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NSW super-sizes first renewable zone as it races to meet coal closure deadlines
NSW to double capacity of its first renewable energy zone as it races to fill the gap to be created by coal closures, and as anti-transmission sentiment deepens.
The post NSW super-sizes first renewable zone as it races to meet coal closure deadlines appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Tasmania questions whether Marinus Link “stacks up” as project costs soar
News of “material and significant” cost increases for Marinus Link cause Tasmania to revisit its support for the project.
The post Tasmania questions whether Marinus Link “stacks up” as project costs soar appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Australia Market Roundup: Santos signs MoU on Bayu-Undan CCS, NZ hydrogen company secures NSW funding
Is the climate crisis finally catching up with Antarctica? Finding the answer has never been more pressing | Andrew Meijers
Our inability to confidently predict sea level rise between an extremely challenging two metres and a civilisation-ending 10 metres is an exemplar of the problem facing researchers
These last few months have been a turbulent time to be an oceanographer, particularly one specialising in the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica and its role in our climate. The media has been awash with stories of marine heatwaves across the northern hemisphere, the potential collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation by mid-century and the record-breaking deficit in Antarctic sea ice emerging this southern winter. Alongside heatwaves and bushfires in North America and southern Europe, flooding in China and South American winter temperatures above 38C, the climate has moved from a “future problem” to a “now problem” in the minds of many.
The global climate is one hugely complex interconnected system. While the Antarctic and Southern Ocean are far removed from our daily lives, they play an oversized role in this system and the future climate that concerns humanity now. “Global warming” is really “ocean warming”. The atmospheric temperature change, the 1.5C Paris target we are now perilously near to exceeding, really is only a few percent of our total excess trapped heat. Almost all the rest is in the ocean and it is around Antarctica that it is predominantly taken up. How this uptake may change in the future as winds, temperatures and ice shift is a critical scientific, and human, question.
Continue reading...Giant turbines at Goyder South project to begin epic journey inland from September
It will take a year to move all 75 turbines, separated into 11 parts, from Port Adelaide to the site of the state's biggest wind project.
The post Giant turbines at Goyder South project to begin epic journey inland from September appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Japan to start Fukushima water release within weeks – report
Release of contaminated water from the damaged nuclear plant has been criticised by fishers and countries in the region
Japan plans to start releasing treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean as soon as late August, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily reported on Monday, citing unnamed government sources.
The release is likely to come shortly after the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, meets the US president, Joe Biden, and the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, next week in the US, where Kishida planned to explain the safety of the water in question, it reported.
Continue reading...Plastic rocks, plutonium, and chicken bones: the markers we're laying down in deep time
Canberra Centenary Trail: watch a hypnotic hyperlapse of the 145km walk in seven minutes – video
This video 'hyperlapse' follows the 145km Canberra Centenary Trail. The journey starts at the doors of Parliament House, invades the pitch at a Big Bash cricket match, and culminates with a stunning ride in a hot air balloon. It took videographer David Fanner a year to complete the project. He told the Guardian his aim was to 'capture the immersive experiences of a long-distance hike in a way the typical highlight reel approach doesn't'. He said he also wanted to showcase the stunning beauty that Canberra, in Ngunnawal and Ngambri country, has to offer
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Continue reading...Aviation non-CO2 methodology gains initial approval from Gold Standard paving way for credit issuance
US scientists achieve net energy gain for second time in a fusion reaction
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility achieved the feat using lasers to fuse two atoms
US scientists have achieved net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the second time since December last year, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said on Sunday.
Scientists at the California-based lab repeated the breakthrough in an experiment in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) on 30 July that produced a higher energy yield than in December, a Lawrence Livermore spokesperson said.
Continue reading...How climate change will affect your pet – and how to help them cope
Australian effort to contain fire ants hampered by funding shortfall, documents show
Invasive Species Council releases material showing contrast between original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and $89m ‘revised work plan’
Lack of proper funding is hindering efforts to contain the spread of invasive fire ants by Australian authorities, according to documents obtained by the Invasive Species Council.
The documents show a stark contrast between the original $133m plan to fully eradicate the ants and an $89m “revised work plan” to continue for the next 12 months. This revised plan would only treat half the area needed, even as the ants continue their southward march towards New South Wales.
