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Date: 12 March 2024 at 08:49:41 GMT+11
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Mar 12
Post of the Day
Australia’s media isn’t accurately reporting all sides of the Murray-Darling Basin debate
Anna Kosovac and Dr Erin O’Donnell
A lack of balance in media reporting may have harmed public perception of environmental water allocations in the Murray-Darling – and Indigenous custodians barely get a look in
On This Day
Ramadan (until Apr 9) – Islam
Ecological Observance
Tree Day – North Macedonia
Arbor Day – China and Taiwan
Climate Change
Greta Thunberg joins climate protest blocking Swedish parliament
Activist accuses Sweden of being ‘very good at greenwashing’ as group sits outside building’s main entrance
AAP FactCheck: Cataclysmic ‘cosmic cycle’ is kooky climate conspiracy
An online society is pushing mysterious cosmic influences as the true cause of climate change.
AAP FactCheck: Cataclysmic ‘cosmic cycle’ is kooky climate conspiracy
An online society is pushing mysterious cosmic influences as the true cause of climate change.
AAP FactCheck: Greenhouse effect may be misnamed, but it’s no hoax
Social media posts claim the greenhouse effect isn’t real, saying it would work only if the atmosphere acted like a real greenhouse by stopping convection.
Protesting? In this climate? They really don’t understand business
Fiona Katauskas
There are other ways to be destructive
National
Electric carmaker concerned at ‘overblown’ claims that Albanese government’s plan to import environmentally cleaner cars would increase ute prices
Is Dutton’s nuclear push a front for fossil fuels?
Liberal Party’s nuclear policy have called it an attempt to slow-walk renewable adoption and protect vested fossil fuel interests, who regularly donate to the opposition leader and his party.
‘Money and energy to be saved’: how to get Australia’s body corporates to go green
A good first step is to get an energy efficiency assessment – to provide a roadmap for building improvements that can benefit all tenants
Which crops grow best under tracking solar panels? An Australian study is about to find out
China solar giant backs study into how modern solar systems compare older systems – and which crops might thrive beneath tracking panels.
Bowen revs up stoush over car emissions caps
Some NSW and Victorian motorists could save $1800 a year in fuel costs under a plan to cap motor vehicle pollution, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said citing new analysis.
Nanda, who lives about 60km from Melbourne’s CBD, says he’s saved up to $6,000 a year thanks to switching to an electric car. He’s part of a growing trend that has seen EV sales in outer suburbs boom as cost-of-living pressures bite.
‘Tell ‘im he’s dreamin’, Bowen says of Coalition’s 10-year nuclear claim
The energy minister has rubbished his shadow counterpart’s claims Australia could have nuclear power plants up and running in 10 years as the Coalition prepares to announce the nuclear plan it will take to the next election.
Ex-coal baron backs nuclear power push [$]
Energy billionaire Trevor St Baker calls on Labor to lift the ban on nuclear and let the market decide if the technology is economically viable.
Senior WA Liberal calls for Australia to become nuclear weapons power
In the state council meeting, a senior party figure expressed frustration that Australia was not a nuclear weapons power like North Korea.
Meet the teenager going toe-to-toe with pollies to pass a controversial law. Will she succeed?
What were you doing at 19? Anjali Sharma is trying to change the law. Meet the teenager taking the fight for her generation’s future from the streets to the halls of parliament.
With rising costs of fuel, vehicle prices and insurance, combined with a rising cost of living, driving is becoming increasingly unaffordable, especially for those in regional Australia.
Feeding solar back into the grid? Your days of getting paid for it might be numbered
As the take-up of bigger household solar systems steadily increases, are we nearing the point where too much power is being exported back to a grid?
Grid needs more clean energy than federal scheme will deliver
Plans to turbocharge green energy projects through a federal underwriting scheme will get Australia most of the way – but not all the way – to its 2030 target.
Can earth-covered houses protect us from bushfires? Even if they’re a solution, it’s not risk-free
Alan March
As extreme fire weather becomes more common across ever larger areas of Australia, we need new options for living with the risk of bushfire. Underground or earth-sheltered housing is one possibility. While still unusual, these homes are being built in bushfire-prone areas.
