The ‘corporate machine’ is very adept at fending off decision-makers that threaten its interests, so we need to change the decision-makers who will work in the community interest rather than the corporate interest. The rise of independents offers hope but it will need to be a very patient hope and don’t just hold your breath waiting for it to be delivered.
Post of the Day
Geoff Davies
The global consumer-capitalist machine is well-programmed to consume the planet in its quest to produce ever-more stuff. Avoiding pollution is incompatible with its present functioning. If we want to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions we need to know how to get inside the machine and turn it off, or transform it.
On This Day
Ecological Observance
Climate Change
Donald Trump’s attitudes towards the environment and climate are “deeply concerning” according to one Pacific expert awaiting results from the US election.
If Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, his administration is likely to reshape climate-related court cases, halting support for EPA climate regulations and potentially reversing Biden-era policies.
Pep Canadell and Gustaf Hugelius
Among the most rapidly changing parts of our planet are the coldest landscapes near the top of the globe, just south of the Arctic. This region is warming two to four times faster than the global average.
National
As cities around the world ban or restrict shareable e-scooters over safety concerns, some governments in Australia are looking to decriminalise the use of private personal mobility devices in public.
The major parties must come clean on a 2035 climate target and how they’re going to get Australia there, a united front of independent MPs says.
Thirty-seven Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have been selected to attend a week-long intensive renewable energy training course.
Former NSW Liberal energy minister Matt Kean debated his former Coalition colleagues about the cost of nuclear power in a parliamentary estimates hearing on Monday. Now chair of the Climate Change Authority, Kean debated Nationals senator Ross Cadell over CSIRO analysis which found nuclear was the most expensive form of large-scale energy available
Roger Dargaville
Both major parties in Australia see a significant role for gas as the world shifts to clean energy in a bid to avert dangerous climate change.
Tony Wood
The reality for both sides of politics is that delivering lower emissions and reducing power prices is a false target. This is not negotiable – we cannot negotiate with physics.
Victoria
The state government has called on developers to submit their interest in acquiring the sites to deliver new homes close to public transport.
The Victorian government is set to formally destroy rock climbing at Australia’s most significant site after a four-year secretive process to investigate cultural heritage.
John Ferguson
It’s one thing to hide behind cultural heritage preservation, quite another to use secrecy and obfuscation as bureaucratic weapons.
New South Wales
Two drill rigs, installed on barges, have started work on the Hawkesbury River at Brooklyn and at Brisbane Water near Gosford
ACT
Catching light rail in Sydney will be made barely worthwhile unless the NSW Labor government acquiesces to union demands for cheap fares
Queensland
Scientists return to One Tree Island on the Great Barrier Reef to assess the extent of last summer’s coral bleaching event — and there’s some hope amid the devastation.
South Australia
About 20,000 feral deer have been removed from South Australia over the past two years, but stakeholders say the pests’ breeding rate means that will have little impact unless efforts are doubled.
SA’s $18.5bn agriculture industry should be given some exemptions from onerous carbon emissions reporting, say the Liberals.
Tasmania
A Hobart business group unhappy with a trial of bike lanes in the city centre says it will seek to force a poll of all city residents over the matter.
The life of Hobart’s tip is quickly coming to an end but plans are well advanced for life after landfill.
Farmer turned climate activist – Anthony Houston 72 is right now perched high above a logging machine, sitting in a chair locked onto a 5m monopole that is suspended by 4 machines.
The City of Hobart is urging residents to prepare their homes and gardens for this year’s bushfire season as its fire crews gear up for the hotter months.
Northern Territory
The Finocchiaro CLP Government has “betrayed the trust of thousands” by scrapping the plan to underground power lines across Darwin, the Opposition says, while the government said “it looks like” it has found $200 million in savings from “deferring” that project and others, but their figures do not appear to add up.
An environmental group has brought its own heavyweight to a David and Goliath battle against a mining firm in the Red Centre. Find out what happened.
Western Australia
WA government reveals final plans for massive marine park it says could rival the Great Barrier Reef
The planning process for a new 1.3-million-hectare marine park off WA’s coast has been divisive, angering fishers but exciting supporters with the prospect of new tourism and job opportunities and improved protections for marine species.
Sustainability
The Prince of Wales will have four days of engagements in Cape Town, with the trip heavily focusing on climate change and conservation.
New research has shown that bio-based fibers caused higher mortality, and reduced growth and reproductivity, among earthworms — a species critical to the health of soils globally — than conventional plastics.
Muhammad Muddasar
If you’ve ever seen yourself through a thermal imaging camera, you’ll know that your body produces lots of heat. This is in fact a waste product of our metabolism. Every square foot of the human body gives off heat equivalent to about 19 matches per hour.
Helen Sullivan
One sucker is precariously attached to some flimsy reality – a wet leaf, a slippery rock – the other one pointed at the future
Nature Conservation
A new law in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state undermines a long-standing agreement to reduce Amazon deforestation by allowing tax incentives for soy produced in legally cleared areas, even in forests.
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.