Daily Links Jul 22

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The sunsets on Mt Isa.


From: Maelor Himbury <M.Himbury@acfonline.org.au&gt;
Date: 22 July 2024 at 8:50:35 AM GMT+10
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Jul 22

Post of the Day
Peter Newman
The extent to which renewables should dominate Australia’s energy grids is a major issue in science and politics. Solar and wind are clearly now the cheapest form of electricity. But limits to these technologies can undermine the case for a renewables-only electricity mix.
 
On This Day
 
Climate Change
Michel Forst, UN special rapporteur, joins growing chorus of voices criticising jail terms handed to five defendants
 
On July 17, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed into law a carbon capture and storage bill that creates a legal framework for climate-warming carbon emissions captured from burning fossil fuels to be injected underground and stored indefinitely to prevent them from escaping into the atmosphere. The bill was opposed by 45 environmental groups.
 
Despite global efforts to shift to renewables, U.S. oil producers are raking in record profits thanks to high prices and demand.
 
Andrew Sheng
If leading central banks can grow their balance sheets by billions of dollars during the pandemic, they can do the same to fight global warming.
 
Kate Howitt and Gates Moss
The core principles that drive good investment are also at play in climate change.
 
National
Coal communities across the country – facing the loss of industry, jobs and the social fabric that binds them together – are poised to transition from the fossil fuel that built their histories.
 
Nuclear power relies on millions of litres of cooling water. The federal opposition’s plan to build reactors on seven sites raises questions about water use and the effect on the environment.
 
Just 1% of renewables developments in Australia involve First Nations equity, compared with 20% in Canada. But some believe the sector offers a ‘new moment’ for Aboriginal people
 
At least one solar project has been put on hold indefinitely, as some energy investors grow nervous over whether renewables will still be supported under the Coalition’s nuclear proposal. 
 
NSW, Victoria and Queensland local governments have limited roles in approving developments, but advocates say they’re best placed to keep communities onside
When Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen was sworn in to his portfolio, in one of his first statements he declared the climate wars were over.
 
Nick Cater
Bowen was remarkably sanguine last week at the Press Club about the implosion of Andrew Forrest’s green hydrogen plan. Hours later, Twiggy’s Fortescue Metals was kicking its target down the road to Never Never Land.
Katta O’Donnell
Four years ago, the author sued the Australian government to draw attention to the climate crisis. Now, she says the law can not do enough and the only way to effect the necessary change is to break it.
Saturday Paper editorial
Most of the people who signed the letter sought to have their names redacted before it was released. They are hidden under a long, grey stele: not too ashamed to lobby for mining concessions, but ashamed enough to keep it secret.
 
Ken Russell 
Both Australia’s parties of government, when in office, are failing the first responsibility of government; to ensure the safety and security of its people. They must be held to account, and forced to withdraw their support for fossil fuels, the root cause of climate change.
         
Canberra Times editorial
Two things stand out from the extensive survey of our readers’ opinions on global warming and what should be done about it.
 
John Quiggin
Newly announced deal in Czechia shows GenCost nuclear estimates are too optimistic. Even in established nuclear countries, new nuclear power is hopelessly uneconomic.
 
Victoria
A group of residents have voiced concerns after VCAT gave approval for a fourth tailings dam at the Ballarat Gold Mine, so the troubled mine can continue operations.  
 
Faced with an enduring ocean mystery and next to no money, researchers studying thousands of crabs on Australia’s southern coast have turned to the public for help.
 
A new rail freight hub in Melbourne’s outer north will be so big Canberra doesn’t need to spend $1.6 billion on a facility 20 kilometres away, the rail terminal’s owners say.
 
Norman Day
The massive new Arden development in Melbourne’s north is going to end up like Docklands, maybe worse, with dark streets cutting through major blocks of construction, and an appearance of little useful public open spaces.
 
New South Wales
The residents of the tiny hamlet of Wallaroo in the Southern Tablelands say they support renewables, but the proposal for a giant solar farm on their doorstep is in the wrong location.
 
