Date: 18 April 2024 at 9:17:49 AM GMT+10
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Apr 18
Post of the Day
Dani Alexander et al
Australia can achieve close to 100% renewables with the technologies of today. The opportunity lies in doing it better with new technologies and with the appropriate policy and regulatory settings.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
Ice age climate analysis reduces worst-case warming expected from rising CO2
New research led by the University of Washington analyzes the most recent ice age, when a large swath of North America was covered in ice, to better understand the relationship between CO2 and global temperature. It finds that while most future warming estimates remain unchanged, the absolute worst-case scenario is unlikely.
Climate crisis: average world incomes to drop by nearly a fifth by 2050
Cost of environmental damage will be six times higher than price of limiting global heating to 2C, study finds
Billions more in overseas aid needed to avert climate disaster, say economists
Pressure piles on World Bank and IMF to steer countries to low-carbon transition at spring summit
Paradox of extreme cold events in a warming world
Warm Arctic-Cold Continent events are expected to intensify until the 2020s but decline post-2030s, impacting the global weather dynamics
Understanding climate warming impacts on carbon release from the tundra
The warming climate shifts the dynamics of tundra environments and makes them release trapped carbon, according to a new study published in Nature. These changes could transform tundras from carbon sinks into a carbon source, exacerbating the effects of climate change.
Mandating social changes to achieve net zero emissions is a fool’s game!
Ronald Stein
Ceasing the world’s materialistic demands for the products and fuels manufactured from crude oil will end the fossil fuels era !
National
Macquarie Green Energy and Climate Opportunities Fund acquires portfolio of six investments
Macquarie Asset Management has agreed for Macquarie Green Energy and Climate Opportunities Fund to acquire a portfolio of six solar, wind, energy storage and natural climate solutions investments.
Climate 200 targets 20 more seats including Dutton’s
Bradfield in northern Sydney, held by Liberal shadow minister Paul Fletcher, tops the teal movement’s list. It is also eyeing Peter Dutton’s seat, Dickson.
Samuel confident of environmental blueprint before election [$]
Graeme Samuel says conservationists demanding quicker action from the government to overhaul the EPBC Act need to ‘take a chill pill’, after latest reforms didn’t touch environmental standards.
Giles Parkinson
The growth in renewable energy, and rooftop solar in particular, helped push spot and forward electricity prices down in the first quarter, but the spectacular failure of one of the country’s biggest coal generator and searing heatwaves causes prices to spike in two of Australia’s most coal dependent grids.
“Worst week for wind:” But is that a reason to panic about transition to renewables?
Giles Parkinson
It’s been a bad week for wind energy in Australia, one of the worst ever according to renewable energy and market analysts. And it has prompted fierce debate on social media, mostly by renewable antis and pro nuclear ideologues who declare it to be proof that a grid cannot run on wind, solar and storage.
Why the kookaburra’s iconic laugh is at risk of being silenced
Diana Kuchinke
Once, while teaching a class of environmental science students in China’s Hebei University of Science and Technology, I asked who knew what a laughing kookaburra was. There were many blank faces.
In the rare earths Game of Thrones, Gina Rinehart grabs the crown
Elizabeth Knight
The federal government declared “the road to net zero runs through Australia’s resources sector”, and Rinehart will be hoping for a decent spoonful from the profit pot at the end of that road.
Funding Australia’s renewable transition isn’t ‘picking winners’ – it’s securing our future
Greg Jericho
Government support for green manufacturing is actually the easy part. To truly reduce emissions, we must stop digging up and burning fossil fuels
Old hatreds are splitting us into a ‘nation of tribes’
Peta Credlin
By preferencing the causes of a minority, rather than the standards and values of the majority, Australia is now a tinder box. And is this Prime Minister up to putting the matches back in the box?
Tanya says the urgent environmental reforms the ALP promised have been put on hold! – cartoon
First Dog on the Moon
Tell all the maugean skates to hang on until after the next election
Victoria
Nimbys v Yimbys: the affluent inner Melbourne suburbs that aren’t pulling their weight on housing
Housing advocacy group says amenity-rich eastern suburbs must be rezoned to accommodate thousands of new homes
‘Light the way’: The SEC says it will be bold in getting more energy projects built
Victorian Labor’s big election promise has had a shaky start, but it now says it will start investing in projects the market is still unsure about.