Continue reading...How algae conquered the world – and other epic stories hidden in the rocks of the Flinders Ranges
Nicola Jennings on Thérèse Coffey ignoring post-Brexit green watchdog – cartoon
Indigenous activists gather in Brazil to discuss future of the Amazon
Campaigners voice hopes and fears for the rainforest before leaders of eight Amazon nations attend summit in Belém
Thousands of Indigenous activists and environmentalists have converged in one of the Amazon’s biggest cities to voice their hopes and fears about the future of the world’s biggest rainforest.
The Brazilian city of Belém will this week host a two-day conclave bringing together the presidents of eight Amazon nations including Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.
Continue reading...I feel bad about enjoying the rain – but this sodden summer brings back such wonderful memories | Emma Beddington
Grey skies, gale-swept beaches, soggy donkeys: my childhood holidays were all wet, wet, wet. And, as a result, deliciously idle
I am enjoying this sodden summer. I do know this much rain is bad: July was the UK’s sixth wettest on record and the wettest ever for Northern Ireland. It is worse than bad in China; it is catastrophic, with 20 killed in the worst rainfall in 140 years, since records began. And in the UK, there is harvest havoc to worry farmers, plus a very real danger that the insular and idiotic will point to a persistently, dramatically wet summer that is probably linked to the climate crisis as the opposite: a sign that everything is fine, really, so let’s celebrate with more North Sea drilling.
I am sorry, too, for anyone who needs a summer fix of vitamin D, light and warmth to maintain their health and equanimity. I am on record as being fairly anti-summer, and that remains true, but I am not implacably opposed to a bit of balmy weather. I don’t want to go all “some of my best friends are balls of incandescent gas” on you, but I am attempting to grow some tomatoes this year and I have a hammock. I wouldn’t say no to some sun now and then.
Continue reading...Look at the crisis in the Amazon and understand the stakes: we’re battling for life itself | Mark Ruffalo
At this week’s Amazon summit, the world must stand with Indigenous peoples – and demand protection for the rainforest
Some of the most fulfilling moments in my life as an actor are when I play roles that speak to the challenges facing humanity. In The Avengers, for example, in which I play the Hulk, the team tries to undo the “the snap” – an apocalyptic event brought about by the villain Thanos to eradicate half of all living beings.
As a good friend of mine says: “Fantasy is not an escape from our world, but an invitation to go deeper into it.” The simple fact is that humanity has triggered extinction events – and the collapse of the Amazon is a disaster that will be terrible for all of us in real life.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak – a total investment banker | Stewart Lee
What kind of person opposes initiatives designed to protect the future of our planet so his enfeebled party can retain power?
I view human nature through the Techniscope ™® lens of 1960s Italian cowboy films. In Spaghetti Western World, the men we most despise are those who, when the chips are down, snatch an innocent peasant child and put a pistol to their temple, to use as a human shield until their demands are met. Our cowardly prime minister, cornered by the possibility of a catastrophic election defeat, has just done the same thing, but instead of merely manhandling an infant peon on the steps of a saloon, he is holding a gun to the head of the whole world and threatening the future of all life on Earth. See him now in His Name Is Sunak, Our Angel of Death, and You Must Prepare Your Coffin, Amigo (Gianfranco Parolini, 1968).
For Sunak has, in the face of all credible scientific evidence, and in naked contempt for the international court of civilised opinion, decided to grant hundreds of new licences for drilling for North Sea oil. Why? Is Sunak perhaps sexually aroused by the idea of being held in contempt on a global scale? Does he retire to his North Yorkshire mansion priapic and alone under a cloud of assumed loathing, wondering in the dark what he can do to make himself ever-more despised? Did Sunak choose his job as an investment banker because he enjoyed the rhyming slang connotations?
Basic Lee tour dates are here. A fun-size ™ ® version of the show is at the Stand’s New Town theatre, Edinburgh, from 11 to 20 August
Continue reading...Australia gets wake up call on materials manufacturing in surge to renewables
Australia wants to lead the world in the race to renewables, but it is in the bottom half for projected growth in the capability to make complex items.
The post Australia gets wake up call on materials manufacturing in surge to renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Winter heatwave in Andes is sign of things to come, scientists warn
Human-caused climate disruption and El Niño push temperature in mountains to 37C
Exceptional winter heat in the Andean mountains of South America has surged to 37C, prompting local scientists to warn the worst may be yet to come as human-caused climate disruption and El Niño cause havoc across the region.
The heatwave in the central Chilean Andes is melting the snow below 3,000 metres (9,840ft), which will have knock-on effects for people living in downstream valleys who depend on meltwater during the spring and summer.
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