https://tasmaniantimes.com/2023/11/potential-bass-strait-oil-spill-disastrous/
Date: 20 November 2023 at 8:51:59 am AEDT
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Nov 20
Five years on, the world is failing to learn the gilets jaunes’ lesson about class and climate
Oliver Haynes
From the reaction to Ulez in London to heat pumps in Germany, eco-policies are still too often felt as sanctions on working people
On This Day
Ecological Observance
World Antimicrobial Awareness Week
Climate Change
Stay or go? Offered a future away from home, Tuvalu’s people face a painful choice
Australia’s visa offer to residents of the Pacific island nation in the face of the climate crisis stokes mixed emotions
Earth is taking a pounding from bigger ocean waves. Why this matters
Stormier seas and larger ocean swell in recent decades are pounding Earth’s seafloor with more force, sending larger ripples through Earth’s crust — almost like a tiny, tiny, tiny earthquake.
COP28: This humble young activist spreads irrepressible climate hope
Moving and shaking at COP28 or back home in Namibia, this young climate activist sees opportunity for the Global South in the climate crisis.
5 reasons why climate change may see more of us turn to alcohol and other drugs
Helen Louise Berry and Francis Vergunst
Climate change will affect every aspect of our health and wellbeing. But its potential harms go beyond the body’s ability to handle extreme heat, important as this is.
Adam Morton
There is an unprecedented global swing towards solar and wind power under way
Plants are likely to absorb more CO₂ in a changing climate than we thought – here’s why
Jürgen Knauer
The world’s vegetation has a remarkable ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air and store it as biomass. In doing so, plants slow down climate change since the CO₂ they take up does not contribute to global warming.
National
School Strike 4 Climate: Australian students skip classes en masse to call for action
Hundreds of school students marched their way to Tanya Plibersek’s office with thousands protesting in Melbourne
‘Success not assured’ for Aussies in clean energy race
Australia’s economic engine room is facing a moment of truth as rival mining nations go all out to win the clean energy minerals race, BHP warns.
Nick Moir’s 30 years on the climate change frontline
The Herald’s chief photographer has documented some of our worst natural disasters.
Macquarie fast-tracks $10b green energy push [$]
Aula Energy, housed within the group’s green investments division, will build 4 gigawatts of capacity in Australia, starting next year, with more to come.
More support for hydrogen needed to stop Australia lagging on clean energy, Japanese expert warns
Tatsuya Terazawa says Albanese government must also consider carbon capture and storage and small modular nuclear reactors
Pumbah the dingo comes to Canberra to help challenge myths dogging the carnivore
Dingo lovers seek a political response to new understanding of a carnivore considered kin by First Nations people and villain by many farmers
The art of the Tuvalu deal [$]
Mike Seccombe
Australia’s deal with Tuvalu is the first in the world to relocate a population stranded by rising sea levels, and highlights the cynicism of policy that avoids addressing the causes of climate change.
Redacted. Gas lobby in lock-step with Government on “secret” gas reservation options
Rex Patrick
The Albanese Government is refusing to release details of six gas reservation scheme options that could reduce energy costs, arguing for secrecy, which is in the interest of multinational gas companies.
Victoria
Huge tract of land in Melbourne’s north to be returned to traditional owners
A 2778-hectare stretch of the Merri Creek corridor, which spans both public and private land and is 16 times the size of Royal Park, will be returned to the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people to manage.
ACT
ACT gas capture expansion could power 10,800 homes [$]
Up to 10,800 homes could be powered by renewable energy generated from methane after the expansion of the landfill gas capture project at Mugga Lane
It’s economically unjustifiable to extend Canberra’s light rail network [$]
Michael de Percy
The IMF recently advised Australian governments to slow down infrastructure spending to curb inflation.
Queensland
In 2023, about 90 per cent of Australians can access fluoridated water — but only 72 per cent of Queenslanders do.
South Australia
SA’s Barngarla traditional owners win conservation award for Kimba anti-nuclear victory
A long battle to prevent a nuclear waste dump being built on traditional lands of the Barngarla community in South Australia has been recognised with an Australian Conservation Foundation award.
