From: Maelor Himbury <M.Himbury@acfonline.org.au>
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2026 at 8:38 am
Subject: Daily Links Sep 8
To:
Post of the Day
Alistair Kitchen & Tim Buckley
Australia has installed half a million home batteries in the last year. But how many have been installed in remote, end-of-grid and off-grid communities? Next to none.
On This Day
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Catholicism
Paryushana starts – Jainism
Ecological Observance
National Iguana Awareness Day – USA
Climate Change
Climate concerns have returned to focus of the global horticultural sector as meteorological forecasts point to the development of a super El Niño event.
Antarctica gained a record 695 billion tons of ice. Scientists found the surprising reason
East Antarctica gained an astonishing 695 billion tons of ice between 2021 and 2023, temporarily slowing Antarctica’s long-term decline.
Solar is now bigger than coal in China — and yet still way behind
China has more solar capacity online than coal capacity. It’s a remarkable milestone, but the fossil fuel still generates far more electricity than solar does.
It’s too late for 1.5°C. That doesn’t mean we give up
Peter Sainsbury
The UN now accepts that global warming is going to exceed 1.5°C but it’s unlikely that this will change anything governments or corporations do. It’s now too late to avoid catastrophic global warming. The task now is to limit further damage and prepare honestly for what follows.
National
Big gas turns on its own, fingering Santos as domestic crisis culprit
Cracks are appearing in the facade of the gas industry’s solidarity and all fingers are pointing towards one player.
Labor’s broken promise on plastic recycling
Industry groups say they were left blindsided by the federal government’s decision to scrap mandatory standards for packaging.
How retailers are standing in the way of cheaper power – SwitchedOn Podcast
Tim Ryan argues Australia is trying to build a 21st-century, consumer-led electricity system while preserving retailers as compulsory ‘middlemen.’
Farmers can now produce more of their own energy than ever – but will they?
Md Alamgir Hossain and Shahbaz Mushtaq
Imagine you’re halfway through your annual wheat harvest when a global crisis sends diesel and fertiliser prices soaring. All at once, your costs surge and your slender profit margin shrinks.
Victoria
‘It’s a sanctuary’: Local parents fight to save 2200-square-metre pocket park
The aged care service trying to buy this public park says the site is seldom used and uninviting. Locals say its plan sets a disturbing precedent for wider Melbourne.
AI date centre puts Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge at risk
Megan Jones
Victoria’s Government has approved a massive data centre in the parklands adjacent to the West Gate Bridge without fully considering the risks.
New South Wales
Graziers under transmission line launch bid to quash energy zone
Landholders launch legal action in the NSW Supreme Court, hoping to overturn the declaration of the New England renewable energy zone.
Largest solar farm in any CBD in the Southern Hemisphere coming to Sydney
The rooftops of the International Convention Centre Sydney will be home to a solar farm that is being heralded as the largest in any city centre in the Southern Hemisphere.
Revealed: Bigger bill and higher towers for Parramatta’s new metro station [$]
Nearly double the cost, four times the number of apartments, higher skyscrapers – everything about the mega-project has skyrocketed.
Australia’s oldest coalmine plans to expand under Sydney’s water catchment
Peabody’s plan to keep its Metropolitan Mine south of Sydney operating until 2044 has won emphatic union backing while drawing calls from the Greens for it to be rejected.
‘Should be ashamed’: Traditional owner slams dingo kills in national parks
A grazier is at his wits’ end after losing $60,000 in sheep to dingo attacks in the past five years, but conservationists say killing the wild dogs is not the answer.
‘Innocuous’ carbon scheme is blackmailing the community: Milne [$]
Christine Milne
We must disallow a regulation that could tie national park creation to carbon credit markets benefiting polluters.
Queensland
Elevated fire conditions across south-east Qld likely to remain
Drier than average conditions across Queensland in the coming weeks have prompted a warning from fire authorities.
‘It is ideology, not economics’: Queensland accused of driving away renewables investment [$]
The relationship between the renewables sector and the LNP government has become increasingly hostile.
Queensland is making cheaper power harder to build
David McElrea
The state government’s political playbook is clear: cancel targets, erase end dates, protect old assets and starve new renewables of capital.
South Australia
The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance recently held its national gathering on Nukunu Country in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, “strongly” reaffirming its opposition to all uranium projects nationwide.
Bird flu’s spread to foxes calls for ‘major rethink’ for city dwellers dealing with the pest
The spread of avian flu to a fox in metropolitan Adelaide has experts calling for city dwellers, not just farmers, to be part of the solution in tackling the pests.
Tasmania
Animal welfare claim launched against Tasmanian salmon industry
A request for an immediate investigation into salmon industry practices has been made to Biosecurity Tasmania regarding possible breaches to the state’s Animal Welfare Act.
Northern Territory
Opposition Leader hired gas lobbyist, Gunner’s former right-hand man to draft policy [$]
The Labor Opposition Leader’s office paid Michael Gunner’s brother-in-law more than an MLA earns to help develop policy for the party shortly before he took an oil and gas lobbyist role earlier this year, the NT Independent can reveal, while the Opposition Leader has refused to explain if proper procurement processes were followed for the secret consultant job paid for by taxpayers.
‘Taken for a ride’: Traditional owners’ anger at secret Glencore deal [$]
The remote Aurukun community for decades have held out hope the mine would provide royalties and hundreds of jobs over its projected 20-year life.
Western Australia
Elder among last to remember Australia’s forgotten ‘parkland’
Menang elder Aunty Carol Petterson remembers when her family worked as shepherds, driving sheep through the bushland and along rivers towards the coast in southern Western Australia. Decades later, she recalls in vivid detail the natural abundance of the landscape.
Traditional knowledge helps reveal reef and mangrove connection
A decade-long partnership between Bardi Jawi rangers and Australian marine scientists has confirmed the important connection between mangrove and reef ecosystems in Western Australia’s Kimberley regio…
Fears ‘toxic’ fracking wastewater ponds could overflow into major Kimberley river
New documents have raised questions about whether wastewater ponds at a proposed fracking project could safely contain water full of “toxic chemicals”.
Sustainability
Syrian reactor could have been used for nuclear weapons if completed, UN says
Chief of nuclear watchdog says secret Assad-era facility would have been able to produce fissile material
Heatwaves and wildfires are setting back air quality improvements, UN finds
WMO report details extreme weather events causing climatic feedback loop with serious health consequences
Scientists studied lung cancer patients—a troubling pattern emerged
Microplastics have become an unavoidable part of modern life, but what happens after they are breathed into the body remains largely unknown. Now, researchers studying patients undergoing testing for lung problems have found that those diagnosed with lung cancer were more likely to have detectable microplastics in their lungs.
Nature Conservation
We’re not protecting our oceans as well as we think: new research
Ella Clausius
Not so long ago, we thought the ocean was an inexhaustible resource. There would always be plenty more fish in the sea.
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.