Dear Lords and Ladies, Sadly the Empire has little relevance these days. There’s the kids pretending to be grown-ups on the world sporting stage, ie the Commonwealth Games, and there’s CHOGM. There is a smidgin of relevance still though it might soon lose many of the Pacific members unless the gathering in Samoa can agree on responding effectively to stop too many of us going underwater. A devilish problem, what? Now where’s my gin and tonic or does this call for a bracing snifter?
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From: Maelor Himbury <M.Himbury@acfonline.org.au>
Date: 21 October 2024 at 8:56:03 AM GMT+11
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Oct 21
Date: 21 October 2024 at 8:56:03 AM GMT+11
To: Undisclosed recipients:;
Subject: Daily Links Oct 21
Post of the Day
Policies such as cash payouts for bicycle commuters have knock-on effects including reduced pollution and better physical and mental health
On This Day
Ecological Observance
National Annual Tree Loving Day – Thailand
Climate Change
For years, the mantra from the industry has been that gas is a bridge between coal and renewable energy. A landmark study has sensationally challenged that idea.
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) kicks off in Apia as Samoa prepares to host leaders and senior politicians from 56 countries — including three monarchs.
Survey of young people aged 16-25 from all US states shows concerns across political spectrum
Over 27 million people in southern Africa are suffering from severe hunger as a result of drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon, with the World Food Program warning of a looming catastrophe.
A new study suggests that deep-ocean heatwaves, which can cause serious damage to marine ecosystems, are being overlooked due to the focus on surface-level events.
National
Toll roads are a part of life for many Australians, but the fees to drive on them, and the fines for not paying, are pushing motorists to the edge. These suburbs are feeling the pinch more than others.
Despite the cost of living pressures, less than one per cent of Australian workers choose the transport that can save them thousands of dollars a year.
Hail swath estimated at 120 miles damages crops in western Victoria as winds break windows and rip tiles from roofs
In the most significant opposition plan to date on the housing crunch, Peter Dutton will promise to simplify building regulations and drive supply.
Labor will today announce a major expansion of a key renewable energy scheme, in a bid to get emissions reduction targets back on track.
Australia will dramatically cut ‘forever chemicals’ in tap water – but it will mean a big clean-up [$]
The new thresholds are likely to force the clean-up of tap water supplied to hundreds of thousands of people across the country.
The federal election is set to feature duelling household electrification schemes, as households battle the cost-of-living crisis.
A deadly strain of bird flu has swept the globe, and Australia is the last uninfected continent. Preparations for the carnage have just begun.
‘A void filled with misinformation’: The communication struggle in Australia’s renewables rollout [$]
Many regional communities perceive the renewables rollout as something being done to them, not with them, but research suggests views are not fixed.
Australia’s main grid reached 75 per cent renewables for the first time on Sunday, propelled by rooftop solar which also sent coal power and grid demand down to record lows.
Australians drink billions of cups of coffee a year, with the vast majority of used grounds ending up in landfill. Now Australian researchers have found a way to re-use that waste to make concrete – and it’s not just coffee being repurposed.
Gareth Hutchens
Australia’s falling fertility rate raises some difficult — and controversial — questions.
Robin Smit
Statements have been circulating online , including leading news platforms , that battery electric cars will greatly increase the average mass of the on-road fleet. This claim is used as an argument against these cars.
Geoff Hanmer
Later this week the government will receive the report of the year-long independent inquiry into its handling of the COVID pandemic.
David Leitch
Labor has a whole list of great energy policy achievements, but it doesn’t appear capable of selling them. We look at what they have done, and what they should do.
Caroline Zielinski
The news that our national birth rate is plummeting is concerning, but it’s no surprise to single-child families like mine.
Victoria
A horror Sunday saw the service field 894 calls for help, prompting requests for increased government support.
Brian Stewart put enough cans through a reverse vending machine to buy a caravan. But some argue he should have been paid more.
Lord mayoral hopeful Arron Wood has pledged $9.2m to transform Queensbridge Square to a green space by demolishing its controversial red stairs, if elected to the city’s top job.
The incumbent lord mayor says the city’s rooftops are an underused resource that could be transformed into thriving public gardens.
The Victorian Labor government has been slammed for keeping secret the cost of deals to underwrite the state’s two coal-fired power plants.
Annika Smethurst
A bold vision to reshape Melbourne’s suburbs gives Jacinta Allan a chance to define herself as more than Daniel Andrews 2.0.
New South Wales
More than 40 per cent of Gary Kadwell’s property is dedicated to revegetation after he planted tens of thousands of trees across his property. It is a move that has seen him save thousands of dollars and improve production levels.