Minister dismisses planning concerns [$]
Victoria’s Energy Minister has dismissed concerns that the state government’s new planning fast-track for renewable energy projects will deny concerned communities the right to have their objections properly considered.
Asbestos found at two more parks in Melbourne’s west [$]
The dumping scandal continues to grow, with The Victorian Environmental protection Authority revealing two more locations in the Hobsons Bay City Council area are contaminated.
ACT
For the first time in five years, northern corroboree frogs have been detected in Namadgi National Park. Almost 40 of the critically endangered species were spotted across the park by government ecologists.
City ramp closed for light rail construction [$]
The Parkes Way south-east off ramp will be closed from Friday morning for light rail construction works.
Queensland
Queensland researchers build device that creates electricity by consuming CO2
It’s hoped the nano-generator will eventually become a new method of industrial carbon capture with the potential to significantly reduce global carbon dioxide emissions.
An anonymous $21 million donation has helped with the purchase of the 352,589-hectare Vergemont Station near Longreach to create a 1.5 million-hectare “protected corridor” in outback Queensland.
‘Gut-wrenching’ bleaching hits Great Barrier Reef again
Time may be running out to protect the Great Barrier Reef which is suffering one of its most extensive coral bleaching events after a horror summer.
Queensland backs Labor’s emission cuts of 75% by 2035 drawing ire from federal colleagues state LNP
‘We must do all we can to become more sustainable’, says shadow environment minister
LNP to support writing Labor emissions targets into law but not its renewable target
Qld’s state LNP opposition has confirmed its position on two significant climate action targets.
Selling the farm: Donor gives $21 million to turn huge Qld cattle station into park
A cattle property in outback Queensland will be turned into a national park after one of the largest philanthropic donations for protected land in Australia.
South Australia
‘It’s called a carbon price’: Kouts revives tax spectre
Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis says people are paying more for the clean energy transition because the carbon tax was scuttled.
Water fight over Port Lincoln desalination plant
A “critically important” desalination plant is touted as the only viable option to prevent the Eyre Peninsula from running out of water, but but locals are mounting a fierce fight against the project.
SA researchers aim to get the dirt on backyard chemicals
The University of Adelaide is calling on South Australians to donate soil from their backyards to help with research into a widely used group of chemicals.
Tasmania
Tasmanian devil analysis challenges study suggesting facial tumour disease decline
Cambridge scientists critique research that concluded the disease is no longer a threat to the species’ survival
Western Australia
Noxious black ooze that ‘choked’ residents with rotten egg smell to be removed from WA wetland
After years hearing locals complain about a terrible smell at an internationally renowned WA wetland, the state government has started work to remove black sludge caused by run-off from farms, gardens and septic tanks.
Researchers unleash ‘teacher toads’ in bid to stop goannas eating deadly pest
The cane toad is spreading in northern Australia, but researchers have found a way to protect apex predators from the toxic pest and it’s all a matter of taste.
WA mining and media ‘naysayers’ spreading misinformation about nature reforms, Senate hears
Graeme Samuel, who led 2020 review of environmental laws, says ‘I doubt that I’ll be red-faced when we do actually see the laws’
Sustainability
Gene editing crops to be colourful could aid weeding, say scientists
Creating visually distinctive plants likely to become important as more weed-like crops are grown for food
American Heart Association: Children must be protected from health threats of environmental toxics
The American Heart Association (AHA) recently published a scientific statement in Circulation highlighting evidence that children’s exposure to environmental pollutants may be a key risk factor for developing cardiovascular conditions throughout their lifespan.
EU Agencies: More work is needed to make chemicals safe and sustainable
A new joint assessment of the drivers and impact of chemical pollution by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) finds that the transition towards safer and more sustainable chemicals is progressing in some areas, while in others, it is just beginning.
Nature Conservation
UK’s native poultry under threat as bird flu takes hold worldwide
Annual watchlist raises concern for native chicken, duck, geese and turkey populations as well as rare pig breeds
Unique field study shows how climate change affects fire-impacted forests
During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb carbon dioxide.
Coral reef microbes point to new way to assess ecosystem health
A new study shows that ocean acidification is changing the mix of microbes in coral reef systems, which can be used to assess ecosystem health.
CO2 worsens wildfires by helping plants grow
By fueling the growth of plants that become kindling, carbon dioxide is driving an increase in the severity and frequency of wildfires, according to a new study.
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669
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