Nuclear no-brainer for self-imposed energy crisis [$]
Chris Kenny
The political battle will be ferocious but the outcome will be abundant energy, no emissions.
Lift ban first, then explore viability of nuclear [$]
Peter Van Onselen
There is irony in the fact ideological opposition to nuclear power was generated by environmentalists, who now are fixated on a net-zero emissions target that only nuclear power can achieve.
Libs’ nuclear option years in the making [$]
Simon Benson
Peter Dutton is determined to finish what previous Liberal leaders have failed to do and adopt nuclear energy options as official Coalition energy policy. And public support is tipping his way.
Coalition’s nuclear red herring is a betrayal of the Australian people [$]
Tim Buckley, Annemarie Jonson
The sudden enthusiasm of the LNP for nuclear energy is another divisive, cynical and damaging ploy to ignite Climate Wars 2.0 and disrupt and delay Australia’s accelerating renewables transition on behalf of the fossil fuel cartel. The LNP’s climate and energy luddites burned a decade when they were in office. We can’t afford more of the same policy lunacy.
Renewables deniers and the nuclear mirage [$]
John Hewson
The climate wars are not over. Denialists have just moved on to oppose renewables. The opposition and its media mates now seek to deny renewables as a cost-effective alternative energy source – in this country with its abundance of solar, wind and organic waste feedstocks, in quantities that are the envy of most other parts of the world.
Coalition must come clean on how its nuclear vision would work [$]
Age letters
Readers are puzzled by Peter Dutton’s embrace of a future for nuclear energy when he is yet to provide detail on how it would work.
Will Dutton’s nuclear power play work? I asked a very bright spark
Peter FitzSimons
Nuclear power is being touted as the solution to our energy woes. But even if nuclear is safer than ever before, the business case for it doesn’t stack up, according to this academic.
Why nuclear policy is ‘madness on steroids’ [$]
James Campbell
If we accept the next election is going to be all about the cost-of-living crisis, then nuclear power is too far off to be much of a help to the Coalition.
Climate disclosure laws are useful, but they won’t drive down emissions [$]
Martina Linnenluecke
Australia’s mandatory climate disclosure laws might nudge corporate Australia towards a greener future, but they won’t drive rapid decarbonisation.
This man is Australia’s most dangerous minister [$]
Andrew Bolt
Chris Bowen has beclowned himself with yet another ridiculous argument on nuclear power.
Memo to Dutton: Fukushima’s lessons must be learned, not forgotten
Dave Sweeney
It is 13 years since the world held our breath, crossed our fingers and learned of a place called Fukushima, which Peter Dutton and the Coalition seem to have forgotten
Peter Dutton sprinkles nuclear stardust into the climate policy vacuum
Richard Broinowski
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is nailing nuclear energy for Australia to his economic renaissance mast. His earlier thought was that the electricity generating transition should be confined to SMRs (small modular reactors) conveniently placed in the basements of factories around Australia. He then expanded his concept to include the construction of large industrial reactors of 600 MW capacity and more built on sites occupied by former coal-fired generators.
The energy transition requires trusted financial markets [$]
Andrew Hinchliff
The lack of readily available hedging tools to manage the huge systemic changes involved makes progress towards net zero that much harder.
Rejecting nuclear power for sustainables is a no-brainer
SMH letters
Why do seemingly rational people, given the opportunity to make the world a better place, want to spend their lives achieving nothing?
Why petrol is making a temporary comeback in the battle with EVs
Ian Verrender
Amongst the furore and fallout among car manufacturers and Australia’s new emissions laws, a separate split is developing over EV technology that could determine the future of our new critical minerals quest
Climate action denial fuels Coalition’s nuclear push
Paul Bongiorno
Peter Dutton’s Coalition ally, Nationals leader David Littleproud, gave the game away in a morning TV interview when he linked the Opposition’s rekindled fervour for nuclear energy to the survival of the coal industry.