Phil Warburton is one of millions of citizen scientists around the globe helping fill the gaps in knowledge for entomologists by taking photos of insects that “weren’t possible a generation ago”.
Power will be cut to residents in parts of outback NSW for six-hour periods overnight, as authorities seek to secure supply to the region after transmission towers were significantly damaged when wild weather ripped across the state last week.
As pressure from conservationists mounts, the NSW government is conducting inquiries into historical development consents that sit incomplete around the state.
Moves by Origin Energy and Norway’s Equinor have exposed big doubts about offshore wind developing anywhere in NSW, given high costs that are only modestly lower than for large nuclear plants.
ACT
The Canberra Liberals need “get on board” with building a light rail network for the capital and be a party of “aspiration and optimism”, a candidate who ran unsuccessfully for the party says.
The ACT Greens will need to spend time reflecting on the role they play in the Legislative Assembly as the party’s leader conceded its message on the need for bolder change in the territory had not cut through.
Queensland
The permanent adoption of 50c public transport fares risks a run-down of services without an income stream to cover maintenance costs, a leading economist has warned.
Queensland risks being left without a plan for its energy future if polls predicting an LNP election victory prove true, climate campaigners have warned.
Here’s how, where and when to catch Brisbane’s newest public transport service – and a surprising remark about whether it will keep its controversial name.
South Australia
A $335 million SA carbon capture and storage project at Moomba operated by Santos has been brought online, 17 years after it was first announced.
Tasmania
Recent widespread power outages in Tasmania had absolutely no effect on Mira and Krsna, who generate their own electricity using solar panels, and only use an estimated 2 kWh per day.
Two new reefs along Tasmania’s coastline made up of concrete blocks are being studied for their influence on the marine environment.
Possums, wombats and cockatoos are some of the species culled in 2023 as part of the state’s Property Protection Permit scheme. The 10 most culled native animals in 2023.
Northern Territory
Top End shooters’ access into an iconic conservation reserve could be significantly expanded due to new infrastructure upgrades.
Western Australia
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is met by angry protesters in Collie, one of seven places nationwide where a power station could be based under the Coalition’s nuclear policy.
A mating frenzy captured on camera off Western Australia’s south coast is a promising sign for southern right numbers still recovering from decades of whaling, according to a marine biologist.
Hundreds of marron have been illegally taken from Western Australia’s waterways in the past year, prompting calls for higher penalties for those doing the wrong thing.
People living next to a controversial mine south of Perth believe groundwork has commenced for its expansion, while the company says it has the necessary approvals to start investigative geotechnical work.
A program designed to offset development damage to critical habitats in Australia’s iron mining heartland is being likened to “swiping a credit card” without conservation actions.
The claims were challenged by another archaeologist, who labelled the 59,000 year estimate as “highly speculative”.
The opposition leader met with shire staff and councillors, including President Ian Miffling, to discuss his party’s nuclear energy policy.
Rhiannon Shine
New laws have stripped WA’s environmental watchdog of its power to consider carbon emissions when approving high-polluting projects. So is the EPA now a toothless tiger?
Sustainability
High blood concentrations of ‘forever chemical’ compound PFOS linked to problems falling asleep and waking up
A new report from the World Resources Institute warns that one-quarter of the world’s crops are grown in regions facing high water stress, which could worsen global food insecurity as climate change intensifies.
Larry Elliott
We need to deal with the climate effects of global capitalism the way we deal with inflation – by applying the brakes
Nick Cater
Our best hope is to persuade the environmentally anxious millennials and Generation Z to stop fretting about stranded polar bears and get busy making babies. If present trends continue, the next great extinction may be our own.
Nature Conservation
For the developing country, logging is a catch 22: It is the country’s biggest export and a source of income for thousands, but it is causing irreversible environmental damage and a raft of social issues.
New research shows how human activities, like fertilizer use and polluting, are impacting nitrogen-fixing plants which are crucial for maintaining healthy ecosystems by adding nitrogen to the soil.
An international team of botanists finds no proof of extinctions in Centinela, but abundant evidence that Centinela’s flora lives on in the scattered remaining fragments of coastal Ecuador’s forests.
On an isolated island in the Federated States of Micronesia, community and invited scientists are attempting a monitor lizard eradication program to protect nesting turtles.
A major new study reveals that carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires have surged by 60 percent globally since 2001, and almost tripled in some of the most climate-sensitive northern boreal forests.
A new study has found that oceanographic connectivity (the movement and exchange of water between different parts of the ocean) is a key influence for fish abundance across the Western Indian Ocean (WIO).
Maelor Himbury | Library Volunteer
Australian Conservation Foundation | www.acf.org.au
1800 223 669
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