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Date: 30 May 2023 at 8:41:26 am AEST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links May 30
Post of the Day
By 2100, farm numbers will halve and farm size will double
This world in which fewer large farms replace numerous smaller ones carries rewards and risks for humans and the food systems that us,” a new study says.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Arbor Day – Honduras
Climate Change
India: How is climate change impacting menstrual health?
Women suffer increasing risks to their health in the wake of natural disasters, according to a UN report. Indian women tell the story of how Cyclone Amphan impacted their health.
National
Big four have pledged to align business practices with Paris agreement but loophole allows them to fund sector, activist group says
Research suggests that more than half of Australia’s dingoes are genetically pure, not hybrids
Finding has implications for the ways that Australia’s native canid – including the extent to which they are culled – are managed
Greens fear ‘sweetheart deal’ on gas tax change
The government faces more pressure on its planned overhaul of gas taxation, with Greens leader Adam Bandt saying producers will benefit rather than taxpayers
Energy policy threatening manufacturers, warns aluminium giant [$]
Alumina chairman Peter Day says energy and climate policy in Australia is not doing enough on storage, and nor does it appreciate the importance of gas.
Shop around to beat electricity price spikes? It’s not as easy as it should be
Lurion De Mello
Australian consumers are painfully aware of the energy cost crisis. And from July 1, electricity bills are set to rise by a further 20-25% across South Australia, New South Wales, south-east Queensland and Victoria. The increases will add to cost-of-living pressures across households and small businesses.
Why Australian billionaires’ dreams of green energy exports will never work
David Fickling
Billionaires are not known for doing things by half. The temptation to go big or go home applies in Australia as much as anywhere else.
Victoria
New properties in the path of renewable energy transmission lines as preferred route changes
The Victorian government signs off on a preferred development plan and accelerates work on the controversial Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West project to the surprise of newly affected landowners.
CCTV footage shows Melbourne recycling crushed with rubbish to be dumped in landfill
There are calls for the waste collection industry to be overhauled, after the ABC obtains CCTV footage of a private company collecting recycling and waste from a Melbourne apartment building in the same truck.
Monitoring Melbourne’s Sunbury earthquake
Januka Attanayake et al
Melbourne’s latest earthquake is the largest to occur this close to the CBD since 1932 and highlights the need for more monitoring, particularly in western Victoria
New South Wales
Conservationists push for logging ban in future koala park
Conservation groups fear a further decline of the koala populations on the NSW north coast if logging doesn’t stop within an area that could become protected habitat.
Coal hard truth: Minns must act to keep lights on, report warns [$]
Closing a major power plant without the back up to replace it will lead to power shortages and price rises, hitting industry and consumer wallets, a new report warns.
‘Dangerous and reckless’: Government and Coalition clash over Sydney Water bill
The inclusion of Sydney Water in the NSW Constitution will be a major battleground in state parliament this week.
Squadron forges ahead with 400MW wind and big battery project in NSW
Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy says an Environmental Impact Statement is underway for proposed wind farm and battery in Wiradjuri Country.
Sydney council to crack down on bin-raiding cockatoos and prevent rubbish spill
Residents in Sydney’s south-west will receive locks to keep their lids from being opened by pests or strong winds under a trial.
ACT
Next phase of Canberra’s plastics ban outlined by ACT govt [$]
Thick plastic bags from supermarkets and department stores will be banned in the ACT from next year under the territory government’s plan to phase out single-use plastics in Canberra.
‘It doesn’t make sense’: Questions over new crematorium site
Crematorium development near Callum Brae Nature Reserve will affect critically endangered species, an advocacy group says
Queensland
Much-needed hazard burns mean Brisbane’s smoke shroud to persist
Hazard reduction burns in D’Aguilar National Park near Brookfield have produced a thick layer of smoke sitting over much of Brisbane’s western suburbs and CBD.
Sky green: Council’s trade-off for taller towers in the inner city
Developers will need to meet new green building codes if they want Brisbane City Council approval for projects rising up to 50 storeys.
The two SEQ rail projects that simply must be built [$]
Major South East Queensland councils are warning there is a “great risk” to the success of the 2032 Games unless key transport projects are delivered.
‘Such a relief’: Electricity bills plunge as low as $8 a month [$]
Hundreds of residents in several Queensland communities are saving a fortune by producing up to 90 per cent of their own energy.
First major solar farm to be added to a big battery starts operations in Australia
Reverse engineering: First solar farm to be built next to a pre-existing battery project sends its first output to the grid.
