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Date: 22 July 2023 at 8:12:45 am AEST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Jul 21
Post of the Day
We need an Earth System Treaty to save civilisation. And we need it now
Julian Cribb
The Council for the Human Future has proposed we adopt an Earth System Treaty. This is a global legal accord, to be negotiated, signed and ratified by all the nations of the Earth, under the UN umbrella.
On This Day
Climate Change
Asian countries battle with record breaking temperature, floods and landslides
Soaring temperature, floods and landslides are claiming lives and forcing evacuations across south and south-east Asia.
Dengue fever cases could skyrocket due to global warming, says WHO
Climate change could contribute to record high levels of the viral infection by benefiting mosquitoes, the World Health Organization says.
Rampant heatwaves threaten food security of entire planet, scientists warn
After hottest day ever, researchers say global heating may mean future of crop failures on land and ‘silent dying’ in the oceans
Tories and big business are in the driver’s seat on climate action. Here’s what the left must do
Richard Power Sayeed
If the market decides, eco-friendly policies will mean ruinous inequality. There’s an old-fashioned solution: social democracy
Humanity’s headstone is built, only its epitaph awaits [$]
Maeve McGregor
As the arc of civilisation careens past its inflection point, the world has ceased speaking of climate change in future tense.
Number of days since the hottest day on earth – cartoon
Kudelka
National
A post-servo highway? How electric vehicles are changing the Australian roadscape
EVs are heralding a new kind of driving culture, from friendly chats at charging stations to reshaping where and how long we stop on road trips
Labor’s environment movement at odds with Plibersek over conservation
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is clashing with Labor’s own environment movement over its demand for an independent commissioner to oversee the surge in wind and solar farm installations to preserve a shrinking habitat.
Australia’s climate of discontent betrays Pacific platitudes
Richard Denniss
Australia gives more aid to foreign fossil fuel companies than it does to our neighbours in the Pacific. While the rhetoric of the Albanese government revolves around helping our nearest neighbours prepare for the existential threat of climate change, in reality we do far more to help the coal and gas industry causing that climate change.
Making Australia the engine room of a decarbonised world
Alan Duncan, Daniel Kiely
A new report by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) highlights the future opportunities for Australia that stem from the global decarbonisation agenda and the transition to net zero carbon emissions.
Victim blaming has made cars the biggest killer of children in Australia [$]
Robert Lechte
Instead of ensuring Australia’s roads are safe, we’re taught the onus is on cyclists and pedestrians — even children — to avoid a deadly accident.
Conservation groups are abandoning direct action [$]
Ben Abbatangelo
Legacy conservation groups are abandoning radical protests, collaborating with business groups and government for a seat at the table.
Backup power plan needed as costs continue to rise [$]
Australian editorial
We need options and nuclear should be considered as part of the mix.
New South Wales
The discovery of red fire ants in the Tallebudgera Valley has reignited calls for urgent action to be taken to prevent the pest’s spread into New South Wales.
ACT
Meet ‘Sweeping Beauty’, ACT’s first zero-emissions sweeper
It’s very on-trend for Canberra.
A new park and 200 homes planned for Watson
The community is invited to have their say on a plan to build about 200 new homes and a public park on a vacant block of land in Watson.
Queensland
Marine heatwave in north-east Queensland sets off alarm over health of Great Barrier Reef
Experts fear for health of corals and other marine life as about 1m sq km of ocean experience prolonged elevated temperatures
‘Go faster, go higher, go nuclear’ [$]
Brisbane 2032 Olympics boss Andrew Liveris says nuclear power must be in the mix to make the Games ‘climate-positive’.
South Australia
Labor goes to water on SA’s Murray promise — again [$]
It is expected Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will ask for another three years to deliver the long-promised, but not delivered, extra water to the River Murray
Tasmania
Climate protesters risk arrest to call out banks [$]
Self-proclaimed “ordinary citizens” took to the streets to protest at one of the big four bank in Launceston on Friday, risking arrest.
Calls to end salmon farming at Long Bay amid algal bloom fears
“The equivalent of sewage discharged by at least 25,000 people.” A group of scientists has called for salmon farms to be removed from Long Bay, near Port Arthur.
Northern Territory
For years, clan groups have received millions from mining royalties. What happens when they end?
Tens of millions of dollars in Rio Tinto’s mining royalties are set to stop in the remote Northern Territory, as clan groups work urgently to cushion the blow.
Scientists discover there’s more to the Aussie outback than meets the eye
Chris McLennan
No matter what eventually happens to the enormous shale gas reservoirs deep below the ground’s surface in the Northern Territory outback, one thing is already clear. What was once one of the most unexplored regions in Australia has been offering up its secrets.
The Northern Territory does not have a crocodile problem – and ‘salties’ do not need culling
Brandon Michael Sideleau
Last week, a 67-year-old man was bitten on the arm by a saltwater crocodile at a waterhole in the Northern Territory’s Top End. Predictably, the incident has prompted debate over whether a crocodile cull is needed.
Western Australia
‘Stalemate’ leaves long-speculated Kimberley tidal power plan dead in the water
A multi-million-dollar project to convert one of the world’s biggest tides into electricity has met decade-long delays with the federal government.
How this possum, the size of a human thumb, is helping to pollinate flowers
The western pygmy possum is notoriously difficult to find in the wild, but researchers have found traces of it in WA’s Goldfields using a technique they believe could help tackle biodiversity decline.
‘I avoid this place’: Businesses struggling as foul-smelling bird excrement ruins alfresco area
Business owners call for action as 100 cormorants move into one tree in East Perth, painting the surrounding area white with pungent bird droppings.
Saffioti’s $2 billion rail project is on track for disaster [$]
Paul Murray
In a scathing report released this week, the Government’s Armadale line plans were described as a ‘disgrace’ and a ‘reckless waste’ of hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.
Sustainability
For eight years, a rusted tanker carrying more than 1 million barrels of oil has sat neglected in the Red Sea, threatening to cause the world’s worst oil-spill disaster. After years of planning, a daring salvage operation is now underway.
Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and PepsiCo named UK’s biggest packaging polluters
Surfers Against Sewage’s annual audit finds 12 companies responsible for 70% of branded pollution
Noel Castree
It made world news last week when a small lake in Canada was chosen as the “Golden Spike” – the location where the emergence of the Anthropocene is most clear. The Anthropocene is the proposed new geological epoch defined by humanity’s impact on the planet.
You must be coking! Are new coalmines OK if they help make steel? [$]
Rod Campbell
Some critics argue we should lay off metallurgical coalmines because they’re used for steel, not energy. But that ignores the big picture.
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