Indigenous fire management began more than 11,000 years ago: new research
Cassandra Rowe et al
Wildfire burns between 3.94 million and 5.19 million square kilometres of land every year worldwide. If that area were a single country, it would be the seventh largest in the world.
Hosting COP in 2026 could be the incentive Australia needs to turbocharge climate action
Richie Merzian
Albanese promised to put his hand up for the world’s largest climate tradeshow – but the bid’s not locked in yet and the clock is ticking
New fuel efficiency standard is ‘stupid and dishonest’ [$]
Terry McCrann
The Albanese-Chalmers-Bowen government’s so-called ‘Fuel Efficiency Standard’ is a classic example of Orwellian Newspeak that has nothing to do with real fuel efficiency.
Opposition to nuclear power among elites is short-sighted [$]
Cristina Talacko
In the divisive Australian energy debate, we started to witness the elites, comfortably ensconced in their lifestyles, taking staunch positions against the adoption of nuclear energy.
Planning for changing climate doesn’t mean giving up on emissions [$]
Jenny McAllister
Australians know that the climate is changing. We can feel it on very hot days, farmers can see it in changed rainfall and soil conditions, and commuters feel the frustration when extreme heat delays trains because the steel railways have expanded or buckled.
LNP nuclear energy push a cynical ploy [$]
Canberra Times editorial
There are obvious questions about the Coalition’s newfound love affair with the power of the atom nobody in the LNP seems keen to discuss.
Nuclear reactions are causing ructions [$]
Joe Hildebrand
After a lacklustre result in the heartland seat of Dunkley, Peter Dutton and the Coalition have gone nuclear. Lierally. Sure, nuclear may not be right for Australia. But let’s at least have the moral courage and the regulatory freedom to discuss it.
Fight over car emissions is as stupid today as it was in the 1980s
Shane Wright
Vested and political interests are using old arguments to slow or stop a change that will reduce our petrol bills and improve our air quality.
Green energy stocks have been belted. What comes next? [$]
James Wright
Dismissing the sector’s long-term potential based solely on short-term underperformance would be a mistake.
Victoria
Allan government spends $67 million to pause building Airport Rail link
Contractors on Melbourne’s airport rail link have been paid $67 million to delay to the project.
Australia nuclear facility installs massive rooftop solar system to save $2 million
One of the major nuclear research facilities belonging to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)’s is installing a major rooftop solar system that will save $2 million.
Preserving the last of Melbourne’s billabongs
Bolin Bolin – one of around a dozen remnant billabongs along a stretch of the Yarra River that was once part of a huge system of wetlands – is once again full of water and life.
End the ugly: Why these experts say the state’s dysfunctional planning system must change
Architects and planners say Victoria’s planning system is not working, discourages beautiful buildings and adds thousands of dollars to the cost of housing.
Aboriginal activists blamed for stalling upgrade of deadly road [$]
The duplication of the Western Highway between Ararat and Buangor is facing fresh delays and cost blowouts, with activists accused of exploiting findings to prevent it from progressing.
New South Wales
Explosive claim in asbestos mulch saga
The company accused of supplying mulch infected with asbestos to dozens of locations has made explosive claims amid a legal battle with the environmental watchdog
Save the brumby advocates claim new finding a ‘game changer’ [$]
Wild horse advocates are counting on DNA research and a link to the First Fleet to power their argument to save the animals from death by culling in the Snowy Mountains.
‘Bring it on’: The plan to get SUVs, monster utes off Sydney’s roads
Drivers of oversized SUVs and utes should pay higher parking fees in a bid to get them off Sydney roads, as concern grows about the environmental impact and safety of big cars.
‘Chilling effect’ on culture: Class action puts spotlight on prosecution of Aboriginal fishers
More than 10,000 people could be eligible for a compensation payout from the NSW government for the criminalisation of traditional fishing practices that are protected under Commonwealth native title law.