South Australia
Park lands access a win with new Women’s and Children’s Hospital: Premier
Premier Peter Malinauskas says areas of park land now “virtually inaccessible” to the public will be opened up under his government’s controversial plan for a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital on the heritage-listed police barracks site, as new details of the $3.2 billion project are revealed.
Tasmania
Forum on feral cats aims to aid northern farmers [$]
Farmers can hear expert advice on feral cat management this weekend through another addition of the On Farm Forums, hosted by Tamar NRM.
Greens call to end fish farming in Macquarie Harbour to save endangered skate species [$]
Tasmanian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson has called for an “immediate” end to fish farming in Macquarie Habour, following a scientific report that claimed a nearly 50 percent drop in the number of prehistoric Maugean skate in the region over the last decade.
Wind out-powers hydro for five hours on Tasmania grid, allowing utility to cash in
Windy conditions in south-eastern Australia last week led to an interesting energy generation mix for Tasmania, including more wind than hydro.
With the countdown on to power price hikes, what is being done to help Tasmanians?
With lacklustre pay increases, mortgages and rents reaching new highs in the state, and price hikes in everything from a carton of milk to fresh meat and produce, Tasmanians are enduring hit after hit in this inflation crisis.
Northern Territory
Rally demands federal environment minister step in to halt controversial NT gas hub
A rally organised by GetUp targetted the office of Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in Sydney on Monday, calling for greater cultural heritage protection for Darwin Harbour and its surrounds.
Western Australia
Labor accused of sneaky deal to shield Woodside’s NW Shelf from PRRT [$]
The charge comes as the Coalition moves to back PRRT changes in exchange for quicker resources approvals under Tanya Plibersek’s nature protection reforms.
Aboriginal-owned Spinifex brewery and Murdoch University team up to turn waste into profit
First Nations-owned business Spinifex Brewing Co. and Murdoch University are teaming up to tackle climate change by turning waste into profit.
The wonders and miracles of Ningaloo
Peter Boyer
Back when distant travel was on my radar I never even thought of visiting Ningaloo, on the northwest edge of Australia. Now that I’ve connected with what master storyteller Tim Winton has to say about it, I regret that oversight.
Reconciliation: fact or fiction?
The Kimberley region of Western Australia is often referred to as a pristine wilderness untouched by human hands. This is factually incorrect, because for at least sixty thousand years Traditional Owners shaped, controlled and had responsibility for vast tracts of land and waters to provide for themselves, their families and their tribes.
Sustainability
Plants remove cancer causing toxins from air
A ground-breaking study has revealed that plants can efficiently remove toxic gasoline fumes, including cancer causing compounds such as benzene, from indoor air.
With green prescriptions, getting healthier is a walk in the park
From “forest bathing” to clinically prescribed time in national parks, a growing medical movement is sending patients back to nature, with remarkable results.
Uruguay, amid severe drought, adds saltwater to public drinking supply
The amount of sodium coming out of the tap is now more than twice the World Health Organization recommendation and 10 times normal levels.
The UN wants to drastically reduce plastic pollution by 2040. Here’s how
As plastic waste piles up in the world’s landfills, sewer systems and oceans, the United Nations has set a goal to reduce plastic pollution by 80 percent by the year 2040. The head of the United Nations Environment Programme discusses the upcoming negotiations.
Plastic pollution: Treaty talks get into the nitty-gritty
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday warned that global plastics pollution was a “time bomb”, as diplomats began five days of talks in Paris to make progress on a treaty to end plastic waste.
Iraq faces steep challenge to wean economy off oil dependency
Oil sales make up 90 percent of Iraq’s budget revenue as it recovers from years of devastating conflicts and political upheaval, leaving it overly reliant on the sector.
How an El Niño could impact your coffee
The weather changes triggered by a global El Niño event can be detrimental to the crops that supply the world’s coffee.
Erin McEwan
New Zealand’s 2016 Kaikōura earthquake stopped the Waiau Toa – also known as the Clarence River – in its course. Within hours, the river flooded outside its channel and changed course. In the seven years since the magnitude 7.8 earthquake, the river has completely abandoned the path it used to take.
Nature Conservation
‘Rats running up your legs’: Macquarie Island free from pests for nine years, so how’s it faring?
It’s nine years since cats, rats, and rabbits were officially declared eradicated from sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, but scientists fear a new threat is challenging its fragile ecosystem.
Shy, reclusive and now quiet: Why we might not hear whales this season
As whale migration season approaches, experts are expecting the sound of whale songs to be less frequent this year.
Discovered in collections, many new species are already gone
Scientists are increasingly seeing evidence of “dark extinction” in museums and botanical garden collections.
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