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Date: 15 April 2024 at 9:06:26 AM GMT+10
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Apr 15
Post of the Day
People or planet? We must invest in both for a sustainable future
Donna Loveridge and Rosemary Addis
Environmental and social issues need to be considered together for sustainable finance reforms to contribute positively to the wellbeing of the planet and its people
On This Day
New Year – South and Southeast Asia
Climate Change
‘Grownup’ leaders are pushing us towards catastrophe, says former US climate chief
Paris agreement negotiator Todd Stern attacks premiers who say that decarbonisation programmes are unrealistic and should be slowed down
Climate change impacts immune health globally, leading to an epidemic of diseases
The invisible effects of climate change are disrupting our bodies, notably our immune systems, by contributing to a surge in immune-mediated diseases like allergies and cancer.
Jail for holding a placard? Protest over the climate crisis is being brutally suppressed
Natasha Walter
The legal repression of activism has been fast and frightening, yet it won’t make protesters disappear and only sows division
National
Top environmental groups say some of Labor’s new laws could take conservation backwards
Alliance says there’s not enough ambition in proposed laws to prevent extinctions, as promised by the environment minister
Australia will soon start importing gas, but finding someone to buy it is proving ‘complicated’
Squadron Energy describes its $300 million LNG import terminal at Port Kembla as the solution to a looming east coast gas shortage, but with construction almost complete energy companies have yet to show an interest in buying its product.
Green subsidies no ‘free for all’: Chalmers
Amid warnings over the government’s recently announced Future Made in Australia plan, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said taxpayer funds would not be wasted.
Rock snot to spiky crawling fish: Pests threatening to reshape Australia
The wood-boring beetle wreaking havoc on Perth’s grand Moreton Bay figs is just one of many invasive species keeping experts up at night.
The iron men with a $3 billion plan to save the planet [$]
Two former Fortescue executives want to reduce the enormous carbon footprint of iron ore, Australia’s most lucrative export industry. It’ll cost at least $3 billion.
Call to revisit laws on religious rights [$]
Religious leaders are urging Anthony Albanese to ignore a report it commissioned into reducing discrimination at faith-based schools, claiming the lead author has contradicted its findings.
Done right, the future is more than just wind turbines and solar fields
Nick O’Malley
There are political and economic risks in pumping public money into new tech, but the payoffs are potentially vast for new and old industries alike.
Yuanyuan Huang et al
We all know about the carbon in Earth’s atmosphere, and probably about the carbon contained in plants and the bodies of animals. But a substantial fraction of the carbon in the planet’s land-based ecosystems is held in something so obvious we might overlook it: soil.
A review of 600 articles shows how conservative media fuels our nuclear ‘debate’ [$]
Phil McManus
Debate over nuclear power in Australia continues to be stoked by media and ideologues, following a well-worn path that likely leads nowhere.
Domestic dream all hot air without gas [$]
Graham Lloyd
Economists well know it is not possible for a nation to subsidise its way to prosperity. The more likely outcome is crony capitalism that sucks scarce resources to industries and endeavours that could otherwise not compete.
Glencore and the patronising disposition of unaccountable power
Bernard Corden
The recent P&I article by Chris Douglas featuring Glencore and the Great Artesian Basin raised many genuine concerns, especially regarding the sophism of corporate social responsibility. These included Glencore’s predatory culture and rapacious deeds and the egregious conduct of many other extractive mining brigands across Australia and elsewhere around the globe.
Energy security must be a government planning priority [$]
John Hewson
Poor strategic planning is a disturbing feature of government in this country. It may be attributable in part to the short political cycle, which mandates a federal election within three years.
Victoria
Without change, experts warn Australia’s biggest city will become the next Los Angeles
Data shows Melbourne residents are buying and driving cars at a higher rate since COVID, even though more people are working from home. Here’s why.
Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell has been banned from all duck hunting wetlands until the end of the season after illegally entering waters.
How our neighbourhood can affect our risk of getting dementia [$]
The space around where we live and how it affects our daily life can play a big role in our risk of getting dementia in later years, a Monash University team has discovered.
