Date: 12 August 2019 at 9:00:15 am AEST
Subject: Daily Links Aug 12
Post of the Day
Why we should listen to teenagers speak about climate crisis
Dave Eggers
As the International Congress of Youth Voices kicks off in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Guardian invited young delegates to write about their fight against the climate crisis
Today’s Celebration
Father’s Day – Samoa and Tokelau
HM the Queen’s Birthday – Thailand
Heroes’ Day – Zimbabwe
Carnival Monday – Grenada
Glorious Twelfth – UK
Didgoroba – Georgia
NGO Day – Iran
Eid al-Adha – Islam
OCD and Anxiety Disorders Week
Climate Change
Climate change set to dominate this week’s Pacific Island Forum
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will face increased pressure to boost Australia’s climate change commitments when he attends the Pacific Island Forum this week.
A climate plea to Scott Morrison from a churchman of the Pacific’s sinking nations
The Pacific region’s church leaders are asking Australia’s Prime Minister to act to protect God’s creation as he prepares to meet leaders in Tuvalu on Tuesday.
‘Radical change’ needed to address climate change’s impact on food security – Tearfund
The world must move away from fossil fuels and embrace renewable energy sources, Tearfund has said, after the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that food security was coming under increasing threat.
Climate critics escalate personal attacks on teen activist
Greta Thunberg, at age 16, has quickly become one of the most visible climate activists in the world. Her detractors increasingly rely on ad hominem attacks to blunt her influence.
Why we should listen to teenagers speak about climate crisis
Dave Eggers
As the International Congress of Youth Voices kicks off in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Guardian invited young delegates to write about their fight against the climate crisis
National
Nuclear energy inquiry: is Angus Taylor’s move logical or just for the backbench?
Minister says the debate is different this time around, but critics say it’s best left to experts rather than ‘energy illiterate MPs’
‘Extremely vulnerable’: Agencies fear bigger fish kills this summer
Fish kills in the Murray-Darling Basin this year could dwarf those of last summer unless major rains arrive, with agencies preparing emergency response teams to minimise damage to dwindling native species.
Indigenous Australians Minister rules out judicial inquiry into Native Title
The federal government says it has no plans for a royal commission into native title “at this time”.
Morrison government’s farm ‘invasion’ laws are overkill says Law Council
The Law Council says the Morrison government’s planned “farm invasion” laws are overkill and could stifle legitimate debate about animal rights and food production.
How will hospitals cope with climate change’s impact on our health?
Marianne Cannon
We need to end the burning of fossil fuels. The alternative is that we sleepwalk into a bleak future and our children will turn and ask us why we didn’t do more to prevent it.
Why stay in school if our planet will die?
Adrian Wildhaber
I am a year 12 student currently in the middle of my HSC trials. One of my subjects is geography, so I was interested to read that in 2022 the syllabus will change to include study on the impacts of climate change on people and the environment.
Chris Kenny
The extinction rebellion this country really needs is found on a bushwalk, not glued to a road.
New South Wales
No time to review dam report: NSW elders
Traditional owners say they have been given five weeks to assess a confidential 2000-page report into the impact of raising the Warragamba Dam wall, as proposed by the NSW government.
Horse hurdle for Hunter coal mine [$]
A coal venture has it a major hurdle with its plans to reopen a mine in the Hunter Valley thoroughbred region.
Jervis Bay — one of Australia’s world-renowned coastal tourist hotspots, celebrated for its idyllic white beaches, nearly became home to Australia’s first nuclear power plant.
ACT
Sharp increases to ACT energy prices stall but shopping around offers savings
Canberrans are losing as much as $500 a year by failing to actively seek out a better deal on electricity and gas prices, a recent energy report shows.
Nature holds key to limitless renewable fuel supplies: ANU scientists
Scientists in Canberra have identified a process used by plants which they say could be harnessed to make a limitless supply of cheap renewable hydrogen fuel and position Australia as a world-leader.
Canberra nature strip planting guidelines and rules a long time in the making
Canberra Times editorial
Canberrans will welcome the ability to grow plants on the nature strips outside their homes, a policy a long time in the making.
Queensland
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) crews remain on scene at a bushfire burning near Cawarral Road, Cawarral. Firefighters have contained the blaze and will continue to work in the area throughout the evening.
