Daily Links Apr 25

Being Environment Minister is much more than photoshoots with koalas, Tanya, and the electorate was pretty clear in voting for a fair dinkum climate policy. Your decision on this proposed coal mine will show just how dinkum you are.

From: Maelor Himbury <maelor@melbpc.org.au&gt;
Date: 25 April 2023 at 9:01:35 am AEST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Apr 25

Post of the Day

Climate isn’t a distraction from the military’s job of war fighting. It’s front and centre

Matt McDonald

It was pitched as the “most significant” shift in Australia’s armed forces in decades. And among the headline announcements, climate change was recognised as an issue of national security.

 

On This Day

April 25

Anzac Day

 

Ecological Observance

Arbor Day – Germany

World Penguin Day

 

Climate Change

Climate protesters gather in Parliament Square as fossil fuel deadline passes

Four days of peaceful activism led by Extinction Rebellion fail to elicit pledge from UK government to ban new oil and gas projects

 

Massive iceberg discharges during the last ice age had no impact on nearby Greenland, raising new questions about climate dynamics

New findings suggest that Heinrich Events had no discernible impact on temperatures in Greenland, which could have repercussions for scientists’ understanding of past climate dynamics.

 

Deadly heat threatens the lives and livelihoods of 1 billion people in India

Increasingly extreme heat waves will imperil India’s development goals and slow economic growth, new research shows.

 

Climate protesters try to bring Berlin traffic to a halt

German climate activists temporarily brought traffic to a standstill in some parts of Berlin on Monday by gluing themselves to streets all over the capital.

 

Europe: Solar energy thriving as climate warms

The changing climate could bring a hotter, sunnier future for Europe — along with extreme heat and drought. What does that mean for the continent’s solar sector?

 

A mystery in the Pacific is complicating climate projections

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation, which has a huge influence on global weather patterns, isn’t behaving as computer models predicted. That’s puzzling scientists.

 

Can Extinction Rebellion really be the new centre ground of the climate movement?

Ellie Mae O’Hagan

Three years ago, XR was hanging by a thread – the Big One protest suggests the movement has learned from its mistakes

 

What I learned from women about collective action and climate anxiety

Mallory McDuff

I spent a year researching fifty women—one from each state in the country—who are taking action for climate justice.

 

National

Clock ticks for Coles, Woolworths to shift plastics

Australia’s major supermarket chains will not receive any more time to move high-risk soft plastic stockpiles from the failed REDcycle recycling scheme after an extension request was denied.

 

Former president of Kiribati backs legal case against Australia over inaction on climate crisis

Anote Tong says that Australia needs to take responsibility for emissions caused by the export of its fossil fuels

 

Union targets ‘arrogant’ wind turbine giant [$]

The CFMEU is demanding the federal government use its purchasing power to exert pressure on wind turbine giant Vestas.


CEFC spends $75 million on recycling and cutting emissions from rubbish

Construction waste is a big chunk of the rubbish Australia generates; recycling it creates an equivalent emissions sink.

 

Taxing times: Gas producers top the list to plug Australia’s budget black hole

Ian Verrender

If you’re an oil and gas producer, Australia is a fantastic place to operate. If, however, you’re an Australian citizen (or a treasurer trying to balance the books), the tax system leaves a lot to be desired

 

We want more climate ambition in our foreign policy – here’s how we can do it

Wesley Morgan and James Bowen

Last week, foreign minister Penny Wong laid out the strategic challenges facing Australia in a major speech.

 

All Fossils Go? Tanya Plibersek new coal mine approval due Friday

Callum Foote

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will decide this Friday whether to approve what could be Australia’s newest coal mine, but there will be no fanfare. Callum Foote reports on a government busy rolling out new fossil fuel projects despite the strong advice of international agencies.


Know your NEM: Whistling for more as wind and solar eat into gas and coal share

David Leitch

National energy market volatility is increasing as more renewables, but mainly rooftop solar, continues to enter.


Solar is a runaway global success, and Australia is showing the way forward

Andrew Blakers

The current growth rates of solar alone will see the global energy sector decarbonised by mid-century.

 

New South Wales

Australian solar farm hit by grass fire burning under modules

Large solar farm in NSW damaged by grass fire burning under solar modules.

 

ACT

The ACT’s new recycling facility won’t be built until 2025 and the cost of trucking waste interstate is piling up

The ACT will have to keep trucking its recycling interstate for processing for about two years, with the delivery of Canberra’s new materials recovery facility pushed back to 2025. Construction of an organic waste processing centre will also be delayed.

