Date: 21 September 2023 at 9:08:21 am AEST
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Sep 21
Premiers should cool it in their rush to build
John Hanscombe
As premiers Minns and Andrews race to address the housing crisis, curbing the planning powers of local governments to stop development, they need to convince us they are not greenlighting poorly designed apartment blocks that will make neighbourhoods unliveable in years to come.
On This Day
Nativity of the Theotokos– Eastern Christianity
Ecological Observance
Arbor Day – Brazil
Climate Change
How heatwaves impact your body
We know the impact hot weather can have on the environment, but what does it do to your body?
Humanity has ‘opened gates to hell’ by letting climate crisis worsen, UN secretary warns
Antonio Guterres opened United Nations climate ambition summit with attack on wealthy countries and the fossil fuel industry
Climate activists’ cookie stunt – podcast
An ad agency helps youth climate activists lure friends and family into clicking a recipe link that secretly skews their news feeds.
Cynical Rishi sells net zero targets down the river to appease the right
John Crace
There’s nothing long term about the prime minister diluting green policies in the hope of clinging on to power
National
El Niño makes a scorching summer more likely. These cities might feel it most
As Australia prepares for hot and dry months after the declaration of an El Niño, a stark reminder of the increasing danger posed by heatwaves in Australia’s southern cities may lie ahead.
What makes a bushfire alert catastrophic, and how should you respond?
Catastrophic fire danger warnings have been issued in parts of Australia already as it enters a hotter and drier than average climate pattern. If the fire season has taken you by surprise, here’s a reminder of how the warning system works.
Some experts are warning Australia’s ambitions to have zero carbon emissions by 2050 need to be scaled up dramatically.
Renewables sail past 70 pct on Australia’s main grid, send coal to fresh lows
Major milestone for Australia’s energy transition as huge amounts of rooftop solar help set a new high for the instantaneous share of renewables on the grid.
Australia’s approach to fossil fuels criticised [$]
As record September temperatures continue, so are calls for more climate action. Before a major UN summit, one of Australia’s leading think tanks has taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times to call out Australia’s climate change record. That criticism is also echoed in a new report, reigniting calls to meet net zero targets.
The CSIRO releases guide to show businesses how to measure natural assets such as clean air, water, soil, and living things, and incorporate them into their financial books.
Why Australia has abandoned its efforts to eradicate this deadly parasite
A parasitic mite that preys on bees has spread so far beyond a containment zone that authorities have been forced to switch to a suppression strategy.
As government EV policies fall one company offers its own incentive scheme
As NSW and Victoria slash support for EVs, one social enterprise is offering discounts to lower-income earners to show how incentives can serve social and environmental ends.
PM hunted over Hunter project [$]
Anthony Albanese has promised to continue consulting with communities in the NSW Hunter following backlash over an offshore wind project, as one Labor MP stresses the need for “all parties to have their voices heard” when it comes to contentious renewable projects.
Australia backs world’s atomic regulator despite concern over Fukushima water release – podcast
Australia will contribute millions of dollars to the world’s nuclear watchdog agency as the fallout continues from the dumping of wastewater from Japan. Japan has sparked controversy in the region by staging the release of treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific, splitting regional leaders about its safety.
The push for nuclear energy in Australia is driven by delay and denial, not evidence
Adam Morton
Unsubstantiated claims of nuclear energy’s worth distracts from the urgency to act now on climate crisis
Terry McCrann
The simple brutal truth is that we will build the first nuclear power station in Australia immediately after we build the next big coal-fired plant.
Politicians dodge blame as everything turns to ashes [$]
Andrew Bolt
It’s time our complacent governments organise the fuel reduction burns that we’ve been told after every fire disaster could have saved towns and lives.
Bowen protests too much on nuclear option [$]
AFR editorial
The political problem for the energy minister is voters are warming to the idea that small reactors could provide reliable backup for intermittent renewables.
Why offshore wind could become a beached whale [$]
Graham Lloyd
Chris Bowen is on a mission to convince Australians that offshore wind is the best way to meet our greenhouse gas emissions targets. Yet things are not always going the way of big wind.
Weather panic is the new normal [$]
Australian editorial
A doom reel for climate action to scare people into submission.
The social lives of kangaroos are more complex than we thought
Nora Campbell
Have you ever wondered what a kangaroo’s social life looks like? Well, kangaroos have stronger bonds to one another than you might think.
Australia must do more than pay lip service to nuclear disarmament
Melissa Parke
Speaking in New York on Tuesday during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for negotiations to begin on a treaty that would halt the production of fissile material – the basic ingredient for nuclear bombs. “We all want a world without nuclear weapons,” she said, and such a treaty is a precondition for that.
John Mikkelsen
Where are equal rights when it comes to some of the wildlife which shares our great country?
I’m buying an EV. The generosity of some EV charging and solar export tariffs surprised me
Bruce Mountain
Developments in EV markets and retail electricity markets deliver much hope for a rapid energy transition, and much food for thought.
Remember when chatting about the weather wasn’t sinister and weird?
First Dog on the Moon
It’s a little warm today – SCORCHING DEATH FROM THE SKY
Victoria
Protesters use equity week to demand Upfield Line duplication
A snap action drew more than 30 people to Gowrie Station to push for the duplication of the Upfield Line which becomes a single track north of Fawkner
This large, ugly excrescence risks wrecking Melbourne for decades to come
Norman Day
To be built over the Jolimont rail yards, it’s called Treasury Square. In fact, what is proposed is simply a dense set of three buildings – no open public square in sight. Will we allow our city to slide into squalor once again?