Extinction Rebellion: hitting a nerve at Australia’s climate flashpoint
The amorphous climate action group has fired up activists and opponents alike as it tries to shut down Brisbane
Polarised Qld needs ‘novel leadership’ amid protests
It’s a hotbed of civil action, reacting to a perceived shift to the right, expert says.
Firms in fear of latest greenie tactic [$]
An extreme ‘dob-in-a-contractor’ campaign is forcing businesses to turn down work from Adani or keep it secret because of anti-mining protesters.
Big two to take fight to activists [$]
Two of Queensland’s most successful businessmen have had a gutful of destructive anti-mining protesters, and are taking the fight to them.
The type of anti-Adani activism that’s not OK [$]
Renee Viellaris
There are two types of green activist. And one of them is going to dangerous lengths.
Labor Party elder Tony McGrady is leading a push within the party to back the mining industry, saying it is time to stop allowing opponents to have the upper hand.
Push for new body to monitor reef [$]
Coalition MPs have rallied behind calls for a new body to oversee the health of the Great Barrier Reef.
Reef science beyond latte crowd [$]
Peter Ridd
We may be focusing on the wrong issues that face the reef and damaging every major industry in the north to protect it.
Go-ahead ‘to open flood of projects’ [$]
Michael McCormack says the Palaszczuk government’s go-ahead for the $84m Emu Swamp Dam could propel a new round of major projects.
South Australia
Citizen scientists: It’s only natural to help out [$]
Boomers are exploring their interests while advancing scientific knowledge in citizen science projects with extra benefits for mental health and wellbeing.
Chris Kenny
A reporter gave an account of the cause of SA’s blackout – and was treated with derision.
SA must not be left high and dry [$]
Christopher Pyne
The worst thing that could possibly happen for SA would be for the Murray-Darling Plan to be ripped up and for a return to the Rafferty’s rules of the past. Yet that is exactly what some SA politicians are advocating.
Northern Territory
Eleven years, millions of dollars and no closer to eradicating weed of ‘national significance’
Officials working in weed management for the Northern Territory Government cannot accurately say how much gamba grass remains in its declared ‘eradication zone’, despite more than a decade of effort to stop it.
Western Australia
A rapidly growing herd of feral camels is wreaking havoc for Australian farmers
More than 300,000 feral camels are wreaking havoc across the outback – with one farmer claiming he had to shoot as many as two every minute to protect cattle and save precious water.
$77b fracking, ports and pipeline project proposed for west Kimberley
A network of oil wells that involve fracking in the Great Sandy Desert, connected by pipelines to new and existing ports, may become Australia’s biggest oil producing project.
Sustainability
No Water, No Wife: How Climate Change is Linked to Trafficking
Farmer suicides over failed crops and crippling debt have left “drought orphans” and widows, who often fall prey to traffickers looking to push them into prostitution, said Singh.
‘We were burying 10 children a year’: how toilets are saving lives in Madagascar
One village in the country has seen the tragic consequences of poor sanitation. Now it has come together to turn things around
‘Greta effect’ leads to boom in children’s environmental books
The 16-year-old climate change activist has galvanised young people to read more about saving the planet
How eliminating food waste can help the fight against climate change
People may not realize it, but eliminating food waste is an important way to reduce CO2 emissions.
Greta and ‘flight shame’ are fuelling a carbon offset boom [$]
Sales of so-called carbon offsets are soaring: Myclimate, a Swiss nonprofit whose clients include Deutsche Lufthansa, reported a five-fold uptake in its credits in a year.
Environmental destruction is a war crime, but it’s almost impossible to fall foul of the laws
Shireen Daft
It was defoliants, seen here during Operation Ranch Hand in the Vietnam War, that prompted action to protect the environment during conflicts
Nature Conservation
Greta Thunberg takes climate fight to Germany’s threatened Hambach Forest
The felling of ancient woodland to make way for a giant coal mine brings together two linked battles for the activist
Knowledge ‘our best hope’ in fight to save our oceans, explorer says
Humanity is in a race to understand and reverse the destruction of life in our oceans and the wider world before climate change and other threats get out of control, Sylvia Earle, a renowned US-based scientist and explorer says.
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