You should know you’re in trouble when people (and some journalists are people too) start laughing at you rather than with you.
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From: Maelor Himbury <M.Himbury@acfonline.org.au>
Date: 21 June 2024 at 8:54:22 AM GMT+10
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Jun 21
Date: 21 June 2024 at 8:54:22 AM GMT+10
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Jun 21
Post of the Day
Four in every five people want their country to strengthen its commitments to addressing climate change, according to a global poll of 75,000 participants.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Arbor Day – Cuba
Climate Change
Climate activists have gained access to a UK airport where Taylor Swift’s luxury plane is stationed and sprayed private jets with orange paint.
Landmark judgment says planning bodies must account for burning of extracted fuel when considering site proposals
A meme comparing historical photos of Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain is the latest erroneous attempt to claim ocean levels haven’t risen.
Maya Goodfellow
In his new book, Tad DeLay suggests there is no rosy roadmap to go forward – but there are things we can do
Juan Cole
As the temperature in Mecca reached 125.24° F. (51.8° C.) on Tuesday, word leaked out that…
National
Australia has up to 250,000 species of fungus — many of which are found nowhere else in the world — but only a fraction of them have been named and described. A growing group of enthusiastic citizen scientists is working to change that.
The Coalition wants to build nuclear reactors at seven locations across the country, with several sites on or near known fault lines. And while nowhere is immune to earthquake risk, the bigger problem could be an increase to engineering costs.
As state ministers get set to meet with the Minister for Environment, 7.30 can reveal the high number of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries.
A Labor MP suggests NDIA officials could have been “inappropriately cultivated” by a US software firm that holds a lucrative contract
Gas prices return to crisis highs as cold weather, a lack of renewable energy and plant outages smash the east coast market.
Nuclear energy is banned in Australia. Experts explain why implementing Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s proposal would be a “difficult” task.
Blinky the three-eyed fish, hazmat suits and radioactive waste have featured in a scare campaign pushing back against the Coalition’s nuclear proposal.
Anthony Albanese has questioned the Coalition’s ability to pull off its nuclear energy plan, labelling the proposal as “half baked” and an “economic catastrophe”
Business leader and nuclear physicist Ziggy Switkowski said the next generation of nuclear plants could justify their higher cost because of the value of their reliable baseload power.
The research finds only one in 20 voters (4%) are prepared to pay more than $500 extra per year for nuclear power, highlighting a lack of support for the technology.
Australians are being asked to choose between two options for the nation’s energy future, but the coalition is already arguing internally over renewables.
Hugh Durrant-Whyte says 2045 is a realistic timeframe, adding it was likely to be ‘more expensive than anything else you could possibly think of’
ACT senator says he is not ideologically opposed but Coalition’s nuclear proposal is ‘unrealistic’ while Lidia Thorpe says it doesn’t make economic sense
Experts predict major electricity price hikes if opposition proposal to slow rollout of large-scale renewable projects goes ahead
Renewables will make up the vast majority of electricity generation under Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan, according to energy experts.
Former and soon-to-be-retired coal communities earmarked for nuclear power plants under the Coalition’s new proposal say an ‘unstructured’ renewables rollout has left locals ‘looking for something different’.
Chris Bowen’s Climate Change department has talked-up its ‘incredible influence’ over the conduct of foreign policy amid the growing importance of Australia’s economic security.
Top nuclear scientists have accused the Albanese government of fearmongering over the energy source as both sides of politics ramp up scare campaigns around renewable energy.
A Coalition-era climate intelligence agency will undergo a significant restructure after a review found that it was set up with “little chance of success”.
A $7.7 million project will test whether electric vehicles can be used as “batteries on wheels” to power Australian households after the company behind it secured significant government investment.
Ty Christopher and Michelle Voyer
On the weekend, an area 20km off the Illawarra coast south of Sydney became Australia’s fourth offshore wind energy zone. It’s the most controversial zone to date, with consultation attracting a record 14,211 submissions – of which 65% were opposed.
