Post of the Day
The trillion-dollar auction to save the world
Ocean creatures soak up huge amounts of humanity’s carbon mess. Should we value them like financial assets?
On This Day
Shavuot ends – Judaism
National Reconciliation Week starts
Climate Change
DeSantis dismisses climate change, calling it ‘politicisation of weather’
Ron DeSantis began a whirlwind media tour around the launch of his 2024 presidential campaign with an interview on Fox News on Wednesday evening when the governor outlined his misconceptions about climate change.
James Hansen warns of a short-term climate shock bringing 2 degrees of warming by 2050
The famed researcher publicly released a preliminary version of a paper-in-progress with grim predictions of short- and long-term warming, but not all climate scientists agree with its conclusions.
CSIRO trials Australia first portable, off-grid hydrogen generator
CSIRO scientists will demonstrate patented technology to efficiently generate hydrogen from liquid carriers, supported by Advanced Carbon Engineering.
Step on it: Dutton calls for more gas in energy grid amid power bill rise
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called for more gas to be put into the grid in order to reduce energy costs following a forecast surge in power bills.
Latest hike could be power price peak – as long as we decouple from inflationary fossil fuels
Tim Buckley
Latest DMO reminds us the only solution to permanently lower power prices is to decouple from polluting, inflationary fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to firmed renewable energy.
Changlong Wang et al
The race to net zero is accelerating. Just last week, United States President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a climate pact to boost cooperation. The move signifies Australia is becoming a global leader in the renewable energy roll-out and critical mineral supply.
Air pollution is killing our kids, and transport is a huge culprit
Kate Charlesworth
When I walk my five-year-old daughter to school, I often think about another little girl on the other side of the world. Ella Kissi-Debrah, a nine-year-old from South London who died 10 years ago after a severe asthma attack.
Australia powers the new green cold war [$]
Matthew Warren
Renewable energy is now on the front line of superpower rivalry. That is both an opportunity and a challenge for Australia.
Victoria
The trees Melburnians could never leaf without
Whether it’s for their Indigenous significance, photogenic glory or their sheer will to adapt and survive, Melburnians hold our trees in high regard. We asked some experts to name their favourites.
Cars to be curbed on CBD streets under council plan
Parts of Flinders, Spencer and Collins streets could be closed to cars at peak times under a Melbourne city council proposal to reduce the number of people driving through the CBD and prioritise pedestrians.
Anti-logging groups are training in forest camps [$]
Elle Marsh
As Victoria moves to end native logging, the status of salvage clearing is still unclear and protesters are training in forest camps to reduce their risk of heavy penalties.
New South Wales
Man dumps a horse’s head at the door of NSW Parks building
Police are investigating after a man filmed himself leaving a decapitated horse head on the doorstep of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) office in the NSW Snowy Mountains.
Some suburbs on Sydney’s fringe have just 6 per cent canopy coverage. Tim Pickles is determined to increase that — and he’s not asking permission first.
The ‘half-way house’ trying to save ‘incredible little wallaby’ from extinction
A breeding program to safeguard the future of the brush-tailed rock wallaby is expanding. Conservationists say it’s like creating a safe “half-way house” for the endangered species.
XR Drum Rebellion’s ‘Prisoner Parade’ challenges NSW anti-protest laws
Extinction Rebellion’s Drum Rebellion is campaigning against the undemocratic New South Wales anti-protest laws.
Queensland
“Mighty sun, wind and water:” New partner and funds for green hydrogen mega project
Big renewable hydrogen project in Queensland lands a new partner and the biggest public-private injection of funds so far in Australia.
High levels of lead detected in water at two Queensland Health facilities
Routine testing of water at Atherton Hospital and Yarrabah Health Facility picked up the lead contamination, according to Queensland Health
Vandals use power tools to scar sacred Sunshine Coast mountain in ‘disgusting act’
An attack at the Glass House Mountains National Park has angered traditional owners, hikers and park rangers and vandals could face a $500k fine if caught.
An independent review conducted to find out if current laws have adequate compliance powers and appropriate penalties has made several recommendations.
Premier abseils into uncomfortable wedge
Matthew Abraham
The Malinauskas Government’s sprint to own a legal crackdown on disruptive protests might play well in the ‘burbs but has deeply disturbed some core Labor backers
Tasmania
Hundreds of deer carcasses left to rot in Tasmania’s World Heritage Wilderness Area after cull
Tasmania’s first aerial pest control operation aimed at eradicating wild fallow deer nets double the number expected.
