News.com.au

Two bushfires in WA’s south overnight that threatened lives and homes have been confirmed as being allegedly deliberately lit, with the Premier describing it as a “disgusting, deplorable, disgraceful” act.

The Age

Many years ago, I was told by a veteran spin doctor that any new project – a new building, say – should be announced 10 times. First, announce you are considering it. Then that you are calling for proposals. Then that the proposals have been received. You should publish the proposals, then announce the winner … This goes on until after the building is up, and you celebrate its first anniversary. The point is to wring every ounce of positive publicity out of even the smallest announcement.

ABC News

A regulation system intended to stop damage to the environment around a massive lead-zinc mine in the Northern Territory has contributed to critical problems, a University of New South Wales study has found.

Reneweconomy

South Australia has achieved a world-leading 60 per cent share of wind and solar in its local grid in the last 12 months, reaching a level of “variable” or “intermittent” generation that is unmatched in a market of its size anywhere in the world.

The Conversation

Replacing cars that run on fossil fuels with electric cars will be important in meeting climate goals – road transport produces more than 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But there are obstacles to wider uptake, particularly in Australia.

ABC News

The growling call of the southern bell frog is booming once again after the endangered species nearly disappeared from some wetlands along the Murrumbidgee River in southern New South Wales.

2GB

Michael is joined by Ted O’Brien MP, NLP Federal Member for Fairfax / Chair of Standing Committee on the Environment & Energy, regarding a new national conservation mission launched last week dubbed ‘Project Noah’, that aims to combat the killing of native wildlife by feral cats.

ABC News

As a mouse invasion spreads through New South Wales and Queensland, researchers are investing in a natural hero … the humble barn owl.

WAToday

Extinction is inevitable for Perth’s endangered black cockatoos if a planned three-year log of northern suburbs pine plantations goes ahead without a replanting strategy, a leading restoration ecologist says.

News.com.au

A shallow earthquake left Muswellbrook residents worried when a seismic shift was registered near the Mt Arthur coalmine overnight.

9 News

Indian authorities launched a search operation Sunday after part of a Himalayan glacier broke, sending a massive flood of water and debris slamming into two dams and damaging a number of homes. At least nine people were killed and 140 were missing.

The Canberra Times

Access Canberra has issued an extreme alert for blue-green algae in Lake Tuggeranong.

Yahoo News

A burial service is offering to turn human remains into compost. Recompose, a company which is based out of the US state of Washington, offers people the chance to become soil after they die.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Success in handling the COVID-19 crisis has increased optimism across Sydney for the year ahead and may have primed the state for major reforms, including changes to stamp duty and a transition away from coal.

News.com.au

Melbourne’s weather is expected to turn it on, albeit briefly, during the opening week of the Australian Open with temperatures tipped to reach the low thirties.

The Guardian

The Coalition is facing an increasingly testy party room as it struggles to land on a climate policy, with the Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, declaring he is “not worried about what might happen in 30 years’ time”.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Before Scott Morrison spoke at the National Press Club a rumour spread through climate activist circles that the PM was about to announce a firm target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. Such a target would have brought Australia’s ambitions into line with Europe, the United States and much of Asia.

ABC News

Liberal moderates were ready for a fight in Tuesday's party room meeting. The Prime Minister had just used a scene-setting speech for the year at the National Press Club to declare it was now his "preference" to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

The Australian Financial Review

London | The European Parliament has given initial backing to the EU’s carbon border levy, as Brussels advocates harnessing US President Joe Biden’s emissions-busting enthusiasm to create a global “climate club”.

Sky News Australia

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has kicked off a week-long tour in Queensland, slamming the Morrison government’s lack of action on climate change.

The Guardian

The Victorian government has given $10m for a hub in Melbourne’s south-east that will test and improve hydrogen technologies.

The Age

Scouts, local sporting clubs and charities have joined drinks manufacturers Lion Nathan and Coca-Cola Amatil in a bid to pressure the Victorian government to overhaul its model for a container deposit scheme over concerns it will be harder for community groups to make money.

Yahoo News

China is trying a new strategy to deal with companies that break pollution rules: wield their data against them. Reuters reports that China is launching a data platform on March 1st that will let the public and officials study real-time and recorded emissions levels to determine if factories and institutions are violating pollution regulations. You could theoretically catch a manufacturer in the act and pressure them into complying.

Yahoo News

China has launched the world's biggest carbon trading system to help lower carbon emissions, but critics and analysts have raised doubts about whether it will have a signficant impact.

The Courier Mail

Why is everybody getting so hot under the collar over energy and climate change policy and this fantasy 2050 renewables target, asks Peter Gleeson. There are multiple reasons it will never happen.

The Canberra Times

You might think it is the mounting evidence that has Scott Morrison now inching towards a 2050 emissions commitment.

The Guardian

Shining a light on an evil killer is easy and satisfying. It drives the script of the tales in which we absorb ourselves as we retreat from a world become too much

The Herald Sun

Saying that data now shows surprisingly little proof of warming, even if it is the truth, is just asking for trouble.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Yes, yes, yes, we all know by now – after last year’s revelations that, just before the last state election, 95 per cent of the $250 million Stronger Communities grants scheme went to Coalition-held seats – that the Premier has a shockingly blasé attitude towards pork-barrelling. “It’s not illegal,” she infamously said, “and everyone does it.”