Michelle Grattan
In the timing of his announcement, Peter Dutton is putting his nuclear power policy through an early stress test
Brett Worthington
It wasn’t that long ago that Peter Dutton and his merry band in the Coalition had a simple message for voters: “If you don’t know, vote no.” It’s a different story now as he asks voters to trust him to deliver a nuclear age.
Patricia Karvelas
Peter Dutton has broken every single rule when it comes to unveiling radical policy as opposition leader, tearing up the script and gambling with his party’s chances at the next election with his nuclear policy. Can he pull it off?
Madonna King
It’s almost three decades since the 1997 comedy The Castle took over our screens, but Peter Dutton’s grand nuclear plan has brought back its iconic line “Tell ’em they’re dreamin’’.
Jeffrey McNeill
The government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill has been widely criticised for potentially handing too much power to three cabinet ministers, and raising the risk of conflicts of interest and political interference in environmental management.
David Crowe
The opposition leader’s numbers seem plucked out of the air, but renewable projects aren’t coming anywhere near fast enough to fill Australia’s looming energy gap.
Tristan Edis
Almost all nuclear power plants in Europe and North America were constructed in the 1970s and 1980s
Graham Readfearn
Peter Dutton says renewable energy is too expensive – and unveils a plan to switch to nuclear, which the CSIRO says will cost 50% more than wind or solar
Robert Gottliebsen
There are difficult decisions ahead for dam control, but it would be easier to make the right choices if the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology weren’t entwined with climate change agendas.
Stephen Anthony and Alex Coram
The national science agency doesn’t have the mandate or the staff with the skills to deliver information required to plan net-zero transition.
Simon Benson
Nothing demonstrates how far the current Labor project under Anthony Albanese has departed from the legacy of Hawke than the puerility of its approach to the nuclear energy question. Just look at these social media posts.
Rita Panahi
It’s no surprise the renewable rent seekers in the corporate sector are panicking about the prospect of Australia embracing nuclear energy – it could spell the end to what has been a lucrative, guaranteed income stream.
Mark Kenny
We know the drill. When a retail business is struggling, the tactics get desperate and the language, shrill – “closing down sale, everything must go!”
Canberra Times editorial
With an election expected to be held in the next 12 months Australians won’t be waiting long to find out if Peter Dutton’s moving paean on the power of the atom was a “come to Jesus moment” for the electorate or the Coalition’s suicide note.
Shane Wright
Peter Dutton admits the cost of his nuclear policy will be “big”. So big that it could cause enormous problems to the federal budget.
Michelle Pini
Dutton’s alternative facts on nuclear energy demonstrate that the Coalition is no longer fit for purpose as a credible
opposition, let alone a government contender.
Elizabeth Knight
When the opposition leader unveiled his plan to give nuclear power primacy in the nation’s energy mix, certainty for investors in wind, solar and battery assets vaporised.
Ian Lowe
It is very difficult to take Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear announcement seriously. His proposal for seven nuclear power stations is, at present, legally impossible, technically improbable, economically irrational and environmentally irresponsible.
Wesley Morgan
The current visit to Australia by China’s Premier Li Qiang may have taken the heat out of recent tensions between the two nations. But Australia remains embroiled with China in a tussle for influence in the Pacific – a fight in which climate ambition is key.
Cam Wilson
Fires, droughts, dead reefs, rising sea levels and 1.5 degrees of global warming. It’ll all happen before Dutton’s first nuclear plant is even opened.
Bernard Keane
What is the Coalition’s track record when it comes to building big infrastructure projects? Truly shocking.
Bernard Keane
Dutton’s nuclear power plan is a massive distraction, designed to cover for the one solid Coalition energy policy that currently exists.
Geoff Davies
Wind, solar and pumped hydro energy storage can provide all the electrical energy we need, on demand, cheaply, quickly, …
Nick Feik
There is no credible nuclear plan, and journalists reporting the announcement seriously are misleading the public.
Adam Triggs
Workers who were made redundant in coal-fired power plants between 2010 and 2020 saw their incomes plummet by 69% in the year after they lost their jobs.
David Fickling
One of the most important technologies for a clean power grid is sitting idle in your garage.