Safety of people with disabilities should be considered in e-scooter debate
Bethany Cody
As the future of e-scooters is considered in South Australia, consideration should be given to the safety of people living with disabilities
Tasmania
Battle lines: Debate rages over staging of key Tassie energy project [$]
Labor continues to attack the Liberal state government over a TasNetworks decision, Burnie Mayor Teeny Brumby is in disbelief, but a UTAS expert says the decision holds water.
Potential Bass Strait oil spill disastrous
Media release – Australian Marine Conservation Society
American fossil fuel giant ConocoPhillips has today lodged its draft Environment Plan for its proposed test drilling project in the western Bass Strait between the west coast of Victoria and the north-west coast of Tasmania.
Northern Territory
La Niña, invasive grass and land management practices are all factors in the larger-than-average bushfires that have burned an area bigger than Spain. This interactive map shows the total area burned, overlaid on different capital cities
First Nations rangers and the CSIRO embark on a groundbreaking, space-based surveillance project to track and manage 1,000 wild bovine in remote northern Australia.
Resurgence of illegal fishing ‘unacceptable’ as fishers say fish stocks are suffering
Commercial fishers operating in Australia’s northern waters say illegal fishing activity is rampant, and they “don’t bother” fishing in some areas due to the amount of catch being taken illegally.
Western Australia
Giant wind turbine blades take the long road to inland WA lithium mine
The first of 15 gigantic blades, which will make up five wind turbines, left Geraldton Port today on a 700km journey inland to a $951 million lithium mine being built in WA’s northern Goldfields.
Cook reveals green project sweeteners at summit
Roger Cook declared WA was “up to its guts” in decarbonisation at an energy transition summit convened by his government in Perth on Friday.
Unlocking the potential of e-bikes and scooters with calls to extend subsidies beyond cars
Across Australia, state and federal governments are offering an array of subsidies, tax breaks and discounts on fees such as registration for electric vehicles. In WA, a rebate of $3,500 is available to buyers of eligible zero-emission cars, but some suggest this support should be extended to two-wheeled EVs.
All shoulders to the wheel needed in WA energy transition: union
Union boss Steve McCartney wants the government to get unions, business and the community behind WA energy transition like it has for Collie’s move away from coal.
Sustainability
EU agrees to ban exports of waste plastic to poor countries
Rules, still subject to formal approval, stop exports to non-OECD countries and limit them elsewhere
US industry disposed of at least 60m pounds of PFAS waste in last five years
Estimate in new EPA analysis is probably ‘dramatic’ undercount because ‘forever chemical’ waste is unregulated in US
Circular economy poised to go beyond outdated oil, gas and coal, experts say
As oil and gas production surge, shifting the global economy to a circular model is essential to charting a path away from fossil fuels, petroleum-based nitrogen fertilizers and petrochemicals such as plastics.
A cocktail of toxins is poisoning our fields. Its effect on humans? Nobody can tell us
George Monbiot
Many of the chemicals being spread as sewage sludge are untested or can’t be assessed. That’s why I’m suing for answers
Muhammad Rizwan Azhar and Waqas Uzair,
We hop in the car to get groceries or drop kids at school. But while the car is convenient, these short trips add up in terms of emissions, pollution and petrol cost.
Environment: NASA climate scientist criticises colleagues’ reluctance to agitate
Peter Sainsbury
James Hansen claims that climate scientists have been too slow to ring the alarm bells. Not so, says Michael Mann. International climate treaties are booming post-Paris. Putting trousers on a starfish.
Nature Conservation
UK among nations condemned for ‘epic’ mackerel overfishing disaster
Seafood companies and retailers threaten to boycott north-east Atlantic catch after two-decade failure to agree sustainable quotas
It’s one of Europe’s last pristine rivers. Can scientists save it from 50 dams?
The Neretva, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is one of the most biodiverse rivers on the continent – supporting bears, wolves, lynx and many rare species – but more than 50 planned dams could permanently transform the ecosystem
Remediation overdue: South American countries fail to enforce oil cleanup laws
Existing legislation in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia provides for the remediation of environmental damage, though experts point to a “lack of political will” to enforce the laws.
Mekong: The last chance to save a mighty river
It is feared one of the world’s richest ecosystems, home to millions of people, is facing irreversible change.
Nature photographers posting to social media help with protecting biodiversity
Nature photographers posting to social media are helping improve biodiversity conservation mapping in South Asia, and the method could go global.
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
p | 1800 223 669 t | @AusConservation
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