Some 34 years after operations closed at the North Cliff mining site in Dharawal National Park, vision given to the ABC shows methane gas leaking out into the atmosphere.
 
Den trees used by the endangered species are off-limits to loggers so campaigners – among them former Treasury head Ken Henry and MP Sophie Scamps – register them to save them
 
The biggest ecological survey to date for Australia’s oldest national park and adjoining areas found previously unseen mammal species.
As many of Australia’s four million school students prepare for a new term, the question of what to do with old uniforms is a constant. One mum has come up with a novel solution which has potential to reduce the world’s growing textile waste problem.
 
ACT
Mark Hemmingsen has been working on electric vehicles longer than most. He learned early on he would lose people’s attention if you started preaching about the environment to them. You had to start with economics.
Belinda Noble
Imagine your child is learning geology with a lesson plan sponsored by Woodside Petroleum which demonstrates how to drill for oil using Vegemite sandwiches.
 
South Australia
The species has been mostly absent from the South Australian stretch of the river for around 40 years. Now, the population is getting another boost.
 
Port Augusta is turning into a battleground for Labor and the Coalition’s opposing solutions to reducing carbon emissions, with some threatening legal action if the Coalition wins government.
Tasmania
Hobart cat owner Alex Paton knows her pets are natural born killers, but takes every step to ensure that her furry friends do not impact Tasmania’s fragile environment.
 
Northern Territory
Ben Abbatangelo and Rachel Hoffman
A chief executive’s plan to take a personal stake in a multimillion-dollar mining project has drawn attention to the running of one of Australia’s most remote land councils.
 
Western Australia
Revelations about the use of WA’s groundwater by bottled water companies, along with record low rainfall, have focused attention on the best way to manage a scarce resource.
 
Researchers say there is evidence that previously unknown breeding “nurseries” for critically endangered green sawfish could disappear due to continuing habitat loss in northern Western Australia. 
 
Two years into the fight to protect Perth’s urban tree canopy from a sesame seed-sized pest, mayors are slamming authorities for not acting fast enough.
 
Funding deal between federal and state governments will take share of renewables in W.A. to around 70 per cent – the most of any isolated grid of its size with no hydro.
 
Michael Slack et al
In May 2020, as part of a legally permitted expansion of an iron ore mine, Rio Tinto destroyed an ancient rockshelter at Juukan Gorge in Puutu Kunti Kurrama Country in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
 
Ian Verrender
Green hydrogen might be more efficient than petrol but it doesn’t rate against a battery-driven vehicle, and funding it is proving to be difficult with iron ore prices falling.
Karen Chappel
Many of Perth’s much-loved mature trees are being cut down and mulched as an insect the size of a sesame seed wreaks havoc across a large part of the metropolitan area.
 
Sustainability
The robotic services allow farmers to rely less on chemicals. ‘This solves a lot of problems,’ workers say
 
As the number of major utility-scale ground solar panel installations grows, concerns about their impacts on natural hydrologic processes also have grown. However, a new study by Penn State researchers suggests that excess runoff or increased erosion can be easily mitigated — if these ‘solar farms’ are properly built.
 
A new study describes a chemical reaction that can convert Styrofoam into a high-value conducting polymer known as PEDOT:PSS. 
 
The key to cooling ‘urban heat islands’ may lie in the countryside, according to a new study.
 
Abigail Austin
Regenerative farmers, philosophers, scientists and more offer their insights, from feeding your dog to finding your ‘enough’
 
Peter Sainsbury
The living, not our forebears, have put most of the CO2 into the atmosphere. Substituting wood for coal in power stations doesn’t reduce CO2 emissions. A little warmth helps bell frogs fight chytrid fungus.
 
Nature Conservation
Sparrows were taken into captivity after numbers dwindled – and this week experts released 1,000th bird back into wild
 
Decline blamed on washout summer driving down population of insects, butterflies and moths they feed on
 
Record-high temperatures in Washington state threaten the migration of sockeye salmon in the Columbia River Basin, raising concerns among fisheries managers about the future of these fish.

Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer

Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669

     

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