Mike Rann
Every Australian who has travelled overseas will have been quizzed about our unique wildlife. From British naturalist George Shaw thinking the platypus specimen he had been sent in 1799 was a hoax, to our long-running national joke about drop bears, our unusual flora and fauna are a source of national pride and part of our identity.
Rod Campbell
While Australia goes crazy over the Coalition’s nuclear hype, the Federal Environment Department, led by Minister Tanya Plibersek, has just approved a new gas pipeline in Queensland.
Phillip Coorey
The signature difference between what the Coalition unleashed on Wednesday and the debilitating climate fights of the past is that both parties are operating from the assumption that emissions need to be reduced.
Victoria
The Victorian Liberal Party’s “fence-sitter” approach on the nuclear debate has ruffled feathers in the party room and a former opposition leader has weighed in with a pointed comment.
As Victoria’s temperatures plunge, critical gas supply shortages are looming for the next three months, the Australian Energy Market Operator has warned.
Councils across Melbourne warn of fundamental changes to their suburbs after the state government ordered them to find space for millions of new homes.
The cost of the $14b project will increase further as construction of the tunnel pushes past its contract date, but the government says it is still on track to open in 2025.
Patrick Carlyon
Under Lily D’Ambrosio’s plan there will be little gas, and no coal or nuclear power in Victoria in the future, but hot air from the energy minister’s social media posts should keep us toasty until spring.
Annika Smethurst
There remains a broad level of interest in nuclear technology in Victoria, but the evidence is that many voters remain undecided.
New South Wales
A 12-month trial using Goterra’s black soldier fly larvae system will begin with hopes it can be extended to all Sydney residents.
A local NSW council has brought in a ban on balloons and other party items in an effort to protect local native wildlife.
Queensland
Indigenous elders are vowing to fight plans to build nuclear power plants, warning the development will be a “death sentence” for their connection to country.
Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli must reverse his stance on nuclear power and get behind Peter Dutton’s energy plan, Coalition federal MPs in the state say.
The fallout from the Coalition’s plan to build a nuclear reactor within kilometres of the Toowoomba region has continued, with mayor Geoff McDonald weighing in on the idea.
South Australia
The federal opposition has proposed Port Augusta could host one of the nuclear power plants it plans to build if elected, but the announcement has drawn mixed opinions from the community.
Commercial fishers say fish are dying “left, right, and centre” in the South Lagoon and they are sick of waiting for governments to make a decision on how to fix the degraded environment.
Caleb Bond
Labor knows that a successful nuclear power industry is the biggest threat to its blind support of renewable energy.
Tasmania
Tasmanian government minister Eric Abetz has resisted calls in parliament to denounce the federal opposition’s nuclear energy policy, saying he welcomes discussion over alternative energy sources.
Northern Territory
NT government-owned utility the Power and Water Corporation has revealed the territory’s shortfall in gas supply cost taxpayers $43.4 million in 2023-24, and is estimated to cost another $24.3 million next financial year.
Territory Generation, which operates the jurisdiction’s power stations, has put out to tender a three-year contract to supply diesel to act as its back up fuel source. It comes amid ongoing NT gas supply concerns.
Western Australia
Local governments in regional Western Australia say a growing number of renewable energy projects need to be balanced against local land use requirements and community interest.
The coal mining town, 200km south of Perth, is one of seven sites identified by the Coalition as the potential site for a nuclear reactor under Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy proposal.
Nearly 4300 homes will be upgraded under a $63.2 million plan to help West Australians in social housing save on their energy bills.
Sustainability
Fertility rates have declined by half in OECD countries over the past 60 years, posing the risk of population decline and serious economic and social challenges for future generations, according to a new OECD report.
UK nuclear site pleads guilty to IT security breaches from 2019 to 2023
Nature Conservation
Two beluga whales faced a gruelling journey across Ukraine’s war-ravaged region of Kharkiv to reach their new home in Spain
DNA analysis of old samples finds only five historical cases raising hopes for polar bears as a distinct species
The animal, which is still categorised as ‘vulnerable’, has been the subject of a 20-year conservation programme
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669
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