New South Wales
How problem weeds could power up a former coal generator
Being paid to get rid of weeds sounds like a farmer’s ultimate dream, and it may just become reality for a group of graziers in rural Australia.
National park at risk from Snowy 2.0
Snowy Hydro is failing to meet environmental standards critical to the $5.9bn mega pumped hydro project’s conditions of approval, according to a new report.
ACT
Platypus spotting, spear throwing as visitor centre reopens [$]
The Tidbinbilla Visitor Centre has reopened in time for the school holidays.
Would you displace a wombat to build your dream home?
Canberra’s wombats are silent victims of the city’s growing developments.
Queensland
Bunya tree ‘skeletons’ spread beyond national parks, but hope for ancient trees on the horizon
A “heartbreaking” stand of “skeletons” along one of the Sunshine Coast’s most popular scenic drives is sobering evidence that bunya pine dieback is spreading, while a team of experts search for ways to save the iconic trees.
Queensland backs solar recycling pilot, starting with “thousands” of rooftop panels
Queensland Labor tips $5m into a recycling pilot to tackle the PV waste problem looming on the flipside of its rooftop solar success story.
Borumba Pumped Hydro pledged before environmental approvals
Vivienne Wynter
There are concerns that the proposed Borumba Pumped Hydro project has not passed its environmental approvals.
‘Worst I have seen’: 75% of Great Barrier Reef suffers coral bleaching
Brett Wilkins
“We are really running out of time. We need to reduce our emissions immediately,” one expert warned. “We cannot expect to save the Great Barrier Reef and be opening new fossil fuel developments.”
South Australia
New $60m Adelaide recycling plant could take soft plastics [$]
A plastic recycling plant will be torn down and rebuilt under a $60m plan in Adelaide’s north – and it could eventually take your bread bags.
Northern Territory
Scott Bowman exposed at Senate inquiry into Middle Arm as serious breaches of CDU policy raised [$]
CDU vice-chancellor Scott Bowman was exposed at the Federal Senate inquiry into the proposed Middle Arm industrial precinct on Thursday for attempting to stifle academic freedom and failing to disclose glaring conflicts of interest with major Middle Arm gas proponents in the university’s submission to the inquiry, which appears to have breached academic policies and marred the university’s reputation.
Western Australia
The big dry: forests and shrublands are dying in parched Western Australia
Joe Fontaine et al
Perth has just had its driest six months on record, while Western Australia sweltered through its hottest summer on record. Those records are remarkable in their own right. But these records are having real consequences.
Sustainability
Retention ponds can deliver a substantial reduction in tire particle pollution
New research has shown that the presence of wetlands and retention ponds alongside major highways led to an average reduction of almost 75% in the mass of tire wear particles being discharged to aquatic waters.
Freshwater supplies dwindling due to human activity, studies find
Two significant studies reveal how human demand and technological advancements are rapidly depleting the planet’s freshwater resources.
Environment: Oil and gas producers underreport methane emissions
Peter Sainsbury
How accurately are methane emissions reported and whose estimates can you believe?
Nature Conservation
‘We found 700 different species’: astonishing array of wildlife discovered in Cambodia mangroves
Hairy-nosed otters and cats that catch fish are among the startling diversity of creatures making their home in threatened habitats
Network of ‘ghost roads’ paves the way for levelling Asia-Pacific rainforests
Bulldozed tracks and informal byways in tropical forests and palm-oil plantations ‘almost always’ an indicator of future deforestation, say researchers
Africa’s iconic flamingos threatened by rising lake levels
It is one of the world’s most spectacular sights — huge flocks or ‘flamboyances’ of flamingos around East Africa’s lakes — as seen in the film Out of Africa or David Attenborough’s A Perfect Planet. But new research has revealed how the lesser flamingo is at danger of being flushed out of its historic feeding grounds, with serious consequences for the future of the species
Rachael Evans
In a groundbreaking declaration earlier this month, Indigenous leaders of New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a treaty, He Whakaputanga Moana, to recognise whales as legal persons.
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669
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