Post of the Day
Why charge solar homes for sending energy to the grid while coal generators get off scot-free?
Ellen Roberts
Charging solar owners to export electricity isn’t about fairness, it’s about keeping the power in the hands of the few.
On This Day
Climate Change
First meeting of Energy Transitions Working Group and Climate Sustainability Working Group
The discussion focused on the role of cities as a key driver towards a climate safe and net-zero emissions future
US Climate Action Week launched to support Leader’s Summit on Climate hosted by Biden Administration
March 25, 2021 – New York, NY – Climate Group, an international climate action non-profit and organizer of Climate Week NYC, announced today the details for the first US Climate Action Week.
Climate change: Can humans be the Earth’s air conditioner?
If we have become so powerful that we can warm the Earth by a few degrees, then we must be able to use that power to cool it down too. It is called geoengineering.
Climate change: New tech to tackle the crisis
Here are seven emerging technologies that could help us kick the carbon habit
Scientists support an idea long thought outlandish: Reflecting the sun’s rays
The National Academies said the United States must study technologies that would artificially cool the planet by blocking sunlight, citing the lack of progress fighting global warming.
Scientists need to face both facts and feelings when dealing with the climate crisis
Kimberly Nicholas
I was taught to use my head, not my heart. But acknowledging sadness at what is lost can help us safeguard the future
National
Wind Farm Commissioner’s role expanded as high voltage clash looms
The National Wind Farm Commissioner’s role will be expanded in a bid to address a looming clash between farmers and electricity transmission companies amid the rapid growth in renewable energy.
How much of a dog is a dingo – and how much does it matter?
New research has rekindled debate about the identity of the dingo, and how best to manage it.
Solar panel owners frustrated by proposed feed-in charges
Solar panel owners say a proposal to charge them for exporting energy to the grid is a penalty for trying to do the right thing. But the regulator says it could be cheaper for them in the long run.
When millions of seabirds washed up dead and dying on the Australian coast in 2013, most had pumice stones in their stomach. Scientists have finally figured out why.
Conservation Member sought for Resource Assessment Group
The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) is seeking applications for a vacant Conservation Member position on the Shark Resource Assessment Group (SharkRAG).
Australian government insists it shares ‘same ambitions’ as Mathias Cormann for green recovery
Foreign minister Marise Payne makes the claim when asked about the ex-finance minister’s OECD campaign, despite Australia’s much vaunted gas-led recovery
‘Still far too low’: Australia’s electric vehicle industry says fourfold imports jump not enough
Latest EV results welcomed as signal of growing demand and recovering economy but growth achieved off very low base
Shell says green power shift will lift need for Australia’s LNG
The Australian boss of global energy giant Shell sees demand for liquefied natural gas exports continuing to grow until at least the late 2030s even as COVID-19 hastens the shift away from planet-warming fossil fuels.
Reviving original mining tax would deliver billions in extra revenue: Greens
Costings from the Parliamentary Budget Office, commissioned by the Greens, show the abandonment of the Resource Super Profits Tax had cost federal governments $69b since 2012.
‘Sacred Land not greedy hands’: Traditional Owners urge stronger heritage protection laws
As Indigenous cultural heritage is being destroyed “across the country”, Traditional Owners are demanding
Concern over Australia’s massive rain event occurring during relatively weak La Nina
Australia’s epic floods shouldn’t have been this big, given the La Nina is relatively weak. But a worrying factor may have tipped the scales.
A new study shows 80 per cent of Australians support cutting greenhouse gas emissions – but many of them didn’t vote for climate action.
Coal workers can be part of climate change solution, Labor MP Chris Bowen says
Labor must reassure coal mining workers they are central to Australia’s green-energy future, rather than “part of the problem”, the party’s climate change and energy spokesman has said.
Karen doesn’t have solar panels and thinks charging those who do will make the system fairer
Welfare groups and low-income families say a controversial proposal to charge solar panel owners for exporting surplus energy to the grid will make the cost of electricity fairer for all.