Nine years overdue, State of the Environment report promised for 2024 [$]
Last delivered in 2009, a new State of the Environment report is finally set to be released, with the government promising funding to provide the overdue report within the coming financial year.
Why feds are urging ‘extreme intervention’ to save Tassie species [$]
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will urge the Tasmanian government to act immediately to save an endangered species from the brink of extinction.
Northern Territory
Sun Cable: Cannon-Brookes wins battle for world’s biggest solar and battery project
Battle of billionaires ends with a Grok-Quinbrook consortium taking ownership of the massive Sun Cable project, keeping alive plans to export solar power to Singapore.
NT rangers investigate mystery cause behind fruit bat deaths
Piles of dead bats are turning up at schools and parks in Katherine, prompting a warning to residents about the risk of contracting a potentially fatal disease.
Boundless Possible? Frack off or it will be ‘nothing is possible’ [$]
Matt Cunningham
Boundless Possible, they told us. A phrase that once summed up the ethos of the Territory but the rise of NIMBYism and anti-fracking activists are putting it at risk.
Western Australia
Why pet food could hold the answer to Jack Carmody’s feral camel problem
A West Australian pastoralist is ensuring one of his biggest problems doesn’t go to waste.
Rainfall is on the rise in Northwest Australia
Alex Borowiak et al
Warming oceans have altered a common weather pattern that brings monsoon rains across northern Australia, causing a massive increase in rainfall in the northwest
Sustainability
Tire manufacturers are adopting greener production processes and more renewable materials, but they have yet to get a grip on tire particle pollution.
US Supreme Court limits federal power over wetlands, boosts property rights over clean water
The Supreme Court on Thursday made it harder for the federal government to police water pollution in a decision that strips protections from wetlands that are isolated from larger bodies of water.
Long-term exposure to air pollution linked to severe COVID
A study led by the Barcelona Institute of Global Health has found that long-term exposure to air pollution increases the risk of developing severe forms of Covid-19, being admitted to the hospital or intensive care units after infection, and dying.
Big change for EV charging, as Tesla to let competitor use its network
In a noted easing of the frosty relationship between the world’s biggest electric car maker and one of the world’s largest auto manufacturers, Ford EV customers in the US and Canada will have access to Tesla superchargers from next year.
JETPs 101: Helping emerging economies go from coal to clean
How Just Energy Transition Partnerships can help coal-dependent developing nations in their energy transition.
In Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, an Australian-owned coal mine is quietly forging ahead
Grande Cache locals were surprised to hear Mine 14 — exempt from Alberta’s pause on coal mining in the Rockies — is poised to start digging.
The climate tech hype award goes to…
The climate crisis has boosted a lot of technologies that might not pan out.
Are sea cucumbers a cleanup solution to fish farm pollution?
Seafood farm operators are breeding and deploying sea cucumbers to vacuum up the massive amounts of fish waste that pose a major problem for their industry. It is part of an effort to redesign fish farms with multiple species so that they work more like natural ecosystems.
Five changes you can make today to live more sustainably
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the climate crisis, but experts say that the best way to cure climate anxiety is to take action – and often it’s surprisingly easy to make a substantial change to our greenhouse-gas emissions. Here’s how.
‘Farming good, factory bad’, we think. When it comes to the global food crisis, it isn’t so simple
George Monbiot
The solution is not more fields but better, more compact, cruelty-free and pollution-free factories
Nature Conservation
Bracing for climate impacts on Lake Erie, the walleye capital of the world
Though fisheries are thriving now, “continuing warming on the trajectory we’re going is not going to be good for walleye and yellow perch.”
Just between us squirrels, there might be trouble in the Arctic dating scene
Climate change appears to be disrupting the hibernation of females in the Far North, scientists say, and that could affect mating season.
How migrating songbirds help scientists save local ecosystems
Whether they’re staying for the summer or passing through, birds are helping researchers to study the environment and restore avian habitats.
Africa’s conservation conundrum
The trophy hunting industry in Africa is dying, and that should concern all of us. What, if anything, replaces it will prove critical for the protection of the continent’s wildlife and wild places.
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