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Date: 28 July 2023 at 8:52:43 am AEST
Subject: Daily Links Jul 28
Daily Links is discontinuing on weekends to give you a break from the unrelenting bad news. Go out and enjoy nature.
Post of the Day
Climate and ecological security: time for rogue thinking?
Elizabeth Boulton
Imagine encountering an enemy and, as it starts to reveal its full array of tactics and capabilities, a feeling of ice-cold fear runs through your chest. In an instant, you realise that you are out-matched; you’ve been out-witted, and defeat is a real possibility.
On This Day
Ashura – Islam
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
Hundreds of firefighters and a rising death toll: The latest on the Mediterranean’s deadly wildfires
Extreme weather has caused havoc in at least eight Mediterranean nations, with devastating wildfires. Here’s the latest as heatwaves continue to hamper firefighting efforts.
In assembling data over 25 years, scientists found plants and animals reaching the limits of their ability to respond to climate variability.
‘Project 2025’: plan to dismantle US climate policy for next Republican president
Rightwing groups penned a conservative wish list of proposals for the next conservative president to gut environmental protections.
Sahara dust can enhance removal of methane
New study improves our understanding of the global methane budget
Climate scientist finds new way to measure the Earth’s ability to offset carbon emissions
Scientists have determined how the Earth responds as it heats up due to climate change. Their study is the first to find the temperature-carbon dioxide release relationship at the landscape level.
Another proposal that would commit the coalition’s members to triple their renewable energy development by 2030 also failed to pass amid opposition from Saudi Arabia, China and Russia.
A research paper finds World Heritage sites, protected for their unique natural or cultural values, are under extreme threat from climate change and risk being de-listed if those values are eroded.
‘Terrifying’: UN chief declares ‘era of global boiling’
UN chief Antonio Guterres has declared the dawn of the “era of global boiling” as July looked set to become the hottest month on record.
Greece PM says climate change ‘not an excuse’ for fires
Greece needs to take more steps to combat the effects of climate change, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says, as wildfires on the mainland overnight burned farms and factories.
Truth about zombie viruses in melting ice [$]
For a long time, the threat of ancient bacteria being released by thawing ice has been the stuff of science fiction movies – so how much of a risk is it really?
A grim climate lesson from the Canadian wildfires
David Wallace-Wells
For all our plans to control emissions, humans are no longer fully in charge.
Adam Morton
Amid the despair and doomism is a real climate emergency. We must act accordingly
Joe Biden must declare a climate emergency. And he must do so now
Peter Kalmus
Biden had the last opportunity of any president to keep the world under 1.5C of heating. Instead he is squandering time we do not have
National
Export prices drop as global energy demand falls
The Export Price Index fell 8.5 per cent in the June quarter 2023, and 11.2 per cent annually, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
New figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator show wholesale power prices have fallen by nearly 60 per cent in the past year, while households brace for an increase of at least 20 per cent to their power bill.
Act now ‘or we all scorch and fry’: Australia ‘exporting destruction’ amid record heat
The warmest temperatures for tens of thousands of years are prompting yet more calls from experts for urgent action on climate.
Climate litigation is on the rise around the world and Australia is at the head of the pack
Jacqueline Peel
Australians relish being at the top of international league tables in sport. But few would know we’re a global champion when it comes to using the courts to hold governments and companies to account on climate change.
‘Please stop talking about this stuff’: a political guide to new greenwashing rules [$]
Bernard Keane
Just in case the new rules for business are applied to political parties too, Crikey has prepared responses for the major parties.
Bowen: “It’s too late to avoid the climate emergency”
Giles Parkinson
Australia’s climate and energy minister Chris Bowen says the extreme weather events of recent years, and the heatwaves sweeping the globe in this northern summer, show that the world has already failed to prevent a climate emergency.
Why our energy transition needs a price tag [$]
Claire Lehmann
Chris Bowen’s view that an ever-increasing share of renewables will lead to a reduction in power prices largely rests on one document: the CSIRO’s GenCost report.
Victoria
Victoria’s environment watchdog drops charges against soft plastics recycler
Victoria’s environment watchdog has dropped allegations against a soft plastics recycling company, but says more serious charges could be coming.
Melbourne Water consulted insurer, government on independent flood review, documents reveal
Melbourne Water discussed “tweaking” the parameters of the Maribyrnong River flood review based on input from its insurer, documents reveal
New South Wales
Farming lobby wants ban on new solar farms, as renewables resentment festers in regions
Australia’s largest state farming association wants a temporary ban on new large-scale solar projects as angst grows over “carrying the weight” of the transition.
NSW mulls tiered coal royalties as it contemplates end of coal price cap
NSW considers following Queensland’s tiered coal royalty scheme as it also mulls extending coal price cap.
‘Missing piece’: Work starts on divisive $2b Harbourside redevelopment
Darling Harbour is set to be transformed by a new mixed-use complex comprising shops, offices, and a 42-storey luxury apartment tower.