New South Wales
Cool reprieve for NSW after more than 100 fires burned during heatwave
The Rural Fire Service says conditions are easing in parts of NSW after more than 100 fires flared over the past three days during heatwave conditions.
New line for Humelink route [$]
Community revolt against the Rewiring the Nation push has forced part of the controversial Humelink transmission route to be altered around the Snowy Valleys stronghold of Batlow.
Minns government makes EVs a hard sell but here’s a drive away special [$]
SMH editorial
Few doubt electric vehicles are the future, but Treasurer Daniel Mookhey’s attempt to hold back time by scrapping the $3000 subsidy for drivers who buy new EVs is a backward policy already rendered redundant by a Sydney company offering the same discount to buyers.
Sex life discovery raises IVF hope for endangered purple cauliflower soft coral
Meryl Larkin et al
Vital coastal habitat was destroyed in the devastating floods that hit New South Wales in 2021 and 2022.
Queensland
A multi-agency clean up is underway after about 40,000 tiny pieces of plastic were released into the ocean with some washing up onto beaches on Queensland’s Bribie Island.
Commuters get back on board as public transport patronage jumps by millions
About 40 million extra trips have been taken on South East Queensland’s public transport network in the past financial year, but commuter numbers are still yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
Blue Energy’s Galilee dreams dashed by state government
Blue Energy’s goal to commercialise a potentially large gas resource in the Galilee Basin has been rejected by the State Government.
South Australia
Migrants key to doubling CBD population by 2036 [$]
Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith says attracting more migrant families to live in city apartments will be key to preserving Adelaide’s amenity, as Adelaide City Council maps out how a predicted population surge will shape the CBD’s skyline.
Fresh cover-up claims spark major lawsuit over deadly outback secret [$]
Victims of nuclear testing in SA are launching a new legal fight amid fresh evidence of a British government cover-up.
Tasmania
Will the ‘moat’ of Bass Strait keep varroa mite at bay and save Tasmania’s bees?
Tasmanian beekeepers are on alert after the mainland gave up on eradicating the varroa mite — but one local apiarist sees the march of the deadly parasitic pest as an “opportunity” for the island’s industry.
272 wedge-tailed eagles downed in last decade
Media release – No Turbine Action Group
The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle is the largest bird of prey in Australia, but it’s no match for 100 tonnes of composite metal and carbon fibre spinning at 300 kph.
Northern Territory
‘Wait for an invitation’: Indigenous community has Santos’ Barossa gas project on hold
Santos has run into more problems obtaining construction approvals for its $5.6 billion Barossa gas project after a remote Northern Territory Indigenous community insisted the gas company deal with it as a group.
Review of the future of private land around Tindal RAAF base announced [$]
The Albanese Government has announced a review of the future use of private land contaminated by per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS chemicals, around three Australia Defence Force bases including Katherine’s Tindal RAAF base, and which will consider the government taking on affected land.
Western Australia
Inside the fight to save a little town and its vulnerable bird population
The chicken-sized, chick-abandoning birds have one thing in common with the tiny bush town trying to save them.
Why WA will be the only state without an emissions reduction target for 2030
Despite being the only state where carbon emissions have increased since 2005, WA confirms it will also be the only state without an emissions reduction target for 2030.
Sustainability
Revealed: almost everyone in Europe is breathing toxic air
Guardian investigation finds 98% of Europeans breathing highly damaging polluted air linked to 400,000 deaths a year
Could wood chips fill the battery demand hole? Biographite start-up hopes to find out
Kiwi company Carbonscape raises $18m to help commercialise its wood-to-graphite technology using EU and US forestry waste.
In Roraima, Indigenous communities forge sustainable solutions amid threats
Sustainable farming, mercury-free fishing and circular trade are among the strategies Amazon Indigenous peoples have been developing to survive in one of the most hostile states for Indigenous people in Brazil.
Renewables are cheaper than ever yet fossil fuel use is still growing – here’s why
Malte Jansen
Why in the first global stocktake of the world’s progress towards limiting warming to 1.5°C did the UN say we’re still not phasing out fossil fuels fast enough?
Nature Conservation
The world’s most sensational, underrated natural wonderlands named
The Amazon, Yosemite and Kakadu garner well-deserved attention, but there are many lesser-visited places that are equally worthy of our attention.
Extreme plankton bloom creates marine ‘dead zone’ off eastern Thailand
Marine scientists say some areas in the Gulf of Thailand have more than 10 times the normal amount of plankton, turning the water a bright green and killing off marine life.
The world’s largest – and stinkiest – flower in danger of extinction, scientists say
Parasitic, elusive and emitting an overwhelming odour of putrefying flesh, Rafflesia – often called the corpse flower – has intrigued botanists for centuries. Now, scientists are warning that it is at risk of extinction and calling for action to save it.
Can ‘road ecology’ save millions of animals?
Designing roads with wildlife in mind is an idea whose time hasn’t come soon enough: nearly a million animals are killed on roads every day, just in the U.S., and this sobering statistic is very likely an underestimate.
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
p | 1800 223 669 t | @AusConservation
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