The Australian

In the early 1990s I spent some time working in a game park in Kenya. A recent innovation had been community-based conservation to encourage people in neighbouring villages to get behind efforts to protect the wildlife. A quarter of gate fees paid by tourists were earmarked for local projects. The animals were earning their keep.

News.com.au

Mini collectables are back for 2021 with supermarket giant Woolworths announcing Discovery Garden seedling kits would return to stores on Wednesday.

Reneweconomy

Finalised estimates of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions from the years 1990 through to 2019 show that wind and solar have played a major role in the country’s pathway towards lower national emissions, with a deep potential for these two technologies to drive future change in the country as efforts to electrify more sectors expand.

The Australian

After a decade of rapidly falling costs, the rechargeable lithium-ion battery is poised to disrupt industries.

Reneweconomy

An update of the American Energy Information Agency (EIA)’s Annual Energy Outlook has found that the share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix will more than double by 2050, while controversially predicting flat trends for both coal and gas despite the incoming Biden administration’s plan for widespread and rapid grid decarbonisation.

ABC News

Since bushfires burned through World Heritage forests in 2019 there have been fears for the already threatened animals that may have perished in the flames.

The Australian

What was once the world’s biggest ice berg has shattered into a dozen pieces threatening wildlife and humans.

ABC News

The Victorian Game Management Authority has announced that the Victorian duck hunting season will run for 20 days from May 26, sparking anger from animal rights activists, who want it banned, and the Nationals, who called it a ban by stealth.

ABC News

Migratory birds have arrived on the South Coast of NSW in lower-than-usual numbers and bird experts believe it could be due to both fire and floods in the past 12 months.

The Australian

A Twitter user has captured a photo of an armada of bluebottles in a popular children’s pool on Bondi Beach that is sure to send a shiver down the spine of every parent.

ABC News

A critically endangered Sumatran tiger has been shot dead while another is still on the loose after they escaped from a zoo on Borneo island, killing a zookeeper.

ABC News

Tahlia Edmonds planned to be a ballerina one day, or maybe a gymnast. She was twirling around her living room on February 7, 2009, aged four, when her dad burst in and bellowed at the family to get out.

ABC News

It was 2016, Mark Bachmann was stumped. He and his team of scientists were three years into transforming a huge tract of agricultural land into the wetland it once was, but had no idea how their small, regional, not-for-profit could negotiate the final step: to buy 1,000 acres of commercial blue gum plantation.

News.com.au

A tropical low has caused an area in Western Australia’s northwest to experience its worst flooding in more than a decade, forcing a major highway to be blocked off for days.

ABC News

A surreal, blood-red river has inundated the Indonesian village of Jenggot in the wake of floods hitting a nearby textiles factory, causing a frenzy on social media.

ABC News

Did you know you can recycle toothpaste tubes, medication blister packs and old make-up? If you didn't, you're certainly not alone.

The Age

When former Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon quit the opposition shadow cabinet last year, he said his party needed to reduce its ambition on climate change to win back blue-collar workers.

News.com.au

Western Australia is dealing with a dual fire and flood emergency while storms threaten the north of the country and hot weather makes its way towards the south.

The Guardian

Federal officials warned against transferring environmental approval powers to state governments before a major review of conservation laws was complete, saying it could undermine hopes of substantial reform.

ABC News

Traditional owners and environmental groups in Queensland's Channel Country are imploring the State Government to pause consideration of applications for petroleum leases in the region until independent scientific assessments and stakeholder consultation are conducted.

The Guardian

Democrat Joe Biden had only been the US president for a week when, on one single day, he rained down enough executive orders to completely reframe the global politics of climate action. After eight years of our local Liberal/National government stalling on meaningful climate policy, Australia is embarrassingly unprepared for the new reality.

The Guardian

So far the PM’s new rhetoric on net zero doesn’t match the substance and the only way that will change is if he can corral the Nationals

ABC News

You may never have considered its existence, but the humble servo has accompanied you everywhere.

The Guardian

With its natural predator in decline, roo numbers are growing – and research suggests the marsupial is doing more damage than rabbits in the country’s interior

ABC News

While they are a common feature of a south-east Queensland sunset, flying foxes can create a headache for local councils attempting to balance conservation laws with residential amenity.

ABC News

A tiny chameleon with exceptionally large male genitals may be the world's smallest reptile.

Reneweconomy

The Queensland government has confirmed that it will provide $147 million in funding towards a new transmission network link to Genex’s Kidston pumped hydro project.

ABC News

The Northern Territory Government has announced plans to permanently ban seabed mining in Top End coastal waters.

Sustainability Matters

In response to the Climate Change Commission’s draft emissions budgets for transitioning to a net zero carbon, the New Zealand minerals sector has announced that it looks forward to engaging with government to develop feasible, practicable and effective pathways for climate change action.

The Conversation

An independent expert panel today rejected a proposal to expand the operations of the Dendrobium coal mine under Sydney’s drinking water catchment. This is a significant and welcome decision. However, flawed environmental laws that enabled the proposal to get so far must be overhauled.

The Australian Financial Review

The Electric Vehicle Council has warned that Australian drivers will continue to miss out on the newest and cheapest electric vehicle models hitting the market in other countries.

Reneweconomy

The NSW Independent Planning Commission has rejected a proposal to expand a coal mine into regions under a major drinking water catchment, saying the project represented an unacceptable risks to key drinking water supplies.

ABC News

The NSW water watchdog is warning it can now see everything, thanks to unprecedented access to satellite imagery from agencies, including the European Space Agency, to crack down on illegal water take.