NSW lagging on rollout of renewables meaning Australia could miss 2030 clean energy target
State less than halfway to goal, report suggests, adding to challenges for federal government’s 82% renewable energy target for grid by end of decade
‘I don’t like to lose’: Giant-killer Geoff Cousins declares war on controversial NSW industry
The man who stopped the Gunns pulp factory is turning his attention to this state’s hardwood forests.
Slugged daily by expensive road tolls? The Australian city that could be in for a shake-up
Sydney’s vast network of toll roads need a complete restructuring to make pricing fairer and more consistent, a review has found. Here are the recommendations.
How new wind, solar and batteries would keep lights on in NSW heatwave, even without Eraring
Giles Parkinson
Last month’s heatwave in New South Wales and fears of rolling blackouts sparked the usual debate from the usual quarters about how the country’s biggest grid could possibly survive without the country’s biggest coal generator.
Allan Fels wants to shake up Sydney toll roads. But it’s politically risky
Matt O’Sullivan
The former ACCC chairman’s proposals to reform the city’s tolling system are littered with potholes for the Minns government.
ACT
How the ACT government could have saved millions on light rail [$]
The ACT government refused to meet representatives of a German railway company which believed it could have saved millions of dollars on the light-rail system in Canberra, according to the company’s representative in Australia.
Queensland
Fears for koala habitat after coal mine assessed
A proposed Queensland coal mine has been referred for federal assessment, sparking fears almost 800 hectares of koala habitat will be cleared.
Environment minister: ‘We’ve had some bad news about the Great Barrier Reef’
It has been confirmed that a mass coral bleaching event is unfolding across the vast swathes of the Great Barrier Reef, alarming environmental groups and leading Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to say it is going through a “tough time”.
Heavy electric trucks cleared to drive in another state [$]
Electric trucks have been given the green light to haul freight in another state after the Queensland government announced it would allow heavier vehicles on some major routes.
How the lord mayoral candidates will fix Brisbane’s bus system
Faster journeys for 54 per cent of all bus commuters and similar-timed – but more frequent – trips for an additional 33 per cent are the by-product of using the electric-powered Brisbane Metro at five-minute intervals, the LNP says.
‘No truth’ to suggestions controversial reef fishing licences will be revoked
The recently introduced NX licences that allow the use of gillnets during a phase-out have been criticised as “unworkable” by commercial fishers.
Almost half of cane growers sceptical of science behind laws protecting Great Barrier Reef
Review found ongoing ‘mistrust’ among farmers, including many who remain unconvinced by need for pollution regulations
Great Barrier Reef suffers fifth bleaching event in eight years – video
Weeks of above average temperatures are taking their toll on the world’s largest coral reef system. Scientists say the bleaching event follows a world-wide trend, driven by elevated sea surface temperatures caused by climate change.
Terry Hughes
For the fifth time in just the past eight summers – 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and now 2024 – huge swathes of the Great Barrier Reef are experiencing extreme heat stress that has triggered yet another episode of mass coral bleaching.
We can’t pretend we’re doing enough if we want to give the Great Barrier Reef a chance to survive
Adam Morton
With mass bleaching events so frequent, the prognosis is bad. Australia must lead with its actions on emissions and phasing out fossil fuel development
There’s been a lot of trash talk this election, but all I got was a free food-waste-bin-of-shame
Felicity Caldwell
Taking out the trash is not a fun chore, but Labor and the LNP have been spending an inordinate amount of time rubbishing each other’s garbage-collection policies.
South Australia
Bat signal down: Flying foxes wreak havoc on state’s power network [$]
An explosion in the number of flying foxes is wreaking havoc on South Australia’s power network, with the endangered species on track to set a record number of batout… sorry, blackouts.
Forest fire contained at Highbury in the Mount Lofty Ranges amid extreme heat across SA
Firefighters have contained a bushfire at Highbury in the Mount Lofty Ranges as total fire bans remain in place across six districts in South Australia.
Tasmania
Hobart endures hottest night in 112 years as severe heatwave hits south-eastern Australia
Extreme heat forecast to continue across Victoria, Tasmania, SA and NSW for several days, as record temperatures cause cancellation of long weekend events
City of Launceston gives green light to flood mitigation strategy
The City of Launceston will establish a flood mitigation strategy to address the current and future risks facing the municipality.