Getting over our toxic climate debate [$]
David Mills
The bushfires prompted increased concern about climate change everywhere – except in Australia, which makes you realise how backwards our climate debate has become.
The world’s electric cars are leaving Australia for dust
John Hewson
While Volkswagen describes Australia as “an automotive Third World”, the US, Britain, Europe and China are seizing the opportunities of the electric vehicle revolution.
Why charge solar homes for sending energy to the grid while coal generators get off scot-free?
Ellen Roberts
Charging solar owners to export electricity isn’t about fairness, it’s about keeping the power in the hands of the few.
Prime Minister must take his foot off the electric vehicle brake
SMH editorial
Australia has been left at the starting line in the race to adopt EV technology.
Tim Flannery is a profit of doom on climate scaremongering [$]
The Mocker
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Meteorology forecast heavy rains for every mainland state and territory except for Western Australia. The size of the area affected, said the agency, was as big as Alaska.
The European Union wants to impose carbon tariffs on Australian exports. Is that legal?
Felicity Deane
What Australian politicians call carbon tariffs, the European Union labels a carbon border adjustment mechanism.
Victoria
‘It’s deplorable’: Call to halt loss of Melbourne’s native grasslands
At a native grassland on Melbourne’s western fringe, you can hear the rhythmic clatter of heavy machinery on the wind as bulldozers and diggers prepare sites nearby for new houses.
Timber shortfall brings new focus on Maryvale mill future
The Latrobe Valley’s largest private employer is being asked to reassure workers of its long-term plans amid fears the Victorian government’s decision to end native timber logging will leave a major supply shortfall.
‘Failure of immense dimension’: Victorian academics call for action on climate change
Victorian academics and scientists have slammed inaction on climate change with one saying coal needed to be phased out by 2030.
‘We don’t want this: Push to save park from wetlands plan
It’s been called a “hidden gem’’ by Ferntree Gully residents but Knox Council wants to turn this green space into a wetlands locals say will be “a bog’’.
Daniel Andrews’ sham forestry plan felled
AFPA media release
The Victorian Labor Government has finally admitted that its promise to transition the state’s native regrowth timber industry to solely plantation-based timber by 2030 is a sham.
New South Wales
How NSW’s devastating floods stack up against past deluges
The sheer scale of devastation across NSW and a deluge that lasted five days made these floods stand out — but experts say they weren’t the worst the state has faced.
It’s a picnic with the past as Sydney cemeteries find new life as parks
Cemeteries left neglected and overgrown can find new life as parks, and councils across Sydney have been doing it for years.
At 8.30pm on Saturday 27 March, Penrith City Council will be “switching off” in support of Earth Hour. What started as a local event in Sydney has become a global phenomenon with millions of people across more than 180 different countries now taking part and supporting the Earth Hour initiative.
Flood-affected residents facing a mammoth clean-up in NSW
Residents left with no power, internet and lack of essentials.
We must support coalminers, Meryl Swanson tells ALP
Paterson MP Meryl Swanson has urged Labor MPs, union leaders and the party’s environmental activists not to “scare the shit” out of coal industry workers by preaching to them about the need to transition out of their mining jobs.
Damming the floods won’t stop them from occurring
Letters
Warragamba Dam isn’t the culprit in the latest flooding events around Sydney, and raising the dam wall won’t provide the solution.
One flood debacle too many in the Hawkebsury
Vernon Graham
The worst flooding around North Richmond, Richmond and Windsor in 50 years has highlighted the failure of all levels of government to provide the Hawkesbury’s growing communities with flood-free road infrastructure
ACT
A proposal for a big battery storage facility to be built in West Belconnen will have go through further federal environmental approvals in order to proceed.
The ACT government will consider extending the light rail network to Belconnen via the University of Canberra as part of stage three of the rollout, Transport Minister Chris Steel says.
Queensland
Batteries rolled out to regions to store excess rooftop solar power
As more electricity from renewable energy flows into the grid, the Palaszczuk Government wants to put household solar generation to better use.
