
How many more times can we say that we are down to our last chance, that we’re not there yet and we have to get serious about reducing emissions – and then not reduce emissions, license more mines and continue fossil fuel exports? Has the world failed? Yep, and it continues to fail.
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From: Maelor Himbury <M.Himbury@acfonline.org.au>
Date: 13 January 2025 at 8:38:05 am GMT+11
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Jan 13
Date: 13 January 2025 at 8:38:05 am GMT+11
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Jan 13
Post of the Day
Temperatures in 2024 officially exceeded the Paris Agreement target. Does that mean the world has failed?
On This Day
Climate Change
Climate scientists are already recording a steady change in global temperatures, and experts warn cases of gastro, mosquito-borne illness and heat stroke are soon to follow.
John Vaillant
We fell in love with the power and speed that fossil fuels brought us. But the price being paid in California, and around the world, has become too high
Ming Pan
Ming Pan, a hydrologist at the University of California-San Diego’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, tracks the state’s water supplies. He put Southern California’s dryness into perspective using charts and maps.
Tomoko Otake
Last year might best be remembered for the conflict in the Middle East or the return of Donald Trump in the US, but in climate circles, in Japan and elsewhere, 2024 will go down as the latest “hottest year on record.”
Nick O’Malley
The fossil fuel industry is fighting back harder than ever against those who would seek to curtail it to protect the climate. Profits are up, political pressure for change is down. Meanwhile, the planet just gets hotter.
Canberra Times editorial
The role of climate change in the catastrophic fires that are devastating Los Angeles and Australia’s Black Summer of 2019 and 2020 is too obvious for even the most ardent global heating sceptic to deny.
National
More and more people are turning to grassroots recycling initiatives to make up for wider system inadequacy. ABC NEWS spoke to two women who’ve set up schemes to help make it easier for others to recycle.
High-profile Australians have backed a letter by young climate warrior Anjali Sharma calling on the government to protect the health and wellbeing of future generations.
The deadly winter fires in California are another warning for Australians to reassess climate risks, where we live and how we deal with emergencies in the future, disaster experts say.
Saul Griffith has led the charge for electrifying Australia’s homes and communities through a focus on innovation and grassroots support.
Climate action will play a major role in the federal campaign. The political clash has kicked off over nuclear energy, but it will end in the family home.
Climate 200 is facing allegations of attempting to stifle political advertisements ahead of the federal election after issuing a legal notice to an ‘astroturf’ campaign group led by a former Liberal MP.
Those who fear they will bear the burden of his nuclear power scheme want answers from the opposition leader.
At least 45 whales were entangled by fishing ropes and line on the east coast in 2024. ‘There’s a lot of times when we’ll get out to an entanglement where we just think, this animal should just probably be put to sleep,’ says Sea World’s head of marine sciences, Wayne Phillips.
Sam Arman
The extinction of the megafauna – giant marsupials that lived in Australia until 60,000 to 45,000 years ago – is a topic of fierce debate. Some researchers have suggested a reliance on certain plants left some species susceptible to changes in climate.
Nick Cater
The nuclear debate has taken attention from our most immediate challenge: the critical gas shortage created in large part by the climate zealotry.
Margaret Beavis
When it comes to nuclear radiation, there is a clear disconnect between the medical evidence and the views of the Coalition. Since the 1950s we have known there is a link between X-rays in pregnant women and leukemia and other cancers in their children.
AFR editorial
In a hotter world, the risk of more common, more extreme weather is part of the prudent economic case for improving the environment.
Andrew Bolt
Anthony Albanese has jumped the shark by linking the Los Angeles fires to global warming and attacking nuclear power. Is he really mad enough to think Aussies can stop fires in California by slashing our emissions?
Victoria
The stakes for Australia’s climbing Mecca could not be higher. This is not just a fight for climbing routes; it is a fight for identity, for community, and for the delicate balance that has allowed the picturesque town of Natimuk to thrive
Solar households in Victoria will hardly get anything for exports to the grid under a regulatory proposal that reflects the shrinking value of power on sunny days.