Greens’ plan to ‘guarantee’ jobs for workers if salmon farm closes [$]
The Greens want to remove salmon farming from Macquarie Harbour and laid out how workers could transition into other roles. However, the plan has not been well received by everyone.
Is it a ‘bribe’ or ‘listening to community needs’? Both parties questioned over election promises
Both of Tasmania’s major political parties come under scrutiny for their handling of community grants, with integrity around the commitment of public money questioned as election day draws closer.
Dutton nuclear plan to be put to voter test [$]
Anthony Albanese has put the Coalition’s plans for nuclear energy to the test at the Tasmanian election, as Peter Dutton warned it was the only way to achieve reliable and affordable power.
‘A true pioneer’: Ecotourism figure remembered by family [$]
A woman who played a large part in turning Cradle Mountain and Freycinet into tourist destinations has been remembered fondly by her family following her death.
Paddling protesters rally against krill in salmon feed [$]
Anti-salmon farming protesters hope aquaculture will be a big issue at the state election this month. Meanwhile the Sea Shepherd has taken aim at krill fishers in Antarctic waters.
Northern Territory
Cooling performance of NT government shade structure worsening as maintenance costs soar
The $3.3 million Darwin shade structure built in 2018 continues to sizzle in the sun without cover from its slow-growing vines. Through a Freedom of Information request, the ABC has obtained new temperature data from underneath the NT government project.
Linda Burney defends federal response to spate of crime in Alice Springs
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney has defended the federal government’s commitment to the troubled town of Alice Springs, ahead of a planned visit to the Northern Territory by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Western Australia
‘Do not risk it’: Experts slam unauthorised Wittenoom visitors as pictures emerge online
Photographs taken by a man who explored old mine shafts at Wittenoom, where deadly blue asbestos still contaminates the area, have drawn condemnation from authorities.
Sustainability
Oil industry has sought to block state backing for green tech since 1960s
Research shows industry lobbying against support for solar panels and electric cars while enjoying subsidies itself
High shower pressure can help people save water, study suggests
Researchers in Surrey say visible timers can also reduce water usage after installing sensors in 290 showers
Southeast Asia, a region grappling with environmental challenges and the effects of climate change where one in three workers rely on natural resources to sustain their livelihoods, would see large employment gains from transitioning to sustainable agriculture and to renewable sources of energy, according to a new OECD Development Centre report.
Do you really know what chemicals are in your cosmetics? – podcast
New Zealand is banning them, the EU is phasing them out, and a growing number of states in the US are restricting the use of PFAS chemicals in cosmetics. But experts say Australia is ‘way behind’ when it comes to limiting exposure to so-called ‘forever chemicals.’
Multilateral diplomacy in action
Ioan Voicu
The Asia-Pacific region lags behind by an estimated 32 years in its pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Environment: Cryptocurrency using as much electricity as Sub-Saharan Africa
Peter Sainsbury
Renewables are about to supply the annual increase in electricity usage globally but cryptocurrency’s power demands are …
Nature Conservation
Climate change driving fish producers to new technology [$]
As a changing climate impacts marine systems, seafood operators are recasting how and what they’re farming, to feed an ever-growing world.
France’s appetite for frogs’ legs is endangering species in Asia, say campaigners
Scientists and vets are urging the president to afford the world’s most traded species better protections
Erin Saupe and Cooper Malanoski
Many experts believe we may soon face a mass extinction event, with a high proportion of Earth’s species dying out
Top science body warns of worst coral bleaching event in history
Imogen Zethoven
The top scientific body that monitors the world’s tropical coral reefs, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has warned that “We are literally sitting on the cusp of the worst bleaching event in the history of the planet.”
More new species? We can’t look after the ones we have!
First Dog on the Moon
Before climate change gets them we can have fun going bonkers at the extremely weird shit that lives under the ocean
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669
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