Date: 19 April 2024 at 9:07:42 AM GMT+10
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Apr 19
Post of the Day
Australia falls out of global top 10 solar countries, risks losing spot in leading PV research group
Australia stands to lose its place in the world’s foremost global solar research group, a leading industry insider has warned, in the absence of federal government funding to support the participation of Australian experts.
On This Day
Climate Change
‘Reprehensible retreat’: fury as Scottish ministers scrap carbon emissions pledge
Climate campaigners complain of short-termism as country abandons target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030
National
Mammoth federal green scheme risks ‘zombie projects’ that never get built, analyst warns
The federal government plans to spend tens of billions of dollars building new green energy projects. An analyst is warning against “zombie projects” that go nowhere.
Australia set for a new normal with a mild winter, uncertain snowfall
The El Nino pattern has reverted to neutral while a La Nina could form after July, but for now, our weather is likely to be typical allowing for the 1.5 degrees of warming already baked into the climate.
United front needed to defeat venomous fire ants, Senate inquiry finds
Inquiry chairman calls for authorities to involve the public and work with farmers and pest control companies to stop the spread of the imported pest.
Plants you shouldn’t plant, according to the experts
Some plants seem full of promise and intrigue at the nursery, but are full of surprises later on — when they’re threatening to overthrow the boundary fence. What are the common horticultural culprits?
Are we waiting until someone is killed before we ban the illegal fat bike? [$]
Pat Stringa
Fat bikes are motorbikes masquerading as e-bikes. They are illegal and potential lethal weapons.
Green dreams, red flags: Labor’s ‘Future Made in Australia’ will end in tears [$]
Nick Cater
The PM’s ad hominem attack on one of the country’s finest public policy thinkers offers little hope that the Future Made in Australia Act might one day be seen as anything other than a slogan.
Solar sovereignty? Only if we’re powering the ferris wheel at Luna Park
The Mocker
Business owners of Australia, please listen carefully to these people who have never held a full-time job in private enterprise.
Asbestos in playground mulch: how to avoid a repeat of this circular economy scandal
Salman Shooshtarian et al
Asbestos has been found in mulch used for playgrounds, schools, parks and gardens across Sydney and Melbourne. Local communities naturally fear for the health of their loved ones. Exposure to asbestos is a serious health risk – depending on its intensity, frequency and duration – as it may lead to chronic lung diseases.
Victoria
The electricity distribution Today in the Shepparton Magistrates Court electricity distribution company Powercor admitted to failing to cut back vegetation around its powerlines, triggering a risk management failure that resulted in a bushfire in western Victoria.
Fire authorities warn of lithium-ion battery risks after two students narrowly escape Melbourne fire
Fire authorities have warned of the growing risk of lithium batteries after 50 residents were evacuated from a building due to an exploding mobile phone power bank.
Gas rebate ban to ‘cost jobs, hit poor’ [$]
The gas industry says ‘forcing households to cook with coal’ will not bring down carbon dioxide emissions.
The $600m rail line in the north being ignored in favour of cars [$]
Outer-suburban councils are desperate to get residents using public transport, but even billions spent boosting heavy rail is failing to make a dent in car dominance.
ACT
Pop-up separated cycle lane to be tested on busy inner south route [$]
A pop-up separated bike lane will be trialled on a road in Canberra’s inner south, with the results to inform future cycling and active travel infrastructure investments.
To the moon and back, over and over, in light rail’s first five years [$]
Canberra’s light rail has travelled the equivalent distance of more than 11 trips to the moon in the half a decade since it began operations.
Queensland
Developer withdraws from controversial Toondah Harbour project
Walker Corporation pulled out of Moreton Bay development after Tanya Plibersek proposed rejecting it on environmental grounds
Queensland passes legislation to enshrine greenhouse emissions targets in law
A target for Queensland to reach net zero by 2050 has passed with bipartisan support.
BHP suffers new productivity hit in Queensland coal [$]
Another downgrade means the miner spends almost seven times more money to dig a tonne of coal out of the sunshine state as it does for each tonne of iron ore in WA.
SEQ’s new ‘Gateway to Straddie’ in doubt as Walker abandons Toondah Harbour [$]
Qld Greens senator Larissa Waters wants the state government to upgrade Cleveland’s Toondah Harbour, while protecting endangered wetlands, rather than leaving it to the private sector.
South Australia
Copper production shines at Olympic Dam
BHP says its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia’s Far North has recorded its best quarter in over a decade, with overall copper production up 10 per cent on last year.
Tasmania
‘Pocket of the ancient world’: Artists converge on rainforest [$]
An artist who was part of a group of more than 80 that were given the opportunity to explore the Tarkine has described the experience as “life-changing”.
On ‘regional jobs’, forestry wars …
Media release – Dean Winter MP, Tasmanian Labor Leader
Labor supports jobs in regional Tasmania. It is what we believe in and what we fight for. I am making it my priority to talk to workers in key industries in the regions including those in the timber industry.
Western Australia
Mining Rehabilitation Fund continues to deliver
Stakeholder feedback from a 10-year review of the Mining Rehabilitation Fund (MRF) has identified that the fund continues to function well as a targeted approach to minimising the environmental, social and financial risk of abandoned mines to the State.
BHP chooses to add fast start gas generators to Pilbara grid, rather than long duration storage, to support its big renewable energy plans.
Delay to environment reforms shows what WA wants, WA gets [$]
Phillip Coorey
The decision to delay reform of federal environmental laws underscores the stranglehold the resources states have on the next election.
Sustainability
Despite the world’s need for more food, farmers could be forced to grow fewer crops this year
While shoppers battle with the cost of food at the check-out, farmers around the world are expected to sow less crops this year, as the cost of growing some produce is higher than its potential value.
Landmark court ruling upholds right to healthy environment
Last month, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found the Peruvian government responsible for violating the right to a healthy environment, among other rights, of residents of La Oroya, a town exposed to toxic pollution from a mine and smelter complex, the first ruling of its kind before the Court
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AAP FactCheck: Lab-grown meat claim skewered by simple facts
Social media users claim an alternative meat company is using animal stem cells to 3D print ‘steaks’, but the posters need to beef up their facts.
Nature Conservation
Two endangered black-footed ferrets cloned from frozen tissue samples
Noreen and Antonia, born last May, are among first cloned offspring of a native endangered species in the North America
Dog attacks on mountain tapirs highlight a growing threat to endangered wildlife
Conservationists call for neutering and vaccination programs following photographs and reports from Colombia’s cloud forests
Coral catastrophe signals our own undoing
Julian Cribb
Five times in the history of life on Earth the corals have perished, swept from the board by conditions hostile to nearly all life. Each time, it has taken them millions of years to evolve anew. Each mass death of corals has been accompanied by the mass deaths of most other species, on land and at sea.
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669
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