Premier needs to climb out of Metro West hole [$]
James O’Doherty
Premier Chris Minns needs to clarify whether major infrastructure projects — including the Metro West — will face the axe. And he needs to do it soon.
Queensland
Maximum security prisoners ‘completely invested’ in state’s biggest jail recycling scheme
A Queensland prison that was sending 16,000 empty milk bottles to landfill each month has launched a recycling program so successful it has caught the eyes of other jail program managers.
Answers wanted over cause of lead leaching into drinking water
Documents show the Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council raised concerns with the state government over critical infrastructure failures more than a year before lead was discovered in the community’s tap water.
Up in smoke: Emissions force mining giant to write off value of Gladstone refinery
Resources giant Rio Tinto has written off all the value of its Yarwun alumina refinery near Gladstone as carbon emissions become a serious financial issue for the company.
South Australia
Wipeout: Adelaide’s sewer block suburbs [$]
A southern suburb has recorded the highest number of blocked sewers caused by wet wipes for a second year running, with SA Water releasing an unwanted Top 10.
Tasmania
MP says Marinus Link a bigger deal than AFL stadium, demand vote in Parliament
Former Liberal MP wants the $3.8 billion undersea transmission project reviewed as a project of state significance, making it subject to a vote by both houses of state parliament.
Alarm sounded in crisis talks over future of endangered Tassie species [$]
Tasmania could be remembered as the site of the first extinction in modern times of a shark or ray, a concerned scientist says, as crisis talks over the future of the Maugean skate heat up in Hobart.
‘Posturing’: Minister not fussed by Hobart coal mine protest [$]
Activists in Hobart have staged a coal “greenwashing” in protest of proposed coal mine in the Fingal Valley – but the state’s resources minister isn’t concerned.
Waste company director takes next step in alleged fish kill case [$]
The director of a Tasmanian composting and waste company accused of causing mass fish deaths after a wastewater spill has made a significant step in his case.
Western Australia
Road trains on renewables? Green hydrogen hub set to service heavy vehicles in WA
A company building a green hydrogen plant near Perth says rubbish trucks, buses and big rigs in the state could be running on renewable energy in less than two years if the project proceeds as planned.
Fortescue still aiming for 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030
Fortescue’s likely first big green hydrogen project will produce 12,000 tonnes a year. It will need another 12,500 such projects to meet its 2030 targets, but insists it can still be done.
Fortescue ready to settle traditional owner dispute
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue wants to do a deal with the traditional owners of a large part of the area mined by it in the Pilbara.
Kate Sprogis
Sad scenes are unfolding in Western Australia after a pod of pilot whales became stranded on a beach late on Tuesday. According to the latest reports, 51 of the whales have died. Some 46 remain beached and authorities are working desperately to get them back out to sea.
Why can’t we just tow stranded whales and dolphins back out to sea?
Vanessa Pirotta
On Tuesday night, a pod of almost 100 long-finned pilot whales stranded itself on a beach on Western Australia’s south coast. Over the course of Wednesday, more than 100 parks and wildlife staff and 250 registered volunteers worked tirelessly to try to keep alive the 45 animals surviving the night.
Sustainability
As temperatures rise and seas warm experts say there is a lot more to consider when planning your next overseas holiday..
Discovery of room-temperature superconductors could revolutionise energy systems
If confirmed, discovery of room temperature superconductors could be one of the biggest physics announcements this century, paving way for longer-lasting batteries and efficient grids.
Green hydrogen on track to be cheaper than fossil gas hydrogen by 2030
Energy analysts at BloombergNEF expect renewable hydrogen to be a cheaper option than existing “grey hydrogen” in five key markets by 2030.
Funding to help nations eliminate lead paint and other sources of exposure would avert millions of deaths and one trillion dollars a year in income loss.
Finding climate solutions in fairy tales
What can stories of witches tell us about solving the plastics problem?
What are endocrine-disrupting chemicals?
Nearly all people have endocrine-disrupting chemicals in their bodies.
Here’s what these chemicals are and how we can avoid exposure to them.
Dynamic pricing superior to organic waste bans in preventing climate change
Grocers that discount food nearing expiration could reduce the amount of food waste that contributes to GHG emissions
Improving recyclable waste classification with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy
Coupling spectroscopy with sorting algorithms paves the way for more efficient and reliable waste segregation in the future
One nuclear expert says the film is unrealistic because it portrays quantum mechanics as ‘hard’
The ongoing struggle to join PJM’s grid
Claire Wayner
In PJM, gigawatts of clean energy have received approval to connect to the grid. What’s the holdup?
Everyone can help forge a safe ending to what Oppenheimer began
Tilman Ruff
While no film can convey everything about nuclear weapons, Oppenheimer is a timely reminder of how fallible humans created the first weapons that could destroy our world
Nature Conservation
Glyphosate impairs learning in bumblebees
What impacts do agrochemicals have on the ongoing global insect decline? Biologists have found out that aversive learning is impaired in bumblebees exposed to glyphosate.