“Go forth and multiply, subdue the earth and fill it”, says Genesis. Two articles here attest to the treatment we give our environment. With our global population growth, we’re doing our darnedest to fill it and we never asked whether our biodiversity wanted to be subdued. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” would be a better precept to observe.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
From: Maelor Himbury <M.Himbury@acfonline.org.au>
Date: 3 September 2025 at 9:03:16 am GMT+10
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Sep 3
Date: 3 September 2025 at 9:03:16 am GMT+10
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Sep 3
Post of the Day
Australia’s natural environment contributes more than $510 billion to the nation’s bottom line every year, a report as found, making it as valuable as the finance and mining sectors combined.
On This Day
Climate Change
Spain prepares for future extreme weather after ‘environmental catastrophe’ – Climate calling podcast
After a summer in which much of western and southern Europe were impacted by catastrophic fires and searing heat, Spain now forming a plan to prepare for future disasters.Scientists say action is needed to reduce emissions and increase resilience, in the face of inevitable worsening conditions.
National
A federal government forecaster says the value of Australia’s agriculture, fisheries and forestry is on track to reach a record value of $101 billion this financial year, a target previously set for 2030.
The explosive scenes followed after the PM was asked why he was chased out of a regional city by farmers fuming over Labor’s renewable energy rollout.
A group of high-profile Australians, including Admiral Chris Barrie, have released a critical new foreign policy plan in the wake of climate change.
Australia led the way on rooftop solar, but millions of tonnes of old panels are headed for landfill without a national scheme to boost recycling.
Australia’s greatest threat: Not war, not terror, not pandemic… but the climate – SBS Our House podcast
As the Coalition remains divided over net zero emission targets, former security leaders are warning the government that climate change poses an immediate national security threat.In the Senate, the Greens are pushing for the release of the National Climate Risk Assessment Report while Nationals Senator Matt Canavan is pushing ahead with a bill to repeal net zero.
Mark McCallum
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage is not a rival to renewables. These technologies can and should operate side-by-side.
Christine Middap
Regional farmers hold genuine concerns about the renewables rollout – it’s time Chris Bowen listened to them.
Australian editorial
Energy Minister Chris Bowen must stay with the big picture of what is realistically possible, both in terms of power generation and emissions constraint.
Michael Bradley
The biggest danger in any debate about a road-user levy would be a collapse into a culture war about whether EVs are good or bad. That is not the point.
Victoria
Cleanaway has dropped a bid to build a waste-to-energy plant that would have diverted 380,000 tonnes of rubbish from tips, and instead wants to double its size.
Earlier this week the Department of Transport and Planning released the first update of Victoria’s Speed Zoning Policy since 2021. The update added 30 km/h as a standard speed limit that can be applied in particular settings by council and state government road managers, among other changes.
New South Wales
We visited a commercial horse cloning farm on the outskirts of Sydney to find out just how far the technology has come since Dolly the sheep’s birth back in 1996.
The former Wind Farm Commissioner warns removing a giant turbine may cost more than the money farmers will earn from hosting them on their property, and the landowner may be forced to foot the bill if the operator defaults.
Queensland
The Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait have seen six bleaching events since 2016, including back-to-back events in 2016-17 and 2024-25.
A long-running native title fight affecting more than 3500 properties has reached the federal court.
A single borehole in country Queensland has a climate impact equivalent to 10,000 cars – and it’s just one of 130,000 across the state.
Rachel Williamson
The Queensland state LNP Government has scrapped another approved wind project in what is being called “an act of bastardry”, and accusations that the state is openly rejecting renewables as it moves to re-open coal country.
Rohan Lloyd
At the end of the 1960s, there was every expectation the Great Barrier Reef would be drilled for oil.
South Australia
A dam wall opposite an Adelaide Hills football club is at risk of collapse prompting the SES to siphon water overnight, with engineers to decide the next step to prevent flooding.
Tasmania
The $5 billion Marinus Link undersea power cable project to connect Tasmania and Victoria passes two major milestones, with financing locked in and suppliers ordered start production on key components.
Northern Territory
The Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation, representing the Traditional Owners of Darwin, has condemned the “nearly 20-year” methane leak at Santos’s Darwin LNG export facility as an “outrageous envi…
Louise Woodward
News of the large gas leak at the Santos LNG export hub in my hometown of Darwin came as a shock.
Melissa Haswell
Environment groups have called for federal intervention following revelations an LNG export hub in Darwin has emitted large volumes of methane from an LNG storage tank since 2006.
Western Australia
US aluminium giant Alcoa made inaccurate or misleading claims in an advertisement about its rehabilitation of the forests it mines in, Australia’s advertising watchdog finds.
Dozens of campers were evacuated from a remote campground amid multiple bushfires burning across WA’s far north.
Sustainability
Leo S. Lo
Artificial intelligence systems are thirsty, consuming as much as 500 milliliters of water – a single-serving water bottle – for each short conversation a user has with the GPT-3 version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT system. They use roughly the same amount of water to draft a 100-word email message.
Nature Conservation
Magali Nehemy
The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical forest, home to unmatched biodiversity and one of the planet’s longest rivers. Besides the Amazon River, the Amazon rainforest also features “flying rivers:” invisible streams of vapour that travel through the atmosphere, fuelling rainfall both within the forest and far beyond its boundaries.
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669
This email and any files transmitted with it may be confidential and legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must not disclose or use the information contained in it.
If you have received this email in error, please notify us by return email and permanently delete the document.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this country and their continuing connection to land, waters and community.
We pay respect to their elders past and present and to the pivotal role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play in caring for country across Australia.