 

Queensland

After 15 years of uncertainty, Queensland government takes back part of troubled Great Keppel Island. Now what?

Tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef’s Great Keppel Island cautiously welcome news that the state government is taking back control.

 

Fiery green ants drive away birds, bugs giving fruit farmers an organic way to control pests

Fruit grower Andrew Kang has actively used green ants for five years to get rid of sap-sucking and fruit-spotting bugs, and even larger animals like sulphur-crested cockatoos.

 

South Australia

Honeymoon uranium mine to restart production this year [$]

The Honeymoon uranium mine near Broken Hill is set to restart production before the end of the year, its owner Boss Resources says.

 

Large fires, heavy smoke in Adelaide’s north-eastern suburbs alarm residents

Residents near large prescribed burns in Adelaide’s foothills have expressed alarm at the scale of the fires, which generated large smoke plumes, however, the agency in charge says everything has gone according to plan.


Tasmania

Protest action for Maydena forests

Media release – The Wilderness Society and GRANT (Grassroots Action Network Tasmania)

More than 100 people, including dozens of Maydena residents, attended an open day and public walk at Junee Cave forest yesterday to voice their support for the protection of the beautiful rainforest that is due to be logged.

 

Campaign – ‘Too cute to shoot’

Media release – Neighbours of Fish Farming

A global campaign to halt the killing, maiming and injuring of Tasmania’s protected fur seals by the Atlantic salmon industry has been launched by Neighbours of Fish Farming.

 

Environmentalist Bob Brown towers in biopic The Giants

Liz Hobday

A new film about Bob Brown and the forests he’s spent his life fighting to protect has been playing to sold-out theatres.

 

Minister Ellis barking up the wrong forest

Tom Allen

The most popular emoji of 2022 was, according to Brandwatch, the laughing-crying emoji. Tasmania’s north-west newspaper, The Advocate, doesn’t let readers add emojis to online articles but if I could, I would have added about 20 to the article, titled ‘Liberal support for our forestry industry’, by Tasmanian’s Forestry Minister, Felix Ellis.

 

Northern Territory

‘Out of touch’: $3m for ‘greening and cooling’ Smith Street announced from Budget 2023

The Fyles Government has announced $3 million from the upcoming 2023 Budget will be spent on the “streetscape revitalisation” of Smith Street, which the Opposition says shows the government is “out of touch” and should be spending that money on reducing crime if it wants more people in the CBD.

 

Western Australia

All systems go on hydrogen for Fortescue as iron ore output falters

Details of the miner’s further diversification into green hydrogen remain elusive, even as its $5.9 billion Iron Bridge magnetite project finally gets ready to deliver the goods.

 

Sustainability

European countries pledge huge expansion of North Sea wind farms

Nine countries sign declaration to turn North Sea into ‘Europe’s biggest green power plant’

 

We need to show that planetary wins are possible, says Dax Dasilva

Age of Union places a strong emphasis on storytelling to demonstrate that conservation efforts can have an impact, and has supported short documentaries and social media videos

 

Is offshore wind harming the nation’s fisheries in the race for clean energy?

Offshore wind farms in the United States are facing opposition from commercial fishermen who fear that the construction and operation of wind farms could disrupt their livelihoods and harm marine ecosystems

 

Bolivia’s untapped lithium could be a boon for electric vehicles

The rapid escalation of lithium extraction in the Bolivian Andes represents a looming clash between two fundamentally different views of nature: modern industrial society’s and that of the Indigenous communities who call the region home.

 

Cities are rapidly reclaiming land at risk of extreme sea level rise

People are building more and more land—a growing proportion of which is for luxury developments. It’s putting the rest of us at risk of flooding.

 

Nature Conservation

Desperately seeking: Conservationist with deep pockets to take over South African rhino farm

A former businessman who’s spent more than 30-years trying to revive and protect the southern white rhino says he’s run out money to continue funding the South African rhino ranch.

 

Scientists discover why sea urchins are dying off from US to the Caribbean

A research team has discovered a parasite that’s been killing off sea urchins, but there’s no method to eliminate it yet

 

Can the United Nations help save Pacific salmon?

The U.N. High Seas Treaty is a historic agreement for marine conservation, but its impact on the plummeting fish population is still uncertain.

 

Life beneath the Arctic ice is chock-full of microplastics

Frozen polar waters host a critical species of algae. Accumulating plastic particles could threaten the whole ecosystem.

 



Maelor Himbury
6 Florence St Niddrie 3042
0432406862 or 0393741902
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