What a choke: Motorists line up to condemn Centenary Motorway congestion
The clogged Centenary Motorway, the bane of commuters forced to travel between Brisbane and the city’s west, has been named as one of Queensland’s most frustrating roads in the RACQ’s latest red spot congestion survey.
Technology boss blasts ‘mining town mentality’ he says is holding Qld back
One of Brisbane’s biggest information technology companies says it can take on the world’s biggest corporate giants – but it can’t win over the State Government.
Science festival tackles fake news and climate change in 120 events
The World Science Festival Brisbane launched yesterday with the largest programme since its inception, aiming to restore public trust in science and innovation.
Queensland communities still cut off by floodwaters
Flood warning remains for Logan River as clean-up operation begins.
South Australia
New green space for city workers [$]
A $400m redevelopment next door to an Adelaide icon will feature the city’s first elevated expanse of open space.
Tasmania
‘Political game’ of anti-protest laws back to square one
Tasmania’s reputation as the protest state will live on, after the Legislative Council rejected the state Liberal government’s latest attempt to introduce tough anti-protest laws.
Venture Minerals’ Riley Iron Ore Mine nearing production
The site of a West Coast mine development targeted by environmentalist protesters is far from pristine wilderness, a local identity says.
Labor betrays Tasmanian workers
Guy Barnett
Labor should be ashamed of themselves for siding with the Bob Brown Foundation and the anti-everything Greens and turning their back on Tasmanian workers, their families and businesses by voting against our Government’s workplace protection laws in the Upper House.
Northern Territory
NT businesses create road map for energy efficient buildings
Four Territory contractors will advise the NT government on a road map to more energy efficient commercial buildings in the Territory
Western Australia
South32 boss challenges timing of rival miner Fortescue’s ‘green steel’ plan
South32 chief executive Graham Kerr has challenged the timing of Andrew Forrest’s bid to commercialise ‘green steel’, arguing the emerging sector is at least 25 years away.
Sustainability
China lashes out at Nike, H&M over human rights comments
China’s ruling Communist Party lashes out at major clothing and footwear brands like H&M and Nike as it retaliates for Western sanctions over human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.
The US military is poisoning communities across the US with toxic chemicals
The Department of Defense has ordered the burning of 20m pounds of AFFF – despite risks to human health
Year of Adani: Tycoon’s wealth skyrockets during pandemic
After spending two decades building a business empire centred around coal, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is now looking beyond the fossil fuel to cement his group’s future. His ambitious plans are getting a boost from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Riders are abandoning buses and trains. That’s a problem for climate change
Public transit offers a simple way for cities to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but the pandemic has pushed ridership, and revenue, off a cliff in many big systems.
Masks and gloves are saving lives – and causing pollution
Disposable masks, gloves and other types of personal protective equipment are safeguarding untold lives during the coronavirus pandemic. They’re also creating a worldwide pollution problem, littering streets and sending an influx of harmful plastic and other waste into landfills, sewage systems and oceans.
This new recycling plant uses steam to recycle “unrecyclable” plastic
The new British plant will break down the chemical bonds in plastic so they can be reconstituted, processing 80,000 pounds of plastic waste a year.
Despite pledges to cut emissions, China goes on a coal spree
China is building large numbers of coal-fired power plants to drive its post-pandemic economy. The government has promised a CO2 emissions peak by 2030, but the new coal binge jeopardizes both China’s decarbonization plans.
Evidence-based research is a critical part of creating social change. But how do you make sure that your report actually has the impact you want it to? We take a look.
Passion for fashion finds a green future [$]
Jimmy Thompson
Much to the dismay of environmentally conscious investors, apartment buildings can have a much larger carbon footprint than the equivalent free-standing homes.
A locust plague hit East Africa. The pesticide solution may have dire consequences.
Heavy use of a broad-spectrum pesticide seems to have slowed the desert locust invasion. What the repercussions of that approach are isn’t yet clear.
Africa’s forest elephant has been largely overlooked. Now we need to fight for it
Lee White
This critically endangered ‘gardener’ of the forest has been ‘red listed’ independent of its famous savanna relative for the first time. It’s time to take its plight seriously
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