Amid calls for 50 cent fares and ticketless public transport, critics say the free tram zone’s huge popularity has consequences
Many campers report seeing dozens of vacant sites at fully booked campgrounds.
Kelp forests decimated by sea urchins are being replanted in Port Phillip Bay in an attempt to rebuild the ecosystem.
New South Wales
The kaputar slug, which can grow longer than a human hand, was almost wiped out in the black summer bushfires of 2019-20
More than 60 endangered koalas have been discovered living in bushland around a dam in regional New South Wales. Ecologists and landowners are working to ensure the colony continues to thrive.
More than 7,000 hectares logged in planned park area since Chris Minns won 2023 election with commitment to deliver new sanctuary, conservationists say
A seaside council has struck back in a sneaky way after they said trees were poisoned “for the sake of a view”.
NSW graziers who have been waiting five years to see a 32-kilometre-wide hole fixed in the wild dog fence that runs through their sheep and goat station say they are fed up and are being forced to sell.
As sticky summer days become more prevalent in parts of NSW, an air conditioner installer says evaporative coolers are being shunned in favour of refrigerative ones.
ACT
A lack of public transport options in Canberra is stopping First Nations children from accessing school-ready programs, a top public health boss says.
Queensland
Rangers have released six threatened snakes back to the wild after alleged poachers were stopped at a remote roadblock. Authorities say organised international syndicates are in the market for native wildlife across the country.
Thousands of lorikeets and flying foxes were treated for paralysis syndrome by RSPCA Queensland last year.
Courier Mail editorial
After the Bruce Highway there is one much smaller financial commitment we are still waiting on
South Australia
Any plans for turbines off the South Australian coast are gone, for now. But as the federal election looms, offshore wind will play a key role in Labor’s renewable energy plan.
Controversial development proposals, trunk infrastructure troubles and a host of other issues are set to come to a head in what looms as a huge year for Adelaide’s future.
Tasmania
Jessica Wei Zhou and Rohan Clarke
Every year, tens of thousands of land birds make a long flight across Bass Strait – the stretch of water separating Tasmania from continental Australia.
Northern Territory
Minister leaves Territorians in the dark about what the future holds in terms of power generation in the Northern Territory.
Western Australia
Western Australia’s clean energy sector has received another kickstart, with more than $16 million funding for seven innovative new projects.
As LA faces the mass destruction of multiple wildfires, dissent is building over the prescribed burning regime for the shrinking, drying forests of WA’s South West.
Sustainability
The commodity is now selling for 23 per cent less than it was only five months ago as a surge in global supply meets a warmer-than-usual northern summer.
To highlight the dramatic health costs of plastics, a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesexamines the disease burdens of three common plastic chemicals across one third of the world’s population.
Construction materials such as concrete and plastic have the potential to lock away billions of tons of carbon dioxide, according to a new study by civil engineers and earth systems scientists. The study shows that combined with steps to decarbonize the economy, storing CO2 in buildings could help the world achieve goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Antimicrobial resistance threatens many of the gains of modern medicine, making even routine surgery much riskier. Some scientists believe phages, lurking in every corner of the planet, offer hope
The China Geological Survey says new discoveries mean the country’s share of the world’s known lithium reserves have increased from 6 per cent to 16.5 per cent.
Tzeporah Berman
Every barrel of oil, every cubic meter of gas, and every ton of coal burned brings us closer to environmental catastrophe
Nature Conservation
The flammable Tasmanian blue gum has caused friction among Californians in the past for its role in wildfires. Scientists say the fire-loving tree is one factor in a complex story of climate change.
Australian turtles exposed to PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” show alarming health effects, raising urgent questions about the ecological toll of these pollutants.
A research team has carried out the most comprehensive assessment to date of how logging and conversion to oil palm plantations affect tropical forest ecosystems. The results demonstrate that logging and conversion have significantly different and cumulative environmental impacts.
New single-cell analysis provides detailed first look at plant roots’ protective outer layer and carbon-capturing cells
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669
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