips the paradoxes bare.
EU piles pressure on Australia to seize once-in-a-century cleantech opportunity
Tim Buckley
Australia’s trade partners – China, US, India, Japan and the EU – are making strategic public interventions at massive scale. Australia must act or lose out.
Families need one stop shop, and budget support, to kick fossil fuels out of home
Allegra Spender
If the government is serious about cost-of-living relief and climate action, a bold plan to electrify Australian households is essential for May’s budget.
Victoria
As Melbourne gets hotter, some suburbs suffer more than others
People in Melbourne’s poorest suburbs feel the heat more intensely than those in more affluent areas, largely due to badly designed buildings, roads and footpaths.
Does your gas stove produce pollutants? Dr Brigid Lynch was surprised at her results
A Melbourne epidemiologist agreed to let a team of United States researchers into her kitchen to measure what is being emitted by her gas cooktop. What they found left her concerned.
The cost of native forest logging [$]
Sophie Cunningham
The closure of a major paper mill is an opportunity to end logging in native forests, which would spare both the environment and significant public funds. So why the reluctance to transition to plantation timber?
New South Wales
Dead fish ‘as far as the eye can see’ as another mass kill event hits regional NSW
The Department of Primary Industries sends investigators to Menindee, in far west NSW, after hundreds of thousands of dead fish are found in the Darling River
Landcare funding to double under NSW Labor
Nature restoration charity Landcare will have its funding doubled under a future NSW Labor government to address what the party says is more than a decade of decline.
Fake grass furore: Council pushes ahead with controversial sports ground revamp
A turf war has erupted over a Sydney council’s push to replace grass with a synthetic sports field on the upper north shore, despite the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service urging a halt on construction amid concerns about possible environmental harm to nearby waterways and bushland.
Green group wages war against renewed bid to convert coal plant to woody biomass
Verdant Earth takes first step in latest bid to convert Redbank coal plant into a wood waste-fuelled power station – and green groups are not happy.
Renewables set new record output as NSW swelters in Autumn heatwave
Renewables hit record output in NSW as state swelters in Autumn heatwave, although supplies got tight in the evening peak due to coal and transmission problems.
Climate activist Violet CoCo and protest laws [$]
Royce Kurmelovs
In an exclusive interview, climate activist Violet CoCo, who won her appeal against a jail sentence this week, details what she has learnt about the ‘theatre’ of politics.
ACT
What does it cost to build a sustainable home in Canberra?
The Lavis and Lord family haven’t been out of pocket for their yearly energy bill since moving into the home they built in Watson two years ago.
Queensland
New species of ‘spectacular’ spider found
A new species of trapdoor spider discovered by scientists has been named after its significant size.
‘Too special a place’: how an eclectic Queensland alliance saved a sacred site from rock climbers
As the state moves to protect Indigenous site Whinpullin, or Minto Crag, climbing groups realise ‘you can’t just go charging in’
‘Use it or lose it’: Plan to save Qld’s derelict island resorts
Developers who let Queensland’s idyllic islands fall to rack and ruin face having their leases cancelled under a plan to fix the state’s dilapidated island resorts.
South Australia
Rains bring shorebirds, boosting numbers of rare species facing decline from habitat loss
Bird enthusiasts in South Australia are delighted to see a boost in numbers of migratory species and local shorebirds after 18 months of wetter conditions.
Adelaide homeowner takes City of Onkaparinga to court over leaking sewer pipe on its land
When Kelvin Rundle bought his house in the southern Adelaide suburb of Coromandel Valley, he was looking forward to settling back into his hometown and starting a family with his partner after previously living in Sydney. He thought a minor plumbing problem was easily resolvable. It was not.
Bolivar poo plant upgrade to handle growing city
Adelaide’s growing population has prompted a $64m upgrade of the Bolivar Wastewater Treatment Plant so it can take more sewage.
Tasmania
Tasmanian researchers find massive carbon reservoir buried in southern ocean [$]
Tasmanian researchers have discovered a massive long-searched for carbon reservoir buried in the Southern Ocean between Tasmania and Antarctica, giving clues to an ancient shift in the Earth’s climate
Ellis sounds alarm over lobbying for Tarkine heritage listing [$]
The state government has voiced concerns over lobbying efforts aimed at stopping mining in the Tarkine forest, and has called on the Albanese Government to rule out intervening to list the area as a heritage site.
IPCC experts condemn proposed King Island gas expansion
The Wilderness Society Tasmania and Surfrider Foundation have attended a public ‘consultation’ conducted by Conocophillips on King Island. The consultation is part of the company’s efforts to drill for fossil fuel gas 30km west of King Island. Two high-profile Australian IPCC academics have condemned this proposed fossil fuel gas expansion.
Tammy Milne
Today I caught a bus. So what’s unusual about that? you say, million so of people all around the world do it everyday! What makes it unusual is that I was able to catch a bus because the infrastructure, the bus and the bus stop were accessible to me and my wheelchair.
Western Australia
BHP mines identified as ‘dominant source’ of dust in Newman, says government review
Residents of a Pilbara mining town say better research needs to be done to measure the health impacts of dust generated by the industry around them.
Preloved wind turbines from Netherlands help power remote mine in Australian outback
Refurbished wind turbine blades make their way to 7+MW microgrid, where they will help power a garnet mine and local community.
How switching out fossil gas for renewables could save this town $321 million
Study finds replacing 80% of town’s gas power supply with a mix of solar and battery storage could deliver lifetime savings in the hundreds of millions.
Sustainability
Peru congress debates stripping isolated Indigenous people of land and protections
A new bill under debate in Peru’s congress seeks to reevaluate the existence of every Indigenous reserve for isolated peoples to determine whether to keep them or scrap them completely.
Progress toward the European Green Deal
Under pressure to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the European Union is pushing policies to clean up its economy.
Brazil tackles illegal miners, but finds their mercury legacy harder to erase
As the details of the humanitarian crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory unfold amid action to remove illegal miners, mercury left by the rampant gold mining in the area will remain a lingering toxic legacy.
Nature Conservation
‘Alarming’ rate of mountain forest loss a threat to alpine wildlife
Since 2001, 7% of the habitat has been lost globally due to logging, wildfires and agriculture, scientists report
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